A cranberry bog at harvest is stunning, with deep red fruit contrasting with a watery background.
Cranberries are a holiday season tradition. Their tart taste, dark red hue, and versatility underlie their popularity. Americans are consuming more cranberries, with 40,000 acres devoted to this crop. Farmers grow cranberries in bogs or marshes, taking advantage of a natural habitat for plants and animals. Long-lived cranberry vines can bear fruit for more than 150 years!
Here are 10 benefits of enjoying cranberries fresh in season, and dried or frozen year-round.
1. Of all fruits, cranberries rank near the top in both number and amount of phytochemicals, beneficial plant substances that help protect your cells in many ways. Scientists have identified over 150 phytochemicals in this berry, (more…)
Home Made Cranberry Sauce that Will Wow Your Guests
If you grew up eating canned, jellied cranberry sauce, as I did, you have hopefully already discovered how amazing the home made version of this perpetual favorite can be. No holiday gathering would be complete without the deep red and tart richness of this treat.
This cranberry sauce was so good that my friends started eating it before I could get my camera out
Luckily, fresh cranberries are in season. Leave the cans in the store and bring home the ingredients for your own taste treat. While you can discover hundreds of recipes on the Internet, I have put together the following simple recipe that cooks in ten minutes. Even people who usually don’t like cranberry sauce will eat a plate of this.
Recipe for not-too-sweet cranberry sauce:
Ingredients
4 cups of cranberries (this is the amount in a 12 ounce package)
Whole Foods at the Holidays Show Love and Abundance
Thanksgiving is a time for abundance. While many may find Thanksgiving without turkey to be lacking, an animal-free holiday maximizes love, caring, and great food.
My favorite celebration is an annual Thanksgiving potluck in a casual San Diego home. The hosts are committed to a plant-based diet; so the many choices people bring are animal-free. Some of the dishes crowding every corner of three large tables were Tofurky® (of course) with gravy, several kinds of potatoes, large pans of stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, quinoa salads, polenta with pesto sauce and tomatoes, vegetables of all types,
Polenta topped with pesto, tomato, walnuts, and peppers was a huge hit at our animal-free Thanksgiving
yams, pasta dishes, garlic bread, rice paper rolls with spicy sauce, and way more. Too much to even take a forkful of everything.
A separate dessert table tempted with about eight pies of all types, several kinds of cookies, brownies, and cakes.
I basked on a sunny deck with dozens of relaxed friends, all enjoying the food, weather, and each other’s company. Laughter and quiet conversation created a pleasant background. A few dogs, ranging from an American bulldog to a standard poodle to a tiny Katrina rescue, roamed from person to person looking for pets and approval (and maybe a bit of Tofurky®).
For most of my life, I would have shuddered at a turkey-free Thanksgiving. I was the one who ate mounds of meat at dinner and nibbled at the leftovers for days.
Now I revel that Thanksgiving is animal-free. I LOVE a turkey-free thanksgiving. Then I can truly be grateful for the wonderful gifts in my life without damaging my own health or the planet. The food that would have gone to feed the turkey is now available to others, hungry and less fortunate, who deserve their own abundance. And I can eat way too much of the tastiest foods on earth – without guilt.
Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!
Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet, the smart person’s nutrition book built on sustainable food choices. Enjoy six kinds of whole foods for permanent, hunger-free weight loss and health.
Enjoying Loving Family and Great Food Any and Every Day
Our family, bonded around plant-based nutrition and love of nature, is very close. My younger daughter lives in San Diego with me. We were so happy when Rebecca, my older daughter, could visit to celebrate Thanksgiving – even though the visit was a few weeks early.
Rebecca drove down from Northern California with her boyfriend Jan and their rescued American bulldog, Rikki. This goofy and ultra-friendly canine
Rebecca and Rikki the American bulldog
is a poster child for why adopting from a shelter is the best way to add a furry family member.
On the first Saturday night in November we enjoyed a tasty and low-budget Thanksgiving feast. When you stick to plant-based options, you can eat way too much delicious food for Thanksgiving and stick to your spending limits.
Actually, we did splurge a little, as you can see from our menu and costs. By cooking totally from scratch, we could definitely have saved money. But all four of us ate to oblivion on Saturday night and had enough food left over for several days. So the total covers much of the food we all ate for about three days.
Two Tofurky roasts (animal-free and delicious) $17
Potatoes, onion, carrots roasted with Tofurky $3
Gravy (animal-free mix) $1
Stuffing (two bags of animal-free stuffing mix liberally boosted with fresh onions and celery) $5
Homemade cranberry sauce (meal highlight for me) $2
Homemade veggies medley stir fry (in broth) $3
Homemade winter squash pureed with spices and a little miso $3
Pumpkin pie (animal-free from Whole Foods) $13
Dairy-free whipped topping $4
Total for four people eating for several days: $51. A homemade pumpkin pie would have brought the total down to about $40, or $10 per person. Not bad for a healthy and loving Thanksgiving. No one missed the poor turkey. In fact, we were all hugely thankful that the bird was celebrating, too, happy and enjoying another day.
Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!
Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet, the smart person’s nutrition book built on sustainable food choices. Enjoy six kinds of whole foods for permanent, hunger-free weight loss and health.
