I will say that I’ve already prepared the yumalicious dehydrated food that I’ll be featuring. I challenged myself to make something with onions. I will say the raw dehydrated food I made turned out amazingly well. In fact, I had some of it this morning. I’m still not finished writing the post. How hard can it be to write a post? Well… due to my tendency to write about the benefits of the various foods I prepare and then link to sources, that backs up what I’ve written sometimes it can take a little while.
However, I will be posting my challenge for ‘dehydrate something with onions’ for this Friday, so stop by and see what I’ve made and join in if you like. I look forward to see what Jennifer posts.
Unlike last year, my honeybees won’t be shipped to me through the mail, I’ll be picking them up locally. The main reason for going local is that I’m not dragging my feet on whether I’m ready for honeybees. I am! Last year, by the time I’d made up my mind, most of the package bees were sold out. I still am pleased where I purchased my honeybees. Their customer service and the honeybees received were amazing, but I’m thrilled that this year I can support a local beekeeper.
This year, I’m eager to add more to the four acres where we reside.
Also new this year, is the amount of hives I’ll have. Instead of one, I’ll have at least three hives on our property and I might acquire more… we’ll see!
My daughter has a high metabolism. In that way, she takes after myself. I stay active so I burn through calories very quickly. Over the years, my metabolism has slowed down (slightly) but it’s still fairly high since my activity level is still active.
Being that she can burn through food, I make sure that the snacks available in our home are delicious and nutritious. One way to do this is to make raw food snacks in my dehydrator. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can also receive similar results in an oven, just turn it on the lowest setting.
The most recent raw food snack I made for her are these raw zucchini chips. In fact, they are still in the Excalibur dehydrator.
Excalibur: Raw food snacks
Last evening, I made a few flat breads (one will be featured later this week) and I also made zucchini chips. As you can see the Excalibur dehydrator is almost full. Only three empty trays left. Naturally the kitchen was filled with the aroma of the flatbreads and the chips. Throughout the evening, I caught my daughter peering into the Excalibur dehydrator willing them to be finished. Yes, she knows that it takes hours for the food to be dehydrated. Food dehydrators dries the food on low heat. For ‘raw food’ I don’t turn the heat past 110 F.
Check out the zucchini chips! They were very easy to prepare. Zucchini makes the perfect base for chips. It has a mild flavor and readily absorbs whatever it’s marinated with.
While some people are adamant that you need a mandolin slicer to cut your zucchini chips finely, I disagree. You don’t really need to use one if you have a sharp knife. Just pay attention and cut thin slices.
Zucchini slices
You see! I did a fairly decent job cutting the zucchini into thin slices. I used s sharp knife. I do have a stainless steel mandolin slicer; sometimes I use it but usually reach for my knife.
I took out my mortar and pestle and ground up herbs and spices; sea salt, turmeric, black seeds, parsley, rosemary, etc., The smell that they gave off while they were being ground made me want to eat the herbs and spices. Yes, they smelled that good. However, I showed restraint and let them just kept pounding everything into fine dust.
Raw food snacks: Zucchini chips
Afterwards, I coated the zucchini chips with this marinade, and covered it, and placed them in the refrigerator overnight.
Raw food snacks: Zucchini chips ready to be dehydrated
Early this morning, I pulled them out of the refrigerator and placed them on my Excalibur trays. I filled three trays and then placed them into the dehydrator.
I’m sorry, but I guessed at the measurement for the recipe I’ve included below. I rarely measure ingredients nor do I follow recipes. I just toss in what sounds good.
Raw Zucchini Chips
Recipe Type: Raw food snack
Cuisine: Raw food
Author: Opal @ Imcelebratinglife.com
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Delicious and healthy raw food snack.
Ingredients
2 medium zucchini finely sliced
sea salt to taste
1 tsp raw organic coconut oil
1 tsp black seeds
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp turmeric (turmeric has a slightly bitter taste, if you don’t like that try curry or another spice)
Instructions
Place the sliced zucchini chips into a large bowl with the coconut oil. Stir thoroughly making sure all the zucchini is coated.
In another bowl combine all the spices (my spices were ground in my mortar and pestle)
Add the spices/herbs to your zucchini bowl. Make sure you coat all the zucchini slices.
Marinate overnight
Drain the water from the bowl
Place marinated zucchini chips into your Food dehydrator.
Dehydrate at 140 for one hour, then reduce the temperature to 115. Dehydrate until they are dry.
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I’ll be posting what I did with my raw food challenge on Thursday. Yes, it’s already been made and I’m still working on the post. Check out this post on my Dehydrator challenge and join in if you like. For the first challenge, I will be giving away a raw food book.
