Breakfast of Honeymooners.. Challah Bread French Toast That You'll Love the Most! and a Low-Carb Crepe for your Slimming Shape!

WE'RE BAAACKKK!! I know it's been so long but Noah and I have literally been "on the road!" We went straight from the wedding to New York to our Honeymoon in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, where we ate way to much of Muchos Nachos Machos... don't even ask!

Now we are back, settled in our apartment and ready for our new healthy, loving lifestyle! We were invited out Friday night for dinner so I kept it really simple for Saturday lunch and just made my Hummus, Bok Choy Salad (curtesy of the Kosher Palette.. just used less olive oil than the recipe calls for), and Pretzel Shnitzel/ Pretzel-crumb Covered Chicken Strips ( Sliced Empire chicken breasts soaked in Egg Beaters and battered in blended fat free pretzels with garlic powder, paprika and onion powder, covered and baked at 375 for one hour... and garnished with Honey Mustard MMM). For dessert I made a fruit salad using 2 cut-up red apples, 2 sliced bananas and 3 clementines and soaked in plain ol' orange juice. It came out great and was just enough for a 4-person simple Sabbath meal.

And on to Sunday Morning Brunch!

On the Menu
Challah Bread French Toast That You'll Love the Most! 
Total Time: 10 min
Makes 4 slices, 2 servings ( or 1 serving if you have a growing man in the house and it's his breakfast and lunch)
Ingredients:

• 4 slices of yesterdays Stale Challah Bread (We would normally use Whole Wheat! A guest brought it for us though so we had to use it) .....apx. 120 calories per 1" slice
• 3/4 c. Egg Whites... 100 calories 
• 1 c. Blue Diamond Vanilla Almond Milk...90 calories
• 1 tbls. of Splenda Brown Sugar Mix ... 20 calories
• dash of Cinnamon, optional 
• PAM nonstick spray

Directions:

Lay out 2 shallow bowls and pour the Almond Milk in one and the Egg Whites in the other. First take a stale piece of Challah Bread and soak in the Almond Milk then transfer to the Egg White Bowl and fully coat the bread on both sides. Next, coat a skillet with non-stick spray and place your soggy challah right on the pan. Repeat with remaining slices. When all 4 slices are in the skillet, lightly sprinkle the Brown Sugar Mixture evenly over each slice, flip and repeat on the other side. Feel free to use Cinnamon as well. When both sides are a golden brown and look delicious, place on a plate and serve!

I served mine with half of a banana, sliced, and fat-free peach yogurt. 

Suggested condiments: Sugar-free Pancake Syrup, Apple Butter, Prune Butter, and Agave Syrup

Guaranteed Results!!

Calorie Count: Per Serving of 2 pieces: 345 Calories, 4 g Fat, 7.5 g Fiber, 10 g Protein...might be a little less of everything because there was leftover batter (see below with what to do with it!)

Cost: $... you would have thrown out the challah had you not made this recipe anyway!

Next on the Menu:

Low-Carb Crepe for your Slimming Shape! 

Total Time: 5 minutes

Makes 1 crepe for 1 serving

Ingredients: 

• Leftover Egg White and Almond Vanilla Milk mixture from the French Toast (above). About 1/4 c. Egg whites and 1 oz. of Almond Milk...About 95 calories 
• 1/2 container of Ralph's CARBmaster peach yogurt... only 60 calories per container, Kosher and was only $0.50 this week on sale! 
• 1/2 banana (also leftover from the french toast garnish, above)... 55 calories
• 1 tbls. Prune Butter.. 40 calories
• PAM non-stick cooking spray
• 1 Packet of Splenda sweetener

Directions:

Mix together the remaining Almond Milk and Egg White mixtures and pour into a PAM-coated pan, let sit for a minute on medium heat and don't flip. Stir together 1/2 container of Peach Yogurt with a little less than the whole Splenda Packet and pour down the center of the crepe mixture in the pan. Place sliced bananas on top and fold over the crepe on both sides, creating a perfect looking crepe! Put the prune butter on top and ENJOY!!!

Ignore the bubbles... they come from using the Almond Milk

Calorie Count: 220 calories, 1.5 g Fat, 14 g Protein, 2g Fiber

Cost: $ ... I bet the whole thing cost under $1!!! 

Hummus to Max!

I love to make my classic hummus recipe for guests. It comes across as so homemade and gourmet and yet, its probably the easiest thing you can make. Let alone- its healthier, cheaper and more creative than just making another batch of guacamole (which I'm not downright dissing because I happen to love guaco). The whole recipe- which serves up a large batch- costs less than 5-6 bucks and you probably already have most of the ingredients in your pantry.  

For Friday night, I made the Olive variety but they are all amazing. (photographed below is also my sundried tomato version that I made for a previous event).

Hummus Recipe:

yield: 32 servings

one 16 oz. can chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved,

1/4 cup lemon juice or the juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp.salt

 1-2 cloves garlic.. i find that fresh garlic cloves are much stronger than using the chopped up, jarred kind

 2-3 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp dried cilantro or a small handful of fresh cilantro

1 pinch paprika for garnish

Directions:
Place the chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, garlic, and most of the cilantro in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, gradually adding the reserved liquid to the thick hummus batter until your happy with its creamy consistency. Transfer mixture to a serving bowl. Drizzle olive oil over the hummus and top with a sprinkle of paprika and cilantro to impress your your friends!

For Spicy:  Add 8 splashes of hot sauce and 2 Tbsp of roasted red peppers to the blended mix

For Olive: Get a jar of green olives and instead of reserving the juice in the chickpea can, reserve the juice from the olive jar to be added to the Hummus mixture to achieve a creamy consistency when the batter is too thick. Add about 3 Tbsp of green olives to the blender along with the other ingredients. Use olives to garnish.

For Sun dried Tomato: Get a jar of sun dried tomatoes in oil. Replace Olive oil in original recipe with the oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes. Add about 3 Tbsp of sun dried tomatoes and an additional clove of garlic to the blender along with the other ingredients. Use sun dried tomatoes to garnish.

Tips: Use a good blender and set it to "Liquefy" when blending the Hummus. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts:

Per 2 Tablespoon. 

30 Calories. 1 gram of fat. Just under 1 gram of fiber. Just over 1 gram of protein. 

Cost: $

About $0.17 per serving

A very Blogworthy Weekend!

Blog-wor-thy [blog-wur-thee] 

adj. Healthy, Affordable, Easy-to-Make, Delicious


My mom came in for the weekend so I wanted to take full advantage of bonding time with her, and what better way to do it than by cooking together! For the first weekend in the new apartment, we decided to go all out and create a beautiful, traditional Shabbat Dinner feast- but healthfully, cost-consciously and of course, deliciously!
Our table of guests, including Noah of course, were absolutely delighted at the variety of colors and flavors on the table. A great rule of thumb- the more (natural) colors on the plate, the healthier the dish. Many of the health properties associated with fruits and vegetables come from the rich phytochemicals and antioxidants in their colors themselves- that's why it is never as healthy to take a supplement as it is to eat the actual fruit or vegetable.
Read my article on Natural Cancer Fighting Foods on Livestrong.com

On the Menu:
To Start
My grandma's famous gefilte fish, made by my mom
Artichokes- so easy to make, so beautiful on the table, so healthy, and sooo yummy!
Salad with Walnuts, blueberries, strawberries and other goodies, also made by my amazing mom
My Hummus and crudite (recipe to come)

For the Main
Brisket- made by my mom... she flexxed the budget a bit.
A Chicken dish- made by mom
Ratatouie (recipe to come)
Mashed Swatatoes (recipe to come)
Roasted Cauliflouer- literlly cut up cauliflour, with cooking spray, sea salt and paprika in the oven at 350 degrees, made by using Dr. Borgans classic trick of overcooking them... DELISH!

Dessert 
Amazing Fudgy Chocolate Cake (recipe to come)
Lots of fruit

Deluxe Roasted Turkey Wraps just 40 Days till the Wedding!

A couple of months ago I got engaged to the most amazing man in the world. His name is Noah. I love to cook and can't wait to make Noah dinners every night so I decided to start writing this blog so I can share my quick, easy and delicious recipes with everyone. However, there is a catch. I have my Bachelors in Nutrition and always only cook healthfully. I also happen to be one of the cheapest people that you will ever meet, so I need to catch deals at the market and shop responsibly on a newlywed budget. And lastly, we're also Kosher. So needless to say, I spend 3x as much time at the grocery store checking for nutrition facts, prices and kosher symbols on every item.

We just signed the lease on our new place and I started living here before the wedding. Although I won't be able to officially blog full force until after our wedding  when we are living together, I'm going to get started on the meals that I make us when he comes over (in between building furniture, finding space for our oddly shaped wedding gifts, and constantly straightening up). 

ON TONIGHTS MENU:  Deluxe Roasted Turkey Wraps 

Total Time: 6 minutes

Serving Size: 1 wrap 

Note: 1 was more than filling for me. Noah is 6"3 and a growing boy, so he had 2

Ingredients (per 1 wrap)

Note: ...=Calories per item- in case you want to substitue an ingredient.

1 Mission Multi-Grain Tortilla ...150

2 Slices of Empire Turkey Salami...50 

4 Slices of Empire Smoked Turkey Breast Slices...45 

1 T. Sweet and Sour Mustard...10 

2 thin slices of Avocado...40

1/4 Red Pepper...5

1 T. "Eel" Sauce (leftover from Noah's sushi the night before) or Teriyake Sauce...20 

Garlic Salt to Taste

Start by washing and julianning your pepper. On a great grill pan, like my trusty Calphon, lightly spray with PAM and start grilling your red peppers- I like to sprinkle Garlic Salt over them. After 2 minutes, add your meat slices and flip when slightly brown. After another minute or so, add your wrap and wait 30 seconds before assembling. To assemble: first squirt the mustard down the center. Next, stack the meat, followed by the grilled peppers and sliced avocado. Lastly, top off with the eel sauce or teriyake sauce.  Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts:

320 calories. 8g Fat. 6g Fiber. 18g Protein 

Cost Count: $$ / $$$$$ 

apx. $5.50 per wrap 

Feel free to munch on some edamame as a healthy side dish and chew on some fresh grapes for dessert like we did. 

Have a delightful night!

~Ilana