Sesame Crackers

I can easily sit down and eat an entire box of crackers in one sitting. They're habit forming. I've never thought to make my own crackers until I started FOLLOWING one of my favorite blogs, All Day I Dream About Food. Carolyn makes it look so easy to make crackers. I wanted to sit down and eat an entire batch of those.

After an impulse buy at the grocery store and too spicy Italian seafood salad I needed something to tame the heat. Crackers. I needed crackers.

In the Flat Belly Diet! Cookbook there was a recipe for Sesame Crackers with a word of encouragement that homemade crackers are much easier to prepare than most people would think and make an impressive statement.

While I had no one to impress since Mr. Sideline Chef had to go out on the road for work I still had that Italian seafood salad that needed to get ate up.

Sure enough homemade crackers are super simple to make. I just need to make sure and roll the dough out thinner next time. My crackers were very crisp on the outside but didn't have that crisp bite through to the middle. No worries though. They were still incredibly tasty and went perfectly with the Italian seafood salad.

Not only does the Flat Belly Diet! Cookbook confirm the ease of making homemade crackers but so do I. Reason enough to give them a try yourself.

Sesame Crackers

Flat Belly Diet! Cookbook\

Makes 8 Servings

Stars of the Show:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

And Action:

Combine the flour, sesame seeds, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the yogurt, canola oil, and sesame oil in a small bowl. Stir into the flour mixture until a dough forms.

Divide the dough in half and wrap each in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Roll half of the dough into a 10" square on a lightly floured surface. Rough edges are okay. Cut the dough in half to form two pieces of 10"x5" each. Cut each piece into eight 1 1/4" inch strips forming sixteen strips total. Repeat with remaining dough.

Transfer to a large baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned, turning once. Cool on a rack.

Store the cooled crackers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Nutritional Information Per Serving:

MUFA: Sesame seeds

Calories: 287

Protein: 6 g

Carbohydrates: 17 g

Fat: 20 g

Saturated Fat: 1 g

Cholesterol: 1 mg

Sodium: 355 mg

Fiber: 0.5 g

Garlic-Dill Crackers

If I had to choose my favorite spice it would come down to garlic and dill. You can imagine how giddy I was when I came across this recipe. Oyster crackers are coated with a vegetable oil spice mixture and then baked until dry.

These crackers on their own are delicious and flavorful. When I added these crackers to my tomato soup for lunch it took an ordinary bowl of soup to a whole new level!

Garlic-Dill Crackers

MyRecipes.com and Cooking Light, July 1996

Makes 4 1/2 cups (Serving size = 1/4 cup)

Stars of the Show:

• 1 1/2 tbsp dry ranch dressing mix
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp dried dill
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp lemon pepper
• 1 (11 oz) package oyster crackers (about 4 1/2 cups)

And Action:

Preheat oven to 175°.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Add the oyster crackers and toss to coat. Spoon mixture onto a baking sheet.

Bake at 175° for 30 minutes stirring frequently. I stirred my batch every 10 minutes. Cool completely and then store in an airtight container. Add to soups, salads, or grab a handful.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 90 (34% from fat)

Fat: 3.4g (sat 0.3g,mono 0.5g,poly 1.3g)

Protein: 1.4g

Carbohydrate: 14g

Fiber: 0.0g

Cholesterol: 0.0mg

Iron: 0.1mg

Sodium: 338mg

Calcium: 5mg

Tomorrow is the last day to link your recipe to the Culinary Smackdown Battle. I will be announcing the winner the morning of February 28, 2011. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!