One of our favorite, healthy snacks is dehydrated fruit. Dried fruit is as healthy as fresh fruit, but more easily stored and available. Dehydrators aren't all that expensive, and pay for themselves really quickly. They require very little work as well. I put small fruits like blueberries and raspberries in whole, cut medium-sized fruits like grapes and strawberries in half, and cut larger fruits into rings (apples and pears) or strips (papaya and mango). If you do this right before you go to bed, much of the fruit will be dehydrated by morning. We harvest a lot of our fruit from our orchard, but another good way to get the fruit is to buy it when it is on sale and dry it then. Keep in mind that sweet fruits like plums and cherries may become way too sweet when you dry them. Fruits with a bit of tartness to them seem to work better.

Apples can be especially easy to find cheap, as many people have an apple tree in their neighborhood that no one harvests because it the apples are small and tart. These are great for drying, though, as the sweetness increases as you dry them. Apple orchards are also a great place to get juicing apples cheap. Juicing apples are nothing more than a normal apple that has a bruise or cut on it, making the orchard unable to sell it otherwise. They work great for drying, though. less

Great tip! You can also dehydrate in your oven. It's not specifically designed for it, but I made sweet potato chips in my oven by slicing them super thin, then putting them on parchment paper on a pan in my oven for about 1-2 hours at about 200 degrees (maybe less). I put Cayenne pepper on some of them, and garlic powder on some of them. SO YUMMY! less

I LOVE Hummus. I use it instead of mayonnaise on turkey sandwiches. Multigrain bread and some nice creamy swiss. YUMMY!

I also make a black bean "hummus" style dip that is amazing and easy! Great for tacos and veggies and keeps me away from the sour cream!

I miss my blender. Mine's broken so I can't do that right now. Gonna replace it very soon! less

One of our favorite, healthy snacks is dehydrated fruit. Dried fruit is as healthy as fresh fruit, but more easily stored and available. Dehydrators aren't all that expensive, and pay for themselves really quickly. They require very little work as well. I put small fruits like blueberries and raspberries in whole, cut medium-sized fruits like grapes and strawberries in half, and cut larger fruits into rings (apples and pears) or strips (papaya and mango). If you do this right before you go to bed, much of the fruit will be dehydrated by morning. We harvest a lot of our fruit from our orchard, but another good way to get the fruit is to buy it when it is on sale and dry it then. Keep in mind that sweet fruits like plums and cherries may become way too sweet when you dry them. Fruits with a bit of tartness to them seem to work better.

Apples can be especially easy to find cheap, as many people have an apple tree in their neighborhood that no one harvests because it the apples are small and tart. These are great for drying, though, as the sweetness increases as you dry them. Apple orchards are also a great place to get juicing apples cheap. Juicing apples are nothing more than a normal apple that has a bruise or cut on it, making the orchard unable to sell it otherwise. They work great for drying, though. less

Oh today on twitter I asked what non sweet healthy snack can I have besides peanuts and cheese and someone replied hummus. I do love hummus and in the past have used it instead of mayo.

Your black bean hummus sounds yummy too I gather is just mushed up black beans kind of like refried beans? less