Weekly Meal Plan 1.27.21

Day 1: Minestrone soup, Crusty bread

Day 2: Fried rice with turnips, golden beets, sweet potatoes, and celeriac

Day 3: Homemade pizza, Cabbage salad

Day 4: Super Bowl chili

Day 5: Baked potatoes topped with leftover chili

Day 6: Tomato basil soup (from frozen supply), Cheese quesadillas

Day 7: Tuna patties, Fruit smoothie

Notes: Dehydrator Fun!

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While I was doing my meal planning this week, I came across some apples that we picked in September/October that were all wrinkled on the outside (see picture below). I cut one in half and it wasn’t rotten at all, just a little soft on the outside.

Apparently, I didn’t store the apples correctly and the lack of moisture caused the skin to dry out. Well, there is no way I could get my family to eat these apples and I really didn’t want to throw them away. Then I remembered my dehydrator. I just got one last year and had not tried it yet.  I had put it away, thinking I wouldn’t need it until this summer.  But if these apples were already starting to dry out, why couldn’t I finish the process? So that is exactly what I did!

Using my dehydrator was actually very easy and a lot of fun. The real reward though was the end result, which was super delicious. I cored the apples, then sliced them about 1/4 inch thick, and tossed with lemon juice, vanilla extract, nutmeg, and cinnamon. After spending 6 hours in the dehydrator at 145 degrees F, the apples came out nice and sweet and were totally addicting. We actually ate our first batch all up within a few minutes!

I’m now on a dehydrating kick and have made several more batches of apples. A perfect snack to send with the kiddos for school! Next I’ll be tackling citrus. Dried orange and lemon slices are perfect to nibble or store for later to slip into a cup of hot tea for a citrus infused flavor. My husband is eager to try making jerky. And I’m going crazy making a list of things I want to try this summer, including dried berries and different flavored fruit leathers.

Dehydration, just like canning and freezing, is another tool in my arsenal to preserve foods when they are abundantly available and then eat later. One more checkmark on my journey to eat local and seasonally and also avoid food waste.

If you are interested in dehydrating, start looking for a machine now so you have something before the summer harvest. I searched for quite a while to find one secondhand, but there was minimal stock on the market and nothing that I felt was food safe. I did a lot of research to find just the one that I wanted, and settled on this Cosori. It is mostly stainless steel, the racks can go in the dishwasher, it is large enough to make big batches or multiple types of food at a time, it is energy efficient, you can see your food through the glass pane, and it is easy to program the time and temperature.  So far I love it!Check out the pictures below of the apple dehydrating process and my Cosori dehydrator: