Every year we hear about failed attempts at healthy holiday eating and every year, something goes terribly wrong. So, this year, don’t sabotage your healthy holiday eating with a little red shrub fruit, cranberries. If your family is like mine, cranberry sauce is a staple during the holidays at the table. I mean, who doesn’t love a little “sweet tart” cooked fruit to go along with all that other delicious, starchy, fatty, salty holiday food? I know I do…but every year, I make a point of making something raw to bring to the table (of course, adding raw is easy, right? :)). We all know and love cranberry sauce, but every time I see it jiggle out of the can, I can’t help but think…this can’t be good for me.
If you’re really like me, then you sit around wondering how many chemicals, preservatives and colorings, and other food additives were buried inside of the delicious food all over the holiday table. Maybe not. But let’s just look at one of the holiday table’s favorite foods, cranberries. I mean who doesn’t love a little cranberry sauce? (find out WTF is in your Thanksgiving Jellied Cranberry Sauce)
Non-organic and organic cranberries are grown and harvested in the US and Canada, and of those harvested cranberries, 80% or more are conventionally grown and often grown with chemical pesticides. Out of billions of little cranberries, that’s a lot of tainted cranberries that end up on your plate. But if I told you, that when these cranberries are batch tested, according to the USDA Pesticide Data Program, more than 13 different pesticides and chemicals were found on the surface skin, and that 5 of those pesticides are neurotoxins (things f*ck up your brain), or 6 of those detected are suspected hormone disrupters (things that make your gonads shrivel up), 6 of them are honey bee toxins (things that make bees die) and 3 of them are known carcinogens (things that cause cancer)…would you still eat non-organic cranberry anything? And we haven’t even talked about the BPA lining on that can of cranberry sauce yet…
This isn’t a ploy to get you to buy everything organic or to start eating cranberries for that matter. If you can, great. But you don’t always have to. Cranberries are a great source of Vitamin C, and there are simple solutions for keeping them on your table.
Buy organic. Try to find a local farm that grows them, or shop for organic fresh ones at the local grocery store and make your own sauce, cooked or raw! Thing is, when you go to holiday parties or other people’s homes for dinner, you eat what they serve you. And hopefully, you’re grateful for it but this year, bring a freshly made cranberry sauce to your party…it’ll be the talk of the table! I guarantee it!
Here’s the recipe…
8oz of Fresh Organic Cranberries (about half the bag)
2 Organic Limes (one for zesting, both for the juice)
2 Small Shallots (minced)
3-4 Sprigs of Fresh Mint (de-stemmed)
1 Satsuma Mandarin or 1 Orange (peeled and chopped finely)
A Splash of White Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tsp of Coconut Oil or Olive Oil
A Pinch of Sea Salt
Directions:
– Wash your cranberries!
– Zest one lime and the orange and set aside
– Place cranberries into a food processor and the oil, juice from the limes, the vinegar and salt. Pulse until it looks like a chunky sauce.
– Add mint and shallots and pulse 3-5 times
– Remove from food processor and fold in the shallots and chopped mandarin
– Refrigerate and enjoy!
