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.
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.
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.
Afterwards, I coated the zucchini chips with this marinade, and covered it, and placed them in the refrigerator overnight.
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.
- 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)
- 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.
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.
