~BEST Homemade Healthy Fruit Jelly EVER!!~

So recently I wrote about high fructose corn syrup and how it is in EVERYTHING including most jellies. Before I found this recipe I was buying jelly from the farmers market and from Woodmans, a local store that carries Wisconsin based foods. The ingredients contained only real sugar, but now since starting my science based nutrition program I'm also trying to cut sugars where ever I can. So here is a great recipe for homemade jam.

You can always change the amounts to sweeten more or less, or to make more. I started out with a small batch but plan on making more. With three kids we do and will go through many PB &J's :)

Homemade Fruit Jelly

1cup frozen raspberries, or mixed berries or whatever berry you like
1-2 TBSP Honey
 2 tbsp of chia seeds

Either you can let your frozen fruit sit out for a few hours until its thawed and ready to be mashed or you can throw it in a pot and cook on low heat until it thawed and soft. I prefer to let it just sit out because then I'm not killing any nutrients by cooking it and you can say its a RAW food :)

Once fruit is thawed, use a fork and mash it up until its mostly chunk free, but a few fruity chunks are fine.

Add 1-2 TBSP of honey and mix. I would start with one TBSP and taste test. Then add to your liking.
Finally add 2 TBSP of chia seeds and mix. Wait about 5-10 minutes and the chia seeds will have expanded into gel like pieces which really makes this like Jelly.

Store in an cleaned used jelly jar. I used my store bought Jelly jar, and cleaned it out after i used it all and put my new Healthy Homemade Fruit Jelly in it.

Berries have tons of antioxidants, chia seeds are a great source of healthy fat and protein, and honey is a great natural sweetener. The vitamins present in honey are B6, thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and certain amino acids. The minerals found in honey include calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc. Honey also has a low glycemic index which is helpful to those with diabetes.

Here are some links on the nutrition of berries, chia seeds, and honey:

http://www.doctoroz.com/blog/lindsey-duncan-nd-cn/chia-ancient-super-secret
http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-nutrition.html
http://www.driscolls.com/nutrition-health/berry-nutrition-facts