Zucchini, Strawberry Jam

I have a few more zucchini recipes to post before I wrap up with zucchini and move on to some other veggie recipes.  Hope you find one or two you can use.

Here is a fun one that I tried this year for the first time.  It is great on the budget, using Zucchini to stretch or replace your strawberries, you only need Zucchini, Strawberry Jello, pectin and a little lemon juice or citric acid  I made two recipes, one with strawberries and one without.  They were both really good.  My favorite was for sure the one with strawberries, it was more than jam, almost like dessert, but the one without strawberries makes a great jam as well, and considering there is very little invested into, it is a great way to give Eddie inexpensive peanut butter and jellies after school everyday... since that is one of the things he loves;  Shhhh don't mention that zucchini is the main ingredient  I will wait till the jam is all gone and then pass on the "by the way".  You can tell we have food issues at this house.   Just as a note, from what I can tell there are 3 different ways to prepare the zucchini for the jam: shredded, pureed or chunked.  I have tried the shredded and chunked so far.  I liked the shredded the better of the two, because it seemed to blend and look like wonderful preserves.  With the chunked, the pieces floated to the top of the jam jar, and looked decidedly suspicious to any child with a question about ingredients.  I think pureed my be a great way to do it, and it is on my list for the next batch.  Also, I wanted to mention that the jams came out slightly soft/loose, but once refrigerated jell up wonderfully (probably due to the jello).

Look at that strawberry jam oozing over rice pudding... mmm

Zucchini and Strawberry Jam

Ingredients
8 cups Zucchin peeled,  and pureed or shredded
4 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup water
8 cups sugar
3 Tbs lemon juice or 1 tsp citric acid
6 oz package Strawberry Jello

Instructions
Place zucchini, strawberries and water in stock pot bring to boil.  Simmer about twenty minutes until  are tender and then mash together.   Add remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil.  Boil another 12 minutes.   Makes about 6 pints.  Store in Refrigerator

Zucchini Strawberry Jam (No fruit added)

12 cups  Zucchini skinned and pureed, shredded or chunked  

1/4 cup water

8 cups sugar

3 Tablespoons Lemon juice, or 2 teaspoons citric acid 

6 oz Strawberry Jello (or any flavor... I hear apricot is good, haven't tried it yet)

1 package pectin

Follow instructions above without the strawberries, adding the pectin with the sugar.  Almost every recipe I looked at used shredded pineapple in their recipe.  I am sure that is a good addition, but I wanted to create a very inexpensive jam using what I had on hand (I did have to buy the jello, and don't usually keep it on hand but you get the picture).  This worked  and tasted great.