Dried zucchini chips

Zucchini is not readily available where I am, so I asked my mom to bring some back to me when she was visiting from Peninsula Malaysia. She brought back quite a lot, and the lil' fella may turn into a ZUCCHINI eating them everyday :D. So instead of feeding him zucchini everyday, I decided to dehydrate some so that I can keep them stored in the fridge and use them in his meal or for baking later on. I added some of the dehydrated chips when cooking his congee and it worked well. The zucchini tastes exactly like the fresh ones.

 

1. Firstly, wash the zucchini thoroughly. Thinly slice them to about 2mm thickness.

2. Dip them in a vinegar solution (1 cup water + 1tbsp apple cider vinegar).

  

 

3. Season them with sea salt and black pepper (optional).

4. Arrange them on dehydrator food trays.

 

 

 

 

5. Adjust the temperature to 60deg C.

6. Turn on the dehydrator.

7. 6 hours later ....

 

 



 



Store in an air-tight container.

It will last for 2-3 weeks in room temperature,

1month in fridge

3months in freezer

 

Immediately, I tried adding them into the lil' fella's congee to find out how it differs from fresh ones. Surprisingly, it tastes exactly the same like the fresh ones! How great! You can also do the same with tomato, pumpkin, sweet potato and onion too!

 

 

 

For info on this dehydrator, please refer here.

Making baby fruit snacks with dehydrator

Commercial 'baby' snacks are junk food in disguise. Read this if you're one of those moms who buy 'baby' snacks for your little one. I agree a lot with Christine Haskell. Many mommies buy puffs, drops, cookies labeled as 'baby' snack because they are convenient, less messy and they last long (definitely longer than a fresh banana). But unfortunately, they are not healthy. Quoted from Christine's blog, 'Take "puffs" for example. Out of three brands of puffs I've looked at, the sugar varies between 0.5 to 2 grams of sugar per serving, with very little nutritional value. In babies (over 6 months at least) who have limited tummy room, every single thing that goes in their mouth needs to be packed with nutrition, especially since anything other than their formula or breast milk (which is still the bulk of their diet) displaces the nutritionally-packed liquid food. Hence, nutrition? Super important'.

 

Instead of spending money on buying baby puffs or snacks that's loaded with sugar and stuffs to make them last longer, I invested in a dehydrator. I fell in love with it the first time I used it, and this post was longggg overdue!! I should have bought it way earlier. I bought the dehydrator when the little fella turned 1. So what was he snacking on prior to that? I gave him steamed carrots, roasted pumpkin, sweet potato, banana, cooked rice, cooked pasta, baked him muffin, cakes and bread. But these doesn't last long. The dehydrated fruit or veg snacks last for at least 1-2 weeks if dehydrated well and kept in an air-tight container. Actually, I don't just dehydrate the fruit or veg for the baby, I eat them myself (non-stop) as snacks, but it's ok, dehydrated tomato makes healthy snacks :p. I have also been using dehydrated fruit in baking.

 

Just Health Sandakan sells this fruit dehydrator. It's a premium grade dehydrator with FDA-approved materials for its food trays. Send an email to justhealthsandakan@gmail.com if you wish to find out more about the dehydrator. I also arrange for group buy for moms keen to purchase this dehydrator at a cheaper rate. Your may refer to this for further info on this dehydrator.

 

Took me 5hours for them to get to the right texture.



The baby's snacks this morning

This would make great gift for my MIL.

 

 

I've chopped these up and added them into my ...

 

 

Strawberry and  mango oat cookies