Raw Foods
Food dehydrator is normally used to dehydrate foods instead of cooking them. People who are in raw foods diet use this machine to uncook a number of healthy foods and add variety to their diet menu, such as flax seed crackers. To make it, you only need to mix the raw flax seeds, with water and seasonings, then shape the mixture into crackers. Next, dry the crackers with your dehydrator until they are crisp, and turn them once to ensure they are evenly dried. Another menu is a raw food pizza crust, which can be made by mixing flax seeds with ground nuts, seasonings and water. The mixture then shaped into a pizza crust and dried in food dehydrator. Next, add tomato sauce and other toppings, then served. The pizza can also be warmed in the dehydrator without actually cooking it above the 115 degree Fahrenheit the recommended temperature limit for raw food diet.

Herbs
To dry herbs, place the freshly harvested herbs from your garden in the dehydrator. Drying your own herbs means saving money and at the same time you can control the quality of the herbs you are using. Once they are cleaned and dried, the fresh herbs can be placed in the dehydrator whole while then the usable parts can be stored in glass containers or plastic bags until you use them.

Revive Old Snack Foods
In case you have moist potato chips or crackers, or even leftover popcorn, you can place them in your food dehydrator to make them crisp again.

Pasta
Dried homemade pasta is also a good idea to save your time preparing the meal. Simply place the fresh pasta in your dehydrator instead of taking up counter space in your kitchen to lay or hang out the noodles.

Bagel Chips
Slice the bagels thinly and season them with savory flavors like garlic, onion powder, chili powder, salt and pepper. If you want, you can make them sweet with sugar and cinnamon as well. Dry the seasoned slices in the dehydrator and let them turn to crisp. Once you are done, you will have plenty of homemade bagel chips for snacking and dipping.

Crouton and Bread Crumbs
Making your own croutons or bread crumbs from leftover bread is a good idea to save money. To make crumbs, dry whole slices in dehydrator and then grind them with food processor. You can later store the crumbs in an airtight container. While to make croutons, you need to season the cubes of breads then placing them in the dehydrator until they turn crunchy, once they are done you can store them in an airtight container.

Seasonings
Similar to herbs you can also make dried seasonings using your food dehydrator. Simply slices the celery, onion or garlic thinly then place them on the tray of your dehydrator and dry them. When its dried, chop them or grind with food processor. Add some salt to taste, then place them in an airtight glass or plastic containers.

Dried Flowers
For craft projects, you can use your dehydrator to dry flower blossoms from your garden or make potpourri.

You can rely on Excalibur 3900 to do all the food-drying work, as it has 9 trays which you can use altogether to dry different kinds of food at the same time.

Food dehydrator Purchase an electric dehydrator which is completed with electric elements, fan and vents. Make sure your dehydrator has an adequate capacity as well as sturdy trays; as for consideration, try Excalibur 3900 which has 9 sturdy trays that allow you to dry many kinds of foods at the same time. You will need to leave sufficient space between items you dry with the machine to ensure proper drying. Check the user manual and find out the length of time needed to dry different items like fruits, jerky, etc.

Smoking To preserve meats, you can get a commercial smoker to dry them. It is made of metal units within which you can use either charcoal or wood chips to burn and produce smoke which will later dry the meat. You will need thermometers to measure the air temperature of the smoker as well as the meat to ensure it is dried and cooked properly. The times needed for various cuts and types of meat may vary, therefore you need to check your manual for it. Also take precautions in handling the meat when using this method. You need to avoid spreading food-borne illnesses by washing your hands and the utensils properly, also thawing the meat if frozen, and cooking the meats at the proper temperature to insure its doneness, and refrigerating or freezing the meat after it is removed from the smoker.

Oven You can also use an oven to preserve your favorite foods. Simply place the items you wish to dry on cookie sheets in the oven and set the temperature to 120 to 145 Fahrenheit degrees. The time needed to dry the food may take up to 12 hours. As for larger items, you also need to use the racks to ensure they dry evenly.

Hanging This is typically performed to dry garden herbs, spices, and vegetables like dill, basil, and green beans. The items are hung in a dry and airy location for up to 3 days and need to be kept out of humid conditions, such as rain or night air, to reduce the chance of spoilage due to moisture.

Sun-drying This technique normally applied on drying fruits or vegetables using the sun light. The method is used when the air is dry with the temperature of about 100 Fahrenheit degrees. Using screens or racks with cotton sheeting on them, the fruits or vegetables are placed on the racks and dried for about 4 days. You must make sure that the air circulates on both sides of the racks or frames and that humid conditions are avoided. If you choose this method to dry the food, prior to sun-drying you should either freeze or heat the items you wish to dry to destroy any insect eggs which may collect on them. Also make sure you dont use metal frames without a cheese cloth cover on them; because without this cover, the food may get contaminated or spoiled.

You should notice that there are three main groups of foods which are typically eaten in raw food diet; they are veggies, fruits, and fats. So, you need to stock your fridge with all of these; for veggies you may want to stock the leafy greens like kale, spinach, broccoli, and cabbage, which are high in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals; while for fruits you can opt for any kinds as all types are on the raw food menu. As for fats, since they are an important part of a raw food diet for they provide energy and essential fatty acids, also aiding digestion, stock a couple of olives, nuts, seeds, avocados, coconuts, and cold-pressed oils.

For breakfast, you better start the day with something sweet. While some raw foodists prefer to eat nothing but fruit, you can actually consume fruit in a different form. Try smoothies, these are a popular choice for breakfast. Blend your favorite fruits, add some coconut, raw nut butter and flax oil for extra energy; if you want, you can add a handful spinach or kale to it. Dont worry about the taste of those veggies as they wont over power the sweet taste of the fruit. Another breakfast option for raw food diet is fruit salad; simply chop and mix pears, apples, grapes, and raisings, and add a little coconut milk as dressing.

Lunch time is perhaps the toughest meal time for raw food dieters since the selection of raw foods can be limited for those who have to eat out. If you pack your own lunch, pack yourself some bananas, almonds, dried fruits, pumpkin seeds, and vegetable sticks. You can make a roll-up by rolling chopped vegetables in a collard, lettuce or cabbage leaf, and drizzle them with raw sesame oil. If you have no time to prepare your own raw foods, you can purchase some of the available prepared raw foods on the market like raw organic crackers. For those who eat out, you better choose a restaurant which has a large salad bar. It will be easier for you to pick your favorite food that way since the selections are varied. But remember to bring your own dressing from home, because the commercial salad dressing is not a healthy item.

Supper menu can be as simple as you would like, because the evening meal is a good time to work on expanding your raw food lists. Soup is one of the best options; try making vegetable soup with tomatoes, cucumber, green onions, zucchini, and sesame butter. Chopped all the ingredients coarsely and blend. You can try your favorite combinations of veggies and fresh herbs as well to create a palette of soups. Salad is another best option; try to make a meal-sized salad, with vinaigrette dressing made from olive oil and raw apple cider vinegar. If you want, you can also make noodles from shredded zucchini, and blend them up with some raw marinara sauce with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, and oregano.

One of the raw food dieters best friends is perhaps a food dehydrator, it helps preserving foods like fruits, veggies, even meat without taking all the nutrients from it. Try making your own snacks from dried fruits with Nesco FD-80 food dehydrator. Nesco is one of the most well-known brands of food dehydrator, which can be easily found at any local store.

You should do the diet changing gradually because such changes would likely cause digestive system problems to your dogs like vomiting or diarrhea. Some might also worry about the bacteria available in raw foods, however this should not be your main concern as dogs stomach actually produce much more acid than humans. Therefore, they have natural resistance to many food-borne illnesses unlike other pets that arent immune to problems from food bacteria.

As there are plenty options available for dogs raw food diet, you may want to do a research about which ingredients should be suitable for them. You will be able to control the specific ingredients for them and later know exactly what your dog is eating. However if you dont have much time for research and study, there are actually a number of manufacturers which make raw food diets for pets. Try to visit the local pet store and find these types of food and learn about the instructions.

Commercial raw foods normally require certain food ratio handlings which are taken care by the manufacturer. But if you choose to make their own food, you need to understand that dogs dont need only meat as their daily meals. The normal rules are: 35 percent lean meat, 20 percent fat, 25 percent bone, 15 percent organ meat, and 5 percent plant food sources or veggies. This ratio should work well for adult dogs; as for puppies, commercial mixture is perhaps the better option.

The types of meat should be consumed could be anything; fishes like salmons will do just fine, bones can come from various animals but you will want to grind them first because solid bones can splinter and later cause internal injuries. As for organ meats, you can choose almost any kinds of meat from chicken livers to beef tripe. Just make sure you use the most natural meat sources you can find, which are free from additives or spices. If you wish to give varieties of raw food meals to your dog, it can be based on the availability of the food or simply notice your dogs preferences.

For the types of fruits and vegetables you plan to include in your dogs diet menus, notice that onions, garlic, and raw potatoes are generally considered off limits. The good options for dogs are carrots, peas, blueberries and green beans. Also pay attention on your dogs eating behavior, whether they have frequent digestion problems or suffering from itching which might be caused by certain kinds of food. Consult with your vet, whether the condition is caused by allergies or something else.

If you wish to prepare your own dogs raw foods for long term storage, you can dehydrate those foods with the help of food dehydrator. Try Nesco FD-75PR food dehydrator which works great on drying veggies, fruits, and making jerky. This is simply the better option than giving your dog commercial raw foods all the time.

So what is wrong with cooking our food? Doesnt it help to protect us from certain diseases because cooking kills bacteria, etc? Those are the question you might ask regarding this diet. Besides killing bacteria which may cause certain diseases, cooking your food is also thought to denature the enzymes which naturally present in the food. And as enzymes are the life force of the food for it helps us to digest food and absorb nutrients, eating too much cooked food will force our body to work harder to produce more enzymes. Eventually, the lack of enzymes from food may lead to digestive problems, nutrient deficiency, accelerated aging, and also weight gain.

Not only that, cooking food can also diminish its nutritional value; especially foods which contain cancer-fighting compounds like broccoli. There are certain vitamins which can be destroyed by heat, such as vitamin C, folate, and sulforaphanes or the cancer-fighting compounds contained in broccoli. Another disadvantage of cooking foods is that it promotes the formation of potentially harmful compounds in food during high heat cooking, such as advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) and heterocyclic amines.

Although most foods lose some of its nutrients after cooking, there are other foods which become more healthful after cooking. Tomatoes, for example, will contain three to four times more lycopene after cooking compared to the raw ones.

If you decide to do Raw Food Diet as part of your lifestyle, there are different ways people follow this type of diet. Most of them are vegan, but some still consume raw animal products, like raw milk, cheese made from raw milk, sashimi, ceviche or raw fist, or carpaccio (raw meat). Some may only eat raw food, but some other may include cooked food for variety and convenience. Most people who claim themselves as raw food dieters usually consume about 70 percent or more raw food.

Raw foods which are prepared to be consumed normally soaked, sprouted, dehydrated, blended, fermented, pickled, or turned into juices. We are going to discuss more on dehydrating foods, which normally uses a piece of equipment called dehydrator to simulate sun-drying. With food dehydrator, the foods will be heated below 118 Fahrenheit degree the temperature which is still tolerated by the diet performers.

There are plenty of food dehydrators available in any local stores lately; one of the most well known brands is Nesco/American Harvest. This brand provides various models and designs of dehydrators with affordable prices. If you like round-shape dehydrators, you can choose Nesco FD-75PR or FD-61, but if you want your dehydrator to be square you may opt for the FD-80.

Among the affordable types of food dehydrators you can opt for Nesco FD-75PR which is sold around $60.00 on Amazon. This unit has top-mounted fan and adjustable thermostat from 95 to 160 degrees, and 5 trays to dry plenty amount of food. If 5 trays are not enough for you, you can purchase additional trays with less than $15.00 a pair.

Prior to use, if you are using new food dehydrator, remove all the trays and clean them with water and soap. If you wish to take dehydrated meals on a trip, you may want to plan everything ahead and give some times to prepare the meals. Notice that fruits with skin on it, like apples or mangoes, may take about 20 hours to dehydrate perfectly; while cut-up fruits and other kinds of foods can take between 6 to 10 hours to dehydrate.

So here is how to prepare your own dehydrated meals.

Cut the foods you are going to dehydrate into smaller pieces. The smaller or thinner they are, the faster they will dry. So for fruits you can slice them thinly, for meat you can either slice or dice them, and the same thing with veggies. Especially for fruits, you need to soak them in lemon juice for at least one minute to prevent them from browning. While slicing the foods, you can turn on your dehydrator and preheat it for 10 minutes.

Once you are done with cutting the foods, and the unit has enough heat, place the prepared meals in the trays and give space between each piece. Dont let any of them touch each other as it will prevent them from drying well.

You may need to rotate the trays during dehydrating process to perform better drying; however this is not necessary with certain type of dehydrators as some brands have better air circulation which allows the foods to dry evenly without needing to rotate the trays. You may want to check the manufacturers manual instruction for this, whether any particular action is required during the drying process.

The process may take around 6 to 10 hours until everything settled and dry perfectly. After five hours passed, check the food in the unit about every 30 minutes to make sure their condition. While checking, you can remove the bits that have already dried. Dried foods are hard to the touch; vegetables may come out quite firm, while fruits may be a little firm but not as hard as dried vegetables.

The benefits of freeze dried foods are also similar with dehydrated foods, as it removes 98 percent of the water from the food, the food will come out in lighter weight with longer shelf life, making it easy to store and carry if necessary. Serving this kind of meals also requires very minimal preparation and they also revitalize quickly.

Freeze drying can be done at home, with low-tech preparation that is using your refrigerator as your primary tool. This might take longer time than the high-tech method but still more economical than buying prepared freeze dried foods of purchasing the expensive freeze drying equipment. The high-tech preparation on the other hand, involves expensive equipments including vacuum pumps.

If you are just starting out with this method, you might ask which products should be suitable to be preserved with freeze drying. You may start with potatoes and apples which are at the height of their ripeness, then wash them prior to freeze-drying.

You will use a mesh metal tray to perform this method as trays with holes will allow faster freeze-drying process. You can purchase these trays at any restaurant supply store. Cut the already washed apples and potatoes into very thin slices, arrange them on the tray, and place them in freezer for 30 minutes and let them frozen. You will need to keep them in freezer for about one week to ensure perfect dryness. To test whether it is dry enough or not, remove one slice from the tray and thaw. While thawing, the fruit will turn black if it is not yet dried completely. If this happens, you have to keep the slices in freezer for another day or two, then test it again after.

Freeze-dried foods should be placed in air-tight container or zip lock bags. Using vacuum-pack sealer will even give better storage, but if you dont have such vacuum you can suck the air out of the bag with your mouth, then press the bag down firmly to remove any air bubbles. Place the packed foods in freezer and store until you need to use it.

Using food dehydrator is actually much faster, easier, and cheaper to preserve foods than using freeze dry method. There are plenty of affordable units you can use to dehydrate the foods, unlike freeze-drying which requires expensive vacuum and special freezer to store the foods until they are completely dry. So if you prefer using food dehydrator to dry your food, get yourself Nesco FD-75PR which is sold about $60.00 on Amazon. This is the right unit for you if you are looking for an affordable food dehydrator with top-mounted fan and adjustable thermostat.

This great dehydrator works brilliantly for making jerky, drying fruits like kiwi, strawberries, grapes, limes, oranges, banana, and even watermelon. The unit comes with 4 trays, which can be added by purchasing the separated Add-a-tray consists of two trays per-package. If you wish to use the first 4 trays together with the additional trays, the dehydrating process will still work fine without needing to rotate the trays.

If you wish to clean the unit, the trays are top shelf dishwasher safe; but this actually depends on the size of your dishwasher. Some dishwashers can only hold two trays per load but if you take the top rack out of the dishwasher and stand the trays vertically in the lower rack, you can put up to eight trays including the base into the dishwasher at once. Make sure you turn off any internal water heating and the heated drying of the dishwasher when washing your dehydrator. Simply run your dishwasher, let it wash and wait until it stops, then take out the trays and shake them off. Stack them all and put on the power head and run it at 125 degree Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. You will have your unit all nice, clean and dry.

Several things you need to know for Nesco Nesco American Harvest FD-80

There are things you must note when preparing fruits with Nesco American Harvest FD-80. You will need to use Clean Screens which is $8.00/pair, as for 8 trays you will need four pairs of them. However, rather than spending $32, as an alternative you can buy 16 sheets of plastic embroidery mesh in local craft store. Each sheet is 14-inch x 10-inch and has 7 square-meshes, and for those 16 sheets you only need to spend $5.28, plus making extra efforts to cut them out. Take two sheets for each tray and cut them out according to the size of the tray, put them together butted up on the long side then cut the perimeter to fit the tray and cut out the whole for the center and lay the two pieces into the tray. This will make the trays easier to clean if you prepare fruits like kiwi and bananas with the dehydrator, because the plastic will catch the drips from the fruits. You dont need making this paper/plastic layer for cantaloupe though.

Nesco/American Harvest FD-80 is better than other round dehydrators which have drying unit on the bottom. This model has the drying unit on the top that no more liquid shall drip down onto the operational part of the unit. The square design of the tray even allows you to get more food on each tray compared with the round one. Another advantage of this dehydrator is that it works quieter than other similar units. You can dry tomatoes, carrots and herbs with no problem at all.

For a lot of dehydrating, I actually have another product to recommend that is, the Excalibur 3900. I find this one works more efficiently compared to the Nesco Square-Shaped Dehydrator. It has fan that blows the air across the trays instead of vertically through all the trays and the wet food, different with the fan of Nesco which is on the top and free from any drips. However, the Excalibur is noisier than Nesco so if you dont like the noise issue perhaps Nesco is the right unit for you. But if you think efficiency is more important that you can dehydrate a lot of food, then go for Excalibur which is available for over $200.00 via Amazon. Click here for more reviews of Excalibur 3900.

As a matter of price, Nesco/American Harvest FD-80 is much more affordable than Excalibur. You can get this square shape unit for $60.54 on Amazon, including a one-year limited warranty. The unique air-circulation system with a top-mounted fan and the patented Converga-Flow Action allows speedy results as well as uniformity on your food so they will dry evenly without needing to rotate the trays around during operation. You can adjust the heat of this 700 watt powered motor system from 95 degrees to 155 degrees Fahrenheit to accommodate appropriate drying temperatures. It has a bale handle for removing the power head, dishwasher-safe parts, and an easy to understand instruction manual to get started with.

Those who have experienced drying slices of fruit, vegetables, herbs, flowers, granola, or strips of jerky with Nesco Square-Shaped Dehydrator will simply recommend the item for you. Read what other users said about the unit here.

More about L’Equip 306200

L’Equip 306200 comes with instruction book, expansion and solid construction, you will notice how firm the trays are and each of them is outfitted with a removable fine mesh to prevent smaller items fall through other trays. The motor is reasonably quiet and it works fine drying the food without cooking it so the nutrients and flavor of the food will be well preserved. You will love its rectangular unit as it will fit nicely on a shelf without consuming much room when not in use. The size is just about a smaller microwave, and you don’t have to buy a lot of extra accessories if you wish to dry a lot of food with the unit. But if you wish to dry ‘more than a lot like for a much bigger family, extra trays are also available to purchase on Pleasanthillgrain.com. (I cant find the item on Amazon.)

Compared to the models of American Harvest, which mostly round like the Nesco FD-75PR, FD-61, or FD-61WHC, you may think that L’Equip 306200 is expensive. But actually, if you add all the mesh sheets, fruit leather trays, and 2 extra stacking trays to the American Harvest, the price of both brands are actually quite similar, another perks is that your purchase has included a 12-year warranty. The dimensions already give plenty of space to dry many fruits and vegetables so you need no extras with this unit. You can dry apples, pineapple, coconut, also bananas on this dehydrator for 6 to 10 hours and they will come out great.

I would recommend this item as the second option after the Excalibur 3900, especially because this one is quieter, heats only the trays you are using, and has less expensive price. People would opt for LEquipe for those reasons as well, click here for reviews of Excalibur 3900.

You will not have problem to use the unit as the directions is easy to understand, basically you only need to load the trays of the dehydrator, stack them up and turn the machine on. As for cleaning, you can simply rinse the removable trays and tray liners in the sink, dry them and have them ready for the next use. If you have a question regarding the product, you can call the customer service who knows a lot about the unit and get sufficient information from them.

There are few things which if owned by this unit, it will become a great machine for drying foods. First, the fan has no variable speed and no variable temperature. When foods go in, they push out a lot of moisture which can condense on the top and eventually pushes all them out. If the fan speed could be managed, it would make the process goes faster. Sometimes you may need to lift the top a few times at the beginning, wipe down the moisture and let it vent. This will aid the drying time as it eliminates a fair amount of water, since there is no controllable air flow to help the process. Second, it would be nicer if the racks are a bit taller as it could be handy in dehydrating things like large strawberries or other items that don’t fit as well.

Although rotating the racks is actually not necessary, one user recommended me to do so within a few hours because the food on the bottom dries out quicker than the one on the top. The food on the tray could be moved around part way through, especially the ones at the edges as they are a bit slower to dry out. The airflow is a bit less at the perimeter and corners, so you need to run the machine longer for those parts to make about 10% of the food evenly dried. This way, your food will dry more uniformly and you can cut your drying time considerably.

Click here to know more about what other customers think about L’Equip 306200.

Sun-drying is actually one of the most ancient and healthy methods of preserving food; this is what people do back then to preserve their home food when the electric food dehydrator was not yet invented. Mostly, this techniques works well on fruits and you can enjoy your favorite sun-dried fruits without any preservatives, colors, and flavors added, like the ones we find in the stores. The process is actually quite simple, but you will need a little patience with this as we are not working with machines which have temperature settings and timers.

Here are the steps for you to follow.

Select the fruits you wish to sun-dry. If you wish to dehydrate meats or veggies, you need to perform this type of home food preservation indoors with a meat dehydrator or in some other kind of controlled condition because drying meats may take longer time with the manual sun-dry process.

Lay out the concrete or aluminum blocks far enough apart to support your chosen rack or screen, then place one rack/screen on top of the blocks.

Wash and dry the fruits you are going to sun-dry and remove the parts you dont intend to eat like the stems, etc. Cut, slice, or divide the fruit into 1-inch pieces or according to your preference. The thinner you slice them, the easier they will dry.

Next, spread the pieces of fruit across the rack/screen, and cover them with the other rack to protect them from the moisture of the ground, the local birds and insects which may easily fly over and lighted upon the racks. To protect the fruit from condensation caused by the cold night air, bring the racks/screens indoors by night time.

Let the fruit dry on the racks/screens during daylight until it is leathery and pliable. As this technique is very traditional and manual, the entire process will take several days, especially if the weather suddenly changes.

This technique works best in a highly humid region with humidity of above 60 percent. You must watch the food you are sun-drying and make sure they dont get wet by the rain or etc. If it suddenly rains, bring the fruit indoors until it passes. Keep in mind that one spell of rain may ruin the entire batch of fruit you intend to sun-dry.

If the climate of the area where you live is not suitable to perform this technique, then it is better to purchase food dehydrator to dry your favorite foods. Opt for the brands from Nesco for the affordable selections, but if you have bigger budget I recommend getting Excalibur 3900 or L’Equip 306200.