Dehydration Celebration

It's been way too long since I've actually wrote a post! Ah! On top of work, I've been doing an online class. Usually when I come home from work I use that time to work on my blog, but lately I've been having to use that precious, glorious time on silly English (BLEH). 

One thing I've been finding so valuable in my busy schedule is the dehydrator. Not only do you not have to put in so much precious time into it, but you can honestly just throw some fruits and veggies into it, set the timer for like a million hours, walk back and eat it and you have some awesome snacks or toppings! For the 4th of July, I managed to get the day off (I don't know how I managed to do that!), so me and Squilliam feasted. It was also our 1 1/2 year anniversity on July 1, so we spent the day together :]. He got me something I've been asking for for goodness knows how long- an edible arrangement! And he picked the BEST one too! Iggy seemed to really enjoy the grapes (I'm pretty sure he ate every one). Bill got a little frustrated with me because I honestly got so excited over the KALE!!! hehe..woops. I guess that's what he gets! I'm slightly obsessed with kale.

 Speaking of kale- you know what I did with the decoration to my edible arrangement? yup, dehydrationnnn!! On the 4th, we had a humongous feast of dehydrated stuff and grilling out. It was awesome. First on our list were Anna's BBQ Cajun Chips. I followed the recipe as is with extra kick!


Me and bill decided we wanted some "sun" dried tomatoes. So what did we do? We dehydrated some tomatoes and voila! These were honestly my favorite of the many things I dehydrated. It was absolutely simple- slice, sprinkle some salt on top and then dehydrate for 4-5 hours on 115 F. 

Third thing we dehydrated was of course: KALE!! My absolute favorite. I honestly get ancy when there is no kale in my house...because I literally eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I made kale chips 2 ways: One was just the original kale chips (get it? Instead of original lay's chips) where I massaged olive oil and salt onto the kale and dehydrated for 5-6 hours on 115 F. The second batch of kale chips were my nacho cheeeezzeee kale chips. 

Nacho Cheezey Kale Chips

1 cup cashews, soaked overnight, then drained

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/3-1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ancho chili powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne

pinch of sea salt

1 bunch of kale of choice

1. pour in all your ingredients except water into a food processor and let it mix.

2. slowly incorporate your water as the food processor is running, until the mixture is not too chunky, but relatively smooth.

3. massage onto kale, and dehydrate on 115 for 6 hours. 

Of course, for the 4th of July we had a mini-cookout. Bill made some awesome veggie burgers and I slow-cooked some onions. It was honestly a great day. We had some lovely dehydrated foods to go with it (see the tomatoes!?!!). I think I was so happy with the day because it might have been one of my first 4th of July's I've ever enjoyed since I usually work on holidays. 

Iggy was so pooped, he passed out while eating popcorn! 

4th of July- 1

Iggy Smalls- 0