What Goes Great on Oatmeal? Try This Sweet and Warming Recipe!

Stewed Prunes Recipe

When I received my Azure Canning Jars late last year, it felt like the perfect Christmas gift. I used to love using canning jars for food storage, gift giving, and as drinking glasses. The greenish tint to Azure’s jars seemed to add a note of elegance and made me nostalgic for the time I lived in a house I could make a home. For the past 14 months or so, I’ve been somewhat nomadic. I left my life in California after almost 20 years to return back east for various reasons, but have yet to settle on a place that feels like home.

The jars have been a little reminder of pieces of my past that put me at ease. Memories came flooding back, along with recipes I used to love to make.

This is one of those recipes that warms my heart, particularly when the frigid winter temps hit. For a few years, I was an oatmeal every day girl and used this recipe to add some “oomph” (since, let’s be honest, oatmeal can be pretty bland) and sweetness. Ginger has a heating quality that aids digestion and the juice from the prunes can sweeten even the most bitter of days. But it is as great a topping for ice cream as it is for oatmeal and works as a year round treat.

• Prunes

• Ginger

• Cinnamon

• Lemon

• Water

  
  

I don’t use measurements on this recipe because it really is a “to taste” thing. You can stew a large batch and store in the Azure canning jars or make a single serving. Although, like soup, allowing the mixture to sit overnight in the fridge and reheating really melds the flavors together nicely.

Place the prunes in a saucepan and cover about an inch with water. Remove outer skin from ginger and grate into pan. Bring mixture to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Allow to simmer until you have the desired thickness of the sauce that you would like. A good benchmark is about 15 minutes. I like my prunes really soft and mushy so I’ll let it cook a little longer. I add cinnamon and either the juice of half a lemon or lemon zest about half way through cooking and will “mash” the prunes a bit as they get soft.

Allow to cool and store in Azure Canning Co. jars.