September 5, 2009

cheese and "crackers": OR another desperate attempt to keep eating the things I love

I've mentioned here before my struggle to lose weight and the fact that I have such a terrible salty/fat tooth. Not a good combination when I live in a house full of snacks! When you live with other adults that don't feel the need to watch their weight, you either give in to the snacks calling to you from the pantry (I know those voices well!) or you get creative.



Oldest son is, I'm sorry to say, a cheese-a-holic and will often on the weekends make a meal out of an assortment of cheeses, crackers, and meats with a variety of mustards: ham, braunschweiger, salami, etc. Unfortunately for me, I could live on this kind of food! And I'm not talking ordinary cheese here either, people. At any given time in our refrigerator there are at least 8-10 different kinds of cheese....here, let me show you what's in the fridge right this minute:


Danish Blue Cheese.....Bruschetta Jack....Applewood-Smoked White Cheddar.....Feta....Tillamook Cheddar.....Tillamook Jack......Habanero Colby-Jack....Mozzarella....Parmesan Wedge......Pecorino Romano Wedge.....American (for the kids)

And don't even get me started on the crackers!! I have a serious cracker addiction....actually our inventory is pretty low right now. This is all we have today. Rather ordinary for this house!




And when we end up with a lot of odds and ends of cheese, Oldest Son whips up a batch of his fantastic macaroni and cheese to use it all up, usually 4-5 different kinds of cheese, and tops it off with some sort of salty, snacky crumbs....crushed crackers or chips or whatever needs using up.....it's absolute torture, it's so good! I can gain weight just looking at it!


Anyway, since I'm trying to avoid all that snacky goodness I came up with this idea...

Try it, it's really good:

Get some Mission Multi-Grain tortillas. I keep them in the freezer and just take out one at a time.




Cut into "cracker" size pieces with kitchen shears. Lay on a paper towel and micro for one minute.

Turn them over onto a fresh paper towel, (the first one will be very damp from the moisture in the tortilla) and micro about 30 more seconds until starting to brown.


Let cool for a few minutes and VOILA! ...multigrain crackers!
Now get some yummy Lite Laughing Cow cheese wedges


Spread on your "crackers", sprinkle with some freshly ground black pepper, and you have a delicious, low fat snack!




It's not Gorgonzola spread with ham or Bruschetta Jack on Wheat Thins, but it's really good and satisfying!

Now if I could just figure out a decent alternative to chocolate chip cookies!

1 comment:

Kathi D said...

Oh, I could live on cheese and crackers, too! Or cheese and sourdough bread. Or cheese and potato chips. Or cheese and . . .