From frat favorite to kid treat!

Popsicles have always been a favorite in my house, but have you read the ingredients lately? Even the sugar free ones are questionable, what’s really in the “artificial ingredients” anyway? Now I’m not saying my boys will never have another taste of those extremely yummy summer time treats but they will have less. So after many failed attempts at making my own (which have always come out great but my kids never seem to enjoy them as much ) I decided to make something with less sugar, but no artificial flavoring, that both my 7 year old and my 1 year old could eat with their hands and not get messy . Inspired by some awesome Jello shots I once had at a frat party I decided to make “Jello Slices”

The first step is making your own “Flavored Gelatin” since there are very few naturally flavored gelatins on the market we had to make our own. The recipe for this gelatin is located HERE. Bet you didn’t know how easy making Jello/Gelatin was did you?SHHH... If everyone knew JELL-O would be out of business LOL.

Ingredients:

4 Fresh California Oranges

4 cups of homemade Gelatin (any flavor unset)

You Will Need :

1 cupcake pan

Plastic wrap

slice oranges in half remove pulp with spoon (save for a fruit salad or healthy snack) place orange halves in muffin baking pans pour jello in empty orange halves place plastic wrap over the top and refrigerate for approximately 2 hours slice halves into quarters and serve. Pretty easy isn’t it? And don’t limit yourself with Oranges we’ve also used grapefruits, watermelon, and cantaloupe.(Oh and check out this nice pic from notmartha.org, she used lemons and limes too!!)

TIP: Make some for yourself when the kiddies are in bed… just set modify the gelatin by adding ¼ of the amount of water and substitute the rest with some good old vodka. Share with your significant other when the kiddies are in bed!!!

Jello Slices Vs. Popsicle

Jello Slices:
My family loved the Jello slices and they've been asking for them non-stop. They love all the goofi-ness the orange slices have to offer and the sweet taste of the 100% real fruit juice gelatin. I can't belive my kids loved this so much, after all I learned to make them in college and for adults no less.

I'm Just Another Obeasty American

Like many Americans i'm over weight, I don't eat enough veggies, I don't drink enough water, and I don't get off my fat ass enough, okay I admit it, i'm fat. Sadly, I'm not alone, according to the CDC 67% of adults age 20 years and over are overweight or obese. (SIXTY SEVEN?) it's good to know I'm not alone but it's also kind of sad but it's not surprising, the biggest reason people like myself eat is because it makes us feel comfortable. We're talking thousands of years nature telling us to eat now or die! of coarse we eat for comfort, it's natural. But these days it's dangerous, we have so much food at our disposal that we over eat, we pack on the pounds and we die from stuffing our gut with saturated goodness! The worse part is we're not even honest about it, it's like we are embarrassed by our natural drive to feed our comfort level.

In April of 2008 I went to Las Vegas for my birthday, I was 5 months pregnant at the time so I did alot of eating! The first stop on our tour of sin city was the buffet at The Excalibur, When I first saw the dinning room and all of the food I truned to Chris and said "OMG there is more food here than in all of North Korea!" as cold as that sounds It might actually be true. That morning for breakfast I had 3 poached eggs, 1 bowl of fruit, 3 slices of French toast (with syrup and butter), 4 strips of bacon, 2 links of sausage, and a biscuit. It was enough for 3 or 4 people and I ate it myself just me! Oh and Chris he ate even more! This is the world we live in, This is a perfect example of the American lifestyle. You don't have to go to Sin City to eat yourself silly, there are "hometown" buffets in every neighborhood.

I'm not the only one in my family that over eats for comfort, my kids (though they are not overweight) do it too! In fact I teach them to over eat, for example on their birthdays I make them cakes, I make them what ever they want to eat for dinner, I give them extra candy and snacks, and I do it all in the name of love.

Now, i'm not saying we shouldn't treat our children, or give them our homemade apple pies (or peach cobbler in my case) but what if we were more honest about it, what if we were more honest with our selves? Do you think honesty would make a difference? I do.