Homemade Sour Watermelon Gummy Recipe | FUEL for Adventure!

Sour Watermelon Gummy Recipe

Honestly, making your own gummy’s is WAY easier than you may think. It takes a time or two to get through the process, and once you do, you’ll be making these all the time!

Homemade gummy’s are a wonderful way to combine fructose/glucose (ENERGY!) with protein (blood sugar balance!). Making it a perfect snack for adventures and energy burning kiddos. :)

Typically, we make these with grape, pomegranite, or tart cherry juice. However, I tried recently making it with a drink at the grocery store I found called MELLA. AND, it was our FAVORITE GUMMY recipe yet! In Oregon, we find these at New Seasons or Market of Choice. I’ve also tried making my own watermelon juice for gummy’s but it didn’t turn out as well as using these drinks.

Here are the ingredients we used:

• 2 cups Mella

• 1/2 cup Perfect Supplements Gelatin

• 1/4 cup Vitamin C fine powder

• Sweetener to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Bloom the gelatin in cold or room temperature mella juice. You do this by slowly pouring the 1/2 cup of gelatin into the juice and letting it sit. Once all the powder is absorbed into the juice it will look like a congealed substance.

2. Transfer the mixture into a sauce pan and heat on the stove until it is completely liquid.

3. Add your Vitamin C fine powder and sweetener to taste.

4. Pour your mixture into gummy molds, OR, to make it very simple a 9x13 glass baking dish.

5. Refrigerate

6. Once the gummy’s have completely solidified pop them out of the molds and store in a glass jar. OR, if you used the baking dish, remove the giant gummy from the baking dish and cut into small squares and store in a jar. I used to ALWAYS do the baking dish option until my girls started taking over making these and they absolutely LOVE making them in the gummy molds.

7. If you take these on an adventure when it’s warm and hot outside you will want to store them in a cooler bag. They will melt.

ENJOY!

SKI DAY LUNCH - ONIGIRI

How we make our Onigiri for the best ski day lunch!

Hands down, everyone’s FAVORITE ski day lunch!! From the two year old… to my husband, it’s a hit!

🍙 ONIGIRI 🍙

It’s surprisingly so simple to make. Like the Japanese PBJ but loaded with healthy fats, good carbs for energy, and wonderful micronutrients like IODINE (which I talked about over on @rca_skincare stories and sent out info in my newsletter!).

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups organic Japanese sushi rice

• 1/2 lb wild caught salmon

• Olive oil

• Salt

• Mirin

• Furikake (optional)

• Seaweed (Nori)

DIRECTIONS

1. I cook my rice in the instant pot. 2 cups Japanese rice and 3 cups water. Ideally, washed 1-2x before cooking. Cook it on the “rice” setting. Let it sit for 15min after it is finished cooking.

2. You' are going to “soft cook” your salmon in a skillet on the stove. You do this by warming your sklillet to a very low heat.

3. Pat your salmon dry with a paper towel. It’s ideal if the salmon is at room temp before cooking but it’s not a deal breaker if you didn’t set it out.

4. Add olive oil to your skillet

5. Place the salmon skinside down in the skillet, pour mirin over the top, and place a lid over the salmon to let it "steam” with the mirin.

6. Cook about 7minutes on low for each side. Don’t overcook! It should be moist and flakey but not dry at all.

7. Take your rice and salmon and mix it together in a large bowl. You can add in other toppings like sea vegetable powder, furikake, sea salt. Taste it as you mix to see if the flavor is desirable.

8. Once your done, wet your hands, then take about a 1/4 cup of the mixture and form it into a ball and place in a tupperware. Repeat until all the balls are formed.

9. Pack your rice balls and seaweed seperately!

10. At the slopes unpack your rice balls and seaweed, wrap up the rice ball with seaweed, pass out and enjoy!

I love enjoying an Onigiri on a ski day because it’s SO NOSTALGIC to me! I grew up skiing all day with an Onigiri from 7-11 in my pocket…. when I got hungry I simply ate my lunch on the chair life and never even had to take a break.

I also love this because it’s a wonderful source of protein, carbs, and fats PLUS wonderful micronutrients like Omega-3s and Iodine!

Read on if you’re interested in the importance of IODINE!

So, what is the role of Iodine?

Chris kresser says in his article,

"Iodine is important for thyroid health, fetal growth, mental health, and more."

Chris Masterjohn says in his substack,

"Why we need iodine: Nourishing the thyroid, softening the breasts, revving up the whole of metabolism to make all the other nutrients do their jobs better and faster."

IODINE

I posted stories on instagram today talking about IODINE and the principle of discipline.

When I went through Chris Kresser's ADAPT Functional Medicine program we took a deep dive into a lot of the essential micronutrients.

Iodine was one that fascinated me because of the key role it plays in women's health AND because of my childhood in Japan I was exposed to an iodine rich diet and foods. Recognizing how noticably absent they are in the American diet once we moved back.

In the world of crunchy wellness we often look at iodinzed table salt and label it as "bad" and another example of how the government tried to corrupt our food.

But, here is a question to ponder. Perhaps the government noticed how incredibly important iodine is in our diet and how unbelievably absent it is, and sought to provide a solution in a way to get us as much iodine as possible. What American doesn't use table salt at least 3x a day?

Is using Iodinzed table salt worse than a diet with hardly any iodine in it?

Now, here me out. I'm not necessarily advocating for you to buy iodinized table salt. We now know of the unintended consequences of using this form of iodine and sodium and have knowledge that helps empower us with better choices.

Thanks for reading and tuning in!

Best ski day treat recipe | Peanut butter chocolate bars

Peanut butter chocolate bar RECIPE

What makes a good ski day treat?

• It has to be absolutely satisfying and delicious

• Includes protein, carbs and fats

• It can be prepped ahead in BULK and easily kept in the freezer

• Gives you just the right glucose boost when you need it

So, I guess I really have TWO favorite treats.

1. These peanut butter chocolate bars which I will give you the recipe for below

2. Rice Krispie treats made with homemade marshmallows - recipe coming soon!

RECIPE

I tried out a few of these recipes and combined the best parts into what I personally like! The best part is I make these in a 9x13 dish, cut them into squares and freeze them in family size portion zip locs that I can easily grab and go on an adventure day.

INGREDIENTS

For the bottom layer:

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter - we use Costco Kirland peanut butter for wonderful economically priced mold free organic peanut butter!

• 1 cup almond flour

• 1 cup rolled oats

• 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey

• Optional - add in 2 scoops Perfect Supplements Collagen for extra nutrients and protein

For the top chocolate layer:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips - we use Enjoy Life!

• 1/2 cup MCT oil or coconut oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix up all the ingredients for your bottom layer. Grease a 9x13 baking dish and set your oven to 350.

2. Press your bottom layer into your baking dish and bake for 20 minutes

3. Melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips on low heat. If you’re using coconut oil also melt it into this mixture.

4. Once it is melted add the MCT oil if you’ve opted for this route.

5. After your bottom layer has baked and cooled, add your top chocolate layer.

6. Put your dish in a cool place to completely solidify before cutting and enjoying.

7. ENJOY!!

Adventure ready | GRANOLA |

GRANOLA RECIPE

Everyone loves granola. From a late night snack, morning backpacking breakfast, to the perfect carb boost on a skl day it’s a family favorite.

As a young child I often made granola with my own Mom! I remember baking it in this massive turkey pot so we could make copious amounts at one time. My Mom was queen of practical and frugal cooking!

As I’ve grown into a mother myself I’ve learned that as much as practical and frugal cooking is important to me, taste and nutrients likely rank much higher on my list. :) So much so that when I become bent on something, like making delicious crunchy granola clusters, I don’t stop until I’ve perfected it.

So, without further adu, I’d like to announce that I believe I’ve perfected the delicious, nutritious, AND happens to be frugal and practical granola recipe that my entire families loves. Recently, my girls and I made this recipe in under 10 minutes.

RECIPE

• 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats

• 3TBSP chia seeds

• 1/2 cup flax seeds

• 1 cup hazelenuts

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds

• 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

• 2 TBSP chia seeds + 4tbsp boiling water to make a chia egg

• 2/3 cup coconut oil OR olive oil (honestly, I think olive oil actually makes for the better clusters)

• 1/2 cup maple sugar (or coconut sugar)

• 1/2 cup maple syrup

• 1 TBSP vanilla

• 2 TBSP cinnamon

• 1 cup dried wild blueberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Slowly heat the coconut oil (or olive oil), maple sugar, maple syrup and vanilla on the stove until sugar is melted and substance is hot. It’s important you make sure you get your mixture pretty hot. This will help the oil and sugar thicken a bit to make more “clusters”

2. Make your chia egg and set aside by mixing 2TBSP chia seeds with 4TBSP hot water

3. Mix in a large bowl oats, chia seeds, flax seeds, hazelnuts, almonds, and coconut

4. Take 1.5 cups of the mixture and blend it in your blender and then add it back into the bowl

5. Mix in the hot oil/sugar and chia egg

6. Add your cinnamon and wild blueberries

7. Spread it out evenly on a large cookie sheet

8. Bake at 300° for 40 minutes. Personally, I don’t touch it in the oven. I know a lot of people recommend stirring halfway through. This may un-cluster your clusters.

9. Take out and let it cool completely before putting into your jar to store. VERY IMPORTANT!

10. ENOY!

SOURCING

Almost all the ingredients I listed I buy from Azure Standard

Two Day Paleo Backpacking or Camping Menu eBook

Hello!!

From our family to yours!

Often times packing nutrient dense backpacking food can feel stressful, overwhelming and frustrating.

So, here is, a tried and true 2-day meal plan that has worked for us.

We hope that these meals help you to feel peaceful, calm, and confident in your backpacking experience as you nourish you and your family.

Two Day Paleo Backpacking Menu eBook

You can access the full ebook by going to this link!

The contents include:

• Two breakfast recipes

• Two lunch recipes

• Two dinner recipes

• Snacks

• Beverages

• Gear

• A few tips

If you would like your own downloadable copy of this eBook, fill out the form below and I’ll send it to your e-mail!

More resources for Paleo backpacking recipes

Must Hike Must Eat

Backcountry Paleo

Back Country Culinary

Paleo Traileo

Backpacking Dry Shampoo DIY Recipe

This is a staple that comes with me on all my backpacking and camping trips! It’s economical, smells good, volumizes, cleanses, and lightens hair.

Dry Shampoo Recipe

• 8 TBSP Arrowroot Powder

• 4 tsp Kaolin Clay

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp Baobab powder (optional! adding the baobab adds vitamin C to your hair)

• 4 drops lemon essential oil for hair lightening

• 4 drops grapefruit essential oil for hair cleansing

• 4 drops peppermint essential oil for hair volumizing

• 4 drops cedar wood essential oil for hair lengthening

• 4 drops lavender essential oil for hair nourishing