Crock Pot Strawberry Jam

I LOVE homemade strawberry jam. I love it!  So since I had some strawberries in the fridge that were past their eating right out of the carton stage, I decided to make some of my own jam.  

The recipe:

2 lbs of strawberries cut into small pieces
4 cups white sugar 
1/4 cup lemon juice 

Cook 2-4 hours on high in a Crock Pot. (it was 2 hours for me)

The problem is, I don't have any lemon juice. After searching online, I found a substitute I had! All you need is a packet of dry unsweetened lemonade drink powder from brands like Kool Aid or Wyler's! Just mix a packet of it in 8 oz. of cold water and store it in the fridge in a lidded jar. Shake the solution before using it each time and use an equal amount of it to replace lemon juice. Crisis averted!

Mixed together my ingredients and set my Crock Pot on high and put an hour on the timer. 

After an hour, I stirred the mixture, I used my new "mix 'n chop" thingy I bought from my awesome Pampered Chef friend/consultant Rachel, to mash it up and put an hour on the timer.

After that (2 hours total), my new chopper/masher thingy again to mash it up and it pretty much broke it all up and liquified, with a few chunks.

I then poured it into containers with a ladle, and then used hot pads and poured the last bit out at the end. Put it in the fridge.  

It will get thicker and set up in a few hours (overnight for me).  It made more than I expected. And that made me happy!  It was hard to wait to try it the next day, but it was very hot!

Gabe was a big fan!

Sources:

Original Jam recipe

Lemon Juice Substitues