Again, the key is preparation. One of my favorite new kitchen toys is a food dehydrator. I actually have the very inexpensive Ronco one pictured in this post. I've been experimenting with a number of foods since I acquired it, but my favorite is truly dried apples. They key to drying apples is to slice them thin, but not too thin and not to over-dry them. They should still be flexible and chewy. Unlike the prepackaged fruit colored and flavored roll-ups, fruit dried in a dehydrator does not contain any artificial flavors or added sugar. It is pure fruit, just more concentrated.
The one quart canning jar in the photo holds 7 dehydrated apples. One secret to dehydrating apples so they don't look like the shrunken apple heads kids made in elementary school is to soak the slices in either a lemon juice and water mixture after slicing, or citric acid and water. I prefer the powdered citric acid because it really draws out the tart flavor. I order citric acid online from a cheese making company. What is great about the dehydrated apples is that they don't get bruised in a bag and they are lightweight, making them an easily portable snack. I sliced the apples in the evening and plugged in the dehydrator. In the morning, they were ready.
If you've never used a dehydrator, we highly recommend them. It's a great way to make a bunch of easy to carry snacks, from fruit to vegetables to jerky. Part of the challenge involves having a strategy in place to avoid the easy lure of unhealthy fast food.
How many of you are trying the challenge? How are you doing so far?
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