Fresh Orange Cranberry Sauce

While I haven't been updating the blog for some time I still have been cooking plenty so I will work to update this blog with about a year+ of reviews and recipes :)  My favorite thing to make on Thanksgiving is fresh cranberry sauce.

This recipe calls for:
-1/2 cup of water
-1/2 cup of sugar
-1 bag of fresh cranberries
-1 can of sliced mandarin oranges
-1 orange juiced and some grated orange peel

Add water and sugar to a sauce pan and cook on medium high heat.  Stir to combine and once sugar is dissolved add all other ingredients except the sliced oranges.  As the cranberries cook they will make an audible popping noise.  When the cranberries stop popping (this should take about 15 minutes) add oranges and cook for an additional five minutes.  Stir to combine as they are cooking.  Take off of heat and let sauce thicken for several minutes before eating.  Add additional sugar to taste as needed.

 

Cranberries cooking...

Cranberries after taken off heat and sauce thickens.

From the Pero Kitchen: Nonnie's Green Bean Salad

The company I work for, Pero Family Farms, has a line of bagged vegetables. One of the vegetables that we carry is bagged snipped green beans. The green beans are microwavable in the bag, which is something I love when in a rush, but they also include a recipe for green bean salad on the back of the bag for when you have more time. I have personally had this green bean salad and I must say that even though I'm not a huge fan of green beans this salad was really good!




Ingredients:
3 cups of Pero snipped green beans
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:
Remove beans from bag, plunge beans into boiling water for a few minutes-chill immediately. Add chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, apple cider vinegar and olive oil to cooked beans. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

Brown Sugar Salmon & Pero's new Salad Cut Ups

The company/farm I work for recently came out with a new line - salad cut ups. They have all the mix-ins for salad - you just need to add the lettuce and salad dressing...and if you are like me and hate lettuce, these are perfect for you!

The first salad cut up I tried: Garden - I had chunks of cucumbers, whole grape tomatoes, julienned carrots, diced green peppers and chopped red onions. The first thing I noticed that I really liked was that all of the veggies are individually packaged - I think this is a great idea so everyone can take/use what they want. You also dont need to use the full amount all at once. The second thing I noticed was how fresh and crispy all of the vegetables were. They really all had great taste. I didn't even need to add any salad dressing because they were so flavorful. For me the best thing about this is that I know these veggies are super clean as they go through a series of vitamin baths at our facility and the area they are cut and packaged in is kept free of contaminates. I love this because I know I can just open the package and toss the veggies together - I dont have to worry about cleaning the product.

Like I said, these tasted so good I didn't need to add a salad dressing but I needed a main course. I wanted something a bit lighter with my salad so I decided on salmon.

Brown Sugar Salmon:

Ingredients:

-Salmon fillets

-1/4 cup of brown sugar

-panko bread crumbs to cover

-1/2 cup orange juice

Directions:

-place salmon fillets in a deep pan and make puncture holes several times with a fork

-pour orange juice over salmon filets

-sprinkle with brown sugar and rub into fish

-top with panko bread crumbs

Place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees and bake until salmon flakes with a fork.

Baked Halibut, spinach and paneer, and stuffed poblano peppers

So anyone who knows me knows I am not in shape at all. Most of my exercise of late has been walking my dogs...so I'm pretty excited to say that I started P90X - an extreme fitness system. Today is my 3rd day. I'm pretty excited about the workouts- I'm also pretty sore right now! I'm not loving the plyometrics at all and I'm really hating the ab ripper...so much pain! But I also need to diet a bit...eat a little heathier. Typically my favorite foods are anything fried or in a cream sauce. I am going by some of the food recommended in the diet plan but also innovating a bit. I really loved the meal I cooked tonight - I think I could eat it everyday! I had a poblano pepper sitting around and also some black beans that needed to be used up so I made a stuffed poblano pepper. The other thing to know about the diet is that it is high protien so the black beans work. I also bought a ton of spinach so that was an easy side...paneer is an Indian cheese that is basicallya block of cottage cheese. Its pretty yummy and stays pretty solid so it can even be subsituted for meat in lots of dishes. I tried eating regular cottage cheese this morning and I couldn't do it - nothing should be runny and chunky at the same time! So I thought paneer would be a great way to get some cottage cheese in me! The last in 6 0unces of Halibut that the program also recommends for dinner.

Halibut:
6 0unce of Halibut filet
lemon juice - sprinkle
garlic salt - sprinkle
dried basil - spinkle
All I did for the Halibut was take it out of the freezer and sprinkle with lemon juice, a little garlic salt and a decent amount of dried basil. I then put it in the oven and baked it at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. I never had halibut before today, so I added a little sauce. I was expecting it to be fishy. Wow was I wrong, no sauce needed, just amazing taste and all it really needed was the ingredients above. I think if I could eat halibut every day for dinner I would be happy!
Stuffed Poblano Pepper:
one poblano pepper top cut off and de-seeded
a quarter of an ounce of 75% reduced fat cheddar cheese
black beans and a dash of garlic
I just stuffed the cheese and beans in the pepper and put in the oven with the fish at 450 - these were ready to come out when the skin on the pepper started to shrivel - they were ready a few minutes before the fish.
Spinach and Paneer:
a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach
a couple of dashes of dry white wine
a clove of garlic
a quarter of a block of paneer cut into cubes
So I would typically fry the paneer in oil to cook it - this is where the wine came in. I heated a frying pan on medium high heat and and added a dash of white wine and the minced clove of garlic. I let the wine boil down and added the paneer and heated until browned. When the paneer started to brown I lowered the heat and added the fresh spinach. I then added another splash of wine and cooked the wine down. The paneer was much sweeter than usual due to the wine.
This meal is going to be a repeat for sure over the next 90 days of this diet!

Stuffed Red Peppers

With the stuffed flounder I made stuffed red peppers. I have to say these were amazing and I am craving them as I type this post! I think this would have been just as good or even better (if possible) stuffed in a tomato.

Ingredients:

-2 extra large red bell pepper

-4 onces fresh mozzarella cheese - diced

-1 teaspoon crushed dried basil

-1 cup fresh diced bread crumbs

-3 teaspoons olive oil

-1 teaspoon lemon juice

-salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

-preheat oven to 400 degrees

-heat bread crumbs in a frying pan with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and brown on all sides

-while bread crumbs are browning wash peppers and slice top off 1/2 inch from top of pepper - set pepper top aside - clean out seeds

-when bread crumbs are browned mix in a bowl with lemon juice, remaining olive oil, mozzarella cheese, basil and salt and pepper to taste

-stuff peppers with mixture and secure pepper tops with toothpicks

-place in a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes

-when they are ready take out of oven and remove pepper tops - slice each pepper in half and serve!

I made a little extra mixture and it could not all fit in the peppers - it was just as good without being baked! I will definitely be making this again -soon!