DIY Cheese Crackers

So I admit that I am not one of those moms who won't feed her kids anything with artificial coloring or preservatives. If I wasn't afraid of Diabetes and Obesity, I would eat nothing but Twinkies and Ramen. Almost all of the food that I make homemade is made that way because it is cheaper, not necessarily because it is better for you (That is a nice bonus though.). But that aside, I do have a few particular snack items that I really just can't stand because they do taste so fake. Cheezits is one of those. I really just can't stand them. I don't think they taste like cheese at all. And I love cheese. Like LOVE it. So if I buy something that is supposed to have a cheesy flavor it better taste like cheese gosh darn it.

So the other day I was looking through my new favorite book ever.


And was intrigued by her recipe for Cheese Crackers. I made them and not only were they super easy but guess what? They were SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean it. I made an entire batch and we ate them all as soon as we could get them into our mouths without burning out tongues.

They didn't taste anything like Cheezits, they tasted like cheese! So you know you are dieing to make them yourself.

Cheese Crackers
1 1/2 Cups flour
1 1/2 Cups (6oz) Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 tsp Salt
3 Tablespoons Cold Butter cut up into cubes
3/4 Cup Water
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp mustard or mustard powder

Mix water, vinegar and mustard in a glass measuring cup or bowl and stick in in your freezer to get cold. Leave it there for no less than 10 minutes. In the meantime, mix flour, salt, cheese and butter. (I used a food processor.) When your liquids are really cold, using a mixer or food processor, combine liquids and dry stuff by pouring the liquid in a little at a time. When you are done you will have a very moist ball of cheese dough. Don't be scared by how moist it seems.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for a minimum or two hours. When it has chilled, dust your counter with flour and roll out your dough between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. I liked mine closer to 1/4. Then you can either use a pizza cutter or a tiny cookie cutter to cut them out. I would HIGHLY recommend lining your pans with parchment paper, but if you choose not to just make sure you spray them with Pam or something.

Cook them at 325 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Check them every three minutes or so after 20 minutes because they get brown very quickly. Also, rotate your pans after 10 minutes. This helped me huge because my oven tends to cook things unevenly.

Enjoy!!!!!

Feeling HOT HOT HOT!

You know during winter when you are like, " Oh man I can't wait for it to be 100 degrees outside!!! I miss the heat SO MUCH!!!!!". But then when summer comes you are like, "Oh man I wish it was winter I hate this heat SO MUCH!!!!!".

Well, that is us my friends. All winter I wined like a baby about how cold it was and how I just wanted it to be summer and now that summer is here I have to stop myself from wining all day about how uncomfortably hot it is!!!!

One nice thing that summer has over winter though...POOL DAYS!

Sometimes you just need to get wet.

 I feel like you can read Brady's thoughts in these pictures.
Brady: "Wow this purple ring is awesome!!!"

 "I still love this purple thing, hey mom what are you doing?"

"Why does Jackson have my purple thing?"

Summer Lovin'

Summer is FINALLY (geez Nebraska, took you long enough.) here! We have been downing lemonade by the gallon and spending every possible moment outside enjoying the perfect weather! We have to take advantage now because before we know it, it will be so painfully hot that all we will want to do is lay on the kitchen floor in front of the open refrigerator.

Let the farmer tans begin!

 

I never get used to this.

Ike and his clone.

Jackson often likes to introduce himself like this, "Hi! I Jackson. I play football with Daddy."

Me and the Brady-mister!

One of those posts...

This is one of those posts that doesn't have much of a real topic and is more of me just rambling about things. I think it is amazing how as the weather gets warmer, my mood gets better. Every day that I see sunshine and tulips blooming is a good day. I may have even stolen a bunch of tulips from the vacant house across the street today. And by maybe I mean I did and now I have a beautiful bunch of tulips on my table!

Today Ike and I were talking at dinner about how sometimes we would love to go back in time and not necessarily tell our past selves to do different things that will change their (and our) futures, but just to kind of smack them on the head and say, "Quit worrying about stupid stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I can remember being so stressed out about the most unimportant things when I was a teenager.

I mowed the lawn today and it was wonderful. I even had to use this really old push mower and I still really enjoyed it. I only saw one snake too, which was nice because last summer we had snakes EVERYWHERE and it was horrible. Last summer I killed a snake with a pair of garden clippers and I still kind of feel bad about it. I don't think I could ever hunt. Especially if my only weapon was garden clippers.

I have been running about every other day because I am registered to run a 5k on June 1st. All the weight I probably would have lost from exercising I have been canceling out with snacks. I just love food so much it isn't fair. I used to daydream that I could eat all the food I wanted but when it went into my throat it magically turned into celery. Kind of the same idea of what Catholics believe with the Holy Communion and the body of Christ, except with celery instead.

Brady loves mandarin oranges so much. They are probably his favorite food ever. The only problem is that mandarin oranges produce the most horrid and frightening (literally, I am scared by them.) diapers I have ever seen. I think I am going to introduce him to other more fibrous foods.

Mother's day is coming up and I am still kind of in shock that I have two kids and I am 25 and I will be married 5 years this august. Remember when we were like 7 and summer vacation seemed to last years? Now I am 25 and time seems to keep going perpetually faster. I think it is because we are so busy. I need to be less busy.

This was so long. I usually don't write super wordy posts but there it is.

Some days I try to recycle my hairstyle from the day before, but after sleeping on it, it rarely works out how I hope.