Part of my quest toward being healthy is eating less processed foods. After doing research, I’ve realized how difficult this can be at times…especially when it comes to kid-friendly stuff.
Since the toddler is a huge fan of PB&J’s, I’ve been on the quest to make it a tad healthier and with less sugar. Since many jams contain high fructose corn syrup, I realized my options at the store were limited, so I starting researching how to make my own when I saw strawberries were on sale for $1.
While checking Pinterest, I came across some great freezer jam recipes. While I do plan to try some of those soon, I thought I’d stick with trying this simple recipe to make my own…except I didn’t have the lemon zest and didn’t want to use as much sugar as it called for. So, in the end, I ended up making up my own recipe. And it turned out great!
Since there is no pectin – a preservative – it will only last about 2 weeks in the fridge. That’s fine by me since that’s about how fast we eat it.
Ingredients:
1 pound of strawberries, sliced
1/4 cup of sugar (you may use more if you’d like it sweeter)
1/4 cup of water
Directions:
Put the sliced strawberries into a saucepan with the water and sugar. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until jam thickens and reduces. Use a potato masher (or in my case a meat tenderizer!) to break up the big chunks of strawberry while it’s cooking.
Then, simply pour jam into a jar (I used a recycled jam jar) and cool and store in the fridge for up to two weeks.
What’s great is the toddler didn’t even notice a difference…and frankly, neither did I. Plus, who can beat jam that cost me $1 and is pretty darn natural? I can’t wait to experiment with other berries!
What do you make from scratch that you love?
I’ve been making my own jam for a few years and it’s wonderful! I grow my own blackberries, strawberries, and rhubarb and all make wonderful jam! I even give it as gifts as I usually get enough berries to make about 20+ pints a year (more than we can eat). I do use pectin, though – it’s actually a natural product made from apples and not bad from you (it’s found naturally in all fruits). I use a low sugar recipe too and am always much happier. Another great “natural” product is homemade yogurt – which is not as scary to make as it can sound. Lauren loves it even plain (with no sugar or fruit)! It’s a great “dessert” option that I can feel good about giving her!
Thanks so much for chiming in, Stephanie! I know pectin isn’t bad per-say, just figured it’s easier I don’t need it for this…but for canning, I know it’s a great thing.
You have me intrigued about making yogurt…Totally going to look into it. You amaze me that you can work and do all of this. You’re a super mom 😉
I’ll have to try this next time I see strawberries on sale! Sounds great. I try to avoid jams with high fructose corn syrup, and it’s expensive to buy the healthier stuff.
I like making pizza from scratch. I use a recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook, and it is really really good.
Pizza from scratch is one of my goals too! I’m currently working on perfecting my bread making skills. It’s not as brainless as it looks!
Awesome! We’ve been getting the low-sugar jam at Aldi, but now I’ll whip up a batch. We have 15 lbs of berries to use up from last week’s sale! Most are in the freezer already, but we eat about a pound a day so I have quite a few taking up our fridge. Thank you lady!
So smart to have stocked up on berries…wish I would’ve thought to do that. D’oh!
Applesauce! I have been making it and canning it like crazy the last few weeks so I have enough to get us through to next fall and I’m hoping to give some away as gifts during the holidays. You make the applesauce in the crockpot. Let me know if you want the recipe.
Yum! I would love the recipe! Send it to me on Facebook 🙂
I love homemade jam! And strawberry is the absolute best followed up by strawberry rhubarb.
I’ve never made it without pectin though so I’ll have to give it a try! Most of what I’ve made is freezer jam or stewed tomatoes/sauce that I freeze as well. I did do canned applesauce once… that is a lot of work!