Day three in my 7 Days of Thanksgiving! Like most people, I grew up always having cranberry sauce as a component of my Thanksgiving feasts, however at the end of every meal only a few spoonfuls were ever missing, usually eaten by my grandparents. I, too, am guilty of neglecting this berry dish, mainly because of the overpowering tartness of store-bought sauce. I decided I would research and find a recipe that sounded sweet and delicious, and being that cranberries are the main ingredient I wanted to stick to a recipe that would yield zero points. However, I couldn't find any one recipe that featured all of the flavors I was hoping to capture. So, I plucked bits and pieces of different recipes and plugged them all together into one that seemed fresh, light, and perfectly suited for a holiday spread. Instead of cooking the cranberries in water (as most recipes suggested) I decided to use orange juice instead, which adds orange undertones to the final product to accompany the orange zest. Wanting to add some additional sweetness without using any more sugar or sugar-substitutes, I threw in some diced apples and I also decided to add in some spices to give the recipe a little more depth and inch the dish closer to the taste of a dessert.

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups (12 ounces) cranberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 cup Minute Maid Light Orange Juice
• 1 cup Splenda or other zero-calorie sweetener
• 1 diced apple
• 2 tbsp orange zest, divided
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg

Instructions:

• Combine the orange juice and Splenda in a medium saucepan over high heat.
• Stir until Splenda is dissolved.
• When the liquid comes to a boil, add the cranberries and return to boil.
• Add in diced apples.
• Reduce to a simmer until cranberries burst and sauce begins to thicken, about 10 minutes.
• Stir in 1½ tbsp orange zest, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg while the mixture cools.
• Top off with a garnish of the remaining ½ tbsp orange zest and serve warm.

Notes:

• Make sure you leave a tiny amount of whole cranberries that do not break down.
• When using orange juice, the points value is still 0 per serving, but 1 point for the entire recipe.
• Makes about 2 cups of cranberry sauce; 8 ¼ cup servings.

Servings: 8 servings

WW+ Points: 0 per serving

Recipe Credit: My Recipe