Dehydrator: The Ultimate Maker of Paleo Snacks

If you are a full time professional like many of us out there who are attempting to live a Paleo/Primal lifestyle, chances are a good portion of the day you're feeling hungry, especially at work.  Under the Paleo/Primal diet, it seems counter productive to go to the vending machine with all its starchy and sugary goodness poison.  This was my biggest problem when I first started Paleo/Primal; I was hungry way too often.

Never fear, the Paleo/Primal diet still allows munching on snacks, they're just a little different than the snacks we're used to.  Almonds and walnuts are terrific Paleo/Primal snacks. They are packed with protein and also contain great nutritional value too.  However eating nuts all the time just gets old. What if you're sick of feeling like a squirrel and are in the mood for something new?

Cue the Dehydrator...

Tada!

It's a really simple piece of equiment.  It is comprised of just a heater with a fan and trays.  You could probably make one out of box fan pretty easily (but that's for another post). By owning one of these bad boys you can easily whip up a variety of snacks limited only by your imagination.

Check out this easy recipe to make delicious apple chips:

Andy's Delicious Apple Chips

Tools:
Dehydrator

Ingredients:
Apples

Directions:
1) Slice any apple of your choice into 1/4" pieces,
2) Lay them down on the dehydrator and turn that bad boy on. Leave them there for about half a day and voila! apple chips. 

Strawberries, grapes, mangos, apricots, pears, cantaloupes,  if you can name it, it probably makes a great dehydrated food snack.  Instead of paying $5+ for a tiny container of dried fruit stacked with sugar, make it yourself and pack as much as you need.

You may be asking yourself, "why should I bother to dry fruit if I can just eat it whole?"  Carrying around  half bitten apple in a ziploc bag can get disgusting over time. Instead of having to chomp the whole apple at once, you can take little nibbles of it here and there.  It's like preserving fruit without using preservatives.

OK, so buying a dehydrator to preserve fruit is nice, but it seems a little unneccesary if its only application is fruit.  That's the best part about cooking, it's only as limited as your imagination.  Check back next time for another dehydrator Paleo/Primal snack recipe.

What's that?!