Dehydrating Food in Your Oven

I ventured onto eHow again to see if there was a way to dehydrate food at home without having an actual food dehydrator. I remember when I was a kid my mom had brought home a food dehydrator and we used it to make out own banana and apple chips as well as dehydrate other snacky fruits and vegetables. It was a great way to make healthy snacks and the crunchiness of the pieces of fruits and veggies made for a great replacement of chips. Having read the instructions online I started out with some basic quick veggies: Snow Pea (in pod), Green Beans, and sliced Mushrooms. I placed them on two different cookie sheets- a single layer and no pieces touching. I preheated the oven, like instructed, to 150 degrees and put the cookie sheets in, being sure to leave the oven door propped over a little and have the ceiling fan going to circulate the air. I checked back 2 and a half hours later to a not so finished product. Being the impatient busy body that I am I promptly gave up the process and took the veggies out of the oven and put them into a bowl. They didn't look too beautiful, but they did taste pretty good- still a little moist though. In the end I realized... I need a food dehydrator. The amount of time I would need to keep my oven in use (sometimes 36-48 hours for some fruits) is just to great and I wouldn't be able to leave the house. Plus, I'm too impatient. Lesson learned and duly noted. Birdie is gonna get herself a high capacity food dehydrator. There was also a recipe on there about creating homemade fruit leather... definitely something worth trying as I love me some fruit leather!

Happy dehydrating,

~Birdie

PS- The mushrooms tasted the best.