Recipe: Zucchini Chips

One of my favorite dehydrated snacks are Zucchini Chips. The original recipe is in raw food chef, Judita Wignall's uncook book Going Raw. It's a great book for beginners!

You can find the exact measurements for the original recipe (Spicy Hot Zucchini Chips) if you purchase her book.

My version is a bit more simple:

2 large thick in diameter zucchinis
3tbs apple cider vinegar
3tbs extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbs garlic powder
1/2 tbs Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1. Slice the zucchini with a mandoline slicer. About 1/8-inch, I prefer mine think.

 2. Mix the vinegar, oil, powder, seasoning, and pepper in a bowl and then add the zucchini.

3. MASSAGE YOUR ZUCCHINI!

4. Lay the chips on your dehydrator and dehydrate for 10-12 hours on 110ºF or until crisp

They last up to a month in an airtight container. But you'll probably eat them before then. :)

I make a batch every week.

I cook a lot for my husband and it just comes natural to not have to measure or know how spice something up out of nothing. Just like with traditional cooking, once you get the flow of making raw recipes, putting something together comes naturally depending on how you've liked the turn out of a certain recipe before hand. Trial and error. For example: If you don't like this zucchini chip recipe, try just rubbing them in oil and salt for a simple salty snack or even better sock them in nama shoyu or tamari.

Hope you try and enjoy this recipe! And don't  forget to look up Judita Wignall and her book Going Raw

My Typical Grocery Items

So My husband, James, and I live with my parents and I'm usually in charge of filling the kitchen with food. My mom and dad don't eat a lot and none them eat masses of junk food, so it's not to bad on the wallet.

I'm the only one that eats breakfast, and for lunch I pack my man a sandwich with some fruit or veggies. The rents will usually make a sandwich for themselves as well. Dinner is divided. About three times a week my dad will make dinner, usually around football weekend when my brothers and their friends come over. They all experiment with fried chicken and making all kinds of soups. There's always chips and my dads homemade salsa....that's where my raw habits die...I can't say no to my dads salsa!

In any case, I make my own dinner every night and if James, being a picky eater, doesn't like what my dad is making I'll make something separate for him.

Everyone wants something different and when I look at my receipt it's 50/50 on the cost. Usually the bill is about $50 for a week but this week we were running low on a lot.

For me I bought:
2 pineapple (on sale $2.99, saved $4 on 2) James will eat 1
bunch of cilantro (.99)
coconut water (4.99)
wild rice ($3.23, saved .36)
raw almonds ($3.99, saved $1.00)
3 avocados ($5.07, wish they were cheaper lol)
organic celery ($2.29) Dad will use half the stalk
3 limes ($1.00)
5lbs. bananas or 14 bananas ($3.63) Mom and James will eat half before they ripen to my liking :(
3 fuji apples ($2.26, saved $1.22)
3 lemons ($1.99)
2 sweet onions ($2.46)
2 kiwi ($1.00)
black grapes ($6.97) Mom might eat all these before I get to them lol
2 cucumbers ($1.29) Mom will eat 1
3 honeycrisp apples ($4.36, saved $2.19)


Total: $48.61 for mostly me


For everyone else:
Scoop chips ($4.99 BOGO, saved $4.99) For Salsa
4 Stouffers family sized ($15.96, saved $15.20) AWESOME DEAL!!!
honey wheat bread ($2.93)
Bunny Bread ($3.09)
Provolone cheese ($2.79)
Roasted Turkey slices ($4.50)
2 Canned French green beans ($1.39 BOGO, saved $1.39)
Shampoo ($4.89)
Sandwich bags ($2.99)

Total: $43.53

So I'm good with the 50/50 on the food. And like I said, this was a heavy week and that only happens if some is eating all the fruit before I can get to it.

Cafe Organic

I was picking up some kelp noodles at the Golden Almond, a local health food store in my town. I couldn't believe it when I saw the advertisement for Cafe Organic.

I told myself I would have to try this place out! I'd been looking for a juice bar for a year now, if only just to connect with some people that cared about healthy eating like me. Then I come to find out that it's been open for just as long as I've been looking LOL.

Of course me fearing change, I looked in on it first; seeing if anyone would go with me. Well I guess I couldn't wait for my friends to respond to my post; I was gone. And I just got back, now I'm writing this. Though I know I'm a poor writer and don't know how to stay on topic; I'm writing with excitement.

 

I walked into this bar. I was immediately greeted by Amy (the owner) sitting at the bar and John (the yogi) behind the bar.


Since I've been getting tired of eating salads every night and hadn't really ever had a great green smoothie (thanks to my cruddy blender) I wanted to try one. I don't know if it was John or the Vita Mix, but that smoothie was awesome!

It's was so refreshing talking to them. Both had been on a raw diet before and were very knowledged on the subject. The topic of raw dog food even came up! Needless to say, I will be back.


Please check them out! Cafe Organic

How This Got Started

In high school I met my husband. He was my first boyfriend and well, my first everything. I had convinced myself that being in love and comfortable around him had caused me to gain 25lbs. within those 4 four years we were together.  I didn't think I was fat. "I held the weight well" as most people would tell me. My diet was typical. Fast food and big portions.

When James proposed December 2010, I had just started getting into healthy eating. Mostly because I found myself getting tired at work after lunch all the time. My face would get red and I'd sometimes get light-headed. I was just tired. At this time I was watching tons of Netfix movies and came across "Food Matters" and it just clicked. I shouldn't feel like this at 22! From there, I tried to find every bit of information I could about this raw diet they were talking about. By that point I wasn't even thinking about doing it to lose weight.