Elle's New England Kitchen

Tuna Melt with Roasted Red Pepper Strips

Are they crackers, or flatbreads? Either way, they’re delicious! They’re crunchy, so tasty, and as an added bonus, good for you! They’re organic and loaded with great things like whole wheat flour, spelt, oats, bran, flaxseed, nuts and seeds. And just look at their Allergen Statement:

Dr. Kracker's allergen statement:

All of Dr. Kracker's suppliers of flour, grains and seeds have provided our bakery with letters that certify that their products are uncontaminated by peanuts or tree nuts. The only allergens that Dr. Kracker lists are wheat and milk. Further, our bakery is certified organic by the Texas Department of Agriculture.

So for those of you with nut allergies—these are the crackers for you!

Ham and Muenster with Hummus

We’ve been munching on the crackers for a few weeks now—George from Dr. Kracker was very generous and offered to send us some to try, after we told him how much we enjoyed his crackers. We found a box on the shelves at TJ Maxx, of all places, and couldn’t resist. And once we tried them? We fell in love. There’s no other way to describe it. They’re super crunchy and they taste great—and it almost makes you feel guilty, like you’re indulging in bad for you snacks or chips. But wait! They’re good for you !

As I write this, I’m munching on my current favorite flavor, Pumpkin Seed Cheddar. Not only are the crackers good for you, but they’re so versatile and go well with so many things. We’ve had them with dips, with peanut butter and jelly, with hummus and cold cuts, and also tuna melts. To see their other flavors, click here. They also have some new flavors you can see here!

George and crew at Dr. Kracker have been extremely generous and offered to give some of their amazing crackers/flatbreads to you, my readers!

The five Original Flavors served with hummus and Tabouleh.

Ten people will receive a box including eight packs of crackers. One of each of the five original flavors, and one of each of the three newest flavors. How cool is that? And seriously, when you taste them, you’ll wonder where they’ve been all your life.

Look at all of the seed-filled goodness!

And if you’d like to try them in the meantime, you can click to see if they’re available in your area. You can also buy them online. And if they’re not in your area, ask your local stores to carry them!

Good old PB&J

What do you need to do to enter?

1. Visit the Dr. Kracker site, check out the flavors, and let me know which one(s) you’d love to try.

2. Come back here, and leave a comment with a valid email address! If you don’t leave an email address, or it’s invalid, I’ll choose another winner. Seriously. I’ve had to do that already, and it wasn’t fun.

3. You must have a physical address, no PO boxes, please.

4. You can get an extra entry If you Twitter about the giveaway. Come back here with the link to your Twitter post (you must have that!!) and post that link in a second comment for an extra entry. To get the link to your Twitter post, click under your message where it says "less than _____ ago" and that will take you to a page where you can copy the url of your message.

So everyone has at least two ways to get entries. Limit two entries per person.

I’m waiting to hear back from George as to where they ship, and will update this post as soon as I hear back from him. I’m assuming it’s US only, but I will clarify that.

The contest will run until next Monday, April 13th. I’ll choose the winners on that day. Good luck! I want everyone to try these flatbreads!

My friend Grace at A Southern Grace is having a blog event called Beat the Heat. She wants recipes that won't heat up the kitchen during the hot months of summer. (And even though it's only 61° here today--that's fall weather!) And her rules say we can submit new stuff, or things we've already blogged about. I did have a recipe all picked out to make, but we have some guys working at the house, fixing insulation until Friday. So I'm stuck here and can't get to the store. And it's raining. And I have four kids. And it's supposed to rain tomorrow, too. Help. Me.



So I chose two recipes that I originally posted back in March. Did it matter that it wasn't hot out then? No way, because they're good all year 'round. But if tomatoes aren't in season in your area, do yourself a favor and spring for the pretty vine ripened ones. The recipes compliment each other so well, and if you add a couple more things to your plate, you've got a delicious and healthy feast. These are a favorite when you don't feel like heating up the kitchen, or even if you don't feel like cooking. The prep for these is easy--a bit chopping for the salad, and the hummus is all made in the food processor. Add some feta, pita wedges, and good olives if you've got them, and you have a heavenly snack or meal.

You can find the post for the Fresh Summer Salad here.



And the Roasted Red Pepper Hummus post is here.



Put them together and you get something like this:


It's a nice light, but filling combination. And that salad is so good! It's like a bowl of summer, hehe.

So that's my entry to Beat the Heat. And even though it's cool out today, I'm adding this stuff to my grocery list. If I can ever get out to the store...

This salad is one of the easiest things to make, ever. It's amazing to me (Yes, still. I'm terribly easy to please.) how you can take a few simple, common ingredients, and turn them into something that tastes so incredibly good.

That's what this salad is. I made it the other day, and not for the first time, I've made it plenty of times--and my husband and I stood at the kitchen island almost inhaling it like we had been wandering in the desert without food for two weeks. He had picked up a soft, squishy loaf of fresh italian bread earlier in the day, and we were ripping off hunks of bread like savages and eating them with the salad. And by the way...there's a lot to be said for eating something like this with the one you love. It's drippy with olive oil and juice from the tomatoes...embarrassing to have oil dripping down your chin? No--just the opposite--it's a very sensual eating experience...and what were we talking about? hehehe.

Serve this with any number of things--it's so versatile! It's great with the hummus (ous) and some feta on wedges of pita bread, or as a fresh side dish, or, like my husband and I had some of it, right out of the bowl you made it in along with some fresh bread. I found this recipe online somewhere years ago, but it's been so long that I don't remember where. Thank you, whoever you are! oh, and even if you don't have garden tomatoes, which we don't have yet, obviously--it's SO worth splurging on a few vine ripened tomatoes from your grocery store to make this. It's a burst of summer while it's still...let me check...43 degrees outside, with snow on the ground.

Fresh Summer Salad

4 cucumbers, peeled or not, up to you--seeded and cut into chunks
4 tomatoes, seeded or deglopped, as my friend Jane says, and cut into chunks
1/2 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
3-4 TBSP olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground pepper

Toss all ingredients together and chill. Or don't bother to put it away, just stand there with some bread and eat. Store any leftovers in the fridge.


And here it is with some of the Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, some feta and some pita bread wedges:

What can I say about hummus? I can say that some people spell it hummous! I know that here, we don't spell it with the "ous", but now that I've typed hummus, it looks funny. It looks wrong even though I know it's perfectly fine to spell it that way.

I can also say that no matter how you spell it, it's goooood. It's addictive, isn't it? And if you've never tried it, you're missing out! I'll bet you're thinking "Sure, Elle. I'll just put my shoes and jacket on (unless you are where it's warm, then forget the jacket) and go get some. Because you told me to."

Surprise! You don't have to! You can make it right at home with a few simple ingredients that I'll bet most of you already have on hand. And if you don't, I'm sorry. You're gonna miss out. Until you go shopping and remember that I suggested you get these things. You won't be sorry! Unless you make it and hate it. In that case, you never read this post and you never heard it from me. *innocently whistling*

Seriously, hummus (ous) is so easy to make. It takes maybe 5 minutes. You can use a food processor or a blender, but honestly, a processor is easier. But I have made this in a blender, before I had a shiny, powerful KitchenAid. Either way, it's still easy, you just have to open the blender occasionally and poke the stuff around to get it all blended.

This is great with corn chips. I can seriously pig out on a bowl of hummus and a pile o' chips. Oink. But my absolute favorite way to have this hummus is with Fresh Summer Salad, little chunks of feta, and pita bread wedges. Talk about oink! It's like nachos, only not bad for you! Well, I suppose if you eat too much, you may feel a bit queasy, but man, it's hard to stop. So good!

Oh, a side note: hummus is usually made with tahini, a sesame seed paste. I always used it, and after a while, ended up throwing a lot of it out, because you use such a small amount to make hummus. I was never sure how long it lasted after opening, and really, no one wants to poison their family and friends, do they? (I'm sure someone can tell me how long it lasts!) So I started using sesame oil instead. I always have that on hand, and I use it all the time. I substitute the same amount of oil instead of tahini. It works fine and tastes great.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

It doesn't get any easier than that!

To print this recipe, click here!