Cinnamon Kissed Cranberry Sauce - Homemade and Can-Free!

Cranberry sauce is on the list of my dad's must-haves at Thanksgiving table.  When I was younger, the only "cranberry sauce" I ever had was the kind in a can, which I now realize is why I never used to like it.  A few years ago, I started making it from scratch for Thanksgiving, and that's when I joined my dad on team cranberry sauce.  Using fresh whole cranberries gives cranberry sauce such a great texture (unlike the jellied roll) and strong, sweet flavor with just the right amount of tart.  Below is my cranberry sauce recipe with a slight twist...adding cinnamon and a dash of cloves!  What do you add to your homemade cranberry sauce?

Makes about 2 cups of cranberry sauce.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces fresh organic cranberries (can use frozen too)
• 1 cup organic orange juice
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch of ground cloves

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring them to a boil, stirring often.
2. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until many of the cranberries have burst.  Stir every once in a while...this should take between 12 and 15 minutes.
3. Remove saucepan from stove and allow cranberry sauce to cool in the pan. Once cool, transfer to another container, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve!

*While the sauce may be soupy in texture at first, it will thicken while it's in the fridge.

~ Hannah

Fresh Pumpkin Puree

Canned pumpkin is an unnecessary Fall staple since making fresh pumpkin is easy, BPA free, preservative free, fun, and you get to roast the seeds!  (Unlike my husband, I love love love scooping out the seeds from a pumpkin haha!).  Especially in November, pumpkin is used in so many recipes from pumpkin pies to bread and pasta dishes, which is why this no-can pumpkin puree recipe is perfect for our No-Can-Ber month!  Do you have any recipes for using your pumpkin puree? Please share!

Choose your organic pumpkin:

For a pie, look for sweet pumpkin varieties like Sugar Pie, Long Pie, or Cinderella pumpkins.  Or, your local grocery store may have pumpkins labeled "Pie Pumpkins."  If you use a regular carving pumpkin, the flesh will be too watery and flavorless.  As for size, choose a pumpkin no more than 3-4 pounds. Smaller pumpkins tend to be a little sweeter.

Roast your pumpkin:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cut pumpkin in half vertically.
3. Scoop out the seeds (save them for roasting!).
4. Place pumpkin halves cut side down on an oiled or parchment paper lined baking sheet.
5. Bake pumpkin in the oven until it is tender throughout.  This may take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour.  I had a 7" diameter pumpkin which took exactly 45 minutes.
6. Remove pumpkin from oven and let cool so you can easily scoop out the flesh from the peel.
7. If you want to make pumpkin puree (which I did below), simply puree the flesh in a blender or food processor or mash it with a spoon or potato masher.  If you want chunks of pumpkin, you can cut it instead of blending.
8. Store pumpkin puree (or pieces) in glass mason jars. My pumpkin made about 3 cups of pumpkin puree. I divided them into two mason jars and froze one.  The other I put in the fridge (going to make a pie soon!), where it will keep for 5 days.

Roasting pumpkin seeds:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Rinse seeds in water and remove any of the flesh sticking to the seeds.
3. Toss seeds with a little salt if you wish.
4. Lay seeds in a single layer on a lightly greased baking sheet.
5. Bake for 25 minutes in the oven.  After 15 minutes, stir seeds.

~ Hannah

How to Cook Dried Beans from Scratch

Canned beans line our grocery store isles.  Refried, black, pinto, red, kidney, and the list goes on.  Beans are a great addition to so many dishes, and taste amazing plain too!  When we made our New Year's Resolution to give up canned goods, beans was one of the first things I wanted to tackle. I was always intimidated by the thought of cooking dried beans from scratch for one main reason: TIME. I always find that to be the reason why people go for the canned version, and for good reason, it does take time! But if you plan ahead, it really doesn't take that much involvement..and in the end, too much of your time.  Making beans ahead is great because you can make a bunch and freeze!  Also, once you eat homemade beans, you'll see how much better and fresher (obviously haha) they taste than the canned version.  And, of course, you'll avoid BPA in the canned versions.  Below is a recipe I used to make kidney beans, and aside from the time of cooking, you can apply this recipe to most varieties of dried beans.  The most important thing is to make sure you cook the beans thoroughly. Undercooked beans can cause discomfort in your stomach!

Thanks to Alice Waters, I've found this rule of thumb to be useful:

1 pound dried beans = 2 cups dried beans = 6 cups cooked beans

Steps to cook dried beans from scratch (looks like a lot, but I put a bunch of tips throughout here!):

1. Dried beans should be soaked for several of hours. The easy part about this step is that you can simply soak them over night!  Just place the dried beans in a pot with plenty of water and leave them on a counter. Because the because absorb the water and swell, you want to make sure you have enough water to keep them from poking up above the surface.  If some poke up above the water over night, the beans will cook at a different rate.  A good tip to follow is to cover the beans up with at least three times as much water as beans.  If you don't want to soak the beans over night, 6 hours is a good amount of time to soak the beans (they can be soaked up to 24 hours).
2. Drain beans after soaking and rinse with water. 
3. Place the beans in a large pot and cover with fresh water.  The wider the pot the better because the layer of beans shouldn't be too deep.  If the beans are too deep, it will be hard to stir and the beans at the bottom may get mashed.  The water level for cooking the beans should always been an inch or two above the level of beans.
4. Bring the beans to a boil.  Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer. Skim off any foam that accumulates at the top of the pot.  If you noticed you need more water, you can add more. Simmer gently for about 2 hours (this is what I did for the kidney beans).
5. You can start testing the beans after an hour. Depending on the type of bean it can take anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours. The nice part about cooking the beans is you really don't have to do much except wait for the water to boil, put it to a simmer, and check on them after an hour!  The beans will be done when they are tender but do not fall apart.  It is better, however, to overcook the beans than to under cookthem!
6. When the beans are fully cooked, let them cool in their liquid before you drain.  Draining the beans right away will cause the skins to crack and look rugged.  I actually save a good amount of the cooking liquid, because there is lots of flavor here!
7. Add your cooked beans to your favorite recipe and season them the way you like!

~ Hannah

Making a Simple Tomato Sauce from Scratch

Canned tomato sauce or canned tomatoes for a quick and easy weeknight pasta dish is something we are all familiar with.  Whether we use canned tomatoes or not, we know someone who does or we once did (I'm a culprit of both!). In addition to being a simple way to spice up noodles, canned tomatoes or sauce often pops up in a lot of recipes. But what about the BPA liner in the canned tomatoes or canned sauce?  Because tomatoes are acidic, the BPA in cans is more likely to leach into the contents of the can, which is why I think this post is so important.  Making tomato sauce for pasta is really so easy!  Whether you like it chunky or smooth, all you need is about 20 minutes and a few easy to find ingredients.  Below is a recipe I make for chunky tomato sauce that tastes SO MUCH BETTER than the canned or jarred version.  The best part about this recipe is you really can add whatever spices you love, and just taste as you go (reminds me of those Rom Com movie scenes with the wooden spoon, pasta sauce, and the nice touch spooning feeding a taste haha).  Enjoy!

Recipe makes about one cup of tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound vine ripe organic tomatoes (peeled, seeded, and diced...see instructions #1)
• 1 TBS of extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 medium sized organic yellow onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, mashed and chopped (I had minced on hand so used that)
• Fresh basil
• Salt to taste
• Pinch of chile flakes if you like spicey (we do!)

Directions:

1. Peel, seed, and dice tomatoes (saving juices).  To peel the tomatoes, simply core the tomatoes and plunge them into boiling water until their skins loosen (usually about 15 seconds in water till they are peelable).  Remove tomatoes from water and put them in a bowl of ice cold water to keep them from cooking.  Drain the water and peel. Cut tomatoes in half horizontaly and remove the seeds into a bowl.  Strain the seeds and save the juice!  The juice is important here for a great sauce in my opinion.
2. Heat up a pot on medium heat.  Once heated, add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Then add onion and saute until cooked thoroughly (onions should be translucent looking).
3. Add garlic and cook for another minute or two.
4. Add tomatoes and juices to pot with a pinch of salt.  Stir and reduce heat to a simmer.
5. Cook at a simmer for 15 minutes.  When you have 5 minutes left, add fresh basil (or any other spice you love! Oregano is good too.)

~ Hannah

Halloween Inspired Eco-Sips & Bites ~ Now that's the Spirit (pun intended)!

I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I definitely do not like getting scared and I REALLY don't like scary masks! Although the scare aspect of Halloween makes me nervous, the theme part of it I love! I love to think about creative names for drinks and food for a themed party.  This year, I've made a bunch of things in advance to test out what I would be doing if I was in town this coming Halloween weekend!  Lucky for him, my husband gets to enjoy my Trrr-eco Treats :).

There are two things (besides the eco and organic side!) I like to make sure happen when making themed food and drinks:

1. It has to have simple, easy to find ingredients.
2. It has to be on-theme with a fun name!

The first point is always difficult. You don't know how many times I've tried looking up recipes that call for crazy ingredients. I say crazy because our local grocery stores don't have very many unique options. That's why I like to make things simple and good so everyone can make the things I make.  Then, when you mix up recipes with organic ingredients, you know you're helping make an eco-footprint and avoiding harmful pesticides!

Alright, here we go! I hope you like the recipes and names I've made.  I had a lot of fun working on this post!  

Part 1: ECO-Sips!

Bottles of "Boos"

Want your guests to make their own spirits? Fill a bucket with your favorite organic wines, beer, or champagne. Make a sign that says Bottles of Boos...I think your guests will get the picture!  For my sign, I took a compostable bamboo plate and decorated it with some old arts and crafts I had on hand (I believe since my Freshman year in college...good thing I saved them!)

"Berry"-ed Alive Martini

I'm really proud of this recipe. I made an organic and natural twist to the classic Blackberry Gimlet drink and called this one "Berry"-ed Alive to give it a Halloween theme. Be careful, they are good! Let me know what you think :)

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces of organic Vodka (I used Kanon)
• 3/4 ounce organic Agave Nectar
• 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed organic lime juice
• 3 organic blackberries

Directions:

1. Pour Vodka, Agave Nectar, lime juice into a shaker (I add ice to the shaker too because we like our cocktails extra cold!). Muddle two of the blackberries in the shaker.  Leave third blackberry out for step 3.
2. Shake and pour into a martini glass.
3. Add whole blackberry (the third one) to martini glass.
4. Garnish with a lime if you choose and drink responsibly! These are dangerously good.

Cham-"pain"

Ingredients:

• Bottle of organic champagne or sparkling white wine
• Your favorite organic red and/or orange juice

Directions:

No need to number this because it's so easy! Just fill up champagne flutes and add as much juice as you want. Guests will love the colors...and the name! You can make a little sign near the champagne flutes that says "Cham-Pain". I think they'll get it ;)

Part 2: ECO-Eats!

Now that you have the Halloween "Spirits" together (Halloween Spirits would make a great bar sign!), it's time to make some Halloween inspired bites.  Like the cocktail recipes I listed above, these treats are super easy to make. I'm all about making the organic foodie life simple...because there are simple recipes that taste like you've spent hours in the kitchen.

"Devil"ed Eggs

Classic twist on traditional deviled eggs! There are plenty of simple recipes for deviled eggs online. You can make them as unique as you want or as simple. I usually make my deviled eggs based on what I have on hand.  This last time, I used a little mayo, a dash of pickle juice, and salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste.  And as I always do, I topped each egg with paprika.  For the Devilish get-up, use organic red peppers for the devil ears and green onion for the whiskers and pointy chin. I made two versions in the picture above: one with the facial additions and one without. 

Rest in "Peas"

How cute and slightly chilling is this? The name just makes the dish all in itself.  This is great as an appetizer or side.  I made a pea salad and put crackers (homemade croutons work well too) in the salad to replicate tombstones.  Here is my pea salad recipe which makes about 3 cups (again, super easy):

Ingredients:

• 2 cups frozen organic peas, thawed
• 2 TBS organic mayo (or any equivalent you like to use)
• 1/4 cup diced organic red pepper
• 2/3 cup diced organic celery
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, diced or crumbled
• 3 slices organic bacon, crumbled (optional)
• 1 TBS organic green onion, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and keep in the fridge!

Here are some other simple ideas for a Halloween themed get together:

• "Boo"-Ritos ~ have a make your own burrito bar! Beans, rice, chicken, veggies, the works
• Sinister Salsa and Chips ~ just hot salsa and chips
• Guaca-"Moldy" and Brains ~ simple guacamole and cauliflower for dipping (bet you never thought about how much cauliflower really looks like a brain, right?!)

Do you have any treats or eco-sips you'd like to share? I am always looking for creative recipes with an eco-twist!

Have a Happy Halloween!

~ Hannah

You call it November, we call it No-can-ber!

Challenge: Kick the can and make food from scratch this November!

On New Year's Day, my husband and I made our new year's resolution: avoid canned foods. Why? We thought this would be a fun challenge to start making more items from scratch (especially intimidating beans!) and a great way to help us avoid our exposure to BPA.  11 months later, and we've  done a great job sticking to our resolution.  It really has ended up being much easier than we ever anticipated.  The only slip ups we had was the occasional canned tuna. But, last month, I made tuna salad from scratch (pretty proud of myself!) so we are completely canned good free now!

Over the past year, we realized how easy it really is to avoid canned foods when you're determined. Once you make beans, pasta sauce, and tuna from scratch, you'll never want to go back to the canned version.  Fresh really does taste better. That's why we thought it would be a fun challenge to open up to our fans!  I feel like November is often associated with canned foods because of Thanksgiving dinner, so this was the perfect month to get going on the challenge.  Plus, I thought No-can-ber was just too catchy not to use haha.

Throughout the month I will be posting recipes I have used that don't require canned food (and yes, these recipes have their easier canned good version, but the no-can way is better!).  Do you have any no-can recipes you'd like to share with everyone?  Email me your recipe at hello@liveESP.com and I'll try to test it out and post it for others to enjoy as well.

Come take the No-Can-Ber challenge with us! Share this post with your friends so they can join in too :).

What is BPA? Find out more here!

Chicken, Broccoli, & Cheese Casserole

No need for canned soup in this recipe for homemade Chicken, Broccoli, & Cheese Casserole! This is a BPA free and easy one-dish meal your whole family will love ~ even picky green veggie eaters...

Ingredients:

• 1 lb cooked organic chicken, shredded
• 1 cup cooked organic brown rice
• 1 lb fresh organic broccoli, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons of butter
• 2 Tablespoons of rice flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried mustard
• 1 1/2 cups of organic milk
• 1 1/2 cups of organic cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs or slivered almonds for topping

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F.
2. Melt the butter in a medium stainless steel saucepan.  Add the flour, salt, pepper, and mustard, and cook 2-3 minutes until bubbly and foamy.
3. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until thickened.
4. Stir in the shredded cheese.
5. Place the brown rice, chicken, and broccoli in a casserole dish and pour the white sauce over the top.
6. Spread the breadcrumbs and slivered almonds over the top.
7. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

~ Hannah