I recently found out that I was the lucky one to get diagnosed with diabetes.
(of course I am being facetious as no one who gets diabetes is very pleased about it.) Anyway, I have been on a quest to figure out how to handle this with diet, and going without sugar is relatively a difficult adjustment as sugar is pretty much contained in about everything that we eat. So.... I have started to experiment up some of my favorite recipes of the past, making changes to them using no sugar or sugar substitute, and No fat or fat substitutes such as applesauce, and fruit sauces. Anyway, this is what I came up with for a jam or fruity syrup for pancakes, waffles or PBJ sandwiches or whatever. I wanted to see if I could double the recipe for keeping production time to a minimum, so I tried it and it turned out wonderful. The apple juice makes such a delicious contribution to the flavor. I had frozen berries on hand, but I will be making some with fresh as the harvesting of fresh picked berries is so plentiful right now. I will be freezing it up to last all winter. If I run out of fresh frozen jam, I can just make up some more with frozen berries, if I can find the right pectin. My thoughts are to keep some pectin on hand so during the winter you can do just that. The particular type of pectin I used, I don't seem to be able to find during the winter months, so stock up! Make a small jar for your sisters you teach and take it over to them. Also this would make a great Christmas neighbor gift, as it is red and we all know what the color of Christmas is!!
All you need is the jam that has been made up and put into small freezer sixed containers, fabric rounds that are about 2 inches larger than the diameter of the lid, black stretchy elastic bands that would normally be used to put in your hair, and a cute ribbon to tie to the elastic for an added touch of cuteness.
!
Oh and you should definately copy the cute tag template and attach it with twine. I should tell you too that I have given away several of this jams and people have loved it. If you don't want to tell them it is sugarfree, don't. When they ask you for the recipe, direct them to this blog and then they will find out. This jam tastes so fresh and not too sweet, but just right! Enjoy and let me know what you think of this recipe. Love, Katie G. 
P.S. Since I printed up and customized a gift tag for this jam recipe, I thought I would share it with you. You can find a page of these tags as well as a customized page for this Freezer Jam Recipe from "Your Visiting Teachers", for printing at http://visitingteachingsurprisedocuments.blogspot.com/2009/09/blank-gift-tags-and-one-printed-for.html The original gift tag can be founnd at http://alenkasprintables.com/freeprintables/blanktemp/gift_tag.png
