Sautéed Greens with Cranberry and Pistachio

Brightly colored and fresh tasting, this side dish of sautéed cooking greens with dried cranberries and crunchy pistachios is sure to satisfy. Great alongside roasted meats or mashed potatoes!

Follow me | Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook

Talking with my friends who've eaten from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm shares, a few frequent comments stand out:

• "The flavor of fresh foods is amazing"
• "I never knew I liked _________ (insert a new-to-them vegetable here like kohlrabi or beets)"
• "I'm not used to eating all these greens."

It's this last comment I want to address today.

I'm finding that my family is more likely to eat greens if I keep throwing greens at them. Not literally, though. If I literally throw greens at people, Robert Barker happily eats whatever lands on the floor. Simon flees from the leaves in terror, and Vincent grabs one, refuses to eat it, but will defend--to the pain--his right to keep it in his bed. Anyway, I serve a lot of greens during the cool weather crop season. Salads (chopped, rinsed, spun and packed into wide mouth jars for easy access) appear alongside most entrees when we've got salad mix of lettuces in the farm share box. Stir fries (like my Colorful Chard and Chicken Stir Fry or my Orange Teriyaki Slaw Stir Fry) or smoothies (like my Peanut Butter, Spinach and Banana Smoothie or my Kale, Date, Banana, and Peanut Butter Smoothie) appear if there are members of the beet and cabbage families in the share.

Christmas Morning Muffins with Carrot, Cranberry, and Pistachio #Muffin Monday

This festive-yet-healthy muffin, with carrots, dried cranberries and pistachios, has a sweet surprise on the inside--cream cheese filling!

Follow me | Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook

I'm always looking to add vegetables into baked goods. I think they add moisture, flavor, and nutrition to my family's table. Muffins are an easy delivery method because they assemble and bake so quickly. My kids are happy to eat muffins for breakfast and for an after school snack. For this month's Muffin Monday, I bring you a recipe that is both festive--with the bits of red dried cranberries and green pistachios. This recipe is elevated above my usual muffin because of the sweet cream cheese filling tucked inside, but it's still on the healthier side because I don't really want to send my kids off to school with a bunch of chocolate frosted sugar bombs in their bellies.

I got the idea for this muffin thanks to my daughter. We were walking the dog herd down to the local grocery store to buy a gallon of milk. [This is a bonus fitness and economic tip--over a year ago I started walking a mile to the store if the only item on the list was milk. It saves on impulse purchases and the dogs and I get a bit of exercise.] I left her with the dogs and went inside to shop, calling over my shoulder 'do we need anything else?' as an afterthought.  She requested a Killer Brownie. It got me thinking that I could use a treat, too. Since I was in the bakery buying the brownie anyway, I turned to the muffin case. This was the site of the Good Morning Muffin that inspired my Healthy {No Sugar} Carrot Cake Muffins. I was delighted to see a new version of the Good Morning Muffin with sweetened cream cheese in the center and decided that would be my splurge. After we got back home we enjoyed a snack of milk & baked goods and I put my thinking toque on. [That's a Bob & Doug McKenzie and Great White North reference, not some kind of chef thing.]

I made two batches of these muffins, trying different ways to include the sweetened cream cheese filling. The first way, shown below, was to scoop the usual amount of muffin batter into the prepared cup, then use a small spoon to create some space and spoon in the sweetened cream cheese. This technique did not turn out well. The cream cheese oozed out onto my pan and the muffins were hard to serve in a mounded heap because the cream cheese on the top of them was sticking to anything that landed atop it. The second effort worked better--I used a smaller scoop to put in about half the amount of batter, then spooned in the cream cheese and topped with the other half of the batter.