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

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.