Often overlooked, yet wonderful cranberries!

Ingredients
12 ounces (one standard bag) unsweetened fresh cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup Splenda
1 packet Crystal Light Orange Sunrise powder
1 packet sugar free strawberry jello powder (.3 oz)

• Rinse cranberries.  Place cranberries in 2-quart saucepan with 1 cup water.
• Stir in Splenda, drink mix, and jello powder.
• Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
• Turn heat to medium-low and simmer, smashing and stirring every few minutes until cranberries have all popped and sauce has thickened.
• Serve warm, or place into covered container and refrigerate.

When I went into the kitchen to clean up for the night, I basically dumped all the ingredients into a pan and monitored them as I filled up the dishwasher and wiped down the counters.  I turned the stove off just shy of the desired thickness and stirred once in awhile as it cooled down right on the burner.   That’s how quick and easy this is to make.  In fact, once I make it for Thanksgiving, I remember just how tasty it is and continue to make it weekly throughout the winter.  It is WONDERFUL stirred into greek yogurt or just eaten by itself as a snack.  You can certainly freeze some bags of cranberries to make this throughout the year.  I like to leave it as a seasonal treat.

Fall scented simmer!

You can play with this recipe a bit.  The original recipe calls for raspberry gelatin, but I already had strawberry on hand.  It turned out great.  I am trying out peach on a friend a bit later.  Can’t wait to see how that comes out!  You can also swap out Crystal Light flavors.  The original recipe calls for orange.  I had Orange Sunrise on hand, so in it went.  Yes, I “went rogue” by swapping out Orange for Orange “Sunrise”.   By the way…  one of the new style long Orange Sunrise packets, intended for a 2 quart pitcher of Crystal Light, comes out to exactly 1 tablespoon.

Suzy’s recipe calls for cinnamon.  A pinch of cinnamon is a fantastic addition.  Be sure you don’t overdo it.  A pinch will do.  Not everyone in my house likes cinnamon, so I leave it out most of the time.  Suzy’s recipe also says you can make this in a crock pot.  How I overlooked that, I have no idea.  What a wonderful recipe to have simmering on the counter all day.  I just love recipes that double as holiday potpourri.  You can bet I will try that soon.  I will probably need to double the ingredients to make it in my slow cooker effectively.

Also, I have never tried, but I am betting this cranberry sauce could make a wonderful top layer for some sort of cheesecake or cream cheese based pie.  It is so easy and has many many uses.  I recommend you try it at least once, even if you don’t care for traditional cranberry sauce.

Ready for Snackin'

There it is in all its saucy glory.  It’s still pretty warm there, but it continued to thicken in the refrigerator overnight.  I just had some, mixed into Fage Total, for my breakfast.

The sweet roasty goodness of Autumn veggies. Yum!

Ingredients
3.5 cups cleaned and cut acorn squash, raw
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1 large portabella mushroom cap, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon pumpkin seed oil
morton lite salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• In a medium bowl, toss squash, onions, and mushrooms with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
• Place into shallow roasting dish or on baking sheet. Roast in oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until squash is tender and sweet.
• Drizzle with the pumpkin seed oil.  That’s it!!!!  Enjoy.

This is the ultimate comfort food. Sweet, healthy, and simple! A little bit of fiber, the benefits of olive oil, and just a hint of protein. Squash is a veggie that is a little higher in carbs, but you’re clocking in just 12g or so per serving with this fine dish.

As you read above, I bought the pumpkin seed oil at Wegmans. You should be able to find it in the same section as olive oil in your grocery store or among the gourmet foods.  If you’re lucky, you can access a Wegmans and buy some pre-prepped acorn squash.  This allowed me to toss this together in record time.

Could I earn money as a Pumpkin Squeezer?

Even if you can’t get to a Wegmans, you can click those links to see the nutritional stats of each ingredient.

The original recipe called for shallots.  Alas, my shallots went off before I had a chance to use them.  No matter.  I threw in some regular white onion, and I added the sliced portabella cap, while I was at it.  You can add just about any vegetables you want.  Beets… carrots… potatoes… other kinds of squash.  Go ahead and clean out the veggie drawer.  Make sure the vegetables aren’t toooo overcrowded.  If you increase the overall amount of the vegetables, you might want to add a bit more olive oil.  (I don’t need to remind you to take into account the nutritional stats of any changes you make, right?  Especially potatoes will up the carbs.)

I love all kinds of roasted Autumn root vegetables, but the acorn squash was surprisingly sweet and warmed me up on a particularly chilly Maryland night.  I think you will love it, too.  The pumpkin seed oil added a lovely and tasty touch, but if you can’t find it… don’t let that stop you.  I find a shallow baking dish easier to deal with than a lined baking sheet.  Even with the oil, they still kind of stick.

Squarshies!

Find this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box.

Don't they look INSANELY good, Georgene?

Last night, I wanted to use up some parsnips I had leftover from a much more substantial veggie roasting session. However, the oven was full with Cornish Hen, and I wanted to be lazy. I came up with a perfectly suitable stove top variation.

Ingredients
3 large parsnips, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt & fresh ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons sugar free maple syrup

Directions

• In a small bowl, mix together the mustard, syrup, salt, and pepper to a smooth and even sauce.
• In a medium pan, saute the parsnips in the olive oil for 5-10 minutes until tender. Add fresh ground pepper, if desired.
• Add sauce to pan and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until parsnips are glazed to your satisfaction. About 5 min.

Fish shaped bowl not mandatory.

Parsnips are root vegetables similar to carrots but are lighter and have a more aromatic flavor. If you’d like to read more about them, Wikipedia has a good article on the topic.

How long you saute the parsnips is up to you. We like ours not quite crunchy but not mushy. If you have a preference, adjust the time accordingly. The longer you saute them, the softer they become.

All snuggled up in the pan.

I used Safeway brand sugar free pancake syrup, but just about any kind of syrup having some thickness to it should work. If you so desire, give honey or agave a try. Maltitol based sugar free syrups work great, and Smucker’s sugar free breakfast syrup would probably work fine. Perfectly Sweet has a wide array of sugar free syrups and what they call sugar free Bee-less Honey which is a fine honey replacement if you can tolerate maltitol.

If I do these the lazy way again, I will add some sliced carrots to the mix.  Carrots and parsnips go well together, as you might imagine.  The best, however, is to roast them in the oven with other Fall veggies such as beets.  Check back, as I plan to journal an all-out Autumn veggie roast very soon.  If you want something different and quick, though, this is a perfectly suitable recipe and a lovely alternative to the usual side fare.  This recipe put out 2 or 3 servings.  If you’re feeding a whole crew or want your servings bigger, just double up on the ingredients.

Shown here with a Wegman's stuffed Cornish Hen.

Find this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box.

Cheesy Pork Stuffed Apples

Ingredients
2 apples
1 tablespoon margarine
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 pound ground pork
1/4 tsp lite salt
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp cider vinegar (optional)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/3 cup reduced sodium chicken broth

Directions

• Cut apples in half horizontally. Using a melon baller or small spoon, remove core and inner flesh until you are left with a wall about 1/2″ thick. Chop and set aside 1/2 cup of inner flesh.
• Set apples, hollow side up, into a baking dish just big enough to leave about an inch of space around each apple.
• In medium to large pan, saute onions in margarine until slightly tender. Add thyme, pepper, and salt. Saute another minute. Add pork, the reserved 1/2 cup apple flesh, and vinegar. Saute until pork is just shy of done and apple flesh is tender.
• Remove pan from heat. Let pork mixture cool a minute or two then stir in 1/4 cup of the cheese.
• Scoop pork mixture evenly into the four hollowed out apple halves. Top with remaining 1/4 cup cheese and some more fresh ground pepper.
• Pour the chicken broth into the bottom of the pan.
• Bake about 25 minutes until cheese on top is lightly browned and apples are tender..
• Serve as soon as possible.

Fruity meat!

This turned out to be pretty tangy. If tangy isn’t your scene, you might opt to leave out the cider vinegar or even use a less tart kind of apple. Personally, I really enjoyed the strong flavor that resulted.

Melon ballers aren't just for balling melons anymore! Or something...

As you can see by my apples, you don’t need to worry about perfection when it comes to coring. If you care, you can cover up uneven coring and other imperfections with the stuffing for a better presentation. I often find that people are afraid to experiment in the kitchen because they’re not very good at the finer details of preparation. Be aware that even the finest gourmet chefs (which I’m clearly not) are not always perfectionists. What they are is good at creatively covering up their mistakes. If you’ve ever repaired a torn or uneven cake with extra frosting, you know what I’m talking about.

Are you going to Scarborough Faire?

If you make a hole in your apple when removing the stem or with the slip of your utensil, simply plug it up with some of the flesh.  This trick doesn’t really make for a better presentation, but it does keep your apple from being useless.

When I am stuffing smaller objects, such as mushrooms, I find an ice cream scoop… or even a cookie dough scoop… comes in very handy.   The cavities of apples are big enough, though, that a spoon worked well enough.

Stuff your stuffed stuff into the oven.

Obligatory artsy froo froo pic.

Unflattering composition? Fork it!

This was a fine alternative to the typical hearty Autumn dishes. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Find this recipe in my SparkRecipes recipe box.