Two more Food Recalls

Today, two food recalls were announced (press releases can be found here and here):

1. Frozen Corn that may be contaminated with Listeria

Brand: HaMuvcharim SheBakfu'im 
Product: Frozen Corn Kernels
Package Size: 1 kg and 2.5 kg packages
Use by Date: 25.9.19

Despite the fact that this product has cooking instructions to boil before serving, and boiling should kill listeria, the product is being recalled. Anyone who purchased these should return them to the store where purchased. If you have questions, please contact Hamawi Bros., Ltd. at 02-651-9099

2. Whole Techina that may be contaminated with Salmonella

Brand: Galilee Hives (Mechaveret HaGalil)
Product: Whole Techina, imported from Ethiopia
Package Size: 380g and 720g
Barcodes: 7290000411682 and 7290000411699
Use by Date: all expiration dates thru 2/2020

Anyone who purchased these should return them to the store where purchased. If you have questions, please contact customer service at 04-694-7826

Please share this post with anyone who may not have heard about these recalls! Friends don't let friends get food poisoning!

Food Recall (corn)!

Here's all you need to know about the recent canned corn recall:

Product: Shufersal "green" Canned Organic Sweet Corn
Weight: 340g
Use by Date: 17.8.2020
Barcode: 7296073244141
Made in Spain

The product is being recalled due to the possible presence of bits of plastic in some of the cans.

The public is asked NOT to eat the recalled product. You can return it to Shufersal for a refund.

If you have questions, please call Shufersal customer service at: 1-800-68-68-68

 

Recall - Frozen Corn

Milotal Frozen Vegetables is recalling the following product, due to the possibility of listeria contamination:

Frozen Corn Kernels, 3kg packages, Heter Mechira, with barcode 7290000431017, production code 63113621, and use-by date 08/05/2018

One independent test was positive for listeria, though test conditions allowed the corn to defrost before testing.

All other tests were negative for contaminants, but the product is being recalled anyway as a precaution.

Most packages of corn in this size were sold to the wholesale market, but some were sold in retail stores.

The product is SAFE to eat when properly cooked, but consumers who have this corn are asked to be in touch with the company at 04-985-9325 or to return it to the store where purchased.

Stay on top of recalls! Be sure to follow me on Facebook so you don't miss out!

Black Bean Salad

This is one of my new favorite salads. I love dishes that are simple, easy, dairy-free, and wheat free, soy-free, and nut-free so that we all can enjoy them together.

The inspiration for this dish was a salad I had years ago when we lived in Texas, and I decided to finally figure out my own dressing for it - for truly the dressing is what completes this salad!

For the salad:

2 cups black beans, already cooked and drained
2 cups frozen corn kernels, lightly steamed or roasted and cooled
2-4 red peppers, diced (you can use a mix of red/green peppers, too if you like)
4 tomatoes, cut into cubes
(the original dish had raw onions in it, but raw onions are a major source of food poisoning, so they scare me, and my picky family won't eat it anyway)
(You can totally adjust this and use more or less of something as you like - go ahead and make this "your own"! - it's great with acocado, or lettuce, or quinoa, or all, or whatever inspires you!)


For the dressing:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
juice of 1 orange or clementine (I had a clementine in the house)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
Chili pepper flakes (to taste)
Smoked paprika (to taste, I used about 2 tsp)
salt (to taste)
ground black pepper (to taste)

Place all the vegetables in a pretty salad bowl. Mix the dressing together in a jar, bowl, or container. Mix really well. Pour dressing over vegetables and gently toss it all together. Serve cold. 

This salad can actually be a meal in and of itself, or is a great accompaniment to anything at all.
Let me know if you give it a try!

Traffic Light Soup

Sometimes I make up silly names for soups - hoping it will get my kids to eat a new food! This one worked out pretty well (although to be honest, my 4 yr old refused to even TRY it). So here is my recipe for red, yellow, and green soup!

Ok, so it's not the best picture, sorry! Anyhow - here goes:

Olive oil
2 onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 red pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 coarsely chopped tomato
1.5 c. frozen corn
water or soup stock to fill the pot
salt, pepper, parsley to taste

Heat the olive oil in a pot, and cook (stirring) the onion, garlic, and peppers until the onion is soft and translucent. (The house should already smell amazing!) Add tomato, corn, and water/vegetable stock, stirring. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 - 15 min, until the corn is soft enough to puree. Partially puree the soup using an immersion blender. Season to taste , and serve hot.

Tuesday night, Sept 13, 2011

I haven't been posting so much because I still haven't really stocked my pantry very well! And I'm slightly overwhelmed... but I still need to get back to meal planning. No one has been happy with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches lately (we've been resorting to that FAR too often)!

So tonight I'm trying to get back to some bit of meal planning. Please bear in mind that my pantry is kind of bare (purposely, really, since I have to figure out how to keep the ants out of it. I was not happy to discover them there...)!

Here goes!

Lentil based sloppy joes (no real recipe, I just improvised this time. I used lots of onion, garlic, red pepper, tomatoes, and red lentils, tomato juice (had some in the fridge to use up), spices, water)

Pitot and Baguettes (some members of the family prefer one over the other, so we're serving both)

Steamed corn
 
Oatmeal Bread (really cake like) - the kids didn't finish off the pot of oatmeal this morning so I turned it into a treat for tonight!

Easy ideas for Shabbat

Lucky for me, I'm actually not cooking this week! (So rare, and I really appreciate it when that happens. Even though cooking makes me happy, I still like having a break sometimes.)

In any case, I figured I could just share a few tips and shortcuts for making Shabbat a bit more frugal and simple without it feeling stingy. We try not to waste the chicken - I splurge and buy organic chicken for ethical and environmental reasons - so I don't cook much extra chicken. Instead I make sure that there is plenty of good stuff on the table, using in-season produce and inexpensive, filling grains and legumes.

Here are some simple ideas:  steam those vegetables you bought when the shuk was closing, or roast them if you're already using your oven. Roasting really brings out the flavor in so many vegetables. Certain kinds do best if roasted alone (like beets), others can be roasted as a medley (I like roasted ratatouille - place diced onions, garlic, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, and eggplants in a roasting pan and toss with olive oil. roast uncovered in your oven till they smell amazing and look done).

Rice, barley, couscous (whole grain, of course) and other grains are nutritious and frugal can be embellished in so many ways. I like to add mushrooms to most dishes, but that's because I really like mushrooms!

If you're looking for a side dish with some zip, you can make a southwestern-style pasta salad. Simply combine cooked pasta with diced tomatoes, peppers, green onion, cooked black beans, and frozen corn niblets (these defrost very quickly when mixed into the salad!). Season with a jar of salsa (hard to find here - so you can use one of those spicy tomato based piquante salads instead), lemon juice, and ground black pepper.

Enjoy your Shabbat! Let me know what you do to fill your table with good food without spending all night and day cooking! I could always use more ideas.

Sunday Night

It's going to be a busy week, so I've begun my planning already now that the kids are in bed (ok, only the younger ones).
Tomorrow, we plan to be out and about all afternoon. And I still have plenty of those 1 and 2 NIS/kilo veggies, plus the Bulgarian Cheese that was on sale at Kim'at Chinam.

Here's the menu for Sunday evening:

Black Bean & Tomato Soup (crock pot)
Embellished Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Salad - Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado, Bulgarian Cheese, and Olives(w/ a splash of olive oil)
Fruit for dessert (we have tons of oranges and pomelit right now)

A note about the soup: be sure to used pre-cooked black beans! (It's another one of those chop and toss recipes that I love: chop onions, garlic, celery, red pepper, a small potato, and 2 tomatoes. Place in crock pot with cooked black beans, tomato paste or crushed tomatoes, and 1 c. frozen corn. Cover with water or soup stock, season to taste. Let your crock pot cook it all day!)

Embellished grilled cheese means everyone gets to put their own "toasted" sandwich together. We usually offer a variety of cheeses, tomatoes, olives, and roasted peppers. But, of course, you can be as creative as you like!