Don't Throw Away that Pineapple Core!

I got a great deal on pineapples a couple weeks ago, and although we couldn't resist eating a couple of them fresh, I dehydrated the rest for our winter snack/toppings store!  I dried all the juicy fleshy stuff in my dehydrator:

But what to do with all those cores?  A year ago I would have thrown them all away, but I have learned since then that sometimes the least "tasty" parts of a fruit or vegetable (or animal) are the most nutritious!  So I researched pineapple cores, and confirmed my suspicion.  It has valuable nutrients, at least one of which is not even found in the fleshy parts!

• Fiber - for healthy digestion and strong immunities
• Vitamin C - great for the immune system during cold/flu season
• Manganese - for proper bone formation and synthesis of fatty acids
• Copper - helps your body utilize iron and produce melanin
• Bromelain - a protein enzyme with strong anti-inflammatory properties

Pineapple cores and skins are the best place to find bromelain, in particular.  How could we throw such nutrient-rich treasures away??

So I decided to blend up one of my pineapples completely (minus the skin), along with all the cores of the other six.  I then poured the pulpy mixture onto parchment paper, as though I were making fruit leather, and dehydrated it as well.  (Seven pineapple cores, plus one pineapple's worth of fleshy fruit, took up three trays in my dehydrator).  Twelve hours later, I had a dry, thin "plate" of pineapple!  Sorry I didn't take a picture at this point.  I broke the brittle plate into pieces, and voila...

Pineapple core chips!

They are tangy and delicious, and perfect for the medicine cabinet in case of a sprang or a pulled tendon.  If only they would last til then...