cutting back on sugars

[veggiemom22]

Does anyone here ever make there own applesauce, jelly, or peanut butter? I've noticed that these all have corn syrup as one of the main ingredients, so if anyone knows how to make them from scratch without the added sugars I'd really like to know. Thanks!:)

[Erin Pavlina]

I use natural peanut butter like Laura Scudders or Amaratha. Just peanuts and salt there.

For jelly I buy the all fruit kind.

I also buy applesauce from Whole Foods. Just apples in there.

Where are you shopping? ;)

[veggiemom22]

I usually go to either the co-op in town or the large grocery store that's about a half hour away. I've noticed the healthier brands of things like peanut butter are alot more expensive which is one reason why I would like to just make them myself.

[PikkuMyy]

If you can get to a whole foods, their PB brand (it's called 365) is the same price as a corn syrup kind,.

WOW! The number of typos I had to correct because I'm trying to type while eating a popsicle!

[veggiemom22]

I live in Minnesota and the nearest (and only) Whole Foods is in the Twin Cities, which is over an hour away from where I am.

I just made some blackberry jam for my son. I read something that said blackberries are high in...iron I think, so I bought two bags of them but, he wouldn't touch 'em plain. So I just put them in the food processor, along with some raisins, and I'll be sneaking it into his next PB sandwich;)

[Ckflew]

It's pretty easy to make applesauce, particularly if you invest in a Food Mill or a Food Strainer.

Quarter and core a bunch of applies of your choice. Peel if you like, but the food mill and food strainer will take them out for you later. Dump them in a large pot, and add water until you can just see the water through the apples. Boil until mushy. Process through the food mill/strainer to remove peels. Then, freeze or can. (Frozen applesauce is a great summer treat.) If you get sweet apples (Jonathan or MacIntosh), you don't have to add any sugar at all. Keep in mind that the peels will give your applesauce a slightly pink color and not the pale tan/yellow you get at the grocery store.

Something like this food strainer http://www.kitchenemporium.com/cgi-bin/kitchen/prod/18vw200.html works well for separating the peels from the applesauce. This is the food mill http://shop.bakerscatalogue.com/detail.jsp?id=7074&pv=1085405552876. I have the food mill, but wish I had the strainer!

Colleen

[vegma]

Veggiemom, I live 45 min from Wild Oats and 50 min from Whole Foods. After much resistance, I finally gave up and decided the drive was worth the healthier/organic food:confused: I hope! In any case, I have read that if you have a high-quality blender (I don't!), you can make your own peanut butter, almond butter, etc. by just grinding up the nuts. No need to add oil, just keep grinding until it reaches the consistency you want.

Side note: No need for a sales pitch, Erin - I'm already considering a Vita Mix:p How's it do with nut butters?

[xmysticprincessx]

If you're too busy to make everything from scratch, how about the next time you just happen to be near the Twin Cities to pick up everything you would need in bulk? The health food store here isnt too far from me, but with my schedule and their business hours, I have a hard time getting there. When I do go, I get multiples of things and get weird looks fron the cashiers who wonder why I like Vegan Parmisian cheese so much...

[Erin Pavlina]

I dont' think I've made a nut butter in teh vitamix. Can't remember. Too busy making smoothies I guess. ;)

[Jenica]

I can my own jams and jellies every summer, but I do use sugar in mine. I *think* you need a certain amount of sweetener to make traditional jellies since the pectin requires sugar and acid to work. Pectin is what makes jellies and many jams "set" or firm up. If you don't use sweetener I think you get what is considered more of a fruit spread than a jam or jelly. These are still very good, but not going to be like what you're used to eating from the store.

If you're going to try making low-sugar jams I would recommend using slightly less ripe fruit as it tends to have more pectin and will set up better on its own with less sugar. Also, if you use berries like blackberries, leave the inner core in and just cook them down (which you have to do anyway to make most jams.) The cores are very high in pectin.

I would not recommend trying to make sugarless jellies since jellies usually need quite a bit of pectin to set. Also, you will want to quickly eat any sugarless or extremely low-sugar preparations that you make; once they are opened their shelf life is much much shorter than sugared jellies.

I have a terrible sweet tooth myself and I could just about live on strawberry jam, apple butter, and homemade bread. Good luck to you in reducing the sugars in your diet and you have all my admiration for doing so. :)

[jmksesholtz]

Well my nearest supermarket sells freshly ground peanut butter. Which you can also do yourself by putting unsalted peanuts in a food grinder and grind until smooth.

With applesauce, wholefoods 365 sells unsweetened all natural no ingredients added applesauce, or you can steam the peeled apples, so you retained most of the vitamins and then puree in a blender.

[annie7]

I don't know where everyone else here is from, but in my area alot of *homemade* nut and fruit butters are Amish...and the Amish nut butters (a lot of times) contain marshmallow fluff. So read that label before you assume it's nuts only!

[vegma]

I tried making peanut butter in my food processor - YUM! Organic roasted unsalted peanuts - nothing else! Warm and creamy:)

BTW, for those of you that shop at Whole Foods, watch out for their "For Kids" products - they tend to add sugar to those:confused:

[annie7]

I tried a crockpot recipe for applesauce once. It wasn't bad. I usually make my own jams. I use a turbinado sugar mix.

[duckie1978]

vegma--I will never get over the idea that to make a food product more "kid friendly" companies have to add sugar to it. WHY??? It is so ridiculus. Train them from an early age to eat sugary foods and they will forever! Get them to eat low sugar and naturally sweet foods like fruit and that is what they will eat.

I used to only eat Peter Pan Reduced Fat PB, but decided that I wanted to get away from all that. I buy natural PB now and would never go back. I can't believe how much added sugar used to be in my diet. It is everywhere!

[xmysticprincessx]

I just bought some "Peanut Better." Its organic and comes in a few different flavors. The one I tried today was Cranberry Vanilla and that was pretty good. It does have sugar in there, but I dont think there is too much. I also bought a chocolate one which I sampled at the grocery store a couple months ago.

[alexis]

Umm, question: What is marshmallow fluff doing in peanut butter? Much less an Amish peanut butter? I thought the Amish weren't into commercialized stuff?

But seriously, I'm actively screening EVERYTHING I eat for sugar. My dad was diagnosed 'boderline diabetic' on my birthday, so God only knows if the rest of the family is diabetic too or not. Worse yet. Kidney failure. Scary. I now avoid everything that obviously has huge quantities of sodium and sugar in it. I mean, for example, did you know that one sachet of sugar that comes with your coffee contains not one but TWO teaspoons of sugar? After finding out about that, I started using half a sachet instead of my usual two.

[annie7]

Originally posted by alexis
Umm, question: What is marshmallow fluff doing in peanut butter? Much less an Amish peanut butter? I thought the Amish weren't into commercialized stuff?

Tourism is a big thing in Amish country. Don't let the "plain ways" fool ya! They have their own stores dedicated to marking up prices exhorbitantly because it has a "home-spun" label. A quilt for a hundred bucks can sell to a tourist for $800.00 easily. Food products too.

[alexis]

Oh. Ok. There's goes one more illusion. Heh. ;)

[duckie1978]

Alexis, don't stress about the posibility of becoming diabetic. Every person in my mother's family has diabetes and all of them are Type II (what used to be called age onset). I have asked about the chance that I could develop it and the doctors have all said not to worry. My mom two years ago found out that she is diabetic and had to make major lifestyle changes, but if your doctor hasn't seen a problem yet, don't stress out. I am not trying to discount the seriousness of diabetes, I have seen what happens if you don't take care of yourself. My grandfather slowly lost his eye sight and feeling in his legs. He actually developed a nasty abcess and ended up losing a toe because of it. However, if you make sure you don't get excessive amounts of sugar and are healthy in other areas (exercising and all that) then you should help counter any genetic likelihood of getting it. That is what I am hoping. There is no way I am taking shots or pills for the rest of my life!

[alexis]

I stress about getting seriously ill. That's because I'm a needle phobe who needs therapy but can't get it. :rolleyes: But seriously, sugar can be a terrible thing. One of my classmates had a can of coke before a lecture and sat in the lecture theatre giggling away for the length of the entire lecture. ;) That was REALLY funny.

[veganfusion]

Our 9 yr old son, has been trying out some of the Healthy Sweets & Treats from this site as a home school project.

Healthy Sweets and Treats (http://www.veganfusion.com/recipes.htm)