Food Fact Fridays: Yummy Gummies

  I hope you will forgive the long silence on my blog.  I was away on vacation for 14 days and now that I am back home I have been busy with the consuming activities of relaxation and industry.  Blogging has (obviously) not been included in any one of those categories. 

I have been enjoying testing out new recipes (almost 1 or 2 each) and really enjoyed this one from Balanced Bites. com.  I just call them Yummy Gummies, but their original name is Sweet and Sour Gelatin Snacks.  The Author uses grass-fed gelatin instead of well, regular gelatin that comes from cows that are non-grass-fed.   My interest in gelatin has increased as I have learned more about its nutritional benefits which are directly related to gut and digestive health—a topic near and dear to my heart.  I have not gone so far as to use the grass-fed gelatin (partly because of its expense and the fact that it must be mail-ordered).  I just used regular gelatin that I got at Wal-Mart for less than a buck per box.  It worked great.  In fact, these tasted great!!!

As an advocate for “everything in moderation: I am almost ashamed to admit that I ate almost the an entire half of the 8X 8 pan of these Yummy Gummies the first day!  These are very sour but that is partly what I find so cool, refreshing and attractively delicious about them.  If you what them sweeter or feel in the mood to make your own “gummy worms” just cut these in strips instead of squares or cookie cutter shapes and roll them in a little bit of granulated sugar ( my Dietitian conscience is pricking me as  I write the words granulated sugar…so please only do this last bit as an occasional treat!).       

Sweet & Sour Gummy Gelatin Snacks

grain-free • gluten-free • dairy-free • nightshade-free

PREP TIME: 10 minutes COOKING TIME: 5 minutes (CHILL TIME: 60+ minutes)
YIELD: 4 servings

Lemon-lime Version:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
•          1/4 cup  freshly squeezed lime juice
•          1/4 cup water (optional, depending on how sour you like things – without it these are quite sour!)
•         zest from lemons and/or limes as desired
•          1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional, but will be very tart without this)
•          4-5 tablespoons grass-fed gelatin, (orange/red package will gel, the green will not)

Preparation:

• In a small pot over medium-low heat, whisk the lemon juice, lime juice, water (optional), zest, maple syrup, and gelatin together vigorously until the gelatin is well dissolved and the mixture becomes a nice slurry. 
• Pour the mixture into a small glass or ceramic dish, preferably 6×9″ or so. The smaller the pan, the thicker your gummies will be. For thinner gummies (to cut into “worms,” for example), use a larger pan.
• Chill in the refrigerator until completely set, approximately 30 minutes.

Change it up!

·         To make these more fun for the kiddos, cut them out with small cookie or aspic cutters once they’re chilled and fully gelled, or chill them in fun-shaped molds. To remove them from the molds once chilled, set the bottoms of the mold containers in warm water to release them from the pan.

For a sweet-tart blueberry version go HERE ( and scroll to the bottom)