Okay, I'm not really a food nazi, but I am paying attention to all the foods I purchase and how healthy or not they may be. I think that we, in our present culture, eat poorly - too much processed foods, fast and easy meals that are laden with too many perservatives, too much salt, sugar and fat. I try (but do not always succeed) to eat well and I have thought that even following the mantra of "all things in moderation" it may well be that too many "moderate" amounts of something like, say, MSG, adds up to too much MSG.
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I have started reading labels. REALLY reading labels.
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Did you know that MSG (which is in no way good for you) goes by many many other names?
When they say "no MSG added" that it may be IN there in other ingredients? They just didn't ADD MSG? Google "other names for MSG"... interesting. Depressing.
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It takes a long time to shop when you read labels.
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And I did not know until last week that the canned tuna fish, solid white albacore tuna in water, also had "vegetable broth" added??? Can you tell me WHY?
Newsflash: there is a "gourmet choice" level of the same brand that does NOT have the added vegetable broth. Hmmm..
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I have, if you are a follower of my blog, made homemade english muffins. I am no longer purchasing the ones from the store. I told Mr. Hubby that when you buy something that never seems to spoil....... lasts a pretty long time because of all the preservatives..... that that is NOT a good thing. So, homemade english muffins it is. And they are good too!
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Today I made my first attempt at homemade crackers.
Read the list of ingredients on your box of crackers . Most have a long list of ingredients.
There is ONE box of crackers that impress me: Triscuits - they list only 3 ingredients!
Wheat, Oil and salt. That is amazing.
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Kitchen A la Candis baked crackers today.
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Whole wheat flour, salt, oil olive and water.
Check them out.
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First I made the dough in my food processor. One two three. Quick as can be.
Above: Here is the ball of dough.
I rolled out the dough to 1/16" thin - I rolled it on my silicone baking sheet and simply transferred the whole sheet onto a cookie sheet for baking.
(Tip: place a damp washcloth under the silicone sheet and it will not slip around when you roll the dough.)
I decided I would "score" the dough because I wanted nice, neatly shaped crackers.
I used a ruler and a pizza wheel.
They baked for 12 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Here they are after baking.
And here they are all ready to eat!
I made a second batch that I put sesame seeds on top of the crackers.
The third batch I added a teaspoon of italian herbs to the dough. They really smelled great baking and I love the way they taste, too.
And here is the close-up of my homemade whole wheat cracker!
I'm rather pleased.
Have you ever made your own noodles?
Does anyone have these 3 lids? I purchased them years ago for bean sprouts. Notice the three different size mesh in each top - you start out with the finer mesh and move progressively to the larger mesh. The jar is just a standard wide mouth jar. It did not come with the lids.
First one soaks about 2 tablespoons of alfalfa sprouts over night in the jar. The next morning you dump out the water. Using the fine mesh top, the little seeds do not fall out the top when you dump the water. Rinse twice a day but do not soak them anymore. I soaked the seeds overnight from Thursday to Friday morning.
You will begin to see the little seeds sprouting. 
And sprouting...
And sprouting!
This was Sunday morning. Each day when you rinse the seeds, you want the little hulls to float to the top and out of the jar. As the sprouts grow, you can change the fine mesh to the larger mesh because the sprouts won't wash through the mesh as they get larger, but, hopefully, the hulls will wash through. Some do, some don't.
And here is this morning's bean sprouts. All ready for my sandwich at lunch and on my salad this evening for dinner. 
