Juice and Jello

Juice!

Tyler was “prescribed” juice by his doctor on a few occasions. When he was little it was for constipation and a SMALL amount of apple juice or stewed prune juice (made by me, see recipe below) was used.

Now that Ty is older he NEVER gets normal juice. Your typical juice from a bottle is nothing more than sugar water. Even if you are getting “100% fruit juice” it is still the sugars and flavoring cooked out of the fruit with very little of the good stuff left over.

We do however give Tyler “juice” which is a fruit puree watered down to 1/3 strength. This is made by taking soft fruit (melon, berries, whatever we have laying around) and blending the entire fruit (peel and all, unless it is an un-eatable rind) with water. Tomatoes also work well in this kind of juice. This is then strained, frozen and watered down when he needs a little treat.

We used juice a lot when I had my surgery and Ty was grumpy. We also use it when he is teething, has intestinal problems, and when we just want to spoil him a little. By serving “juice” in this way we keep the fiber, vitamins, and “good” stuff in the juice but take out the fake and processed crap.

Jello!

Tyler recently had his first experience with “Jello.” Now I will be honest, this was pretty much junk food. I realize that I could have made it healthier, and I plan to next time, but this was kind of a spur of the moment idea on my part.

I did not use regular Jello when I made Ty’s gelatin treat. I did not want the fake flavor, chemicals and tons of sugar/fake sugar in the Jello so I bought WHITE grape juice, boiled it and followed the directions on a pack of PLAIN gelatin. I made a denser Jello and cooled it in an ice cube tray. I then cut the chunks into smaller pieces and let Ty play with it.

Plain gelatin comes from cows unless you get a Kosher gelatin, in which case it comes from fish. I have yet to find a “good” vegetarian Jello (I used to be a vegetarian and tried a few types) because they all seemed too soft or had an odd flavor.

Next time I will use Ty’s fruit puree and water to make the Jello. I will also probably put in a few berries or chunks to make it a little more fun!

Picture from: http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PFWRSQPAL._AA280_.jpg