I do not want to clean, so I will dehydrate!

Today I decided instead to dehydrate some fruits. Banana's were a great price this week, I had blueberries in the freezer, and my local store had a coupon for a free pint of blueberries with 2 juice purchases. I put the following together in the food dehydrator. They are not done yet, but looking good!

Blueberry Leather

* 2 pints of blueberries (mine were frozen)

* 3 tablespoons sugar

* dash of lemon juice

* 1/8 of a cup water

Put the ingredients in a saucepot. Cook until berries thaw and begin to soften. As you stir smoosh the berries. Cook for a total of 15 minutes. Taste to make sure they are sweet enough. Blend the ingredients until smooth and place on 2 fruit leather sheets that go in the dehydrator. This can also be done in the oven. Make sure your layer is thin. Dehydrate for 8 - 12 hours or until no longer sticky.

Dehydrated Blueberries

Place one pint of blueberries on the rack. I used the insert made for smaller items. Make sure berries have been rinse and throw out any soft berries. Dehydrate.

Banana Chips

6 - 7 bananas will fill 2 dehydrator trays. Slice about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Toss in lemon juice for a few seconds. This allows the color to remain and banana not turn brown. Dehydrate for 8 - 12 hours.

Here is is very humid. You may have to run the dehydrator longer. It will not hurt the items to stop and check on them. The blueberries seem to be taking the longest time. All other items are about 1/4 was done and it has been 6 hours so far.

If you do this is the oven, you may need to turn the bananas after a few hours. Recipes suggest 140 degrees for the oven, but the lowest mine goes is 170 degrees. I cooked last week for 8 hours, then turned oven off and let it continue over night.