I was productive today!

I guess I really should be taking it easy, but when I'm resting, my mind is wandering...not a good thing! Aside from getting the 4000 loads of laundry that have accumulated washed, folded and put away, I have been having doing a little experimenting with the food dehydrator.
Doug's mom gave it to us a couple of months ago because she never used it. I was so excited to get it because I have always wanted one (those late night Ronco commercials still play in my head!) I decided to start out simply by drying some herbs from the garden. They turned out great! Here are some dried sweet basil and cilantro:

Then I saw the recipes in the instructional book for fruit leathers! My kiddos go crazy for the pre-fabbed ones in the store (which I doubt have much fruit in them at all!) So I got some packages of frozen fruits-no sugar added, and went to work! I blended the fruit in the food processor with citrus zests, juice and honey, and I think we came up with some winners!

The tray already in the machine contains strawberries with orange zest and the juice of one orange with 2 tbs of sugar. The one on the right is peach with honey. It is by far my favorite! Only two simple ingredients, but soooo good! The one at the bottom is apple and cinnamon. The one on the left is blueberry with lemon zest and the juice of one lemon and honey.
I felt so good making these because I controlled the ingredients AND the sugar content (or lack thereof!) It will take approx. one day for these to be done and then I will cut them into strips and store in ziplock bags. For more fruit leather recipes and a simple oven drying method, click HERE or HERE