Have you ever wondered what to do with older bottled fruit?

What to do with Old Bottled Fruit....

It's that time of year again.  I am referring to Canning Season, which is in full swing!  I was recently was reorganizing my storage room.  I had several bottles of "fruit somethings".  My family's tastes and preferences seemed to have morphed over the past few years.  It was very evident because of the bottles of fruit that were left behind.  I needed the space for this years harvest, so I decided to 'morph' these older bottles of fruit.

In particular, I had peaches and Apple Pie Filling.  I decided to try to make fruit leather from them.  I poured the contents of the bottles into the blender.

A quick whirl of the blend made a beautiful puree.

I poured the contents on to fruit leather trays (which are sprayed with a cooking spray).

I decided to add some variety to these leathers.  Here I added sesame seeds.

On this Peach leather tray, I added some cinnamon.  

Into the dehydrator it all went!

Once the fruit was properly dehydrated, I needed to repack it.  I cut a sheet of wax paper.

I removed the leather from the tray and placed it on the wax paper.

I cut the leather into sections.  Initially I cut the leather into fourths, but later decided on eighths.

It is important to work with the leather when it is warm.  I rolled the leather in the wax paper.

I then wrapped it into plastic wrap.

This is easy to do, just take the rolled fruit and roll it on an angle into the plastic wrap.  Tuck the edges along the length of the rolled fruit.

I needed to label the jars, but I hate removing adhesive from jars. So, I just printed off these 'labels' which are actually pieces of paper.

I laid the jar on its side, placed a paper label on the bottom of the jar and started to place the rolled leather into the jar.

Using my Food Saver, I vacuum-sealed each jar.

These jars of fruit leather are equivalent to 9 jars of canned fruit.  

Take home message:

• What I like about this system is that you can take out one jar at a time and eat the leather.  
• Or, you can take out a piece of different leathers from their respective jars and vacuum-seal them again.  
• Also, you are using your old fruit in a new way.  Around here, leather does not last too long.
• You can also embellish your fruit with seeds, flavor, and things like granola to make it more appealing.
• This leather was essentially free to me as I had everything already.
• Rethinking your bottle fruit and making it into something new is a frugal choice for your family.
• The Apple-Pie-Filling was very scrumptious.  The added crunch of the seeds is a pleasant surprise as well.
• I can take pureed fruit and add Jello to it to add new flavor to the leather and increase the variety of the leathers I have.  

Try it!