This week is going to be CRAZY busy for me. I have plans for Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday night, AND I have to finish prepping and tagging tons of items for a local consignment sale that’s coming up. So, I needed some easy meals, for sure! And since I’ll be gone a couple of nights, it was important to plan things my husband has mastered–like pizza and tacos! Our boys will be thrilled!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
The day is finally here! I promised to share a few Quick & Easy Deer Recipes for using canned deer meat! (I will post later about our favorite recipes from our non-canned deer meat.)
On Wednesday night this week, we had Open-Faced Roast Deer, so I wanted to walk you through this recipe completely, and then at the end I’ll share two more basic recipes briefly.
Open-Faced Roast Deer
Besides the taste (YUM!), my favorite thing about this recipe is that dinner can be ready in less than 15 minutes! I’d like to say 5 minutes, but since I have 2 toddlers I’m never able to do anything that fast.
First off, gather your ingredients:
2 Cans Deer Meat
Instant Potatoes
Salt & Pepper to Taste
Butter to Taste
2 Packs of Gravy Mix
A Loaf of Bread
That’s it! Sometimes I use milk in my instant potatoes. This time I pulled it out and ended up not using it. That will just depend on how creamy you want your potatoes.
Now you’re ready to start:
Boil water for your instant potatoes. I never measure these, but you can follow the directions on the box for about 3 cups of Mashed Potatoes.
Add salt, pepper, and butter to your water as desired.
Empty the 2 cans of deer meat into a second saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Freshly Dumped from the Cans
After about 3 minutes of cooking the meat begins to fall apart.
Boiling
Most of the juice has boiled down by now.
Mix the 2 packs of gravy mix into 2 cups of water. Pour into a skillet over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Although the deer has made its own broth, most of it will boil away (as you can see in the above pictures), so I always like to make some extra gravy. This week I only made about 1 cup of gravy, but 2 cups is best!
When the water for your potatoes boils, mix in potato flakes, a little at a time, until the potatoes are your desired consistency.
At this point, the meat and gravy should be boiling. Stir each dish one last time, pour the gravy over the meat, and bring to the table. You are ready to eat!
This is EVERYTHING you need for your meal! Bread, Potatoes, and the Deer/Gravy Mixture.
Building Your Open-Faced “Sandwich”
First Layer: BREAD
Second Layer: Mashed Potatoes
Third Layer: Meat & Gravy
That’s it! Enjoy your meal! My family did!
Want to make it from scratch?
Now, I understand that many of you may not want to use all the processed food. I understand! We rarely use it ourselves, BUT the quickness of this meal makes it worth it to me. I have, however, made everything but the bread “from scratch”, and it’s been an excellent meal. It will just no longer be “Quick & Easy”. However, if that’s something you want to try, you’ll just want to (1) Save beef broth from a previous meal or pick some up from the store. You can use this recipe to make the brown gravy yourself. And (2) Make the mashed potatoes from actual potatoes! It just takes a little bit longer. If you want to make your own bread, go for it! I haven’t been that brave yet!
Now, you can also make this with beef, and it is *almost* as good. I’ve used canned roast beef from the store, but it’s quite expensive. I’ve also actually roasted an entire beef roast in the crockpot for 5 hours, and then pulled the beef & used the broth to make gravy. It’s delicious that way as well!
Two Other Ways to Use Canned Deer:
DeerBQ. I have another recipe for DeerBQ that comes from baking the entire front quarter for several hours, pulling the meat, etc. That one ends up with a similar feel to NC or TN pulled pork BBQ, though the meat is definitely NOT pork. THIS recipe is quite different, and I feel more closely resembles the chopped brisket that you’ll get in TX as barbecue. To make it, your meal will be ready in FIVE minutes! Simply dump the can(s) in a saucepan, and add barbecue sauce. LOTS of barbecue sauce–like ¼ of a bottle. As soon as you’ve heated it, just serve it on a bun with the sides of your choice. So easy and delicious!
Deer Stew. Empty the deer cans into a large pot, and add veggies and a little extra water or beef broth. Throw in whatever seasonings you like. I use garlic, salt, and pepper, and every now and then throw in a dash of hot sauce or some chili powder for my husband who loves a little kick. Cook until boiling, and until veggies are soft when pierced with a fork. This will vary depending on what veggies you use. (I often throw leftover veggies, like the potatoes & carrots from a roast, into the stew.) You could also make it in the morning and put it in a crockpot for dinner. On high it will be ready in less than 5 hours. On low it will take about 7-8 hours.
Rachel 🙂
Note: I plan to make recipe cards for each of these meals, but it will probably be a few days before they are up! I apologize! I will update here when I get those up. In the meantime, feel free to browse some of my other recipes at http://www.myselfathome.com/printables.
So last week I tried a new recipe for Venison Steak, and my husband said it was “gourmet!’ For a woman who, 5 years ago, could only make about 5 meals–and they all came from either frozen chicken breasts or ground beef–this is an amazing compliment!
I am LOVING meal planning, even though we often switch meals around, and sometimes 1 or 2 of them don’t get made during a week. Still, at least 4-5 nights a week we follow our meal plan pretty closely, and it has been so much fun to serve my family in this way!
This week, I even bought a new springy Pioneer Woman tablecloth, and some great placemats and cloth napkins to make our table more lovely. It’s so sweet to see my boys using the cloth napkins, and they can’t shred them like they do the paper ones! (They are 1 & 2 years old…)
This is yummy goodness, especially for my 2 pizza-loving boys! And it’s so easy! It’s the only reason I ever buy canned biscuits!
So tell me,
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
FREE PRINTABLES!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
Y’all, this week’s meal planning was a HUGE success! I went through my meal plan to make my grocery list for the week, and NO JOKE…… My shopping list for an entire week & 21 meals for my family, was only 5 items long! I spent less than $20! WHAT?!?!?!
If you struggle in your grocery budget, and you aren’t meal planning, this is one simple way to start saving money. Another simple tip is to only buy meat when it’s on sale. Our freezer is stocked full of meat, so that’s an expensive part of our meals that we rarely have to buy.
So tell me,
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
Rachel 🙂
FREE PRINTABLES!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
I meal plan for every meal, and through meal planning we’ve discovered so many benefits. We’re saving money on our grocery bill. We are eating more meals at the dinner table. We’re eating healthier. Our boys are learning to try new foods. Although I plan breakfast and lunch, those plans are pretty redundant. My dinner plans are much more thorough, and I’d like to start posting my weekly meal plan each week, with links to some of the recipes. Enjoy, and let me know if you add something to your recipe collection!
Sunday, February 19
DeerBQ *Stay Tuned for a post on Quick & Easy Deer Recipes
So tell me,
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
Rachel 🙂
FREE PRINTABLES!
I have a FREE printable meal-planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
I’ve been doing meal planning off and on since I got married, but for the past year it has finally been something that I’ve been consistent with. This month, I’ve even paid closer attention to our grocery budget, and I am SAVING money by meal planning!
I do my grocery runs every week on Thursdays. Most months, my weekly shopping has ranged from $60-180, totaling about $350 per month. That’s crazy! In the past month, I’ve only bought the necessary things for my meal plan. I’ve spent a range of $40-100 on my shopping, totaling about $200! What?!?! $150 savings just by planning ahead? I’m just as stunned as you are! 🙂
I meal plan for every meal, but most days lunch consists of leftovers from the previous night’s dinner, and breakfast is fairly redundant as well. My dinner plans are much more thorough, and I’d like to start posting my weekly meal plan each week, with links to some of the recipes. Enjoy, and let me know if you add something to your recipe collection!
Sunday, February 12
Clean out the Fridge Day! (We have plenty of leftovers from last week!)
Tacos. Always a family favorite, and no sides necessary!
So tell me,
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
Rachel 🙂
BONUS! I have a FREE printable meal-planner that I designed about a month ago. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download!
First off, gather your ingredients:
My Self At Home 