Help!! In search of berry simple recipes

I got a call this week from a friend asking if I wanted her to pick us up some blueberries. Seems a local church had a farmer bringing a truckload of the tasty fruit in yesterday morning. They were selling these juicy gems by the gallon bag, at a dollar a pound no less. I said sure, we'll take a couple of bags.

I picked plenty of blueberries as a child and frequently buy those little tubs sold at the local market for about $4 a pack, but I can not say I have ever purchased - much less used 2 lbs of blue berries at a one time.

This is where my husband reminds me "You don't get out much, do you?"

After bringing home our eight dollars of berry's, it just seems wrong to freeze them all, so I suggested we pull several cookbooks from the shelf and find some more varied uses for our berries.

The first thing out of Kyra's mouth was "Pie, let's make blueberry pie".

First off folks...as a rule...I am not a pie baker. Me and crust just can't seem to get together. While I can be quite flaky at times, my crust...not so much.

There are many things I enjoy doing but pie baking is not at the top of that list....truth be told, not ON the list. I leave pure pie baking to those more gifted than I...folks like my niece Dorothy for one.

Take a look at what she can do with fresh apples!

This is from scratch y'all, nothing pre-made here.

Secondly, let me say as recently as a month ago Kyra turned her nose up at the offering of blueberry muffins and announced she that while she use to enjoy them...back when she was 5, since turning 6 her taste had changed and she really is not so fond of blueberries anymore.

So the 'let's make pie' comment surprised me, until I recalled our pie making experiences throughout the years. The child does not realize baking homemade pie usually doesn't involve pulling the crust from the freezer - thank you Madame Pillsbury and company.

It took the girl 3 years to eat all the parts of a pumpkin pie: whipped topping at 2, topping and filling at 3 and topping to crust by age 4. For my baby grand, pie is an acquired taste.

As usual, I digress.

So, after perusing cookbooks and the Internet at large we have become sufficiently inspired to create some new fresh and tasty treats, living beyond our usual smoothies and cereal topping.

Daring uh?

Georgia Jan make preserves look so simple and my grandmother would be sooo proud! That has become a possibility, we're thinking with Splenda??? Trying to keep Mr. B from going into insulin shock don't you know.

Anyway, wish us luck and if you have an berry simple recipes sugar free or not please drop us a line or send us a link, we would love to hear from you!