Today's red lentil and tomato soup

Had to quickly come up with a soup to share with a friend's family who could use a hand right now. So I ended up making this soup, it was so yummy! I ate 2 bowls of it for lunch.




Red Lentil and Tomato Soup
makes approximately 16 servings

1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
1 large red pepper
olive oil
500g red lentils
1 large can tomato paste (580g, 28-30 Bx)
water
salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes



Dice the vegetables and saute in olive oil in your (large) soup pot . When beginning to carmelize, add rinsed lentils and lots of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes, until the lentils start to break apart. Add tomato paste, more water, and seasonings to taste. Bring back to a boil, then simmer for another 10 min.
Serve piping hot. It's perfect with a nice crusty bread!

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This week's menu

It's turning into a crazy week for me - there is no hot water in my house still, and my hands are cracked and bleeding from washing vegetables, dishes, and my hands in F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G cold water! I truly hope I can get the plumber to come here tomorrow and figure out the extent of our problem (is it a quick small repair, or a large, very expensive repair?), and maybe even shut off the dud shemesh so we can use the electric boiler if we have to wait to repair it.

Anyhow, because of this craziness I anticipate a lot of time shuttling off to shower outside of our home, and a lot of time waiting around for a plumber. (Just trying to be realistic!) So not much time for shopping.

So who knows how much of this menu I'll stick to! But I'll give it a try. And forgive the question marks, some of my menu depends upon what produce I end up buying this week - but I never know what I'll find when for a great deal!


Sunday
Lunch: vegetable and lentil stew, crackers and chumus
Supper, pancakes, roast potatoes, unstuffed cabbage, and leftover soup with noodles

Monday
Lunch: Sandwiches and cut vegetables
Supper: Baked ziti, steamed kishuim

Tuesday
Lunch: Red Lentil Soup, ???
Supper: Chinese-style vegetable soup, Rice, tuna patties

Wednesday
Lunch: Sandwiches, leftover soup
Supper: Tomato soup, Rice, Red lentil patties, vegetable sticks

Thursday 
Lunch: All leftovers from the week
Supper: Pizza, salad, ???

What's your plan for the week?

How my boys got free glasses in under an hour

My boys both wear glasses. Not surprising, as I am severely myopic.

Both boys have been reminding me for several months that it's been over a year since they had their eyes checked. One said he couldn't see out of his glasses at all, and then, he even managed to break his glasses in half at the bridge just to prove his point! And this did, in fact, motivate me to check out my options. Buying glasses in this country, frankly, scares me. It's just so notoriously expensive, and I wasn't sure what to do...

BUT, I remembered that If you have Clalit Platinum, you can take your child (up to age 18) to any participating optician and get 600 shekels toward a new pair of glasses. In many cases, this amounts to free glasses.

I decided to go in Teverya (there are no participating opticians in Katzrin), as we had plans to be there on Friday anyhow. In the interest of saving time, I went to "Shimshon" because it was the closer of the two to where we'd parked (at my husband's workplace). We walked in, and found the store to be relatively crowded for such a small place of business.

But, to my surprise, within 5 minutes, an optician was taking down our insurance information, checking the boys' glasses for their latest prescription information, and getting testing underway. She convinced the optometrist to check them next. Then, when she saw how much the prescription for my younger son had changed, she convinced the staff to get these glasses done in time to take them home for Shabbat!

It was AMAZING. We walked in there around noon, and walked out at 12:50 pm with two new pairs of glasses, anti-reflective coatings and all, AND ZERO pressure to get upgrades, with no out of pocket payment whatsoever.

I'm thrilled, and my boys were also incredibly surprised that they got such stellar service!

For more information about joining Clalit or one of their upgraded plans, just click here to go straight to Clalit!

*this post contains affiliate links

Pantry challenge menu for this week

We are pretty well stocked up at the moment, and I see no reason to go out and buy anything this week - especially with a cold winter storm on the way (with the exception of milk and a few fruits and veggies, which I plan to get today when I'm out (we're out of apples and carrots and down to only 2 bananas!). Although I reserve the right to stock up on something if there is a "can't miss" sale, but I haven't seen that yet, and I don't plan to do much running around...

So, we have plenty of legumes, rice, pasta, and most staples, and we even have a lot of veggies, either fresh or frozen. Here's what I came up with using the things I see I have on hand:

Monday:
Lunch: Pasta with tomato sauce and vegetables, (rice or baked potato for the kids who aren't feeling great)
Supper: Split Pea Soup, baked sweet potatoes, and fresh bread with spreads

Tuesday:
Lunch: Lentil and vegetable stew (leftover from Sunday), sandwiches if anyone wants, using Monday's bread
Supper: Vegetable soup with noodles, Rice, Black bean "burgers"

Wednesday:
Lunch: Split pea soup (leftover from Monday) with some kind of muffins
Supper: Tuna patties with Wakame,  roasted potato wedges, salad

Thursday:
Lunch: any and all leftovers 
Supper: Eggplant lasagna (I have breaded eggplant in the freezer), baked ziti from the freezer for those who won't eat eggplant, Green Vegetable Soup

For snacks, we have muffins (my freezer is well stocked with muffins), banana cakes galore in the freezer, kiwis I picked up for 2 shekels/kg because they are funny shapes, oranges, and some homemade granola; We also have cakes from the kiddush in the freezer if there's any reason to pull out cake!

I truly hope I don't spend more than 50 shekels this week on groceries! Anyone else feel like doing a pantry challenge this week?

Looking for a new bank?

I'm about ready to switch banks.

I've done a bit of research and Bank Igud's terms seem fairly good to me.

No fee checking account - good!

  0% interest if I need to use my "minus" for whatever reason - good!

  3% interest on my "plus"! - excellent!

I'm sure the terms will change eventually, but with new regulations making it easier for consumers to switch banks, I guess we can play the banking game here too!

Check it out!


 

*this post contains affiliate links

Making "Kiddush"

We're celebrating another learning milestone. This time it is our daughter's turn to complete a seder of mishnayot, so we're making a kiddush. This has become somewhat of a tradition for us to make a kiddush when the kids reach these milestones. I still remember the first one. We sponsored the Kiddush at the Young Israel of Hollywood (FL) Youth Minyan... Now it's about 7 years later, and we are seasoned kiddush-makers! We may not do birthday parties, but we sure do Siyum Parties!

So here's the plan for this one:



Cherry Jam Cake

Cinnamon Cake

Chocolate Cake

Banana Coconut Cake

Granola Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Egg Salad

Roasted Eggplant Salad

Chumus

Crackers

Vegetable platter

Fruit Platter

And then drinks!

I think I have to get to work on this!

Do you ever make kiddushim? I'd love to hear what you do!

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