Saturday, March 05, 2011

Look what I dehydrated!

I asked for a food dehydrator for Christmas and I got one! I hadn't had the chance to pull it out yet or even think about it, but finally a week or so ago, I thought I'd fire it up and start seeing what I could do with it. I've never used one before, so I was pretty clueless. Did a little bit of asking around and research on the ever-present internet.
First, was some venison jerky. I didn't love this. But Adam liked it. I'm not crazy about jerky though in general.
Next was some fruit leather (made from unsweetened applesauce) and pineapple tidbits. The fruit leather was good. I'm pretty sure I didn't share it with anyone else. I ate nearly 1/4 of it right off of the trays while it was still warm. The boys really liked the pineapple tidbits.


I've also done a batch of apple slices. (sorry, no pic......it's apple slices, c'mon, not much to the imagination). The boys and I have been eating a lot of these.

Overall, it's a fun little machine to have. It does seem like it takes a REALLY long time to dehydrate things. Most of this stuff took 8 - 11 hours. The dehydrator that I have is one of the lower ones on the market, but it does the job. It is louder than what I expected it to be. It's nice to know that the food is healthy. For example, the fruit leather would be comparative to a Fruit Roll-up, except that I know there was no sugar added or a bunch of other preservatives or other "stuff." Also, the boys like the pineapple tidbits and apple slices so much that they feel like it's a treat. The next thing I think I'll try is yogurt leather!