Creativity in making fruit leathers

Here are a variety of things you can do with fruit leathers: 

These suggestions come from the University of Utah Cooperative Extension Service.

• Different fruits can be blended together.
• Seasonings such as
• cinnamon can be added
• or powdered drink mixes or
• Flavored gelatin products.
• Season to taste, but remember it will be more concentrated when the water has been removed.
• Add undiluted, thawed frozen juice concentrates to add flavor.
• Sprinkle puree with
• shredded coconut
• chopped dates
• other dried chopped fruit
• granola
• miniature marshmallows
• chopped nuts
• chopped raisins
• poppy seeds
• sesame seeds
• sunflower seeds
• Make a fruit leather, then lightly frost it with cream cheese. Roll it up and slice it for a pinwheel effect.
• Applesauce makes a convenient leather base to which other flavors may be added. One example is Christmas Leather. Grape juice, orange, and berry frozen concentrates are possible variations.

EVOLUTION OF THE RAW ONE BANANA COOKIE

OK, I’ve made crackers from flax seeds and got really interested in flax in our diet.  Some time ago I had watched the cutest video of little three-year-old Zion making cookies from flax seed, sunflower seeds, bananas, and cinnamon. In case you missed the last post, here it is again!  Too cute to miss!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_gfdStODZM

So I decided to try it.  Zoe’s recipe called for 1 tbsp flax seeds, 1 tbsp sunflower seeds, 2 bananas,  golden raisins, and 1/ 4 tsp cinnamon.  They were OK, but for my taste, they needed a little zip…

After playing around with various combinations, this is what I found worked really well for us.  The beauty of this recipe is that it’s so simple, if little Zion can do it, anyone can do it.

It satisfies that sweet tooth with no refined sugar. It’s a great way to expand a banana and use up odds and ends of nuts and seeds. Great way to introduce whole raw seeds into your kid’s diets. And when you have a hankering for cookies but it’s too hot to crank up the oven, these definitely fit the bill!

Homemade Granola Bars

This recipe was submitted by Vickilynn Haycreaft as a document posted in Facebook Dehydrating Way Beyond Jerky.

From Excalibur site: http://www.dehydrator123.com/tag/granola-bars-recipe/    

As  a parent, I’ve learned all sorts of tricks to getting my kids to eat  healthy foods. The number one way to get my kids to eat healthy was to  allow them to cook their own food – with my supervision, of course. By letting them cook their own healthy meals they were more likely to want to eat their own creations, take pride in their work, and gain appreciation for the amount of effort that goes into feeding a family.   One of their favorite healthy snacks to make is granola bars.