The Bison Girl :: a lifestyle of good cooking, good eating & living well

So this was kind of a weird meal... definitely protein packed, as you can tell from the title! The story is it snowed all night and all day. It was cold and icy and since I work from home most days, there was nothing forcing me to leave the house all day. So, I was resolved to stay inside and NOT scrape off my car just to go to the grocery store. So I made this meal using ingredients I already had in my house. The awesome thing is it doesn't take much: Eggs, Flour, Water, Onions, Butter & Steak! Egg dumplings are one of the meals my dad would make when I was growing up. I don't make them often, but I like to have them every once in awhile. They're not hard to make, they're incredibly cheap and I like the way the taste. My biggest complaint is just that I can never think of anything to really  go with them. But I've been thinking for awhile, that steak might be an interesting way to complement them, so I decided to give it a try!

Bison Meat is becoming increasingly popular -- and it's easy to see why. Doing the majority of my business online, I don't always get the opportunity to speak directly with my customers, however, I do have Farmers Market customers and those who call my customer service line to place their orders via telephone. In speaking with those customers, I have found myself in several instances where they are telling me all the reasons they like bison meat, or have converted entirely to bison instead of beef, and I find myself smiling, nodding along, and saying the same thing: "Yup! Bison really is an easy product to sell. There's just not really a downside."  In case you haven't properly been introduced to bison yet... let me fill you in on the secret: Bison is a lean meat. It's low in calories, cholesterol and fat compared to other meats. Bison is raised free-range, on grass for most of its life. Most ranchers take pride in raising their herd humanely and h...

Okay... so to start off this post, I have something to admit... sometimes I eat beef (although usually it's only at restaurants). Honestly, it's not often, I can't tell you the last time I purchased ground beef. And I will also admit that while I LOVED this meal I'm about to share with you, I would have loved it even more if I had been able to make it with bison (which I eventually plan to!). BUT I really wanted a roast beef sandwich and our Farmers Market Sales have been STELLAR this year and so there just wasn't any bison roasts available for me to use! So I found myself at the meat counter at my local grocery store, picking out a nice, lean beef roast. As I said, I plan to eventually (hopefully sometime this fall/winter) adapt this recipe for a bison roast as well, but for the meantime, this sandwich was so good, I want to share the beef version now! If you'd like to go ahead and adapt this recipe for bison yourself, I would recommend loweri...

I've had this recipe stewing in my brain for quite awhile – just waiting for the right mood, the right time and the right combination of ingredients to pop into my mind. Finally, yesterday I decided to take the plunge and try it. I'm calling it the "Spicy Island Bison Burger" -- and it's quite a bit different from what I'm usually into making. For one, I don't generally go for pineapple. But for some reason, lately, I've really been feeling like grilled pineapple on a burger just might be a fun thing to try. So... here it comes: a Grilled Bison Burger with Grilled Pineapple and a jalapeño cream cheese "sauce".

I moved into my first apartment nearly 8 years ago now. Can that really be right?! The point of me bringing this up is to say that in 8 years of living in a home with my own kitchen, providing for myself, and cooking for myself, I can honestly say I never had the urge to make sloppy joes until just a couple months ago. I've always been of the mindset: "Why would you make a sloppy joe, when it's the same ingredients as a burger... and then you could just have a burger?!" But for some reason, just a few months ago, I really just wanted a sloppy joe. So I went against all my instincts and started browning up some bison burger instead of forming it into patties and throwing them on the grill. And to tell you the truth... I REALLY liked it! So, here I am yesterday, going back through old instagram pictures and came across my sloppy joe image and I thought: "Yup... I'm hungry for that again." So, I thawed out another pound of ground bison and got to work...

Awhile back, I started a tradition where, when I leave town, I leave a pot pie behind in the fridge for while I'm gone. Last year, when I was off to the Missouri bison ranch for a few days, I suggested leaving a pan of enchiladas instead (as it was the dead of summer, and I thought it would be more appropriate). Instead I got an interesting suggestion... what about both in one dish... An Enchilada Pot Pie?  I was a little hesitant, but went forward with it anyway... making it up as I went along. This past week, I made another trip down to the Missouri bison ranch (and in addition to the usual Chicken Pot Pie), I also thought I'd give another go round to the Enchilada Pot Pie so that I could document it and blog it as the last time I made it, it was pretty well received.

Today was one of those days where an idea just hit me. I've been spending the last couple of days really thinking and reflecting about new ideas for my job and how to finish out the year strong. Part of that includes coming up with new content and ideas to share with my followers and customers to keep them engaged and interested. But having been doing this for 4 years, sometimes I feel like I get into a rut, or the ideas are all dried up. So that led to a lot of bison meat reflecting the past two days. :)  Which luckily... inspired this creation that I'm sharing with you today: Bison Cheeseburger Crescent Rolls.

Earlier this week, I inundated my  NebraskaBison.com Instagram feed  with several braggy pictures about what I was cooking that night. I was trying something new - and was so excited about it... I couldn't help but show off a little bit. Meatball subs honestly aren't something I eat on a regular basis–or ever–but for some reason the other day I got it in my head that I wanted a meatball sub, and darn it, I was going to make one! You see, I've been on a meatball kick lately. I've made a couple batches of  really good bison meatballs  and just continue to be hungry for them. So naturally, a bison meatball sub seemed like a great idea!

Every once in awhile, I just get a hankering for spaghetti and meatballs, really kind of randomly. I've tried making bison meatballs a few times before, and they've always been just OK. This time, however... I found a keeper! These meatballs were awesome and went so well with my spaghetti dinner and just hit the spot on a cold night. This meatball recipe is pretty simple, and only uses a few basic ingredients which you probably already have. 

I LOVE Bison Burgers. Have I said that before? Probably. I'm usually pretty plain with my burgers. I put on a slice of cheese, add some ketchup... maybe onions, and I'm good to go. But there are so so so many other {delicious} ways to prepare burgers. This year on the blog, I am resolving to post at least one new Bison Burger recipe each month in 2015. I'm calling it "A Year of Burgers".   To kick off this series, we've got simple Blue Cheese Bison Burgers with buttered onions and a blue cheese dressing. See the delicious finished burgers below: