Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Celebration! It’s always nice to have a time to be thankful for all of our many blessings. There are so many things that I have to be thankful for that I often don’t even think about.
As the holiday season kicks off, I thought I would share a compilation of a few of the holiday recipes that I have shared with readers over the last 3 years. I hope you enjoy some of them as much as I do! If you made them all, I think your side dishes would be covered!
Citrus Ginger Cranberries
This recipe can be prepared 3 days ahead. Be sure to cover it and refrigerate.
Ingredients:
- 2 12-ounce bags cranberries
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) minced crystallized ginger
Preparation:
- Combine first 6 ingredients in heavy medium saucepan.
- Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.
- Boil until cranberries pop, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
- Cool (I let it cool overnight)
- Mix in crystallized ginger.
For more on the health benefits of cranberries, click here.
Down Home Green Beans
Ingredients
• 10 oz. frozen green beans
• Red wine vinegar
• Cooking Oil
• One onion, diced
• Cajun or Creole seasoning
Instructions:
1. Heat pan with oil in it
2. Sauté onion for 5 minutes
3. Add green beans to pot and mix with onions
4. Add vinegar and a little olive oil to cover bottom of pan
5. Let the green beans boil in the vinegar for at least 5- 8 minutes or until hot.
6. Add Cajun or Creole seasoning to taste
7. Serve and enjoy!
Candied Yams
Ingredients:
• 4 cups sliced sweet potatoes or yams – precooked in the microwave until soft
• 2 apples, sliced
• 1/3 c. pecans
• 1/4 C brown sugar, packed
• 1 tsp flour, sifted
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp orange peel
• 1/2 C orange juice
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Toss apples and nuts with combined sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and grated orange peel.
3. Place half of sliced yams in medium-size casserole dish. Sprinkle with spiced apple mixture.
4. Add second layer of yams, using the rest of the ingredients in the same order as above. Add orange juice.
5. Bake uncovered for 30-45 minutes
Dad’s Stuffing
Ingredients:
• Stuffing mix (whole wheat bread mix if possible)
• egg (beaten in a cup)
• chicken broth or bullion
• celery
• onion
• sliced black olives (can use the juice with the broth if desired)
• Cooking oil
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Sauté the onion and celery in a pan with olive oil
3. Add stuffing mix, egg, black olives and any other additions to the onion and celery
4. Continuously add broth until desired consistency is achieved
5. Place in a covered dish
6. Cook stuffing for 30-45 minutes
Possible additions: cooked brown rice, fresh apples, dried cranberries or mushrooms – just mix in before baking!
Aunt Donna’s Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:
• 8-10 potatoes (Russet – or equivalent volume of red)
• 8 oz fat free cream cheese
• 1 cup fat free sour cream
• 5 garlic cloves
• chives
• salt
• pepper
Instructions:
• Scrub, wash and boil the potatoes
• Mash them along with all other ingredients.
• Add skim milk if needed to make creamier
•
Place all ingredients in a 2 qt. casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees
for 30 minutes.[If you want to make them a day ahead, put potatoes in
dish and refrigerate. Simply increase the baking time to 45 minutes].
Tasty Kale
(For other tips on cooking kale and other vegetables, check out Vegetables Made Easy)
Ingredients:
- 1-2 bunches of Kale
- 1 medium Onion
- Canola Oil
- Water
- Salt
Instructions:
- Rinse and dice onion.
- Rinse kale and cut into strips (lengthwise across the leave and stem)
- Place oil in a pan with onions and turn on medium high. (Use as much oil as you need to cook the onions).
- Let the onions cook in the oil until they begin to turn transparent.
- Add the kale to the pan stirring until onions, oil and kale are mixed.
- Let cook for 1 minute.
- Add enough water to coat the bottom of the pan.
- Cover and let steam. Add water if it dries up.
- Cook for 12-15 minutes or until kale is tender to eat.
- Add salt to taste.
- Eat immediately, keep warm covered in oven or refrigerate until reheated before eating.
Stuffed Baked Sweet Potatoes with Pecans
(from http://allrecipes.com )
For information on the health benefits of sweet potatoes, click HERE.
Serve it with a salad and some chicken or black beans, and you have a healthy dinner!
Ingredients
- 6 medium sweet potatoes, washed and scrubbed
- 2 tablespoons margarine, softened
- 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
- 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Arrange the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet, and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.
- Cut
a slit into the top of each potato. Make sure you protect your
fingers; the potatoes will be hot! Carefully scoop out the pulp from the
potato, leaving the skins intact; place the potato in a large bowl. Add
the margarine and pineapple to the potato and stir together. Stuff the
potato mixture back into the reserved potato skins. Sprinkle the pecans
over each potato. - Return the stuffed potato skins to the oven; bake another 12 minutes.
Cranberry Muffins
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Ingredients:
- Non-stick canola oil spray
- 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
- 1/2 cup skim milk
- 4 Tbsp. canola oil
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
Instructions:
1. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt, milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract.
4. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined. (Don’t overmix.)
5. Stir in cranberries. (Note: I added crushed walnuts – about 1 cup – at this point).
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
– Julie
