I decided not to add gelatin to my recipe because when I used the jello shots they disentigrated into liquid goo before my turtle could eat them. The food seems to hold together better without the gelatin, in my opinion. I toss mine in while they are still frozen, but not all turtles will eat frozen food. I don't think it would be a problem to throw in room-temperature food, so long as you don't overfeed (the stuff will make a big mess and your filter won't get it).
Here's what I did:
I cut up a banana and blended it into a liquid in the blender. (A food processor would be better because you wouldn't have to add so much water.) I added a steamed sweet potato and blended that up. Then I added about a 1/4 cup of apple peel, and about a cup of water. Then I added about a cup of moist turtle food (I'm looking for the brand I had so I can provide a link). Then I added some baby shrimp for taste. I ground up her HBH brand "Turtle Bites" in a coffee grinder, and added that to the mix. I also added calcium powder and a turtle multivitamin. I would have liked to have added some red leaf lettuce and other veggies, but I didn't have them on hand.
As for the coffee grinder, once I was done with it, I cleaned it out with some disenfectant spray and ran some stale cereal through it to clean out the last bits of pellets. Then I disinfected it again. I think that it will be fine now and not contaminated with fishmeal.
Now the stuff is in the freezer, and I plan to cut it into head-sized chunks once it's frozen. She seems to like the prototype mixture already, so I think this will work out well.
My point is, if your turtle won't eat veggies, the trick is to blend up a bunch of RES-approved veggies and add something they like to the mix so that it smells like pellets or shrimp or tuna, etc. That way, they think they're eating their favorite food when in reality they are getting the vitamins they need for good health.
