A friend of mine from New York recently emailed me this recipe. She wrote, “Thought of you the other night. We made a delish dairy-free, sugar-free banana ‘ice cream’ with a bit of chopped salty almonds and maple syrup on top!! Yum-yum for sure. Gwyneth Paltrow recipe (of all things! I know) but it was actually super tasty.”
It’s definitely a QuickQuickYumYum recipe, and the best part, it doesn’t require an ice cream maker! Thank you, Lori! Continue reading
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# 1. Make chocolate pralines or chocolate bars together – it’s easy, fun, delicious and exciting at any age. I’m not sure who was more excited to make them, me, or my five-year-old Alex. You start making them with the 5-year-old, then, minutes later, the 10-year-old wants to join and help lick everything that touched the chocolate bowl. The inspiration came from one of the lates posts at David Lebovitz’s great blog – a chocolate bar recipe – but the recipe is my own. Continue reading
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Our little one, Alex (aka Alexander, aka Jacob, aka Sooshi) is obsessed with names.
Yesterday when I picked him up from school he told me he doesn’t want to be called Alex anymore, not even Alexander, from now on he is Franklin. Last month, when we put together his first art book, he insisted on giving a name to each one of the creatures he drew. And when I said that a orange with red juice is called a blood orange, he said, “No, it’s not, it’s called fire orange or red orange.” Continue reading
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Eema (me): “Alex, this is delicious, are you sure you don’t want to be a pastry chef when you grow up?”
Alex: “What is a pastry chef?”
Eema: “A pastry chef is someone who makes cakes and cookies for a living.”
Alex: “What is for a living?”
Eema: “‘For a living’ is for money. You get money for making sweet things.”
Alex: “Can I be a pastry chef now, and a spy when I grow up?”
Eema: “Sure, why not, that’s a good idea.”
Alex: “How much money do I get for the cake I just made?”
Eema: “I’ll pay you one dollar for making the cake, and ten dollars if you clean up the kitchen.”
I didn’t know what to eat first, the cake he made, or him. He and his cakes are the yummiest things in my life. Our little baking magician is only five, and already shows some serious talent. His chocolate chopped cookies are well known for their flavor, texture and appearance. Whenever I buy or make chocolate chip cookies, Leo always says, “They’re good, but Alex’s are better.” If you haven’t tried his chocolate chopped cookies, you must! Continue reading
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Life sucks when you are intolerant to dairy. I have no doubt that my life could have been ten times better and sweeter if I could just eat some stinky cheeses or buttery pastries, without having to pay the price.
Creativity and improvisation in the kitchen are the name of the game when dealing with allergy restrictions and frustrations. (God, how I envy those people – like my husband – who can drink their lattes with milk, and can eat a big bowl of cereal, minutes before bedtime, then sleep through the night without snoring or going through an entire package of tissue!)
Three days ago, an amazing cake came out of my hideous frustration. I swear, you would never guess that there is olive oil in the cake instead of butter (NEVER margarine or any other poor substitute). I know olive oil sounds like a turn-off, but, believe me, it blends in very well. (So does coconut oil.) None of the people who ate this cake suspected that it’s non-dairy.
For a while now, I’ve been fantasizing about a real pear pie, with butter and cream, like Karin Goren’s recipe, but I know that it would cost me my health, so I give up. Luckily, this improvised cake came out just as good as the one in my fantasies, and managed to calm my taste buds and the frustration.
Again, Alex’s help made the cake magical and yummy. Just as good as the muffins he made two weeks ago. Continue reading
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There are days when I am like a Moroccan grandmother. I spend all day in the kitchen. Last Monday was one of those days.
After preparing a nice little breakfast for the kids (a banana raspberry smoothy and toast with avocado) and a lunch box (whole-wheat pita bread with omelet, grape tomatoes & sliced cucumber on the side), I sent them to school and went to the West Hollywood Farmers Market. I bought two big bags packed with a large variety of beautiful produce.
When I got back home from the market, I went straight into the kitchen to continue with the Idli Rava preparation I started the day before. Idli Rava is an Indian breakfast dish that my lovely neighbor, Satya, introduced to me. After I tried it at her house a few times and fell in love with it, she taught me how to make it. I am still debating if I should publish the recipe on the blog. It’s not exactly quick-quick, but it’s definitely yum-yum, and it’s also very healthy (it’s mostly protein).
After I finished making the Idli, which took a bit of time, I took a short break to drink my morning tea (rooibos) and eat a few Idlis as a late breakfast, with a tomato chutney I made while the idlis were steaming in the pot.
Later I emptied the bags from the market, and tidied up the refrigerator and the pantry. While organizing the pantry, all the noodles reminded me that Leo and Alex had been asking me for a while now to make Pad Thai. So that’s what I prepared for lunch.
In the afternoon, Alex the Sugar Junkie asked me, “Can I have something sweet?” As if the strawberries he had earlier were not sweet. The truth is that I was also craving something sweet, so I didn’t mind making something. This clumsy stubborn little boy insisted on doing everything himself, including a big mess, some flour and egg that never made it into the bowl. Never mind the mess. What’s important is that, somehow, his baked goods come out delicious every time. Seriously, everything he bakes is amazing. The muffins were excellent. These poor kids, who always complain, “How come we never have sweets in our lunch bags?” were finally happy to find these muffins in their lunch box the next day.
Of course, that wasn’t even the last thing I made that day. Later on, I made a light dinner, starting with a big healthful salad from all the veggies and herbs I had gotten at the market, and a lovely omelet of freshly picked free-range eggs, also from the market. Continue reading
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The idea of making this wickedly good snack came from Nature Vally. A couple of days ago, when I picked up the kids from school, I took the neighbor’s kids, too, and one of them pulled a Nature Valley granola bar out of their backpacks. Although they shared it with my kids, Alex wasn’t satisfied.
“It’s not fair! We never buy real snacks.”
“Those are not real snacks,” I said, “and they’re not very healthy.”
“Yes they are! It says 100% natural!”
Before I could respond, Leo, who hates it when Alex whines, snapped at him. “100% natural doesn’t mean anything! It can be 100% natural crap, don’t you know that?” That’s my boy!
When we got home, Sophia, the neighbor-friend , who is Leo’s age (9), and is always willing to cook something, asked if we can make something. I knew exactly what we should make.
“How would you like to make real granola bars? Less sweet and healthier than the one you had in the car.” I could see she was happy to make them, but a bit skeptical. For her, it was like making cereal. How the heck do you make homemade cereal?
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