Flourless Cheez-It Crackers

One of the challenges I have as a mom is finding healthy on the go "cracker style" snacks for my toddler that he actually likes.  Let's be real, he is not totally stoked when I pack him a little baggie of trail mix when all his friends are eating Cheez Its and Goldfish Crackers.  Tradsies anyone?  So I have given in from time to time and bought boxes of crackers and I am pretty sure he might be turning into a cracker-aholic so I have decided to cut back on those processed little snacks.

Yesterday I decided to give homemade cracker making a shot.  I always imagined making your own crackers wold be a long time consuming project,  that only those Martha Stewart type Moms would attempt but I was so wrong.  This was a breeze!  Plus making your toddler a happy little camper is pretty awesome as well.  I found this recipe and made a few small changes and I can not believe how good and "Cheez It" like these taste!

What you will need:

• 1 3/4 cup of blanched almond meal 
• 4 tbs of nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp of sea salt + a little extra for sprinkling on top
• 1 egg
• 1 tbs of melted coconut oil or *butter
• 2 tbs of lemon juice 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients together. 
3. Mix together the lemon juice and egg.  Add the lemon juice and egg to the dry ingredients.  
4. Stir in the melted coconut oil or butter. 
5. Mix well until dough forms. 
6. Place the dough on a sheet of parchment paper and using a rolling pin roll the dough until it is about 1/8 inch thick. 
7. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut crackers into desired size.  Using a ruler will help if you want to make them all the same size. 
8. Use a toothpick to poke holes into the middle of each cracker. 
9. Sprinkle a little sea salt on top of the crackers.
10. Place the parchment paper with the crackers onto a cookie sheet. 
11. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Keep an eye on the crackers and since the outer crackers will be done faster than the ones in the middle remove those one and keep baking the others until they are nice and crispy. 

* Tips

• I made a second batch (Max LOVED them so much) and in the second batch I used olive oil butter and they tasted even better.
• The thinner you roll the dough the better they will be.
• The browner and crispier crackers were the best so if you need to bake them a little longer do so.

The real taste tester for these babies was my son Max (he is almost 3).  He loved them!  He loved them so much I made a second batch so we could have more for the rest of the week.