Another Recall

TUSSO brand has announced a recall of the following products, due to reports of mold:

TUSSO chocolate brownies, made with whole wheat, and no sugar added (production date 04/11/15, expiration date 01/07/16)

TUSSO chocolate brownies, made with whole wheat, with chocolate-orange flavor and no sugar added (production dates 04/11/15 and 05/11/15, expiration dates 01/07/16, and 02/07/16)

TUSSO "muffins" cake, orange flavor, made with whole wheat, and no sugar added (production date 26/10/15, and 17/11/15, expiration dates 22/06/16 and 14/07/16, respectively)

The following products are being recalled as a cautionary measure:

TUSSO cinnamon "muffins" cake, made with whole wheat, and no sugar added (production date 18/11/15, expiration date 15/07/16)

TUSSO marble "muffins" cake, made with whole wheat, and no sugar added (production dates 26/10/15, 26/11/15, expiration dates 22/06/16 and 15/07/16, respectively)

Consumers are asked NOT to eat these products. Please call customer service at 03-902-0333 to arrange a refund/replacement.

Please share this post with your friends and family who may have purchased these products!

Vegan Raisin Bran Muffins (with zucchini/kishuim)

These are my absolute favorite muffins to make when there is an abundance of kishuim around! I'm sure you all saw my post about how I got tons of kishuim (zucchini-like summer squash) really cheap from the sug bet rack. Well, there have been more there, day after day, and, well... it turns out I bought A LOT.

So, to rescue my overflowing vegetable drawer, I made these delicious, moist, whole grain, fiber-rich, relatively low sugar vegan muffins.

Ingredients

2 heaping tablespoons of ground flaxseed (I grind them in my Coffee Grinder but you can buy them already ground)
1 cup of hot water
1 cup orange juice or 1 cup of cold water + a splash of vinegar
1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil, you can choose your favorite oil)
1/2 cup sugar
1 generously packed cup of shredded zucchini/summer squash/kishuim - I peeled it so there wouldn't be green flecks in the end result. Peeling is optional, however.
2 cups sifted whole wheat flour
1 cup wheat bran
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup raisins

Directions

Combine flaxseed and hot water in a large mixing bowl.  Mix and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Add orange juice or water/vinegar mixture, oil, and sugar. Mix well. Add shredded squash. Stir to combine. Add flour, wheat bran, salt, baking powder to the bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine but don't overmix. Finally, fold in the cinnamon and raisins.

Fill the muffin cups all the way up, and bake at 180 C for about 25-30 minutes.
This recipe makes 12 generously sized muffins, if you want smaller muffins, fill the muffin cups halfway and make 24 small muffins.

Enjoy!

Eggless Whole Wheat pancakes!

We've decided to go more or less egg-free. 

I've got no problem making most foods egg-free, but for some reason, I had a lot of trouble with pancakes. They just were NOT coming out right!

Some kind person pointed me to this vegan pancake recipe, which inspired me to try again. I discovered that my biggest problem was probably my lazy measuring - sometimes when I cook I am too lazy to pull out a measuring cup. That does not work well for pancakes!

So, here's my egg-free but dairy pancake recipe. It was a big hit!

2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
3 tsp. sugar
2/3 cup of whey or orange juice
1 cup milk
2 tsp oil

a bit of oil for the pan

 
First, mix dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add liquid ingredients and stir briefly. It can be lumpy.

Coat your frying pan with a very light layer of oil, and heat to med-high heat.

Make pancakes!

Enjoy!

We served these with maple syrup.

Sweet Whole Wheat or Spelt and Oat Bran Challah Recipe -With Vegan Option

I change up my challah recipe sometimes, and my kids have definitely expressed a preference for the times when I make them *sweet*. No real surprise there, though!

So lately, I've been making this version. It's been a hit with my family. If you make it, I'd love to hear your feedback!



Sweet Whole Wheat or Spelt and Oat Bran Challah

8 cups whole wheat flour (or whole spelt flour)
1 cup oat bran
2/3 cup ground flaxseed
1 T. salt
1/2 cup sugar

3 cups of lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp dry yeast

1/2 cup honey or vegan honey (optional)
1/2 cup oil + a little more for oiling the bowl

Directions:
1. Mix 1 tsp sugar with the water. Add the yeast. Allow to proof for about 10 min

2. Mix together dry ingredients (flour, oat bran, flaxseed, salt, sugar)

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add liquid ingredients. Mix well. Then knead. 

4. coat the dough with oil and flip over a couple of times, so the bottom and sides get oiled too. cover with a tea towel to rise till doubled. On warm days, this can be about 1 hour, on cold days it can take a lot longer!

5. Punch down. Shape your challot. Cover with a tea towel to rise for about 1/2 an hour. (I usually make 3 challot out of this size batch, so I often double it!)

6. Optional: glaze your challot. I never bother, especially since I've basically gone vegan for baking! Bake for about 30-40 min at 350 F (175-180C)

Allow to cool before you devour them. For some reason, these cut much better when they've cooled properly.

Enjoy!

Whole Grain Breakfast Muffins (Dairy)

I know, I usually do a lot of vegan baking, but these have dairy. They are extra-moist and truly a great way to start your day, if you're ok with dairy. If you want to make them vegan, just substitute 1 cup of soy milk or other non-dairy milk for the leben. It will work. My kids preferred the dairy version, though, so I'm sticking with it for now!

Whole Grain Breakfast Muffins (Dairy, but no eggs)

4 T. flaxseed
1/3 cup boiling water
2 bananas, mashed (or about 2/3 cup of your favorite fruit, pureed or mashed)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 ml leben (I used Gil) or yogurt
1 cup orange juice or other liquid (I used the whey that was left after making cream cheese)
3 cups whole wheat flour (or your favorite whole grain multi-grain mix)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Start by mixing flaxseed and boiling water, and allow to cool for 10 min. Add the rest of the liquid ingredients, and mix well. Add the dry ingredients, mix, but don't overmix. Transfer to muffin tin, lined with baking cups. Bake at 350 F for about 25 min (although I suspect my oven may not be registering the temp properly, check yours at 20 min!).
Makes 12 medium size muffins.

Note: you can use 2 eggs instead of the flaxseed/water mixture if you prefer

Sweet potato muffins (vegan)

Before everyone goes crazy that sweet potatoes are outrageously priced here in Israel, I want to tell you that Eden Teva Market has a whole bunch of ORGANIC produce offered for 5 shekels/kg, for their online customers. So my sweet potatoes were only 5 shekels/kg, which is looking pretty good for just about any fresh produce right now!! (hint: pay using Paypal, and save 20 shekels!)

I had one baked sweet potato, all lonely in the fridge. I decided I needed to use it up, and was going to make sweet potato bread, but I don't have any pecans in the house. I figured I would make do without the nuts. Then the day got later and later...

I decided to bake muffins instead!

Batter:

3 T. ground flaxseed
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 c. oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 mashed sweet potato
1 cup lukewarm coffee
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
sprinkle of ground cloves or allspice

Streusel topping:

I had made a large batch of streusel topping earlier in the week, so I just used it. My standard is 1/2 c sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and some oil to make it crumbly, combine with fingers, they just work best! (yes, wash your hands first!)

And now my house smells like autumn, even though it's pretty hot out...

Spinach and Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Ok, I splurged. Spinach is not on most frugal shopping lists in this country.

Here's what happened: I was at Mega for a 10% off day (Friday, select locations only) and I decided to splurge and buy a bag of frozen spinach. First I checked the fresh produce section to see if there were any suitable fresh greens that would work out cheaper. But there weren't. They had chard, but the bunches were small, buggy, and wilted. And cost 8.99. But I decided against that in favor of spinach, because once I cleaned, chopped, and wilted the chard, it would have been a lot of effort, and not so much chard.

So I bought a bag of frozen spinach, for just over 20 NIS with the discount.

My family likes spinach, so I justify the purchase of a bag of spinach every so often.

I wanted to stretch it to last a few meals, so here's the first spinach recipe I made, using about 1/3 of the bag.

Spinach and Cottage Cheese pancakes

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 package of spinach (about 265 grams - maybe 8-9 oz?)
400 g cottage cheese (approx 1 lb)
2 cups whole wheat flour
salt, pepper to taste
nutmeg if you like it

Mix well. It will be pretty thick. Spoon heaping spoonfuls into a hot, oiled skillet, and brown on both sides. Serve hot.

Ok so this is not the best picture. But as you can see, I used very little oil to cook these in my enameled cast iron frying pan. And I really like that blue pan. I have the same in green for pareve, and one in red for meat. I also have a regular, not enameled cast iron frying pan. That one is pareve, and gets used almost every time I cook!

Variations: you can lower the cost of this by using less expensive greens than spinach. Sometimes chard or beet greens are a lot cheaper. Here in Israel, you might try lowering the cost of your cottage cheese by subbing PART of it with Eshel or Gil .

If you have a couple extra shekels, these are really amazing when you use 1/2 cottage cheese and 1/2 feta cheese. This will raise the cost a bit, as feta DOES cost more than cottage cheese, so this is not a good option when looking to lower your costs.