When I was a kid, we used to make these little things called “jigglers” from the little colorful packets that you get at the grocery store. You know, the small envelopes with lots of chemical food colorings and cheap gelatin in them? In fact, to make this type of gelatin square, one that would not fall apart when you picked it up, you had to use TWICE as much of those chemicals. Mmmmm, Red 40 and Blue 3. Go ahead, lick your lips, you know you loved them too.
I loved those things but there’s no way I can eat them now. I actually had blue food coloring come up on my food sensitivity test as inflammatory so you can’t ever convince me that chemicals don’t do nasty things inside a body. Instead, I wanted to come up with a recipe that benefits my health – a recipe that adds to what my body needs, not taxes it with unnatural things.
What you eat is either adding to your health or taking away from it.
These sweet little treats were so easy to make. They were delicious and they helped me get my gelatin in each day in a “dessert” kind of way.
The benefits of gelatin are really well known but I’ll list a few for you here.
• It’s made up of collagen, a protein that benefits all connective tissue in your body and that’s basically MOST of you.
• The collagen improves hair, nail and skin condition.
• It also benefits overall bone and joint health and has been shown to reduce join pain in arthritis sufferers.
- 12 oz. apple juice, organic & 100% juice
- 12 oz. your favorite store-bought juice mixture (I used True Organic)
- 3 Tbls. gelatin from pastured animals (I used Great Lakes)
- Place store-bought juice in a medium-sized bowl.
- Sprinkle gelatin overtop and allow to "bloom".
- Meanwhile, heat the apple juice to just below boiling.
- When the apple juice reaches temperature, remove from heat and add to the bloomed gelatin mixture.
- Stir until completely dissolved.
- Pour mixture into 8"x8" pan and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
- Cut into squares before serving.