Heathy Food Fail

I try to eat healthy. I try to make my own meals with ingredients from scratch, or mostly so. I pin those great sites I find on Pinterest that tell me how I can eat unprocessed food for 100 days and live a richer, happier, and healthier life.

It was on one of those sites that I found a recipe for homemade cheese crackers. You have to understand that Goldfish (whole grain, of course) and Cheeze-Its are a staple in our house. There will be times we are out butter, have expired milk, but do have at least one type of cheesy cracker in the cupboard. They are important to our well being.

So when I saw the recipe I thought it would be great if I could get us away from the processed crackers and make my own. Especially because the reviews were fabulous. Everyone raved about how AMAZING the crackers were, their favorites ever, better than store bought, and on and on and on.

I either screwed up massively or these people haven't eaten a decent cracker in a decade and are fooling themselves into beliving these things actaully taste good. Or my household is addicted to processed cheese crackers. Or maybe all 3?

I planned to post these pictures victoriously when I told you all about the amazing new crackers that I make for my family...

I know there is quite a bit of chedder cheese and wheat flour in the recipe, and in the picture looks kinda like a sausage.

Well I made those lovley crackers about 3 weeks ago and here they still are...

I'm pretty sure we've gone through about 4 boxes of Cheez-Its since then. Like an addiction group for Target, is there an addiction group for cheesy crackers?

If you want to try these crackers, I will send them to you. They might be stale, but that probably didn't change them much. If you want the recipe, just let me know. Maybe you'll have better luck :)

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake with Peanut Butter Glaze

Valentine's Day is pretty low-key in our household. Honey and I agreed that Little Lucy was our gift to each other but I still want to do a little something so I thought I would make a cheesecake. Honey loves anything that combines chocolate and peanut butter. I found a recipe I had used before for chocolate chip cheesecake then decided I would create some type of peanut butter glaze to drizzle on top.

The thing with cheesecake is there are some little tricks to know in order for it to come out with minimum cracking on top and maximum ease from the pan. What the recipe doesn't tell you is that you should cook the cheesecake in a water bath...what I did was fill a broiler pan with water and then put the springform pan inside. To make sure no water gets into the springform pan, it is best to wrap the bottom and sides with some aluminum foil.

I got most of the following recipe from Allrecipes.com but added in my changes below. In making it I don't have a 9 inch springform pan, I only have a 10 inch so my crust doesn't go all the way to the top but my filling doesn't either.

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup butter melted

Filling:
3 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese--I use low fat
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips--I don't actually measure I just put as many as look good

Glaze:
1/3 cup peanut butter chips
1 tbsp butter

Recipe Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, butter and cocoa together and then carefully press onto the bottom and sides of the springform pan. This is the most annoying and patience testing part as you are trying to get them to stickup on the sides. It is do-able but usually involves some cussing on my part until Honey takes over in his calm, relaxed way that makes me feel like a nut for freaking out over crust placement.
2. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sweetened condensed milk (I LOVE this stuff), beat well. Then add vanilla and eggs and beat on medium until smooth. 
3. Mix about 1/3 cup (or a little more) of the chocolate chips into the filling.
4. Wrap the bottom of the pan in foil and put it in a water bath.
5. Pour into the prepared crust and sprinkle the top with the remaining chocolate chips. I also added a few peanut butter chips for good measure.
6. Lick the bowl, and spoon, and your fingers.
7. Bake cheesecake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off oven (don't even open the door) and leave cake in oven for 1 more hour. Remove from oven and cool completely. Refrigerate before removing sides of springform pan.
8. Make glaze by melting the peanut butter chips and butter in the microwave about 1 minute at 50% power. Add time if needed. Add more butter or chips to your taste so that the consistency is smooth and moderately runny. 
9. Drizzle glaze over cake with a spoon.
10. Take pictures, drool, eat, enjoy.