by Solara Goldwynn, Hatchet & Seed –
Snacks are
a crucial part of my day. A snack can immediately stop a meltdown of a two year old; it can bring back mental function after a sleep-deprived night; it can be turned into a game (put the snack into the bowl, where’s the snack? etc.); and it can be shared with friends. Lately though, as an environmentally-conscious mother of a toddler, I’ve noticed that most snacks come covered in plastic and are filled with sugar. Sometimes you buy something that is in a cardboard box and you think, oh good! I can easily recycle this. You bring it home and there could be two layers of unrecyclable plastic wrapping before the snack. I could go on for hours about how bad plastic is for our bodies, and our environment, but it’s a short column so let’s get on to my small snack solution: the homemade cracker.
I make crackers weekly, and often the ingredients change based on what I have available. This week it’s a mixture of B.C.-grown spelt flour, chickpea flour, herbs from the garden, and a few other things. All healthy ingredients, super simple to make, very easy to eat, and no plastic! This takes about 20 minutes to put together (mostly cutting the crackers with a form) and 20 minutes to bake, and depending on the size of cookie cutter you use can make approximately 100 crackers (potentially averting 100 meltdowns!).
2 cups spelt flour
½ cup chickpea flour
½ cup olive oil
1 tsp Vancouver Island Sea Salt (or other sea salt)
¼ cup parmesan cheese
1 tbsp dried herbs (I used rosemary and sage from the garden)
¼ cup water
Put all ingredients in a food processor (or mix together by hand) until you form a ball of dough. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin so that it’s approximately ½ an inch thick or less. Use a small cookie cutter to cut out the crackers. Place on baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 350°F.
