Stevia Sweetened Gelatin Snacks

One of our grandsons came home from the hospital, after 41 days in the NICU, with a feeding tube in his belly- a g-tube.  He’s been doing fantastic, and the doctors decided their goal to get him off the g-tube would be the end of Summer.  Only this week, the child managed to pull his tube out while climbing on and off the furniture- and he didn’t even really flinch or fuss at all, so his parents didn’t find out he’d pulled it out for two more hours. At that point, the hole was starting to close.

The professionals decided to go with the baby’s timing (he’s 18 months old)and just leave it out.  Only his parents are packing up to move right now and a huge concern is his ability to go from getting most of his liquids via tube to getting them via mouth- and to do so overnight.   To help his mother out, we made this gelatin for him:

Stevia Lemon Jell-O

1 ounce unflavored gelatin (4 Tablespoons)
1 cup lemon juice

3 cups hot water
1 & 1/4 teaspoons powdered Stevia- or 30 drops of liquid stevia, apricot and/or berry or orange flavored
One teabag of hibscus (or other fruity flavored tea, or skip it, this is optional)

Sprinkle gelatin over cold lemon juice and let it sit a couple of minutes- it should look sort of like applesauce when you’re done, but it isn’t nice to tell your sister to taste the applesauce. Not that anybody in my house would have done that and you can’t prove that it happened.

Meanwhile, add the teabag to the hot water.   Add hot water to the gelatin mixture and stir or whisk until the gelatin is totally dissolved.

Stir in the stevia and mix well.

Pour into a large baking pan and chill until firm (about 3 hours).

Variation: Substitute one cup of yogurt for one of the cups of water.  Or stir yogurt into the whole thing for a creamier dessert.  Use half lime juice.   Simmer some coconut in pineapple juice, strain, and then make a pina-colada version.