Homemade Healthy Fruit Snacks

My kids love snacks. An hour after they eat a full meal, they will ask for a snack, and I don't mind, as long as it is a healthy snack. I don't even know why I cook for them... they can just eat snacks all day long. 

Even though I am not a "crunchy mama", I still try to make the right decisions for my kids, and tend to stick to the "healthier" versions of things. BUT,  I have to admit that sometimes "TASTE" wins over "good for you" things. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I bake atleast twice a week. We have muffins, cookies, cakes almost every week. When my mom was visiting, she told me that she no longer uses white flour, and avoids sugar, and I should try it to. How do I bake a cake without white flour and sugar?! Nope, sorry, won't do it. I have a major sweet tooth. But as I say, everything in moderation :)

So when Nadia from My Fruit Shack contacted me about trying out their fruit snack molds, I jumped at the opportunity. The idea of making a healthy version of my kids favorite snack appealed to me.

Since receiving the kit, we have already made fruit snacks on two different occasions, and my daughter is already thinking of different flavors she wants to try out next. 

The kit comes with 4 different molds, 4 trays, 2 droppers and a recipe card.  

There are two different ways to make fruit snacks, you can use juice or jello mix. I wanted to make a more healthier version, so I decided to use Naked juice. 

You also need gelatin. I bought my beef gelatin here. 

You can sweeten your fruit snacks with honey or sugar. 

 The whole process is extremely easy, and my 8 year old daughter loved helping me. 

You start with 1 cup of juice

Pour the juice into a small saucepan, sprinkle 3 TB of gelatin over it and leave it for about 2-3 minutes. 

After about 2-3 minutes, your mixture will look a bit wrinkly. 

Place the pot on the stove and turn it on low heat. 

Now as you heat up the juice mixture, you can add your sweetener if you wish. Since NAKED juice is made with no sugar, I used 2 TB of honey. You can also use sugar if you would like. 

You can even add some vitamin C for some health benefits. 

Whisk the mixture on low heat. DO NOT BRING TO A BOIL. 

Once everything is combined, remove from heat. 

Using the droppers which came in the set, fill in the molds. 

After the molds are filled, refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

I love how these trays stack on top of each other.

After 30 minutes, pop them out of the molds. As long as you kept them in the fridge for thirty minutes, they pop out easily. I was rushing and tried to pop them out earlier, and most of them broke. So be patient... wait 30 minutes :) 

These are tasty and healthy, and I don't even mind when my kids eat them by the handful. 

With school starting, these would be a great snack or desert to pack in school lunches. 

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On a different occasion, I whipped some fruit snacks out of the juice we had on hand. 

My daughter loved the fruit punch ones and my son prefer the OJ. I did sweeten these with a bit of sugar. But it is still the same, 1 cup of juice, to 3 TB of gelatin. 

I also tried the recipe with the jello. I did not like this one bit, I found that it is incredibly thick and difficult to use the droppers to fill in the molds. The fruit snacks were also to gummy. Nobody liked these, bummer :(  So we will stick to using fruit juice only. 

I have to admit that am I impressed with the quality and packaging of these molds. They are BPA free, and have no toxic chemicals, all the tools are in the kit, including those useful trays. Oh, and this comes in a pretty box, so you can give it as a gift.  You can find them here. 

Have you ever made your own fruit snacks? What is your favorite flavor?