What I'm Eating This Passover and a Health Update

In short, lots of matza!

Passover is almost over and I don't feel like it's gone by quickly at all. I was concerned about what I'd have to eat this holiday but I'm making it through just fine if not eating as healthfully as I'd like.

For the first part of the holiday, my sister made roasted sweet potatoes and beets and quinoa. Along with matza, that made up my meal. It wasn't plant perfect as she cooks with oil but I felt like under the circumstances that was fine. I had more of the same the next day. I think I was the only one who left the table satisfied and not in a food coma.

When I got home the next day, I had some rice and chickpeas and I tell you that held me over for a LONG time. I had leftover the next day and I'm telling you, I was not hungry for a long time. For the rest of the time, I was travelling back and forth and I mostly had matzah and jelly.

I did spend 164 shekels at the grocery store this week on food that I thought I would get around to eating but didn't. Which is quite alright considering I need some of the things anyway for Sunday's dinner and I was able to shave a whole lot off the grocery list. I bought peppers, carrots, corn, dried chickpeas, 5 kilos of rice (for twenty shekels!! I gotta stock up on more bags at that price- more on that shortly), four jars of no sugar added jelly (my favorite brand at the cheapest price I've ever seen), matza, sweet potatoes and some mushrooms.

Tonight begins the second half of the holiday and I know that being on plan with the oil is inevitably unlikely and I'm looking forward to getting back to my routine and cooking.

Just a word about the rice. Potatoes (my favorite food!) were my starch of choice until very recently. I've been noticing in the last couple of weeks that I've had extremely bad flatulence and didn't know what it was from. I started taking probiotics to help and while they have been helping, I knew that I hadn't eliminated the issue. While I suspected that it was probably the potatoes, I was hoping it was the corn. Eliminating the corn didn't help. A friend of my sister's confirmed that potatoes had the same effect on her and so I knew that potatoes were out. I'm hoping it'll help my skin as well. I've realized that my body has been trying to tell me that something's been wrong for a while and I hadn't been listening until now. Looking back, it's kind of obvious what the issue was. I know that everything is because of the food and I'm happy to be able to pinpoint the bothersome foods although I'm kind of devastated to see the potatoes go. Yes, devastated. In the past few days without potatoes I have noticed significant improvement. That being said, I needed a new mainstay starch to take the place of potatoes. I'm a big fan of rice and I think that that's what it's going to be (along with sweet potatoes) so I'm happy to have found 5 kilo bags of rice for dirt cheap. As I said I'm going to be stocking up on some more.

That's it for now.
Remember to be healthy and listen to your body!

Cookbook Review: Appetite for Reduction

This cookbook review has been two months in the making, having cooked with it through the months of February and March. To sum it up, I really like this book!

Appetite for Reduction is Isa Chandra's book that focuses on low fat vegan recipes. I discovered it a while ago and ordered it but was initially unimpressed by the looks of it. Call me superficial but we do judge books by their covers! The cover and paper were a bit cheap feeling and there aren't a lot of pictures to go around. Looks alone made me put it aside and not give it much of a second look. When I started to meal plan I figured that this would be a good place to start as I'm on a low fat diet. Not only did I use this for my weekly meal plans but I used it whenever I could for my Shabbat cooking as well.

April-May (and Probably June!) Cook Through: Isa Does It

February and March just flew by; I've been counting the weeks with recipes. Cooking through Appetite for Reduction has really made me fall in love with Isa Chandra Moskowitz and I decided that the April-May (possibly June) cook-through will be from her most recent book, Isa Does It, a book that I picked up at my local Israeli book store and promises to be easy and delicious. This book was bought on a whim before I knew anything about her and has since stayed on my shelf, unused and unloved, beside Appetite for Reduction. I imagine that this will be the last Isa book I go through (although I do have Veganomicon on the way and Vegan with a Vengeance, so technically I can make this the year of Isa if I try hard enough). I have my recipes all picked out and my shopping lists all ready and I will get into it as soon as Passover ends. Stay tuned!

VitaCost, Kosher Vitamins, InstantPot Haul

So my parents are here! They flew in on Thursday to join us for the Passover holiday. They'll be here for two weeks. Knowing they were coming, I ordered a lot of things that you can't get here. And I mean, a lot. I think this time I outdid my siblings. I ordered lots of clothes for spring/summer and next winter, a sturdy water bottle (to make sure I stay hydrated every day), lots of earplugs and some other stuff. 

Check out what I hauled after the jump!

Meal Plan: March 29th- April 2nd- Moroccan Chickpeas and Zucchini

This is going to be a quick and snappy post. Pesach is only a couple of days away and things are starting to get busy. My parents have arrived (!!) and there is so much to do to get ready.

This week's recipe (and the final one from Appetite for Reduction) was the Moroccan Chickpeas and Zucchini. I didn't bother trying to brave the supermarket, knowing how crazy the pre-Pesach rush would be. Instead, I picked up all my vegetables from the shuk. I think I spent 30 shekels on cucumbers, carrots, peppers, potatoes, and zucchini. Yes, the price difference between supermarkets and the shuk is significant. Everything else I had at home and I opted to serve this with whole wheat pasta because I have some laying around. I had previously cooked and frozen chickpeas in anticipation of this recipe, so I just used some of those.

I made this in the IP (again, using too much liquid!). This recipe was a bit underwhelming. Not bad but just okay. Comforting flavors and textures that I'm used to. I don't know that I would run to make it again but definitely did the trick.

That's all for now until after Pesach. Stay tuned for my review of Appetite for Reduction.

Meal Plan: March 22-March 26th- Second Avenue Vegetable Korma

This week brings us one of the last recipes that I'll be making from Appetite for Reduction. Officially, spring has arrived (hallelujah!) but the weather has been a bit fickle. I'm taking advantage of these last weeks to make soup/stews before I transition to lighter fare.  Essentially this vegetable korma is a curry, with lots of spices and a bit of coconut milk.

This week at the supermarket I spent about 80 shekels. The usual peppers, corn, cucumbers, potatoes and carrots along with a huge bag of dried chickpeas (for next week's recipe), some drain cleaner, zucchini, and some sweet potatoes to go along with the korma. Not too bad considering that the chickpeas will be stretched for a good while after next week's recipe. I had leftover red onion from a salad I made over the weekend, ginger still from my most recent tofu experiment and I made homemade coconut milk!

Shabbat Cooking: Miso-Apple Tofu

Dinner Friday night was a surprise pre-birthday dinner for a good friend. While she knew that her roommates were hosting a meal and that I was coming, she didn't realize it was in her honor! I asked her what she wanted to me to make and she suggested tofu. She had really liked the hoisin-mustard tofu that I made a few weeks ago but I told her up front that I wouldn't be making the same recipe. Life's too short not to keep trying new recipes! I had a specific recipe in mind, the Apple Miso Tofu, that also comes from Appetite for Reduction. (I'm so not looking forward to finishing this cook through. I'll probably cook with some of her other books next. Anyway...) 

Apple and miso kind of sound odd together but many bloggers out there have offered rave reviews of this recipe. Honestly, just the sauce alone on tofu would have been perfect, it's that yummy. The apple does lend a bit of sweetness, but I don't think it was that present. Maybe I needed more apple, or to use a more apple-y apple. That being said, I really loved this tofu. The white miso called for in this recipe is a lot more mellow but really, you probably could win me over with any fermented soy product. Miso, soy.. I'm there.

I'm glad to have a couple of go-to, tried and true tofu recipes should I ever need to please a crowd or if I ever decide to host that vegan meal that I've been wanting to do for a while. I doubled the recipe and set some aside to have with basmati rice for Friday lunch and so I would recommend serving with rice, although you can certainly choose something else. I left out the sesame oil; the recipe doesn't indicate what to do with it anyway and it wasn't missed here. Because I doubled the recipe, I allowed it to cook a lot longer to get some nice darkened pieces. It probably would have been wise to use a larger pan. Oh well. 

On  a side note, I'll just mention that it seems to be that rice is my evening starch of choice. I cook up a batch and serve it with almost every dinner I make. I'm trying to lay off of more refined starches like pasta or couscous and rice is the perfect fit for me especially since cooking a batch in my Instant-Pot is super easy and fast. It's a staple here in Israel so it's pretty inexpensive as well.  Oats are my breakfast starch and potatoes are my lunch starch. I'm thinking that with spring/summer fast approaching, I will make breakfast all about  the fruit, particularly melons. I love melons because they are both delicious and abundant here in those months. They are also full of water and I love being able to eat my water instead of having to force myself to drink. It keeps my tummy very happy.

Now, about that tofu...