Two Ingredient Berry Jam

Yesterday I was saying to myself that I finally was feeling back to normal with the big increase in carbs this week. My brain functioning was coming back and my energy was up. I feel like a super woman again…

Then this morning I walked into the kitchen to find half my dinner from the night before sitting on the counter where I forgot to eat it. It was the most important part of peak week too – the carbs! Normal people either sail through peak week according to plan or the unfortunate accidentally binge on carbs this week.

Not me. I decide to be unique and forget to eat half my carbs for the day. I’ve got no idea how that even happened especially given last week’s mauling of strangers for fruit. BUT it’s much easier to recover the next couple days from eating too little than eating too much. I’ll take it.

Since my brain apparently can’t handle anything more complicated than remembering my name, I’m sticking with the easiest recipe ever. Just two ingredients, a brief nuke in the microwave, a short wait for the magic to happen and you’ve got jam. Any kind of berry jam you want too. You get to pick the berry combination that makes you smile.

Two Ingredient Berry Jam 

• 1 cup fresh or frozen berries, thawed if using frozen
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds

Place the berries in a microwave safe container. Microwave for 1 minute until the juices are released and the berries are mashable. If needed, microwave for 30 seconds at a time more. Mash with a fork if you like chunky jam or blend in a blender or Magic Bullet if you like smoother jam.

Stir in the chia seeds and refrigerate for several hours until the seeds absorb the liquid and it turns into jam consistency.

It worked out to be approximately 110 calories for the entire batch if you use strawberries – 3 g protein, 18g carbs, and 3 g fat. I’m not suggesting you eat the entire batch in one sitting, although you could. Just divide by however many servings you get to figure out your calorie count if you’re interested.

I used my jam on overnight oats, spread on toast and rice cakes, and mixed into greek yogurt. I like just the sweetness of berries but if you want a sweeter jam, you can use sugar or artificial sweetener to taste. Mix your berries or use all of one kind. It’s really flexible.

It keeps well for about a week in the fridge too. Next time I think I’m giving blueberry or blackberry a whirl. I wonder if banana would work. Hmmmm. What flavor combination are you going to try?