Taco Tuesday Archives - The Semiconservative Granola Girl

Foods You Should Make Homemade

April 29, 2020 by Jeanmarie

I haven’t been to the grocery store very often since the whole shelter-in-place thing started. But when we have ventured out, one thing that I have noticed is that apparently people can’t or don’t want to cook. This begs the question, why not when homemade is better? Here is our live of 7 Foods You Should Make Homemade.

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7 Foods You Should Make Homemade

The last time we went to the store, things were pretty much in stock, but there were still limits on the purchase of pasta, sauce, boxed macaroni and cheese and taco fixings. And, truthfully, I think that is sad because it is so easy and SO MUCH BETTER to make these items homemade. Not to mention it is healthier. So here is our list of foods you should always make homemade. Some of these items are even cheaper to make homemade than to buy the convenience version. And you know exactly what you are putting in them.

Homemade Stovetop Mac and Cheese

What exactly is that neon orange powder in that blue box of mac and cheese? Our version is made with real cheese, real milk and on the stovetop in about 20 minutes. It’s so easy an 8-year-old can make it. And so easy our 11-year-old doesn’t even need close supervision to make it anymore. She even knows the recipe without looking it up.

Tacos, Nachos or Taco Salad

Venison Tacos | Homemade Mild Tacos | Whole30 | Paleo | Gluten free | one of the 7 Foods You Should Make Homemade | Recipes for Homemade Foods that are just as easy to make from scratch as to buy, but taste so much better.

We make these with ground venison, but you could use any ground meat. With some real onion and garlic and a few spices you probably have on hand, this recipe takes no longer than those little packages, but you know exactly what is in it. The meat recipe is Whole30.

Restaurant Style Salsa (san-Cilantro)

Restaurant Style Salsa--one of the 7 Foods You Should Make Homemade | Recipes for Homemade Foods that are just as easy to make from scratch as to buy, but taste so much better.

This is one of those recipes that is almost earth shattering. Once you have tasted freshly made salsa, you will wonder how you could ever buy jarred salsa again. The best part: it literally takes five minutes with a food processor and a can of diced tomatoes and a few other ingredients. This one is Whole30 too.

Tomato Sauce

I am not Italian, but my friend Lenny is. His parents are one generation removed from Italy and my 20-minute Venison Tomato Sauce meets with his approval. Use crushed tomatoes to make it fast. Again, you can use any ground meat you prefer. We sometimes make it with more than one kind of meat—venison and pork or whatever we have. Feel free to mix it up. Just make it from scratch. Another Whole30 recipe.

Chicken Soup

Don’t take short cuts on this one. Start with those bone-in drumsticks or chicken quarters and let it simmer. But it is not hard to make homemade chicken soup. Canned soup will become of thing of the past. We make this every Sunday as part of meal prep. My daughter takes it to school in a thermos for lunch nearly everyday. Yep, this one is Whole30 too.

Salad Dressing

Pineapple Basil Vinaigrette | Whole 30 | Paleo--one of the 7 Foods You Should Make Homemade | Recipes for Homemade Foods that are just as easy to make from scratch as to buy, but taste so much better.

It’s not quite salad season here though we are busily planning our garden and starting seeds. If you are into salad season or just have a hankering for a salad, there is nothing better than homemade salad dressing. Try Chive Buttermilk Dressing, Russian Dressing, Dill Pickle Everything Sauce or Pineapple Basil Vinaigrette.

Pesto

Truthfully, I am not even sure what jarred pesto tastes like, so I am just making assumptions here. But pesto is so easy and so delicious when you make it at home that I am not sure why you would buy it. And it freezes, so you can always have it on hand. Traditional Basil Pesto or for something different, Arugula Pesto which is delicious in the Tomato Arugula Pesto Salad. Both of these recipes are Whole30

Homemade is Better

So when you are planning your menu based on what’s in the cupboard and freezer or if you are planning for food prep, just remember this list of Foods You Should Make Homemade. Once you do, you will never go back to store bought because these foods are so easy you’ll wonder how you ever even considered buying that jarred, packaged, bottled version.

Ground Venison Recipe Round Up

April 15, 2020 by Jeanmarie

I don’t know about you, but a lot has changed for us in the last few weeks. We are now homeschooling our kids (you can read about that here) and I haven’t been on a “real” grocery shopping trip since March 14th. So we have been relying a lot on our well stocked freezers. (Yes, plural.) And our freezers are full of venison. I felt like it might be time for a Ground Venison Recipe Round Up especially since I just recently published my fifteenth(!) ground venison recipe.

Ground Venison Recipe Round Up: 15 recipes for ground venison including home style venison recipes, Italian-style venison recipes, breakfast ground venison recipes and Taco Tuesday ground venison recipes

Ground Venison Recipe Round Up: 15 Recipes for Ground Meat

Home Style Ground Venison

Ground Venison Recipe Round Up: 15 recipes for ground venison including home style venison recipes

Venison Cobbler

Venison Cobbler is my daughter’s new favorite venison recipe (after venison shepherd’s pie). This is a gravy and veggie filled venison casserole topped with corn bread.

Venison Shepherd’s Pie

We eat this one a lot. It’s a clear favorite. It’s probably because mashed potatoes and gravy are always a winner, so why not bake them all together in one casserole dish. Homemade gravy for the win.

Grandma Helen’s Salisbury Steak

As long as we are talking about meat and gravy, we might as well also talk about Grandma Helen’s Salisbury Steak which in truth is no longer Grandma Helen’s except that I follow her directions for the meat patties, her recipe calls for a jarred gravy. But not in this house. See Shepherd’s Pie above.

Taco Tuesday

Venison Tacos

How about Taco Tuesday? How about skipping the little packet and making those tacos with venison and from scratch. Yes, please. We eat this meat in shells, on tortillas, over chips or in salad. No matter your vehicle of choice, homemade is always the way to go. And it only takes two minutes longer than that package does because you have to chop an onion and some pepper. If venison is not your thing, any ground meat with work.

Taco Venison Burgers

Perhaps, your Taco Tuesday calls for a burger. We’ve got you covered there too. This burger uses a Frito style corn chip and a binding agent. And of course two types of cheese. Top it with Homemade Salsa and Homemade Guacamole.

Burger Inspired

Venison Cheeseburger Salad

As long as we’re talking about burgers, sometimes the perfect way to have a burger is with bacon on a salad. Seasoned ground venison, cooked with bacon, onions, and mushrooms served on a salad, topped with Homemade Russian Dressing.

Bacon Cheeseburger Venison Zucchini Boats

bacon cheeseburger stuffed zucchini boats

Around here we specialize in mixing up the vehicle. Some people like their burgers on rolls, some in salad (see above) and others like to scoop the seeds out of zucchini and bake for a fusion of seasonal vegetables along with seasoned ground venison and grated cheese.

Venison Michigan Sauce

Venison Michigan Sauce sort of falls in the burger category. This is actually a semi-sweet ground meat chili sauce used to top hot dogs or burgers. It’s a delicacy of the Champlain Valley in New York and perhaps (based on my research) based on the Coney Island Dogs. At any rate, it’s delicious and now that I am talking about it, I feel like it needs to be on our menu this week.

Three Bean Venison Chili

Of course chili is a staple of the ground meat world. This version is not too spicy (although you certainly can add more to taste) with kidney beans, black beans and pinto beans. Yum.

Italian(ish) Ground Venison Recipes

Ground Venison Recipe Round Up: 15 recipes for ground venison including Italian style venison recipes

Super Easy Venison Tomato Sauce

Just like our tacos, this sauce is so easy, you should never open a jar. Brown the meat with onions and garlic, added a can or two of crushed tomatoes. Add spices. Simmer 20 minutes or 2 hours. Then make…

Baked Eggplant

This is a lasagna style casserole without the noodles which means it can be totally gluten free. It’s simply layers of eggplant, sauce and cheese baked until the eggplant is soft and the cheese is melted.

Traditional Venison Sausage Meatballs

My husband loves meatballs, so we make this version using ground venison sausage and then add it to the Venison Tomato Sauce (it’s not a meat redundancy).

Whole30 Venison Sausage Meatballs

And we make this version of venison meatballs if we are doing a Whole30. Instead of bread crumbs, finely ground mushrooms are added. Which as you might guess also adds a lot of flavor.

Ground Venison for Breakfast

Ground Venison Recipe Round Up: 15 recipes for ground venison including breakfast venison recipes

Venison Sausage, Artichoke and Spinach Egg Bake

Spinach, Artichoke and Sausage Egg Bake | Whole30 | Gluten Free | Dairy Free | Whole30 Breakfast Bake

Breakfast for dinner? Or breakfast for breakfast? This is a breakfast casserole of ground venison sausage, artichoke hearts, spinach and potatoes. You can make it with or without cheese. If you make it without it is Whole30 compliant.

Venison Sausage Gravy Breakfast Bowls

Our local diner makes delicious sausage gravy and biscuits. Here we make it with venison sausage and serve it over tater tots and eggs. Our original recipe is made using venison sausage, but we have mostly been ordering ground venison, so our new recipe is made from ground venison, sausage spices and then with gravy. It’s also Whole30. Both are delicious.

So Many Ground Venison Options

Ground Venison Recipes | 15 recipes for ground deer meat | Whole30 options | Ground Venison Dinner Recipes | Ground Venison Breakfast Recipes

Right now, people are relying heavily on the food they have around. So many of these recipes are perfect for that because the ingredients are freezer foods. If you don’t a ground venison recipe here that you would like to see, please let me know.

If you are looking for other great venison options, check out my Venison Recipe Index Page. Recipes are listed by cut of meat.

Homemade Salsa sans Cilantro

December 18, 2019 by Jeanmarie

I don’t even know where the year has gone. Here is it December. We are in the heart of entertaining season. So what do you do when you need a 5 minute app: Whole30 Homemade Salsa sans Cilantro.

I had no idea just how easy homemade salsa is until a friend told me about how he makes using canned tomatoes. It’s just 5 minutes from start to finish. And the end product is so delicious, you will want eat it straight from the food processor with a spoon. Skip the chips!

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Homemade Salsa sans Cilantro

So I started with my friend’s recipe, but the only problem with his recipe is the cilantro. And I don’t know about you, but cilantro tastes like soap to me. Someone once told me that it’s actually a gene that determines whether you taste cilantro as something pleasant or not.

Apparently neither my husband or I have that gene, so we always sub it out or just leave out cilantro, but the salsa lacked something without it. It seems a little like a contradiction, maybe we’ll call it fusion, but the perfect ingredient substitution is Italian parsley. And, it is perfect. With chopped onion, minced garlic and jalapeno and the parsley, it just tastes so fresh.

And did I mention that it is E A S Y. Quarter a sweet onion. Throw it in the food processor (We love our Ninja <–affiliate link). Mince a few cloves of garlic. Add them too. Grab a handful of fresh parsley and jalapeno to your heat liking. Whirl those around. Add a can of diced tomatoes, some cumin and some salt. Pulse a few times so as not to over process the tomatoes. That’s it. You’re done. Eat with a spoon straight from the bowl of the food processor. Or refrigerate up to a week, but I am not really sure how you can even manage that.

Controlling the Heat

So just how hot is this Homemade Salsa sans Cilantro, you may be asking yourself. And I’ve played around with that a little. The first time, I had a pretty small jalapeno, so I cut the stem off and threw the rest into the food processor. It was almost so hot we couldn’t eat it. Almost. So if that’s the way you like it. Go for it.

The next time, I went in the opposite direction: half a jalapeno, no seeds. That batch ended up very mild. Perfect for our littles with their delicate palates. But, they are not big salsa eaters, so we have settled on half a jalapeno WITH the seeds which makes what I would call medium and seems to be perfect for us.

Weeknight Simple

This salsa definitely qualifies as weeknight simple (Taco Tuesday anyone?) and falls into the category of “I think I’ll never buy store bought again.” It is a perfect topper for Venison Tacos (which can really be made with any ground meat and also fall into the category of “I think I’ll never buy store bought again.”) or Smoked Venison Fajitas or Taco Salad or Venison Taco Burgers or just in a bowl with chips.

So go ahead. Make a batch and serve it up at your next holiday gathering. Your friends will marvel at the deliciousness and you’ll never have to confess just how easy it is.

Whole30 Restaurant Style Salsa

This is a Whole30 restaurant style salsa, made in 5 minutes and without for cilantro for those of you who are not fans. It tastes perfectly fresh and perfectly spicy.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5

Course Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine Mexican, Whole30

Servings 1 cups

Equipment

food processor

Ingredients

½ medium sweet onion
¼ cup fresh Italian parsley
½ jalapeno, seeds removed
3-4 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp ground cumin
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

Instructions

Quarter the onion and pulse it in the food processor until it is the desired texture.
Add parsley, jalapeno, and garlic. Pulse a few more times.
Add tomatoes, salt and cumin. Pulse the food processor until the tomatoes are the desired consistency. Do not over process!

Notes

** This makes what I would call mild salsa. To make medium salsa, use half a jalapeno with the seeds. To make hot salsa, use the whole jalapeno.

*** This salsa tastes great straight from the food processor, but gets better as the ingredients have time to meld together.

**** Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Keyword Gluten free, grain free, Whole30

Smoked Venison Steak Fajitas

October 16, 2019 by Jeanmarie

Taco Tuesday is perfect for our family. Tuesday is one of the days I get home a little later, so an easy weeknight meal of tacos or nachos or taco salad is perfect. But sometimes, Taco Tuesday needs a little change up like fajitas, like Smoked Venison Steak Fajitas.

I know, right now you are thinking, smoker on a weeknight? Well yeah, actually, we have found a few things that you can smoke in under an hour that are perfect for weeknight smoker meal. (Check out my post here.)

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Smoked Venison Steak Fajitas | Smoked Steak Fajitas | smoke the meat in your electric smoker and then add it to the veggies cooked on the stove top | Whole30 | Gluten Free | Dairy Free

Smoked Venison Steak Fajitas Preparations

If you are going to take the time to make fajitas in the smoker, then you need to make your own fajita rub which like my Venison Tacos starts with chili powder and ground cumin as the base ingredients. Then just add some Kosher salt, dried minced garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.

Apply the rub liberally to a pound of venison chops or steaks. Reserve at least a teaspoon of the rub for the vegetables. (If you are looking to speed this meal up, chops will cook faster because they are smaller.)

Preheat your electric smoker to 225°F and add wood chips according to the manufacturer’s directions. We like to use hickory for its smokey flavor. Allow the meat to sit at room temperature with the rub on it while your smoker comes up to temperature.

While the meat is sitting, you can start to prepare the peppers and onions. Slice an onion or two, two or three bell peppers and a jalapeño (remove the seeds for less heat). Mince 3-4 fresh garlic cloves.

Once your smoker has filled with smoke, you can add the meat to the electric smoker.

Melt 1/4 cup of butter (use ghee to make it Whole30) in a skillet over medium heat. Add the vegetables and lower the temperature so they will cook slowly while the meat is in the smoker. Once the vegetables have cooked down, add the remaining rub to the peppers and onions.

Serve

Remove the venison from the smoker when the meat has reached an internal temperature of 145°F. Slice the meat into thin strips and add it to the pepper and onion mixture. Serve as desired.

We like to top our fajitas with salsa, guacamole, sour cream and cheese on a flour tortilla, but if you are looking to have Whole30 Fajitas, you could serve them on a lettuce wrap with guacamole and compliant salsa or you could have fajita bowls by serving the meat over rice or cauliflower rice or hash brown potatoes. The possibilities are endless. And don’t forget to save your leftovers for Whatcha’ Got Omelette or Clean Out the Fridge Breakfast Hash.