I have been dreaming of an Excalibur dehydrator for years, but somehow never done anything about it. I added it to my birthday list and recently received this big, spacious, black machine. Well ok, it´s maybe not the most beautiful machine in my kitchen and it takes up a precious space, but it totally gives the kitchen a new dimention. I am totally in love with it and it makes it so much easier to eat healthy food.

Yesterday I made some fresh juices and had a lot of juice pulp on my counter and not knowing what to do with it. I usually don’t use the pulp myself and just give it to the birds. But last night I blended it with chia seeds, put it in my dehydrator and woke up to ready-made delicious chia seed crackers, so thin and crispy. They taste really amazing and I got plenty of crackers for the price of approximately 2 dl. chia seeds and some electric power.

For the last days I have been experiencing with my kids. We have been dehydrating different fruits and vegetable and the kids love it, at least most of it. They were not crazy about the kale chips, but that is one of my favorite. My 4-year-old niece came for a visit and ate it like candy.

But, why shall we dry out the food we eat? Well actually I think we shouldn´t. If we would live on natural foods; like fruits and vegetable, that are filled with nutrition and liquid to transfer it through the body, this is by far the best food we can consume. If our diet was mostly filled with that we would not need or want to dehydrate anything. But what about all the breads, crackers, biscuits, pizza dough, meats, snacks and other things we are consuming on a daily basis? Actually these products not only dehydrate our body, but also steal enzymes, vitamins. minerals and other important factors that our bodies need to digest it. Plus, the high heat used to make many of these products and the complex process it goes through, does change its natural structure and can confuse the digestive process – it is here where the dehydrator comes in handy!!

When you dehydrate on a low temperature (42-46 degrees C/107-115 degrees F) you don´t lose the nutritional value from the food and all enzymes are still active, that makes it easier for your digestion to digest, absorb and utilize nutrition from the food you eat. The flavor gets more intense and you have a great variety of healthy, nutritious food that is a substitute for all the unhealthy choices out there.

It is very simple to dehydrate all kinds of goodies and actually it is a lot of fun. Only thing you need to be aware of is, that it takes time to dehydrate. I make recipes at night, put them in my dehydrator and wake up with a delicious dried fruit to use on my morning pudding or crackers ready for my pesto, avocado and onion topping. Sometimes before I go to work, I blend together; cauliflower, pine nuts, garlic, fresh herbs, sundried tomatoes and spices and make a delicious pizza crust for dinner.

If you have vegetable or fruits that are about to spoil, it is a great saving tip to dehydrate it and eat as snack and it is probably one of the best vitamin and mineral “tablet” on the market.
Do you make your own almond milk? Why not make delicious chocolate cookies out of the almond pulp.
Or make crackers out of the juice pulp, – this fiber rich indigestible part of all plant foods works as a broom and cleans out and absorbs toxins or old stagnant waste from your digestive tract.