Stewed Plums (prunes) and Stevia

I have resurrected an old favorite of mine, stewed prunes. Sounds awful, but really it isn't. I was in my food storage room, moving items around taking inventory when I discovered an overlooked bag of prunes. The bag was not compromised in any way, but the prunes felt really hard. I thought these are too old to use and should be thrown out but I wondered if they could be softened up a bit. Then I remembered what I used to do with prunes in the 70's; I used to soak them in water and gently cook them with some lemon juice and sugar. So I opened the bag and took about 2 cups worth of prunes out and soaked them all day in 2 cups of water....prill or high ph water ( prill water super hydrates tissue). I warmed them up in a small stainless steel pot and kept the temperature on warm for a couple hours. When they cooled I added the juice of 1/2 lemon plus 3 drops of lemon essential oil. To sweeten them I used Sweetleaf plus, powdered stevia, about 1/2 tsp. They were so good, good as I remembered. (pictured is Sweetleaf liquid; the powdered stevia bottle I used up and threw away)

I've been using stevia a lot lately trying to come up with the perfect ratio of chocolate and stevia with no aftertaste. So I have several different brands of stevia on hand and now using this amazing stuff in my regular cooking. Sweetleaf seems to be a good brand with little or no aftertaste. Stevia is a no calorie, no carb sweetner that appears to have no side effects at all! But it is tricky to work with as some brands have a strong, bitter aftertaste.
I love my updated version of stewed plums or prunes or however you want to call them. Another bonus.....prunes still remedy constipation.