Fruit Snacks & Other Notes

Well, life has gotten pretty hectic since I am now a mommy as of last month! BUT, before my little guy got here I was able to try out the fruit snacks recipe.

What I ended up using was about 9 gelatin packets and an entire can of frozen juice concentrate (I measured it out to see how many packets I would need if I used that similar recipe on the other site, oh and Apple-Raspberry was the flavor I used).

Review: They were just OK to me. My husband thought they were pretty good fresh too. We packed them in baggies and were going to eat them throughout the week but by about day 4, they were already going kind of... weird. We ended up throwing them out because they just weren't tasting good anymore.

Next time:

I re-looked at the websites I posted for guides as I was typing this trying to remember how many packets I used and I noticed on one that she said it was more like a firm jello-jiggler and that is really how ours turned out too. They weren't like a fruit snack like I was expecting so I'm also going to try a few things different next time around. I think something that may help this is adding some dreaded corn syrup or extra sugar unfortunately because it will be more syrup-y and will probably yield a more fruit snack like consistency in the final product. I suspect that is why commercial fruit snacks have it added to begin with. I also noticed on that same site that she gave an additional suggestion to maybe try pectin instead to achieve a more fruit snack like texture. I may have to get some of that and try another batch with a mixture of gelatin, pectin and maybe a small addition of some corn syrup or sugar. I also am thinking I will try the zucchini fruit snack idea but with juice instead of kool-aid.

Now, on another note. I have been researching how I can make food that is dairy free. Some friends and family might know that when I went to SUU I started thinking I was getting some kind of stomach virus because I kept having consistent stomach aches. Later that week in my nutrition class we happened to talk about lactose intolerance. Because of that class I figured out what the cause of my stomach problems were. I was mildly lactose intolerant. At the time, cheeses and ice cream didn't seem to give me trouble, but drinking plain milk definitely did. Now it is to the point where cheese and ice cream almost always give me stomach aches so I try to avoid dairy as best I can now, but I still can't resist certain recipes that contain cheeses or cream sauces, and I still love yogurt too. Now that I am nursing my son, I am thinking he may have some dairy sensitivity as well based on some crankiness he has and I have been on the look out for some dairy substitutes and how to cook dairy free. A lot of the alternatives are way healthier anyway so once we have used our dairy products up I am going to try out some of these healthier alternative recipes and see what recipes of my own I can come up with. So, in the coming months you can expect to see some healthy alternative recipes for some of my favorite dairy dishes like stroganoff, alfredo, and mac & cheese.

Hello again!

Wow, I haven't been MIA have I. :) Almost 2 years!

My recent joining of Pinterest and the upcoming baby boy arriving has kicked my behind into healthy cooking mode again! I have the desire to try new recipes and mix it up with healthier ingredients, etc. I just keep pinning things that look great and I am trying new recipes at least 2 or 3 times a week.

The current recipe I'm going to hopefully try within the next week (well, before we run out of fruit snacks) is for homemade fruit snacks. I love fruit snacks and so do kids, but I also know the kind you get in the grocery store are not the healthiest or cost effective either.

I found several links here, here, and here on pinterest to making your own and I have a few ideas of how to make them better already for when I try it out. I agree with the lady on the first link that the kool-aid recipes just don't seem like they'd be any healthier, especially with added sugar, even if it's soaked into baked zucchini bites. However, the lady in the first post also said hers didn't taste that great either. So I'm thinking I'm going to combine a few of the techniques and try something else out and I'll let you all know how it goes.

My thoughts on modifying the recipes -

-instead of the fruit juice that is ready made, I'm going to try using the frozen juice concentrate (in 100% juice forms). It'll pack more flavor into a little bit of liquid.

-I also like the 2nd link's idea of using actual fruit in the fruit snacks as well. I'm thinking if I got some dried fruit and ground it up in the food processor, kind of like a fruit pesto, that that would add some extra fiber, flavor and good vitamins.

-It also looks like the key is going to be using a high ratio of gelatin to liquid.

Once I try it all out I'll post the recipe I come up with!