Dehydrating Oranges and Other Citrus Fruit

 Today I am dehydrating oranges. I bought 8 large fresh oranges and washed their skins then starting slicing.

It's important to try to get your slices the same thickness or else some will dehydrate faster than others. Just do the best you can.

You don't have to leave them in rounds. You can half or even quarter the round slices if you want.

Sliced and ready for the dehydrator tray.

Set the dehydrator to 135 and turn it on. These will take several hours, then I can put them in any clean jar, label and date it and store them in a cool dry place.

You can dehydrate limes. lemons and grapefruit or citrus fruit the same way. 

Nesco Dehydrator

If you don't have a dehydrator, I can recommend two. I have a small, cheaper Nesco American Harvest FD-37 400 Watt Food Dehydrator which I purchased from Amazon.com. It does a decent job but does not have an internal fan so dehydrating takes longer and you must rotate the trays for even dehydration.

Then I have my heavy duty dehydrator, the Excalibur 3900B 9 Tray Deluxe Dehydrator which has an internal fan and 9 trays. It does an amazing job and no need to rotate trays as the fan distributes the heat evenly.

Excalibur Dehydrator

We believe in being self-sufficient if there is ever a long-lasting emergency or crisis situation. So I dehydrate many fruits and vegetables for use if that ever happens. They will last a very long time and all you need do is check them every so often for mold. Don't open the jar, be sure you use glass so you can spot check without disturbing the food items.

Not Your Usual Grilled Cheese No. 3: On Pumpkin Bread and Loaded

You've probably all figured out by now that I like think of different ways to use up leftovers. And that I think Grilled Cheese is the most amazingly versatile food ever. Well today was no different. I had a few items in the fridge that were on their last day of being edible - mushrooms, a bit of roasted turkey, half a package of bacon and half a loaf of homemade Sour Cream Pumpkin Bread.

So I made grilled cheese out of all those ingredients plus some cheese, eggs and for extra good health, flax seed. Okay I see your puzzled looks but trust me - flax seed is not noticeable in foods, either in taste or texture. So it's perfectly okay to sprinkle some on to whatever you're making. And it is one of the best sources of Omega 3 there is!

Here is my list of ingredients for 3 sandwiches:

• 3 eggs
• some margarine for the sandwiches and for frying those mushrooms
• bacon (about 3 slices per sandwich unless you are a die-hard bacon lover, then you will want more
• 3 large mushrooms, sliced
• a bit of salsa (about 1 tsp per sandwich)
• leftover cooked turkey or chicken
• pumpkin bread - enough to equal 6 normal slices of bread. I didn't have enough so had to make 2 pumpkin bread grilled cheese and 2 white bread 
• cheese. Once again I forgot to buy cheddar cheese when we went grocery shopping on Monday so had to resort to processed cheese slices. 
• Tomatoes. I didn't have any but I would have sliced them and included them if I had

The first step is to start cooking your bacon. I like to do mine on parchment paper in a 350' oven for about 20 minutes. It saves all that splattering of grease, and having no room on my stove to cook the rest of the ingredients.

You can butter your bread and start prepping your mushrooms. I also like to put each of the eggs I'm going to use in a small ramekin or cup so that I can inspect them to make sure there are no yukky bits.

When there is about 10 minutes left before your bacon is ready, start frying up your mushroom slices. I also added my leftover turkey so it would come to heat  with the mushrooms. When my bacon and mushroom-turkey mix were ready I wrapped them in tin foil and put them in the microwave to keep warm.

Then I fried my eggs in one skillet and starting toasting my buttered breads in a second one. I talked about the right way to cook an egg so there are no crispy edges and so the yolk is not running out when you bite into your sandwich, at Not Your Usual Grilled Cheese No. 2

I like to put my cheese on the fried egg just before it is ready so the heat melts the cheese slightly. I also put about a tsp. of flax seed divided evenly on the eggs as they were cooking.  Remember to break the yolks too.

Once my bread was lightly toasted on one side, I started layering the ingredients - egg with melted cheese and flaxseed, then mushrooms and turkey, then bacon. I topped this with a dollop of garlic salsa (but I would use regular salsa next time) then put the second piece of bread on top. This is a thick sandwich and needs to be pressed down with something heavy.

 This is the Flax Seed I buy. It can sprinkled on oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, even on sour cream. You can bake with it by adding a teaspoon to your regular recipe for any kind of breads. Just be sure it is ground and keep it in the refrigerator once you've opened it. It's high in fibre and Omega 3

 The pumpkin bread is cooking in one skillet and I've started layering

The white bread is toasting in a separate skillet and I've put the egg-cheese on as the start of my layers.

Layering with bacon, mushrooms, turkey and a dollop of salsa.

Turn the sandwich over carefully and toast the other piece of bread. This pumpkin bread sandwich is almost ready. Don't forget to press the sandwiches down with something heavy!

When they are golden, slice the sandwiches and serve. We had ours with tea and it hit the spot.

This is the white bread sandwich I made along with the pumpkin bread sandwiches

Using Leftovers to Make Turkey Quesadillas

Leftovers. We all have them. But what to do with them? I like to use leftovers and try to create something entirely different for another night's meal.  So last night I took some leftover cooked turkey and made what hubs and I considered yummy Quesadillas.

Here's what I used:

* Leftover cooked turkey. You could use chicken instead if you wanted. I probably used about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced pieces of turkey breast to make 9 small Quesadillas.

Oops, forgot to show the Cheddar Cheese

* 1/2 sweet red bell pepper plus 1/2 sweet yellow bell pepper. I keep my peppers in my freezer, pre-sliced and ready to use. Did you know you can freeze peppers? Yep. When you buy them, don't wash them. Just cut them however you want - slices, quarters, halves... it's your choice. Remove the inside seeds and the stem. Then put them in ziplock baggies and toss in the freezer. They're good for many months! When you are ready to use some, just pull out what you need, rinse them under water for a few minutes (that washes them and defrosts them slightly) and you're good to go.

* 1/2 onion cut into slices

* 3/4 cup black beans, drained and rinsed

* 3/4 cup frozen corn niblets. You can use canned corn, just be sure to drain the corn before using

v1 tomato cut into small chunks or slices. I had one old tomato I wanted to use up so even though I didn't really need tomato due to the salsa addition, I added this anyway and I'm glad I did!

* 1 tsp. cumin

* 1/2 tsp cardamon

* 2 -3  tsp. fajita mix. You can use as much or as little as you like

* Salsa. I used mild but you can use any kind you like from mild to hot. I put about 3 Tbsp. on each Quesadilla before I folded them.

* Shredded cheese. I used a Cheddar mix.

* Pre-cooked bacon. I used 4 slices that I cut into chunks.  I only used it because we had a few slices left over from the morning when I made some delicious grilled cheese with egg, bacon, tomato and avocado.

* Tortillas. I used 9 - some were white, some were whole wheat.

How to Make the Quesadillas

After you have prepped everything, toss the onion, pre-cooked bacon, tomato, sweet peppers, black beans, turkey slices or chunks, and corn into a fry pan.

Add the spices (coriander, cumin and fajita mix) then mix. Saute everything on medium heat until the onion is translucent.

If you don't have enough bacon fat left in the bacon to keep things from sticking, add a very small dribble of olive oil to the pan.

Lay out your tortillas and place the turkey mixture on 1/2 of each tortilla. Add 3 Tbsp. of salsa to the top of each mixture and then put shredded cheese on top. Fold the tortilla over so you have semi-circles and flatten them with your hands.

Adding the salsa

Adding the cheese, ready to fold in half

Folded, flattened and ready for the oven.

 Place on a baking sheet and cook in a 350' oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese bubbles.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream or plain Greek yogurt and salsa on the side.

Not Your Usual Grilled Cheese No. 2: Loaded With Bacon, Egg, Tomato and Avocado

Grilled Cheese with bacon, avocado, tomato & egg

This morning I decided to use up some food in the fridge and treat my husband to a nice breakfast. Grilled Cheese is always a favourite but I wanted the breakfast sandwich to be even more special.

So I decided to make a grilled cheese with fried egg, bacon, avocado, sliced tomatoes and my homemade sweet chili sauce. It was delicious!  I also created another special grilled cheese which I shared in a previous post on Ollie's Yummy In Your Tummy blog

Because I had some old hamburger buns in my fridge that needed using up, I decided to grill them on one side and use those as the bread part of the sandwich.

It really doesn't seem to matter how old and stale bread is in the fridge - once you grill it, it seems to revitalize!

So here is how I made this sandwich

1. Start your bacon cooking. I did mine on parchment paper in a 350' oven for 20 minutes. I chose oven cooking for the bacon simply because it's a no fuss-no muss method. I didn't want to have to watch bacon spitting on my stove top while I grilled buns and fried up some eggs.

2. While the bacon is cooking you can prep your avocado and tomato as well as lightly butter your buns for grilling.

3. When the bacon is about 5 mnutes from being ready, you can grill your buttered buns. While they are getting lightly toasted, fry some egss in a separate fry pan.

4. Frying eggs properly is an art. The secret to a nice fried egg with NO cripsy edges is to use low heat and fry the egg very slowly. Did I ever mention how much I dislike crispy brown edges on a fried egg that has been cooked too fast on too high a heat?

After you break your egg into the hot pan (put a bit of margarine in the pan and heat it til it bubbles), be sure you break the yolk. This is one fried egg that you don't want running all over the sandwich when it's put together. Cook the egg slowly and then flip it. Once it is flipped put a slice of cheese on top to melt and continue cooking the egg for about 1 more minute.

5. Now you are ready to assemble your sandwich. Put the bottom half of the grilled bun on your plate or cutting board. Carefully slide the cheese topped egg on to this bottom half.

6. Next comes the sliced tomato and then you can load the bacon. It's your choice how much bacon you want to add!

7. Spread your mashed avocado on the top half of the bun. Finish off the mounded cheese-egg-tomato-bacon with some salt and pepper to taste. I  only add salt and that goes directly on the tomato.  Then top everything with salsa or sweet chili sauce. I used my homemade chili sauce which I drained first as I didn't want the sandwich to be super soggy.

Hubs gave this an 8 out of 10 so I think it was a hit.

Grilling the hamburger buns

Mash the avocado. One avocado works well for 3 sandwiches

The eggs have been flipped and cheese added. I would have used "real" cheddar cheese but I was out so I used cheese slices instead.

This is the first stage of the assembly process. The egg and cheese are on the bottom half of each bun.

Spread the mashed avocado on the top half of each bun

Next add the sliced tomatoes and some salt to taste. Add pepper too if you wish.

Add as much bacon as you like. 

Hubs gets more bacon his two sandwiches than I do.

The final touch is some homemade sweet chili sauce

The final product. It doesn't matter if the bacon or the egg flop over the edges in this sandwich.

Sour Cream Pumpkin Bread Revisited

Today I made my favourite Pumpkin Bread recipe. With a bit of a twist.

I replaced half the butter with my homemade applesauce. Then I replaced half the sour cream with plain Greek Yogurt. I did this because I don't like low-fat sour cream and the regular is a bit higher in fats than Greek Yogurt.

I also added 1 tsp. of Flax Seed (ground) to the dry ingredients. (See original Pumpkin Bread recipe. for ingredients and amounts)

I doubled my recipe and made two loaves of pumpkin bread plus six large pumpkin muffins. 

Ask me how good it was! Answer: Delicious.

Creaming the butter, applesauce and sugar

Adding eggs and vanilla to the sugar-butter-applesauce mixture

Mixing the pumpkin puree, sour cream and Greek Yogurt in a separate bowl. Did you  know you can freeze leftover pumpkin puree? I put it in one cup containers, pop it in the freezer and it's ready for use next time I want to make something with pumpkin

The egg, vanilla, butter, sugar and applesauce mixture is now beaten with a rotary beater

Mixing the dry ingredients in a separate bowl

Everything gets dumped into one large bowl and beaten until just blended

Pour into greased loaf pans or muffin pans

Bake muffins for 30 minutes at 350' or bread for 45 minutes at 350'