Pesadich Cheesy Zucchini Pods

My journey to find healthy Passover recipes got sidelined this week by a bad cold. My cold was so icky that I started getting dizzy and found myself totally unable to move. NOT FUN! I also sound odd since I lost my voice. Yoav no longer enjoys my singing - which sucks since I sing him to sleep just about every night.

Anyway, I'm pushing myself a bit more today to get back into the groove of things. Yesterday I went shopping for some Passover stuff and I was a little disappointed. We're about a week away from Passover and the only things I could find were matzo and matzo meal. Yay.

I picked up some Parmesan cheese and zucchinis yesterday at the grocery store and decided to make a Passover-friendly version of zucchini tots. This dish is totally milchig (dairy) so it won't go very well with your brisket but does pair nicely with a salad and matzo pizza.

Another Yummy Recipe

Cheesy Zucchini Pods
Ingredients
1 cup zucchini, chopped into small bits
1 egg
1/4 sweet onion, diced (yellow will work, too)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
1/4 cup matzo meal
1 tsp. granulated garlic
Salt and Pepper

What to do
Preheat your oven to 200c/400f and spray a mini-muffin tin with olive oil spray. Chop up your zucchini and let it lay out for about an hour on a paper towel to get the extra water out. While you wait, cut up your onion.

Once your hour is up, combine your zucchini, onion, egg, cheese, matzo meal, garlic, salt, and pepper.

Use a spoon to scoop it out of the bowl and put it in the muffin tin. Place your muffin tin in the oven and let it all bake for about 15-20 minutes. You want the top to be browned. Serve it warm!

Once I'm not taking massive amounts of cold medicine, I'll be eating these while I drink some white wine.

Enjoy this recipe - I'm off for a nap!

Low-Sugar Tzimmes

With my chicken soup recipe behind me, I can start to focus on more healthy Kosher for Passover foods. While I've enjoyed scouring the interwebs to find recipes, I've been coming up short lately because not many of these recipes are strictly Kosher for Passover but they have given me some ideas.

Over at Joy of Kosher, you can find a plethora of recipes for Pesach but none of them are particularly healthy... except this one: avocado salad... or as you may call it guacamole. It's not rocket science and it pairs really nicely with whole wheat matzo crackers.

Since I live in the Holy Land, my Seders often lack an Ashkenazic feel. Crazy, right? A lot of Israelis adapted to the dietary restrictions of their Sephardic and Mizrahi counterparts - me included. My theory: if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. Mind you, the first time I told my grandmother this, she thought I lost my mind. I reassured her that I'm very much a Polish Jew. My maternal-grandfather welcomed the change, though, and encouraged me to keep with it (more as a form of protest against the "system").

Still, there are things I miss during Passover here. One of them is Tzimmes... think of it as a really yummy dessert-like alternative that you eat with your meal. It's a good pairing with a savory dish like roasted chicken or brisket. This version replaces all the sugar with agave syrup and honey. It's also really easy because you can bake it.

Ingredients (serves 4 people)
1/4 bag frozen baby carrots
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 can of yams
1 cup raisins
1 can of apricots
1/4 cup agave syrup
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup of orange juice

What to do
In a casserole pan with a lid, place your carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, raisins, and apricots into the pan. Stir it around and then add in your spices. Add in your orange juice, then mix well.  Stir in your honey and agave syrup. Cover the pan and bake it for one hour at 250f.

Slow cooking it brings out a lot of the flavor but this won't look like a sweet potato casserole. It'll look slightly more like a stew. If yours is looking a little dry, add more orange juice.

I really love this dish because I feel like I'm eating something sweet and I can skip all the Kosher for Passover desserts! Plus, the vegetables contain good-for-you vitamins. With the sugar content brought down, you're in for a healthier treat!


** if you can't find Kosher for Passover apricots, opt for pumpkin or squash.


 

Healthy Chicken Soup

Friday I posted a healthy passover recipe and I plan to do it over and over again this week! Passover is actually a wickedly cool holiday but I'll spare you the story. Let's just say the Jews were slaves in Egypt, Moses came by and said "let my people go" - so, the Pharaoh did... and then he went running after them. The Jews didn't have enough time to let their dough rise, so what was baked was actually a cracker-like thing called Matzah. The end. Well, not quite...

Anyway, I've been on a mission since just before Shabbat started this week. My mission: finding healthy Kosher for Passover meals. Why? I really really REALLY want to keep with my new health goals and I'd like to keep losing weight.

In truth, all I can think about right now is chicken soup. I came down with a cold yesterday so chicken soup is on my mind. I don't make traditional, high fat chicken soup. Instead, I make a lower fat version by substituting some of the chicken pieces with boneless chicken breast. I went in search of a low fat kosher chicken soup recipe and came up with ... nada. None of the recipes compared to my soup.

Not really my soup, but still yummy!

I don't own a stock pot so all of this goes into a small-ish Israeli style (read: piece of crap) crock pot. This recipe takes half the time to cook when compared to my grandmother's recipe. Oddly enough, I learned this recipe from my cousin Shula. When I moved to Israel, I lived with my cousins Shalom and Shula (I actually call them my aunt and uncle). When I got sick about a month after arriving, Shula made this for me and I couldn't believe she made it so quickly.

Ingredients
1pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
3 chicken legs, with skin on
1 parsley root
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 yellow onion, split in half
1 large potato, split in half
1 red pepper, split in half
3 cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

What to do
In a pot or a crock pot, place the chicken into the pot and completely cover with water plus 1 inch. Let that stew on low heat for about an hour.

Add in your parsley root (parsley also works for this), celery, carrots, onion, potato, red pepper, and garlic. Fill the rest of the pot with water, leaving about an inch or so at the top. Continue cooking for 1-2 hours on low heat ... depending on how much flavor you want. Discard your vegetables, use the chicken for something else, and strain your soup. Add your salt and pepper to taste.

This is an idiot-proof recipe. You seriously cannot mess it up. Timings vary and so does taste - if you want a heartier soup, keep the pot going for three hours. If you want a milder taste, cook for two hours. Either way, the lack of chicken skin cuts the fat down.

Add whole wheat matzo balls to this and you're good to go for Passover. Let's hope I kick this cold quickly - it's getting on my nerves!

Maple Roasted Veggies for Passover

Good lord, Passover is coming. Most Jews do not like this holiday. Why? The food. The idea of giving up bread for a week doesn't really thrill people. A lot of Jews can't stand this holiday for another reason: cleaning. There are specific instructions for how to clean your house for Pesach. Do we do them? Uh, no. Instead, Craig and I eat all the hametz (leavened foods that are forbidden during Passover) the week before and give away what's left. We don't have much cabinet space, so blocking off a cabinet and locking it for the holiday isn't an option.

No carbs for you!

Anyway, Passover is also referred to as "the Atkins Holiday" in my family. It's the time when people in my brood decide to "diet" and go eight days without eating anything with carbs. Well, almost anything. Since we're not allowed to eat bread and other foods that rise, we simply use the holiday as an excuse to eat a crap-load of meat.

Problem: Craig and I don't have the money to do stuff like that. I'm not a huge meat eater anyway (I prefer veggies but I won't go so far as to say I'm a vegetarian), so the Atkins aspect of the holiday doesn't entice me.

Solution: eat more veggies!!

Goal: eat healthier foods this passover! I'm really getting into roasted veggies right now and Passover is the perfect time to make things like a veggie kugel and roasted asparagus. I can't wait to create more!

Stay tuned - this week I'm giving Passover a trial run and posting the recipes. Today's recipe: Maple Roasted Veggies

The trick to this dish is finding veggies that match the sweetness of maple syrup. If it's hard to find maple syrup that is Kosher for Passover in you neck of the woods, use dissolved brown sugar (1 tablespoons).

Ingredients
1 cup frozen carrots
1 cup cubed sweet potato
1 bunch of asparagus
1 tablespoons maple syrup or dissolved brown sugar simple syrup
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if you like spice)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil or olive oil spray

What to do
In a mixing bowl, toss in your carrots, sweet potato, and asparagus. Mix them around. Coat your veggies with olive oil then add your cinnamon, ginger, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice. Mix it well.

Place your mixture on to a pan (parchment paper works best for lining but you can use aluminum foil, too). Make sure the pan is large enough so that everything lays nicely in one layer. Put your veggies into the oven - set at 300f - and let it roast for about 30-40 minutes. You don't want to burn the veggies, just roast them. If you notice that you're veggies are turning a little black, turn the heat down.

About five minutes before you take out your veggies, add your maple syrup and place the veggies back into the oven.

This recipe is low in sugar but high in flavor. Enjoy!!

The Race Begins

When I got pregnant, I wasn't the slimmest person in the world. In fact, I felt really horrible about myself. I started a diet program around my 30th birthday that led me to some weight loss ... and then I got pregnant! For the most part, I ate really really well during my pregnancy. I'll admit that I indulged a bit but I wasn't completely sedentary.

Yoav is officially 3 weeks old today and I'm finally feeling well enough to start working out a bit. The downside? The weather here kind of sucks. By the end of my pregnancy, I felt like a whale and I probably looked like it, too. Three weeks later, I've lost 27 lbs. I'm not joking... that's how much fluid was in me. If 7lbs was baby, then another 20lbs was water! I'm still shedding water like you wouldn't believe but I think the worst is over. Another downside? I still have 8lbs left to go before I'm back to my "original" pre-baby weight. Sinking even lower into my hole... 8lbs is just the tip of the iceberg. I want to be back to the weight I was in 2007 - 125lbs. I have a LONG way to go!

I don't want to be skinny. I want to be healthy! I want to be muscular and fit, not thin and flabby. It's time to dust off my old workout clothes and start hitting the pavement with Yoav! I have 11 weeks left of maternity leave which means I have 11 weeks left to lose some weight. We move back around August which means I have about 22 weeks left to lose A LOT of weight. If I lose 2lbs per week from now until I move back to the Motor City, I will have lost 44lbs. Think I can do it?

Let the race against the clock begin!