Tag Archives: vegan recipe

Recipe: Healthier Homemade Cranberry Sauce

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I grew up eating can shaped jellied cranberry sauce every Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s clear why many of us choose to continue eating this version. It’s sweetness and texture is like eating ultra sweet jelly with a slight hint of cranberry flavor. Another factor that’s possibly even more powerful is the nostalgic feeling and fond memories of childhood holidays that always included canned cranberry sauce.

Prominently on the ingredient list is sugar, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup. About a year ago I quit serving food to my family that had the last two ingredients. A quick search online will reveal why it’s not kind to our body to keep ingesting this stuff.

I have been making homemade cranberry sauce for at least 10 years or more. However, I had been using plain white sugar. In the last year, I have been eliminating white sugar from our diet. It’s not totally gone, but I’ve made great strides!

Here’s how I did it this year:

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Cup Organic Coconut Palm Sugar
1 Cup Water or Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
One 12 ounce Bag of Cranberries (preferably organic)

Directions:

Thoroughly rinse the cranberries of any debris
Add the sugar and water (or juice) in a medium sauce pan
Bring to a boil
Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes
Add the cranberries and simmer until the cranberries begin to pop (the absolute coolest thing!!)
Remove from heat, place in a beautiful serving bowl and let cool
Once cooled place in the fridge until ready to use
*It’s best to make this the day before you plan to eat it.

I don’t know if it was just that I was pleased with myself for not using white sugar or if the substitution really made a difference, but these cranberries tasted like the best I’d ever made. I even bought another package so I could make them again!!

I had a small bowl of Trader Joe’s French Vanilla ice cream with a spoonful of the cranberry sauce the night I made it. So GOOD! I’ve been eating the left over cranberry sauce in my oatmeal and on my toast (a spoonful at a time).

Coconut palm sugar has a glycemic rating of 35 and refined white sugar has a rating somewhere between 58-68.

If you like this recipe you may also like my Almond Cookie Recipe! Happy and Mindful Eating Y’all!

(To help support my blogging I will include an Amazon link to items I use or you will see google ads from time to time. I LOVE sharing my journey and choices with you and this just helps to keep me going!) 

Recipe: Almond Flour Cookies

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I’ve been making these gluten free almond flour cookies for over a year for our family and we LOVE them. Lillian is sensitive to gluten and lactose so she is on a gluten free diet and very low lactose diet. These are super easy to make and all three team members, Thomas, Lillian and Camilla, enjoy the taste and texture.

Classic Cookie (grain-free)

(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups almond flour – I use Trader Joe’s Just Almond Meal (1 lb) (amazon affiliate link)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil, softened – I use Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil (amazon affiliate link)
1/2 teaspoon gluten free vanilla extract
1/4 cup local honey or Grade B Maple Syrup or organic Agave Syrup
2 tablespoons Guar Gum or Arrowroot Powder (substitute for egg) or 1 whole egg (I’ve done this both ways. Just has a bit different texture depending on which you use. I was out of eggs one day and the kids wanted these cookies. Just happened to have some Guar Gum!!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚. In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, baking soda, guar gum (leave out guar gum if using an egg) and salt, and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the coconut oil, vanilla and maple syrup, (add the egg if not using guar gum) and mix well.

Add the wet mixture with the dry and mix well. If it seems to dry, experiment with adding a tablespoon or two of water or a dash of almond milk (My favorite is Trader Joe’s Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk). I play around with it each time I make this recipe so the cookies are never the same. They always taste good though!

**LOVE OFFERING** If you find this content helpful, I invite you to toss a tip in the love offering bowl. With oceans of gratitude … Camilla ….

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Drop about a tablespoon of batter onto a baking sheet sprayed with olive or coconut oil cooking spray (or use Silpat or parchmant paper). Bake at 350 for 10 or 15 minutes. Check the cookies at the halfway mark. I like to turn mine over at this time.

Allow em to cool and then pour yourself a big glass of almond milk and enjoy those babies!

This article is now part of my inventory in Recipes.