Chocolate Chip Cake (vegan)

Chocolate Chip Cake

4 tablespoons ground flaxseed 
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup oil
1 cup lukewarm decaf coffee OR soy milk or other milk subsitute
2/3 - 1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup shredded coconut or your favorite ground nuts
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 - 6 oz chocolate chips, divided

Preheat oven to 350 F (about 175 C)

Combine ground flaxseed with boiling water in a large mixing bowl. Stir a couple of times, then allow to cool slightly. Add oil, coffee/soymilk, sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix well. Add coconut/ground nuts, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Fold in half the chocolate chips.

Pour batter into a large cake pan. Spread it evenly. Spread the rest of the chocolate chips on top of the cake.

Bake for 45-50 min. Test with a toothpick to be sure it's fully baked.
Allow to cool before cutting.

Let me know if you try this recipe out!

Shabbat Menu

Yay! I finally went grocery shopping, and now the house is full of food again! I did not find any amazing bargains at Rami Levy in Afula though - yes, I gave them another chance, but next time I will shop elsewhere. It's just not worth fighting the crowds.

I went there because there is a Nizat HaDuvdevan next door, and I wanted to make a health food store run. I was pleased to find that bulk products at the health food store were all still significantly less expensive than at RL or any other supermarket. They even told me they will deliver to my town, any day of the week - I just need to call in my order (downside: delivery fee is 40 shekels).

Here are some of the prices that I found there: green split peas: 6.90/kg, red lentils 7.90/kg, green lentils 8.90/kg (that surprised me! more expensive than red lentils?) oats 6.90/kg, flaxseed 6.90/kg, black beans 15.90/kg (better than 18/kg at my local dry goods store, but only because they were on sale this week).

I did not buy any cheese at RL because the cheese counter line was long, and I can go to my local mega and buy price controlled cheese for the same price. And on Friday I can get 10% off still! So I believe a quick run to mega is in the cards for tomorrow, as my kids have made it very clear to me that they are NOT INTERESTED in living without cheese.

That was a pretty long preface to my menu for Shabbat! oops.

Here's my Shabbat plan:

Homemade Challot

Split pea soup

Black bean cholent for lunch

Roast chicken with potatoes and onions

A vegetarian dish with potatoes that my son will make (when we decide what it is, I will update!) *Update: He says he will make baked potatoes. I found out that he's never actually watched me make baked potatoes so he doesn't know how it's done! This REALLY is cooking 101. I guess if he makes ENOUGH potatoes, he'll be ok, right?

Brown rice

Carrot Kugel

Vegetable platter - will definitely include cucumbers, tomatoes, and red peppers. Perhaps carrots.

Chocolate chip cake (I'll post the recipe later, I hope!)

What are you making? I'd love to hear!

Lemon Quick Bread Recipe

We have a lemon tree, and it is producing an amazing number of lemons this year. Probably twice as many as last year! Which is odd, as our orange trees are producing about half as many oranges as last year... strangely opposite cycles, it seems.

I looked at my lemons, and just KNEW I needed to come up with something to make with them.

3 of my 4 children enjoyed this quickbread (which was gone before I took a picture, sorry).

Lemon Quick Bread

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed  
1/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup oil
2/3 cup sugar
1 package of leben (gil or eshel, whichever. I bought eshel because it was a few agurot less) (if you live in area where leben is hard to find, use 6 oz of plain yogurt instead)
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon rind
juice of 1/2 lemon (or if your lemons are small, juice a whole lemon)
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Instructions:
Mix flaxseed with water, allow to cool for 10 min.
Add oil, sugar, leben, lemon rind, and lemon juice. Mix well. Add dry ingredients, and mix briefly.
Pour into a baking pan (loaf or cake pan) (I lined mine with parchment paper, I recommend it!). Bake at 350 F / 190 C for 35-45 min.
You could also use this recipe to bake muffins, if you prefer. Muffins bake for a much shorter time (20 minutes or so).

Enjoy the aroma while it bakes, and have a cup of tea with it!

I'd love to hear what you think!

Chocolate Bread Recipe

This recipe is being published at Joy of Kosher and here at Frugal and Kosher, at the same time.

Be sure to check out my guest blogs at Joy of Kosher too!

I was thinking about Purim, and while I love giving real food for mishloach manot, I like to keep it fun too. And then we discovered...

Chocolate Bread (whole wheat variation)

Note: traditional Italian chocolate bread is made with a sourdough starter. This recipe is for those of us who don’t keep sourdough starter on hand. 

This recipe makes 6 mini-loaves or 3 regular size loaves.

Ingredients:

3 ¼ cups warm water

2 tsp sugar

3 tsp dry yeast

9 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup cocoa

1/3 cup oil + more for coating the bowl

½ bar dark chocolate, crushed with a hammer or the end of a wooden rolling pin

Mix together the first three ingredients, and allow the yeast to proof for about 10 minutes. (I know, lots of people say you don’t have to do this, but I always proof my yeast, that way I’m sure it is alive!)

Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, and cocoa) in a large bowl, and make a well in the center. Pour the oil and the yeast mixture into the well, and then combine everything. You can start with a wooden spoon, but eventually you will need to use your hands (unless of course, you have a powerful enough mixer to handle bread dough). Knead dough for about 10 min. Coat the dough with oil and cover with a tea towel to rise.

Allow to rise until doubled in size. After it has risen, punch down the dough, and sprinkle chocolate bits evenly over the dough. Use a knife to cut the dough into 6 approximately equal pieces, if making mini loaves (3 pieces if making regular size loaves). Work the chocolate into each piece of dough, shape into circles and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper (you may need two, I did). Cover with a tea towel, and allow to rise for another half hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

When your loaves have risen, bake for about 30 minutes. Watch them! Chocolate burns quickly if left in too long.

Allow to cool before slicing.

Tastes great with butter. Or hazelnut spread.

It’s actually pretty addictive. Don’t get me started...

Let me know if you try this!

Coupon Offer (Israel)

Superherb will email you a coupon for their Sambokid product, if you fill out their form!

You'll get a coupon for 5 shekels off your Sambokid Syrup purchase.

Coupon Offer (Israel)

Tzabar brand salads is offering specially marked packages of chummus (available in stores now).

Find the code inside the container, enter it into their website, and you'll get a coupon for free chummus from a local "chummusiyah"!

(Your free coupon is only valid on weekdays, it may not be redeemed on Shabbat. And a limited # are available, so get it while you can!)

Printable coupon (Israel)

Tu B'Shvat may be over, but you can still print this coupon and get a discount on Adama brand dried fruit!
Valid thru Feb. 28, 2013
 Coupon is accepted at Health Food Store throughout the country

Printable coupons (Israel)

Weleda natural products has new printable coupons available right now!

Print them now, and use them whenever you want - they are valid thru Dec 31, 2013

SuperPharm coupons (Israel)

Don't forget to sign in the SuperPharm's site and print or load their coupons onto your smartphone!

The new batch of coupons is good thru February 13, 2013.

They include:

sample coupon

Kleenex brand toilet paper  

Huggies brand wipes (refill pack)

Sunday brand bleach

Life brand hand cream

Barcelona brand men's cologne and deodorant

Nicole brand paper towels

Meridol brand toothpaste

Jade brand eyeliner (metallic)

Careline brand mascara

Make sure you are logged in and you use the "print" button on top of the page, in order to print coupons with a real barcode. What you see when you first open the site are sample coupons that will not be accepted in the store...

Happy savings!

Pasta with lentils and carmelized onions

I made my son take over some of the cooking.

In particular, I let him know that he needs to know how to cook food he will eat, so we are starting with food for Shabbat. He's a vegetarian, and even though the rest of us are weekday-vegetarians, he's also a vegetarian on Shabbat.
And that means that sometimes I end up making a TON of different foods, with the hope that he'll agree to eat enough to satisfy his 14-year-old-boy appetite.

But it's just a lot of cooking, and my thought was that if HE prepares something, maybe he'd eat more of it. He's a little suspicious of food he's not familiar with, especially anything with more than one ingredient, so what better way to be familiar with it than to PREPARE it?

He agreed to make this pasta with lentil dish that I suggested, as I was trying to make sure he got some protein into him over Shabbat (this was after he looked through one of my vegetarian cookbooks, On the Road to Vegetarian Cooking, and declared that there is nothing there to try).

Pasta with lentils, carmelized onions, and garlic

Ingredients:
1 small onion, sliced in strips
1 T. olive oil
1 cup green lentils, dry, sorted and rinsed
1/2 pkg of pasta (he used spirals)
salt, pepper, granulated garlic (or you could use fresh garlic, crushed and roasted in olive oil), and another tablespoon of olive oil

Bring a pot of water to a boil, and add the lentils
While the lentils cook, heat 1 T. olive oil in a cast iron frying pan (over medium heat), and cook the onions in it, stirring from time to time, till they brown. Set onions aside.

Once the lentils have cooked for about 10 minutes, add the pasta to the pot. Simmer till pasta is fully cooked.
Strain the pasta and lentils and toss in a serving bowl with the carmelized onions, more olive oil, and seasonings.
Serve warm, although I suspect it can be served cold as a pasta salad too.

He ate it readily!
And the other kids all sampled it too, and most liked it. Most of all, they were impressed that their big brother cooked something REAL...