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My grand kids DO NOT eat healthy foods at home no matter how much I preach to my daughter. So when they are here they do get to eat fresh fruits, beans & rice, etc... they will eat a little of this and that.

In an effort to get a few more goodies in them I found a recipe for fresh salsa but it has a lot of sugar in it, here is the recipe:

1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can corn
1 sm jar pimientos
1 white onion
1 green pepper
2 jalapeno peppers
1 cup sugar
3/4 apple cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

They eat it on tortilla chips with the lowest fat on the market.

So is this too much sugar? They are not gulping down the liquid, the majority of the sweet liquid gets tossed out. The vegetables are coated with the liquid (very good actually) and the kids gobble it up.

Am I wasting the nutrients with the sugar? They would never eat the stuff w/o the candy like taste.

Thanks!

When I was a kid my mother would make Kool-Aid for us sometimes, but she always used HALF the sugar called for, and we didn't know the difference (except that other kids Kool-Aid was sort of syrupy and not as refreshing!). I like the idea of gradually cutting out the sugar in that salsa. And maybe you could try replacing the sugar and the vinegar with something sweet and tangy like pineapple juice?

What if you substituted jam for the sugar. I make a fruit salad for my kids and use jam for the sauce. St. Dalfour is a great brand that is 100% fruit and it comes in lots of different flavors. You could put pineapple jam in the salsa.

Kris

Thanks for the great suggestions! I will try the jam the next time.

This recipe is very good, I have ate half of it myself!

I made a new batch last night without the sugar. I used peach preserves that had honey instead of sugar. It equaled about 2/3 as much sugar and was still very good. Could probably go down to half the sweetener and still be doable.

http://www.ledbettersphotography.com/temp/veggies.jpg

Thanks for the recipe, instead of the sugar, I bet using a can of crushed pineapple in 100% juice would taste really nice and tropical.

I will post the exact recipe in the recipe section.

A few of you have mentioned replacing the vinegar, is there a problem with vinegar? I really like the "pickled" taste.

Blondie, I used to do that years ago, when my daughter was small, with orange juice. I bought the frozen concentrate & I think you used 3 cans water, I used 5. Noone noticed & it lasted much longer. My grandaughters do not drink milk, thank goodness!!

My thoughts on the sugar, too, just cut back each time, if you do it slowly enough, they wont notice.

What a pleasure to have grandparents who think like you do. I am very conscientious with my 8 and 16 month old and my mother in law tries to make up for my lack of sugar and processed food by giving it when my 8 yr old visits her.

Isn't that funny how the tables turn and you have to convince your daughter to feed her kids healthy food. I have to convince my mom in law that I am not half mad with my nutrition direction.

All the best to the Mcdougalling grandparents - I wish you were my kids' grandparents as far as eating goes:)

Julia