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!