Make Crunchy Healthy Chips from Root Vegetable or . . .

How to get Finicky Children (and husbands and me) to Eat their Veggies

 especially unusual ones, and even ask for more!

Have you ever eaten Terra Chips?  The colorful crispy chips made from root vegetables? They are very good - - - and they are expensive!  And, while they claim they are cooked in "good" oil they are still cooked in oil.

My challenge is, the same as always --- to make them myself. 

Yesterday I scouted out the produce section of our market, checking out the veggies that come from underneath the ground.  This was one of the very rare times I have bought anything without checking the price first. I purchased one of each. Some, I have to admit I had never tasted, while others I had never tasted raw. 

I came home with 

one large sweet potato - $1.58

one yam -  84 cents

one parsnip - 54 cents

one turnip - 87 cents

one beet -   40 cents

one yucca root - $1.00

and went to work.

I scrubbed them well, peeled the ones I felt needed peeling (yucca, yam and sweet potato), and thinly sliced all of them using my mandolin. 

I very lightly drizzled olive oil on each batch,  using my (clean) hand to stir them up so each slice would get some oil, and placed each kind on it's own dehydrating tray. 

The sweet potato and the yam slices each filled two trays. Since this venture was mainly an experiment, and I had an extra tray of each,  I lightly sprinkled one tray of sweet potatoes with cinnamon/sugar and cumin. I did one tray of yam slices without oil.  

I dehydrated them at 135 degrees for 5 to 6 hours. Times vary with different dehydrators.

Results:  Love the sweet potatoes, yams and turnips!  I wasn't very excited about the parsnip to begin with, and even less so after tasting it raw, but it was good. Dave hates beets in any form and thinks they taste like dirt. He didn't like dried ones either but I didn't mind the earthy taste. The jury is still out on the yucca.  The texture is kinda strange and the taste is pretty bland; it will probably grow on me. Or maybe, I'll pass on that one.

None of the above were on sale so the experiment cost $5.23. Still a bargain compared to the price of  a (very-few-ounces) bag of the exotic commercial chips. 

Additionally, 

homemade is healthier 

and

self-sufficiency is satisfying

I didn't think about trying carrots and the market didn't have taro plus there may be other root veggies I don't know about. I do know I will be watching for sales on root vegetable!!!

I like my regular potato chips made in the microwave.  See post below

http://thecreativecheapskate.blogspot.com/2013/01/easy-crunchy-and-fat-free-potato-chips.html

'til we eat again,

          Simply, Gail

Easy, Yummy, Crunchy Zucchini Chips: Dehydrated

I am having great fun with yummy results using my dehydrator. 

Dried fruits and veggies make healthy and great snacks, are terrific light-weight food sources for hiking and camping and a wonderful means of storage for emergencies. 

My latest efforts have been flavored zucchini and yellow squash chips.

I've read about flavoring apple pieces with kool-aid flavors before dehydrating but that didn't have much appeal to me  ---- although they do look pretty in the jar. Actually they probably aren't much different than the dried fruit-flavored apple pieces you can buy in #10 cans if you want to pay the price.

We do love the apple results when sprinkling them very lightly with cinnamon-sugar before drying. A great snack!

However, as I mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago, now I am going to tell you about my experiments with dehydrating zucchini.  First off, the first time I tried  it, I tried sprinkling it lightly with Lawry's seasoned salt and/or a few other things like lemon pepper.  I was too heavy handed and once dehydrated the seasonings were too strong so my advice is, if you go that route, sprinkle very, very lightly.

When we dried them without any seasonings we, at first, thought they were kinda blah but quickly became addicted to them. The same, both about over seasoning and no seasoning, for cucumbers.

Top shelf: red (and green) bell peppers,  cinnamon- sugared apple slices,
cinnamon-sugared zucchini slices, two jars of plain cucumber slices and
jar of refrigerated microwaved bread and butter pickles
Bottom shelf:  orange juice soaked yellow squash, pineapple tidbits, jar of spiced apple and
berry fruit leathers, plain apple slices, and maraschino cherries

Searching the web for zucchini recipes recently I came across http://realfoodlittlerock.blogspot.com/2012/05/fruit-snacks-fromzucchini.html --- a site on simmering chunks of zucchini in pineapple juice (and/or grape juice) for 30 minutes before dehydrating.  It sounded intriguing.

I tried it on a smaller scale, using the juice from one can of pineapple tidbits.  The results were okay but the method gave me other ideas. I filled the first tray with the pineapple tidbits and the second tray with the pineapple-juice-simmered and drained zucchini sections.

 I then decided I preferred thin rounds over the small chunks  so I got out my handy mandolin and went from there with the rest of my zucchini and yellow crook neck squash.

Tray 3 - orange-juice-simmered squash rounds --- some sprinkled lightly with dried orange zest.

Tray 4 -  combined-pineapple-and-orange-juice simmered squash rounds.

Trays 5-8,  squash rounds (both the green and the yellow) --- very lightly sprinkled with the cinnamon-sugar mixture before drying.

All were surprisingly good but our favorite is the cinnamon-sugar ones and our least favorite the original ones.  I think 30 minutes was a little too long to simmer.

I soaked the remaining squash slices in the leftover combined juices overnight in the frig and dried them the next day.  We liked them better than the simmered ones!

We also soaked raw zucchini slices in the left-over marinade from a jar of our microwaved bread and butter pickles and then dehydrated them with great results.

http://thecreativecheapskate.blogspot.com/search?q=pickles

Basically it all boils down to that thinking cap mentality I keep mentioning and urging. Read about others' great ideas and take it from there.

'til we eat again,
          Simply, Gail