Tomato sauce....and soup

Knowing we couldn't get it all done in one day, and dealing with the fear my tomatoes were gonna go bad...we started the process with the crockpots and clean whole tomatoes!!

We mashed them down and ran them through the food processor and got out the chunks.

My new waterbath canner for pint size jars!!! Yay!!!

Here is the recipe and instructions I used. I loved that she gave me permission to not peel and seed the tomatoes!!! It actually worked well and the crockpots for the long cooking helped break up the process for me!! We got 14 pints out of this batch. I also put a teaspoon of lemon juice just to make sure the acidity was right (I found the recommendation on another canning site).

We didn't add any seasoning to these recipes...just tomato sauce. We like to fancy it up on cooking day by adding meat and veggies and seasoning at that time. Also, this way I can use it for my chili. (which we'll probably have often this fall!!).

After the initial batch we had another mess of tomatoes come on so I did the process again. I was too exhausted to can it so we have 11 pint and 2 quart ball freezer jars in the freezer (I love these freezer jars).

I also used Laura's recipe on that same link to make a batch of homemade tomato soup. Since I was gonna freeze it too, I cooked it in the crockpot all day then ran it through a strainer. I probably could have cooked it longer, but again, only so many hours in a day and so much energy this pregnant lady has!!!

I'm trying to save it for postpartum...but I'm very tempted to take some to work tonight!!!