Oh Deer!

I cannot eat beef. For all intents and purposes I have a beef allergy. Really, it is that my stomach cannot process it correctly, among other things. So I have to avoid beef. I will occasionally make it for my family, I simply eat the other items that I make. But I use a lot of chicken and turkey, including ground chicken or turkey to replace ground beef in my recipes.

But you know that on some things you can't swap turkey for beef, the flavor simply isn't  there. Which got me to thinking about alternatives. Deer is something I had never eaten. But I have heard in the blog world how good it is and good for you to boot.

Growing up my dad and brother didn't hunt. My husband has never hunted. And I was even a vegetarian for a while in college. So for my family to hear that we had gotten a deer, well some were in shock.

We have a good friend of ours who enjoys hunting. My husband put the bug in his ear about getting one for us. He was all for it. All we had to pay was the processing fee.

The next week, we got a call that he had gotten one for us. The photos above don't show all of it as we have eaten quite a few roasts and ground deer already. Not to mention I spared you any more boring photos of my freezer.

I was very hesitant at first, not knowing what it would taste like. My oldest was leery, thinking solely of the cute deer she was about to consume. This was a shock to her dad and I, as she is very much a meat lover. In the end, her curiosity won out and I am happy to say that we all love it, including my oldest

I made my roasts just like I would a beef roast, same with the ground meat. I have made chili, barbecue and taco meat with the ground meat. It has all been very good. And honestly I compared what we paid for processing to what I would pay for organic beef and we paid almost half that. I figured this is closer to organic that not.

So far we have been very happy with the deer. And very thankful that our friend was willing to get one for us. And thankful that his wife went without him for a day or so.

Most importantly, my stomach has had no issues with the deer meat. That was a great bonus and for that I am very grateful.

This post is linked to GratiTuesday.