Healthier Holiday Substitutions: Cranberry Sauce and Gravy

These are both pretty traditional fixin's. They are both really easy to make from scratch, but many people choose to buy cranberry sauce in a can (a BPA plastic lined can with copious amounts of glucose added!) and to sprinkle some chemical/MSG laden packet of "gravy spice mix" along with a ton of wheat flour into the turkey drippings for the gravy. Don't do it!

These are 2 of the easiest things to make quite healthy and natural. This is how I do mine:

Cranberry Sauce:
Add 1 cup of unsweetened natural orange juice and a pack or two of fresh cranberries to a pot on the stove. Bring to a low boil for a minute or two, then turn down and let simmer for about 10-15 mins until all of the cranberries are popped and it looks juicy. Let it cool, then put it in the fridge. Done!

Gravy:
I'm going to try a new one this year (I'll let you know how it goes over tomorrow :) I cooked up a bunch of onion and garlic tonight and put it in the fridge for tomorrow. I will be taking all of the turkey drippings (fat included - unlike traditionally where you would strain it then add the flour to thicken), then add some of the cooked onions/garlic, a bit of chicken stock, as well as some thyme and rosemary and then blend it all up in my HealthMaster Blender (I can use a high speed and the contents get hot!). I know it wont be as thick as flour gravy but I prefer to skip the gluten. I have read you can also add a bit of arrowroot powder, but I didn't get around to getting any - so this will have to do! It sounds like the flavour will be nice :)