fruit roll ups, healthy style!

A couple weeks ago our fridge started going crazy. It started to warm and stuff started defrosting. This lead to many frantic trips downstairs to empty the freezer into the chest freezer. Then I was left with a fridge full of warming food, which included a lot of berries. Since I had just bought a fancy new dehydrator I thought I would try it out. So I made fruit roll ups!

I took a whole pint of strawberries (or blueberries or any fruit), washed, topped and hulled and blended them in my fabulous blender with about a tablespoon of honey. (while the strawberries were sweet, you need the honey to keep the rolls pliable) Then I poured it onto a dehydrator try lined with a non stick drying sheet (I use a paraflexx sheet), spread to about an eigth of an inch thick, and dry at a low temp, 110F-105F over night. Then peel off and wrap in cling wrap.

They got a double thumbs up from Trixie.

new philosophy

Now that I have a toddler that eats and baby who's close to being a super nosher, I have changed the way I approach food. I am concerned about additives and ingredients that I can't pronounce, I don't want that going into my babies! I cringe at the thought of what that is doing to their wee insides.
So I've been making an effort to make everything from scratch. Everything.
It's daunting, yet rewarding.
I'm going to try to keep this updated with some of my more recent trials. I'll even include the flops!
I've been asked what my food philosophy is; I would say that it's whole food. Not the store, but the idea. I try to make things from scratch, with the purest, most healthy ingredients that I can. Oh and it has to be palatable to a toddler.
fun!
The cookbooks I love the most right now are:
Nourishing Traditions
Ani's Raw Food Essentials
Veganomnicon

I feel that my book choices show that I am all over the board in terms of style, raw, vegan, low carb and meat eater! But the general theme is to use whole ingredients.

So join me on my journey. If you know of somewhere to get more inspiration please let me know!

So Delicious!

One of my favourite blogs is Heather Eats Almond Butter, and on one of her posts she is doing a giveaway for So Delicious and Purley Decadent. I am excited about this because I want a milk alternative but I won't consume unfermented soy products (I'll only eat tofu, miso and soy sauce), so a coconut milk choice is a good one. It doesn't taste really coconuty, so it won't mess with the flavour of your cereal. And most of all it's delicious! I love it.

So long story short, go to Heather's blog and see what she has to say about it.

Now regardless if I get any coupons I'll keep buying it. I'm going to try the icecream and I am going to try to make my own coconut yogurt again, since I've recently become a pro at making my own yogurt.