This 4-ingredient Blueberry Maple Chia Seed Jam is full of flavor without using refined sugar or any fancy canning equipment! Get ready, it’s so good you will be spooning it onto everything you and baby eat this week!
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Lately, I’ve immersed myself in articles focused on transitioning babies to solid foods. Emory will be one in less than 2 weeks and as always, I want to ensure that her diet consists of healthy and natural fruits and vegetables. With that being said, it’s important that we use only the best ingredients when preparing her meals.
We recently discovered that she has some food allergies that are quite typical for breastfed babies. Because her primary source of nutrition has been breast milk, it’s expected that her body will react to wheat and gluten. During our most recent attempt at introducing steel-cut oats, she showed symptoms of a mild allergic reaction. An itchy, red face and mouth have become something we watch for after incorporating any new foods into her diet. While eating her oatmeal we noticed the telltale signs of an outbreak.
Given this recent discovery, we have omitted certain (raw) fresh fruits and introduced (DIY) Organic Brown Jasmine rice cereal for breakfast. Emory has a pollen allergy, and cross-reactivity between plant proteins from pollen and fruits or vegetables causes an allergic reaction. We have recently discovered that fresh strawberries, kiwis, and bananas are not her friend, and we will wait until she’s older to reintroduce them. As our daughter’s palate develops, I want her to begin enjoying her food while learning to appreciate the good flavor. It’s important that her food taste good and is not too sweet but sweet enough.
4-ingredient Blueberry Maple Chia Seed Jam
I found a really easy recipe for a jam that can be used as a natural sweetener. This particular recipe was a cherry almond chia seed jam. Not being too certain if Emory has a nut allergy, I created my mashup of ingredients around the house. I substituted the cherries for frozen blueberries, organic maple sugar powder for the syrup, and date syrup for the almond extract. Blueberries are packed with vitamin C and manganese and are a good source of dietary fiber.
I was proud of the way it turned out, and most importantly, Emory loved it. My husband even enjoyed it on a slice of toast, so it must be good stuff. Check out my 4-ingredient Blueberry Maple Chia Seed Jam recipe below! I’d love to know what you think.
Ingredients
- Two cups frozen or fresh blueberries
- Three tablespoons organic maple sugar powder
- Three tablespoons chia seeds
- One teaspoon of date syrup
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, add the blueberries and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Stir in maple sugar and chia seeds and heat over low for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add in the date syrup and stir.
- Transfer blueberry mixture to a blender or food processor and pulse until ingredients are incorporated but still slightly chunky – roughly ten 1-second pulses. If you prefer to completely smooth jam, let the blender run for 30 seconds.
- Pour into a glass jar, let cool completely and seal with a tight lid.
