Successes and Mistakes

Well, this morning I made a mistake; a couple of them actually. See, I've been very much enjoying yogurt smoothies for breakfast, lately. Today, I looked in the refrigerator and saw a very ripe mango in the crisper drawer. I think that it had been there for a while; the skin was a little wrinkly, and it was soft to the touch. But it was still good, so I decided that it would be the perfect ingredient for my morning smoothie.

Now, as I was making this smoothie, I thought that strawberry-mango sounded like a promising combination. But I decided to forego the strawberry element and stick with straight-up mango. To the diced mango, I added 1/2 cup yogurt (the last of it! I must buy some more!), a scoop of whey protein powder, and 1/2 cup of milk.

Or at least, I thought I did.

The blender didn't blend as smoothly as I am accustomed. It had to work a bit to get everything mixed up. Then when I poured the blended, um, "drink" into my cup, it looked a little . . . glooooopy. So I grabbed a spoon.

"Hmm," I thought, "This smoothie is really, really thick. It's actually more like mango/French Vanilla (flavoring from the protein powder) yogurt than a smooth drink. I guess next time I need to add more milk." And it was heavy enough that I couldn't eat/drink the whole thing at once, so I went to return it to the refrigerator until such time as I am hungry again. And on my way to the fridge, I saw my second mistake: 1/2 cup of milk sitting on the counter. Yep; I never added it to the blender. So I really was eating mango yogurt.

As for the first mistake, after I mixed in the milk, I realized that mango is just too sweet to be a good smoothie-maker on its own; it needs some tartness to balance it out, and the strawberries would definitely have done that.

But it hasn't all been mistakes! I've had a couple of original recipes work really well in the past couple days. For your gastronomical pleasure, I present:

Venison Mushroom Nu Ways

1/2 pound ground venison
1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion
1/2 cup finely chopped mushrooms
1 tbsp steak sauce (or BBQ or Worcestershire)

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and let them set for 15 minutes or so, enough to let the flavors mix around a bit. Brown the meat mixture in a skillet until it's crumbly and cooked through. Drain the liquid off, if you like (I don't, because both meats are so lean). Serve on whole grain bread with lots of mustard, and cheese, if you want it. Sliced onions are really good on top, too. I don't know how wide-spread the Nu Way restaurant chain is, but we have them in Wichita. A Nu Way sandwich is like a crumbly hamburger, and so this is a take on that idea. I use venison because it's very lean, much better for you than beef, and has a much stronger flavor. The mushrooms really highlight that slightly wild, gamey taste. A very healthy alternative to fast food. By the way, I used 5 oz ground venison and 3 oz ground turkey in this recipe, because I needed to get rid of the last little bit of ground turkey. Makes 2 servings.

Blawberry Smoothie
1/2 cup strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp turbinado sugar

Frozen berries are okay. Blend together. Add protein powder if you like.