J-E-L-L-O

There's a song on one of Vince's video games that sounds like it's saying "J E L L O, that's why I love you so." But I'm pretty sure that's actually not the song. Moving on...

One thing I've thought about making for a long time was Jell-O. I LOVE Jell-O. As in, used to buy multiple 4-packs of strawberry Jell-O a week and eat them like they were goin' out of style kind of love. LOVE. What I didn't love was how much sugar there was in them. And the ingredients? "Sugar, Gelatin, Adipic Acid (for Tartness), Contains less than 2% of Artificial Flavor, Disodium Phosphate, and Sodium Citrate (Control Acidity), Fumaric Acid (for Tartness), Red 40"

Why does all that extra stuff need to be in there? And notice how there isn't actually any fruit in Strawberry Jell-O?!

So clearly I needed a substitute which I didn't find until yesterday.

And it came right off the box of Knox gelatin. Because of that discovery, yesterday was the first time in months that I allowed myself jello (not Jell-O)! It was a good day. It was also a good day because it was grapefruit jello, which I've been wanting to eat for a while.

Real Fruit Jello
(Adapted from the Knox Gelatin box)

2 packs Knox gelatin
2 cups fruit juice (I used pure juiced grapefruits, but you can use any. If store-bought, plain juice with no added sugars is healthiest. I found my pure organic juice for $2.50 in the sale fridge area since it's about to expire. Even better would be juice juiced at home!)
1/2-1 Tablespoon honey (the amount of honey depends on how sweet you want it and if you have a sweet juice like apple, or a bitter juice like grapefruit.)

Pour 1 1/3 cup of the fruit juice and the honey into a small pan and heat on the stove. The juice just needs to get a little warm (not boiling) to help dissolve the gelatin later. 

While the juice is heating up, pour the rest of the juice (2/3 cup) into a bowl and sprinkle the 2 packets of gelatin over it. Let it sit for a minute. When the juice on the stove is warm, pour it into the bowl with the juice/gelatin mixture. Stir for a minute or two until all the gelatin is dissolved, then pour into an 8x8 dish. You can really use any sized dish, it just depends on if you want it to be thick or not. Put it in the fridge for a few hours until firm before eating.

I'm just imagining all the possibilities...mashed strawberries in lemon juice, carrot juice, apple juice with apple chunks! It would also be quite delicious with some homemade coconut whipped cream on top.