Homemade Clean Eating Crackers

When I discovered a recipe for Clean Eating crackers over at the Prevention.com blog, I laughed at how easy it would be to make my own. No preservatives. No odd ingredients I don't recognize. Something simple, crunchy, and Clean as a hummus delivery system.

Clean Eating Crackers

Ingredients:

2 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup warm water
1/3 cup olive oil (plus more for the pan)

Directions:


1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees
2. Put the flour, salt, warm water, and olive oil in a bowl, and stir until all the flour is absorbed (less than a minute). It kind of feels more like dough than batter.
3. Take a baking tray and slather it with more olive oil.
4. Put the dough on the tray and use a rolling pin to smooth it out to cover the whole bottom.
5. Take a knife and cut the dough into squares, rectangles…whatever!
6. Sprinkle the top with a bit more salt
7. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden. The crackers will harden up more after they cool.

As the original recipe contends, this is an excellent blank canvas on which to create.
Add Herbs and Spices. Sesame seeds. Flavored Infused Olive Oils.

If you devoted an hour of your weekend to making something like this and storing it for the coming week, you'd have a healthy, crunchy snack for those times when the munchies hit with a vengeance. Take a few minutes during your Clean Eating prep day 1 or 2 times a month to making a Clean eating swap out like this one, and you'll never look at the cracker aisle longingly again.

In Praise of CVS Gold Emblem Roasted and Salted Almonds

If you find yourself looking for a CE smackerel in the evenings, I suggest the next time you visit CVS for a prescription or the like, take a stroll down their nut / snack aisle. A 1 lb bag of their "house brand"  ( Gold Emblem , see pic above ) is normally $5.99 ( a good price for high quality almonds ) - and you can often get them on sale and with a CVS coupon for as low as $3.99 or $2.99. They are lightly salted and not covered n anything unnatural. I think they are the best almonds I've ever had. Seriously - they are that good. I wouldn't advocate eating them every day if you are CE for weight loss - but they really hit the snack spot when you need it and will keep you on the CE path.


( This post originally ran back in November of 2010 - but as I just stopped at CVS and got myself another bag of these yummers - I thought I'd bump this for my newer readers who might not be aware of them. )

Snacking Smart

The concept of snacking on most diets is frowned upon - "3 squares a day, no extras!"

 Clean Eating requires it. Demands it. You will be able to maintain more wholesome choices at your traditional meals if in between, you chose smart snacks that are enough to tide you over but are unprocessed ( to abide by the Clean requirement ) and low in fat/calories.

Some facts:
Snacking keeps your metabolism humming.
Research suggests that, like a charge for a battery, eating about three meals a day with two or three snacks in between can make your metabolism more efficient. Think of your metabolism like a little fire in your stomach.

A little food is the fuel you throw into the fire to keep it burning strong .For some people, that means stoking it every 2½ hours; for others, it’s every 3½ hours. The point is never to let your energy wane or to go without a bite for so long that you get very hungry.

Snacking helps you eat less at mealtimes. 
If you wait until you’re so ravenous that you would eat the kitchen table, you’ll wind up eating way more calories when you do finally sit down for supper. Experts suggest choosing a snack that has roughly 100 to 200 calories (a meal should start at about 300). Make sure it fills you up with a healthy balance of carbohydrates, fats, and protein. Together they stabilize blood sugar levels and keep you feeling satisfied. If a snack is high in refined carbs or sugar, your blood sugar will jump, then crash, leaving you feeling tired and even more hungry.


Snacking put you in a good mood
When blood sugar levels get too low, you can become irritable and have trouble concentrating. So for mood control and cognitive and metabolic efficiency, healthy snacking between meals helps. Make sure you snack on something that makes you feel happy - don't eat prunes unless you actually like prunes.


Snacking foils the strongest cravings
If you have a snack before going to an event where you know unclean or inappropriate foods will be served, having a snack before hand will help you resist the nagging cravings you might experience when faced with that inappropriate food.
Strategy is better than willpower.


Snacking ensures you get all of your vitamins
Picking up a small apple and a few cubes of cheese between lunch and dinner will go a long way to supplement your diet. A handful of nuts, a yogurt - all will help supplement your diet with vitamins and minerals.