Cheese-Its!

It seems like everywhere we go we see someone eating Goldfish or Cheez-It crackers (we see a lot of kids the places we go to, clearly!).  The issue, I don't buy them for the girls but they LOVE them when someone is willing to share.  Goldfish actually have a hidden form of MSG in them and since cleaning up our diets about 2 years ago I stopped buying them completely.  I don't mind if someone shares with them but I just won't purchase them for us.

When I saw a pin on Pinterest for homemade Cheez-Its I knew it would be a hit at our house!

I wish I could find the original link to this recipe.  We did make a few adjustments from the original, I did replace the shortening with coconut oil and switched up the cheeses by using sharp white cheddar and regular sharp cheddar.

Cheese-Its

Ingredients:
2 ounces of sharp white cheddar
6 ounces of sharp cheddar
3 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of white whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons of cold water

Directions:
Put cheese into food processor (we cut ours up into large chunks) and pulse a few times to break up the cheese.
Add butter, oil and salt and pulse again to incorporate.
Add flour and water and mix until smooth.
Divide the dough into 2 discs and wrap each in plastic wrap.
Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll the dough so it's about 1/8th an inch thick.
Cut into squares or you can use a cookie cutter to make fun shapes.
Sprinkle lightly with salt.
Bake between 10-15 minutes, for us 12 minutes was perfect!

Alfredo Whole Wheat Pasta with Mushrooms

In an effort to clean up our diet a little I usually serve whole wheat pasta.  I usually get some sort of complaint that it tastes "healthy" but not this time!

Well, using heavy cream isn't exactly "healthy" but at least it's whole wheat pasta, right?

I adapted the Alfredo Sauce Recipe from Allrecipes.com

These are the cheeses I used.  I bought aged asiago cheese and parmesan cheese.  In order to shred them I cut both cheeses into cubes and tossed them into my food processor.  I used the "pulse" function on the food processor until there were no more chunks of cheese left, only small shredded pieces.

Alfredo Whole Wheat Pasta with Mushrooms


Ingredients:
13 ounces of whole wheat pasta
1/4 cup of butter
1 cup of heavy cream
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 cup of shredded asiago cheese
1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups of slices baby bella mushrooms
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Directions:
1. Cook pasta per packaged directions.
2. In separate pan heat the 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 clove of garlic over medium-high heat for about 2-3 minutes.
3. Add in mushrooms and sauteed until cooked, about 5 minutes.
4. In a small pot melt butter over medium-low heat.
5. Add cream and simmer 5 minutes.
6. Add garlic and cheeses and whisk until cheese is melted and alfredo sauce is smooth.
7. Combine cooked pasta, mushrooms and alfredo sauce and stir well to evenly coat.