Berry-Spinach Fruit Bites

I am so super excited to share this recipe with you!  I've been trying to find the balance lately between what I can make healthier homemade and what I can't.  Sometimes it takes so much time and money to recreate something from scratch that I just can't justify doing it.  This is NOT one of those things.  These were so easy  and relatively cheap to make!  Plus they are completely all natural and good for you!  No artificial stuff in there so your kiddos can eat as many as they want.  And so can you!

I modified this recipe that I found online.

Somehow I didn't have enough lemon juice or gelatin but I pressed on and tried it without the perfect measurements.  Thankfully they turned out perfectly!  

So...here is how you do it!

Scant 1/2 cup of gelatin (5 individual packages of Knox brand)

1/2 cup lemon juice

21/2 cups of fruit of choice

2 Tbsp honey

large handful spinach

I used 1 cup of blueberries, 1 cup of strawberries and a large handful of spinach.  You can use frozen or fresh fruit however you'll want to make sure to thaw the frozen fruit so you can measure correctly. (If you are using smaller fruit this isn't a big deal but strawberries are so big it's hard to get a cup measure without chopping them up.).

Combine the lemon juice and fruit in a pan on the stove and warm until the fruit gets soft.  Let mixture cool then blend in the blender or if you are really fancy with an immersion blender.

Mix in the honey.

Slowly mix in the gelatin.  I used the blender to add the gelatin and the honey.  Next time I'm going to do it by hand.  Although the fruit bites turned out great i found them to be a little airy and I prefer them to be more dense.  I think I incorporated too much air into the mixture when I was blending.

I lined a jelly roll pan with wax paper and poured the mixture on top.  Then I refrigerated the mixture for about an hour.  I cut it into bite sized squares and got 308 squares.  Considering each pre-packaged fruit snack has usually 8-10 I figured that was 30 packages or 3 boxes.  I usually pay $2.00 a box for the Mott's Tots brand.  I would say I was definitely able to re-create this for less!

You could also use silicone molds or a 9x13 if you wanted thicker snacks.

I can not WAIT to try this again.  There are so many combinations of fruits you can use and you can definitely incorporate veggies too!  I love that I was able to put spinach in and no one can tell!  And the color is so vibrant!  

I'll definitely be buying gelatin in bulk from now on.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!  I'd love to hear your ideas of flavor combinations!!