Nacho Day Follow Up

So as promised, here is the follow up to my National Nacho Day post.

I did end up cooking Venison Nachos, and boy did they turn out amazing.

Two out of my three minions devoured it. Amusingly enough, it was the boys. My daughter did taste some of the venison but said that she did not like it. 

 

Now the "I do not like it." answer in my house does not fly. I can understand not liking something, but I require my minions to analyze why they do not like a food. I usually prompt them to answer about the texture, what tastes they are experiencing, the smell, and the color. This helps them to realize why they do not like certain foods, and it helps me to feed them balanced meals. For example my minions will eat broccoli. The oldest minion will only eat it raw because he does not like the texture of cooked broccoli. My middle minion will eat broccoli but only if it is seasoned a specific way. She has an issue with certain aspects of the taste of cooked broccoli. 

 

As for the venison, my middle minion said that it was a combination of the texture and the taste. I suspect it was still just a tab bit too gamey for her. My oldest minion just hummed and said that it tasted like steak to him. Wait until they try the venison burgers I have planned for later this week.

 

As always, feedback, questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome. Don't forget to follow the blog, and register your email address at the top of the page to have updates sent directly to your inbox so you never miss a post!  

National Nacho Day

Well this was news to me. I don't know how this snuck up on me.

I guess that does solve my question of what to cook tonight for dinner.

Instead of traditional beef or chicken nachos, I think I an going to try something a little more gamy.

How does Venison Nachos sound?

They are super easy. The venison will need to cook down a little longer in the taco seasonings to help break down the tough connective tissue that is pervasive in game meat.


Here is a recipe that I plan to start cooking from.

This recipe is courtesy of Cabin Cleaver.

In this recipe Cabin Cleaver cooked down pulled venison in BBQ sauce. I will keep this as the meat base and then add some taco seasonings to it. (ie: Cumin, Chili Powder, Paprika, Oregano, Sage, Onion powder, and garlic powder)

In Cabin Cleaver's recipe, he tops his nachos with green olives. To each their own, at one time, I would have done the same thing. Now after three pregnancies  with really bad morning sickness, I cannot stand them. So for my version I will have to omit them.

For the bell peppers, I have miniature sweet peppers. To bring out even more of their sweet flavor I will sauté them slightly until they get a little soft before adding them to the top of my nacho mound.

For the cheeses, I will be keeping the Monterey Jack Cabin Cleaver suggested, but I also added some shredded cheddar to the mix. Add Jalapeños to your heat preference.

Top everything off with some sour cream and  you have the best deer south of the border.


I will post a follow-up with pictures as well as whether or not I was successful in getting my minions to eat it.

Feeding Frenzy

Hello once again.

My youngest is so different from my older two children.

He, for the most part is laid-back and easy going, except when it comes to one thing.

FOOD.

He can be the most content baby, but when the air shifts, the tension becomes almost palatable. As the winds rise, he would start to mutate the jolly baby face into one of monstrous wrath. These signs would mean that we were 3.2 seconds away from a temper tantrum and victuals would need to be located for him ASAP.

He eats with gust,o and it is amazing that he is right on target for weight. However, food always has been a constant battle between him and myself. When he was just starting table food, his biggest complaint was that I could not spoon it into his mouth fast enough.

We developed an uneasy rhythm.

Spoon, Gulp, Scream
Spoon, Gulp, Scream

Feeding him an entire jar of baby food (no joke) took maybe five minutes. And heaven forbid, I didn't grab two jars on a day when he was feeling particularly hungry. But screaming, you know, is all a part of this joyous journey of growth call parenthell, I mean parenthood.

The real struggle was not known until he figured out that he could control his hands. At which point he thought he would be more capable than me to shovel food into his mouth.

Now feeding time became a nightly wrestling ritual. Who would maintain control over the spoon? Feeding grew more arduous for both him and myself, as well as becoming much more messy as he tried to show me that he could do it. I became formally introduced and treated nightly to the baby food facial.

Then I found a saving grace. I found these little pouches filled with baby food.

I could just take off the cap and hand it to him. Little mess for me, no fuss from him. Nick loved them. He could now feed himself at his own pace and I could finally breath a sigh of relief.

But as the nights of quiet feeding passed, I began to realize that each individual pouch was expensive, and I still had quite a few jars of traditionally packed baby food.

But I could not go back to the way it was before. I began to look for alternatives and low and behold I found them from a company called Squooshi.

Squooshi makes these little reusable baby food pouches. They remind me of little zip-top bags with a spout.

I was so excited to try these little things out. When they arrived I immediately pulled them out and started trying to fill one up. I looked over the little slip of paper that came with it, and followed the instructions. I opened the zipped end and started spooning the food in.
(Whoops! Forgot to put the cap on the spout and now there is baby food dripping off the counter and onto my shoes.) So I put the cap on and tried again.

It was a huge mess.

The opening is rather small and in the process of spooning the baby food into the pouch about half of it gets on the outside of it and on your hand. Then you have to try to close the zip top which squishes out even more of the baby food. (Maybe that is why they call them the Squooshi)

Even though they were a mess, Nick loved them. Feeding time was no longer a battle of the wills. He developed a sense of pride that you could see beaming from his happy face.

I kept using the Squooshi pouches for that reason alone, and I did eventually devise a system that made filling the pouches faster and mess free. Here is where I will share this secret with you to save you time and a mess: I learned to forget about the ziptop as far as filling goes and just to use them for cleaning. I took a cupcake filling injector, loaded it up with the baby food and then injected the baby food directly through the spout.

TaDa! After mixing up a batch of baby food and loading it in to the cupcake filling injector (the one I have and the one shown are Wilton-branded), I could fill half a dozen of these Squooshi pouches in as little as 5 minutes.



Thank you for staying with me through the entire Feeding Frenzy.

Comments and Suggestions are always welcome!