Our kids are crazy! That’s what my husband said to me as I walked through the door. It was 9:30pm and the kids should have been asleep but instead they were running around chanting, ” daddy’s crazeeee”. Oh brother!! They woke up so early that morning, they should be exhausted. After 30 minutes of laying down with them they were finally out! I started to straighten the house and get things ready for the next day and that’s when I saw it… the trash can was full of popsicle wrappers, lollipop wrappers and an empty cheetos bag. I walked straight into our room with the wrappers and empty bag and just looked at my husband for an explanation. He looked at me dumbfounded and said..” what??!! The popsicles are sugar free.” Not exactly the answer I was looking for.
Food dyes certified by use by the FDA has increased 5 fold since 1950. The most common food dyes that are found are Red 40 and yellow 5. As a consumer, I know that food dyes are in most products we use. Popsicles, twizzlers, m&m’s, sodas, even macaroni and cheese! What manufacturers don’t want you to know, is how much food dye is in each product. With food dyes linked to ADHD, cancer, allergic reactions and a slew of other behavior issues, shouldn’t it be important to know how much dye we are consuming?
Research was done by Purdue University scientists and an article was published in the Journal of Clinical Pediatrics on the amount of food dyes in commonly consumed products. They found General Mills Trix to have 36.4 mg of dyes per serving, fruity cheerios had 31 mg of food dyes per serving, Capt Crunch Oops all berries had 41 mg of food dyes per serving, skittles had 33.3 mg of food dyes per serving, M&M’s had 29.5mg per serving and powerade orange sports drink had 22.1 mg of artifical dyes per serving. Behavioral tests show that as little as 30 mg of artifical dye can cause adverse reactions. Researchers established that children could easily consume 100 mg of food dye in a day. Think about what your children eat in a single day. From breakfast, lunch and dinner to all the snacks in between. the cumulative impact of so much dye in foods could be the reason that behavior problems have become more common.
My kids get hyperactive after consuming foods with a lot of food dyes. Especially red food dyes. Pair that with their favorite snacks of fruit roll ups and you have a dangerous combination! So when my coworker had mentioned that she made her own fruit roll ups – I was all ears. Especially when she said it only took 2 ingredients. So this past weekend, the kids made their own fruit roll ups..and it was a SUCCESS!! It took all of 5 minutes to prep and only 2 ingredients.No artificial flavoring and no artificial dyes! I let the kids pick out what fruit they wanted to use and we ended up with strawberries ( 1 lbs container) and raspberries (1 pint).

Just blend each fruit and mix 1 tablespoon of honey into blended fruit.

Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and pour fruit and honey mix on parchment paper. Thin to a even layer and place into a preheated oven (200 degrees) for 4 hours. After its cooled, cut into strips. We used tape to keep it rolled up, but you don’t have to even roll it up if you don’t want to.

Since it takes 4 hours to make, I would make 2 batches at a time. After everything was made, rolled and taped, Carson was our taste tester and gave it two thumbs up.