Mediterranean Style Matzo Farfel
Matzo farfel is basically like French toast, but with the bread replaced by matzo (the “bread of poverty and persecution,” eaten by observant Jews for eight days during Passover.) It seems like the kind of dish you’d only eat for lack of the opportunity to eat anything better, like those fake Cheerio-type cereals made with who-knows-what that are kosher for Passover but deserve the title of “the cereal of styrofoam and indigestion.” However, in its bland quirkiness, matzo farfel has garnered a certain corner of my heart. I used to love it so much as a kid my mom would make it for me throughout the year, and eating it evokes for me the memory of childhood.
Out of pure lack of inspiration, I made plain matzo farfel for my breakfast the other day, expecting its childhood appeal to have worn off, leaving it tasteless and unappealing. However, taking that first bite transported me back to a simpler time. Instantly, my food-blogger’s brain began buzzing with ideas in response to the vital question: how can I make this dish blog-worthy? I knew I wanted to make it again, but this time with more to recommend it nutritionally, and with some more interesting flavors.
A few days later, I threw together the ingredients currently in our Passover-ified pantry to make this more interesting matzo farfel. Cooked veggies add flavor, antioxidants, and fiber, while crumbled goat cheese melts magnificently into the matzo mass for a smooth richness complemented by the Mediterranean feel of the pimiento stuffed olives. I added some sage to spice things up – it would have been even better with some more interesting spices, so feel free to elaborate on that front.
Mediterranean Style Matzo Farfel
serves one
Ingredients:
- 2 sheets matzo (I used egg; try whole wheat or gluten free if you’re feeling adventurous)
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup milk of choice (I used plain almond milk)
- pinch salt
- pinch sage
- 1 cup fresh, cooked or frozen vegetable mix (I used frozen Green Giant brand Steamers Antioxidant Blend, which is a mixture of broccoli, carrots, red and yellow bell peppers cooked in an olive oil seasoning; found in the frozen aisle)
- 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
- 4 pimiento stuffed manzanilla olives
Directions:
Spray a medium to large pan with nonstick spray.
Prepare vegetables if frozen. (I microwaved them while cooking matzo farfel for convenience.)
In a medium to small bowl, beat egg, milk, and salt. Break matzo into pieces and add, coating each piece with egg mixture.
Pour matzo-egg mixture onto prepared pan. Heat to medium. Cook until one side of matzo pieces is browned, then flip. (You might get some omelette-y bits if you pour all the egg in there – that’s all right, it adds taste and protein and can help indicate when you’re ready to flip!) When both sides of matzo pieces are cooked and there is no more runny egg, remove from heat.
Place on serving plate. Mix in veggies, cheese and olives. Enjoy!
Savory Pumpkin Spiced Chickpea Quiche Muffins
I wanted to bring a wholesome vegetarian dish to my family’s Hanukkah get-together earlier this week. I’d been briefed that the table would be graced with a copious quantity of latkes, along with the traditional toppings of sour cream and applesauce, a slab of fish, and some salad to help digest all those potatoes and oil. Now oil is all very well when it’s lighting the ruins of the temple for a miraculous eight days, and a small quantity of vegetable oil can even be beneficial in one’s diet. But with that said, I decided to stick with a light and miraculously oil-free recipe for my own contribution to the holiday table. And to round out the options, I chose a vegetarian-friendly protein – eggs.
Swirled with a savory, spicy pumpkin sauce and crowned with chickpeas like little Christmas ornaments, these cute little personal quiches went over well with my family. I would have added some wilted kale or other greens to the egg mixture if I’d thought to buy any, but they were also fine as they were. While I made them dairy-free, they are also good with a sprinkling of feta cheese – like a magical dusting of snow on a winter morning. Serve ’em up with mashed potatoes like snowy hills…
Enough of the imagery – on with the recipe!
Savory Pumpkin Spiced Chickpea Quiche Muffins
adapted from recipes on A Veggie Venture and Food & Wine
makes 12 standard size quiche muffins
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin Puree
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- dash of sage
- generous splash of cinnamon
- small dash of ginger
- 2 spoonfuls water
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1/2 of a red bell pepper, diced
- 8 eggs
- 2/3 cup plain almond milk
- 1/2 cup chickpeas/garbanzo beans
Directions:
Line a 12-cavity muffin tin with 12 liners. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
Spray a medium pan with nonstick cooking spray. Cook chopped garlic cloves for a few minutes, until they begin to brown.
Place garlic, pumpkin puree, and a couple spoonfuls of water in blender. Blend until smooth. Add sage, cayenne, cinnamon, and ginger. Blend. Set this mixture aside.
In the same pan used to cook the garlic, sauté the red bell pepper using this no-oil method: basically, pour water on the pan as needed and move the pepper continuously. Remove from heat when edges are brown and pieces feel somewhat soft. Place in a large bowl.
Beat in the eggs. Add almond milk and beat it in as well.
Carefully fill muffin liners with egg mixture. WARNING: If you spill any of this on your muffin tin and it gets baked on, it will be impossible to get off and will haunt your kitchen for eternity.
Swirl pumpkin mixture into each quiche. Reserve about 1/3 of the pumpkin mixture. Mix this with the chickpeas.
Bake muffins at 350 for 15 minutes. Then, remove from oven and top each muffin with a dollop of pumpkin sauce and chickpeas.
Return to bake for another 5-7 minutes, or until eggs are cooked through.
Serve warm!
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Back-to-School Breakfast: Mediterr-Asian Tofu Scramble Freezer Wraps
As soon as we discovered Amy’s frozen foods, my mom and I were both hooked: the wide selection of microwaveable vegetarian foods from a variety of cultural backgrounds, each of them tasty and many catering to specific health concerns, was the answer to our prayers as our lives were only becoming busier and busier. Whenever we’re at the market, we often stop by the frozen section to stock up on these healthy, edible convenience foods. I always like to get new products I haven’t yet tried. My mom’s approach has been to choose one or two go-to Amy’s products, so even when she isn’t at the market I can always guess what she’d want: the Breakfast Scramble Wrap, a loaded tofu scramble that brightens up her morning – or evening – with a healthy dose of Tabasco on the side.
(image source: http://www.examiner.com/review/amy-s-tofu-scramble-meals-wraps-a-superb-way-to-start-each-morning)
We try to always have at least one of these in the freezer, stowed away for that busy moment when one of us needs to just grab something for a quick meal before rushing off to school or some other chore. The problem is determining when is the right time to use up the reserve scramble wrap. Is this 15 minutes before choir practice emergency enough? Or does mom need it more for tomorrow morning in between taking me and my brother to school? Sometimes I ask, but every once in a while I will simply pop the wrap in the microwave on the sly and plan to get another one in the freezer before anyone notices – the convenience of an instant, nutrition-packed and delicious meal is just too hard to resist!
Last weekend, noticing we had no breakfast scrambles left in the freezer, I was faced with a choice: I could re-stock with the same old thing again… or I could go DIY and make something new and different! I went with the latter option – and that’s what I’m here to tell you about today.
These tofu scramble wraps are a delicious compact meal that can be warmed up in minutes. They’re great for busy mornings or evenings, and since the recipe makes eight individual wraps there won’t be any bickering over who gets that one Amy’s wrap lurking in the freezer! Besides the convenience factor, the recipe also makes for a delicious taste experience that is a fusion of Asian and Mediterranean flavors, harmoniously mingling inside a hearty, whole wheat pita wrap.
If you choose a vegan pita and vegan hummus, this recipe can easily be made vegan-friendly! Furthermore, it is much lower in calories than the Amy’s Breakfast Scramble Wrap, and low in sodium compared to many of the frozen foods you’ll find at the market. Feel free to play around and change up the sauce I used (soy sauce) or use fresh veggies instead of frozen, or mix up the types of vegetables. That’s the great thing about making your own frozen wraps: the ingredients are up to you. So set aside some time this weekend to save yourself time and stress during the week, with these Mediterr-Asian Tofu Scramble Freezer Wraps!
Mexi-Terranean Tacos: My Daily Contribution to Globalization
Globalization, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is the “Process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world.” I certainly saw evidence of this in Israel: you walk into a mall and there are snazzy British clothing stores, American fast food, outlets with cutting-edge Israeli technology, and a stationary store selling Hebrew translations of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
At this mall there were touristy shops right next to authentic Israeli ones.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid in Hebrew!
In a way, it’s kind of sad to find McDonald’s and Cinnabon halfway across the world: I wanted a different experience, reassurance that there is still something interesting in the world for me to discover, that we still have something to learn from each other. At the same time, it was at times convenient and comforting to have access to some of the same brands I already know and trust from home.
There were some more traditional and apparently authentic shopping options, such as the shuk and flea markets. But even these were often subtly affected by international influence.
Above: a Jerusalem shuk, or market, just before Shabbat evening, is a busy place. Here appears to be an authentic scene of a merchant selling his produce to a tourist (but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of that fruit was either imported or non-native to the land. Israel is known for its fresh produce, however at the markets I did see apples imported from all over the world.)
Jerusalem shuk
Whether we like it or not, globalization is happening. And one of the major causes is the internet: this omnipresent, constant, universal source of information that allows billions of people from all over the world to vent about their problems as if everyone else cares, see what problems someone a thousand miles away might be having, etc… in short, an infinite encyclopedia of shared information is at our fingertips instantly.
How is it that we can even know what Mediterranean food is made of, what dishes are popular in Mexico, without leaving our desk in the USA? The internet. Recipes and cuisine tastes did travel long before the internet existed, but today it connects us much more closely and as a result an exponentially more massive quantity of information travels more instantly around the globe. Fusion food is rising in popularity as the big jumble of delicious Pins and mouthwatering Insta pics become a mishmosh of creative juices swirling and scrambling in the mind of any innovative foodie. And with free, instant venues to publish their new creations, one need not be a royal chef or a worldly spice trader on the silk road to influence the global perspective on taste.
Today I’m making my humble contribution to the great globalization movement with yet another blog post on fusion food. These tacos are a Mexican-style favorite, infused with both the flavors of (So-Cal’s idea of) Mexico and some of the taste of the Mediterranean that I observed on my recent trip to Israel. Really, above all this is American food, because only in the states can you find something as confused (and creative!) as black bean and chipotle hummus.
Wherever you are in the world, I encourage you to try these tacos. Mixed up and proud of it, they are a healthy and flavorful combination of some of the best the world has to offer in terms of fun and delicious food. If you like, add some more of your own unique flavor elements, and post your creation on the internet for the world to see!
Here’s my recipe:
Mexi-Terranean Tacos
makes two tacos
Ingredients:
- 2 small corn tortillas
- 2-3 cups of fresh washed baby spinach
- a handful of Cherubs grape tomatoes, diced
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (I used Lucerne brand Reduced Fat Feta Cheese)
- 2-4 tbs Open Nature brand Chipotle Black Bean Dip (I found this with the hummus at my grocery store)
Directions: Warm tortillas to your liking (I did this using the microwave.) Then place a handful of spinach in the center of each tortilla. Top with grape tomatoes and sprinkle with feta cheese. Spoon hummus evenly over the other fillings.
Enjoy!
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Summer Veggie Lasagna
What do you do to celebrate summer? My family always makes a list at the beginning of the vacation of all the quintessential summer activities our family must do to fully enjoy the summer: swimming, movies, museums, zoos, and aquariums are typically on the list. Yesterday we checked off one of our favorite semi-local aquariums by making the treacherous journey through extreme traffic to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. The trip was definitely worth it as we learned a lot of amazing things. My brother was particularly fascinated by their new exhibit, “Wonders of the Deep,” where a selection of midnight-zone marine monsters lurk. He urged me to do a blog post about it, and I happen to be interested in sea creatures myself, so here we are.
The deep-ocean exhibit contains the first jellyfish touch tank I have ever seen, in which visitors can gently feel the bells of harmless moon jellies (They’re so delicate I was more afraid of hurting the creatures than of their weak stinging cells!) Another highlight is a model whale carcass being scavenged by real abyssal scavengers (which are fed real meat and just hang out on their grotesque playground.) There is also a tank that includes giant deep sea isopods, which basically look like pill bugs or lice except the size of your forearm. Does this exhibit sound enchanting to you yet?
One of the cutest things in the exhibit, and the one my brother insisted upon returning to twice and stared at with a greater attention span than I thought he had in him, is a cylindrical tank full of chambered nautiluses. They gape out with their primitive eyes and pump their siphons to swim in whimsical backwards circles, often bumping into one another on the way but never seeming to be too phased by the collision.
When we visited the nautilus tank for the second time, an aquarium staff member was poking around in there with a long grasping stick. At first we were afraid she had to remove one of the animals, but it turned out she was feeding them shrimps. When her work was done, we asked her some of the questions that had been sparked in our minds by the sight of the alien creatures. She was more than happy to chat and the conversation kept expanding, elaborating on more of nautilus biology than I’d ever dreamed I’d learn by visiting the aquarium. For instance, it turns out the chambered nautilus is pretty easy to sex: if it has three long, curling tentacles on the left side, it is a male. Otherwise, it is female. The friendly staff member even took us behind the scenes to the mating tank where serious couples were given some space to be lovers. Here I had the opportunity to feed a dead shrimp to a diffident marine cephalopod. Unfortunately, the creatures didn’t seem to be hungry – or maybe they were trying not to spoil their appetites for their dates later that evening, because my crustacean offering was ignored. Even so, it was neat to catch a glimpse both of how the aquarium is run and how life is 2,000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface.
above: abalone, an unrelated, non-deep-sea gastropod
I’ve always been interested in the ocean, but somehow visiting the aquarium feels especially appropriate in the summertime. I guess summer = beaches = ocean = marine biology? Anyway, there’s lots of things I find just aren’t as fun to do when not done in summer. Eating fresh veggies is obviously one of them: there’s just so much variety and so much better quality of everything available right now. So I decided to take advantage of all the fresh produce while it lasts with a lasagna that’s as quintessentially summer as the beach.
This lasagna is truly a celebration of summer: it is bursting with the fresh produce that abounds this season, from vitamin-rich sweet mini peppers to zucchini, high in vitamin C as well as potassium and with some nourishing fiber. To make it more satisfying and less sinful, I used whole wheat lasagna noodles, which taste just as good as the refined carb-laden regular noodles but provide more fiber and a slightly heartier, nuttier taste. If you are a cheese lover, (and don’t mind upping the calories and fat content a bit), I might suggest doubling the amount of feta cheese I used in this recipe as it provided only a slight hint of cheese. Overall, this lasagna turned out wonderfully and made for a great light, yet satisfying midday meal to enjoy in the July sunshine. And I didn’t have to try and feed it to any uncooperative invertebrates either! (Do nautiluses eat vegetables?)
Gotta get your summer veggies and fruits while you can, because before you know it it’ll be all pumpkins and apples! Here’s one way to enjoy them:
Summer Veggie Lasagna
based on recipe from myrecipes.com
makes 4-8 servings (one 8″ square pan)
Ingredients:
- 4 uncooked lasagna noodles (I used Eating Right brand Whole Grain Pasta lasagna noodles)
- 2 cups tomato sauce (I used Ragu brand)
- 1 cup fresh baby spinach
- 1/2 cup feta cheese (I used Lucerne brand reduced fat)
- 1 whole large zucchini
- 1/2 orange skin yam or sweet potato
- 5 large sweet mini peppers
- 1 whole shallot onion
- about 1/2 cup hot water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit.
Prep the veggies: first wash everything. Rip the spinach into little bits. Then microwave the potato until it is warm enough to slice in rounds and cut each round in halves or quarters. Slice the zucchini into halved rounds as well. Cut off stems of mini peppers and dice them. Peel and chop shallot onion.
Layer ingredients in your baking dish. Mine was a bit messy because I don’t really know the proper way to layer lasagna, but here’s what I did in order from bottom of the baking dish to the top: about 1/3 of total tomato sauce spread evenly on bottom, covered by 2 noodles broken to fit in dish, sprinkled with cheese and spinach pieces. Over this I added rows of zucchini and yam slices, broken up by handfuls of peppers and onions. I spooned some more tomato sauce over this. Then I covered that mess with the other two noodles, again broken to fit in the dish, sprinkled with the rest of the cheese and spinach, which in turn was covered by the rest of the veggies and the last of the sauce. Here’s a basic visual of my sloppy attempt at layering lasagna if you wish to give it a go:
TOP: sauce
veggies
spinach/feta
2 lasagna noodles
sauce
veggies
spinach/feta
2 lasagna noodles
BOTTOM: sauce
Anyway, once you’ve figured that out, pour 1/4 cup hot water around inside edge of baking dish. Then cover dish with two layers of aluminum foil.
Bake at 375 Fahrenheit for 25 minutes. Then add another 1/4 cup or so of hot water around inside edge of baking dish, just to make sure lasagna noodles soften. Cover and return to oven for another ten minutes. Then, remove aluminum foil cover and bake for another ten minutes, uncovered.
Remove from oven and allow lasagna to cool for ten minutes before serving.
Serve with a sunny smile!
Triple Fusion Food: Shakshuka Pizza Wrap
Cat sleeping outside a pizza restaurant in Israel – I guess the waiters were taking too long to bring his pizza!
Before going to Israel, I was told one food I would see everywhere would be shakshuka, an egg dish with tomato sauce and sometimes feta, herbs, and/or chickpeas. I was told it would be served all day, every day, from the fanciest restaurants to the seediest hostels… I prepared myself to be mopping up a lot of tomato sauce with pita bread. And I went to Israel and… we saw shakshuka once. Maybe twice in the same hostel. And it didn’t look all that inspiring, so I did’t try any. I knew I could make something better at home than anything the cheap hostel kitchen came up with.
Rather than going the classic egg-on-top-of-tomato-sauce-on-top-of-pita-bread route, I got it in my head to try something a little more original: a shakshuka pizza. The pizza idea evolved even further and I decided to make a shakshuka pizza burrito. You can’t get more American than Mexi-Israeli-talian fusion food!
I swear this idea is really going to take off. They’re going to be serving it in food trucks across the country. It’s the perfect combination of all three of the multicultural dishes it encompasses: the protein and succulent tomato sauce found in shakshuka mesh well with the fresh veggies that are common pizza toppings, and the whole thing is conveniently rolled up in wrap format, courtesy of a Flat Out flatbread, that makes it fun and easy to eat. With the wholesome protein of an egg, the vitamins and fiber from numerous veggies, and the whole grains and balanced nutrition provided by the Flat Out flatbread, this recipe makes a mighty meal for any time of day.
Here’s my recipe, but feel free to get creative and elaborate on it – make it a fusion of all the cultural flavors you find most delicious! If you have a cool idea for how to infuse even more tasteful elements into this wrap, please do comment!
Shakshuka Pizza Wrap
serves one
Ingredients:
- 1 Flat Out brand light original flatbread
- 1/4 cup tomato sauce of choice (I used Ragu brand)
- 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I used Lucerne brand fat free cheese)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup raw kale
- 3 white mushrooms
Directions:
Spread tomato sauce across Flat Out flatbread, leaving only a little plain space around the edges. Sprinkle cheese on top. Quarter and add mushrooms. Heat this in microwave until cheese is melted.
Cook egg sunny side up. Remove from heat and place in center of flatbread.
Arrange kale across middle section of flatbread.
Roll flatbread around egg and kale to create a wrap.
Enjoy! Bon appetit, l’chaim, olé, etc.
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DIY Frozen Burritos – Broccoli, Cheddar & Black Bean
Often, the choice between eating healthy, and getting it fast can be a difficult one. Sacrifices have to be made, either of time and money or of the nutritional value of the food. In my view, this shouldn’t have to be the case. That’s why lately I’ve been finding ways to make my own convenience food.
Did you know you can make your own frozen burritos at home? You don’t have to pay for store-bought ones, nor do you need to suffer the degradation of putting something on your plate that you know has too many strange ingredients to count and is probably packed with sodium. Just take some time over the weekend to throw together a balance of whole, healthy ingredients, wrap them in healthy Flat Out flatbreads, and sequester them away in the freezer to be eaten during the busy week. You can make as few or as many as you want, and can really put anything in them at all: use up those leftovers from dinner, or pick up some inspiring veggies at the store and cook them up like I did.
This recipe makes three satisfying, nutritious and delicious vegetarian burritos with nourishing brown rice, roasted sweet potatoes broccoli and pepper morsels, spicy black beans and a touch of cheddar cheese. Feel free to use my recipe as it is, or change it to include whatever ingredients you already have in the fridge (you shouldn’t have to make a special trip to the market to make convenience food for yourself.) And if you like, double the recipe (because three of these delectable, hearty meals really isn’t enough!) Make, freeze, reheat and eat – and feel good while doing it. You’re giving yourself a convenient yet healthy meal lower in fat and sodium than what you’d find at the store, full of wholesome ingredients you can pronounce. Bon appetit!
Broccoli, Cheddar, & Black Bean Frozen Burritos
Ingredients:
- 3 Flat Out brand light original flatbreads
- 3/4 to 1 medium orange skin sweet potato/yam
- splash of cinnamon
- pinch of thyme
- pinch of sage
- 2 cups raw broccoli florets
- pinch of sage
- 1 tsp olive oil, divided
- 1/3 cup diced tri-color peppers
- 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
- 1/3 cup cooked black beans (I used Whole Foods 365 brand Spicy flavor)
- 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:
First, roast the veggies: Preheat oven to 425 Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray with nonstick spray.
Cut the sweet potato/yam (whatever you prefer to call it) into little pieces. Think really little, smaller than bite-sized. Place into a small bowl and toss with a splash of cinnamon, pinch each of thyme and sage, and 1/2 tsp olive oil.
Chop broccoli florets into small pieces. Place in a bowl. Toss with a pinch of sage and 1/2 tsp olive oil.
Spread just the potatoes on aluminum foil, leaving some area free for the other veggies.
Roast potatoes at 425 for ten minutes, then remove to add broccoli on another section of the baking sheet. Add the diced peppers to a third section of baking sheet.
Return baking sheet to oven for another 10 minutes, or until veggies are slightly soft.
Now you can assemble the wraps: Lay each Flat Out wrap flat on a flat surface. Place a few spoonfuls of brown rice in a vertical conglomeration in the center of the wrap. Top rice with roasted potato, broccoli, and peppers. Add a couple spoonfuls of black beans and sprinkle with shredded cheddar. Try to distribute ingredients evenly to each burrito.
Roll up each burrito and immediately wrap tightly with aluminum foil. If you’re one of those organized types, label the burritos with main ingredients and date so in a future age you remember what this unsightly ball of aluminum foil is doing in your freezer.
Place burritos in freezer until ready to eat.
To reheat: Remove aluminum foil. Wrap burrito loosely in paper towel. Place on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave for about one minute, then flip burrito over and microwave for another 30 seconds to one minute. (Note: microwaves vary; yours may need more or less time to fully warm burrito.)
When burrito has warmed through, remove from microwave, let cool slightly, and then dig in!
This recipe developed with some cooking references from Allrecipes.com and Food network
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3-Ingredient Shakshuka-Style Baked Eggs
3-Ingredient Shakshuka-Style Baked Eggs
Shakshuka is a traditional dish originating from North Africa and the Middle East, consisting of a spicy fresh-made tomato sauce and eggs which are cooked first in a skillet on the stovetop, then transferred to the oven. For ultimate flavor, sometimes the eggs are garnished with herbs, and soft cheese can be sprinkled in as well.
The version of Shakshuka you’ll see here diverges from the usual cooking method, since I didn’t bother with cooking the eggs over a stovetop first: they went straight into the oven and baked up beautifully in ramekins. While this may disqualify the recipe from being “authentic,” it is still yummy!
My motto is: when in doubt, make your own food. I try to make my own food whenever possible, to have complete control over and knowledge of what goes into my food, as well as to gather recipes to blog about and just because I find the process of cooking and baking enjoyable. However, it can be impossible to find the time in my busy schedule nowadays to cook my own dinners, so sometimes I find myself resorting to convenience food, like the highly overpriced prepared salads at the grocery store, or the frozen dinners that can contain a bazillion ingredients I’d rather not put into my body. What is the solution to the time vs. DIY dilemma? I say compromise.
This is a healthy, homemade recipe that only uses 3 ingredients and can take half an hour or less to make. I whipped it up at home while in the midst of studying for finals. The original recipe, found on the New York Times website, included a homemade vegetable sauce that would take at least an additional 20 active minutes to make, plus required a host of ingredients I didn’t have the time to shop for. So I made the baked eggs, but used a store-bought tomato sauce. Less healthy? Certainly a little. More boring? Possibly. But these are the sacrifices we have to make sometimes in order to maintain busy lives. And I would argue that a store-bought tomato sauce could be found that is just as healthy as one you’d make yourself at home – try searching through the organic section for one with a lot of vitamin A and C and maybe some fiber. And this alternative is less pricey that buying a ton of fresh ingredients to make your own sauce, definitely a plus for those on a budget who still want all the health benefits that can be reaped from cooked vegetables.
This recipe is simple, using ingredients you probably already have on hand. It is also healthy, with good protein and calcium from the whole eggs and feta cheese crumbles, and 2 servings of veggies in each 1/2 cup portion of tomato sauce. If you need fast, cheap and convenient, this is a great recipe for you. Serve atop whole wheat pita bread for a satisfying, balanced meal at any time of the day.
The ingredients listed here are portioned for 2 servings, but feel free to cut down or multiply up depending on how many people you’re feeding.
Shakshuka-Style Baked Egg Ramekins
based on recipe from nytimes.com
makes 2 ramekins
Ingredients:
- 1 cup tomato sauce of choice (I used Ragu brand)
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (I used Lucerne brand reduced fat)
- 2 eggs
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit.
Divide tomato sauce among ramekins.
Sprinkle feta cheese on top of tomato sauce.
Crack one egg into each ramekin, on top of tomato sauce and cheese.
Place ramekins on a cookie sheet in case of spillage.
Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until eggs are just set.
Enjoy on top of pita bread for maximum Middle-Eastern flavor!
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Mediterranean Stuffed Mini Peppers: a Sephardic Passover Recipe
One of the things I love about observing the Jewish holiday of Passover is that it forces us to cook. And when moms cook, dads and kids are usually obligated to sit down to a family meal in the kitchen. They have to take the food and like it. But more importantly, the family has to spend at least half an hour together, sitting at the table and socializing like the good old days before everyone was too busy to sit down to a family meal. Aside from Passover, if my family sits together for dinner once or twice a week it’s a miracle. But during Passover, we all sit together like the simpler olden times and it gives me a lovely warm and fuzzy feeling in my heart.
One of the things I hate about observing Passover is that it forces us to cook. This morning I had to take an important exam, and I had to rush to school. Before I go to an exam I always make sure to eat a balanced, nutritious breakfast with plenty of fiber and protein. But how much fiber is in matzo, I ask you? And how many times in a row can a vegetarian Jew eat eggs for breakfast before going insane?!?! I was totally at a loss as to what to eat, and ended up making one of the weirdest breakfasts I have ever put together in my life: a bowl of brown rice mixed with applesauce, chopped apple, cranberries, and whole raw almonds (I couldn’t find the sliced ones since my mom had recently re-organized our pantry – grrrrrr!) Let’s just say I won’t be formally posting that recipe on this blog.
I had a ton of leftover brown rice, so that’s what we ended up serving with the main course I cooked up for the family dinner tonight. But the rice was not the star of the show – it was really just a backdrop for the Mediterranean-flavored stuffed sweet mini peppers that took center stage.
I’m so glad I had time to cook after my exam. It was so much more relaxing to spend time in the kitchen when I didn’t have to run out the door and be somewhere. And it was rewarding to sit down to a family meal that I had participated in creating, and to enjoy it with family. I hope you have the same experience with cooking this recipe for your family.
While I served these as a protein, they could also be a delicious appetizer, though they are surprisingly filling. Stuffed with a flavorful blend of Feta and Cheddar cheeses, a hint of spice, hummus, avocado, and chopped spinach, these cute offerings made for a fun finger food that was also kosher for Passover (in accordance with Sephardic guidelines.) My taste-testers (a.k.a. Mom and Dad) loved these stuffed mini peppers. They are low in calories and bursting with vitamins, protein, and healthy fats. So go ahead and give this recipe a try.
Click here for the full recipe: Mediterranean Stuffed Mini Peppers
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The Almighty Apple
No, I’m not talking about the computer company – don’t even get me started on whether that company is really “almighty” or not! I’m talking about something that was invented by Mother Nature, long before we had computers or even rotary telephones, something that grows from a tree out of the earth virtually all year round, something that conked Sir Isaac Newton in the head one day and spurned much of our modern knowledge about gravity and physics, something that has been enjoyed by fruit-loving creatures before human beings even entered the scene of life on earth. Something that should be eaten once a day to keep the doctor away. I’m talking about the almighty, crisp, crunchy, juicy fruit known as the apple!
Apples are nutritious for a multitude of reasons. For one, they contain nearly 20% of the recommended daily value of fiber. Fiber is an important nutrient because it, err, keeps the digestive system running smoothly, and has been shown time and time again to aid in weight control as high-fiber foods are slower to be broken down by the body, so people feel fuller longer after consuming high-fiber foods.
Apples are also high in Vitamin C, a vital antioxidant the body can only obtain through food. This vitamin helps the body build important proteins and keep bones and teeth in good shape. And while we’re on the subject of teeth, did you know that eating an apple a day is actually a good way to keep the dentist away as well as the doctor? Since apples are so crunchy, as they are chewed they help scrub plaque off the surfaces of teeth. Of course, this isn’t to say you should always eat apples rather than brush your teeth, but if you’re at school and have a snack attack, grab an apple. This way you’ll end up with fresher teeth without having to worry about bringing a toothbrush to school and brushing in the bathroom (seriously, who does that???)
Apples aren’t exactly a food fad, or the hottest new thing everyone’s rushing to buy at the grocery store. I’m sure apple recipes have been written and blogged about since the first apple was harvested thousands of years ago. But that doesn’t mean they’re boring, or should be overlooked when shopping for healthy foods to stock your kitchen. They’re a great go-to snack with cheese or peanut butter, can easily be part of a balanced breakfast, and of course they taste lovely incorporated into all sorts of recipes, cooked in a wide variety of ways. While good old-fashioned apple pie will most likely always remain in a special place in our cookbooks and our hearts, sometimes it’s fun to switch things up a little too. So here I have compiled a selection of the best techniques I’ve ever tried for innovative and healthy ways to serve up apples.
Breakfast:
Lunch:
Cheddar Swiss Apple Quesadilla
Sweets & Treats:
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Smoothie
Caramel Apple Cookie Butter Cookie Cake
I hope you enjoy checking out these recipes, and maybe get inspired to make something with apples! What is your favorite way to eat an apple? Nutrition Info Sources: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1809/2 http://www.medicinenet.com/fiber/article.htm http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/267290.php http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/vitamin-c-ascorbic-acid http://www.colgate.com/app/CP/US/EN/OC/Information/Video-Library/Apples-And-Oral-Health.cvsp
True Healthy Me 