ARF/5-A-Day #93

Last night, I had to spend a ridiculous amount of time making soup (more on that later in the week). To kill the simmer, cool, simmer time, I cleaned out the freezer. I was pretty proud of myself when I was done. I cleared out enough stuff that I can actually see the light in there now and the thing positively sparkles.

While sorting through everything, I found two bags of cranberries, leftover from purchases last year, and a lightbulb went off for my ARF/5-A-Day contribution this week… Cranberry Broccoli Salad.

I love this recipe and make it a few times a year, but usually around Thanksgiving. For our recent Progressive Dinner, I had a big platter of crudites, and there was a lot of broccoli leftover, so besides using up my freezer stash, the recipe would make good use of the broccoli as well. I just needed to buy the coleslaw mix – I had the rest of the ingredients on hand. If you don’t have cranberries on hand, or they’re out of season, you can certainly skip them or add extra raisins. You can’t go wrong either way, and it’s the perfect contribution for tonight’s ARF/5-A-Day roundup. Now onto what everyone else served up…

The Genesis of a Cook joins us for the first time tonight with her Fall-inspired Pumpkin Scones:

Cooking is Medicine serves up the uber-delicious Couscous Stuffed Peppers:

The Cookbook Junkie is back with a recipe that just might have me making a special trip to the grocery store tomorrow … Potatoes Lyonnaise:

What Smells So Good delivers a nice tribute to Deborah Kerr, and Siamese Enemy Curry:

Cranberry Broccoli Salad

1-1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups broccoli florets
4 cups coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage with carrots)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
6 slices of bacon, crisp-cooked, drained and crumbled (I double the amount of bacon)

Dressing:
1 cup light mayonnaise
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

In a small bowl, combine the fresh cranberries and sugar; cover and chill in fridge until serving time (berries will juice out). In a large bowl, combine broccoli, shredded cabbage, walnuts, raisins and onion. To make dressing, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over the salad and mix. Chill covered at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours. Just before serving, gently fold in bacon and cranberry mixture.