Sunday, January 31, 2010

Cheese Crackers

With this whole journey to eating real food, I have more than myself to consider.  I am fortunate to have a son who, at 7 months, has been breastfed from day one and has only eaten a few fruits and vegetables (so, in other words, a clean slate) and a daughter who loves food and eats pretty much anything.  I, however, have a husband who is very fond of junk-food.  

After seeing Food, Inc. he is completely on board for the major changes ahead, but is a bit apprehensive of what this will look like in real life.  I cook dinners from scratch, so these will be fairly simple to change.  We will likely eat less poultry and meat, as free-range/ organic/ grass fed is expensive and it will be cost-prohibitive to eat daily.  Currently we eat at least one meatless dinner meal per week, so eating a couple more meatless meals will only be a minor change.

Breakfast is another story.  We currently eat free-range organic eggs and organic milk, so these will not be an added expense, but Eden and Brandon enjoy cereal.  I am thinking homemade granola and milk may be a good substitute.  I know there are also basic organic equivalents to the major cereals, so that would also be an option.  I am also shopping around for fairly traded coffee.  

A major concern for Brandon is, what will his work lunches look like?  Right now, he is usually taking a sandwich with deli meat or PB&J (or sometimes he takes supper leftovers), crackers or chips, fruit, and some sort of dessert (often pudding).  This will basically ALL have to change.  Our current bread brand is better than some when you read the ingredient list, not organic, though.  Deli meat may become a thing of the past, though I have found free-range local deli turkey loaf (not sliced) from Quail Cove Farms.  Anyone know how to cut it?  Peanut butter... #2 ingredient in our brand is HFCS (high fructose corn syrup... thanks Monsanto!).  I'm not sure what to do here.  I have never really loved peanut butter.  My mom made ours and made it with no sweetener and you had to stir the oil in and I just always thought it was gross.  I would be okay with stirring it if it had some sweetness.  Maybe honey?  Jelly/ jam is easy, I make it every year!

So this brings me to today's experiment!  I made crackers!  They were very simple to make and took no time.  The family really liked them and I think I can play with adding different things to get some really great flavors!  Here is the basic recipe:

2 cups flour (whole wheat if you want)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs butter
up to 1 cup milk

Combine salt and flour
Cut in butter
Add milk until doughy (not sticky)
Roll out PAPER THIN on a cookie sheet
Score and prick with a fork
Bake at 300F for 20 min

I added 1/4 cup of cheddar cheese and 1/4 tsp cayenne to mine and they are YUM!!

Okay, enough for now.  Thanks for reading! :)

3 comments:

  1. The PB I've been enjoying (stumbled across it when it was on sale + coupon = cheap) is Skippy Natural. No trans fats, and the ingredients list is: Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Palm Oil, Salt. I was raised on Peter Pan and don't like the flavors of alot of the other brands, but this is quite good.

    For slicing the meat, the few times I've gotten unsliced I've just used a really sharp knife (Cutco :D) and slice it as thin as I can. Usually I only use 1 slice on the sandwich then since it's the thickness of what a couple slices of "deli" meat would be. I slice it all up, then wrap it in smaller packages and freeze it.

    Chicken/Egg Salads could be sandwich options if Brandon likes those things (both would be almost "free" once you get your own birdies :) ). And of course PB with homemade jelly or jam .... MMmmm :)

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  2. Thanks for sharing the cracker recipe. I'm going to have to try it! My mom's big on the just peanuts type peanut butter too with the oil. I can handle it...if it has salt and is smooth..not the crunchy unsalted kind she eats. I bet some honey would be good in it, but the absolute favorite at our house is natural peanut butter with apple butter stirred into it...sooo good!

    The other things DS and I like for lunches are hummus and other bean type dips as sandwiches. Not sure if you husband would go for those...but it might be an idea.

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  3. TJ's organic PB is just nuts and salt. We keep it in the fridge and never have trouble with it separating the way natural PB likes to. A mandoline might help with lunch meat?

    Your enthusiasm for this project is infectious! Love the blog posts.

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