Kiki Loves Friday Foods ~ Dehydrated Fruit!

Fruit!! My family loves fruit, does yours? This past weekend, I decided to make my family a healthy snack. A little prep time and a day in the dehydrator and I have a quick, healthy snack... and they're perfect for on the go, just sitting around or when you need to save on space!

For Apples and Bananas:

Materials:
Dehydrator
Fruit
Water and Lemon juice
Knife (sharp)
Cutting board



1) Prepare a one cup water and 1 TBS lemon juice solution.

2) Thinly slice your fruit (1/4" or thinner) while continually adding it to your water solution or dunking it in. By doing this it will keep your fruit from browning excessively.




 3) Remove fruit from solution and place on your dehydrator's rack. Space the pieces as close together without touching. This will ensure the edges will get dry and the pieces won't stick together. Depending on how many racks your dehydrator has will depend on how much fruit you can dehydrate at a time. I was able to do two racks of each bananas and apples.

OPTIONAL: For the apples, I sprinkled a bit of cinnamon and sugar on them.

4) If your dehydrator comes with a selected temperature, use what is recommended. Mine said 350 degrees and I let it go for nearly 12 hours. The fruit may be a bit chewy but as they cool, they will harden more.

 

All of my fruit was gone by the end of the next day. I promised my family to make 'fruit chips' more often... as well as some other things! We also love Jerky! But that will have to be a different post.

Feel free to tell us what your favorite thing to dehydrate is!

Fruit Facts:

• Apples are in the rose family!
• A banana is actually a berry (never would have guessed!)
• Apples are fat free, sodium free and cholesterol free
• Bananas are radioactive... from the amount of potassium
• One apple take the energy of 50 leaves for it to grow
• A banana can actually cheer you up 
• two pounds of apples will make a 9" round pie... WOW

Until next recipe...