Monday Nutrtion Tip of the Week, a day late: The Cranberries are Back!

Last week I received an urgent email from a friend and fellow cranberry enthusiast informing me that cranberries are back in grocery stores. This is very, very good news.

You're probably thinking, "Why is that good news? Thanksgiving is more than a month away."

It's good news because at our house, cranberries have been unleashed from the chains of Thanksgiving. No longer does it only grace the table next to a large bird. Nope. I will buy and prepare a bag (ore more) of cranberries every week from now until they are out of the stores sometime after Christmas.

They are so good! And good for you, too. I wrote about it last year, and I'm reposting the basic recipe that I use to fix them.

Spiced Apple Cranberries
1 bag of cranberries (washed, pick out the smushed ones)
3/4 cup apple juice
2/3 cup agave nectar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 apple, grated
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp. vanilla

Put the apple juice, agave nectar, cinnamon, ground cloves, and vanilla in a pot and bring to boiling.
Add cranberries, grated apple and raisins. Reduce heat to simmering.
Cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until about 2/3 of the cranberries have popped.
Put the sauce in a bowl and cool for several hours. It will gel, but might still be a little more runny than you're used to.

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For my first cranberry batch of the season, I decided to dress things up a bit. My parents were staying at our house (they generously offered to watch our kids while we went to see Shaun T), so I needed a fancier dessert than just plain old cranberries. I have a recipe for blueberry pear crisp that is awesome in the summer, and I thought the topping would be great on cooked cranberries, too.

It was! Full disclosure: I served the cranberry crisp warm with a bit of vanilla ice cream on top. BUT I only bought a pint of ice cream to split between 6 people, so it was gone quickly and nobody had gobs and gobs of it. Anyway...delicious! Kind of like pie, but without the crust.

Here's the recipe. Go on down and buy yourself some cranberries pronto!

Spiced Apple Cranberry Crisp

First, cook cranberries as stated in the recipe above. When the cranberries are just about finished, stir in about a tablespoon of corn starch (this will thicken up the juice).

Put the cranberries in a small casserole dish.

In a small bowl, mix the following:

- 1 TB brown sugar
- 1/4 cup wheat flour
- 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional -- I didn't use them)
- 4 TB ground flaxseed
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 TB melted butter
- 1 TB canola oil

Mix until ingredients are well combined, then sprinkle on top of the cranberries. Cook for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

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Workout of the Day

P90X One on One, Vol. 3: Plyocide (a.k.a., "death by jumping")