Home Made School Snacks ~Dried Fruit~ Apple Chips!

Last week I was talking about making small changes around here.

Changing the way I look at food, starting to question what is actually in our food. Trying to swap pre-packaged, artificial foods for home-made ones.

Well I am the kind of person that can get carried away by a new idea, be over the top into it and then very quickly loose steam and interest..  I know I'm like this, HB knows I'm like this-(and tells me constantly) It's just the way I am... so with my changing habits in the kitchen I am taking it (kinda) slowly..

I am reading a lot of great blogs that make you stop and think about what's in the foods we eat. 

Yesterday I read this one over at Natural New Age Mum about dehydrated foods and the nasties that can be in them.

We are lucky to have a great fresh produce store near by where I can get big bags of apples being thrown out for next to nothing. 

I used a the old ones to make apple sauce for the pantry and with the 10 or so I had left I decided to try making apple chips in my very unloved, dusty dehydrator. 

I was given the dehydrator as a gift a couple of years ago and apart from HB drying chillies to make powder in it, it really hadn't been used. I'll use moving house a few times as my excuse k?!

Here's what I did. 

Juice 2-3 lemons,

mix a good squeeze of gourmet garden ginger in to give it a kick!

slice your apples ( I had about 10-12) thinly, don't worry about peeling or coring the pips fall out as they dry! You also get a cool star shape in the middle of your apple slice!

put the juice mixture and apple slices into a container together, give them a good mix around getting the juice onto all the apples.

place slices on your dehydrator trays and turn it on! Mine has two settings- low or high.. I put mine on high for approx 6 hours and they were perfect. 

If you don't have a dehydrator you can place them on lined baking trays at the lowest temp your oven will go (mine is 120*C) and they will dry in approx 2-3 hours. 

*the lemon stops the slices browning, and the ginger gives them a great zing! perfect for school lunch boxes- if they last that long!