Sustainable Meat Eating – Venison…It’s What’s For Dinner!

I figured I should address my views on eating meat in one of my first posts. As some background, I grew up in a meat eating household with a deer hunter as a father. To be honest, most of our red meat meals were prepared using venison. I’ve always loved it. When people say it tastes “gamey” I don’t even know what that means. To me it’s all in the preparation. We used venison for our “steaks”, hamburgers, tacos, in our chili, in stews….in everything. Honestly we rarely ate real hamburger from cows and if we did it was from a local farmer who sold us half of the cow and stocked our freezer for the next year.

Fast forward to today. I’ve toyed with the thought of giving up meat.  Sometimes I’ve thought of giving up red meat, sometimes the though of chicken grosses me out (most of the time actually).  But I’ve just never been able to take the vegetarian plunge.  When I was pregnant with both boys, I could have become a vegetarian completely because the thought (and smell) of all meat made me gag! 

When they say girls marry men who resemble their fathers, I’m living proof. My husband Andy is an avid deer hunter (as well as fisherman and crabber). When deer season starts you can find him in the woods! Needless to say my freezer as an adult is equally as stocked with deer….steaks, burger, roasts…you name it! As much as I groan and complain about the ridiculousness of hunting….seriously, how fun is it to get up before the crack of down and sit in the cold woods for hours on end…I’m thankful that I have venison in the freezer year round. Let’s be honest, venison is a sustainable resource. It’s been documented that the over population of deer is disturbing our ecosystem.  And it makes me happy to be able to feed my family a meat that is notoriously lean and free of antibiotics and hormones.  And I secretly think that Andy takes pride in being the “hunter and gatherer” providing for our family…how cute!   

So, last nights dinner was tacos made with venison in our freezer.  It was fabulous.  Topped with all the necessities….fresh tomatoes from our garden, lettuce, peach salsa, sour cream and cheese.  Yum!

About a year ago, this fabulous meal looked like this…..

….and so goes the circle of life. 

We really enjoyed our deer tacos and I enjoyed a Green Monster made with 1 cup of almond milk, 1/2 a banana, 1 TBSP flax seed, a few drops of liquid stevia, and 1/2 a packet of Amazing Grasses Amazing Meal .  I have to admit that I really didn’t like this Pomegranate amazing meal flavor at all.  It was kind of tart to me.  I do however love the chocolate and berry flavors….guess I’ll be sticking with those. 

And to end the night a nice shiny sink…a working mom’s dream….Flylady you would be proud!