Pistachio Cranberry Sauce

Thanksgiving and the holiday season is upon us already!  To help with your preparation, Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg of Spork Foods have created a delicious Pistachio Cranberry Sauce recipe that is easy to make and perfect for Thanksgiving and the upcoming holiday season! 

I'm a sucker for cranberry sauce and can't wait to have it on Thanksgiving and the day after, slathered on my turkey sandwich!

Pistachio Cranberry Sauce

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

3/4 cups water

1/2 cup packed brown sugar*

1 large cinnamon stick

10 oz fresh or frozen cranberries (2 1/2 cups)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

Dash sea salt

1/4 cup Setton Farms roasted, shelled Pistachio Kernels (roughly chopped)*

2 tablespoons dried cranberries*

Directions:

Heat a 2 quart sauce pot and add water and brown sugar. Bring to  simmer over medium heat and add cinnamon stick, fresh or frozen cranberries, lemon juice and zest, and sea salt.  Stir to incorporate all ingredients.

Simmer covered until berries burst and sauce thickens, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and add in diced pistachios and dried cranberries. Cook about 1-2 minutes uncovered and remove from heat. 

Serve warm or allow to cool, then refrigerate sauce over night.

Pistachio cranberry sauce can be made up to 3 days ahead.

*To make the dish faster, use 1/3 cup packed brown sugar and substitute pistachios and dried cranberries with four diced Setton Farms Pistachio Chewy Bites.

Recipe and photo courtesy (C) Spork Foods, 2014

Pin It

Super Easy, Festive Cranberry Relish & Cookie Decorating at Nonny's

Yesterday afternoon we had a cookie decorating party with all the cousins at Nonny's house.  I wanted to bring a little appetizer for us to munch on.  Festive Cranberry Relish is super easy to make, no baking or cooking required, just a food processor, simple ingredients and some fridge time and you're done.  I originally got this recipe from someone at my Healthy Cooking Group and it's a hit at every party I bring it to.  Perfect for the holidays.

Here's what you need {recipe below}......

Chop the cranberries in a food processor...

Chop the cilantro, green onions and jalapeno, grate the ginger, squeeze the lemon

Mix all together with the sugar and refrigerate for at least four hours.

Spoon over cream cheese, I used a low fat version, and enjoy.

Meanwhile, at Nonny's, high anticipation amongst the cousins, to begin the cookie decorating......

Ready, set, decorate!....eating, sprinkling, frosting, decorating, eating some more, you get the idea.......

Until we had a platter of very colorful, decorated sugar cookies.

Festive Cranberry Relish


3 cups cranberries (1 12 oz. bag), rinsed and drained
¼ cup green onions (about 4), minced
2 small jalapeno peppers (2 Tbsp.), seeded and minced
¼ cup cilantro, minced
½ cup sugar
2 Tbsp. ginger, finely grated
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Serve with:

1 8 oz. package cream cheese
Plain crackers

Place cranberries in food processor and chop fine, but not mushy. Transfer to bowl and add remaining relish ingredients and stir. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, overnight is best. Serve over cream cheese with crackers. Garnish with cilantro if desired. Makes enough for 2 packages of cream cheese. Pin It

Pumpkin Beer Chili & Raspberry Honey Drizzled Cornbread

With all this talk and the feel of fall, I wanted to make a comfort food type of dinner.  The other night at my Healthy Cooking Meeting, a couple of the ladies brought over some crock pot chili, which inspired me to try it at home.  With the recent winter like rain storms we've been experiencing here in northern California, I thought it would be a perfect night to try a slow cooker chili.

Here's what you need, plus an onion and a pound of ground beef or turkey.  I used ground turkey this time.  We normally have a freezer full of our natural beef, but we happen to be out right now so I bought some ground turkey at Trader Joe's to substitute.

After snapping the photo and opening a few cans of beans, I decided not to include the baked beans in the photo for my recipe.  The great thing about chili is that you can fish through your pantry and grab any type of canned beans {brain food} you have on hand.  I even threw in some garbanzo beans this time.  Nothing could be simpler.

After chopping up an onion, throw it into the skillet with the ground turkey and brown.  Of course this could easily be made into a vegetarian dish by omitting the ground turkey. 

Bryce loves to eat raw onion and is always sneaking some whenever he notices me chopping one.

After you you pour all the beans, stewed tomatoes and salsa into a slow cooker, mix in the ground turkey and onion.

Mix it well so it looks like this

Sticking to the fall theme, I poured in an entire bottle of Pumpkin Ale {but any ale will do}.

Simmer for a good 4-5 hours or longer if you want.  Top with your favorite shredded cheese and or sour cream.  This was SO good!  And even better the following day for leftovers.

To go along with my chili, I was craving some sweet tasting corn bread.  I would have made it from scratch, but why do that when I had a bag of this Marie Callender's on hand?  Instead of mixing it with water, I used whole milk {more brain food} and also added a cup of Mexican shredded cheese to the batch.  The milk and cheese really give the corn bread a moist texture, so much better than just water.

Pour the batter into an 8 x 8 baking dish and bake according to directions on the bag...about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, this comes out.

I couldn't wait to dig into this warm, sweet cornbread topped with butter and drizzled with some raspberry honey!  Oh so good!  It was almost like dessert!

I highly recommend this raw raspberry honey....delicious!  I think I found this tiny 3oz. jar at Trader Joe's, but not 100 % sure of this.  This would be great in some hot tea as well.

Chili Recipe:

1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1 can white kidney beans, rinsed
1 large can ranch style beans or pinto beans
1 can stewed tomatoes, any flavor
1 jar Trader Joe's garlic salsa
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed
1 pound ground beef or turkey
1 medium onion
1 bottle of pumpkin ale or your favorite beer

Combine all beans, salsa and stewed tomatoes.
Brown ground turkey with the chopped onion.  Add to the bean mixture.  Add the pumpkin ale.  Mix well.  Cook in slow cooker for 4-5 hours.  Top with your favorite topping.


If you're a chili lover, you may also enjoy these chili recipes:
Vegetarian Zesty Wheat Berry Black Bean Chili
and
Beef and Bean Chili Verde

Happy Tuesday!
Pin It

Greek Inspired Orzo Salad

I was in the mood for some orzo salad today so I checked the fridge and pantry to see what I could throw together.  If you've never made orzo salad before, you must try it.  It's super easy, fast and you can easily make it ahead of time and serve it at a get-together.  Great for brunch, lunch and dinner.

Here's what I came up with. {full recipe below}

I rolled up the spinach leaves together and them sliced.  Just like you would basil.

Chop the artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes.

Peel one clove of garlic.  Remember this cool gadget?

Meanwhile, boil a pot of salted water.  Add 1/2 cup of orzo {whole wheat if you can find it, I used regular today} and boil for 9 minutes or so.

Drain, rinse with cold water and throw all the ingredients together and refrigerate.

This was so light and refreshing to eat for lunch.  I don't know why I don't make it more often!

Greek Inspired Orzo Salad

1/2 cup orzo {whole wheat}  I have a difficult time finding whole wheat orzo where I live so I used regular

1 1/2 tsp. olive oil

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

1/8 tsp. sea salt

1 1/2 T lime juice

1/8 tsp. ground pepper

1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1/3 cup feta cheese

1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped

1 cup baby spinach, chopped

Boil salted water and add orzo pasta.  Boil for 9 minutes. 

Chop artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, and spinach. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and feta.

Drain and rinse orzo with cold water.  Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate.

Enjoy!

Happy Wednesday!

Pin It

Zucchini {garden & bread}~Heifers~ Wannabe Cow Dog

Finally, we have zucchini and squash blooms!  The summer squash is the first to bloom, zucchini is about ready to.  I really had my doubts about my garden this summer, but I think we'll be okay.

I even spotted a tiny summer squash.

The strawberry plants were not so lucky however.  Something has been munching on the plants themselves in the middle of the night.  Probably a pesky rabbit.  Don't get me wrong, rabbits are cute and all but boy, can they do some damage to a garden. {anyone have a good recipe for rabbit?!}

After I finished up watering this morning, I spotted  Chloe spotted the heifers coming down the hill behind our house, making their way back down to the barn for some water after grazing all morning.

Chloe SO thinks she's a cow dog...poor thing.

After the heifers made it down the hill and Chloe stopped barking her head off we came back inside to make Zucchini Bread.

Since we don't have any zucchini as of yet, I took some out of the freezer that I had grated and frozen from last summer to make Zucchini Bread.  I kind of made up my own recipe.  This is what you need:  {full recipe below}

Cream together the brown sugar, butter and eggs.

Add the grated zucchini and mix that in.

Add the whole wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sea salt and sunflower seeds.

Mix well.

Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and place the batter in.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Done.  Doesn't this look like the meatloaf I made just the other day?!....not sure if that's good or bad!

Definitely didn't  taste like the meatloaf!  This version of Zucchini Bread is a little bit healthier by adding the whole wheat flour and no oil added.  And the sunflower seeds added a great touch! 

Enjoy!  Here's the recipe:

Healthy Zucchini Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 eggs

1  1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 cups grated zucchini

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. sea salt (fine)

1/2 cup sunflower seeds (or nut of your choice)

Cream together butter, brown sugar and eggs.

Add grated zucchini and mix

Add flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and nuts

Mix well

Bake at 350 degrees in a loaf pan for 45 minutes

Happy Saturday!

Pin It