Cheddary Cheesy Cracker Goodness!

     While making this recipe last night, I thought of a good friend of mine who has two children. She tries to feed them organics wherever possible, and I was thinking, I bet they'd love some Cheez-Its. Only one problem, there isn't a USDA organic Cheez-It! Although my recipe isn't using organic ingredients, they can most definitely be used here! I am hoping she reads this and gives them a try! You control the ingredients!

I hate the mark-ups that grocery store chains and manufacturer's make on items nowadays! I don't understand how they can expect us to pay or items when we don't even know what is in them. I know the ingredients list states everything, but most of us need layman's terms. I am giving you fair warning, however, these are SO addicting. I almost wanted to make another batch as soon as the first was cool enough to taste! I couldn't believe how great they came out! They are so cheesy, buttery, and crisp! Although they aren't the most healthy recipe, you could change the cheese to one made with skim milk!

Cheddar Cheese Crackers

Yield: 8 servings (15 crackers)

1 ½ C. sharp cheddar cheese, finely grated

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

½ C. plus 2 tbsp. AP flour

2 tbsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

¼ C. water

NOTE: This would work best using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, but since I don't have one yet, I made my handheld mixer work!

Combine cheese, butter, salt, and pepper until combined and begins to form small dough balls. 

Add flour and cornstarch and mix until combined. At this point, the mixture will be crumbly.

 Add the water, 1 tbsp. at a time until your dough comes together into a ball. (You may not need the entire amount.) 

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead for about 1 minute or until a ball is formed. Shape into a small disk, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until chilled. (It can be left much longer, but the dough will crack if you try to roll while extremely cold, so take it out about 10 minutes prior to rolling if you are leaving it longer.)

Adjust your oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and preheat oven to 375 F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap dough onto a well floured surface and begin rolling to ¼" thickness.

Cut into 1" squares using a knife (I found a pizza cutter works very well for this) Using a toothpick or skewer, poke a hole in the center of each square and transfer to the baking sheet.

Bake for 9 minutes, rotate and switch pans, bake for 9 additional minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet. 

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 8
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 179.9

• Total Fat: 12.9 g
• Cholesterol: 38.0 mg
• Sodium: 423.4 mg
• Total Carbs: 9.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g
• Protein: 6.4 g

Heathy eating!

As you may have noticed, most (if not all) of my recipes are somewhat healthy. For example, I prefer grilled versus fried food and also don't like full-fat sauces and dips. My palate enjoys light and refreshing flavors opposed to fatty and rich ones. The main reason for this post was because I absolutely loved my lunch this afternoon and wanted to post about it! Obsessed? No, just amazed!

Rewind just a tad- Michael and I went to Las Vegas for 10 days with a couple of our friends. Needless to say, eating wasn't the healthiest, but that was expected. On October 21, 2012, the group went to the Grand Canyon where Michael proposed!!! (It's a beautiful ring, by the way!) All the thoughts of planning a wedding came shortly after the excitement of becoming engaged! One of the first things that comes to mind is the dress. All women want to look their best on their wedding day, so I have been working to mold my diet towards some healthy weight loss.

My daily budget for calories is 1,453 calories. I've decided to start posting semi-regularly about the foods I'm eating and hope it helps some of you! Most people think "diet=bland". Well, not so! I like flavor just as much as the next person but I look for ways to bend to get flavor without fat and calories. As I said previously, today's lunch in particular was what amazed me!

I had a grilled cheese sandwich and soup. (I even had a little butter in it.) It doesn't sound like an impressive lunch, but the calorie content was VERY impressive: 310!!!! That's it! 310 calories and I was STUFFED! How did I do it? Well...

Low fat/low calorie grilled cheese
Yields: 1 serving
2 slices of wheat bread (120 cal.)
2 slices of fat-free american cheese (50 cal.)
1 tsp. of butter spread (20 cal.)

First, toast the slices of bread in the toaster to increase the crunchiness. Heat the spread in a small skillet and place one piece of bread along with the cheese slices. Allow the bread to crisp a little and the cheese to melt a bit. Then, add the top piece of bread and flip the sandwich over to crisp. That's it!

In total, my sandwich had 190 calories and 3.3g of fat! Also, I had a can of Campbell's Harvest Select Vegetable and Pasta Light. No fat, and only 120 calories for the entire can!

A very satisfying lunch, with ZERO guilt!

Enjoy healthy eating!