Dehydrating

Fast Food Friday...  

"I'm too busy to cook."  "I worked all day."  "I'm Tired."  "It's way too hot out."  "I don't really want to go to the store."   Who hasn't heard or even said these words before?  Should you call for pizza?  Should you pick something up from the nearest drive through?  Nope, neither.  All you need is a little Food Fore-thought.  Fast Food Friday, a planned weekly post, isn't about running out to a local restaurant for take out or calling for delivery.  Fast Food Friday is about having something on hand for those days when cooking just seems impossible or even unappealing. 

With a little planning and preparation, fast food can come straight from our cabinets, pantries, and freezers.  What we are really talking about here is food preservation.  Food preservation can change our future days - take the guess work out of meal prep, allow for an evening of rest not stress, change your grocery bill's bottom line, and of course, nix the expense of drive-thru eatings.  Now those points do sound appealing.

So for many many Friday's to come, check back to see how I plan to never be too busy to cook, not too tired to eat well, not considering if it's too hot out, and best of all, skipping trips to the store.  For today, let's talk about...

Dehydrating

green pepper, zucchini, tomato, and radish 

This week has been busy busy.  So busy that preparing a few simple veggies seemed not do-able.  I simply hate seeing food go to waste.  It's the whole "waste not want not" adage.  What I allow to waste today is gone.  When the day comes that I want... well, too bad.  Now I realize that today I'm just talking about a few veggies, but we all know that seasons change.  When that happens, fresh local veggies are no more.  A trip to the store at that time could suffice. However, I'd be paying more for out of season, non-local produce that I once had but let waste.  It just doesn't seem too smart.  Plus, the whole point here is to plan for future days.

Dehydrated vegetables fit into the plan really well.  For example, today I'm planning for future meals of soup.  Come winter when my excuses abound for not cooking, I'll be able to throw some chicken stock, beans/pasta, and dehydrated veggies into the crockpot and voila.  Pair it with some crusty French bread made on a less tiresome day and dinner is served.

Another nice thing about dehydrating is that you can do a little at a time.  You don't have to have a ton of veggies to make this work.  Like today, I'm dehydrating two small zucchinis,  one medium sized Daikon radish, four cherry tomatoes, two green peppers, and two small jalapenos - a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  The results will NOT be astounding size wise.  In fact, you may look at the picture and say,"You're saving what?".  Hehe.  It's OK.  It's all part of a bigger picture.  A few nice things about dehydrated food - it takes up very little space, a little goes a long way, and you can keep adding to it with no ill effects.

So what will my future fast food be? 

tomatoes, radish, and zucchini added to previously dehydrated onion and carrot

Minestrone Soup 

1 cup of dehydrated veggie mix (carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, onion, and radish), 1 cup of miniature pasta shells from the pantry, 1/2 c of red kidney beans (soaked), 1 tsp of garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste, and 5 cups of chicken stock.  6-8 hours in the crockpot on low.  Can certainly add some leftover cooked ground beef or chopped chicken to make for a heartier meal.


What future fast food plans are you making?