I have a question. Back oh so many posts ago ya'll were talking about your diets and things you can or can't, do or don't eat. I would really like to get my family to the point of not having prossesed foods which will be a huge struggle for me with 5 kids. But right now I am wondering what in the world do ya'll drink? I have a son that has ADHD and other behaviral things we are helping him battle and I have found that all those dies in the drinks and food really affect him (as well as the other 4 kids). I have tried taking out all drinks that contain those dies but I can't find much to substitue. So I am really looking for ideas if ya'll have any.
Today I plan on trying to make my first batch of black berry jam. My cousin made some the other day and told me I need (besides the berries) sugar and stuff called Pectin. Those of you that make jams, do you use this Pectin stuff or no?
So I guess that was two questions lol.
I drink water, tea, milk, or plain juices. I can't take aspertame very well. Makes me feel like I have to go to the restroom constantly and gets painful.
It's very hard, and expensive, to find plain juices. Grape juice I make myself. I really don't like the taste of the ones in the stores. They taste wrong to me because I grew up with homemade grape juice made from concord and muscat grapes. We always cut it with water because it is just to strong.
Normally, I drink just water. Every now and then I'll have a pop, just because I get a craving (they never taste as good as I remember from childhood), but it is not a normal drink.
Tea is good to hide the taste of bad tasting water when we eat out. Most places have unsweetened, but we lived down south long enough that I like sweet tea, but not that horrid syrup that some places try and pass off as tea. It should just have enough sugar to taste sweet.
I cannot drink coffee, it gives me migraines. I believe the issue is the flavorings they add to it and the "creamers" because when I was in my military A school, I drank a lot of plain coffee with plain milk or real cream.
Crab apple jam/jelly shouldn't need pectin, but most jams and jellies do. I use the low/no sugar pectin so I don't have to add very much sugar. I like my jams to taste like the fruit, so I only add one cup of sugar per 4 cups of fruit usually. 2 teaspoons of lemon juice will make sure the acid is high enough and preserve color. It doesn't change the flavor of the jams at all.