I made zucchini chips today - but found out they need salt! I think the "recipe" I was given used garlic salt, not garlic powder. Other than that, good.

Slice the zucchini 1/4" thick to dry well. I tried different herbs - the Italian herb mix plus garlic tasted the best.

I also dried my horseradish. I think I can grind it up later & mix it with vinegar to make prepared horseradish (which is what all my recipes call it). Saves wear & tear on the sinuses.

My first forays into dehydrating carrots and zucchini definitely needed some oil, so I sprinkled a tiny shake or two of it on kale and tossed it like crazy with salt and herbs. The kale ended up nice and crispy, but very oily! Can't win. At least the dehydrator didn't end up a mess as I feared and was easy to clean, but I guess the shrinkage made what was barely any oil on the leaves into a bigger ingredient by the end. But they were tasty and remained crispy for days. Being lazy, I had bought a box of baby kale leaves already cleaned, so all in all, the kale was a winner.

How did the cranberries work out? I tried it once. Didn't work at all! The skin on the cranberries keeps them from drying. I think you have to smash the cranberries first so the skin is broken.

I need to try that again myself.

I put my cranberries in whole. Didn't read the book--you are supposed to cut them in half, cut side up.

BUT---my mistake turned out to be amazing! I LOVE the cranberries! They stayed round. They are like airy light cranberry puffs, imagine cocoa puffs, but lighter, crispier, cranberry flavor, a little tart, a little sweet. It took a LONG time, had to dehydrate a lot on day 1, and then more on day 2.

But before day 2, I tossed them in a container. This is when I noticed they needed more drying......on day 2, I tried a couple, some were all dry, some kinda moist. So I tossed in a pack of splenda, closed the box, shook them up, pretended the splenda would act like corn starch and keep them from sticking together. A lot of them were very sticky still!

The splenda did the trick! AND it gave them more sweetness. I put them back in the dehydrator for a few more hours. Then they were done, airy, light, very light, very light and crispy, wow, amazing! It's been 2 weeks now I guess and I am still eating that first batch, just nibble a few here and there. And low and behold, they are STILL air light and crispy! WOW!

They turned out great!

I thought next time I WOULD cut them in half, but now I'm not so sure--I really REALLY like them like this. It just took them a lot of hours to dry out..... And not a single one of them shriveled up.

The blueberries I did? I didn't cut them---but they shrunk and shriveled up like raisins. they were good too! But more chewy and dense. I like them a lot, but so far, the cranberries are my favorite.

Also did some mango--and pineapple, which came out leathery. Not bad. But NOTHING like that prepackaged stuff you buy that comes in trail mix. NOTHING like it at ALL. But not bad, if you like very chewy fruit!

Also, did some red and yellow bell peppers. LOVED them! I dried them a little too long--they were crispy! Should have made them wider...... they cut my gums and mouth. But they were GREAT! You wouldn't believe how delicious and sweet they were. I don't like them raw or cooked much, but dried out? WOW, I lOVED THEM! Sat and ate a whole red and yellow dehydrated pepper each during a movie one night. Better than eating buttered popcorn, right?! LOVED them so much, but will make the strips a LOT wider next time and not dry them as much.

OHHH and regular onions? Don't care for onions much, but will tolerate them cooked. HATE them raw. But dehydrated? OMG, of all of the things I've dried so far, I have to tell you that the onions are my favorite! They are so delicious, sort of sweet, not hot (spicy) but wonderful! The best onion I've ever had! The trick is to cut them into thick slices, 3/8 inch thick and NOT take the slices apart into rings, but lay them as thick slices and let them dry like that--much easier to eat than thin dried rings. Same with bell peppers--better if they are not thinly sliced. The onions, OMG, amazing!

So between the onions, the bell peppers, some dried pepperoni slices, and some black olives too, all mixed in a bowl, and cooled off, with some mozzarella sticks thrown in-- it tastes somewhat like a supreme pizza!

I have a Pizza Trail Mix recipe on my FB page, and it calls for fresh sliced parmesan, but I ran out, so I juilienned some mozzarella and used that and it was SUPER!! There is no 'recipe' to follow, just mix those things together: dehydrated onions, bell peppers, black olives, pepperoni slices, mushrooms if you like them, or whatever you like on your pizza, toss in later some fresh cheese and voila! Pizza Trail Mix!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Molly, the onions and peppers sound amazing. I'd be afraid of doing the onions because I could probably eat way too much carbs-worth of it.

New recommendation for the dehydrator: cucumbers. Some of them were a bit chewy, but some came out crunchy. I'm sure that's because I was lazy with my slicing, so it wasn't very even.

I can *barely* taste the cucumber flavour. It must be highly volatile and therefore evaporated. Side by side, I'd find them almost identical to dehydrated zucchini. Great for dipping.