Updates on the baby steps

I just thought everyone might like to see how the project is going!

1. Eliminate soda:  It's going pretty well.  Hubby brought how 5 two-liter bottles from work one day last week and I've had a couple glasses.  Both times it tasted sickening sweet and I had to have a glass of water to combat the sugar.  I'm definitely over the addiction.  I drink mostly water and tea with the occasional glass of orange juice.
2. Salads:  Still buying organic lettuce and making my own Caesar and ranch dressings.  I'm not overly thrilled with the 1000 island recipe and need to do some more searching.
3. Crackers:  I'm making all graham crackers, cheese crackers and animal crackers.  I've given up on the snack cracker for right now and I'm buying Kashi 7-grain crackers.  They are a little pricey, but so is using pound upon pound of flour for crackers that are ok, but not "to die for."
4. Eliminate GMO sugar:  I finally purged the last of my cheap powdered sugar stash over the weekend.  I am now buying evaporated cane juice (and trying to use less overall), and C&H brown sugar and powdered sugar.  Eventually I'll probably get rid of brown sugar and add a bit of molasses and extra cane juice in substitution in recipes, but for now C&H is cane sugar so no genetically modified sugar beets and that's good enough.  Down the road, when I have more money to devote to groceries, I'll buy large quanitities of Rapadura, but right now that's not an option.  I will make this change knowing that there is better, but what I'm doing is better than nothing at all.
5. Organic apples have been reasonably priced, so not buying them hasn't even been a consideration.  As of yesterday, they were within $.10/pound of conventionally grown apples.  That's not enough of a difference to justify buying the cheaper ones.
6. MSG and nitrate(ite) free meats:  I'm doing reasonably well.  Yesterday I bought nitrate/nitrite free deli meat and bacon.  I like the Hormel deli meat (if not the company), so 2-3 packages/month will work there and I bought Applewood Farms Bacon.  It's on the menu for tonight, so hopefully it's tasty.  For now, we are really limiting ham.  In the past months, I purchased a whole ham and we used it for 4-5 meals.  I'm steering away from that.  There isn't a nitrate free version that is remotely affordable, so we will still eat it on holidays or family gatherings, but not as part of our normal meal rotation.
7. Following superfoods recommendations:  Meal planning was a little harder than I imagined, but not too bad.  The food that I found getting skipped most often (and it really surprised me) was tomatoes.  Hubby's digestive system doesn't do too well if he eats a lot of acidic foods, so we try to only have tomato-based foods every third or fourth day.  Therefore, we are lacking there.  Since canned tomatoes have BPA in the lining of the cans, not consuming so much might not be a bad thing anyway.  We'll see what happens with our garden this summer.
8. Meal planning:  I did a lot better last week and with this month's plan, I tried to incorporate several easy meals and easy alternatives.  I also bumped up the budget back to $500/month (including any eating out).  If I were feeding just the 5 of us, I don't think $300 would be unreasonable.  Feeding the daycare kids and providing the variety of options is proving more difficult than I had imagined, especially since food prices have gone up even in the last month.  Additionally, I've added a consistent morning snack which increases the cost as well, but I think it helps the little ones focus more and play together better, which is important for their development.  I'm hoping (fingers crossed here) that once I start buying in bulk and get the garden going, that I can bring that number back down.  We'll see.

Overall, I've fallen off the wagon a couple times, but not too bad.  I've got to go.  I'm off to make mac 'n cheese for snack and an apple salad for dinner.

Cheese Crackers (goldfish style)

This week has certainly been a test of my culinary skills and today was no exception.  I made a batch of cheese crackers.  A mama on Diaperswappers linked these yummy crackers on a homemade food thread.  The post comes from stef at Cupcake Project.  On that post, you will find that this recipe has traveled around several blogs and might have started at Country Living, but regardless of its beginnings, it has made it way to my kitchen.

I've made cheese crackers from a different recipe a couple times before and they were ok, but I found that if they sat very long, they got greasy really fast and then sort of soggy.  Not a good quality in a Cheese-it type cracker.  These, on the other hand, were flaky and crispy.  This is in spite of me not rolling the first batch thin enough.  They sat on the counter for a couple hours and they were still as good cold as when I took them from the oven.  I'll have to wait and see how overnight goes another time, because the batch was eaten before I could even get any pictures!  I used a 1 1/2" biscuit cutter because I don't have any cutsey little cutters, but I think I might have to invest in a goldfish!

Recipe

• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 4 T cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 8 oz cheddar cheese (You can use whatever you like.  I picked a yellow sharp cheddar)
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t fresh-ground pepper
• A fish cookie cutter (or a biscuit cutter)

1. Pulse the flour, butter, cheese, salt, and pepper together using a food processor until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
2. Pulse in 3 to 4 tablespoons of water, one tablespoon at a time, and only enough so that the dough forms a ball and rides the blade.
3. Remove, wrap in plastic, and chill for 20 minutes or up to 24 hours.
4. Line 2 baking pans with parchment paper and set aside.
5. Roll the dough out to 1/8-inch thickness. (If you roll it thicker, it will still work, but the crackers won't be quite as crunchy. This dough rolled out so easily; you'll wish that you always worked with cheddar!)
6. Cut out as many crackers as possible.
7. Place them 1 inch apart on the prepared baking pans.
8. Bake at 350 F until golden and crisp - 15 to 20 minutes.

Cracker week is almost over!

I have to say that I won't miss cracker week.  I've used 2 pounds of butter this week making crackers-about half of which I tossed because even the dough was gross.  But, the good news is that I have good versions of nearly all the crackers that I like to eat.  Today's recipe is for graham crackers.

I use the recipe from Weelicious and everyone who eats these crackers gives them rave reviews. 

Homemade Graham Crackers (Makes A LOT, depending on the shape you cut them in)
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Butter, chilled & cubed
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Water
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food processor or mixer combine the first 6 ingredients.
3. Add cubed and chilled butter to the mix and pulse/mix until it resembles coarse meal.
4. Add honey and water and continue to mix until it all combines.
5. Remove and shape the dough into a flat disk and place between two pieces of parchment paper.
6. Roll dough out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into crackers or shapes.
7. Place cookies on a Silpat or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
8. Cool and serve.

I changed the original recipe up a bit and used all whole white wheat flour and light brown sugar.  They were a little denser this time than in previous times I've made them, so next time I think I will do 2 cups of wheat flour and 1/2 cup bread flour.  As for the brown sugar, once I run out of it, I'm not buying any more.  For recipes like this, I will just use natural cane sugar and 1 teaspoon or two of molasses.  I'll update when I get around to doing that to see if the bit of added moisture makes a difference in the outcome.

Getting closer-a quest for Ritz

I am officially a nerd.  Of course, anyone who spends more than 5 minutes with me can tell you that.  I am on a quest to make my own Ritz crackers.  It isn't really that big a deal.  I mean I have made several kinds of crackers that were all pretty good, so if occasionally I want to buy a box of Ritz, I'm sure it won't kill me.  However, this has become one of those "gotta do it" sort of things.  Last night I spent about 2 hours pouring over the internet finding thousands of recipes for using Ritz crackers and very few for making them.  At about 10 pm, I came across one that looked particularly interesting.  It was a batter that you poured in the pan and smeared around until it was level and then baked it until crisp.  SHUT UP! (said in my best Stacey London voice)  Crackers are supposed to have stiff dough and you roll them out as thin as possible and then a little thinner still.  I was intrigued.  So at 10:15 I was in the kitchen whipping up some batter crackers.  They came together very easily and although I think my dough was a little thick I spread them out and stuck them in the oven.  After 8 minutes I pulled the pans out and cut the cracker glob into squares and stuck it back in for 20 minutes.  I didn't check them at 15 minutes like I was supposed to because I didn't think they would be very good.  Oops-I should've watched them closer.  I found that 20 minutes was a bit too long, as my edges were really brown, but they were crispy and tasty.  Surprise, surprise!  I made mine plain, but the actual recipe had several spices and I think they would be even better this way.  No, these crackers aren't like a Ritz, but they are sturdy (good for dipping), have a good flavor and go well with cheese.  I think I might not need a Ritz cracker in my collection.

Just a side note, I didn't originally save the blog that I got the recipe from.  All I could remember is that the post I read talked about the lady baking crackers all night long and playing parcheesi with her husband.  Like any good detective, I googled "baking crackers parcheesi" and found the link to the blog immediately! LOL!

From what I've read so far, the blog, Choosing Voluntary Simplicity, has great stories and an awesome cracker recipe.

Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oats
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup water
1 cup milk
1 heaping tablespoon dried basil
1 scant tablespoon dried oregano
5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic or garlic powder to taste

additional butter for brushing the tops of the crackers in the pan

Put first 6 ingredients in a food processor.  Pulse several times to break up the oats into more of a flour consistency.  Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

I added 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup water.  I used less milk because I wasn't adding all of the herbs, so I didn't need as much liquid.  In hindsight, I should've added a bit more milk as my batter was probably thicker than it should've been.  If using the herbs, use the full cup of milk.

I lined 2 jelly roll pans with parchment paper and divided the batter between them.  Then I spread the batter around and shook the pan trying to even it out.  Because my batter was a bit thicker, it did not completely even out.  I put the pans in a 350* oven for 8 minutes and then pulled them out and used a pizza cutter to cut them into squares.  I brushed the top with butter and returned the pans to the oven for 15-20 minutes.   I waited 20 and should've checked at 15.  Oh well, there's always next time, right?

Update on Ceasar dressing-finally perfected that-I'll leave you in suspense until tomorrow!  Ha!  I'm sure you'll lose sleep over it!

Finally, a snack cracker worth keeping!

Check them out in all their glory!  I'm feeling quite victorious over this whole thing.  I've been searching for a Ritz cracker type recipe for a year or more.  I posted my plea the other day on the kitchen forum of Diaperswappers and an awesome mama replied with this recipe.  To me it tastes more Club cracker like, but considering that I've tossed 3 batches of cracker dough away in the past two days, this is a true victory.

This is the recipe as she posted it.

Rich Crackers

Unlike soda crackers, with their crisp layers and air pockets, these crackers are solid and smooth. Butter, egg and cream enriches the dough, which is made just like pie crust. These crackers provide a sturdy, non-assertive base for any number of toppings and spreads.

2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 tablespoons (1 ounce) sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) cold butter
1 large egg
6 tablespoons (3/8 cup, 3 ounces) cream (half and half, light, whipping or heavy)
melted butter

In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Cut in butter. In a separate bowl, use a fork to stir egg and cream together till smooth. Add to flour/butter mixture and stir till mixture forms a loose ball. Gather in your hands and squeeze together. Pat into an oval about 1-inch thick, wrap in waxed paper, and chill for 1 hour.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a circle between 1/16 and 1/8-inch in thickness. Cut dough into rounds with a 3-inch or smaller cutter. Repeat with remaining dough scraps (unlike pie crust, this repeated rolling doesn't seem to toughen the final product). Transfer rounds to lightly greased or parchment --lined baking sheets, and prick each round several times with a fork.

Bake crackers in a preheated 425°F oven for 6 minutes. Remove pan from oven, turn crackers over, and bake an additional 5 minutes, or until crackers are lightly browned. Remove crackers from oven and brush with melted butter. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

My recommendation would be to roll them as thin as possible.  I found it difficult to get them to 1/16", but the  thinner ones are better than the ones that are closer to 1/8" thick.  The daycare kids loved them and were quite dismayed to find out that we weren't having them as part of lunch, so that's another "yes" vote for these crackers.



Week 3: Cracker attack!

I love crackers.  Mmmm... cheese and crackers, radish dip and crackers, peanut butter cracker sandwiches.  Anybody got a cheese ball?  Over the past year or so, I've been able to rid my house of most boxed food ( ie. processed food), crackers and cereal are the exception.  So, this week we are tackling the cracker.  I will be making my own versions of animal crackers, graham crackers, cheese crackers and ritz-type crackers.  First up-animal crackers.

I started with a recipe from Taste of Home for Oatmeal Animal Crackers.  It seemed like it would taste good, but there were a few things that I didn't like about it.  The recipe called for too much sugar, used shortening and called for white flour.  I halved the recipe, because if it ended up a flop, I didn't want to have 5 dozen gross animal crackers.  Here are the changes I made.

1/2 c. sugar

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, cold and cut in cubes
1/4 cup hot water
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour

In a food processor, add the first 4 ingredients and pulse to combine.  This will also break down the oats into more of a flour consistency.  Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles course cornmeal.  Add the hot water and vanilla and combine.  Slowly add the flour and continue to pulse until the mixture forms a stiff dough.  Let rest 10 minutes.  Divide into 2 batches and roll the first half to 1/8" thickness.  Cut with cookie cutters or use a pizza cutter.  Bake at 350* for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.  Repeat with second half of dough. 

Keep in mind this was only half a batch and I ended up with about 4 dozen 2 inch heart cookies, so if you double the recipe for a whole batch, you had better like these crackers!  :)

I was worried that I'd rolled them too thick and that they would be too "cakey" and not "cracker-y," but they all seem to have a decent crunch and this afternoon, there's only a dozen left, so they are kid approved!

Updates:
Soda-had a sip or two at a ball game b/c I was too lazy to hoof it to the water fountain.  It was gross and when I got back to the car, I drained my cup of ice water.  And, when I walked down the snack aisle to pick up some pretzels, I wasn't even tempted to put anything in my cart.  Definite progress has been made!

Salad Dressings
I found a very promising recipe for a Caesar dressing as well as a ranch.  I'm waiting for a bottle to be empty to make more.  That will probably happen this week sometime.  I'll post results! :)