Good Obsessions

Acai, passionfruit and melon green tea by Lipton.  This is my new obsession. That, and dehydrated banana chips.  The soon-to-be-mother-in-law let me borrow her dehydrator, and while this thing looks like it's older than I am, it works amazingly! Just take a look at these beautiful, healthy, homemade banana chips:

So so much better than anything you could buy in the store.  They are crispy and sweet and best of all not fried (which I just learned the ones you buy in the "health food" section are! No, really it's true!!)  I cut up almost 3 pounds of bananas (I got them on sale from Aldi for .20 cents a lb!! major steal!!) The chips were about 1/4 inch, some smaller because I'm inconsistent, and they all fit in the 5 rack dehydrator.  Since this thing doesn't have a setting, I had to leave it on until they were crisp enough for me.  Which was a long time. They spent about 9 hours in the dehydrator, then I turned it off for the night to let them cool.  When I woke up the next morning they were still not as crisp as I liked so i flipped them all over and turned the machine on for another 3 hours.  By this point they were the perfect consistency and so sweet!  I didn't soak the pre-dried fruit in any kind of preserve like lemon juice because honestly I don't care about the color and it's extra stuff that I really don't want added to my chips.  In the end I liked the color, they look "caramel-ish".  These things are so good, and 1/3 of a cup is the perfect snack.  Since bananas are a high calorie fruit you really gotta watch yourself eating these but the way I see it, a bowl of these is a whole lot better for you than a bowl of potato chips or popcorn!