Fruit Snacks Made From Real Fruit- Recipe
One of my biggest peeves is that some companies make snacks for kids that are called “fruit” snacks and they are not made from fruit.
In reality, most fruit snacks on the market (not all, but most) are a bunch of high fructose corn syrup, food colorings and oodles of other non-nutritious ingredients that don’t even mirror the nutritional value of real fruit one little bit.
Trader Joe’s does carry a product called fruityflakes which are by far one of the best I have come across so far. They are made from fruit puree, wheat fiber & pectin. And they use fruit and vegetable juice extracts for color- no food colorings. They have 70 calories per pouch and provide 10% of the RDA for vitamin C. They are a little bit pricey for just 6 snack packs (I think around $3.50 per box) BUT my kids do love them so I do splurge and buy them this fun treat from time to time.
I am not suggesting that these fruit snacks should replace eating real fruit in our diets. Most US children consume too little fresh fruits and vegetables. I’m simply giving these snacks a sugar shout out since they are a better alternative than some non”fruit” snacks out there on our shelves and have no added sugar. They are a nice treat NOT full of a ton of artificial ingredients and food colors AND they do taste yummy. I just ate a bag myself.
Today on Pinterest I came across these homemade fruit snacks from a website called All Day I Dream About Food which is a great site full of recipes and many are gluten free recipes.
I do plan to try to make this homemade variety of fruit-snacks sometime in the next couple of weeks. There was some advice given on the All Day I Dream About Food website to dry them out a little bit in the oven and maybe add some pectin to make them less jello like. I’ll let you know how that project and Recipe Restyle goes. It’s an adventure I’ll take on next snow day, if we get a snow day this year…
Source: alldayidreamaboutfood.com via Kristie on Pinterest
Here is the recipe from All Day I Dream About Food- note- no added sugar or sweeteners.
Recipe from: http://www.alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2011/09/homemade-gummy-fruit-snacks-healthy.html
Tip- bake them in the oven a little bit to try drying them out so they are more like those at Trader Joe's
Ingredients
- 1 cup mixed berries
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup fruit juice (apple, cranberry, blueberry, whatever)
- 2 envelopes gelatin (1 envelope = 2 1/2 tsp)
Instructions
- From: In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the berries and water.
- Bring to a boil and cook until berries are soft, about 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a blender or use an immersion blender to puree berries until smooth.
- Return to pot.
- Add applesauce and return to a boil.
- Remove from heat.
- cover and set aside.
- In a large bowl, sprinkle gelatin over fruit juice and let stand one minute. Add hot fruit mixture and stir until gelatin completely dissolves, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Pour into 8 x 8 inch glass or ceramic baking dish (or use molds, but takes more time and effort)
- Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.
- Cut into blocks or shapes.
I was in no way compensated for my review of Fruityflakes and paid full retail price for these at Trader Joe’s last week. Also, note this is not a gluten free food.
Diva Dietitian
Kristie Finnan is a Registered Dietitian/Licensed Nutritionist, Freelance Writer and Published Children's Author. She is the Mom of 3 and Food Snob with a passion for Nutrition Education, Healthy Kids Foods, Marketing and Social Media. Kristie is the Creative Director/Editor for www.DivaDietitian.com and www.KidsLoveFood.com & Founder of www.DoylestownNutrition.com. Diva Dietitian blogs in Full Disclosure. Please see: http://divadietitian.com/about/disclosure.
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