So it’s officially summer though, to be honest, I wouldn’t know it. I’m knee-deep in teaching summer school health. It’s actually not as bad as it sounds. While I’d REALLY LOVE some time off, I rarely get to be in the classroom teaching students subject matter that I’m so passionate about. I mean, what’s not to love about spending 2 hours a day, 5 days a week talking to high schoolers about topics such as consent education, mood disorders, and sex education!? Fun, right!?
In the midst of all of this, my husband has been out-of-town for a week and a half (half a week to go!) and while I’m really loving having all this time with our girls, mama is in need for a little ‘me’ time. As it is, I’ve been getting up at around 5am just so I can enjoy a hot cup of coffee and a fresh episode of The Great British Baking Show before the girls get up and it’s ‘go’ time. I don’t know about you, but as a parent, I struggled with anxiety when it came to the weeks leading up to being alone with the kids for an extended amount of time. When Eden was just 4 weeks old, husband had to go to Miami for a few days in order to complete some research for his PhD and if anyone is a proponent of exposure therapy for anxiety, it is me as that time alone with an infant and a 3 year-old truly taught me that I can do it. Now that the girls are older and Eden is at one nap a day, I’m able to actually enjoy my alone time with the girls. We can get out, explore this great city with my little buddies and, dare I say it, have fun. Our absolute favorite activity is to head to the beach with sand toys and picnic in hand. I’ve been trying to up our picnic game as lately it’s been day-after-day of pb & j sandwiches and cucumbers. Therefore, I put a call out to some food blogging buddies and the result is the recipe round-up below, which is chock full of vegetarian and vegan options for your summer picnics! I hope you enjoy and don’t forget your sunscreen!
When I was 20 years-old, I decided to go vegetarian. I had consumed a McDonald’s hamburger at a bus stop in Beer Sheva, Israel (and yes, I heard it. Gross.) that caused me deep regret several hours after consumption. I decided that this deep regret was Gd letting me know I shouldn’t eat animals. And for two weeks, I was a vegetarian. I ate a lot of beans in those two weeks and even more pasta. But then I was presented with a chicken and cheese sandwich (I didn’t keep kosher at this time. That decision would take place nearly a decade later) and I decided that maybe Gd was telling me that chicken was OK and really, its red meat I should stay away from and therefore I should go ahead and enjoy my chicken sandwich with abandonment. Other than this foray into vegetarianism, I was never the type who could stick with a regimented diet of any kind. I mean, back in the modeling days, my agents tried so hard to get me to stick to really intense diets and I refused to do it. “Diet” was a 4-letter word that I was not supportive of in any capacity. I just couldn’t do. That kind of self-control wasn’t in my make-up. But red meat I did stay away from for roughly 10 years until I found myself face-to-face with my first bowl of cholent and I figured, why not? If you’ve ever eaten cholent, you’ll know that this was a very intense first step into eating meat again but eat it I did and I haven’t looked back.
I’m regularly impressed by folks who adopt special diets due to their belief system. I’m not talking about folks who HAVE to go gluten-free, for example, because of Celiac Disease but those folks who go vegan because of their love for animals (Hi, Mayim. Love your work). I was talking about this recently when it occurred to me that I, in fact, keep a special diet. I keep kosher. I’ve been keeping kosher for 4 years now and at this point, it’s so a part of our lives I don’t think anything of it. And then I think about folks who keep multiple levels of adopted diets (i.e. kosher, vegan, AND gluten-free) and I wonder how they do it. How the heck do they do it?! Man, that seems like a lot of work. If you’re out there and you are reading this and you keep multiple levels of diets then I say to you, “Mazal tov on the self-control. That’s crazy impressive”.
goopy but good.
Oh. And, if you ARE one of those folks who has to keep certain diets due to belief systems and/or health, do I have a recipe for you! I mean, I also have a recipe for you even if you DON’T keep any certain diets. The recipe below is a new family favorite. I came across the original recipe via Pinterest about 3 weeks ago and have since made 4 batches of them. After that 4th batch, I wanted to put my own twist on it and thus, we have the recipe below. Please note that the cocoa nibs are my own ‘health’ addition. I’ve read a lot on how raw cocoa nibs have health benefits aside from being delicious. The texture is a bit hard and can be off-putting if you are unfamiliar with them but they can add depth of flavor to any baked good and/or when used as toppings for yogurt, smoothies, etc. Aside from being delicious, cocoa nibs can also be expensive (as most health foods can be, blargh!) so please feel free to either take out the nibs or put in mini dark chocolate chips instead.
pyramid formation
Gluten-Free Chocolate LOVE Muffins (based on Averie Cooks’ AMAZING Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins recipe)
(Makes about 12 – 15 muffins. I have never gotten more than 15 out of a batch).
Ingredients:
1 medium ripe banana, peeled
1 large egg
heaping 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 heaping tablespoons cocoa nibs
pinch salt, optional and to taste (though if using organic or natural peanut butter I advise against the salt)
heaping 1/2 cup mini white chocolate chips
How:
Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare mini muffin pans by spraying very well with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pans; set aside.
To the canister of a blender (I use the Vitamix), add first 7 ingredients, through optional salt, and blend on high speed until smoothy and creamy, about 1 minute.
Add nibs and chocolate chips and stir in by hand; don’t use the blender because it will pulverize them.
Using a tablespoon or small cookie scoop that’s been sprayed with cooking spray (helps batter slide off spoon or scoop easily), form rounded 1 tablespoon mounds and place mounds into prepared pans. Each cavity should be filled to a solid 3/4 full.
Add a few white chocolate chips to the tops of the muffins before baking.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the tops are set, domed, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. Due to their small size and oven variance, make sure to watch your muffins closely, and bake until done. Allow muffins to cool in pans for about 10 minutes, or until they’ve firmed up and are cool enough to handle. Muffins are best fresh, but will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months.
Let’s talk for a minute about gospel choir. I love gospel music. I love hip hop, soul, funk, R&B, and basically anything that played on V103 in the 90s (Atlanta folks, you know what I’m talking about). I didn’t discover gospel music though until I went to college, which I get is a weird place for a Jewish girl to pick up gospel music, considering the fact that I went to a private, Presbyterian liberal arts college located in the middle of Amish country, Ohio. But pick up gospel music I did. Just how much did I pick it up? So much that I ended up getting a solo during my freshman year called, Near the Cross.
Now, before you start hurling knishes at me in the name of blasphemy, let’s back up a minute or two to dissect how it is a Jewish girl finds herself singing about Jesus in a large church auditorium in front of hundreds of people.
I grew up loving music. As a children of the 80s, my brother and I listened to everything from Run DMC and the Beastie boys to Michael Jackson and Madonna. However, we also were raised by a Jewish mother and if you think we went through life without listening to Barbra Streissand’s The Broadway album, you’d be crazy wrong. A direct result of listening to this album on repeat during the 7 hour car ride from Atlanta to Louisville, KY where our grandparents lived (there was also some Neil Diamond and Dan Fogelberg thrown in there to spice things up), was my undying love for show tunes and of course, Stephen Sondheim. When it was discovered that I had a decent voice and I loved singing, my mom started me with piano lessons and eventually voice lessons. The piano didn’t stick but I loved my vocal coach, who looked a lot like Annie Potts’ character from Ghostbusters, Janine Melnitz. My coach also happened lived in what can only be described as a gingerbread house that was shrunk in the wash and had an affinity for Yorkshire Terriers so visiting her once a week was a trip. It was like visiting your weird Aunt that never had kids and spent all her money on crap from the Home Shopping Network (before it was dubbed, HSN) and portraits of her dog dressed as various historical figures but who also just happened to be crazy talented too. She taught me amazing technique and to appreciate my alto voice, which led me to gospel music.
Nowadays I relegate my singing to Israeli karaoke bars and the shower.
In choral music, the alto is rarely going to get a solo. It’s not quite high enough and most popular choral arrangements are written to showcase the soprano or highest female vocal range. When I entered college and wanted to fill my need for singing, I joined the regular ol’ choir. It was nice enough. We sang traditional hymns and the like but it just wasn’t doing it for me. Then a friend told me about the gospel choir and I figured I was already singing hymns in the regular choir and neither we’re going to take me up on my offer to try out “Light One Candle” or even Barbra’s version of Jingle Bells so what does it matter? Might as well give gospel choir a shot. Well my friends, let me tell you, even the warm-ups during gospel choir rehearsal were soul-shattering. I mean the first time I heard all of our voices in that soulful harmony I gotta admit, I got a little teary-eyed. This was exactly what I was looking for. And, to top things off, by the fifth or sixth rehearsal, our Director asked me to audition for a solo that required an alto. When she told me the name of the song I hesitated a bit and then decided to quietly mention that I am, in fact, Jewish and would she mind that. Well, of course she didn’t mind that because yes, the song was about Jesus but more than anything, the song was about faith, which led her to ask me if I felt comfortable singing a song about faith. That, I did not have a problem with. Of course, I was a little concerned that folks might think I had converted. I also, quite inexplicably, felt very strongly that somehow, my childhood rabbi would find out about this and haul me back to Sunday School so I wore the biggest Star of David necklace I could find come performance day, you know, just to be clear about things.
Garbanzo fries, a close up
I don’t really remember what happened to the gospel choir or why I stopped attending rehearsals after my freshman year but that solo was to be my one and only foray I to gospel music stardom. I have no real connection between my need to tell you the story of my onetime solo except that lately, I’ve been thinking about all those little incidences of life that add up to make the person we are today. I think about the person I was in college or in high school or even in my twenties and the person I am today and I can see some stark differences—-mainly in the fact that I have a child, I’m married and I have a bit more confidence/sense of self—-but there are also a lot of similarities. I would still get up on a stage and belt out a song about faith that just so happened to also be about Jesus. I’m just not sure I’d do it at synagogue . . . or at the Jewish Day School I work at . . . or my kid’s Jewish day care center . . . or Shabbat dinner . . .
1. Lightly coat a 13×9″ baking dish with nonstick spray. Whisk chickpea flour and 1 tsp. salt in a large bowl, breaking up any clumps in flour. Make a well in the center and gradually pour broth into well, whisking to incorporate dry ingredients; add garlic, spices and Sriracha and whisk until batter is smooth.
2. Transfer mixture to a large heavy saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until bubbling and very thick (you will be able to see bottom of pan when whisking), 8–10 minutes.
3. Pour chickpea mixture into prepared baking dish and smooth top. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface and chill until firm, at least 3 hours.
4. Turn chickpea mixture out onto a cutting board and cut into 3x½” pieces. Pour oil into a large skillet, preferably cast iron, to a depth of ¼” and heat over medium-high heat until oil bubbles immediately when a small piece of chickpea mixture is added. Working in batches, fry until fries are deep golden brown and crisp, about 2 minutes per side; transfer to a paper towel–lined plate and season with salt.
DO AHEAD: Chickpea mixture can be made and poured into baking dish 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.
See below for yogurt recipe
Using his brute-force to press down the mixture.
One more shot just cause.
For Yogurt Sauce:
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup, Greek Yogurt
1 Tbsp, Lime juice
Handful of cilantro, finely chopped
How:
Place all ingredients into a small mixing bowl and whisk together until well-combined. Add addition lime or cilantro per taste.
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