JALAPENO SALT AND PEPPER

My family is addicted to jalapeno salt and pepper

It's delicious on just about everything.. the first time I made some I added salt to keep it from clumping but adding extra salt to some foods wasn't a healthy idea so I now make some with black pepper too and this is working out great..

Use the jalapeno salt when cooking and the jalapeno pepper on already salted foods.

The other day I found some nice looking jalapenos at a local Mexican store for 99 cents a pound and I bought 11 pounds of them.

Cut into long slices and dried in my Excalibur dehydrator over night at 135 degrees

I use my herb/coffee grinder and after I fill each salt shaker half full I top one off with salt and the other with black pepper then I dump each one back in the grinder for a quick pulse to make sure their blended.

A word of warning 

be sure you wear a face mask when doing this because the fine powder will get breathed into your nose.. when you take the lid off the grinder it looks like a green cloud floating up and around you.

 if you don't own a mask then wrap a wet rag around your face.

Healthy Granola Snack Mix

Every since I tasted the Girl Scouts Cranberry Orange snack mix I've been wanting to try making it myself.  This is my first try, not perfect but wildly delicious on its own.  It does have cranberry juice in it but I didn't have any dried cranberries so I used dried cherries.  Maybe it would have tasted more like the real thing if I'd had those tartly delicious cranberries.. I'll give that a try the next time.  And because of not having those berries I kind of went over board and added a lot of things I'm sure they don't have in their mix..  I not only used sliced almonds, I added pecan's and walnuts too along with dried apple chunks.

I figured if I couldn't make the real McCoy then I'd make up a bowl of goodness of my own.

And it is good

Here's my recipe if you'd like to make some

Heat oven to 350

Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray

In a large bowl add

2 cups of old fashioned oats

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup pecan pieces

1/2 cup walnuts

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup diced dried apples

1 teaspoon orange zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all together and sit aside

In a small sauce pan add:

1/3 cup maple syrup (I'm sure dark Karo would work as well)

1/2 cup cranberry juice

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Bring to boil over medium heat stirring constantly

Pour over the oat mixture and mix thoroughly.  

Spread out on the cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.. stir and bake an additional 15 minutes or until brown.

I wanted to make sure it was dry and crispy so I then spread it out on dehydrator sheets and dried it for 2 hours at 145

How to Make Tomato Powder With Can tomatoes and Tomato Paste

Tomato powder

Fairly cheap and not hard to make

First I tried drying cans of tomato paste but the leather was hard to grind and wanted to clump, just not enough moisture in it, so this time around I used two cans of tomatoes with one can of paste and it worked great, just the consistency needed.

Toss it in a blender and blend until smooth

Dry at 125 degrees for approximately 10 to 14 hours or until completely dry to touch.

Two cans of whole or diced tomatoes and one can of paste filled 3 dehydrator trays.

I also found that I could use two cans of tomato sauce in place of the can tomatoes with the same result.

They dried nice and thin. I removed them from the leather trays and flipped them over onto the net trays and dried them for another hour to make sure all moisture was removed.

Two cans of dried ground tomatoes and one can of paste made 7 1/2 tablespoons of powder.

All 9 trays didn't even make a pint

but it's packed with concentrated flavor

Eating From My Food Storage.. Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili

All season long while dehydrating every vegetable and herb I could get my hands on, I had one goal in mind.

Being able to make meals in a jar that on a busy day could be dumped in my Crock Pot to cook.

Also if the power goes off I can cook this on the stove and not have to dig through my fridge or freezer.

(we cook with gas)

Chicken chili was top on my list and after much experimenting (on my poor family)  this is the best recipe I've came up.

Other then the chicken it's all dehydrated foods.

I keep cooked chicken in my freezer and I also have can chicken.  I see no point in wasting my money on freeze dried chicken when can will work as well.

white Chicken Chili

3 cups pre-soaked Great Northern or white navy beans drained

   (dehydrating some quick cook beans are next on my list)

2 rounded tablespoons dehydrated onion flakes or slices

2 tablespoons dehydrated chopped red bell pepper

2 tablespoons dehydrated chopped green bell pepper

1 tablespoon diced dehydrated jalapeno pepper

2 teaspoons garlic powder or diced chunk garlic

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon dried oregano

4 chicken bullion cubes

4 cups water

8 ounces cooked chicken 

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker, cover and cook on low 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Nothing feels better after being gone all day then the welcoming smell of dinner waiting to be dished up.

My family gave me a thumbs up on this one

Excalibur Food Dehydrator versus American Harvest Nesco

I was asked to do a comparison between the Nesco and Excalibur food dehydrators

and

I'm totally blown away

Celery dried in 14 hours in the Excalibur

My Nesco

14 hours later only the edges are dry and I even rotated the trays before going to bed.

Two months ago I bought an American Harvester Nesco due to the price, it gets the job done but at a much slower rate.

From now on any dehydrators in my future will be an Excalibur

Yogurt Chips

A local store had fruit yogurt on sale for 50 cents each and I just had to try dehydrating some.

I wanted them bite size so I dropped teaspoons full on leather trays

I can't say for sure how many hours they took to dry because I put them into the dehydrator around 10 am at 125 degrees and that evening I removed them from the leather trays, flipped them over and laid them on net trays to make sure the bottoms were dry and let them continue to dry at 125 over night.

I'm guessing they took from 18 to 20 hours.

Blackberry

blueberry

peach

Strawberry

Black cherry

Delicious!!!

Taste kind of like fruit flavored taffy candy

but much healthier

Oatmeal Wheat Bread

This bread is moist, tender and absolutely delicious.

^^^

My favorite go to bread

 I love both oatmeal and wheat breads and this recipe combines both so how could I not love it.

I hope you do too

Oatmeal Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup quick oats

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3 1/2 cups all purpose white flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon yeast

2 1/2 cups water

DIRECTIONS: 

Combine in a large bowl

1 cup quick oats

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

Pour 2 cups of boiling water into the bowl and stir to combine. Allow to sit for 15 minutes.  You're basically just letting the oatmeal cook, which contributes to the moistness of the finished loaf.

After 15 minutes, dissolve:

1 Tablespoon yeast in

1/2 cup warm water

Allow the yeast mixture to sit for several minutes to proof.

Add the yeast mixture to the bowl of flour and oats and stir to combine.

Stir in:

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 1/2 cups white flour

(I use my Kitchen Aid to mix and knead the dough, just put it on speed 1 or 2)

Dust counter top with flour, and turn dough out onto floured counter top.  Knead until dough is smooth and elastic.

pour 1 tablespoon oil into a large bowl; put dough into the oiled bowel, turning dough several times to coat with oil.  Cover with towel and allow to rise until doubled. 

Once the dough is doubled, punch down and cut dough in half.  Shape each half into loaf and place into greased 9x5x3" pans and allow to rise until doubled.

Bake @ 350 for 30-40 minutes, until loaves sound hollow when you tap them.

Allow to cool on wire rack.