Homemade Crackers

I love that Finley is a good eater.

I limited a lot of the foods he was presented with in his first year so that he thought it was normal to have a strawberry for dessert, or asparagus with breakfast, etc.

But, this kid loves ‘cra-cuhs.’  I’m talking, if he is engrossed in some game, and he even hears the whisper of the word, he will perk up and make extreme eye contact while nodding, his mouth serious.  He only started eating crackers in the past two months, and at first, it was on top of a spoonful of pureed food.  (He is mostly over being spoon fed, but how else can a toddler really eat kale?)

So I placed a cracker on top, and VOILA!  He chomped every bite.

(Just little bits of cracker.  These are the eyes and nose of Elmo from Nature’s Best crunchin’ crackers)

So I knew there must be a way to make my own!  Something very healthy and that would save money on his beloved treat.

Wheat Germ Oatmeal Crackers

Wheat germ is actually the embryo of the wheat and the healthiest part.  It has folic acid and lots of vitamins, but is often removed from the wheat when making flower because the natural oils can shorten shelf life and make it go bad.  Wheat germ only makes up 3% of the wheat so you need A LOT of wheat to get even a little wheat germ.  But who came up with that horrible name?  Wheat Germ?  Sheesh.

Ok, recipe:
3/4 cup Wheat Germ
3/4/ cup Oatmeal
1/4 Sea Salt
1 Tablespoon Honey
1/4 cup oil or softened butter
3 tablespoons milk

The honey was a wedding favor.  Cute, huh?

Mix all dry ingredients together, then add milk.  If it seems too dry, at a little more milk about a tablespoon at a time.  Mine was fine with just 3 tbsp though.

Then roll it out!  It’s most important to have it uniform flatness and to make it very thin.  The rolling pin didn’t really work for me, it kind chunked it up, so I just used my hand and pressed and squeezed it out.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes.  If you want them extra crispy, flip it and bake it for another 5-10 minutes

Let it cool on a wire rack so they don’t get soggy.  Then cut it up with pizza cutters however you’d like them, and store it in a tupperware.  A hot tip is to put a couple grains of white rice in too to prevent sogginess.
They are really good.  I may or may not have one each time I give some to Finley!

They are good for being out and about.  So let’s say you’re little one crawls into some other family’s special sandle castle moment and starts to play (read: destroy), you can offer them all crackers.

“Oh look mom, he’s so cute.  He’s like Godzilla baby!”

Someone link up a social awareness for babies blog, huh?