I really liked these homemade wheat thins. The girls didn't like them. Sadie said they were too "wheaty" and Delia didn't say much. Baby liked them. Grammie loved them, and so do I. Sadie reminded me that she doesn't really like wheat thins, she likes golden rounds (TJ's version of Ritz), so they were kind of a bust. But I do really like them. They are better slightly brown, which is easier to control in the toaster oven. When they brown up, they go really fast, so you have to watch them. What's not to like here? They are basically a pie crust. Yum. I used honey instead of sugar. The recipe is here. I want to try other kinds of crackers, but if the girls don't eat them, I will probably lay off, since lord knows I don't need to snack on them all day. There are other very tempting recipes for crackers, and 100s of other amazing baked goods at the King Arthur Flour site (but for some reason they didn't have the wheat thin recipe I used from their cookbook, hence the first link.)
We are on about month 2 of not buying boxed/bagged/highly-processed food -- snacks or otherwise. There are exceptions, like pasta, but boxed cereal, crackers, snacks, all that -- gone. It's been pretty painless really. It's one of those things that just happened, without a lot of thought. I talked to a few friends who mentioned they stopped buying boxed cereal and snack food for their kids, I read Micheal Pollen's book (interesting comments on this post, BTW) and I realized that my eldest child would never try new foods if cereal/crackers were in the house as a option. So we stopped, and wow, it's so much nicer, less expensive and better all around. She is still slow try new foods, but is trying, and I can't tell you how good it feels to have only food in our kitchen. Not boxes.
I'm having fun making all this stuff and I am motivated by curiosity not by guilt. I like thinking about food and how I feed my family, but dang, there is so much money to be made out there by people telling us we are doing something wrong/unhealthy (and Micheal Pollen is the first to admit that), so while this is all fun and good, I try not to get too weird about it. Less refined sugar, more fruit and veggies, no more boxed cereal, and more homemade food. I can dig that. We have our CSA box and I feel good about trying to shop local but really, I need my walk and my time to chill out as a person. That's the big thing, 'cause who cares if my kids eat organic what-all if I am a freaky mom stressing out about all this stuff, you know? I do what I can. I think they will remember laughing growing up, not the snack food, or lack thereof.
This was supposed to be about crackers.
**update! what the heck do we eat for breakfast? A ton of different stuff-please add your favorites in the comments as well! And, we are lucky in that we have no food allergies of any kinds, so this might not work for everyone. The key for us to to bake a larger batch of things and have them ready in the freezer or fridge. Also, yogurt on homemade granola is just as fast as milk on boxed cereal:
-Homemade muffins. I make a batch on the weekend and freeze them, take them out the night before and they are thawed by morning, The kids eat them for a mid-day snack too, as well as the husband for a super quick breakfast. Pumpkin is the favorite, but they are all loved. You can use all kinds of healthy stuff and make them with butter if you want to avoid canola oil.
-Pancakes and waffles. I make them from scratch—so easy! And you can customize the flour/spices crazy style. I make them once a week, freeze the extra and toast them during the week.
-Crepes, just like above, only I keep them in the fridge and just toss them on the griddle to reheat them.
-Cooked oatmeal and a ton of it. With yogurt, milk, fruit, whatever.
-Homemade granola with milk, yogurt, etc.
-Eggs, we eat a lot of eggs, and the whole high cholesterol/eggs thing has been disputed. . .I don't worry about the kids or myself eating too many eggs. My numbers are very low and our family physician is down with it.
-Peanut butter toast and apple sauce on the side. Most popular breakfast in our house by far.
-Smoothies or just fruit
-Desserts like bread pudding/pie/rice pudding. I find these too heavy to eat after a meal, but make a perfect breakfast. No one complains.
-Really good bread and jam. This is my favorite breakfast. Also muesli.
-Porridge made of grains, like quinoa, wheat berries, millet, etc. They all taste good with honey and spices, I cook them just like oatmeal, or save a bit if I am making the grains for dinner the night before. You can search these online and find oodles of recipes.
