Cranberry Archives | Strength and Sunshine

Gluten-Free Vegan Cranberry Bliss Bars {Squares!} (Allergy-Free)

November 21, 2018 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 49 Comments

An easy homemade copycat recipe for the classic seasonal Starbucks treat! Gluten-Free Vegan Cranberry Bliss Bars that are allergy-free, perfectly baked blondie cake squares, loaded with dried cranberries, vanilla, citrus, and dairy-free white chocolate drizzle!

Caveat, no, I’ve never had a Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar and initially, I had zero intention of these cranberry bliss “squares” to even be a copycat recipe. Alas, when all was said and done, that’s what came out of the Strength and Sunshine oven. Cranberry and white chocolate is such an iconic holiday combo; the perfect tart and sweet balance and just begging to be included on the holiday dessert table in some form or another!Read More

Cranberry Sauce Quick Bread

November 28, 2016 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 125 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!Read More

Raw Winter Kasha Porridge

November 16, 2016 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 80 Comments

A cozy Raw Winter Kasha Porridge for when you’re looking for some wholesome nourishment to start your day! With seasonal flavors and homemade cranberry sauce, this gluten-free, vegan, and allergy-free breakfast is sure to be a new favorite!

I told you that you’d be seeing the Roasted Apple & Cranberry Sauce in action! What better way to use it the next morning than in some breakfast porridge! Some raw winter kasha porridge to be exact! It’s gluten-free, allergy-free, vegan, and of course, RAW! No cooking! I have always been intrigued by the “raw porridge” phenomenon that all the hardcore vegan/raw dieters do, so why not give it a shot!Read More

Roasted Apple & Cranberry Sauce

November 14, 2016 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 116 Comments

Not your average cranberry sauce! A beautifully Roasted Apple & Cranberry Sauce is a perfect topping to any holiday meal from breakfast, dinner, to dessert! Gluten-free, vegan, paleo, allergy-free, and naturally sweet, it’s everything you love about the season in a new healthy way!

It worked! I was so determined to make a good cranberry sauce this year and now I finally won! My first attempt at homemade cranberry sauce was 6 years ago and it was a disaster. Okay, not a total disaster, but I remember it being so sour and barely palatable. It turned me off to cranberries once again. After that occurrence, I just kind of gave up and never tried again…until now. Here we are, 6 years later, with a lovely sauce that I am proud and pleased to finally share!Read More

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

October 26, 2016 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 94 Comments

One of the easiest cold weather weeknight dinner recipes you can make! Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken that’s gluten-free, allergy-free, and paleo! Just 3 ingredients in the crockpot and you’ll have a family with happy healthy bellies at dinnertime!

If you don’t know how to or you hate to cook (shame!), but you still have mouths to feed and you care about your health, then the slow cooker is YOUR lifesaver! I didn’t bring a slow cooker down to school with me, but the oven if just fine! However, all you lucky ducks in fully equipped homes and kitchens, I better see a slow cooker on your kitchen counter weekly this winter!

Slow cookers take zero skill to use. Just dump and GO! Then a few hours later, magically out comes some intensely flavor-infused nourishment! For this recipe, I chose to use New Jersey’s famous cranberries for just the perfect cold weather dinner. Cranberries = November and December for me. The last few years I’ve been buying some extra bags of fresh cranberries and storing them in the freezer for later in the year and for meals like this!

But let’s back up here. You know I never give you all a recipe without some sort of backstory to either the dish or a specific ingredient. For this one, we’re going to be talking about the cranberry and my love/hate journey with it. For the longest time, as a wee young girl, the 3 foods I HATED were mushrooms, stuffing, and cranberries (in any form). From cranberry jelly to cranberry juice, I hated everything about them. So sour and “icky” tasting.

My brother LOVED the canned cranberry jelly you’d serve at Thanksgiving or with any big turkey/chicken dinner. He also loved cranberry juice (cocktail..so actually just sugar). He used to snack on bags of craisins too, I’d rather stick to raisins. My o my, do we all know that most childhood tastes change with time. Seeing that I love mushrooms and stuffing…and am rather fond of some fancy cranberry creations. I’m not sure when the switch happened, but I started loving snacking on craisins and drinking 100% cranberry juice with a splash of seltzer for my own little fruity bubbly cocktail.

I never grew up having anything with fresh cranberries until I started cooking for myself. The one thing I still can’t get myself to accept is that damn canned cranberry jelly (I mean….it comes out in the shape of the can!) Thankfully, I don’t eat that kind of nonsense anyway 😉 I did try to make my own cranberry sauce many years ago and it was terrible! So sour….I plan on trying again, hopefully, this year! Until then, I’ll just throw in some chicken breasts, fresh cranberries, and cranberry juice into the slow cooker and let it do its cranberry magic!

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

Slow Cooker Cranberry Chicken

Author: Rebecca Pytell
Cook Time: 6 hours
Total Time: 6 hours
Yield: 4 1x
Category: Main
Cuisine: American

Scale

Ingredients

4 Large Skinless Chicken Breats
2 Cups 100% Cranberry Juice
4 Cups Fresh Whole Cranberries
1/2 Tso Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Onion Powder

Instructions

In a slow cooker or crockpot, layer in the chicken breasts, cranberry juice, cranberries, and spices.
Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1

So easy, so delicious, perfect leftover, and yes, even more amazing with some of that ketchup 😉 If you’re like me and only eat chicken, Thanksgiving is usually vegan or I’ll make some chicken for myself. This chicken recipe would be rather perfect for that! And even if you’re still weary about cranberries, this slow cooker cranberry chicken may just change your mind! So deep and rich with a lovely semi-sweet cranberry flavor. Chicken + fruit + slow cooker = perfection everytime! Trust me!

So tell me:

+ Cranberry fan or hater?

+ What was one food you HATED growing up?

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