Jalapeno Cranberry Vinaigrette

Last year I tested this Jalapeno Cranberry Vinaigrette with my family at Thanksgiving Dinner. While it was a bit on the spicy side for some, others really enjoyed it. Personally, it has been one of my favorite salad dressings.

We love to enjoy this Jalapeno Cranberry Vinaigrette all year long with poultry and fish, it adds just the right amount of kick.

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How Our Family Celebrates

We enjoy going to my sister in law’s home for our Holiday meals, most of the time our children are busy with bouncing from house to house during the holidays and wrangling our grandchildren along the way.

Both Rick and I decided that instead of adding more stress and chaos to their lives that we would be the ones to say “hey let’s have a get together on a different day that isn’t so crazy”.

While I would love to see them all on the actually holiday it really is not worth being “that person” who is demanding and never understanding of the many commitments that blended families run into. So we celebrate things a bit differently but are still very active in everyone’s life as best we can be.

Why This Year Is Different & Why I Have Been So Quiet

A few years ago my son Shane was here and celebrated with us. He now lives in Georgia and has blessed us with the sweetest little grandson this September.

Have to get my Grandma in here and share this photo of our visit. Myles is such a sweet little guy and he was two weeks old in this photo with me. Please excuse 3 days of travel and me being super tired in the photo.

But this year we have the pleasure of including my son George and his girlfriend. They chose to move up to Illinois from South Carolina earlier this year and have been staying with us until they can get a place of their own.

So you can see there have been a ton of things changing around us along with getting ready for Rick to retire next summer.

Let’s Get Back To The Jalapeno Cranberry Vinaigrette

This vinaigrette is super simple to make with a bit of this Jalapeno Cranberry Chutney The Chutney is amazing with turkey, chicken and fish. It makes a flavor packed sauce that is one of my personal favorites.

I also really like to mix it with this Simply Scrumptious Ginger Marmalade when we have fish and rice or another lower fat protein that just needs a little something.

 

I love all of the health benefits of fresh cranberries. They are super easy to freeze and keep a stock of them all year. Because I buy a few bags at time when they are in season it helps to save us money throughout the year and for me to keep recipes like these in our menu rotation often.

Adding jalapeno to this cranberry vinaigrette gives it a little extra kick which Rick really likes. I have made it with some other peppers and it really changes things up from the same old thing all the time.

Why I Combined Olive and MCT Oils

I really like the texture that extra virgin olive oil lends to this dressing, but I also love the health benefits of adding a bit of MCT oil to my salads to help kick in the metabolism (yep the jalapeno helps with that too!!) 

You can change it up and use grapeseed oil if you’d like a lighter dressing, but honestly because I use this with more than just salads I like the mix I am sharing with you today.

My Favorite Kitchen Gadget When I Make Salad Dressings

I love how versatile this mini chopper is. Rick blessed me with this a couple years ago and it has been one of my go to gadgets ever since. My vitamix 5200 also works but I only have the 64 oz container at this time so smaller batches are difficult.

 

How I Make Jalapeno Cranberry Vinaigrette