Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘cranberries’

Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad

Posted by terrepruitt on April 19, 2021

Many years ago, and I think I have shared this before, my father-in-law made dinner.  He made a chicken casserole and said that he used canned chicken.  I was not looking forward to eating it.  But if he had not told me the chicken came from a can I would have thought he used chicken breast . . . which of course you can do with this.  I am not always so good about remembering to take meat out to defrost so when I need something quick for dinner canned chicken is great.  Plus I like to use it for chicken salad.  Here is a chicken salad recipe.

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Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad

1 can of chicken
salt
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon mayonnaise
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup cranberries
1 1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Drain the chicken then put it in a bowl, sprinkle salt onto chicken. Add the ricotta cheese and mayonnaise. Mix the chicken, cheese, and mayo together. Add the chopped pecans. Mix. You may want to pull the cranberries apart or chop them a bit. I find the stick together. Add the cranberries to the mixture. Add the vinegar and mix. Here is where you decide if you need to add more ricotta cheese or mayo. It depends on how dry you want the mixture.

Serve on crackers, bread, a spoon, whatever you want.

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PLEASE NOTE:  When I wrote the recipe I this is what I did.  Some pictures are of the one can recipe and some are of when I used TWO cans of chicken.

Since we got the cranberries I have made this twice so far.  It is really good.

Do you like to make different versions of chicken salad?  What is your favorite?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Tis The Season For . . . .

Posted by terrepruitt on November 23, 2020

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia online, San Jose Virtual classes, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, Nia Technique, Yin Yoga, stretch classes, online exercise, Zoom classes, virtual yoga, City of San Jose online exercise, live classes via Zoom, Nia White Belt training via ZoomWell, tonight I am making a stuffed pumpkin for dinner. And as usual I am getting a later start than I wanted. I was playing around with something on my website and time just slipped by. I even went down to start, but came back up to grab my phone for the recipe and 30 minutes later, I just put the pumpkin in. Then I got to thinking about all the recipes I like to cook this time of year. And I started thinking about all the recipes YOU like to cook this time of year. What are your favorite recipes that you like to cook this time of year?

I am going to list a few of mine here (with links) especially since I still have to try to fix my recipe page after WordPress BLOCKS came along.  (Ugh!)

A Quick And Yummy Way To Use Cranberries (“salsa”)

Dancing With Persimmons (relish)

Persimmon Chicken

Persimmon Chicken Tortilla

Pumpkin For Dinner

Pumpkin Cookies

Cheese Fondue

Awesome Salad (pear and walnut)

Butternut Squash Soup Adaptation

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia online, San Jose Virtual classes, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, Nia Technique, Yin Yoga, stretch classes, online exercise, Zoom classes, virtual yoga, City of San Jose online exercise, live classes via Zoom, Nia White Belt training via ZoomI have already made butternut squash soup and I am making the stuffed pumpkin tonight.  The pumpkin came in our produce delivery.  We also received persimmons so I am just waiting for them to be ready and I was hoping to get both the relish AND the chicken out of them.  I am planning on having a version of the salad for Thanksgiving.  I have to get my hubby to get me ingredients for pumpkin cookies.  I should have had him do it the last shopping trip, but there was already too many other things he was getting.  So next week.  And then I hope to have Cheese Fondue for New Year’s Eve.

So, again . . . . what about you?  What are the recipes you look forward to making this season?

 

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia online, San Jose Virtual classes, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, Nia Technique, Yin Yoga, stretch classes, online exercise, Zoom classes, virtual yoga, City of San Jose online exercise, live classes via Zoom, Nia White Belt training via Zoom

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A Quick And Yummy Way To Use Cranberries

Posted by terrepruitt on November 8, 2014

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCAI received cranberries last year a couple of times in the organic produce box that we buy.  At least one batch went to waste.  I think — I can’t remember, but I think we ate some from the next batch, but not a lot.  So part of that container went to waste.  I was convinced that I could make something with them, but I had no idea what.  Everything I looked up just didn’t seem appealing.  I asked a question on my blog about what people are eating.  I mentioned cranberries, asking what to do with them and one of my students replied with a very delicious and EASY recipe.   It is a “no cook” relish.  I didn’t know that I would like it, I am not a relish fan.  But this is fresh fruit and not a pickled variety.  Also, this student, this friend, has supplied me with great recipes before so my trust level is high.  The recipe is so easy.  Sometimes I think that adds to a recipe.  If it is something you can whip up quick it helps it taste better.  The relish is raw, no cooking involved.  That is one way that it is easy.  It is a cranberry orange relish.  It is delicious!

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Cranberry Orange Relish

a little over a cup of cranberries
1 apple
1/2 of a medium to large size orange
a little less than 1/3 C sugar
maybe a little salt

Remove the core from the apple.  Leave the peel on.  Then cut the apple into large chunks.  Cut the orange into chunks — LEAVE THE PEEL INTACT.  Put the cranberries, apple chunks, cut up orange WITH THE PEEL ON, sugar, and pinch of salt into the food processor or blender.  And pulse until the ingredients are mixed up and finely chopped.  Scrape the sides down, if necessary, in between pulses.*

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I served it on some boneless pork chops.  It was awesome.  I figured since my husband likes Porky Pork Chops, which has apples, the relish with cranberries, apples, and oranges would be good.  And it was.  It was soooooooooooooo good.  We had some leftover.  And my friend mentioned eating it on crackers.  So I wanted to try that.  DELISH!

This relish is so good you don’t need to put it on anything, you can eat it by the spoonful!

It is also so good, I can imagine it on a variety of things.  It would be good on chicken, on some salad greens, on pancakes, on waffles, on French Toast, or served as a fruit “bruschetta”.  I don’t eat dressing/stuffing, but I imagine it would give your holiday dressing a little zip.  I know . . . and I mentioned it in the post that netted me the recipe . . . that my sister-in-law put cranberries in her dressing so this would be just a little bit more umph!

It would be yummy as an ice cream topping.  Perhaps it could even go on a fruit pie.

Really it can go anywhere your imagination goes.  I wanted to post this recipe in time for Thanksgiving in case you wanted to use it for Thanksgiving Dinner.   (Or Thanksgiving Lunch – as is the case with us because someone has tickets to the 49er game so we have to have dinner at noon!)

To see my friend’s write-up of the recipe (she used about 4 cups of cranberries or a 12 ounce bag – which she says is about 3 cups) go to my post and scroll down the comments.  Then go make it and tell me what YOU put it on.

Thank you, again, for the recipe Joan!

Doesn’t this sound good?  Doesn’t this sound easy?  What are you going to put it on?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Amongst the Sadness and Sorrow, There is Thanks

Posted by terrepruitt on November 24, 2011

Since my posting schedule is Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I am always going to end up posting on Thanksgiving.  My hubby and I don’t have kids and we are both the youngest of the children.  I have always figured that I don’t get to do the Holiday dinners because I don’t have kids and I am the baby.  That is fine with me.  As I have shared with you before, I am not a fan of all the traditional Thanksgiving Day food.  I usually just eat the turkey sans gravy, the bread, the potatoes, and the salad.  If there is another vegetable I will eat that.  But I don’t like the sweet potato casserole, the stuffing/dressing, the cranberries, or the gravy.  So to me the meal is not one of those meals that I look forward to all year long.  But I do like to give thanks.  I am very blessed so I give thanks all year round, but on Thanksgiving people are more apt to accept the compliment and the gratitude.

dance exercise, Nia, Nia class, Nia Dance, Nia cardio dance exerciseThis year there are some sad things surrounding our holidays.  This is the first year we will be without the matriarch of husband’s family.  This is a source of great sadness, of course.  I am sure there will be many tears shed as we gather without the light that brightened every family gathering.  I am sure it will be a bit surreal.  Also my hubby’s best friend will be experiencing his first holiday without his mom.  And another loss that I am feeling – although less drastic – one of my best friend’s is moving away.  She is moving far enough away that there will be no day trip visits.  This will be the first Christmas in 25 years that we will not have “Christmas with the Girls.”  Yes, I know this is a post about Thanksgiving, but she will be gone right after, so I mention it.  So much loss, so much sadness.

But even though moments of sorrow might have me bowing my head for tears to fall, life is still a blessing.  There is so much to be thankful for.  I cannot deny the blessings that I have.  I can’t walk around in a constant state of gloom.  I have to go on being joyful.  I have to go on with the dance.  As we say in Nia, Dance Through Life.  Yeah, right in the middle I might stop stricken by the realization, stopped by a thought or a memory, but it’s not right to dwell on the sadness and the injustice of it all.  Not only will dwelling on the negative effect me, it is an affront to all that is good.

So while this Holiday season will have a large shadow hanging about, I will shine bright enough in my thankfulness that I will not allow the darkness to prevail.  Of the things I will be expressing gratitude for is the blessing of these people having been in my life.  So I like thanksgiving, because it is a time to gather and give thanks.  It is a time for gratitude.

I hope this finds you and yours well.  I hope there are things in your life you can be thankful for.  Even if this is not the time of yerr for your Thanksgiving (Canada does it in October) or if you don’t celebrate it at all, maybe you can give thanks just because your are grateful.

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Cherries

Posted by terrepruitt on August 7, 2010

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cherries.  How about you?  My husband came home recently (can you tell he does the grocery shopping?  Awesome, huh?) with a 3 pound container of cherries.  Oh my!  I love cherries.  I think they are beautiful.

I had a difficult time photographing them though because they kept disappearing.  Okay, I admit, they disappeared into my mouth.  YUM!

I was curious about cherries so I went looking around and I found out that tart cherries help relieve gout pain.  They have compounds that help with the inflammation, the vitamin C and potassium help with lowering the uric acid levels.

Each place I looked had slightly different numbers on a cup of cherries, so here is what I ended up with

  • Calories:  Between 75 and 100
  • Fat:  Between 0 and 1.5 grams
  • Cholesterol: 0 mg
  • Carbohydrates: Between 18.73 and 23.2 grams
  • Fiber: Between 2 and 3 grams
  • Sugars: Between 15 and 18.6 grams
  • Protein: Between 1.24 and 1.5 grams

I would think it depends on the sweetness.  The sweeter they are the higher the calories, carbs, and sugar.  These numbers are based on raw cherries, not ones cooked into a pie or a cobbler.  While I LOVE cherries, I do not like them cooked or dried.  Do you?

Some places list cherries on the same list as blueberries and cranberries, you know, the “Superfruits”, but some do not.  I guess we will see as more research is done.

How do you feel about cherries?

Posted in Food, Fruit | Tagged: , , , , , , | 14 Comments »

Giving Thanks

Posted by terrepruitt on November 26, 2009

I am not a big fan of Thanksgiving. I don’t care for any of the traditional fare; sweet potatoes (especially with marshmallows, what is up with that?), stuffing, dressing, turkey, gravy, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. I don’t get excited for the big dinner. I do, however, like the idea of having a day where we give thanks.

It looks like the United States and Canada are the countries that do the Thanksgiving celebrating. But according to Wiki Grenada and the Netherlands do some celebrating to. The time of celebration was about the harvest, but now, as with a lot of Holidays it has morphed into something else.

I have been blessed with so many things to be thankful for, I make it a point to say thanks everyday. But with a day designated for giving thanks I get to gather with my family near my home in San Jose. Sometimes we get to be with both families, but this year it didn’t work out that way and we are staying local. I am thankful for all my blessings.  Including you.

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