Ron Popeil taught me well

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

When I was a kid, I loved watching infomercials. My parents thought I was nutty, but I really enjoyed watching Ron Popeil promote various kitchen gadgets (or spray on hair) to the masses. My absolute favourite was the food dehydrator. I realistically knew that my family was never going to buy one, but I was intrigued by the "fruit roll ups" and jerky nonetheless. So you can imagine my excitement when I got this...

My very own dehydrator!
(Eric making good use of the box)
I opted for an Excalibur dehydrator (purchased from the lovely folks at Upaya Naturals) in the "apartment sized" 4 tray model. I had a credit (from my doomed Sun Warrior purchase) and I thought it would be a cool gadget to have. I've been experimenting more and more with Raw Food and I decided the dehydrator would open up my options!

My first experiment was Raw carob-cherry cookies from The Complete Book of Raw Food (you'll remember that this is the book Joey got me for my birthday)

They were delicious!! I was happy to find a new use for carob. Dried cherries are delightful and the centers are made from fresh cherries and honey. I also love that they have ZUCCHINI in them!! They were really easy to make and incredibly delicious. Joey really enjoyed them too.

As you can imagine, dehydrating takes time. Things don't "cook" very quickly at 105 degrees, so you need to plan ahead. That's fine by me!! I know that I'm going to learn more about the nuances of my dehydrator as I use it more, but overall I'm really happy that I got it. Next project: Corn taco shells.

Since we're talking colour this week, I thought I would share yesterday's colourful eats with you.

Breakfast: Scrambled tofu with spinach, 1/2 an avocado & orange juice
I've never "scrambled" tofu before, but this was delicious!! It's basically tofu with onion, garlic, a bit of oil, curry powder and salt. You break up the tofu into chunks, sautee for a little bit and voila! I usually go for sweet breakfasts rather than savory, so this was a nice change. It didn't take much time to make and it kept me full for HOURS!! I will definitely be making this a staple in my breakfast rotation.

Lunch: Cauliflower, broccoli, & veggie burger with cherries & blueberries

Dinner: Wild Rice soup with sweet potato croutons, cauliflower, cucumber slices and walnut crackers (recipe from Meghan's class)

The soup wasn't what we expected, but it was a good meal nonetheless. Joey and I decided that the cauliflower was probably some of the best we've ever tasted!! Yay for the Farmers Market - I can't wait to go again this week!

How are you doing with colour this week? Any good dehydrator recipes/books to share?

7 comments:

39 To Go! said...

mmmmm It all looks so good!

Every Gym's Nightmare said...

I'm baking an acron squash right now- thats probably the birghtest thing Ive had all week. i tend to eat brown stuff a lot- bread, nut butter, oats. time to liven it up!

lynn said...

I loooove scramble tofu. Amazing what that little white block can do! Thanks for your comment on my blog too! My mother-in-law has Crohn's so I find what you blog very interesting!

GF Gidget said...

You got a real live dehydrator! YAY!!!!! A-MAZINGNESS!
My meals normally revolve around color. I even put spinach in my oatmeal! hahaha

Becki said...

YAY!
So happy that you finally got your dehydrator that you have wanted!
I'm excited to see what else you make with it!

Lauren said...

Thanks for the kind words on my blog! :) It's so wonderful having such special friends from the blog world!

I can't wait to see what other goodies you make with your dehydrator! I might have to dust mine off soon!

That tofu scramble looks great!

Jess said...

Um YUM! I have to get to your house asap to try all these goodies!!! haha:) I LOVE YOU!

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