Orange and Cranberry Almonds

I’ve been working really hard lately to make good exercise and eating choices, and it has not been easy. The medication I’m on will give me days where I want to eat anything that crosses my eye-line, so I had to come up with a snack that was at least a little bit healthy and tasted like something besides carrots and celery.

For my birthday my friend Pela Via sent me a whole bunch of goodies, but one of them was this delicious nut blend from Harry & David. After polishing off the whole bag in one sitting, and forcing myself to not lick the bag clean, I thought I might want to try my hand at a recipe.

Orange and Cranberry Almonds

2 C raw almonds
1 C orange juice concentrate
1/2 C water
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 C dried cranberries

In a warm skillet, toss the almonds until they release their aroma. Transfer to another dish. Add orange juice, water, sugar and salt to the skillet and let melt together. Return the almonds to the pan, and add cranberries. Continuously toss the nuts in the sugar mixture, evenly coating the nuts but also ensuring they don’t burn. Once all the liquid has evaporated, remove the skillet from the heat, and transfer the nuts to a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake in the oven at a very low temp – 250 is good, but lower if your oven can – for around 45 minutes. Check frequently to make sure the sugar isn’t burning, but you want the glaze to dehydrate onto the nuts so they lose their stickiness while retaining the orange flavor.

I’ve made a few batches of these already. I just get the big bag of almonds and a big bag of cranberries from Costco, make up a whole bunch at once, and then keep it in a jar on my kitchen counter, waiting for me to grab a few whenever I need a little something.