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I have to rave, no not rave, shout it from the rooftops that this slow cooker venison stew is amazing! Originally, I made this stew because I wanted to make a hearty stew with venison so I took elements from two of my favorite recipes, Beef and Vegetable Soup (with ground beef), and Vegetable and Beef soup and created a delicious venison stew.  But then, I made a few changes that took it from good to WOW!  ​

I omitted the beef bouillon cubes (trying to cut back on these kinds of processed foods), reduced the diced tomatoes by half, and added 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter.  It was perfect!  The flavor stood on its own without the bouillon or the added tomatoes and the addition of butter took it to a whole new level.  I added butter since venison is incredibly lean and it gave the broth so much flavor and depth. This is now the BEST venison stew so if you have access to some healthy and delicious venison, this is a must try recipe and if not you can always try it with beef for stew.  If you use beef, you might reduce or eliminate the butter depending on how much fat is in the beef.   I often mix beef for stew with venison and leave the butter in.  It's perfect!   You can buy beef for stew pre-cut in packages in the meat dept. of most grocery stores.  

One more tip... if you are in a pinch for time, you can skip the browning step. This stew will still come out fabulous.  

Slow Cooker Venison Stew

Ingredients: 

1 ½ to 2 lbs. venison roast or steak, (can use beef for stew)
olive oil
Salt, pepper, and garlic powder
4-5 potatoes cubed
4 carrots sliced in rounds
2 ribs celery sliced
1 onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1- 2 tsp. creole seasoning (This is the one I use, amazon affiliate link) (I use 2 tsp.)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. seasoned salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
water


1.  Brown meat in about 2 Tbsp. olive oil in skillet.  Sprinkle meat with salt, pepper, and garlic powder while browning.   (If you are busy, you can skip this browning step and the stew will still come out beautifully.)

​2.  Combine all ingredients except water in a large slow cooker (amazon affiliate link) .  Then almost cover the ingredients with water.
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3.  Cover slow cooker.  Cook on low 8-10 hours.  Take out any large chunks of meat and shred/chop before returning to the stew.  Remove bay leaves before serving.
​

Here is a quick You Tube video showing how easy this is to put together.   Don't forget to subscribe to my You Tube channel while you are there :)

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I love making homemade snacks for my boys.  There is something wonderful and magical about working and creating in the kitchen.  Our home may be messy and chaotic most of the time, but we frequently experience the warmth and joy of fresh baked goods made with love.  

Before you think I live in some Mom fantasy world where my kids are perfect angels and I have all kinds of free time to bake and create in the kitchen, the reality is that I usually make simple, but good recipes that I can't really goof up too much.  This is one of those easy and delicious recipes that I rely on.  My boys love my blueberry banana muffins so I just made them with chocolate chips to change things up a bit.  Easy and delicious these muffins are a hit in our house.  

In fact, I don't buy many prepared baked goods other than sandwich bread.  I figure it's healthier and less expensive to bake from scratch and I'm in my element when I'm in the kitchen.  My favorite part of teaching Family and Consumer Science was teaching in the Food Lab.  

1/3 cup butter (5 1/3 Tablespoons) softened
½ cup sugar
¼ cup honey
1 egg
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk*
2 cups sifted flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips


Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  

2.  Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners

3.  Cream together butter, sugar, and honey.  Beat in egg, buttermilk, vanilla & mashed bananas.  

4.  Sift flour then measure 2 cups.

5.  Stir baking powder and salt into flour, mixing well.  Stir in oats.  Fold the flour mixture into the banana mixture.  

6.  Fold the chocolate chips into batter.  

7.  Scoop batter into a prepared muffin pan.  Fill muffins pretty full.  The batter is thick and should fill 12 cups nicely without running over.

8.  If you like sprinkle turbinado or sanding sugar on the tops of the muffins before baking.

9.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.


Makes 12 muffins

*If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, simply pour ½ T. lemon juice or vinegar into your measuring cup then fill with milk to get ½ cup liquid.  Let this sit for a minute before pouring it into the mixing bowl.  I freeze leftover buttermilk and thaw it in the fridge when I need it for a recipe.  

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I decided to update this old family favorite that has been on the blog for a couple of years since it is so incredibly delicious and the recipe really needed a makeover.  Not like a healthier recipe makeover, more like a new pictures and a few tweaks makeover.  Although, I do add shredded carrots to the meat sauce to add a natural sweetness and vegetables to the lasagna, which is healthier.  I shred the carrots in the food processor.  Such an easy way to add healthy vegetables.  

My favorite things about this recipe are that my husband and boys LOVE it (they heartily devour it) and it's easy to prepare several hours before dinner.  We have busy activity filled weeknights so I treasure recipes that make my life easier.   

While this is an easy recipe and using the slow cooker simplifies things, it is important to note that it only takes 4 to 5 hours on low to cook until the noodles are tender.  If you work outside of the home all day, this might not be a weeknight meal for you, but you can always enjoy it on the weekend!  If however, you work from home or stay home raising little bundles of joy, you will love this recipe.  It will save you from the evening rush when your bigger bundles of joy get home from school and need your attention and your minivan to cart them all over town to their wonderfully enriching, but time consuming activities.  

Or you could just make this lasagna because it's delicious.  That's reason enough, busy life or not.  While you're at it, try some easy homemade breadsticks and if you don't have a bread machine, use this recipe to make easy homemade breadsticks without a bread machine.  They are amazing.  My boys think they are better than pizza restaurant breadsticks.  

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef or venison
1 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 to 3 carrots, shredded
1 29 oz. can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried oregano
About 1/2 of a 9 oz. package no-cook lasagna noodles
4 cups (16 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese
Almost 2 cups (15 oz.) ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.  In a skillet, cook beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until meat is browned, drain.

2.  Add the shredded carrots, tomato sauce, water, tomato paste, salt, and oregano to the browned meat.  Mix well.  

3.  Spread about 1/4 of the meat sauce in an ungreased large slow cooker.  

4.  Arrange about 1/3 of the noodles over the sauce, breaking them to make them fit.

5.  Mix the mozzarella, ricotta cheese, and parmesan.  Spoon about 1/3 of the cheese mixture over the noodles.

6.  Repeat these layers twice more.

7.  End with a layer of meat sauce on top.  Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours or until noodles are tender.  

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We love these hot ham sandwiches.  They are easy to prepare ahead of time and just pop them in the oven when ready.  You can make a half recipe in a square baking pan or a full recipe in a 9 X 13 pan.  I made six half size pans of these rolls at our last freezer cooking party and my friends loved having a pan to take home.  You can make ahead and freeze them.  Just thaw in the fridge before baking.  

I first tried these when visiting with relatives and had to have the recipe.  Thanks for sharing Glenda.  This recipe makes a 13 X 9 pan of small sandwiches so I usually save it for entertaining (It makes too much for us) or make a half recipe. I buy ham in bulk and freeze it to save money and I love the convenience of always having ham in the freezer when I need it for a recipe.  This is easy to take to potlucks and kids love them too so it works well for play-dates and birthday parties.  

Ingredients:  
2 pkg. Hawaiian Rolls
1 lb. Sliced ham
1/2 to 1 lb. provolone cheese (I just use an 8 oz. package)
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp. dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. fresh minced onion

Slice each pkg. of Hawaiian rolls in half so that you have a big top sheet and bottom sheet of rolls.

Spray a 9 X 13 pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Put the bottom layer of rolls in the pan.

Layer the ham on top of the rolls.  I sometimes chop the ham to make the finished ham sandwiches easier to cut apart.  

Put a layer of provolone cheese on top of the ham.

Put the 2nd layer of rolls on top.

Mix the melted butter with the worcestershire sauce and dijon mustard and pour over the top of the sandwiches.  Sprinkle with the minced onion.  

You let them sit for awhile covered in the fridge or even overnight before baking, but I have made them right before baking and thought they were just as good.  

Cover with foil and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees, removing the foil half-way through.  Be careful not to burn the tops of the rolls by checking them frequently after removing the foil.  

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One of my friends made breakfast burritos at a recent freezer cooking party so I brought home two big zipper seal bags of burritos for the freezer.  They went quickly.  The boys and I devoured them for breakfasts, lunches, and after school snacks.  It was so easy to pop one in the microwave and have a delicious portable meal or snack.  

I hate to throw food away, but we sometimes tire of the same leftovers so I started filling tortillas with leftovers and freezing them.  Not everything would taste good in a burrito, but I have found a few things that do.  

I shredded some leftover pork roast and stir fried it in a little olive oil with some leftover chinese takeout rice adding in some sliced onion and pepper.  It was delicious. 

We had pork burritos for dinner and I made extras for the freezer with the leftovers.  I have also made freezer burritos out of leftover sausage, mushrooms, and onions.  Another favorite are burritos made from leftover ham and eggs with added cheese.  

So easy to prepare and a great way to use up leftovers.  Make them any way you like.

Tortillas
cheese if you like

Leftovers:
beans
rice
mushrooms
meats
onions
peppers
eggs
potatoes

Roll up tortillas with your favorite leftovers then wrap in foil or plastic wrap and freeze.  Label to identify main ingredients.  When ready for a quick and easy meal, simply unwrap the frozen tortilla.  It will hold it's shape without the foil or plastic wrap and microwave 30-60 seconds until warm. 

What is your favorite way to use leftovers?  

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