Ladies, if you like sweet pickles you really need to try this - they are awesome! It is SO easy and they keep in the fridge for 9 months! Extremely low cal & they taste fantastic on turkey burgers, etc... or if you are like me.. just toss some on your plate as a side dish
They would also be awesome on any kind of relish type tray for the holidays. Great way to use up some cucumbers from the local farm stand or from your garden.
This recipe is from one of the elderly ladies at a church I used to go to - she always had the best recipes.
Refrigerator Sweet Pickles
8 cups thinly sliced cucumbers
1 cup thinly sliced onions (I believe you could leave this out, but they taste great)
1 cup thinly sliced green pepper (I use only the onion & cucumber in mine)
1 Tbsp salt
2 cups sugar (replace with equal amount of Splenda)
1 cup vinegar
1 Tbsp celery seed
Combine cucumbers, onions, green peppers and salt. Stir and let stand 1 hour. Combine sugar, vinegar and celery seed. Heat just to dissolve sugar; cool. Pack cucumber mixture into jars and pour liquid mixture over. Keep refrigerated - will keep in fridge up to 9 months.
As for the jars, this is a great way to use old mayo, spaghetti sauce, etc. jars as these pickles do not require you to seal them as in canning. This recipe should fill 2 one quart jars. I would say these are ready to eat after sitting overnight in the fridge. The veggies will shrink some after sitting in the vinegar.
Provided you use Splenda, the only real calories in this come from the veggies and the vinegar (vinegar has only about 30 cals for an entire cup!). A great way to spruce up salads, too!