I remember as a little kid when dried apples were a really healthy snack option that you weren’t too excited to eat. Fast forward 20 years and it has become a rare and yummy treat for me! What happened? Well, you know the saying “Baby Changes Everything?” Well, “Cancer Changes Everything,” too. This marked the beginning of my Dehydrator experiment…

When I attended the Living Foods Institute during my cancer treatment a few years ago I was first introduced to the dehydrator concept. A dehydrator looks like an oven, but it functions by using low heat and circulating air to pull moisture out of food. Often, many raw foodists keep their dehydrators at a temperature below 112 degrees in order to preserve the enzymes, or living quality of the food. This also helps maintain the vitamin  and mineral content of the raw food.

The downside to a dehydrator, is your food takes a LONG time to dry. Expect a minimum of 12 hours for some foods but over 24 hours if you’re drying fruits or veggies to a crunchy consistency like this recipe calls for. For this reason, it is usually a special occasion for me to use my dehydrator.

The dehydrator I have is made by Nesco, and you can find a variety of these to choose from HERE.  It is good for basic food dehydrating, but if you are dehydrating often or are planning on becoming a raw foodist, I recommend a sturdier and higher functioning Excalibur Dehydrator. These are much pricier but worth the splurge if you’re going to use it often.

Apples make a delicious dehydrated treat! The best part is that the longer you dehydrate them, the crunchier they become. The last batch I made tasted almost like the freeze-dried variety you can buy at the grocery store.

Zucchini make AWESOME dehydrated chips. You can also add different flavoring to it to give them a different flare. Last week I made them and added oregano and sea salt.

Apple or Zucchini Chips:

Slice apples or zucchinis into very thin slices. The thinner the slices, the faster they will dehydrate and the crunchier they get. Using a food processor to slice can speed this process up.  Line the slices up side-by- side in dehydrator, select temperature and dehydrate for at least 24 hours. Apples may take longer than the zucchini so make them on separate trays in your dehydrator in order to remove a tray and allow the others to keep drying. I recommend cutting several apples and several zucchini at a time to make the 24 hour wait worth it! I promise you will LOVE the finished product!