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My Cranberry Sauce Was A Hit!
I hope everyone in the states had a lovely Thanksgiving! Are you still in a food coma? Or are you fighting fellow shoppers over Black Friday deals? Did you have leftover pie for breakfast?
Good spread! Our dinner was full of color, and it was as tasty as it was bright! Our family is small, so it was just my mom, dad, and I (and Missy – who enjoyed a “Frosty Paws” doggie ice cream!) for our Thanksgiving meal. We had the traditional turkey, which my dad cooked to perfection, along with all NEW sides that we made for the first time this year.
Including…my Cranberry Sauce! I found a recipe for a homemade cranberry sauce that did not include “sugar” on it’s ingredients list.
I’m sorry if you are a fan of Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce, but that dense goo in a can is hardly the sort of condiment I want to put on my beautifully cooked turkey meat. To me, it is a strange texture with loads of refined sugars and a barely palatable after-taste.
My mom has always had an aversion to cranberry sauce, but she had only been exposed to the aforementioned canned variety and was pleasantly surprised by the fresh, homemade batch I made bright and early yesterday morning.
Low-Sugar Cranberry Sauce:
- 1 (12 oz) package of whole cranberries
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup crushed pineapple + 1/4 cup pineapple juice
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 3 Tbs Honey or Agave Necter
1.) Wash and rinse cranberries; combine cranberries, applesauce, pineapple and pineapple juice, and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil.
2.) Allow cranberry mixture to simmer, stirring constantly, for 10-15 minutes while the cranberries explode (Yes, EXPLODE. You will hear them pop and sizzle while they burst open and thicken up. Fun!)
3.) Add in ginger and honey; allow to simmer over medium heat for another 10-15 minutes until it thickens into a crimson sauce.
4.) Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.
Another motivating factor to make your own cranberry sauce: it contains nearly 1/2 of the calories and sugar of the canned jellied kind. One quarter cup of this homemade sauce is 65 calories, 10 grams of sugar, and 1.5 grams of fiber.
*Canned jellied sauces are 110 calories per 1/4 cup with 21 grams of sugar (most of which come from refined cane sugar) and only .5 grams of fiber. Little adjustments really count!
Later I will have to share our stuffing recipe. (There’s bacon…)
In a few minutes, I will be heading out for a loooong hike with my family. We’ll be making some turkey-cranberry sandwiches for dinner when we get back! (And we can’t let that pumpkin pie go to waste ;) ) What do you do with your leftovers?
Pasta DIABLO
Happy Halloween! Honestly, I look forward to Halloween because I know we are one holiday closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Halloween isn’t really my thing. I loved dressing up and carving pumpkins as a kid, but the fun was lost when princess costumes were replaced with sexy nurse/carrot/lizard costumes and Disney’s Halloweentown was replaced with Paranormal Activity 13. But I have a spicy hot recipe if you feel like making a special Halloween dinner. ;)
There is nothing inherently scary about this recipe, unless you are a nightmare in the kitchen….
PASTA DIABLO:
- 3 Cups Whole Wheat Rotini pasta noodles (elbow, bow tie, or penne would be fine too!)
- 1 Cup Cooked Chicken Strips
- 1 2/3 Cups Chunky Salsa
- 1 1/2 Tbs Taco Seasoning
- 1 Cup Corn
- 1/2 Cup Fire-Roasted Tomatoes, drained
- 1/4 Purple Onion, diced
- 1 Tbs Crushed Red Pepper
Cook pasta noodles, drain water, and pour back into a saucepan.
Over medium heat, add salsa, taco seasoning, corn, tomatoes, purple onion and pepper to the pasta noodles.
Stir and simmer for 5 minutes.
Before serving, add cooked chicken strips to the pasta dish.
I made this with a friend and we LOVED it. Such good flavors and colors. It’s got a South-Western kick to it, muy caliente! You could also add in black beans, jalapenos, and shredded cheese if you want to pump it up some more.
Now you should be set for whatever your Halloween night consists of! Tonight I will be going to a haunted house with some friends, and then scaring ourselves silly with a horror flick. Wish my little polar bear was here to cuddle with me:
Trick or (Dog) Treat?
Who am I kidding, this little socialite will be busy finding a way to score some Halloween treats of her own. Have a haunted Halloween >:)
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Healthy Harvest Soup
When it turns to Fall and the sun starts to set a little earlier, I’m always excited to break out the blankets and warm pajamas again. There’s the return of all our favorite shows, and premiers of new ones (who else is excited for Nashville??). I immediately think of the warm crock-pot dinners we used to have at home. Soup, salad and cornbread is my favorite :)
Over the weekend, we made just that. But we cheated a little… I don’t own a crockpot and I’m not going to babysit my soup all day in the common kitchen of the residence hall. So we started with a soup mix, Bear Creek’s Santa Fe Chipotle to be exact. It had a chicken broth with some small veggies, orzo, and noodles. Good, but WE CAN DO BETTER. So into the soup mix went the following:
- Chopped Red Bell Pepper
- Carrot Slices
- Celery Slices
- Diced Tomato
- Corn
- Chopped Grilled Chicken
Much better :) Now there’s some color, added vegetables and some lean white meat to add protein.
Starting with a Light Soup and including additional vegetables is a great way to make your hearty fall dinner a little healthier. Because I love cornbread, we made a batch of Marie Callendar’s Low-Fat Honey Cornbread mix, and honestly? I prefer the $0.50 Jiffy boxes from the grocery store ;) Cheap, yes. Delicious, Mmhmmm.
The unpictured side salad included spinach, avocado, apple slices, flaxseeds and raspberry vinagrette. This girl does not do Top Ramen ;)
Always looking for ways to amp up recipes with some healthy additions! If you have any pre-made meals you like enhance, share them below.
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