Happy Thanksgiving all! Regular readers will recognize this post from LAST Thanksgiving!!! See you soon; I am off to make broth…
My favorite quick dress-up for food that takes me from workaday-dull to bright and shiny: dried cranberries and walnuts.
My take-to-work breakfast? Plain nonfat yogurt, swirled up with some honey, a handful of cranberries and another handful of walnuts (bought in big bags at Costco – they last and last). Crunchy, creamy and sweet – oh yeah.
At home, I add them to spike up instant oatmeal. I also substitute half the raisins in oatmeal raisin cookies with cranberries for a brighter flavor and add walnuts for crunch and depth.
Boring salad? Add handfuls of cranberries and walnuts and make it fancy-schmancy (especially good with orange/clementine segments, red onion and feta – separately or in combination).
Today I incorporated them into my leftover turkey salad. Zippy!
Leftover Turkey Salad
leftover turkey, removed from bone, gristly bits removed, and chopped into small squares (2-3 cups)
handful dried cranberries
handful chopped walnuts
one celery stalk, chopped fine (mostly because I don’t really like celery)
half a red onion, finely chopped
4 -5 Tbs mayo and nonfat plain yogurt in whatever ratio you prefer
1 Tbs brown or yellow mustard
Mix all together in a bowl and serve in sandwiches or over salad.
Notes: Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon), blueberries and Concord grapes, are the only commercially-grown native North American fruits! They are loaded with vitamin C and dietary fiber and manganese and other good things and may very well help prevent some urinary tract infections in women, but the jury is still out on that.
Hot, Cheap & Easy 
