easyrecipes

Holiday Eats

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The holidays are rapidly approaching and since Thanksgiving is a food-centric holiday I thought I’d share some of my favorite recipes this week to add to your Thanksgiving table.

Slow Cooker Cranberry Sauce

Last year I was looking for a cranberry sauce recipe that was real cranberries and I stumbled upon This post from the Lemon Bowl, an easy cranberry sauce recipe.

INGREDIENTS
12 oz bag fresh cranberries
½ cup orange juice
½ cup water
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon ginger

INSTRUCTIONS
Place all ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on Low heat for 3 hours.
Using a wooden spoon, gently mash the cranberries until desired consistency is reached.

This recipe was a big hit last year and I plan on keeping it around for years to come.

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Clean Eating Taco Salad

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Instead if normal tacos we have been eating a taco salad version of tacos as of late. It’s delicious and simple, right up my alley and you can modify to include whatever veggies are a hit in your house.

In a skillet brown your meat (we use ground turkey but you could use ground beef, venison or whatever meat you like).  When the meat is browned add in Taco Seasoning and about 1/8-1/4 cup of water and let simmer for 10-20 minutes so the meat sucks up the flavor.  Add this point I also like to throw in onions, bell peppers and a can of black beans to the meat mixture.  I also boil some corn kernels while the meat is simmering.  While the food is stewing on the stove I grate some cheese and cut avocados and lettuce.  If I have any taco shells I’ll heat them up.  (If I don’t I just use tortilla chips.)

To put together make a bed of lettuce, add your meat mixture, the corn, then garnish with tomatoes, avocado and cheese.  We also throw Salsa (and maybe a little sour cream) in the mix to.  Crumble up some taco shells or tortilla chips for some crunch factor and Bam . . . Clean Taco Salad.

Easy, peasy.  Cheers and Happy Eating!

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Garlic Parmesan Shrimp

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This recipe is dedicated to my girlfriends who are not big into the culinary arts.  My friends seem to either fall into one of two categories. . . The Cooks. . .These are the ladies who seem to know everything there is to know about the kitchen and make cooking and all the strange terms and sometimes gadgets involved seem like a breeze,  and The Non-Cooks. . . these are the ladies who struggle in the kitchen, who don’t want to be in the kitchen and who have perfected the art of take out.  I used to be a Non-Cook.  I didn’t turn myself into a Cook until I was almost in my 30’s, (and even then I didn’t get decent until I learned the law of the budget which meant cooking meals at home and not ordering out or going out more than once a week if I’m lucky).

These shrimp are delicious, easy and can be used as an hor d’oeuvre at a party or be used as the base for a main dish.

Ingredients:
Shrimp
Butter/Olive Oil/ (or other vegetable oil depending on your preference)
Garlic
Parmesan
Lemon
Salt
Pepper
Basil/Oregano/Parsley

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Rise your shrimp and pat the water off the shrimp, or leave the shrimp sitting out in a strainer for a little bit until they dry off some.  When the shrimp are dry throw them in a bowl with about two TBS of olive oil/butter, 2-4 cloves of diced garlic (I squish two cloves through the garlic press), about a 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper to taste and a few shakes of basil/oregano/parsley (you can choose one, two or all three I prefer all 3 and a few shakes plus some more).  Mix the shrimp around so all the flavors get equally distributed then transfer the shrimp in a single layer onto a baking sheet (covered in tin foil for easy clean up).  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until shrimp or pink and firm.  Squeeze the other half of lemon on the shrimp when you pull them from the oven.

For a more detailed recipe go to:
http://damndelicious.net/2014/12/05/garlic-parmesan-roasted-shrimp/
(And then stop and browse her other yummy recipes!)

If eating as an appetizer mix up some cocktail sauce (that would be ketchup and a dab of horseradish sauce) and go to town.

There are several ways to use this as part of a main course for dinner, these are two of my favorites.

Option One: Lay the shrimp on top of a bed of pasta with alfredo sauce (and add a vegetable like broccoli or peas to round it out).

Option Two:  Stir fry some vegetables (Use what’s in your fridge spinach, broccoli, bell peppers, mushrooms, carrots,  onions, whatever you have!  Throw the veggies in a skillet with some butter or olive oil and maybe some spices to taste). Boil some rice, mix it all together and turn it into yummy parmesan shrimp stir fry!

Simple.  Yum.  Happy Eating!