AnneMazin Sustainin

Recipes

Dehydrated Recipes

Dehydrated Vegetables – Just toss those ripe, sliced veggies in the dehydrator at 135 degrees and let them chill for about 8-10 hours or until they’re nice and crispy.

Uses for dehydrated vegetables:

  • Healthy Snack – just toss on some salt for a tasty, healthy munch!
  • Gravy & Smoothies – Just toss ’em in the blender and whip up a veggie powder!
  • Meatloaf – Just chop it up roughly and mix it in!
  • Soup Starter – Grab a quart-size jar and fill it up with a bunch of soup veggies like carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and zucchini. This mix is perfect for whipping up some tasty soup or taking along on your camping trip!
  • Space Saving & Preservation – Just one jar of dried veggies is good enough for about a gallon of liquid. They soak up the liquid and puff up! Those dried veggies get bigger as the soup cooks, making it all tasty.
Chewy Dried Bananas – Makes 4 cups of dried bananas. Dehydrate bananas that are starting to turn & then use them to make these yummy banana chips!

Ingredients:

  • 5 pounds of ripe but still firm bananas, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
  • 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice
  • Dehydrator

Instructions:

  1. Toss sliced bananas and lemon juice into a baking pan. Give those banana slices a little turn in the juice to get them all coated.
  2. Lay out the banana slices on the dehydrator trays in a single layer, letting them barely touch if they have to.
  3. Dehydrate at 135 degrees until they feel dry but still kinda bendy, about 8 to 10 hours (your dehydrator may have different instructions), depending on how humid it is and your dehydrator; just be around to keep an eye on them during the last couple of hours.
Beef Jerky – Makes about 1 pound. Save money by making your own beef jerky!Stick the beef in the freezer for 15-20 minutes before slicing it extra thin. Or ask your butcher to slice it for you,

Hey there! Just a heads up, you’ll need to let the beef soak overnight for about 8 hours before you start drying it out. Once you’re done, toss that beef jerky in a sealed container and it’ll last for 3 months or even longer!

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup of soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 crushed garlic clove
  • 1 teaspoon of onion salt
  • 1 teaspoon of black pepper
  • 2 pounds of lean round or flank steak, sliced super thin
  • Dehydrator

Instructions:

  1. Lay those beef strips out on the dehydrator trays so they’re almost touching, but not quite!
  2. Grab a bowl and throw in the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, onion salt, and pepper. Mix it all up!
  3. Toss the beef in there and make sure it’s all coated up with the marinade.
  4. Pop it in the fridge and let it chill for about 8 hours or overnight.
  5. Strain the beef using a colander.
  6. Dehydrate at 160 degrees until they’re dry but still a little bendy, which usually takes about 5 to 8 hours, depending on how thick your slices are and your dehydrator.
DIY Recipes
Moisture Absorbers – You know those little desiccant packets you find in store-bought foods to keep them dry? You can totally make your own to keep dried foods and grains fresh for longer. The best part? You can reuse them! Just give the fabric a little dust off and pop them in the oven on low (around 250 degrees) for about 4-5 hours, and they’ll be as good as new!

Ingredients:

  • Cotton fabric, 4 inches wide by 24 inches long
  • About 1 cup of silica gel beads
  • Pinking Shears
  • Wooden chopsticks (don’t break them apart)
  • Sewing Machine
  1. First up, grab your fabric and fold it in half lengthwise, keeping the wrong sides touching. Now, whip out a straight stitch and sew down the long side and across one end. Boom! You’ve got a long, skinny tube with one end all closed up.
  2. Take a tablespoon and scoop in some silica gel beads, keeping the tube standing so the beads settle at the bottom. Grab your chopsticks to hold those beads in place like a makeshift clamp; just slide them down the tube and sew across the tube near the chopsticks to seal it up.
  3. Next, go ahead and stitch another seam across the tube, roughly 3/4 inch away from the first one. These two seams will keep the beads nice and tight, plus they’ll form a cute little “pocket.”
  4. Grab another tablespoon of beads and throw ’em in the tube. Use those chopsticks to keep things in line and sew it up just like you did earlier.
  5. Keep on adding beads and sewing those double seams until you reach the end of the tube.
  6. Grab your pinking shears and snip right between those double seams. You’ll end up with around 12 little desiccant packs!
  7. Use those pinking shears to snip the sewn edges so they won’t fray.
  8. Finally, toss your homemade desiccant packs into containers of dry goods to soak up any sneaky moisture.