Cranberry Jello Salad

Do you ever taste something and it takes you right back to a specific time and place from the past? Food and scents always do that to me.

One of the staples that has been on the Thanksgiving Day table is my mom's Cranberry Salad. Everyone expects it to be there and they always gobble hahaha it right up! Really, it is just a simple jello salad with lots of fresh fruit and tart cranberries inside.

For years I would watch my mom make it and I couldn't wait to have a spoonful on my plate next to my turkey. It's a tradition that I always look forward to and I totally use this in place of cranberry sauce.

Lately I've been craving comfort food, I'm sure it's all this crazy fall weather and cooler temperatures that's doing it to me, so I decided to make some creamy chicken and wild rice soup and make this yummy cranberry jello salad.

It doesn't take many ingredients just a little bit of time to chop up the fruit and let the jello set up. Thank goodness I have some amazing kitchen products from Pampered Chef that made this process a whole lot faster.

My cousin Kristina is a Pampered Chef consultant and I love that the products are great quality and have such great warranties, plus she always has the latest and greatest things from them. If you want you can check out the products here.

Here's what you'll need...

Here's how to do it...

Rinse cranberries and add them to a food processor and grind them up. *I LOVE this manual one from PC.

Peel, segment, and finely dice an orange. *I use these flexible cutting boards all the time.

Core an apple and chop it into small pieces. *The kitchen knives are the bomb, seriously now I know what it's like to have nice knives!

Add the cranberries, orange, apple and sugar to a medium glass bowl and mix together. Leave it out on the counter for an hour and let the sugar dissolve and juice form. 

Drain the crushed pineapple while the salad is sitting for an hour, and then stir it to the salad. *The silicone scraper is the perfect tool for this!

Bring the water to a boil and add the Jello. Stir for a minute or two until the Jello is dissolved. Add the Jello to the fruit, stir, cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. I make this a couple days ahead of time and it's perfect and it's one less thing to make the day of Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz fresh cranberries
• 1 large orange
• 1 large apple
• 4 oz crushed pineapple
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 small box cherry Jello

Directions:

1. Rinse cranberries and add them to a food processor and grind them up.
2. Peel, segment, and finely dice an orange.
3. Core an apple and chop it into small pieces. 
4. Add the cranberries, orange, apple and sugar to a medium glass bowl and mix together. 
5. Leave it out on the counter for an hour and let the sugar dissolve and juice form. 
6. Drain the crushed pineapple while the salad is sitting for an hour, and then stir it to the salad.
7. Bring the water to a boil, remove from the heat, and add the Jello. 
8. Stir for a minute or two or until the Jello is dissolved  
9. Add the Jello to the fruit, stir, cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, best if set overnight.

This can be doubled to make a large salad and it can be kept in the fridge for 10 days.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you have a sweet and happy day :)