"Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle"
That's the subtitle of Amy Dacyczyn's book The Complete Tightwad Gazette
. I love the subtitle because in my humble opinion, being thrifty is part of homemaking. I think I'd be bored to tears if I wasn't always working on some area of our finances.I wrote about the Pantry Principle back in December. I'll show you another reason to have a well stocked pantry.
Today, my son used the last bit of jelly for his lunch. Tomorrow he'll need another PB&J for his lunch. Unfortunately, my family has a really bad habit. They tell me they need something when they are completely out of whatever it is they need. Yeah, I'm not making a special trip to buy jelly.
Normally, I don't know if I'd worry about jelly because he could have it with just peanut butter or add some honey. However, I've been meaning to see if my frozen strawberries would work in the syrup recipe I have. The syrup recipe always ends up being more like jelly.
If I didn't have a well stocked pantry full of INGREDIENTS to make STUFF, then I wouldn't have been able to try this. The more things I learn how to make homemade, the fewer ingredients I need to stock in my pantry.
In my "pantry" I have frozen strawberries, lime juice as well as sugar.
If I can figure out how to make jelly/syrup then, I won't have to stock jelly in my pantry anymore. I'm happy to say that it worked!!!
I'm not sure that I'm saving any money - that's not always the point of using the pantry. I know what is in the jelly/syrup and it'll be easier for me.
Here's the recipe for jelly - I wish I could say where it came from, but I have no idea!
- 2 1/2 cups fruit (I've used frozen blueberries and strawberries)
- 3/4 c sugar (the jelly is really sweet - hoping to decrease this in the future)
- 1/2 c water
- 2 t lemon juice (I only had lime juice)
- Simmer all ingredients together for 12 minutes - so if I simmer less time would it be more "syrup-y"???
Put in a jelly jar, let cool, then refrigerate.
Check out the Grocery Cart Challenge for more frugal recipes!
Oh My Goodness! Genius! I never thought about doing this, but it would be perfect! I have a ton of fruit in my freezer that has turned into a big lump. I thought I would use it for smoothies in the winter, but my body doesn't want smoothies this time of year... DUH! Anyway, I need something to use them for and I loooooove me some jelly. Especially drizzled into home made yogurt as a snack/dessert or stuffing home made pop tarts! WIN!
ReplyDeleteJackie - I was thinking the same thing about yogurt! My family loves extra sweet yogurt so it'd be perfect for them.
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