Healthy Cranberry Sauce (No Refined Sugar)

Healthy Cranberry Sauce.  Usually when I think of cranberry sauce, I think of the high sugar, gelatinous brand that comes in the can.

This homemade cranberry sauce is as far from that as it can get.  This  healthy cranberry sauce recipe contains no refined sugars.  I love the tarty and tangy taste and I hope you will too.

 

Healthy Cranberry Sauce

This cranberry sauce recipe contains no processed sugars.  It’s also vegan and gluten free.  Another great thing about this recipe is that it can be frozen.

So you could make a large batch in the winter when cranberries are in season.  Then if you get a craving for some cranberry sauce in the summer, you can have it!   I hope you enjoy.

I used this homemade cranberry sauce as a filling in this muffin recipe too.  So delicious!  You can also use the leftovers to use in thumbprint cookies.

 

Healthy Cranberry Sauce

Healthy Cranberry Sauce

Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 10 min

Ingredients

  • 1 package cranberries
  • 1 cup diced pineapple
  • 1 T pineapple juice
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 1 – 2 tsp orange zest
  • 1 T maple syrup

Instructions

  1. In a magic bullet , blend the pineapple and 1 T pineapple juice until it becomes pureed. 
  2. In a medium saucepan, heat the orange juice, pureed pineapple mixture, orange zest and maple syrup. 
  3. Add the cranberries after a few minutes.
  4. Cook until the cranberries pop and breakdown. (about 10 minutes)
  5. Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl.  The mixture will thicken while it stands.  Serve immediately or refrigerate.  Enjoy!

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Recipe Notes

Refer to the images above to see the process of making them.

Gluten Free Corn Muffins (Vegan Too)

Gluten Free Corn Muffins.  This recipe for gluten free corn muffins is very old.  Originally, it was not gluten free.  I have revamped these corn muffins and made them gluten free as well as vegan.

I’m pretty pleased with the results of these gluten free corn muffins and I hope you are too.

 

gluten free corn muffins

 

This recipe is for a sweet cornbread, but if you like a more savory version, feel free to adapt this recipe.

Gluten Free Corn Muffins

Gluten Free Corn Muffins

Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 15 min Serves 5 large muffins     adjust servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven 350. 
  2. Mix all the wet ingredients in one medium bowl. 
  3. Mix dry into a large bowl. 
  4. Add the wet to dry and mix just enough to combine. 
  5. Pour batter into muffin pans.  I used jumbo muffin pans and got 5 out of my batch.  You would probably get 12 out of a standard sized muffin pan .
  6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. 
  7. Wait until completely cooled before removing from the pans.

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Simple Black Bean Burrito

Growing up in Texas, my husband is a huge fan of Mexican food.  He always gives me a hard time because I am such a wimp when is comes to spicy foods.  We just didn’t eat much spicy food in Boston.  So this dish is a compromise between the two of us.  I am sure my husband will drop a ton of hot sauce on his before eating. 🙂  Hope you like it.

Simple Black Bean Burrito

 

 

Simple Black Bean Burrito

Ingredients

  • 3 cups black beans
  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 1 yellow bell pepper chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper chopped
  • 1 orange bell pepper chopped
  • 1 cup sliced baby tomoatoes
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 1 small shallot diced
  • 2 large cloves of garlic
  • 4 green onion bases (the white part minus the root up until it begins to seperate)
  • 2-3 T light oil (I used safflower)
  • 1 T cumin
  • 2 tsp fajita seasoning
  • salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Cook the rice according to the instructions or in the rice cooker and set aside. 
  2. I only purchase dry beans, so they were soaked over night and then boiled and rinsed to soften before I started.
  3. In a large skillet, heat the oil under medium high eat. 
  4. Put the stalk part of the green onion in the oil and let it sit for about 30 seconds allowing the onion flavor to infuse in the oil.
  5. Next, add the pepper, shallots, and garlic and let cook for another 5 minutes. 
  6. Afterwards add the beans and spices and let cook for about 5 – 7 more minutes stirring often.
  7. Add the rice last, stir, and remove from heat. 
  8. Before serving, add the cold sliced tomatoes with the warm bean mixture.
  9. Wrap up in a whole grain tortilla and enjoy!

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Healthy Candied Yams

Thanksgiving it a time when we tend to blow our diets.  So I am trying to find healthy alternatives to those holiday staples.  Recently, I posted a recipe for my vegan green bean casserole.  Here now is my healthy candied yams. These healthy candied yams got the thumbs up from my non vegan in laws.  I hope you like it too.

Healthy Candied Yams

Before starting this recipe, I thought that sweet potatoes and yams were pretty much the same.  After doing some research, I found they are actually quite different.  Yams are much sweeter with a darker flesh than sweet potatoes.  That is probably why they work so well in this dish

I made this recipe with only one yam because I wasn’t sure how it would taste.  Feel free to double this.

Healthy Candied Yams

Healthy Candied Yams!

Prep Time 15 min Cook Time 30 min

Ingredients

  • 1 yam cubed
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 2 T maple syrup
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400. 
  2. Slice the yam into 1 inch cubes. 
  3. Throw them in a pot of boiling water for about 5-7 minutes until they are slightly underdone.
  4. Transfer then yams to a greased baking pan. (For this recipe I used an 8X8 glass dish) 
  5. In a measuring cup, mix the orange juice, 1T maple syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg. 
  6. Pour the mixture over the yams. 
  7. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. 
  8. For the last 2 minutes of cooking, pull the dish out and brush with the last T of maple syrup.  Enjoy!

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Vegetable Tempeh Mash

I have to confess, this dish was supposed to be tempeh veggie burgers, but I just could not get them to bind up.  So alas, the tempeh vegetable mash was born!  It is really tasty.  Sometimes you have to make a mistake to discover something wonderful. 🙂

I ate this dish as is, but it would go well into a whole wheat hot dog bun too.  Or, you could serve it over some rice or quinoa.

Vegetable Tempeh Mash

Vegetable Tempeh Mash

Prep Time 15 min Cook Time 20 min

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg tempeh
  • 1/4 -1/2 head green cabbage shredded
  • 1 large carrot shredded
  • 4-5 mushrooms diced
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 T toasted sesame oil
  • 2 T organic soy sauce (I used SanJ)
  • 1 T mirin
  • 1 tsp ume plum vinegar
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

Instructions

  1. In a large pan, cook the sesame oil, garlic, mushrooms and tempeh until the mushrooms are soft.
  2. After they are softened, add the cabbage and carrot.
  3. After the carrot and cabbage start to soften, add the soy sauce, mirin, ume vinegar and breadcrumbs.
  4. Cook until all flavors are blended. Plate and serve.

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