Cranberry Orange Bread

This recipe is a great way to use up any leftover cranberries you might have in the freezer from Thanksgiving.

Did you know that you can freeze cranberries in the freezer for an entire year? It's a great idea to buy a ton of fresh cranberries since they are usually on sale. I bought mine at a "buy one get one free" sale.

The cranberries are beautiful in this bread! Oh and your house is going to smell amazing while you're baking this!

The bread also stayed moist and fresh for several days.

This recipe comes for allrecipes.com. I only changed a couple of things.

Ingredients:

2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest
1 1/2 c. fresh cranberries (or frozen, don't defrost first)
1/2 c. pecans, coarsely chopped (optional)
1/4 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 large egg
3/4 c. orange juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in orange zest, cranberries, and pecans. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl cream butter, sugar, and egg until smooth.Stir in orange juice. Mix into flour mixture just until combined.

4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour. Let sit in the pan for 10 minutes before removing. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Cool completely before cutting.

Biscuits~From Scratch

From Mr. Alton Brown!

I have made this recipe a million times and never change anything. It's simple, fast, and fool-proof.

I don't use a biscuit cutter. I roll the dough out and cut the biscuits into rustic strips. That way I don't have to re-roll the dough and don't end up with biscuits. I make one big layer of 1/4 inch biscuits and they end up being perfect for biscuits and gravy.

Work fast to get the ingredients together. The colder they stay, the better.

Ingredients:

2 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cold
2 Tbsp. shortening, cold
1 c. buttermilk, chilled

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450.

1. Mix dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add cold butter and shortening. Mix in with a pastry cutter or fork. Don't over mix.

3. Make a well and add cold buttermilk. Mix in with fork just until combined.

4. Turn dough over onto heavily floured surface. Gently fold dough over 5-6 times.

5. Bake on a baking sheet lined with foil for 10-15 minutes.

Turkey Ham Panini on Whole-Wheat Focaccia

This was lunch today, and I made it with some homemade whole-wheat focaccia. It was pretty yummy and a fairly healthy option for lunch. We ate it with some fruit.

Oooh AND I worked out last night and this morning. It was actually very fun.

Last night I did kickboxing with sprawls mixed in and today we walked about one half a mile and ran up steps. It was tiring but we both felt great afterwards. Chloe sat with us and we took turns going up the steps so we were always with her. She kept looking at us like we were crazy.

Jared and I made a new goal!! We decided to run the Bix next year! 7 miles of fun!

Focaccia
low-sodium turkey
low-sodium ham
lettuce
tomatoes
onions
sriracha
swiss cheese

Preheat George Forman or panini press if you have one.

Make your sandwich any way you want! This is just what we had on hand.

Grill the sandwich until the cheese is melted and enjoy!!