Produce Abuse

Amongst the many, many things I brought back from my childhood home, two have probably won out in terms of usefulness. Even though I’ve loved looking through old photos and adding items to my holiday decoration collection, my juicer and food dehydrator would have to top the list for best finds. They also explain why produce isn’t lasting very long in our house anymore!

While we just broke out the dehydrator yesterday, we’ve already gotten to work making some tasty snacks.

We are running out of fruit and veggies (yet again) but we did have some apples in the house. After a quick dip in lemon juice, they landed in the dehydrator for about 6 hours before they turned into a delicious and healthy snack.

I can’t wait to experiment with more fruits and veggies. Most exciting, perhaps, is that we are going to experiment with making our own beef jerky – we both love it, but the costs at the supermarket are quite prohibitive!

Even though we are just beginning our experiments with the dehydrator, anyone who follows me on Twitter or Instagram can attest to my love of using my juicer. It was originally a Christmas gift years ago and was sent to the back of a cupboard soon after. But now look at all the colorful creations I’m coming up with!

Ok, I’ll admit the last one is a bit sketchy, but it tasted amazing! Here are a few of my favorite combinations so far:

• red cabbage, celery, carrot, ginger, apple
• blueberry, grape, apple
• kale, carrot, celery, apple, beet
• spinach, kale, carrot, celery, apple, ginger
• carrot, pineapple, ginger

If I add enough fruit, I can manage to get Brian to drink some, though he still prefers straight apple juice over everything else. He cringes a bit every time he sees me packing in the veggies!

Do any of you juice or dry your own foods? I’d love to hear some favorite blends/techniques!