Dehydrated Decadence (or My Love Affair with my Dehydrator)

I may have mentioned before - I adore my dehydrator. This contraption (Nesco 500 W Dehydrator Kit, which only cost about sixty dollars from Amazon and is one of the highest rated of these machines on the market) is positively wonderful. Banana, zucchini, and apple chips, sweet potato crisps, homemade raisins, all in addition to dried peas, green beans, cantaloupes, pears... basically anything you can think of from the produce section of your grocery store is suddenly and majestically transformed just by virtue of having its water removed. The best part, which I was quite pleased my parents have finally discovered, is that by using your own dehydrator, you discover the concentrated flavors of these fruits and vegetables without their various textures perplexing your tongue. And they make fantastic baking additions as well as healthy, nutritious, and satisfyingly crunchy/chewy snacks.

After a few weeks of haphazardly collecting whatever has looked tasty at the market and drying it, filling mason jar upon mason jar with a variety of delectable dried treats, I decided to play. Like I do.

Now, if you don't have a dehydrator, you can purchase these fruits already dried from a store and I'm pretty sure this recipe will still serve as a yummy, healthy treat - you might simply be missing some of the extra flavor layers that drying your own fruit avails you of.

They look a teensy bit like meatballs...
which also gave me a great idea for an April Fool's meal of these on top of a bed of melon "noodles". 

Take That, Larabar!
(makes 15-20)

4 heaping spoonfuls of unsalted almond butter
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup homemade raisins (if purchasing, go for jumbo golden)
6 slices dried pear
1 cup dried tart cherries

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Combine almond butter and cherries in food processor and puree until blended smooth. Add cranberries and raisins, puree again. Add pears last and make sure they're well combined.
Spoon ~1/2 tbsp sized dollops of the blended dried fruits and roll in your hands into little balls. (The next time I made these, I will probably make the balls smaller. Go for a size you'd prefer for just popping in your mouth - bite-sized, you know.)
Place the little delectable bundles onto the cookie sheet; they can be close together so long as they don't touch. They won't expand.
Bake for ~8 minutes. Remove.
Now... I ate two of these warm from the oven and they were... amazing. But I also put a few in the refrigerator and packed them in my bento box for later, and they were equally tasty cold and room temperature - although I did notice that different flavors came through at different temperatures.

I recommend these whole-heartily. Really. Have a peace. Share them with your friends. They are, frankly, wonderful.

Cheers!

Take That, Larabar! Continued!
(makes 15)

3 heaping spoonfuls unsalted peanut butter
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup jumbo raisins
1 handful sliced almonds

Same as before. Preheat to 350 F. Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Puree the peanut butter and dried fruit in a food processor. Spoon 1/2 tsp sized dollops out, roll them in your hands, lay them out evenly on the cookie sheet. If you bake these for 15 minutes instead of 8, they brown and look just like cookies. Have fun tricking your friends. :)

Zucchini Bread

Thanksgiving is a time for giving thanks for all the love in your life by feeding the people you love with delicious food. This year, I brought a zucchini bread of my own machinations to make up for a rather embarrassing incident with a rice crispy treat attempt. Don’t ask. 

Healthy Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
6 egg whites
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup Splenda baking sugar* (You can use 1/2 cup sugar if you want, but this tastes just as good.)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups shredded zucchini (~3 zucchini, depending on size)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins (thompsons seedless are great, or the big goldens)
1/4 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly coat two 9x5 loaf pans with cooking spray (Baker’s Joy is what I use). 

In a large bowl, add the egg whites, oil, applesauce, sugar sub, and vanilla.  Using an electric mixer, beat the mixture on low speed until thick and foamy.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. 

For the zucchini, I used the thick holed end of a wide cheese grater. When you get down to the end, use a corn cob sticker or a fork to hold the zucchini to avoid chopping your fingers along with the mix. This is not a meaty bread.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the egg white mixture and turn the electric mixer onto medium speed until all is well blended. Turn off the mixer. The rest is by hand.

Fold in the shredded zucchini, then the walnuts, then the raisins and cranberries. Stir with a spoon or spatula until well combined.

The batter should be thick and not runny. If you need to thicken it, add whole wheat flour 1 tbsp at a time until satisfied.

Pour half of the batter into each prepared loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick stuck into the center of each loaf comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

Let the bread cool in the pans on a wire rack. I used those predone loaf pans from the store this round because I was travelling with the bread and I wanted something with a cover. The ones at Ralphs come in three packs and are very handy. Just let the bread cool in those, stick the plastic top on, and you’re done.

If you’re using a normal loaf pan, let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn the loaves out of the pans onto the rack to let them cool completely.

Each loaf should make 9 1-inch slices. Delicious.