Sunday, March 3, 2013

Homemade Jello Cups for the Lunchbox

So I first realized, from Zoe's post, that I didn't need to throw away the juice from my home-canned fruit. (Is there something else I can do with this juice, too?  My mom used to mix it in with our orange juice, but we don't really buy/consume juice at our house).



Then I realized that I could easily put the juice and fruit mixture in little quarter-pints, kind of like cup custards, and the children would love to have them in their lunchboxes.





peach juice gelatin with blueberries



I don't really consider the juice healthy per se, as it's generally sugary, but Ben dropped a few frozen blueberries into each tiny jar for me and look, aren't they cute?  And marginally nutritious.  And certainly FUN for a school lunch!

10 comments:

Dianna said...

I love this idea! Do you put an icepack in your kids' lunches? Do you think it would go runny without one?

Margo said...

No, I never put an icepack in (which is why their lunches are usually vegetarian). I don't know if the jello cups will get runny - we'll let you know over the coming week!

Anonymous said...

If you use agar instead of regular gelatin, it stays gelled at room temp.

Lynn said...

I also use my leftover home-canned "juice" for homemade lemonade. Lemonade is just sugar-water mixed with fresh lemon juice, so you've already got the sugar-water covered; just add lemon juice and voila! It's also good to put in fruit smoothies when you need some liquid. More mild fruits (like pears, grapes, melons) aren't always that sweet, so it works especially well with those. Love your cute little cups with the berries in 'em!

jenny_o said...

What a cute part of lunch; if I was little I'd love a treat like this. Actually I probably still would :) Good ideas in the comments, too.

Margo said...

To address Dianna's question: Genevieve came home from school today and reported that her little Jello cup was quite firm at lunch, after sitting at room temperature for a few hours.

Sew Blessed Maw [Judy] said...

How cute...and what a great idea.. thanks for sharing.

Zoë said...

Mmm, blueberries in gelatin. Forgot about those. Thanks for the reminder!

Sara said...

Coincidentally, we made some of these last week, inspired by The Homemade Pantry and some marked-way-down pomegranate juice at the grocery store. Not super-nutritious, perhaps, but also an easy treat that stays just this side of the no-sweets-for-Lent line! And the two-year-old asking for a "jerro cup, peas" was pretty cute.

sk said...

Now I almost feel like I have to go open one of my sacred jars of fruit, just for the juice.