Purely Homegrown

So I got a little ambitious in the kitchen yesterday. I decided to juice some carrots and strawberries for little man (who turned 14 months this weekend!– insert mommy freak out here) and decided to get a little creative with the pulp

So I’m currently operating with the state of the art Juiceman Jr. circa 1995. Oh yeah- ballin’! But it gets the job done (sort of). 

I never got a photo of little man with his sippy cup of juice because he grabbed the cup and ran away to chug it by the sliding door. He’s a goof- but LOVES his fresh raw juice!

Usually I just toss veggie pulp (bad, bad, I know!) and make fruit leather from the fruit pulp, but this was a combo of both, so I was excite to put it to use. I made raw crackers for little man. All of the “toddler” crackers in the store that tout being all natural, fruit, and veggie have WAY too many ingredients on the side for me. Plus, they’re mostly just wheat/flour and then a tad of veggie/fruit powder for flavor- not very much goodness going on there. 😦 These ones turned out quite nicely. I wasn’t too keen on the texture, but the Mr. loved them!

Here’s a shot of the pulp I was left with. It’s just organic strawberries (I leave the greens on) and carrots. Not so yummy looking just yet!

I knew I’d like to add some stuff to them so I grabbed my milled raw flax seed (used a milling blade in my blender on raw whole seeds- store in fridge) and the pineapple I got at the local farmers market over the weekend.

And the yum-a-licious pineapple!

I squeezed slices of the pineapple into the pulp before blending it up so it would get a little sweetness.

Then slap it on the teflex sheet in the dehydrator, put it on 105 degrees (low setting to keep it “raw”) and let it be for about 8 hours. Set it and forget it!

This was just a small amount of pulp, so it’ll just make a few crackers for little man (seen hanging out to the left of the dehydrator) but if I juiced for the whole family I could fill up a few trays with pulp. Make sure you score the pulp into cracker shapes first, so you can break them apart when it’s dry.

And there you go! I’m so excited for him to get up from his nap and try his new treat! 🙂 It’s such a good way to get raw whole foods into your diet and even added boosts of nutrition through any seeds or nuts you’d add! 

Raw carrot/strawberry crackers:

• fresh pulp of carrot and strawberry- or from favorite veggies and fruit (I had roughly 2 loosely packed cups)

• roughly 1/4 cup fresh pineapple juice (for sweetness)

• 1 tbsp raw flax seed meal (or substitute any raw seeds)

1. Blend up pulp, juice, and seeds in blender until mixed. Add juice as needed to blend all ingredients. Don’t make it too wet or it’ll take a while to dry.

2. Spread blended pulp mix on teflex sheet in dehydrator. Score into cracker sizes.

3. Set dehydrator on 105, or desired setting for roughly 8 hours. Check periodically. You may need to use a spatula to flip them towards the end, to thoroughly dry bottom side.

4. Enjoy!

Think you’ll try it? Let me know what you think and how yours turn out!

Cheers!