Jam

Mostly thawed frozen strawberries

Starting to melt

Almost done!

Finished product! About 13.5 pints!

I had a bag of frozen strawberries from Costco that had kind of frozen into a giant clump. So I decided to make jam. The 6# bag cost me $8.99, an 8 oz jar of Strawberry jam WITH additives like corn fiber, natural flavors, pear & grape juice concentrate, citric acid and pectin costs about $2.50 at the store. $33.75

I heated the strawberries, poking them with my Pam.pered Chef Mix n Chop (one of my best kitchen tools!), added about 1/4-1/2 cup coconut sugar & kept poking them until it all the big chunks were gone. I then dumped 5 packets of gelatin in, which was a rookie mistake, as I've used gelatin before. You're *supposed* to dissolve it in a separate bowl of warm water/something first, THEN add it to your dish. Oops. It got really clumpy and wasn't making the whole pot gelatinous. Immersion blender to the rescue! That was the best $4 I've ever spent at a thrift store! Then I poured it into jars and let cool on the counter for several hours and now they're in the fridge. If I'd been thinking ahead, I would have gotten freezer jars, so I could freeze them withoutu worry of the jar breaking. I might can them, but we'll see. If I can can them with a water bath canner, I probably will. 

This took me about 15 minutes total time and cost about $.81 per 8 oz (it was probably a little less, but I was generous in my estimations). That's a savings of $1.69/8 oz! Definitely worth my time and the gelatin mistake that was corrected easily enough!