You know when you are trying to eat healthy, but when you go grocery shopping everything in every aisle is calling your name?  Loudly?  Speaking to in kind tones telling just one won’t hurt you.  That the calories don’t matter, the carbs are nominal, the fat non-existent, the sugar minimal.  Yep, my good intentions are taking a beating.  Here is my try for making this stick.  Cinnamon Bread Muffins and Homemade Berry Jam.

I knew I needed to make something carbish, because I hadn’t had any in awhile and they were calling to me.  Everywhere I was.  I went Pinteresting, looking for an easy vegan bread recipe and found it at Ria Lives Well‘s Everyday Vegan Bread.  So easy, but of course I had to add my own twist.  I wanted to make it fun and flavorful, so I could really enjoy it and then not have to worry about wanting more later.  This recipe was easy to manipulate, and not time consuming at all like a normal homemade yeast bread recipe.  I added cinnamon to the recipe and used no-cal sweetener, and then just for fun I baked them in the muffin tin with pretty muffin liners.

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The jam was more intimidating.  I had bought pectin a couple months back with good intentions to make homemade jam but with fruit prices a little to high for my budget and too intimidated to really think about it I put it off.  Well I got some frozen fruit that needed to be used, two bags of blueberries and one of strawberries, and decided why not try jam with that?  No law against using frozen / defrosted fruit right?

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So that’s what I used.  I also spiced it up with some cinnamon and ginger and used the trusty ole no-cal sweetener.  Following the directions on the pectin container made this really easy.  Bring fruit, spices and pectin to a rolling boil stirring constantly then adding the sugar substitute and bring back to a boil.  Take off burner and mash fruit, then pour into container.  It then said to let sit for about 30 minutes.

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Well mine didn’t set up right away so I got seriously nervous that I was just going to have berry syrup.  I didn’t have cool jars to put my jelly in, just Tupperware, so it sat for about an hour while the bread was rising.  Then it was still super hot, so I just put it in the fridge and it finally set up after a few hours.  A little runny at the bottom, maybe a little extra pectin?  But it tastes amazing and I made jam!!!

Cinnamon Bread, 16 servings

2 C Flour
1 Tsp Salt
2 Tbsp No-Calorie Sweetener
1 Pkt Yeast
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
7 Oz Water

1.  In medium bowl add flour, salt, sugar of choice, yeast and cinnamon.  Stir together then add water and oil.  Mix well with a spoon.

2.  On floured surface knead dough for 15 minutes.  Will need extra flour while needing.  Put dough back in bowl that was sprayed with Pam, and cover for one hour.

3.  After one hour, punch down dough to get out extra air.  Portion into muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Done.

Homemade Berry Jam

2 Pkg Frozen Blueberries, thawed
1 Pkg Frozen Whole Strawberries, thawed
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp Vanilla Bean Paste
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Ginger
1/2 C No-Cal Sweetener
1 1/2 Pectin

1.  Pour berries, lemon juice, vanilla bean paste, spices and pectin into pot.  Turn on to boil and stir, stir, stir.

2.  When rolling boil hits add sugar and stir another minute.

3.  Take off burner and mash with potato masher.  Pour into containers then let set / cool.  (Refrigerate if necessary)

4.  Enjoy!