"Sauerkraut Salad," Corona Lock-down Recipe #3

This is the third in the series of recipes I've been making with the goodies we've received in "care cartons" for senior citizens here in Shiloh during the Corona Lock-down. See, sample and share:

Cooking With Canned Beans, Corona Lock-down Recipe #1
Cooking With Canned Pineapple, "Apple-Pineapple Compote," Corona Lock-down Recipe #2

When I was putting away the cans, my head/mind kept trying to figure out what to do with them. Waste was not an option. Normally there's almost no canned food in my pantry, other than cans we received on Purim from others. But I believe that I must use these gifts, so I've been trying to figure out recipes.

Sauerkraut? Gevalt! That was never on our menu. Apparently sauerkraut is very healthy. Since simplicity is one of the hallmarks of my cooking or food preparation, I decided to add some to a salad. After half a century here in Israel, salad means minimally cucumbers and tomatoes. So I added  a few spoonfuls of sauerkraut. Yes, it's that simple.

Sauerkraut Salad

Yes, easy to prepare, healthy and surprisingly tasty, too.

Surprisingly Simple Low Carb Vegetable Soup

Today was a fast day according to the Jewish Calendar, the (delayed/postponed*) 17th of Tammuz. As is my custom, I made a vegetable soup for the fast-breaking meal. Personally, I feel better eating soup after a fast. Raw vegetables "burn" my mouth. I eat a few bowls of soup after drinking lots of water. Since the only lentils in the house were these quick-cooking orange lentils, that's what I used. They are perfect for soups, especially when you don't have much time, which was the case today. I slept away too much of the afternoon and started my cooking much later than usual. Orange lentils cook very quickly, barely ten minutes, which was perfect.

Ingredients, sorry but you don't need exact quantities

1/2 cup orange lentils
3 medium carrots
1 large onion
2 small squash (light zucchini)
generous handful of dehydrated dill
a bit of oil, coarse salt and pepper
water

Preparation

1. check lentils for stones, bugs whatever
2. cut onion rather small
3. add onion to pot with lentils and a bit of vegetable oil
4. heat on medium flame for a few minutes
5. add boiling water to cover
6. cover pot and lower flame to simmer
7. cut carrots and squash into bite size pieces
8. add to pot along with the dill, salt and pepper
9. add more water, but not too high in the pot
10. medium flame until boiling, then simmer
11. It should be ready in 15-20 minutes, though you can cook it longer. Just check if the vegetables are soft.

You can add more vegetables and seasoning in you want.

ENJOY!  And tell me how yours came out, how your varied it etcetera.

*The actual date 17th of Tammuz fell on Shabbat when we don't fast, with the exception of Yom Kippur. So the fasting took place on Sunday the 18th of Tammuz

Impressive, Easy Stuffed Vegetables

 One of the best and easiest dishes to prepare, if you want something "impressive," healthy and even limited in serving size is Stuffed Vegetables.

There was some chopped meat (about half a kilo, or over a pound) in the freezer I wanted to use, and I saw that some of the peppers in the fridge were getting soft, so I made a "shidduch."

I mixed the thawed meat with chopped onion, an egg, the "inside" of a couple of round squashes, about a half a cup of canned diced tomatoes and some garlic.

Then I filled/stuffed the waiting vegetables. I dabbed more diced tomatoes on top, added a bit of water and oil, covered it with foil and baked it in a hot oven. I considered it "ready" when the top looked cooked and there was liquid boiling on the bottom.

It was a great success and popular with everyone at the table.

Easy and Healthy Cucumber Salad

We ended up with too many cucumbers, so, before they could go bad, I quickly made a "Cucumber Salad." Of course I had never made one before, so I had some research to do. Cucumber Salads used to be mainstays of Israeli summers, and I started googling "Cucumber Salad."  I was surprised to discover that Google claims it's a German dish.

I read a couple of recipes, internalized the general idea and got to work.

Ingredients:
cucumbers, sliced relatively thin
red onion, also sliced relatively thin
dehydrated dill, fresh is better but I didn't have any
barely a teaspoon of light brown sugar
a couple of tablespoons of vinegar
1 tablespoon of tamari sauce
freshly squeezed lemon juice from a quarter of a lemon

Instructions:
put cucumbers, onion and dill in a bowl
add sugar and then the rest of the ingredients
let it "sit" for a few hours
eat and enjoy

The recipes I saw online were a bit more complicated. I've simplified it. You can also spice it up a bit more. 

Easy Chicken "Fricassee"

What's Fricassee? It's generally chicken cooked in a sauce, frequently a white sauce, but Chef Google showed me links to definitions that say any sauce makes it a Fricassee.

I had a package of chicken wings and a package of chicken breast I needed to cook/use up before Passover.  So first I made a very simple sauce. I don't use/buy ready-made sauces.

Sauce Ingredients 

Photo by Y. Medad

• diced onion
• fresh garlic
• a few ripe tomatoes. OK in Israel they aren't expensive, so you can buy a can of diced tomatoes.
• 1/2 cup of wine I needed to get rid of
• a few peppercorns
• a couple of Tablespoons of Tamari sauce
• a couple of Tablespoons vegetable oil of your choice

Instructions

• saute the vegetables in the oil
• cover pan
• When the sauce is boiling strongly, add the wings and cut pieces of chicken breast.
• Cover again, and cook until chicken has become white and well cooked.

I've made it with meatballs, instead of the chicken breast. You can also add more vegetables to the sauce. We enjoyed it very much. If you try it, please tell me how it came out and how you changed it.

Dieting Again, Bring on The Cabbage!

I'm trying to make small tasty changes to reduce calories, carbohydrates and fats in my diet to lose weight and keep it off. So, I'm eating less carrots and more cabbage, cauliflower, green squash and other lower glycemic vegetables.

So last night this was dinner:

And since I didn't have eggs in the morning, I cooked eggs on it for my protein. All this was very simply cooked in a large covered frying pan:

• onion
• squash
• fresh garlic
• bit of vegetable oil
• after partially cooked added the:
• tomato
• cabbage
• and a few minutes later the eggs
• topped with coarsely ground black pepper, no salt at all

Delicious and filling. It was a full meal. I had eaten lots of salad at lunch, so I didn't need anything raw. There's enough fiber here.

Since the laws of kashrut also require leafy vegetables, such as cabbage to be cleaned and checked, I cut up a cabbage and soaked it in salt water. After a few minutes I took out the cabbage and checked the water. Since it was clean, I rinsed the cabbage well, let the water drain out and then packed the pieces in a plastic bag to be kept refrigerated. That way it's ready to be used. I do the same with cauliflower, lettuces etc. If you find bugs, even after a second soak and rinse, check etc., then  call it a loss and dump it. When you buy these vegetables in the winter, the proper season, they are pretty clean. I don't bother buying broccoli and cauliflower in the summer; that's when they are full of bugs and had been in storage.

I Love Those One-Pot "Bake and Serve"'s

When I realized that this Shabbat my husband and I seem to be on our own, sans guests and invitations, I pulled out one of our favorite treats from the freezer, turkey drumsticks. I don't serve them to guests, because each is a full portion as far as we are concerned, and not all guests eat that quantity. Every once in awhile I buy a couple of packages, each with two inside. And then I look for different ways to cook them.

I always cook the turkey drumsticks along with some vegetables, and sometimes an apple, too. But this time I kept away from sweet things, if you agree that sweet potatoes aren't all that sweet.

One advantage to the turkey drumsticks is that they are pretty clean, especially compared to chicken. That makes for easy food preparation. The downside is that they are also pretty expensive compared to chicken, two-three times the price per serving, and the bone is pretty heavy. They definitely are a nice treat for us.

Here's the potful before cooking:

There are, as you can see, turkey drumsticks, cut onion, carrots, sweet potato, zucchini and cinnamon on top. I added a bit of water, so it won't burn, juice or wine would be even better, but I wanted to experiment on a very low sugar dish. Not that we're diabetic, bli eyin haraa, but I'm curious about how necessary the sweet stuff is when making turkey.

I cooked it covered on the stove top. I used my forty-year old Le Creuset pot which I bought when we lived in England. The original cover broke soon after, so I've been using different covers (aluminum foil when in the oven) ever since when necessary. It seems to have cooked up nicely.

And that is what is on the menu for tonight. I will serve it with more cooked vegetables, a large fresh salad, and for my husband a carbohydrate. I'm thinking of baking up potatoes with large chunks of pumpkin. If so, I'll eat pumpkin and he'll have both.

Simple Low Carb* Beef

A few days ago my husband messaged me reminding me that I had some old tomatoes in the fridge that should have been used/eaten a couple of weeks ago. I told him not to worry. I had a plan!

Since they weren't moldy, I knew they'd be perfect for cooking, and there was a nice piece of beef in the freezer waiting for them. On Thursday they "married."

Here's the recipe, and unlike many beef recipes, there's no sugary jam or wine or juice involved. That's why I call it "Low Carb*."

Ingredients:

• beef (I always buy the least expensive and look for a piece that has little fat on it.)
• a bunch of halved overripe tomatoes or any tomatoes, as long as they're juicy and red.
• a large onion cut in large pieces
• a few pieces of fresh garlic
• a few peppercorns 
• a spoon or two of oil; honestly, I never measure
• water to prevent burning

Instructions:

1. heat oil, onion and garlic on high flame
2. then add the beef to sear and seal in juices 
3. keep turning over the beef until nothing looks raw on the outside
4. add tomatoes and peppercorns 
5. then lower heat and cover
6. cook for at least 90 minutes; add water if necessary to prevent burning

And that's it! This is such an easy and healthy recipe, and it has no extra calories at all and no sugar, too. And it was absolutely delicious. I served it with two types of cooked vegetables, salad and mujadarrah/majadra, which is a rice-lentils dish.

*carb=carbohydrates

Eggs and Veggies, Easy, Healthy Meal

The other day, since I hadn't eaten my usual onion omelette for breakfast I decided to allocate my daily two eggs for my dinner at work protein. I cooked them over lots of sauteed vegetables, which I made in my usual large, covered frying pan.

There's great flexibility in this sort of recipe, and if you don't have fresh vegetables, you can use frozen ones.

• onion
• garlic
• tomato
• squash
• mushroom
• eggs
• a bit of oil for the sauteeing and to help the body absorb the vitamins from the vegetables

I always cook on a low flame and cover it. Generally, I turn off the flame just before it's "ready" and let it complete cooking from the heat in the pan.

This makes an amazingly filling meal and has absolutely no carbohydrates at all. I find that cooked vegetables fill me up better than anything else. This is a very healthy meal.

This can be served any time of the day and travels well. Add salt, pepper and any herbs you like. I cool it well in the freezer before taking it to work with me.

Holiday Cooking, No Need to Gorge on Unhealthy Food!

In the Jewish world it's Holiday Time. We're in the midst of a three plus weeks of Jewish Holidays, from Rosh Hashannah to Simchat Torah.

My husband and I both lost a bit of weight a few years ago, and we don't want it to return. One of our tricks is to eat lots of cooked vegetables. They fill the plates, our stomachs but don't contain a lot of calories.  I've developed a few basic recipes which are very easy to prepare and impressive to serve. Some are almost, or can be entire meals. They are all healthy and diet friendly.

This is as simple as it looks and tasty, too. In a baking dish, bake and serve, I placed a squash, carrots, eggplant, pumpkin, a potato, onion and a tomato on the eggplant. All I added besides those ingrediants were granulated garlic and some oil on top.  I baked it in a hot oven until I could see that it was ready. Yes, it's that simple. When you cook like this, the flavor stays in.

Here's another dish made with the same technique but a different selection of vegetables. We brought it to the family who hosted us for a meal. It was a popular success.

I layered onions, eggplant, sweet potato, pumpkin and mushrooms. Because of the delicate mushrooms, it's recommended to cover with foil for some of the baking.

There's a limit to the amount of meat and poultry I'm willing to eat over six large meals in just three days or barely 72 hours, One meal that I prepared for just me and my husband was this salmon and vegetable bake.

As you can see, there are two pieces of salmon, sweet potato, onion, pumpkin and carrots. Yes, we polished off every single piece. It was accompanied by more vegetables and a salad, too.

A few months ago, I had bought some giant turkey wings, each packed separately and each large enough to satisfy two hearty appetites. That is especially if they are cooked and served with lots of vegetables. I cooked the last one for a meal my husband and I ate alone.

For a sweet "sauce" I used a small bottle of sweet Purim wine. This dish was our "tzimmis," a traditional sweet vegetable concoction served by many families on Rosh Hashannah. Besides the usual vegetables, carrots, sweet potato, pepper and mushrooms, I also added prunes, raisins and cinnamon. There was also water so it wouldn't burn.

Cook on a low heat in a covered pan until you're sure it's done. A trick to make sure the vegetables don't overcook and "disappear" is to leave them as whole or large as possible. Personally I can't stand overcooked vegetables. They loose their flavor and bulk. You can also add the vegetables later on during the cooking process, but this was very successful and absolutely delicious.

Try these cooking methods, and let me know how the food came out, thanks.

Cooking That Gorgeous NS2 Shekel Kilo Zucchini

Last week when I was shopping for fruit in Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem's main open market, I spotted some giant zucchini in my favorite bargain stall for only ns2 shekel a kilo. That's only about 60¢ for 2 lbs 3 oz.

So even though they clearly aren't fruit, I just had to buy one. And of course I should have bought lots more. But stupidly being my usual doubting paranoid self I was sure there had to be "a catch," like maybe they weren't as good, gorgeous and fresh as they seemed. That's why I only bought one.

This is how I cooked/baked it. I layered the baking (bake and serve) pan with onions, then strips of eggplant, zucchini, slices of tomatoes and some fresh garlic, as you can see. I poured a bit of oil on top and then put it in the oven.

With the help of a vegetable-loving guest, my husband and I almost finished it all off on Friday night. And that was just one small part of a large meal which included soup, chicken, salad, rice and two other cooked vegetable dishes.

Delicious, Easy and Low Carb Musakka

Very simple, just layer sliced vegetables and some ground meat or poultry.  I

used:
onion
squash
eggplant
tomatoes

Dribble on a bit of oil.  Seasoning is optional.  Bake and serve. 

Honestly, what could be easier?

Serve with a salad, and you have a meal.  Those who can eat carbohydrates can have it with bread, pasta or rice.  Or add sliced potatoes when assembling it.

Simply Delicious

It really is easy to cook vegetables.

Look at this:

You can see how little work is was to make. 

• I lined the baking pan with cut onion.
• Then I quartered a beet
• and sliced a sweet potato
• and then an eggplant
• and placed some garlic in the spaces
• finally I dribbled some oil and baked it.

Because of the bake and serve dish it looked impressive.

Either serve as a side dish or with techina and some salad.

Two Super Simple Ways to Cook Chicken Breasts

I found, post-shiva, a bag of "something unrecognizable" in the freezer.  When sitting shiva, one isn't supposed to handle the mundane tasks of the house.  My kids took over, and here I am almost a month later still trying to get it to its usual mess.  I have found various foods in the freezer which I am 100% certain I didn't buy.  Among them was a bag of chicken breasts, which I took out to cook for Shabbat.  I don't know what the kids had planned on doing with them, but I made two different things.  We were expecting guests, so I felt like having something a bit different.

#1 I sliced up an eggplant, and lined the bake and serve pan with it.  Then I placed the chicken breasts and topped them with onions, tomatoes and some spices.  I dribbled just a drop of oil, put it in the oven and baked it.  You really can't get easier than that.  It's also very dietetic. 

#2  There were too many to fit in the bake and serve pan, so I took the rest and prepare them in a small frying pan.  First I cut up onions and placed them in the frying pan, then the chicken breasts and topped them with a  fresh tomato.  When that was ready, I wrapped it in foil and put it in the freezer.

Turning "Meatloaf" Mixture Into Something Special

Most cooks get bored with the same recipes, even when the audience loves them.  Or is it the opposite?  Sometimes it's worth making something that looks special, but you don't have the time or money to use expensive ingredients.

A favorite of mine is taking the same "meatloaf*," chopped/ground meat/poultry that could be in a meatloaf or hamburger and layer it with vegetables.

For a lower calorie protein main course, layer with sliced eggplant. It's bulk that fills people up.   I like using eggplant when it's in season.  I don't bother doing any of the "eggplant preparation" methods, like parboiling or salting.  There's no need.  The eggplants here in Israel are delicious.  If yours aren't, then substitute squash, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes whatever.

*what to add to the chopped/ground meat/poultry per pound or half kilo

• diced onion small
• tomato paste 2T
• raw egg
• garlic, oregano whatever spices you want

I bake it in a nice bake serve dish or aluminum pan for freezing or bringing to neighbors for potluck etc.  Yes, it does freeze well.