The Semiconservative Granola Girl

Close to Home Living

Back to School Resolutions

by

Transitioning Back to School with Back to School Resolutions

Back to School Resolutions

This week is back to school for much of the Northeast.  As a family of teachers and students, we have been in relaxation mode since the end of June.  Late nights, late mornings, reading whatever we want, and to say there was not routine is not an exaggeration.  So this week, we are transitioning back to school.  And, September always seems like a fresh start for me.  It rings of a New Year in a way that January 1 rarely does.  So, it seemed like the time for some Back to School Resolutions.

Continue to be consistent about Meal Planning

As I mentioned in my post about Why Meal Planning is a Must for Working Moms, meal planning has been a blessing both for the structure that it provides and the money it saves.  Saturday, I sat down with my meal planner (free meal planner here) and made a plan for this week.  This week is still a little more relaxed because most of our extracurricular activities don’t begin until next week and yesterday was Labor Day, but the plan helps get us back into a rhythm.

meal planner

Here is our menu for the week:

Tuesday:  Taco Tuesday—venison tacos

Wednesday:  Dill Pickle Brined Chicken

Thursday:  Breakfast for dinner—Caprese Egg Bake (recipe coming)

Friday:  Pizza and Wings (a bake at home pie from the supermarket)

Saturday:  My husband has a booth at a craft show, so we’ll be eating out.

Establish better Reading Routines

back to school resolutions--establish reading routines

Each of our students will be expected to read for at least half an hour each night.  Sunshine needs to do half an hour of her own reading which at times last year got pushed off until bedtime.  And sometimes when it gets put off, it becomes a battle.  I would like to make sure that she does her independent reading right when she gets home. Then reading at bedtime is a bonus.

The Boy will be expected to do 15 minutes of his own reading and be read to for 15 minutes.  Generally, we will do more than that. Again, I would like to see him do his independent reading right after the dishwasher, but sometime he needs more attention and instruction, so we’ll have to see how it goes.

We will get this routine in place this week even though the official start of`the assigned homework will be a couple weeks off.

Clearer Chore Routines

back to school resolutions--better chore routines

During the summer, the kids continued to do their chores and even some extras. However we will return to a chore schedule and perhaps return to using the Chore Monster App.  As I mentioned in my post, Why Your Kids Need Chores, the kids have a section of the dishwasher to empty.  The Boy is in charge of the silverware and Sunshine is in charge of the bottom rack.  This is determined by what each can reach.  This is actually the first thing we do we when walk through the door after school.  This is really important to my dinner and lunch preparations because we run the dishwasher pretty nearly everyday, so I need it done so that I can get right into meal prep.  They will help clear the table and do routine picking up.

Dinner and Lunch Preparation

Venison Pepper Steak

After the kids have emptied the dishwasher.  I plan to begin making dinner and lunches at the same time.  Most days, our meals include salad and cut vegetables as do our lunches.  Sandwich and homemade lunchable making fits easily between dinner steps.  It is so refreshing to not have to worry about making lunches after dinner or in the morning–ugh!

Better Bedtime Routines

Back to School Routines--bedtime

This is the one that needs the most help!  After a summer of fishing expeditions after dinner, campfires and “late night” movies, it is time for regular bedtime routines.  In fact, the goal is to get to bed earlier this year than last.  We will take baths/showers,  brush teeth and then do half an hour of reading all three of us together.  Sometimes Daddy joins us for reading too.

 

What back to school resolutions have you made as the summer draws to a close and you reenter the school year?  I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

Save

Save

Save

Venison Sausage Meatballs

by Leave a Comment

Don’t you just love those big meatballs you get at restaurants!  Meatballs at home are just so much work, but sometimes it is worth it to get your hands dirty so that you can have a big restaurant style meatball.  These venison sausage meatballs fit the bill.  However, this is a weekend kind of meal because mixing and forming meatballs can be a little time-consuming.

Venison Sausage Meatballs

Truthfully, our venison stores are getting a little low.  Last year, hubby only harvested three deer, the goal is usually five.  And it’s okay, but our freezer is now down to a few roasts, several packages of chops and A LOT of mild sausage.  There is only so many times one can make Super Easy Venison Tomato Sauce.  So this weekend, we decided to make venison sausage meatballs instead.

Venison Sausage Meatballs

We started with two pounds of venison sausage.  If you are not a venison fan, you could always make these with a ground sausage of your choice.  Mix this with bread crumbs, chopped onion, minced garlic, Worcester sauce, milk and eggs.

ingredients for venison sausage meatballs

 

Cook with Your Kids

Meatballs are a great opportunity to cook with your kids.  Fortunately or unfortunately, both kids we delighted to help when I ask, so I put Sunshine to work making the Super Easy Tomato Sauce.  This meant The Boy could get his hands really dirty (after he washed them of course) mixing the meat. (Boys are sloppy, look at all the breadcrumbs he “splashed” out!)

venison sausage meatballs--mixing the meatballs with hands

Sunshine was at the stove adding, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes and measuring the herbs.  The great thing about the herbs that go into my tomato sauce is they are pretty forgiving, so she couldn’t make a mistake!

stirring super easy venison tomato sauce

About the time that sauce was ready to just simmer, The Boy was done with mixing the meat mixture.  So all three of us worked to form bigger than a golf ball sized venison sausage meatballs.  Then, they were bored which was fine with me.

I didn’t want to heat the oven. (It is summer and hot.  We living in an 1860s farmhouse, so no air conditioning.)  I heated some olive oil in my 12.5 inch cast iron skillet (similar to this one and probably the most used pan in the house!) and cooked them on the stove top.  As the sides browned up, I turned the sausage meatballs to insure that they cooked evenly.

sausage meatballs in the skillet

Once they were cooked through (about 25 minutes), I added them to the sauce to cook a little more, just to let all the flavors work together.  This is certainly an unnecessary step.

venison sausage meatballs

Eat & Enjoy

Serve over pasta or as a sandwich or eat them as they are with cheese!  Freeze the extra meatballs in sauce or by themselves.  We used about half for this meal and saved half for another meal.  Suddenly a time consuming preparation became a quick weeknight meal for Meal Planning once we return to the busy school year.

So, give these meatballs a try and let us know in the comments below how you use them!

PS. This post contains affiliate links. When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going. Thank you for your support.

Print Recipe
 Venison Sausage Meatballs
Course Main Dish
Prep Time 60 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Servings
mealballs (depending on the size)
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Prep Time 60 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Servings
mealballs (depending on the size)
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly except the olive oil.
  2. Form into balls a little bigger than golf ball size.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a heavy (cast iron) skillet over medium heat. Add meatballs to the hot oil. Cook until brown and then turn as needed. About 25-30 (depending on size). Meatballs should be cooked through so there is no red meat in the center
Recipe Notes

You could choose to bake the meatballs instead of cooking them on the stove top.  Preheat a 400 degree oven.  Bake 20-25 minutes on a parchment line baking sheet until meatballs are cooked through.  Turn once about half way through.

Share this Recipe
 

Super Easy Venison Tomato Sauce

by Leave a Comment

Homemade tomato sauce conjures ideas of tomatoes slow cooking on the stove for hours.  However, the truth is you can make a super easy venison tomato sauce in about 20 minutes.  And, you’re Italian friends will not know the difference.  Oh, and if you’re not into venison, this can be made vegetarian or with the ground meat of your choice.  Friends, you never have to buy jarred sauce again!

Super easy venison tomato sauce

We use this as the base sauce for many a recipe.  Obviously, we use it for sauce over pasta.  Just the other night, Sunshine made the sauce (with guidance) while The Boy and I made Venison Sausage Meatballs.  In this version, the only meat was the meatballs.  A batch of this sauce is also the foundation of Baked Ravioli.

Super Easy Venison Tomato Sauce

Start by browning venison (or the ground meat of your choice) in olive oil.  Add onion and garlic  when the meat is mostly done.  Cook until the onion is translucent. (Love the Oxo Garlic Press for fresh minced garlic–see the photo below.)

browned venison sausage for venison tomato sauce

Add canned crushed tomatoes, oregano, basil, parsley, and salt.

super easy venison tomato sauce ingredients

Simmer 15 minutes or longer.  Serve over pasta or as the base for another meal.

Super Easy Venison Tomato Sauce & Meal Planning

super easy venison tomato sauce

This is so quick and so easy.  It can easily fit into your meal planning for a weeknight meal that takes 20 or so minutes to prepare.  You can make it on the weekend and use it during the week for an even quicker weeknight meal.  Double, triple or even quadruple the batch and freeze it for later.  I’m not very good with the whole freezer meal thing which I mentioned in my meal planning post, 5 Tips Meal Planning; however, frozen sauce is a different thing because frozen sauce can become so many other things.  I just freeze it in quart sized freeze zipper bags.

We also freeze our leftovers and these become the foundation of the next batch of sauce.  Before the kids started eating sauce, I think we had leftover sauce in the freezer that we would thaw and add to for a run of probably a year or more.  I know that sounds gross, but really it wasn’t.  It was never exactly the same sauce as the one we pulled out at the beginning of the meal.  Now, we generally use it up within a month of two because we add it to Venison Parmesan or Baked Ravioli or Baked Ziti.

So, give this sauce a try and let us know in the comments below how you use it!

PS. This post contains affiliate links. When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going. Thank you for your support.

 

Print Recipe
 Super Easy Venison Tomato Sauce
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in a large sauce pan. Brown the ground meat.
  2. When meat is just about cooked through, add chopped onion and minced garlic.
  3. Add tomatoes, herbs and salt. Simmer at least 15 minutes.
Share this Recipe
 

Venison Pepper Steak

by Leave a Comment

Venison Pepper Steak is a regular meal in our meal planning rotation.  It’s not a quick weeknight meal, but we always make enough to have leftovers to be repurposed as fajita on Taco Tuesday.  Bell peppers take a long time to cook, so we plan this for a Saturday or Sunday when we have plenty of time to cook and enjoy a glass of Summer Sangria as we are preparing this.

Venison Pepper Steak

Venison Pepper Steak

Like many of our recipes, this one has been an evolution.  It started on a rainy summer day at our Adirondack cabin.  Our neighbor had just given us several bell peppers from his garden.  We couldn’t grill and we had limited ingredients because we don’t have a full pantry at the cabin.  But, we did have those peppers, onions, butter and venison steaks.  So I started prepping the veggies and with a few tweaks to the original preparation, we have our Venison Pepper Steak recipe to share with you.  Of course if you don’t have access to venison (or don’t like it–that’s only because you’ve never had it prepared properly!), you could substitute beef.

Prepare the Veggies

Begin by preparing the vegetables:  slice three bell pepper (we like to use three different colors just for the look, you can use all green), two large sweet onions, two jalapeno (with or without the seeds–leave them for more heat, remove them for less–I usually do one of each), slice mushrooms and mince five or six garlic cloves.

Pepper Steak Veggies

Cook the Veggies

Melt half a cup of butter in a heavy bottom skillet over medium heat.  We use a 12.5 inch cast iron skillet similar to this one. (Oh and if you don’t have a cast iron skillet of this size and you’re cooking for a family, I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you get one!) Add your veggies and let them cook down.  The peppers take the longest to cook, so we sometimes add the vegetables in stages based on cooking time: peppers, then onion, garlic and mushrooms.

Peppers cooking for Venison Pepper Steak

Prepare the Meat

While your vegetables are cooking, prepare the venison steaks.  Cut the meat into 1/2-3/4 inch chunks.  Trim the fat, silver skin and tallow.  Do not add the meat until the vegetables are done as it will not take as long to cook.  Your veggies will probably take 40-45 minutes.

Prepared Steak for Venison Pepper Steak

Cook the Meat

We often serve this over rice.  If you plan to do that, you should start the rice about 5 minutes before you start the meat.  (This time is based on standard white rice which takes 20 minutes to cook after the water has come to a boil.)  The meat will take about 15-20 minutes to cook.

When you add the meat to your pepper mixture, add another half cup of butter. (Yes, Friends, that is a whole cup of butter in this bad boy.  That’s why it tastes so good!)  Salt and pepper to taste.

Venison Pepper Steak

Enjoy!  Let us know if you try this.  We’d love to hear your thoughts!

PS. This post contains affiliate links. If you decide to make a purchase through this link, we receive a small payment. We would really appreciate it if you use the links on this page. It helps us to keep our website up and running!

Print Recipe
 Venison Pepper Steak
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 45-60 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Locavore
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 45-60 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Prepare the vegetables by slicing the peppers, onions, jalapenos, and mushrooms. Mince the garlic.
  2. Melt 1/2 cup of butter in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the vegetable to cook. This will take about 40 minutes.
  3. While your vegetables are cooking, prepare the venison steaks. Cut the meat into 1/2-3/4 inch chunks. Trim the fat, silver skin and tallow.
  4. When the vegetable have cooked through, add another 1/2 cup of butter and the venison steak pieces. Cook until the meat is done. About 20 minutes more.
  5. Serve over rice.
Share this Recipe
 

Venison Taco Burgers

by Leave a Comment

Do you have Taco Tuesday?  It’s part of our regular rotation because theme days help me with my meal planning (see 5 Tips for Meal Planning).  How many times can you have taco salad or tacos with ground venison? We recently made a fast food stop (we were on a road trip, otherwise that is NOT something we would do) and got the idea to make Venison Taco Burgers.  Most of the recipes I saw as the result of web search used packaged taco mix which I am trying to get away from using because of the salt content.  They are totally too salty for my taste even when I buy the lesser salt version.  Of course, that meant it was time for a kitchen experiment.

Please note:  This post contains affiliate links, many of which are to Amazon.  We are an Amazon Affiliate.  If you click through to Amazon or another affiliate and make a purchase, we make the tiniest little commission which does not affect your purchase price.

Venison Taco Burgers | Venison Burgers seasoned with taco spices and grilled to perfection.

About Making Venison Burgers

Venison is a very lean meat which sometimes means it is not as versatile as beef.  Burgers can be a problem because the meat will not hold together well enough to flip.  I’ve learned that a few bread crumbs will do the trick.  Ahh, but tacos…bread crumbs?  Certainly that would be all wrong.  Corn chips.  But what kind.  I stood in the snack aisle looking a my options: nacho style, restaurant style, blue corn?  No, Frito-style.

Venison Taco Burgers

Ingredients for Venison Taco Burgers

We started with about a pound of ground venison (pork fat added by our processor), half a cup (or so) of crushed Fritos, and taco spices.  Mix all of that together with your hands.  Come on, friend, get in there and get your hands yucky.  You’re going to have to form the patties anyway. 

When you are satisfied that the burger mixture is well mixed, form a ball and then score the meat with the side of your palm into quarters to get approximately even patties.  (Yes, that is a Rachel Ray trick.  A girl can have guilty pleasures, can’t she?) To make perfectly formed patties use a burger press like this one.

Uncooked Venison Taco Burgers

Grill on a hot grill (or fry in a cast iron skillet–we’ve had a very rainy spring!).  Top with cheese.  We used a slice of colby-jack and cheddar because we couldn’t decide on which one to use alone.

Venison Taco Burgers | Venison Burgers seasoned with taco spices and grilled to perfection.

We put the burger on a whole wheat roll (it was the lowest carb roll at my supermarket) with lettuce, onion and homemade guacamole.  These would make awesome knife and fork burgers if you’re looking to cut the carbs even more. Or you can served them on in lettuce wraps. And don’t forget to top them off with some Homemade Salsa.

For more Taco Tuesday ideas, head on over to our Taco Tuesday Recipe Page.

Save

Print Recipe
 Venison Taco Burgers
Course Main Dish
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Mix all the dry ingredients into the meat with a fork or your hands.
  2. Form a ball with the meat mixture. Score it into quarters with the side of your hand. Form patties.
  3. Cook on a hot grill or in a hot cast iron frying pan. Flip the burgers only once when you begin to see blood on the top of the meat. Add cheese to melt.
  4. Serve on a roll with lettuce, onion and guacamole.
Share this Recipe
 

Homemade Instant Mac and Cheese

by Leave a Comment

Raise your hands if your kids love mac and cheese.  I think my kids could and would live on it if I would let them.  Since I hate the idea of boxed instant macaroni and cheese, I needed a solution for quick weeknight meals.  Who doesn’t love a good baked mac and cheese, but hello time-consuming.  Enter homemade instant mac and cheese.  This version takes just a little longer than a boxed version but uses real ingredients.

Homemade Instant Mac and Cheese
Designed in Canva

Homemade Instant Mac and Cheese = 3 ingredients

Oh yes, you did read that correctly: just three ingredients.  We just boil up some pasta, add milk and shredded cheese, return it to the stove top and stir until the cheese has melted.  Shoot, we just ran out of milk!  No problem, you can substitute plain Greek yogurt or sour cream or buttermilk.  I’ve used them all, though we do prefer the milk version as it comes out the creamiest.

My kids love to help in the kitchen. This is a great recipe for that.  You can stir the milk and cheese into the hot macaroni without turning the stove back on.  Or, if your kids a little older and can work around a hot stove, the cheese will melt faster on a low burner.

This is a super weeknight meal (15 minutes or fewer). It’s a regular in our meal planning and one of my go to meals for Meal Planning When I Don’t Have Time to Shop.

PS.  This post may contain affiliate links.  When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going.  Thank you for your support.

Save

Save


Print Recipe


Homemade Instant Mac and Cheese

Course Main Dish

Servings
people


Ingredients

Course Main Dish

Servings
people


Ingredients


Instructions
  1. Cook the macaroni according to the package directions.

  2. Drain macaroni and return it to the pan. Add milk and cheese. Stir until cheese melts. To speed the process, you can put it back on a medium-low burner.


Share this Recipe
 

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 7 other subscribers

Learn how to start and grow your food blog with Food Blogger Pro.