My Dehydrator is Dead to Me

So after that rant about being economical, I have run into a bit of a problem, frugality-wise.

I want a new dehydrator.

So, background: Skywalker and I made some big goals when we came home from Christmas break this year. I have realized that my husband cannot live a healthy lifestyle on the kind of cooking I do, even the vegetarian, *mostly* healthy *not a whole lot of wheat, dairy, cheese and refined carbs* that I struggle so much to achieve and still have my kids eat their food instead of surreptitiously throwing it in the trash when my back is turned.

Well, he's still having trouble. We found out last year that his metabolism is very, very low for a man of his age and size. He had his resting metabolism measured as part of a nutrition study for the university we live by, and it clocked in at around 1750, but dipped at times down to 1350-1400.

Just for comparison, that lower number is about the average resting metabolism that we recorded for the very skinny, tiny, bulimic girls that came into the residential treatment center I used to work for. And the upper number is still about your average 21-year-old woman's metabolism.

For Skywalker's weight and height, age, and gender, his metabolism by all rights ought to be around the 2500 range.

What this means is he gains weight very, very easily. Before we were married, he ate mostly raw vegetables. And I do mean "mostly." He made a huge salad in the morning every day (with stuff in it like beets, beans, onions, cabbage, broccoli in addition to several kinds of greens) and that would be his grazing-food for the entire day until he came home from school/work, whereupon he'd finish off whatever salad was left with maybe a small serving of pasta or a stir fry or some such. So, very nutrient dense food, not a whole heckuva lot of calories.

He ate like this for years and maintained a trim figure and good numbers in the cholesterol and blood-pressure categories. He had good bone density, because the greens gave him calcium, because he was eating enough of them for the trace amounts to make a difference.

It may be because he ate like this for so long that his metabolism is now so low, I don't know.

At any rate, after watching his weight fluctuate but mostly increase over the last 5 years (he now weighs about 40 lbs more than when we married), after the tests that revealed his cholesterol was approaching the danger zone and the bone density in his hips is approaching osteopenia-diagnosable numbers, I've realized that's how Skywalker needs to eat in order to be healthy. And it's a huge blow to me, because I can NOT eat that way and be healthy. I need fats, I need Iron, I need protein, I need calories. I have a freaky metabolism, too (though it is now slowing as I approach thirty). In high school I was a tiny, whiry grasshopper of a girl who likely downed aroudn 3,000 calories a day and did not put on an ounce (to my own chagrin, there were a couple of areas where I wouldn't have minded an extra ounce or two) and I remain fairly slender, eating about I'd say 2,500 ish calories a day. My body NEEDS that, it needs fats. I'm not necessarily talking big macs and ice cream, I mean mostly healthy fats: avacadoes, yogurts, cottage cheeses, nuts, whole grain breads etc.

Add to that an even more difficult problem: Loli. She's really struggled with food in the past. She gains weight at a very painfully slow rate, to the point where her growth spurts leave her looking skeletal sometimes for a month or two while her body catches up. Last month she caught pneumonia and lost about 5 lbs and we'll just say loli CANNOT afford to lose even 1 lb.

Then there's MEaza and Winna, who did not eat a whole lotta raw veggies in EThiopia. They're doing pretty good, considering, but the days I have to take full plates and dump them in the compost are more often than I like to to think too hard about. Also I have a 3 year old and a 2 year old.

So my quest has been to find yummy recipes that are vegan (no dairy no eggs) to reduce the cholesterol problem, add in plant fats instead (but keep them, for the most part, out of what Skywalker gets) and try to up our raw food intake to meet my own needs for iron and protein while also meeting skywalker's need for dense, nutrient-packed food.

One thing I quickly realized: you need some tools if you really want to go raw. Namely, a good, large-capacity food processor with a good motor and nice sharp blades. A sprouting system of some kind. A good, high-power blender and a good dehydrator.

We've done OK. the first time I tried to make raw macaroons (perhaps the most delicious raw recipe I've ever had) in our tiny, weak food processor, I came the closest to swearing that I have come in a long while. So I scoured craigslist and DI and found a medium-sized cuisinart for 10 dollars (yes you read that right) and made due with that, processing my food in several batches. Then last week I got a large, off-brand model at DI for... yes, 10 dollars. I've been very happy with it. I ground up some soaked almonds, wheat, and oat groats just fine in it... no pause or problem with the motor, and I got to do it ALL AT ONCE (happy dance!!!)

Today, I took this dough and began pressing it into the old, stained, abused trays of the round dehydrator we currently use (I think Skyalker inherrited it from a relative) and promptly cracked first one tray, then the other.

This dehydrator really has me going. It's often the last step in a 2-day process to make a raw recipe. By the time I've hit dehydrator stage, I'm done. I"m not patient. I'm ready to throw the whole thing up in the air and go get papa murphy's.

Today, after the second tray cracked, I backed up, gave the poor, battered dehydrator what I assume was one of my famous evil glares, and said, out loud, "you're dead to me."

I'm done.

Seriously, I'm done.

I want an excalibur. But guess what? They cost in the neighborhood of two hundred bucks. At least. They ain't gonna be at DI. They ain't gonna be on craigslist. They might be at KSL but they'll cost at least a hundred fifty.

Is it worth it?

My current, hormonally-screamy nerves say yes.

my budget says no.

But this is a health issue! Right?

I'm starting to understand, just a little bit, what I call the "Elaine" phenomenon. Elaine is my mother in law. She's a wonderful woman with a tiny kitchen, tiny house,and an extremely frugal lifestyle aside from the crazy fancy expensive appliances she owns. She doesn't have a dishwasher but she DOES have a 300 dollar cuisinart food processor. They drive 10-year-old-cars but she's lobbying for a 2,000 dollar vaccuum cleaner. (Her reason involves dust allergies.)

The "Elaine" phenomenon always baffled me before, but I'm starting to understand, now. And I wonder if it's really a righteous thing or not... I can make due with this little round dehydrator, can't I? I can look around for new trays for it... most of them are the same size and doubtless THOSE could be found on both craigslist and at DI.

But I just don't wanna. Sanity is also a consideration, right? Right?