We're Jammin'

I've been making an effort lately to try and be more conscious of the foods we consume alot of around here, and more importantly, the ingredients contained in those foods. I did some research on Red Dye #40 after a conversation with a friend in MOMs Club, and without getting on a soapbox, I'll just say that it probably will not hurt to eliminate it from our diets (some studies have shown that it increases aggressive behavior and attention deficit in kids who may be naturally sensitive to the dye). I realized that I was serving up a healthy dose of red dye to my kids at almost every meal of the day, and I figured that even if it poses no harm to my family, it isn't a necessary part of our diet and so it couldn't hurt to eliminate as much of it as possible. The kids all eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch just about every day, so strawberry jelly seemed like a natural place to start. When I read the label on the store bought jelly, I was surprised that it contained a whole host of ingredients that I didn't recognize, and, of course, Red Dye 40. I headed over to the natural foods section, but went into to sticker shock when I saw that a 6 oz jar of organic jelly was on sale for $6! Since I didn't want to take out a second mortgage to keep my family in jelly, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own jelly.

I did a bit of internet research on canning, and was tempted to buy a canning kit, but the whole boiling and sealing and possible bacteria contamination scared the bejeezus out of me (I'm still interested in giving it a whirl, so if any of you out there can, please comment with any tips, suggestions, etc. I'm hoping that next year's garden will be bigger and yield more produce so that I could at least can tomatoes and green beans for the winter). As luck would have it, the grocery had freezer jars and freezer pectin on sale, so with those supplies and a couple of pounds of fresh strawberries in hand, I gave freezer jam a try.

Casey was home from school and wanted to help me make the jam, so he became my co-pilot for this adventure. By far, the best part of the whole experience was when I handed him the big ziploc full of strawberries to crush with a rolling pin. He approached the bag of berries and announced, "Ha-ha strawberries! You're no match for me!" and proceeded to whack the hell out of them. The jam could have turned out crap and I would still have called it a success because I'm still laughing over that line. I used half Splenda in this recipe to reduce the sugar because I had read that using all Splenda could result in runny jam. We tossed in some blackberries from the freezer for a little extra flavor and color. When the jam had a chance to set up we tasted it and were pretty proud of ourselves. It is sweet but also a little tart, and we all seem to prefer the flavor and consistency of our jam over the store bought. Casey colored some labels, and when it was all said and done we had 5 jars of jam for just slightly more than the cost of one jar of organic from the store.



So one food from the dye list down, about 150 to go. I'm not foolish enough to think that I can control every single thing that goes into my kids' mouths or ensure that 100% of what we eat is totally healthy (nor would I want to - I'm pretty sure my system would go into shock if I cut out beer and chocolate and the kids might revolt if I took away their Goldfish crackers), but I feel better that I'm taking small steps to help us make some better choices. Plus, after Casey's destruction of the strawberries I'm kinda' anxious to see how he tackles tomatoes. I suspect they'll be no match for him either.