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Posts Tagged Excalibur Dehydrator

Take Your Temperature

Oct 27

Posted by Shari B. in Adventures in Dehydrating, Cooking, Handy Kitchen Tools | 2 Comments

Hi friends!

I’ve had a topic that I’ve wanted to cover for a while and seeing how this has been the week of bizarre weather extremes in Colorado (record heat on Monday, then snow yesterday and near record lows this morning), I figured it’s the perfect time to talk about TEMPERATURE!  But instead of outdoors, I’m talking about in some of your appliances!

When I work in a client’s kitchen, the first thing I do when I’m there is test the accuracy of their oven.  The last thing I want is to burn their food if I think I’m cooking something in their oven at 350° only to find out that it’s actually much higher than that.  You’d be surprised how the dials tell a completely different story than the actual temp inside your oven.

You can find an inexpensive hanging thermometer that you can pop right onto a rack in your oven and leave it there.

You can also determine “hot spots” in your oven this way as well by moving it to different locations.  This would explain why that batch of cookies you made burned on the back right side of the cookie sheet and the front left ones were perfect.  :)   You’ll find that if you have a convection oven the temp may jump around a bit as the fan turns on and off.  If I set my oven at 325° often times it actually registers on the thermometer at 350°.

It also helps you to know if your oven preheats in the amount of time it says it does.  Just because your oven beeps that the oven has reached the desired temp doesn’t actually mean it has.  I’ve had some client ovens signal preheated when still 100° away.  So place your thermometer and then compare.  Is it at the expected temp when it tells you it’s ready?

Don’t just stop at your oven though.  Do you have a toaster oven?  I do.  And I used to make the mistake of trusting the dial on the front. Until something came out of it TOTALLY charred (and not in that tasty ‘blackened Cajun fish’ kind of way).  It hadn’t occurred to me until then to check my toaster oven and BOY was it ever OFF.  I’m talking almost 200 DEGREES off.  I thought I was cooking at 325° and it was over 500°!

Another good appliance to test is your dehydrator, if you have one.  Many raw food enthusiasts use dehydrators to dry their food below certain temperatures in order to preserve the live enzymes in the food.  (Depending on which expert you follow, some say that is below 105°, some say 114°, and others say below 118°.)  So if you want your kale chips dehydrating at 105° and they are actually at 130°, you no longer have raw chips.

My dehydrator’s dial is anything but accurate when it comes to determining where the white dot actually is on the temp range.  In this photo, I’d figured I was set at about 108°:

But I was actually much closer to 120°:

To test your dehydrator, rather than using an oven thermometer you’ll want to use an instant read thermometer that will give you a smaller range.

And last but not definitely not least, you should also check your refrigerator and freezer temperatures rather than trusting what the built-in appliance thermometer may be telling you.   A recent job I was on found me working with a fridge/freezer that just didn’t want to stay as cold as they should.  In the Food Safety world there is something called the DANGER ZONE that you don’t want your food sitting at for too long and that’s between 40° and 140°.  In that range bacteria can multiply in phenomenal numbers.  So you want your fridge to be under 40° but not freezing (ideally 33-37°).  And ideally your freezer should read at 0-3°.  Otherwise you might have a few million (billion, trillion) more ‘guests’ joining you with dinner than you may have anticipated!

Do you check your appliance temperatures on a regular basis?

– Shari B.

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Stop by Cindy’s blog today and check out this delightful post about her visit with a good friend.  ;)

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Shari Becht is a Certified Natural Chef, Fit Living Coach and ACE Certified Personal Trainer.  She is extremely passionate about teaching people how they can take steps to fit healthy habits into their busy lives. 

If you or someone you know could use some help learning how to eat more healthfully, achieve a healthy bodyweight or fit more “FIT” into their lives, please feel free to email her at shari [at] fitfeat  [dot] com.  For more information, click here.

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It’s All Good

Sep 16

Posted by Shari B. in Adventures in Dehydrating, Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Hi FitPeeps!  It’s FRIDAY!  Wahooo!

It won’t be a ‘relaxing’ weekend on this end at all – for me, it will be ALL ABOARD the BUSY TOWN EXPRESS.  Lots going on!

How about some recap on eats and feats?  When I left off yesterday, I’d just had some Sunrise Juice.  And the rest of the day was just as good!  A bit later for my real breakfast I had some buckwheat groat cereal (previously sprouted and dehydrated) in a mug with almond milk.  You don’t need a lot of these – they are very filling.

Mid-morning I munched on the spicy kale chips I’d made in the dehydrator.  I might have to make more today because that batch is already GONE!  For the record – kale chips in a dehydrator just seem to taste better than those I make in my regular oven.

For lunch I had some leftover Autumn Ragu.

Mid-afternoon I had the simplest, but oh-so-good smoothie:  1 scoop chocolate egg protein powder, 4 oz water, 4 oz almond milk, 1/2 frozen banana and a small squeeze of chocolate syrup.  Blend that baby up and try not to suck it all down in 5 seconds flat.

For dinner I had an inside-out egg sandwich, where the eggs become the ‘bread’ and the ‘bread’ is the filling.  My bread this time was the one I made earlier in the day in my dehydrator, using the pulp from my morning juice.

I’m still up in the air on whether I love the bread or not.

I think I need to try it in something else to decide for sure.

After dinner we ran a few errands and then settled in to watch Jersey Shore.  And I had a few Milk Duds. :D

I took yesterday off from working out.  It just felt like it should be a rest day.  I’ll have one more recap for you to wrap up our cleaner eating challenge!

Hope you are having a FANTASTIC day!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

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Sinus Clearing Snack (or Dehydrator Onion Rings)

Jan 15

Posted by Shari B. in Adventures in Dehydrating, Recipes | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Wow, I’ve missed you guys!  How have you all been?  I’m getting a TON accomplished on my project list, but I have to admit it’s been a little tough to stay away from blogging!  So I thought I’d pop in today to say hello and share a few fun things from the last 9 days (and at the end I’ll talk about that snack referenced in the title).

We had a pretty good snowstorm and some FRIGID subzero temps hit us last Sunday into Monday, so I had my first sketchy (and S-L-O-W) commute to school of this winter season.  But what a gorgeous drive it was.  I took this photo from my cell phone driving along at about 50 mph so it’s not the best quality, but it’s still pretty.  I never get tired of looking at the scenery here.  Check out all the colors!

We’re in the Therapeutic module at school and learning about cooking for diabetes/blood sugar control and candida at the moment.  Yesterday my improv recipe assignment was Kale with Arame, Ginger and Sesame.  It may not be the most colorful dish, but it turned out very nicely and felt very warming from all of the fresh ginger. I left the kale leaves raw, cutting them into very thin ribbons (known as a chiffonade cut) and then lightly dressed them with sesame oil and tamari (use your hands to “massage” the dressing into the kale – this will wilt it slightly and help to increase it’s digestibility).  I cut the kale stalks into tiny pieces and sautéed them with grated ginger (about 2 TBSP), minced garlic, sesame oil, tamari and vegetable stock (to keep it from sticking without using too much oil).  Then I added the soaked and drained arame (seaweed) to the sauté.

Using the raw kale as the “bed” I then topped it with the sauté mixture followed by some toasted sesame seeds.  Extremely mineral rich and full of fiber.

Some of the other photoless recipes I’ve done with our improv assignments have been:

Spicy Gingered Bok Choy with Arame and Goji Berries
Baked Mung Bean and Brown Basmati Burgers
Curried Adzuki Bean Soup
Skillet Tempeh Reuben with vegan Thousand Island

I am enjoying this segment of school a lot.  I’ve had the opportunity to work on recipes alone which has been a nice change.  I can’t believe how fast time has been flying by.  We only have 6 weeks left!

So yesterday for a snack, our Kitchen Manager set out some DELICIOUS no-fry onion rings that he’d made in the dehydrator.  They were insanely spicy and insanely good!  He listed off the ingredients he’d used but no amounts so I came home last night and tried to recreate it.

Now let me warn you first:

1. These are CONCENTRATED onions so they pack some punch.  Not only will your house smell like onions while they dehydrate, but your BREATH will rival that of a dragon’s after you eat them.

2. Keep a mint handy for the sake of your friends and coworkers -OR- you may only want to eat these in the privacy of your own home.

3. If you are eating these around your significant other, make sure he/she eats them too so that you can BOTH have dragon breath.  Share the love.  One person with bad breath is no fun.  Two people cancel each other out, especially when it’s time to kiss goodnight.  ;)

4. I have a feeling these will clear out your sinuses.  Mine sure seemed more open after a few bites of these!

But the flavor of this super healthy and LIGHT snack is definitely worth the breath and the long wait during dehydrating.

Dehydrator Onion Rings

Credit for this recipe idea goes to Chef Nelson Schwab, our über-creative Kitchen Manager at Bauman.  I’m not sure if he used the same measurements or not but here is my interpretation.

  • 1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into rings
  • 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence
  • 1 tablespoon almonds, finely ground
  • 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
  • pepper to taste
  • water at the ready

Combine all ingredients except for the onions and water in a mini-chopper or Magic Bullet (or you can do this by hand in a mixing bowl – it just takes longer).  Add just enough water to create a dressing that is about the consistency of thin pancake/crepe batter.  Pour dressing into a Tupperware bowl, throw in the onion rounds, seal the lid onto the bowl, and shake well until all of the onions are well coated.

Place on a dehydrator sheet lined with either parchment paper or a Teflex liner.

Dehydrate overnight at 105 degrees and up to 20 hours or until your desired level of crispiness is reached.

Action shots!

Batter:

Onions after tossing in the batter:

Before dehydrating:

After dehydrating (amazing how tiny things get when you remove all the water!):

And time to snack:

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!  Let me know what you think if you give them a try!

(If you don’t have a dehydrator, no worries!  Bake ‘em in your oven. Start with a low temp around 250 and keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.)

Until next time,

– Shari B. =)

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A Beginner’s Adventures in Dehydrating

Aug 19

Posted by Shari B. in Adventures in Dehydrating | 10 Comments

Hey blog buds!  Hope you are having a fabulous day!

I’m sweltering in my crazy hot office (85*) but no complaints here.  You know I love to be warm!  This way I don’t even need to go to the rec center for some sauna action.  I just sit at my desk at home and let the toxins start dripping out of me while I blog!  It has been a wonderfully hot summer so far and I LOVE IT.  I hope it goes well into fall and I’d REALLY be happy with a mild winter!  The chill of last winter hasn’t fully left my bones yet!

Oddly enough it’s the complete opposite when I’m at my ‘other’ office – it’s been SO FREAKING COLD in there that I have to bring sweaters and coats to put on.  I promise you I am not exaggerating.  I’ve been FUH-REEZ-ING – goose bump city, seriously!

Office dwellers: do you have that experience at your work too?  Isn’t it amazing in this day and age when we are all trying to conserve energy that commercial buildings are kept so cold with AC?  It truly boggles my mind.

Despite all the temperature swinging going on between offices, one place that is a constant temp right now is inside my EXCALIBUR DEHYDRATOR!  Woot woot!  Finally!  I’ve wanted one for years.  And ever since Cindy mentioned almost a year ago that she’d seen one at Costco we’ve been keeping our eyes peeled, in hopes of snagging a good deal.  To no avail.  I’d also kept my eyes peeled on Craigslist for a used one (even driving all the way to Boulder and back only to have the lady NOT answer her door at the prearranged time).   But all that is now in the past because the FitFeat household recently acquired our very first dehydrator.

It’s humming along as I type, with a batch of flax seed crackers and tomato wrappers!

Rascal (my little veggie lover) likes to sniff the aroma that wafts from the machine:

Riley, on the other hand (paw), could care less.  She’s all about the sleep these days.  I appreciate that she thinks our camera charger makes a cozy pillow!  Crazy mutt…

But I digress… back to the new toy.  It was a justified addition to the kitchen (or in our case, the den) for a few reasons, one of them being that MSP will eat DRIED fruit & veggies much easier than he will eat a regular fruit & veggies.  Case in point:  today he actually asked me to pick up a mango so that we can make more dehydrated slices.  My jaw almost hit the hardwood floor.  AWESOME!  My sweetie pie likes mangoes now!

I hit up the library the day the Excalibur was due to be delivered and was fortunate to bring this book home:

I was a food prep machine that night.  I’d always wanted to try Ani’s Eggplant “Bacon”, Buckwheat Crispies and “Cheddar” Kale Chips (with cashew ‘cheez’ not real cheese).

And of course I dehydrated apples, bananas and mango for MSP:

I’ve also been experimenting with fruit leather, literally just blending up fruit, smearing it onto the flat nonstick trays and hours later, you have your own healthy fruit roll ups!

Since I wanted my first batches to be truly LIVING foods, I made sure to dehydrate only at 104 degrees and no more.  Some raw foodists (Ani Phyo included) say that things shouldn’t be heated to more than 105 degrees in order for foods to keep their ‘life force’.  Other raw enthusiasts say no more than 118 degrees.  The recipes I started with from Ani’s book all needed additional hours of dehydrating than the times that were listed.  And I live in a very dry climate.  So maybe it varies based on how many trays you had filled and the moisture content of the food on those trays.  I was using all 9 trays in mine.

On my second attempt, for the fruit leathers and some additional dried fruit, I followed the instructions that came with the appliance, which recommends fruit dry at 135 degrees (no longer considered RAW but I wasn’t terribly concerned for that batch).  And it went really well at that temp.

The batch I’m making right now I am drying at 115 degrees.  So we’ll see what happens.  Obviously I have a lot of experimenting to do.

The one thing I must say: for the Cheddar Kale Chips alone, it’s been worth the wait. If you thought I was a baked kale freak before, you should see me now.  Henceforth, kale will fondly be referred to by me as Kale Krack - because I’m thoroughly addicted.

The buckwheat groats were interesting (one word: messy), and the eggplant ‘bacon’ I need to try again before I rule it out (came out a little chewy and wouldn’t coat well).  I’m excited to try the tomato wrapper next, which is basically like a tomato ‘leather’ and then I can use that in place of a tortilla for my wraps!

KNOW BEFORE YOU BUY: A word of advice to any of you looking to get an Excalibur - it’s pretty loud.  I’m SO thankful that I read a review on Amazon that talked about this issue or I don’t think I would have been prepared, and may have ended up disappointed.  Luckily I read it, and so going into this, we knew that we would NOT be keeping it in the kitchen because of the proximity to our living room.  Currently we are using it in the den and may consider making a place for it to live permanently down in the basement.  I’m just worried that I’ll completely forget I even have things in it and they’ll OVERDRY!  I’ve been known to walk away from batches of hard boiled eggs, get started on something else, and come back to find charred eggs in the pan that I’d totally forgotten.  Out of sight, out of mind seems to be my motto  in the kitchen – now when making HB eggs, I carry a timer clipped to my belt!  :)

Do you have a dehydrator in your home?  What do you like to make with it? Anything you’d like to see me try in it and post about on the blog?

Enjoy the rest of your day, FitFeat friends!

– Shari B. =)

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