{Easy, Healthy Snacks} Homemade Banana Chips.

One of my New Years' Resolutions was to always have homemade snacks and desserts in the house. We always have our snacks and desserts around, and I'd so much rather feed my family the freshest stuff with the best ingredients and none of the preservatives or the Five Bad Ingredients that are in ALL the store-bought stuff. 

Hence my banana experiment. Banana chips meet all the criteria for the perfect snack: they're cheap, easy, and with ONE INGREDIENT made by God himself, they're super healthy. PLUS they're neat enough to eat in the car, don't need to be refrigerated, and last a while in the pantry (so I hear; ours don't stick around long enough to find out).

There was a time when I used to love those dried banana chips you can buy at the grocery store. But let me be the first to tell you that there is ZERO COMPARISON between the store-bought ones and homemade. They might as well call those Cardboard Crunchies, because that's what they taste like compared to these bites of banana candy. I was SO SURPRISED by how SWEET and delicious they are; they really do taste like Banana Laffy Taffy. MERCIFUL HEAVENS, they're so good, and you don't even need to sweeten them!

Start by peeling your bananas. I normally do two big bunches at a time, around ten bananas.



Slice them about 1/8" thick and layer them in a dehydrator if you have one. If you don't, try to steal one from  your dad. That's what I did. I went to their house, and yada yada yada, now I have a dehydrator.

But if you don't have a dehydrator and you can't steal a dehydrator, some of my friends make theirs in the oven; but you'll have to do a Google search for those details because I've never done it before.

 I have to tell you about my newest kitchen gadget! My mom gave me a Sabatier Food Chopper/Slicer for Christmas, and this thing is the BOMB. You know how here in the First World it gets really tiresome slicing stuff up with just a knife? With your own hands?? This thing slices them by the handful, and all in uniform sizes! LOVE. Thanks, mom.  So use a slicer if you have one; if not you can get one here.

Or, you could just use a knife {yawn}.

So fun, even your seven-year-old will want to help, if she doesn't eat all the banana slices first.

Do bananas help grow teeth? Just wondering. We seem to be missing a few... 

Homemade Banana Chips

Ingredients

Bananas

Directions

Slice bananas into 1/8" slices. Layer them in your dehydrator in a single layer. Dehydrate overnight. Check in the morning for desired chewiness and remove the 'done' ones; we like ours somewhat chewy (like banana taffy) and not too crunchy. Continue to deyhdrate until all are at desired chewiness. The longer you dehydrate the crunchier they get. Ours are perfectly chewy and sweet after about 18 hours in the dehydrator.

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