April 18, 2015

Low Carbohydrate Cheesy Crackers!

 

Hello lovely people, 
So many things have improved for our house since my last post in April, of 2014!



We have turned our focus on urban farming, just as I had imagined, but to the detriment of my Foodie blog. In the meantime, I have learned lots about raising chickens from chicks, building a chicken coop (with my husband's help), and building vegetable raised bed in our backyard. It has been a very productive spring to spring cycle! 

In the meantime, the severity of the California drought has been brought to our collective attentions and is slowly affecting our behaviors. Case in point, saving the warm-up shower water, and using the boiled vegetable water to water our plants and fruit tree. We are even planning on landscaping our front yard grass for a California native plant yard. That is a whole other project yet to begin.
Also along the same lines, how much California drought is affecting our eating habits, knowing beef and almonds take up so much water to produce. Please see this informative article by Leslie Ziegler: https://medium.com/@lesliejz/don-t-stop-showering-california-lay-off-the-burgers-and-nuts-and-pick-up-some-crickets-eb63bddf0277 Not to mention how new health information affects our overall body health awareness. Which brings me back to the recipe of today, Low Carbohydrate Cheesy Crackers. We are trying to be more conscious about our carbohydrate intake, and thanks to a close friend who shared this delicious cracker recipe, I can share with everyone.

I know the Ketogenic diet (high fat, low carbohydrate diet) is all the craze, but I am far from being in the extreme practice of this. Eating smaller quantities of all foods, in a balanced way is much healthier than anything I have found, but these crackers can be a wonderful addition to a balanced dietary regiment. Fortunately, I found these crackers delicious with anything from olive tampenade or guacamole dip, to an olive and fig dip I just found at my local store! Amazing discovery. These delicious healthy crackers will be loved by your entire family. 

Ingredients:

½ cup of coconut flour
½ cup of flax seed meal
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (dry crumbled)
½ teaspoons of salt
½ teaspoon of black pepper
½ teaspoon of granulated garlic
½ teaspoon of granulated onion
½ teaspoon of thyme
1- 1 1/2 cup of water
Optional:
1/4  Chia seeds can be added if you want a more high protein cracker. 
2 tablespoons of olive oil. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients well.

Next, add water slowly, until you have a dough like consistency that is holding everything together, but not too moist!
Make sure that dough is not breaking up because need to spread on a baking pan.

Cover a baking pan with olive oil. 




Place the ball of dough in the middle of pan, using a wax paper, cover the top of ball and press down on it to spread it evenly into the pan. I found just rolling hand over the waxed paper to spread worked very well. It is the hardest part and takes the longest time, but be patient and thoughtful as these crackers are more of a labor of love.

Make lines with pizza cutter or knife. Also, using a brush, you can spread some olive oil on top of dough before putting in oven.


















Bake for 45 min.

Check the baking tray, maybe even rotate the baking tray. My new oven does not heat evenly as my old one. Leave another 20  minutes in oven. 
After the last 20 minutes turn off heat and leave in oven another hour or less. 

The crackers should be dehydrated by then, and with a spatula you can remove from baking tray. You will then have 1 inch size squares to eat. Some of the edges of tray will not be square of course, and these will be your rustic pieces also quite edible! 

Happy baking and be well! 
Tarabud