venison al fredo

June 6 2009
I should have used whole wheat pasta, but I have so much of this spaghetti that I just used up some of it.

I had cooked some venison yesterday smothered in onion with a bit of olive oil. It was one of the tougher pieces and hard to chew. But I had been hungry for it.
today I sliced the venison in the tiniest of pieces, letting it shred where it wanted to. I put that in a pan with left over onions and peppers from my poker party and just using the oil left in those veggies slowly heated up the meat and peppers.
I added salt and pepper.
When the pasta was almost done boiling, I added a few spoons of the fat free sour cream that is but 25 calories for two tablespoons. I turned the cold sour cream into the heated mix and then just let it sit on very low setting (2 or 3)

When the pasta was done and the mixture reheated, I put some pasta on my plate and topped it with the mixture and a sprinkling of parmesian cheese.
Very, very good and the venison could be chewed a bit in its small cut state. Nice flavor, the sour cream complementing the strong venison flavor. Hard not to overeat.

Venison pepper tiki marsala

We don't cook much fancy here, but what happens to leftovers is often more complex than our simple meals.

So, what I had for lunch was absolutely delicious, and I'll reproduce it on purpose in the future.  This is how it went:

I took a jar of venison starter from the freeze a day or so ago.  This is venison cooked in broth with maybe just pepper, onion, garlic, and a bay leaf.  When I am done trimming the leg of the venison, I boil the bones and make this concentrated starter.

I added some nice snap peas from Guido's organic market in Massachusettes and some of those baby carrots and one chopped green pepper, and we ate this as stew.  It was good.  A bit basic, the broth not quite as rich as I like.  Elizabeth added rice to hers.

That same day I noticed (when I chopped the pepper) that the red and green peppers were not as crisp as I like, so I cooked them up with white onions in some olive oil.

Today I heated the leftover stew, added one part cooked peppers, added  a third of a can of condensed mushroom soup and two tablespoons of Tiki Marsala cooking paste (Patak's brand).  Pepper and salt to taste.  This was so yummy is is hard for me to put half of it in a jar for tomorrow.

I ate mine as a sauce over this Chinese rice I bought on Central Avenue near Peter's house.  A small black kerneled rice.

What a fine lunch.

venison, onions, red peppers, garlic

While this seems a no brainer to cook, I think there is plenty to say about how to do it.
First, while canola oil if best for fish, for this we want olive oil.
Cut and chop a few cloves of garlic.
Cook them in the olive oil to disperse the flavor.
Add the slices of venison steak and cook quickly on both sides.  Don't over cook.
Take out the meat and put slices of white onion and red peppers in the pan with a healthy sprinkling of black pepper and paprika.
Cook this mix until it is almost done.  Put the meat in on top of the mix just to keep it warm.
Eat more onions and peppers than venison.  Cut in small bites.

Venison is rich in flavor and those who are turned off by it are often trying to eat too much of it at once.
Keep the meat portion small and the meal will satisfy.

wrap - peanut sauce wrap

I sliced white onion and red peppers and stir fried them a bit in a small amount of water, then added a peanut sauce to taste as well as a small package of peanuts left from a Southwest airplane trip. Seasoned it with black pepper. Used a whole wheat wrap and made a fine hot rollup. It was easy, simple and good enough that I did not want to add spices.

Last time I tried the peanut sauce I did not like it as it seemed to strong. The water calmed it down perfectly. Elizabeth liked it too.

Wraps

Well, not exactly. Nothing will rhyme here.

I have explored the calorie count for many wraps and found that they were quite high. I read that corn tortillas were just 45 calories, but the ones I have seen are 100. At Guido's market in Massachusettes I found a wrap from Sam's bakery which is just 56 calories probably because it has no fat. It is made from millet and flax and called Lavash. Sam's Pita bakery is actually located in Tampa (813) 989-2722. Perhaps I will buy some down there.

I found another one at Miller's that was about 50 calories but I don't have the name.

No where else have I found any wraps anywhere near 50 calories.

Today I made a wrap and took a lesson from INN-N-OUT burder protein style. I used leaves from the iceberg lettuce and I was amazed as how easy that was and how good it tasted. I stuffed it with cut veggies, bean sprouts, a little soy mayo, and some salted capers. It was really good and I did not have to limit quantity. I had three. In some cases the lettuce did not peel a large leaf and I had to eat the wrap with knife and fork, but generally I could pick it up in my hand and crunch a portion of it.
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2/16/2009
Susan Johnson made some soy chorizo, smashed black beans, finely chopped onion, and some finely chopped roasted peppers to those long romaine leaves. She cooked down the chorizo and chilled the mixture. Then loaded the leaves.