Healthy Gummies Three Ways

Fall Fun Gummies

10/30/2015

Making healthy food into something fun is one creative trick for eating and feeding your kids well. Who wants to be sitting around eating bunny food all the time? Though, don’t get me wrong, I will gladly share a fresh salad with the back yard bunnies if they’d like.

With healthy eating, comes recipe hunting. While looking for family and kid friendly snacks I read about an ingredient called gelatin. I proceeded to experiment with in many times in the past few years. It is a “superfood”- as classified by a lot of healthy foodies. WebMD has great things to say about it:

“Gelatin is used for weight loss and for treating osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and brittle bones (osteoporosis). Some people also use it for strengthening bones, joints, and fingernails. Gelatin is also used for improving hair quality and to shorten recovery after exercise and sports-related injury.”

I have personally enjoyed stronger nails and less hip ache (Thanks, Pregnancy!) from consuming Gelatin regularly – two welcomed benefits! As with any food you aren’t used to consuming, try a little at a time as you system needs to adjust (even to healthy foods!). Here’s the thing though, if you eat Jell-o, you are consuming this. In addition to a whole lotta blech: artificial dyes, sweeteners, sugars, fake flavoring... Just say Jell-NO!! It may be cheap but it’s only cheapening your health. (You can quote me on that one!)
With this little canister, you can make your own jello. You can even make it fruit filled in a giant mold ala the church picnics of my childhood. No matter what you make this into, it can give you a great health boost and your kids (or hubby) won't even know!

For healthy jello with our without fruit follow this Recipe from Wellness Mama: http://wellnessmama.com/3803/healthy-jello/ I used frozen blueberries and a can of no sugar added cherries when I made it the first time and it was delicious!

Jello is a good way to ease into the Gelatin world but Gummies- AKA Jigglers- is another way to make a finger food snack (And to replace gummy fruit snacks since our dentist say to skip them for the kiddos – even the 100% fruit ones - they are so chewy that they get stuck to the teeth! It’s a good thing our kids don’t do grocery shopping and are pretty flexible about snacking ‘cause we used to have them on a daily basis!)

I have made a lot of experimental batches of gummies in the past few years but wanted to share some of the fall themed ones I have done lately!

Creamy {Can't get enough} Coffee Gummies:
Do you like to start your day with coffee? Me too. Next time, make an extra cup so you can whip up a batch of these creamy coffee gummies for a mid-day snack. Or meal. Yes, sometimes these have to do when life is busy. They make a great breakfast or lunch when needed! Grown up finger food. Want to REALLY make these a grown up finger food? Add a shot of your favorite liquor to the creamer- and then make sure to NOT eat them for breakfast! I do generally brew low caff or decaf coffee so a spiked version makes a great after dinner dessert!

Apple Cider {Probiotic} Gummies
My next foray into fall flavors was using Mock Cider. (You can use real cider too so if at some point the following explanation is too much for you, skip it and just go right to the recipe!)
I have been fermenting Water Kefir. It's great. You can make all different flavors and recently I second fermented it with a sliced up Macintosh Apple a stick of Cinnamon and a few slices of ginger. It was delicious and tasted much like Apple Cider but less intense and with fizz (aka probiotics). Water Kefir is a natural source of probiotics and is a great alternative to Soda! It's also super easy to make! Learn more here.
I warned you that might get a little odd there for a second but if you just want to use Apple Cider, you could always empty a probiotic capsule into the final mixture to make these just as healthy AND delicious! Adding the Thieves oil makes these immune boosting gummies! That's a Super, Super, Super food opportunity right there! These didn't last long as the kids kept sneaking them out of the bowl! Hence only pictures of us holding them before consuming!

Boo-berry Bat Gummies
It's Halloween and it's not my favorite holiday. I can not seem to maintain a cool composure with the great influx of candy that arrives on our doorstep Halloween night! So I plan on having a bunch of these little guys on hand! They are festive, delicious and the kids loved them. I was even trying to take pictures and a little hand reached up and tried to swipe some more (hence the blur)! The great thing about the silicone mold craze that exists is that instead of making candy you can make GUMMIES! My creative brain is spinning in preparation for Christmas too! I may need to clear out a cabinet just for fun molds!

Have you realized how many possibilities there are for gummies yet? I hope your creative brain is clicking! Here is a little gallery of all the steps laid out so you know what things could look like! Of course I don't take fancy pictures just so you can feel better about life. Real life isn't always shiny and perfect. Like that time when you went to fill a mold and poured gummie mixture all over the counter. It happens. And it still tastes great!