Thursday, December 3, 2009

Day 4- Pantry Challenge...And Oyster Crackers

I'm pretty much out of "convenience" foods now.  No more tofu or tempeh.  No more pasta.  Tonight I made use of a can of chickpeas (now it's on to dry beans), some garden tomatoes and some dried garden cherry tomatoes in a stew.  Yep- That's right.  Garden tomatoes in December in Minnesota.  These green 'maters were late bloomers on the kitchen table but are now red and tasty.



Sauteed onions, jalapeno, cumin seed, fennel seed, coriander and mustard seed simmered with dried cherry tomatoes, fresh tomatoes and chickpeas.  

I found a box of oyster crackers that I had forgotten about in my pantry.  I got them as a sample from the co-op and never ate them.  Every year my mom makes some amazing seasoned oyster crackers...but they use powdered ranch dressing mix and most oyster crackers have hydrogenated oils- yuck!  These crackers have clean ingredients (They're Olde Cape Cod brand) and I used a mix of spices that tastes like ranch dressing mix to duplicate my mom's recipe. I think this would be good with pretzels or other crackers, too.



I need to have a disclaimer before this recipe to say that it is not low fat.  Or even medium fat.  I don't recommend making a habit of pouring oil over your crackers, but once a year it's freaking awesome.

Almost Like Mom's Seasoned Oyster Crackers

1 8 oz. package of oyster crackers (I think a 12 oz. package could still be well seasoned by this recipe)
1/4 cup olive oil or canola oil
2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. dried parsley
2 tsp. dried dillweed
1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes
3/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Pour the oil into a large plastic resealable bag.  With a mortar and pestle, grind together all the spices/herbs, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper.  Dump into the baggie with the oil.  Add the crackers and seal the bag. Gently toss the crackers around in the oil and spices until they are all coated.  Remove any air from the bag and reseal.  Let sit overnight and then eat so many of these that you feel sick.  Then lick the bag.

4 comments:

Stephanie said...

If they're good enough to lick the empty bag I'm gonna have to give this recipe a try. I am vicariously enjoying your pantry challenge!

The Voracious Vegan said...

That stew looks like a delicious winner but those crackers....those crackers I NEED! Wow - great idea, thanks for the recipe.

Pearl said...

that pantry challenge starts out with good ends.

Erin said...

My mom also used to make ranch seasoned oyster crackers! So good. I think I better stay away from your recipe for fear of eating the whole batch at once.