creative jewish mom

Cooking With Fennel

Engraving source here, photo source here.

Are you familiar with fennel? It's a very popular root vegetable here in the Mediterranean and Middle East, and for good reason! And my friends, right now is fennel season, which means that not only is fennel quite inexpensive, it's at it's best! 

I am enjoying fennel everyday as I just can't resist. We love it raw as a simply delicious salad, and it's great with my Moroccan yellow chicken recipe. The other night I tried it with some ground chicken pot-cooked patties, and it was perfect. You can also roast it Italian style, or even use it in white bean soups. While I think the taste is quite mild, there are those who prefer it cooked and milder. However you choose, think about including some fennel in your menu planning!

Note: Cut off the stalks and generally the outer layer is removed to reveal the more tender inside. Any small leafy green areas should also be removed as they may contain bugs. 

 

Red Lentil Soup

Yes, you're right, red lentils aren't really red, they're orange! But that just makes things all the more interesting when discovering a new food! Red lentils are found widely in Indian and middle eastern cuisine, and until last night's dinner I'd never really cooked them. And boy have I been missing something! Red lentils make a wonderfully tasty and thick soup that's high in protein and is a meal in itself. And apparently they are often added to soups and stews as a thickener.

Okay, I'll admit only two out of three young children enjoyed my s0up, but that's just because honestly it really doesn't look so great, kind of like split pea soup, only a different color. Serve it with some homemade whole wheat croutons, some tasty black olives, and  a huge salad (with some feta cheese thrown in, yumm!), and you've got yourself a great meal, especially now that it's soup weather! 

Ingredients:

Serves 6 roughly

• 2 cups red lentils
• 1 large onion
• 7 cups water
• 2 tablespoons msg free soup/boullion powder (optional)
• 2 tsp cumin (I actually use 1 tblsp, but we like things spicy)
• salt and pepper to taste
• carrots, celery, potato chunks, fresh parsley to add to soup (optional)

Instructions:

Stir fry the chopped onion in a little olive oil. Add lentils and 7 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer roughly 30 minutes until lentils have broken down and a thick soup results. Add additional vegetables if desired and cook until those vegetables are soft, say another 2o minutes. Check the thickness of the soup and add water if desired. Because the soup is thick it has a tendency to burn, so stir ever ten minutes and don't leave it unattended.

The traditional middle eastern soup also includes lemon juice, so while I chose to omit it since I'm not a fan of tartness in my soup, you might enjoy it. Try squeezing a little lemon juice over your soup for a little exotic food experiment, and while you're at it a few drops of olive oil on top are also traditional. Enjoy!

All Natural Banana Ice Cream Made From.....Only Bananas!

Did you know that you can make "ice cream" from just one ingredient — bananas? I first learned this little secret here, and when my husband brought home two huge bunches of bananas for Passover, I had a feeling I'd need to use some of them for some kind of treat. And just when those bananas started to look a little brown I remembered the banana ice cream idea!

Now I have to say, this won't go over well as an actual substitute for those who want to eat real ice cream, but for those avoiding sugar or who happen to be vegan or just love super healthy fare, well this one is for them. And for those of us who enjoyed lots of matzo and other delicious foods during the past week of Passover, ahem, this one is also for us! Though I made it plain, I do think it could be quite delicious with some chopped walnuts, ground coconut, chocolate chips or shaved chocolate (for those not avoiding sugar....), or even some peanut butter mixed in! Have fun experimenting with this and you might even want to make some in an ice cube tray to have some little treats on hand, or as popsicles.

How To:

Slice some bananas and freeze on a plate. After about 2 hours, place them in your food processor or blender and watch in amazement as something that resembles coffee ice cream forms before your eyes! Eat immediately or refreeze, just you'll need to defrost it a bit before re-serving.

Note: The only electrical appliance that I have in my Passover dishes is actually a soup blender, and that worked just fine well!

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pretzel Rolls—Fun For Kids In The Kitchen!

Baking with the kids can be lots of fun, and especially great when the results are wholesome rolls that are a great accompaniment to a hearty winter soup! At this point, my kids get much more excited about real dough than modeling clay, so when I started to make these pretzels I had plenty of help. My eight year old daughter made some all on her own, and my five year old son was great at preparing longs ropes of dough for me to shape. I used the recipe for my whole wheat oatmeal baguettes, and since I was in a hurry I didn't even let the dough rise, which was fine in this case, though the rolls are a bit denser than if prepared correctly.

Someday I'd like to make real pretzels, but for now this was lots of fun, and the ones that turned out a bit too plump to pass as pretzels have been great little sandwich rolls! Make sure to roll finger width ropes, not wider. Then again the sandwhich rolls are pretty cute too.

And those roses by the way, were the last blooms that I brought indoors after I heavily pruned the rose bushes in preparation for Spring growth. Speaking of Spring, I know some of you wouldn't mind a little Spring weather right about now, so hang in there and get ready for some colorful Spring crafting, which is coming here soon!

No-Sugar Whole Wheat Fruit Cake—Delicious!

No sugar, that is sugar-free, with no added sweeteners, whole wheat fruit cake....a healthy alternative to well, you know, that regular sugar and oil laden cake that tastes good but isn't very good for you! You are joining me on the quest for healthier eating right? You'll feel so much better, believe me!

One small disclaimer: I thought this cake was great and could have easily eaten it all, and a very nice guest said it was the best cake she's eaten in Israel, though she is a macrobiotic cook, so she likes things that are healthy and natural. My children on the other hand did not quite appreciate this version of cake, and I even saw a piece in the garbage. The person who gave me this recipe however is a serious cake baker of the unhealthy kind also, and her children do like it!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup each of raisins, dried apricots, dates, prunes, or some combination of some of these, or some of these, those the dates are the sweetest, so I wouldn't skip those! (I made mine without the prunes)
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 envelope of baking power (about 2 1/2 teaspoons)
• 1 tsp cinnamon (I actually forgot this, so if you don't like cinnamon you can omit it!)
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup oil (or for Israelis: 1/2 cup chad paami)
• 1 cup of boiling water

Instructions:

Pour boiling water over chopped dried fruit (I forgot to chop mine and the pieces would have been better smaller) and let sit until fruit is really soft. Combine remaining ingredients, pour fruit together with the water that it sat in, into the batter and mix. Or drain fruit and add a new cup of water. Bake until it's ready, at the same temperature you usually bake your cakes. Ever seen a cook book that said something like that?

Note: As you can see from the quantity of flour, this makes a fairly small cake, but maybe try it before doubling the ingredients? I made it in a silicone bandit pan, and it only filled up half the depth of the pan, but the results were a cute ring shaped cake, perfect for putting on the table whole!

Millet & Quinoa Vegetable Casserole (A Healthful Alternative To Potato Kugel!)

We are finally getting some winter weather, and I haven't been able to photograph some of the projects I've been working on for Tu B'Shevat, so I thought I'd share with you some of my creative adventures in the kitchen! (This photo was taken very quickly on the sill outside my kitchen window as the clouds parted for just a few minutes.....)

I have always been a firm believer in the necessity of teaching children the importance of making healthy food choices and in following through on that with what I serve my family. Recently though, I've decided to try and include more grains, beans and greens into our daily diet. With children (and even husbands), you just never know what will go over well and what will not, but I'd say a little perseverance and belief in the importance of what you're doing, and there truly is light at the end of the tunnel! Go for it. Oh, and of course, you have to set the example by eating healthy yourself.

So last week I tried quinoa, with mixed results, though no one really noticed it when I mixed it in with the tofu vegetable stir fry! I tried hot quinoa breakfast cereal myself, and well, it was okay, but I didn't run to make it again. And yesterday I tried millet. First I made millet "muffins" by baking a similar mixture to the recipe below in a muffin tin. My daughter ate three. But at dinner she didn't touch the casserole. Hmmm. My husband and 7 year old ate one nice sized slice with no comments, though they didn't ask for more. I thought it was pretty good, I think they're just not used to the consistency. So give it a try and adjust the ingredients to suit your family, and if it doesn't go over well, at least you'll have some leftovers to eat yourself for a few lunches! And in any case, just keep trying and maybe have a word privately with your husband and teenage/adult children about how great it would be if they could encourage your endeavors!

Millet Quinoa Casserole

• 3 cups cooked millet (soak millet for a few hours and then brown in a skillet before cooking)
• 1 cup cooked quinoa (honestly threw this in to use it up, but it's a nice healthful addition)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, or bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup oil
• l large onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped celery (optional, can also use green pepper)
• 2 medium sized potatoes, grated
• 1 sweet potato, grated
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• sesame seeds

Combine ingredients, sprinkle top with sesame seeds, and bake in a casserole dish or cake pan until browned. You can certainly add more potato and less millet the first time as a trial run, just don't tell your family that it's an "experiment", tell them it's a great new recipe that a you got from a friend! We are "friends" right? That's why I hope you'll take some new steps with me in the direction of feeding our families healthful meals.

 

 

Delicious Whole Wheat Mini-Baguettes & Tunisian Fricasse' CJM Style!

I have a little secret to share: whole wheat oatmeal rolls, right out of the oven and shaped like mini baguettes! Your family will go crazy for them (hopefully) and if my kids are any indication, well they were begging to take these to school before they'd even been placed in the oven! There's just something about the shape that is downright appealing, and as it turns out, they were delicious too! (I can just see them now, waving these in front of all their white bread eating peers whose jeers they've learned to ignore....go kids!)

And if you really want to go all the way, take my serving suggestion and place them on the table in one of your nicest plant pots that happens to be free at the moment, or a little bucket would be great too! And by the way, I made this recipe up based on my own favorite whole wheat pita recipe, so you can certainly experiment too by adding some other healthy ingrediants, or a different topping.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons silan (date syrup) or honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoons salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
• 2 cups warm water, plus additional amount needed for nice moist, but not sticky dough
• sesame seeds and a tiny bit of kosher salt (optional)

Directions:

Generally speaking if using a mixer it is preferable to add dry ingrediants to the wet ones, and if mixing by hand, add the wet to the dry. Do not add salt until the yeast is thoroughly mixed with the flour.

Here's what I did: Place yeast in bowl, and add to that 2 cups warm water plus 2 tablespoons silan. Add 4 tablespoons oil, and then start adding flour and oatmeal slowly. Add salt and continue adding flour. Add a little extra water (amount depends on the whole wheat flour you'll be using, organic requires more water) such that your resulting dough is moist but not sticky.

Place dough in a large bowl with a cover, or in a plastic garbage bag, which is what I do. Squeeze extra air out of bag, tie the top closed, and place bag in a warm place. I put mine near the stove top and turned on the oven. Since these are rolls and not bread, you really don't have to worry about giving the dough ample rising time. I let it rise a bit, so that it felt fluffy to the touch, maybe 20 minutes max, and then I shaped my rolls (roughly 23 of them) such that they looked like thick shortish carrots. I let them rise another 10 minutes or so, brushed them with egg white and sprinkled them with sesame seeds and a touch of kosher salt, and into the oven they went for about 20 minutes. that's it!

About Tunisian Fricasse' and These Baguettes.....
The funny part of this story is that I had planned to make a meal with Moroccan white beans in a tomato sauce served on a bed of mashed potatoes and onions, but the beans just were taking too long to cook. So I did a slight change of plan and layed out a spread to make faux fricassee' (Tunisian sandwiches in fried bread) with mashed potatoes, tuna salad, mixed Israeli salad, and olives. I forgot that one usually includes hard boiled eggs in this mix, oh well. When I told my husband it was healthy fricasse', suddenly the dinner became a 5 star event! And he even had the children applaud my efforts, literally! And my five year old said so sweetly "thank you mommy for making the rolls, I love them!" How's that for incentive? But seriously, if you really don't know what to make for dinner, whip up a batch of these rolls (you'll need to do it about 2 hours ahead of dinner) and the rest will just fall into place, even if it's mashed potatoes, eggs, olives, a salad of cucumbers and tomotos, tuna and some pickles and picked lemons if you happen to have some!  

And come to think of it, Tunisian style fricasse' in healthy rolls is a great idea for a buffet meal. And for those of you living somewhere that's not where I live, well it will be downright exotic! Tunisian? Where's that? (Northern Africa, silly!) You can even consider reading my blog a lesson in geography now and again, all the more reason to stop by often, plus I just love it when you do!

 

 

Kids & Veggies: Try Fresh Zucchini Salad! (You'll like it too!)

Not to brag, but my kids are big vegetable eaters. And truthfully all the hard work that has gone into achieving this wonderful state of being has been endless hours preparing all the fresh and cooked Moroccan salads that my husband introduced me to, and that we can't live without! (see recipes here) My kids will even fight over alfalfa sprouts! Can you believe that? And last week one of my teenage sons even snuck a handful of sprouts to the Shabbos table behind his back (!) prompting one of the guests to say "uh, we used to do that with cookies?" A proud mothering moment indeed!

Nonetheless, zucchini just hasn't scored high on the list of favorites, and I even started making grated soup (recipe here) to hide the zucchini. And then something magical happened, thanks to a recipe I saw for raw zucchini salad that is prepared by creating slivers with a vegetable peeler. As simple as that!

So the other night while preparing dinner I simply starting filling a plate with zucchini peels and my kids literally went wild! "What are you doing? Can I try some?" It was all I could do to add some seasoning (salt, pepper, olive oil) before the plate was attacked. My six year old said "a meal fit for royalty!" "can we have this every night?" And then as the zucchini started to disappear they begged me to take if off the table so there would be some left for dinner! My daughter said "remember when we didn't like zuchini?" Yes , I remember, that was just yesterday! I just took it all in, and smiled to myself. And the cherry on the top of the cake was when my husband came home for dinner and said "wow, what a suprise! Is there more?"

Note: Due to differences in genetic makeup and environmental influences, each family is different, so I really can't guarantee that your results will be similar to mine, but good luck!

Delicious And Simple Pumpkin Soup!

Here's an absolutely healthy and delicious soup recipe that you'll find yourself going back to time and time again. Even my pickiest eater ate three bowls of this soup the other night! The main thing is keep it simple, stick to my recipe and it will be perfect every time. This is an elegant soup to serve at a special occasion as a first or second course, and yet it's so simple to make that it can also be a part of your everyday meal planning.

Ingredients:

• Roughly 1 kilo (2.2 lbs) pumpkin or any orange squash (Dlat is the best choice in Israel)
• Two green apples, or really any apple, but preferably not a red skinned one
• One large white onion
• Olive oil for browning the onion

Instructions:

1. Slice onion and saute in olive oil
2. Peel apples and pumpkin and cut into large chunks and add to pot
3. Add water such that the level is slightly below that of the pumpkin chunks
4. Bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for roughly 40 minutes or until pumpkin is very soft
5. Blend soup and add salt and pepper to taste, add extra water if soup is too thick
6. Sit back and wait for the compliments

I hope you enjoy this oh-so-simple recipe, I know I can't wait to make it again!

Vegetable Platters For Kids: It's All In The Presentation!

If you love vegetables, then eventually your kids will too (most of them anyway!) Of course there are a few tricks that you might want to try if you're on a campaign for not only healthy eating, but a love for healthy eating! (And if you don't love vegetables, well then just pretend that you do, for your kid's sake!)

• Treat vegetables like they are something special (they are!) and serve them in an eye-catching way. Who wouldn't want to get their hands on this platter? My kids were jumping up and down! (Okay I realize that they are not normal in their love for vegetables, but maybe it means I'm doing the right thing? How many kids do you know that will devour sliced radish? The other white vegetable is kohlrabi, wonderfully crisp and delicious.)
• Serve fresh vegetables at every meal so they become a natural part of everyday eating.
• Enlist your husband's help and convince him to ooh and aah over the vegetables and take the majority for himself, all the while smacking his lips with no desire to share. (Believe me, this one works really well, you should see the types of vegetables my kids eat because my husband loves them, like raw artichoke! Who ever heard of that!)
• Don't ever force a kid to eat his vegetables, in fact don't mention anything, just go about your business and make sure you are eating your vegetables!
• Consider growing some of your own vegetables
• Take kids to the farmer's market (or even a well stocked grocery store) and talk about all the amazing kinds of vegetables that exist, their colors, shapes, etc.
• Don't give up, ever! Just keep on serving those vegetables and follow this blog for more helpful hints down the road.

And in case you noticed, don't bandanas make the cutest little table cloths? For some more bandana ideas check out my post from last summer here.  Wishing you much success in all your endeavors, especially the vegetable ones!