Book Sale!

If you're in the market for some new books, check out Book Depository's Clearance sale!

Happy Book Shopping!

Printable Coupons (Israel)

Have a pet?

Check out Mega's pet food coupons!

Find them on their Facebook page and below:

Valid thru July 31

Minestrone Soup Recipe

I had a request for a minestrone soup recipe, and since it's a favorite around here, I figured I will share mine today!

It's not so much a recipe though.

I truly feel like cooking is so much more interesting when you don't have to follow someone's rules, instead you can be as creative as you like in the process of creating delicious food...

So here's what I do:

Heat 1-2 Tbp. olive oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot.
Add diced onion, chopped garlic, diced peppers, zucchini/kishuim, and any other veggies you want to use (I usually add celery, chopped tomatoes, broccoli stalks, eggplant, mushrooms... really whatever I feel like).
Cook over med heat, stirring occasionally. You want the veggies to brown somewhat. The key here is to really use a lot of vegetables.
Add soup stock to mostly fill the pot, and about 500g tomato paste (unless of course you are using a much larger/smaller pot than mine! I usually make a 5-7 quart pot)
Add black beans or lentils (if you want - my kids prefer when I leave them out).
Add seasonings - salt, pepper, basil, parsley and whatever else you want (I throw in a little cayenne pepper even)!
Stir, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 20 min. Add 1 cup of p'titim (a.k.a. Israeli couscous) or whatever small shape pasta you like to use, and continue to cook for another 5 minutes, till the p'titim/pasta is cooked.
Serve hot!

My favorite heavy-bottomed pot. Ignore the messy kitchen, please!

Menu Plan

Help! I need a cooking and cleaning fairy or a packing fairy to show up at my place.

I'm so overwhelmed and kind of not getting enough done because of that.

As far as meals go, I figured that I cannot ignore two very important meals this week - BEFORE the fast, and AFTER the fast.

So here's the plan:

Before the fast:

Minestrone Soup

Fish (I have some fish fillets in the freezer, not sure how I'll prepare them, but maybe with grapes - since I kept getting advice to eat grapes for an easy fast!)

Spinach and Cheese Pie (I discovered a bag of spinach in the freezer I had forgotten about) or spinach and wheat berries casserole, I haven't decided.

Lettuce, cucumber, and mango salad

Of course, we'll have the required Egg and Bread too...


After the fast:

Fruit salad

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Minestrone Soup, and other leftovers from our pre-fast meal

We usually nibble our way through our after-the-fast meal, no one, except for our 14 yr old, wants to eat a whole lot at once.

What are you serving? 

Food Recall (Israel)

Tirat Tzvi has announced a recall of two products because of listeria contamination...

1.  Thin-sliced Beef Pastrami - 120 g package (barcode 364261) 

image from www.tnuva.co.il

2. Thin-sliced Smoke Turkey Pastrami - 120g package (barcode 364292)

image from tnuva.co.il

This recall affects products with an expiration date of October 1, 2013.

The public is asked NOT to consume these products if you have purchased them.
Please call customer service at 1-800-26-27-28 to arrange for a replacement.

Please share this blog post with others who may have bought Tirat Tzvi products, and don't forget to follow this blog (sign up for email updates on the right) or like my page on Facebook!

Zomick's health violations

Ok, this is not about an Israeli product.

I just happen to have lots of relatives and friends and readers in the USA who are in the habit of buying challot. And I KNOW a lot of people do this... and a lot of people buy Zomick's challah.

So when I read this story about health violations at Zomick's plant, I felt like I needed to share it.

I have eaten Zomick's challah.

And I was not happy to hear about beetles in the cornmeal, rodent nests in the plant, mouse droppings in the flour bags... not to mention cockroaches and assorted other creepy crawlies were found.

Shudder.

Please family and friends, make time to bake some homemade Challah!! You'll be happy you did.

I have a great recipe here.

Shabbat Menu

I cannot believe another week has flown by!

Time to plan my Shabbat menu!

Here's the plan:

Whole Wheat Challot (unless I decide I don't have time to bake, in which case we'll have store-bought challot)
Gazpacho
Turkey shnitzels (It was on sale cheaper than uncut turkey breast and cheaper than chicken too)
Black bean cholent for lunch - yes, my family is asking me to make this, even with the sweltering heat!
Apple crisp
Random sides from the freezer

Fruit for dessert

More Printable Coupons (Israel)

Tnuva regularly makes coupons available to the public both via their Facebook page and their website.

Right now, they have coupons for Emek cheese (good thru the end of the year), Chocolate milk (good thru the end of August), Yoplait yogurts (good thru the end of August), "Karlo" chocolate pudding (good thru the end of August), Pireus goat's milk yogurt (good thru the end of July), "Shtuzim" children's yogurt products (good thru the end of the year).

So print 'em out before you buy these products!
  

If you found this post informative/useful/important, etc, please follow this blog (links on the right!) and find us on Facebook!   

Printable Coupon (Israel)!

Shufersal has some new coupons available for Facebook fans!

These coupons are valid thru July 22.

One is for chocolate spread, the other is for kids' shampoo and conditioner.

Food Recall (Israel)

The Ministry of Health has announced another listeria-related recall.

The affected products are Home-style Chumus Salad ("Salat Chumus Beitit") and Home-style Techina ("Techina Beitit"), manufactured by "Slatei Picnic 2000".


The recall affects ALL 200g and 3kg packages with expiration dates through 4.8.2013.

Consumers who have purchased these products are advised NOT to consume them.

Please call 03-9211828 to arrange your return.


If you found this post informative/useful/important, etc, please follow this blog (links on the right!) and find us on Facebook!  

Menu for the week

Everyone has been complaining about the 9 Days being upon us! I mean, seriously, does everyone besides us eat meat and chicken all week long?

We basically only eat chicken on Shabbat, and all week we eat dairy and vegetarian. So the 9 days doesn't actually seem any different (food-wise) to me than usual.

What's different right now is that I *MUST* find motivation to pack. And am trying hard not to shop much, and I don't want to cook complicated foods - that would just monopolize my time and limit my ability to pack (I hate packing, though, so it's tempting).

So here is my low-energy menu for the week - this is just a "skeleton" plan, I'll probably have to add things to most meals.

Sunday
Lunch: Sandwiches, cut veggies
Supper: Pasta with tomato sauce, cottage cheese, watermelon

Monday
Lunch: Pancakes (eggless), cut veggies, yogurt with fruit
Supper: Pizza (homemade), baked "french fries", carrot sticks

Tuesday
Lunch: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, tomatoes and cucumbers
Supper: Veggie hot dogs (yes, bought some Tivol hot dogs on sale), 

Wednesday
Lunch: probably pancakes again
Supper: Cottage Cheese and spinach pancakes, green lentils with potatoes and veggies

Thursday
Lunch: sandwiches, cut veggies
Supper: Pasta with alfredo sauce,

Printable coupon (Israel)!

Do you like cheese?

I think by now you all know I like cheese, even if I complain it's expensive and don't eat nearly as much of it as I wish I could....

Here's a coupon for Meshek Tzuriel Bulgarit and Tzfatit Cheeses!

It's good thru the end of of August, and can be used at most supermarkets in Israel!

Enjoy!

If you found this post informative/useful/important, etc, please follow this blog (links on the right!) and find us on Facebook!  

Shabbat Menu

It's time to post a Shabbat menu and time to start cooking it too!

Here's what we're having (trying to get everything into the oven at the same time, too) - same stuff for Friday night and Shabbat lunch!




Challot (I bought this week - can you believe it? It's just very very busy here right now, and made sense)
Roast chicken (rubbed with spices, and with lots of onion)
Apple crisp
Roast kishuim (summer squash) 
Eggplant in tomato sauce
Noodles with lentils
Cornbread (yes, I have a vegan version)

Melon (we have two kinds) and grapes for dessert

For seudah shlishit (we've been feeling like we need a more substantial one lately):

Challah with spreads - chumus, peanut butter, cream cheese, egg salad for the egg eaters. There is only so long I can make my family go without eggs because I think one of us may be allergic to it...
Pasta (not sure how I'm preparing it)
Cut veggies
Plums

What are you making for Shabbat?

Fruit trees

We've been talking a lot about fruit trees lately. Just in case you hadn't heard, we're buying a house and while there are a couple of fruit trees on the side of it, we'd like to plant a couple more trees.

I love figs

We're moving to a street called Rimon, so we figured we should probably plant a Rimon (pomegranate) tree, and I'm trying to figure out what other kind of tree I'd like. I'd love a fig tree, an avocado tree, and a mango tree, but I probably need to research what will grow best where we'll be living! And I'm not sure we have room for ALL those trees... We'll need to plan carefully so we don't overtake our sukkah space with fruit trees...

Pomegranates are so majestic

We've been discussing how we'll have to impatiently wait 4 years to enjoy the fruit of whatever trees we plant, but hopefully it will be worthwhile!

And while we discussed it, we were wondering about the fruits on the market, and how we know they are not from trees within their first 4 years!



So we came across this handy-dandy guide. It changes yearly.

Here are the basics to keep in mind if you are buying fruit from a seller without a teudah/ishur kashrut:

Ok to buy:

Pears
PawPaw Fruits
Olives
Lemons
Apricots
Pitaya
Kiwi
Plums
Loquats
Figs
Apples

Not ok without Ishur Kashrut:

Blueberries
Peaches
Guava
Syrian Olives
Papaya
Passionfruit
Eden fruit (really not sure what this is, anyone know?)
Sabra
Starfruit


Unclear, so recommended to buy with an Ishur:

Nectarines
Grapes

Printable Coupons (Israel)

Strauss has some new coupons available on their Facebook page!

You'll have to "like" their Facebook page to see them, and you can only print them once, as far as I can tell!

But they are valid at plenty of stores... 

 

 

Olive oil... 


Balsamic vinegar... 


Elite chocolate... 

 

Chocolate Milk...

Print them while you can!!










If you found this post informative/useful/important, etc, please follow this blog (links on the right!) and find us on Facebook!  

My new jean skirt

I wanted to tell you all about my new jean skirt. I got it a few weeks ago.

It's so cute.
It's completely unique. Check out those amazing flowers and pretty beads!

It's upcycled, so it's eco-friendly!

My friend Janet sells these great skirts and other upcycled clothing in her Etsy store! You are sure to find one you LOVE too! Shipping will run you about $10, shipped anywhere in the world she ships to!

Even if you are not familiar with the idea of upcycling, I think you'll love what she does - she takes clothing that isn't being used as is and turns them into unique creations!

Check it out!

Food Recall (Israel)

This time it's not smoked salmon!

Mif'alei Irina is recalling their Meat Blintzes and Stuffed Cabbage, both of which are being recalled for food safety reasons (unspecified unusual microorganisms).

The affected products are those which had production dates through 25/06/2013.

Consumers who have purchased these products are asked to return them to the store where purchased.

If you found this post informative/useful/important, etc, please follow this blog (links on the right!) and find us on Facebook!