Carefree and Sugar-free
For as much as I complain, or at least “make light” of gigantic feet, gigantic carpet stains of an organic nature, and gigantic traffic tickets, it’s a sweet life.
We had to leave for a few hours while two women cleaned our house.
We suffered through pedicures…
…and smoothies.
I kind of wanted to do my happy dance in Jamba Juice too. Something about Shakira and Gigi. It’s true: the hips, in fact, do not lie.
And when we got home, the burners and knobs from our stove had been removed and were being polished. Seriously. I almost cried.
We had to spend the afternoon staying out of the way in the backyard, sipping on juice boxes and searching for animals in the clouds.
It was difficult, as was making use of the flat of local blackberries gifted from our friends.
Sigh. Okay…I’ll take them off your hands, I guess.
Sugar-free Blackberry Jam
- 7 pints of blackberries
- 1 c. unsweetened fruit juice (apple, white grape, berry, etc.
- 1 pkg. sugar-free pectin
- 1 T. pure stevia extract
Rinse berries and place in a large stockpot.
Mash berries.
Take turns.
Add juice.
Bring mixture to a boil.
Add pectin gradually and continue to boil from 1-3 minutes.
Add stevia and stir well.
Allow mixture to cool slightly before transferring to storage containers.
Refrigerate or freeze until serving.
Slather on toast, oatmeal or ice cream.
Torture, I tell you.
And we now have to “suffer” through the weekend–a weekend with a photo shoot, a wedding and a dinner with friends.
Aside from the occasional need for stain removal, I can’t complain.
At least not today.
Perfect summer treat! So tasty and nutritious!!! Glad you are enjoying your summer!
I was eyeing the berries at the farmers’ market yesterday but had no idea what to do with them without a ton of sugar. Voila!
Is it hard to find the no sugar pectin?
I’m watching time fly by in Lulu – she just seems to be growing up blog entry by blog entry. Eeeeks!
Tiff, they have the no sugar pectin at any store…right next to the regular kind!
Your girls are just too cute!! I love the idea of going for pedicures rather than cleaning- sounds good to me
What a great day! Your are a brave woman to make jam with your kids right after your kitchen has been cleaned!
Yum – glad you found a good jam recipe! Sounds delightful.
Those little pedicured toes make me want to get knocked up today! How adorable.
I used to struggle with guilt at paying someone to clean my house, but there is no better feeling than coming home from work and having my place spotless! It is worth the $75 a week, no doubt about it.
Love the pedicure! The stars are adorable.
You deserve it Mama!!
BABY TOES!!!! Why are they so dang cute??
I love this post so much. The photos are perfect. The DANCING in Jamba Juice makes me so unbelievably happy. I hope those girls never lose that…I’m sure they won’t (at 22 I still dance in Kroger).
Thanks again, MamaPea, for your support and help the other day. It means a lot to me. Love you! xoxo
homemade jams are the best things ever…i love being able to can them and eat them all winter!
sounds like a rough life, but someone’s got to do it, right?
Your jam looks good! And I’ll bet your house does too =)
adopt me, please?
That looks delicious. Could you leave out the stevia, too, to get rid of all sweeteners? Or would it just taste really bland then.
Totally getting stars on my toes at my next pedicure. Gigi & Lulu are my inspiration.
Mama Pea – I know I don’t “know” you – I just read your blog and see what you share with us but I LOVE the relationship you have with your daughters. It’s totally inspiring to me – someone who is about to get married and really wants to have kids of my own one day… THANK YOU!
I’m always looking for sugar-free jam or jelly and it’s so hard to find. Now I can try to make my own! Thanks for posting this recipe. Your girls are just adorable.
Your kids are always dressed so cute, like the painted stars..cute.
How fun!! Love the girl time you guys spent together…and the jam is making me drool…mmm…
pedicures and smoothies? That’s ridonculous!
I kept thinking that the jam you made would taste DIVINE with some oats!!! yummmmm
hahaha…stain removal. got a remedy for that? cause my blackberries def stained my shorts, just in the right spot (ahem). bah!
Clean house, cute toes, Jamba Juice, and homemade jam?! Sounds like the perfect day!
OMG those precious baby toes!!
That jam looks SOOOO good. Blackberries are my favorite.
Is it just me, or does Lulu seem to be growing up suddenly? She is loosing the toddler look. It’s like she has turned into a little girl within a week. Darling girls!
I love reading your posts
It makes bar prep a wee bit better.
Oh gosh, a bikini wax would be better than Bar prep. Still, thanks for the compliment.
Wow, this looks wonderful! If only I could get my hands on 7 pints of blackberries without spending a small fortune!
Love how you took the girls for a pedi! so cute! the jam looks lovely, how cool to get all those berries gifted!
Sounds like the perfect summer afternoon. I love her pedicure!
Our local famers’ market is overflowing with blackberries! I can’t wait to make this. You are such a great resource for vegan recipes and kid-friendly activities. Yet, making jam with my two-year old sounds like a bit of a disaster lol
Jam faces make me smile.
I’m pretty into home-canning and food preservation – secretly want to channel Laura Ingalls Wilder, if only I could get someone to call me half pint (at 5’9, it ain’t gonna happen). Thanks for a new recipe!
That jam looks delicious. I saw berries on sale at a local market where I live and I believe a jam making day may be in my future.
I totally love your blog too. I think it’s awesome that you are raising your kids on healthy foods and they seem to be adventurous eaters. So many kids are fed junk and their food choices are limited to what comes out of a box. I’m glad to see not everyone goes down that road.
I love your blog and have been reading for a few months now! Your kids are so cute! I’ve also been wondering what kind of camera you use? I tried searching around on past archives but could not find it.
Thanks!
Hi Megan, I have a Canon Rebel. I absolutely love it…best purchase I ever made! Gasp! I mean, next to the Vitamix.
Gigi and Lulu are just darling. I love their happy dance in Jamba Juice. Too cute.
I agree that your posts brighten up the bar-prep heavy days! And no, I don’t feel guilty for reading your blog instead of my trusts outline. It’s a necessity.
Oh, and when did Lulu’s hair get so long?? she looks great!
Lulu’s toes don’t lie either… she is a star !!!
I would about faint from cuteness if I came into Jamba and saw a little princess doing the…Samba. (Sorry. Had to be done.)
The pictures of the girls are great, and I’m so proud of you for having someone come in and give you a lil’ break… you deserve it Miss Lady!!! We need you energetic so that you can blog for us and give us something to look forward to!!!!!!! Have an awesome day!
Whoops… I meant Gigi in that last one, since she was rockin’ it out!!! They’re both stars in my book.
OMG, look at those tootsies. Too cute!!
Sounds like a rough day. Hope the weekend makes up for it!!!
hahaha I love the first picture of gig, too funny.
Whenever I get the itch to make jam, my daughter somehow depletes the designated fruit supply. I may have to plan your recipe for a covert, midnight operation.
So you’re a stay at home mom who gets to pay other people to clean your house? Yeah, I would say you have nothing to complain about… I like your blog but geesh, how out of touch can you be…
So cute
This whole cleaning lady thing is making me jealous! So many great things I could be doing besides cleaning!
I think that is is great that you would rather pay someone to clean your house then take that time away from your children.
They are only small once…would you rather then remember you cleaning all the time or the time you took time to cook with them and play
You have been working so hard on the book, so good for you getting a cleaning lady! When I was working on my Master’s Degree and working full time I paid my sister to clean my house once a week. My oldest son was about 7 and he came home and said “Wow! It sure is clean in here!” I took that as a sign that it was a good thing we had her cleaning!
PS I took your zucchini muffins to a vegan potluck today! Rave reviews!
My childhood summers were spent watching my mother can…everything from tomatoes to peaches to making freezer jam. Except she made it with PLENTY of sugar! No stevia 25 yrs ago as a kid…I wonder if my mother even knows what stevia is now? Probably not! Anyway, nothing better than homemade jam! Yum and I love that you made it w/ stevia and proved that it “can turn out”…my mother used to freak that something would cause her jars not to seal or her jam not to thicken..world peace hung in the balance type of thing for her with her jam!
I’m sorry, but to the commenter above- Why not hire a cleaning lady if you can? How does that make you out of touch? And how do you know what she’s got in life to complain (or not) about? You don’t know her like that, just by reading some recipes and knowing she’s a stay-at-home mom. Back off.
Why is that any of your business? Why does it matter to you if she can have someone afford to clean her home? I bet every SAHM would love that. When I worked full time and went to law school at night, I not only had a cleaning lady but also a personal chef because I knew that my time was precious and I wanted to be able to take a few things off of my plate. What do you have to say about that?
When people leave comments like that, I just have to wonder, who do you think you are? If you don’t have something nice to say, shut it and move on. No one is forcing you to be here.
I am somebody who was raised by a stay at home mom (I’m 19). I have never seen ANYBODY work as hard as she does. Her job isn’t 9 to 5. It’s 24/7. She doesn’t get a raise for a job well done, but her washing machine goes out and the toddler spills grape juice on the new carpets. I have SO MUCH respect for stay at home moms. I say get a cleaning lady and get your toes done!!! You’re daughters will cherish those memories….I say that from experience!!
I LOVE the ‘jamba juice’ dance. Hilarious.
You seem like a truly wonderful mother. I hope that when i have children I take the time to have as much fun with my kids as you have with your girls.
Carefree indeed!! Looks like a great day, especially when there is Jumba juice dancing ; )
Love homemade jam!!! YUM!
Apparently everyone thinks I was a bit harsh… I’m just disappointed: I’m considering going vegetarian and thought I found a good role model but I can’t get behind someone with such a huge sense of entitlement. It’s the same old typical vegan mentality of shoving ones personal agenda down others throats. The whole I am a stay at home mom and can’t be bothered to clean my own house is just the last straw. Raising your kids right? More like teaching them to expect everything to be handed to them…
Oh, Nanders. You are so troll-erific. I am sorry you will miss my blog from now on. And you will.
I’m with ya girl! I would absolutely have some help with cleaning the house if I could! We all deserve it no matter what!
This has inspired me to make jam! I am drooling over it here!
Um, I still don’t understand how HIRING A CLEANING LADY can make you “disappointed”. And then how does hiring a cleaning lady equate “shoving a personal agenda down others throats”?
How about teaching your children that you don’t have to do everything yourself, that it’s okay to ask for help, and that there are benefits that come with hard work and perseverance?
I just wanted to tell you that I was raised by a SAHM and I had a cleaning lady and I don’t expect ANYTHING to be handed to me. I always saw how hard my parents worked and just because I had a cleaning lady didn’t mean I wasn’t expected to help with dishes and keep my room tidy growing up.
Also I am an omnivore and I read your blog daily and don’t find you at all have a ‘huge sense of entitlement,’ or that I am having a ‘vegan mentality’ shoved down my throat. I find you simply encourage people to eat more veggies, whole grains, and beans/legumes all while making them delicious.
I am sure you don’t need a random commenter you don’t now to tell you this, but from what I can see from your blog you certainly are raising your kids right, not just by teaching them to love good foods, but also by spending a ton of time together etc.
That commenter is just plain silly! Obviously you clean your own house, you just said you were going to have a cleaning person come every once in awhile to do more. It’s not like you are a stay at home mom that just sits on her behind all day!! You cook, clean and raise two wonderful girls as well as a wonderful wife. I think you are doing an amazing job and to keep it up!
You are definitely an inspiration to a lot of people, some obviously just don’t “get you” like you said!
I have a 2 bedroom apartment, I’m off for the summer and I have no kids and I still had someone to come clean my apartment. Some things are just worth paying for to some people and who is that person to judge what people spend their money on?? And what does being vegetarian have to do with having someone clean your house? My mom eats meat and has a cleaning person.
As a mother of two girls, a vegetarian (not that that matters AT ALL!) and a woman (because shouldn’t we lift each other up instead of tear each other down?) I would have to say that the negative commenter earlier has issues of her own.
I was a SAHM for the first 3 years of my oldest daughter’s life and wished everyday that I could have a cleaning lady. Your job doesn’t start at 9am and end at 5pm! As a mother our jobs start the moment that baby is born and doesn’t end until…well…NEVER!!!
If you can afford (and even if you can’t) to have a cleaning lady come every week or every two weeks or – HELL – every day then do it if that’s what you want. Time with your girls is more important than making sure YOU are the one who cleans the toilets all the time.
Keep on keepin on Mama Pea!! I think you (like me) ARE “raising your daughter’s right” and anyone who would dare speak of your life and your choices (knowing you personally or not) needs to look inward instead.
My novel is now complete!
Thank you, Maria.
I really hope this is the last I say about it (but you never can tell when I’ll get the urge again…). I am not wealthy. I am not entitled. I am not spoiled. I am not indulgent. I have student loans to pay still for a law degree that I am not using because I choose to stay home with my children. I drive a car that is over ten years old. I have a mortgage. I used all of the income I earned from the blog last year to send Gigi to private preschool. I have had a cleaning woman come to my house twice in the last eight years that we have lived here. I have only done it in the last month because I have been so busy writing the book that I feel like my toilets have gotten nasty and I miss all the free time I have with my children.
So if I want to pay a family friend $25/hour to clean my house so I can take the girls and do something special with them, I feel that is my absolute right.
Am I bragging about it? No.
Am I showing that even a SAHM deserves to do something nice for herself once in awhile, that she’s “earned” it, and that she certainly shouldn’t feel guilty about it? I hope so.
Am I raising my kids right? Damn straight. And the funny thing is, I’m not even that mad about the negative comments. Say what you will about my hair, my clothes, my body, my vegan lifestyle (which if you’ve even read my blog, you know I NEVER cram down anyone’s throats), but you won’t get under my skin talking to me about what kind of mother I am. You know why? Because I know I’m the best damn mother I know how to be. And I have two happy, healthy children who are loved more than anything. And that’s just fine by me.
So eloquently spoken Mama Pea. Your children will remember the fun stuff because you took care of them and asked for help with the not so important stuff. Be proud of what you are doing because I for one love it and keep coming back for more.
Paying someone to clean your house is like paying someone to cook for you AKA going out to dinner!!! It’s something that you chose to do with your own money. Being a mom is the hardest job of all and by golly if you want a break just for once, by all means take one!
I love you Mama P!
Aww…I love you too!
It never ceases to amaze me the gall of people who think they have a right to judge how other people live their lives. One of the things I love about your blog is that you don’t shove your life choices down other peoples throats. You show in a very real and humorous way that there are ways of living outside the norm. I love that you can make light of everyday problems. And ok, I admit it, I love to see what that firecracker Lulu has done lately. She looks like such a pistol. Reading your blog is sometimes the highlight of my day…so as another poster commented….keep on keepin on.
I would just like to say that when I was a teenager my parents splurged and started having a cleaning crew come every week. It is $70/week and they do the whole house in 1.5 hours. It was a sacrifice financially, but it allowed my parents to have more precious time to spend with us (at the time my mom had gotten sick) without worrying about cleaning the blinds, toilets, etc. We are not spoiled.
Once PB and I have kids we plan on making that financial sacrifice right away. I know I will still be working in some capacity, and PB is opening his own firm. It will be worth it to us to pay someone to come once a month or so to do the dirty work so that we don’t have to spend every Saturday scrubbing down the house.
I applaud you for making the decision to have someone come clean (and it was only TWICE so far!!!) because you have your priorities set straight. The financial sacrifice is worth it to you because you get to spend more quality time with your girls (time that is surely being impeded by your awesome book). Most people wouldn’t be smart enough to even THINK of that solution.
Oh, I’m so glad you made the jam! After you tweeted about it, I have been waiting for the jam post! I told ya the sugar free pectin would work with stevia – isn’t it delicious? You can do it with marmalade, too. Yummy!
This week I’m tackling zuchinni relish – wish me luck!
Aw, I love the little pink piggies with stars! You’ve inspired me to give my girls pedicures today
I am late on this post…I read you in google reader. But I want to say that I respect you on so many levels.