Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year in my house. I am always thankful for family and friends. I am grateful for all the trials and tribulations that make up my life; I try to face my challenges head on. Like many people, one of the challenges my family and I face is how to budget our money and spend it wisely. With this, I have found ways to cut corners and stretch our dollars. One of these ways has become a tradition of sorts in my house. Let me explain.

My husband has always enjoyed hunting. He does not hunt simply for sport, but to supply us with meat. When we lived in Texas and he would shoot a deer, we always sent the meat to a processor to turn the meat into sausages, jerky, the works. But now that we no longer live there, we butcher the meat ourselves. For the past two years, on Thanksgiving weekend, he goes out and successfully gets us a deer! Talk about blessings!

And since I am adventurous, last year I took on the task of breaking down the meat once he field dresses it. This year he brought home the bacon, so to speak. We now have over 50 pounds of venison, which we will eat all year long. So with a deep freeze full of meat, I will only need to shop for produce and dry goods.

Now, if only I didn’t have a brown thumb we could grow our produce in our backyard. But in the meantime I’ll buy all my greens when they are on sale and use the meat that God has provided us to make delicious meals such as this one…pan grilled venison.

3/4” thick venison steaks, about 4 pieces
Salt
Pepper
3 eggs, beaten
2 c breadcrumbs
1 tbsp steak/meat spice rub of your choice
2 tsp dried onions
2 tsp garlic powder
Oil for frying

Build your breading station by placing beaten eggs in one bowl along with some salt and pepper. In another bowl, add the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, spice rub, dried onions, and garlic powder. Blend together well.

Place each steak in between either plastic wrap or inside a plastic resealable bag in a single layer. Using a meat mallet or a sturdy flat object, gently flatten each steak until about 1/2” thick.

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet with about a 1/2” of oil. Season each steak with salt and pepper. Place one at a time in the egg mixture, flipping once. Next, coat the steak with the seasoned breadcrumbs. Coat well. Shake off excess breading and place steaks in the skillet. Be careful not to crowd the pan. Cook on each side for about 3 minutes for medium-rare steak; 4 minutes for medium.

Place on a cooling rack to rest. Enjoy with sautéed green beans or seasonal vegetables of your liking.

Happy eating!