Clean Eating Brussels Sprouts with cranberries and walnuts

Here is another easy, healthy, delicious recipe to add to your Thanksgiving repertoire!  Clean Eating Brussels Sprouts with cranberries and walnuts.  These little cabbages are O so delicious and packed full of yummy nutrition. Brussels Sprouts offer a delicious range of nutrition that benefit our bones by helping to prevent bone loss, vitamin A, Iron to prevent anemia, and assist with heart disease protection.  I mean seriously all this and they taste good.

Dried cranberries are not usually what we would consider clean as they are usually packed full of added sugar.  I use fruit juice infused cranberries that can be found at Whole Foods.  They are a hint more tangy then sweet but they are delicious and generally a cleaner option.  I made some tweaks to the original recipe that can be found at this link http://www.lifesambrosia.com/2013/11/roasted-brussels-sprouts-walnuts-and-cranberries-recipe.html

Ingredients

3 TBSP olive oil
1 pound Brussels Sprouts

1/2 cup of packed fruit infused dried cranberries

1 cup whole raw walnuts

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.  Cut the Brussels Sprouts in half and then place on a cookie sheet.  (Parchment paper can be a great idea to line your cookie sheet so not ick it all up with the oil). 

 Add your walnuts.  Drizzle with your olive oil, salt, pepper, and then use your hands to coat the Brussels Sprouts and walnuts evenly. 

 Spread the Brussels Sprouts and walnuts out evenly on your cooking sheet.  Then bake for 10 minutes, check, and then flip them the best you can for evenly roasting.  Bake another 10 minutes or till golden brown and roasted. 

 Pull out from the oven and let cool.  Mix in your cranberries and serve!  

This dish can be prepared the night before thanksgiving and then reheated the next day.  My suggestion is to add the cranberries right before serving as they can get hard and very hot when heated. 

Savory Butternut Squash Soup

Thanksgiving is literally right around the corner and if you are looking for something new and healthy to add to your holiday repertoire this soup is a must! This butternut squash soup is savory and hearty.  It had to be, or it wouldn't have been husband approved.  My husband dislikes butternut squash, and when I say dislikes I really mean hate.  If I even mention the thought of cooking with butternut squash he makes a grimmace like no other.  Well, all I could say was challenge accepted.  Hence, the Savory.

One of the reason my husband completly 100% shies away from butternut is most recipes play up the sweetness of the squash.  I know that I love the fact we have a yummy good for you sweet squash that pares amazling with cinnamon.  I mean come on people how could your resit that.  Well my husband can.  So I had to really bust out my spice shelve for this yummy little number.

Ingrediants

2 small butternut squash or 1 large

1/2 onion roughly diced

1 minced garlic clove

2 carrots diced

1 apple (i used granny smith)

1 TBSP unsalted grass fed butter

1/4 tsp salt

sprinkle of black pepper

3 cups Chicken Stock (  for vegetable stock to make vegetarian friendly!) 

2 cinnamon sticks

1 bay leave

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp Garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 TBSP Cumin

Preheat oven to 400

Peel your butternut squash and cut into cubes. 

Mix your cubed butternut squash, sliced apple, diced carrots, minced garlic, and chopped onion on a cooking sheet.  Drizzle lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  Roast in the oven till soft, tender, and lightly browned.  Approxmently 25-30 minutes.

Take the tender cookie sheet mixture and empty into a food processor.  You want to blend till completly pureed.

Now in your pot you want to brown your butter.  The browning of the butter will give your soup a warm nutty flavor.  The trick is to not burn it.  So stir continuesly till browned then immediatly empty your butternut puree in the pot.

Now add the rest of your ingredients, cover and simmer for about an hour.  If you would like a thinner soup please feel free to add more Chicken or Vegetable stock to the soup.   

Then remove the bay leave and cinnamon sticks.


Soup Topping

I choose to top by soup with some lovely maple bacon that I purchased from whole foods who makes it fresh in house.  I simply fried it up, pat dried the grease, and crumbled the bacon on top of the soup. I also topped with chives.

Crock Pot Turkey Chili

As it is fall, and swiftly moving into winter,a yummy and easy chili recipe was in need.  One of the things I love about chili is how you can mix and match veggies/meats to best fit your mood and whatever is in your cabinets. I also love the fact chili is crock pot approved.  Throw everything in, set the timer, and go! Doesn't get much easier then that! Which gets two thumbs up from me.

I did not document the process in pictures as I normally would.  Unfortunately my kitchen is a disaster due to some remodeling of the dining room(which i will post pictures of).  But the recipe is simple, lean, and clean.

Ingredients

1 pound lean white ground turkey breast

1 12 oz  organic tomato sauce can (bpa lining free)

1 12 oz can of kidney beans w/ juice

1 12 oz can of black beans w/juice

1 12 oz can great white northern beans w/juice

1/2 chopped onion

1 tb garlic powder

1tsp onion powder

2 TB chili powder

1 TB cumin powder

Salt/pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper(just sprinkle if you would like a milder chili)

1 diced jalapeno (half of a jalapeno if you would like a milder chili)

2 diced tomatoes 

Through everything into your crock pot and I set mine on the low setting which cooked for 8 hours. That was it! Delicious, clean, paleo, and whole food.

Think about serving with my honey dairy free corn bread.