Confessional: I Heart My Dehydrator
From time to time I'd like to blog what I call a "confessional". I see no better way to purify my soul than to expose really embarrassing details about my life to the many people reading this blog. I confess I heart my dehydrator and I'm addicted to using it. I bought an Excalibur MacDaddy nine-tray dehydrator back in the day when I had a full time gig with a holiday bonus and all. It's wonderful for making, eating and giving holiday goodies.
What it does: it works by "cooking" food at low temperatures of heat for a long period of time in order to remove moisture from food. Raw Foodists like them because you can set the nob to 115 degrees and therefore valuable living enzymes remain intact.
I use it to make all my "quotation foods" like gluten and dairy free "bread", "cookies" and "crackers". Even though my initial investment was just under $250.00 (including shipping), over the years, it has saved me a lot of money. I don't buy a lot of processed, over-priced, packaged foods. Plus I can make adjustments to suit my tastes.
When I'm attempting to be healthy I consume a lot of green juices and smoothies. Drinking cold drinks is a lot more appealing in the warmer months. So to get all those great veggies down I will simply take a favorite green smoothie (like kiwi-kale-apple) and make it very thick. I might also add some ground flax seed to thicken it a bit. I simply dump that mixture on a tray covered with a Teflon sheet, dehydrate, break it up into pieces and it becomes convenient little superfood crackers.
Sarma Melngailis and Mathew Kenney's book Raw Food/RealWorld: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow has some of the best recipes for dehydrating. During the holidays I make and give out a lot of their macaroons, granola and cookies. Being that the recipes are both gluten and dairy-free they also make the perfect dish to bring to holiday potlucks or those cookie exchange parties.
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