Cranberry Sauce Quick Bread

November 28, 2016 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 135 Comments

Use up your favorite holiday sauce in this healthy quick bread recipe! This Cranberry Sauce Quick Bread uses homemade cranberry sauce and is gluten-free, vegan, allergy-free and perfect for breakfast, brunch, a snack, or dessert!

Surprise! This is the other homemade cranberry sauce in-action recipe I wanted to bake and share! I got the idea from my apple pie quick bread which uses my homemade slow cooker applesauce. My homemade roasted apple & cranberry sauce was just begging to be made into a fabulous quick bread as well! I was also hoping you’d have some leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving last week, and thus would be in need of a great healthy idea to use it all up!

I’m going to deviate from any food and recipe talk today, but all is well as I’m sure this will be much more interesting than chatting about the beautiful cranberry. So, my brother and I were texting one night a couple of weeks ago (I always forget how much I love talking with him for the heck of it.) This conversation actually wasn’t just for the heck of it and started with me having a breakdown over picking next semester’s classes (as usual). The best person to talk you down from that is your brother who’s been through it.

First of all, my brother is a pretty positive person. He’s still a realist like me, but he’s much better at allowing things to roll off his back of not eat away at him for too long. Maybe it’s just that he doesn’t voice his complaints, but he’s always so level-headed. While I’m freaking out that I couldn’t get permission for certain classes for my intended major, and ended up having to take some random “fluff” classes, I will be taking 2 hard(er) math centered classes. One is a mandatory stats class and another is personal finance. I’m terrible with math and numbers. Horrid, they scare me.

My brother, though, he “knows” I’ll be able to handle it. “Do the best you can”, “They’re only grades”, “You won’t get an F”, “You’re not dumb”, “You can problem solve”. The kind of phrases you need to hear while you’re in crisis mode in the middle of the night. Then we started talking about our futures. He thinks I should “keep building my brand online” and of course I tell him how hard it is with no support and boot-strapping everything on your own (while also being a full-time student with no money). He tells me to start a podcast, a YouTube channel, “to be creative and yes, dedicate all your time to it. But the most important thing is you have to enjoy it. If it becomes work then it won’t work. Yes, it’s very hard. Don’t have any expectations”.

Then came the tough love. I complained about my “numbers” and lacking skills, but he said, “Better than 0 or from scratch. Stop comparing yourself to others. You “suck” compared to what? Who cares about the numbers. The people with the most numbers don’t care about the numbers. The successful ones just do it because they love it. Work to be better, learn how to imporove. It’s a game, but part of the enjoyment should be the challenge. Switch it up and try something new.”

Isn’t he golden? He’s right. He doesn’t even know that those late night texts really helped me out that night and that I’ve been thinking about that quick conversation since. Everything you do or want to do can be seen as a game. If you don’t take things so “life or death” serious, but see it as a “game to be played”, a lot of the burdens, stress, comparison, pressure, starts to evaporate. When you see it as a “game to be played” you free yourself to start trying new things too. If you feel like you’re not “winning” and having fun, then try a new strategy, a new path, ask someone to “join the team”, but most importantly, remember that’s games are meant to be fun. The best thing about “this game” (i.e. life, blogging, a new idea/dream to pursue), is that it doesn’t end until you die. You can keep playing until you either give up and forfeit or…you die. No one else can “beat you” or “win”. This game is solo, like Solitaire. You are your own competition.

Are you going to forfeit or are you going to keep playing? Each small achievement is just another star added, another lesson learned that will help you develop an even better strategy and level up. The missteps that happen teach you what not to do and even if they bring you down a level, the next level will still be able to be unlocked. Just wait and try again until you can level back up and keep progressing further in the game. You keep trying until you defeat your enemies, the little roadblocks along the way. When you come to the “big bosses” to reach that next level, you better try your damn hardest to use everything you’ve learned, all the powers, and strength you have to beat him in one go!

Cranberry Sauce Quick Bread