Back-To-School Tradition

What kind of traditions do you have for back-to-school?

Here's one of ours...(each one taken the day before school starts)

Kindergarten:

First Grade:

Second Grade:

Pretty neat to see how he has grown each year...
That's what works for me. What works for you?

Don't forget to click over for a chance to win a $20 gift certificate to Lovable Labels! 
(ends Thursday)

Zucchini is Delicious!

My neighbor has a much bigger garden than mine. Today she came over with this zucchini. (Pardon the quality, it was taken with my Blackberry. The glasses are there for size comparison. It was massive!)

She gently challenged me to make zucchini bread - she would make some and I would make some, and we would compare! (She had another of these giant zucchini with which to work.) Always game for a bake-off, I shredded the whole thing in my Cuisinart:

Um, that's a LOT of grated zucchini! (Turns out, by the way, enough for about 6-8 loaves of zucchini bread)

Super-Yummy Zucchini Bread
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 3 eggs
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
* 1 1/2-2 cups white sugar (depends on how sweet you like things...I think the cinnamon-sugar topping and crust makes it really sweet.)
* 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups grated zucchini
* cinnamon and sugar for topping

1. Grease and cinnamon/sugar two 8 x 4 inch loaf pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on top.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

This recipe totally freezes well. I will cut it up, wrap each slice in plastic wrap, put the pieces into a freezer bag, and freeze it. That way we can take out just one slice for a quick home-baked breakfast, snack, or lunchbox treat! If there's any left...

 

The proof is in the faces!

(Going back to the idea of the bake-off, my neighbor's zucchini bread was mighty tasty too. She made a recipe with sweet potatoes!)

And that's what works for me this week.

Hulling Strawberries - WFMW

There is a lot of controversy about strawberries in kosher circles. Here in the Ima-house (I take this funny turn-of-phrase from my kindred spirit over at the FrummieHouse...), we don't keep a formal style of Kashrut. It's perhaps a longer post, but in a nutshell, I have a little bit of trouble with the whole hechsher concept - how can I "accept" the hechsher of an organization that wouldn't recognize my own religious observance? So basically, we keep a vegetarian household - as organic and natural as we can get - using few prepared foods that would require a hechsher anyway.

All that said....I also am not as meticulous as kosher cooks are about things like strawberries. In fact, when I decided to write this post, I realized that this style of hulling strawberries will in fact render the strawberries un-kosher because they shouldn't have a hole in them. Oh well....

I can't remember where I learned this strawberry-hulling trick, but here it is. I was told once that the center part of a strawberry is bitter and should be cut out before consuming. This trick accomplishes that with very little waste to the strawberry. It also removes the greenery, which is for some reason offensive to my children.

You need: strawberries and a drinking straw

Stick the straw into the strawberry from the bottom end, up through the middle. Look what happens:

And voila, a neatly hulled strawberry. Wash and it's ready to eat!

It's best to avoid doing this until just before eating, if you can, since unwashed and uncut strawberries will last longer in your refrigerator.

That's what works for me!
See what works for other people over here....

It's Alright to Cry

We had a LOT of onions in the house.

Way more than I could use all at once. So, I chopped 'em up.
Did you know that you can freeze onions?

Well, you can. Here are all those onions, all chopped up and headed for my freezer. To be used whenever chopped onions are called for in a recipe!

I don't know if it's scientifically proven but I find that when I chop onions with my contact lenses in, no tears. Except when chopping quite this quantity. There were definitely tears.

What other interesting things can you freeze?

I used some of my onion chopping to make this Brown Rice and Lentil Casserole. (I've adapted it a bit)

• 3 cups broth (today I used Very Veggie Juice (Thanks Dad!) instead of broth. 2 1/2 cups of juice and 1/2 cup water)
  
• 3/4 cup lentils
• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• can of mushrooms (didn't have any fresh on hand)
  
• season salt, pepper, garlic, basil, parsley
  
• 1 cup grated cheese (cheddar is what I had, I also added parmesan (which I keep in the freezer))

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.Mix all ingredients except the cheese in a baking dish (I use an 11 x 7). Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes. Then remove the foil, add the cheese, and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

 

I served it with spinach salad and baked tofu. Super yummy. 

This is what works for me. Go see what works for other people.

Pumpkin Carob Muffins

Around here, we celebrate Muffin Tuesday (and Pancake Wednesday and Waffle Thursday). Yes, it's the Ima's Breakfast Menu!

This means that I regularly have to be making muffins for my family to eat. They're relatively picky about the kind of muffins that they like.

Last month I got a pumpkin in my CSA delivery and as I was pureeing it, decided I would make muffins. I browsed through my cookbooks and found a recipe that sounded promising in Jennifer McCann's Vegan Lunch Box cookbook. I haven't made a lot of the recipes in it but I glanced through the recipe and decided to go for it.

Only after I mixed up the batter did I even realize that, duh, there weren't any eggs in it! (That would be the whole vegan thing...) I worried how they would come out and was very happily surprised that not only did they fluff up nicely, they tasted great and were a big hit with my kids.

And - they froze beautifully, were made with whole wheat flour, and were completely pareve (if you don't use real chocolate chips)!

This recipe is definitely a keeper. This week I made a double batch.

Pumpkin Carob Chip Muffins from Vegan Lunch Box

2 changes that I made to the original recipe: I didn't have any flax seed, which I think will just make it healthier, and I used real semi-sweet chocolate chips, which de-veganized the recipe (but I'm not), because I don't stock carob chips in my pantry!

makes 12 muffins

1 cup plain canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
2 TB ground flax seed
1 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1/3 cup vegan carob chips
Cinnamon Sugar

Preheat the oven to 350º. Spray a nonstick muffin tin sprayed well with nonstick spray, or line the tin with paper muffin cups and spray the cups with nonstick spray. Set aside.

Put the pumpkin, water, canola oil, ground flax seed, and vanilla in a blender and process on high for at least one minute, until light in color and well-blended. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the pumpkin mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon or large spatula until well-blended. Fold in the carob chips.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, distributing evenly to make 12 muffins. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with some cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a cake tested inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then use a spatula to gently lift each muffin from the muffin tin. Finish cooling on a wire rack.

Go see what works for other people here!
And this post is also being posted to the Kosher Cooking Carnival.

Look, it's me!

A few weeks before Chanukah, my son's preschool sent home a construction-paper cut-out in the shape of a house. We were asked to, in some way, fill the paper will a representation of how we celebrate Chanukah in our homes. Oh yeah, and we were supposed to do it (I gathered) with the kiddo.)

I may seem like a really creative, do-it-all kind of mom, but sometimes these things just stump me. I'm not sure I know how to do a project like this with my kid who doesn't really remember last Chanukah?

So instead, I went through my Picasa photos and grabbed half a dozen pictures of last year's Chanukah. Did you know that from Picasa you can send directly to lots of print companies? Walgreens is my favorite for quick printing, because it's right down the street and usually can print within an hour or two. I printed up the pictures, picked them up, taped them down on the paper and voila! Dropped it off at school with the kidlet.

After Winter Break they sent the paper home...and I asked...what do we do with it now? I always feel reluctant to throw away photos. So I taped it up in the kitchen right at kid-height.

You know what? They love it. Absolutely love it. My two little ones run over to it, name all the people, and run away.

It is such a great way to have a photo gallery up for the kids to look at and touch. I don't worry that they're going to "ruin" the pictures or anything like that.

This is one that really works for me, and I'm going to do it again soon with Purim pictures. I'm so excited.

Go see what works for other people.

--

Also....Jack's latest update on Gaza is here and keep your eyes on Muqata and IsraellyCool for the latest liveblogging. It's hard to believe we're on Day 16 of this....my heart is in the east.

Have you met Bruce The Hanukkah Moose? - Giveaway!

Day 4 of the Chanukah Countdown Party continues!

I am a storyteller. It's one of my favorite things to do anytime of year. I'm always looking for new holiday and Shabbat stories to share.

A new book came my way: Bruce Bruce the Hanukkah Moose

While at first I was skeptical, it's a pretty cute book. It's a common technique in children's books in general, but not in typically in Jewish children's books: animals acting like people serving as all the characters in the book. It is such a freeing idea - if you want to see yourself in the story, you can. Unlike so many Jewish children's books in which the characters are "traditionally observant" Jews, these animals are contemporary and pretty "normal" (except that they are furry, of course). The rabbi in the story is, of course, an owl (isn't he cute?). And Bruce is a cute moose who hasn't grown into his antlers yet.

The book is beautifully illustrated, brightly colored and fun to look at. It comes with a CD including an audio version of the story as well as an original song (which wasn't exactly my favorite Chanukah song, but it was enjoyable...click here to hear the song!) My kids love audio books so I know that will be a hit with them.

Plus a portion of the proceeds go to planting trees in Israel.

All of this adds up to a nice addition to the world of Jewish children's literature! This book definitely works for me.

If you'd like to order your own copy of Bruce Bruce the Hanukkah Moose, click over here to purchase.

Or, before you buy, win a copy of Bruce Bruce the Hanukkah Moose! The authors/publishers have so kindly sent me a copy give away here.

To enter, leave a comment on this post!

Earn an extra entry by tweeting about it. Let me know below in the comments.

Comments will close at 8am Thursday, December 18th.

Come back all week and next for some great Chanukah posts and giveaways!
Comments closed....the winner is....TechyDad! @techydad Mazel tov!!!

Join in the Chanukah Countdown Party - feel free to grab my badge above and link back here with your own Chanukah posts! How do you celebrate, what's your favorite observance, favorite tips and tricks, etc...

P.S. To see and buy some of my other favorite Chanukah books, check out my Amazon Affiliates Shoppe.

The Ima's Breakfast Menu

I am so tired of fighting over breakfast. Most of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook know that my kids have been getting up super-early lately, and then can be crabby. (Me too!) This means that they tend to fight about whatever I offer for breakfast. And I really believe that giving choices just invites problems. Also, we have been going through frozen waffles like crazy and they're not so cheap!

So I invented the "Breakfast Menu."
Not only did I make a menu, but I now make a big deal about each day's food.

Here's the Menu:

Monday: Yogurt and Cereal
Tuesday: Muffins (and cereal)
Wednesday: Pancakes
Thursday: (Frozen) Waffles
Friday: CheeseToast & cereal
(Saturday and Sunday are more free-for-alls....)

The biggest hits are, of course, Muffin Tuesday and Pancake Wednesday. These even have songs composed in their honor.

How, you might ask, do I serve muffins in the morning? I make them over the weekend or whenever I have time and freeze them, of course! Pancake Wednesday is a little trickier. Sometimes I measure out all the "pancake sugar" (as David called it once) the night before. But today I made this recipe for a Baked Pancake (found via this great blog) and it was a huge hit. One of my kids even said: "Pancake Wednesday should always be this kind of pancake!" (I think I could measure it all into the blender, refrigerate overnight, and then whizz it up in the morning for a really speedy thing.)

Hey, it works for me.

Using Cloth Napkins - Works for Me!

About six months ago, I decided we were just creating too much garbage.

Remember, there are a lot of people living in my house. And we eat at home a lot.

Paper towels and napkins were being used at an alarming rate.

First we switched to kitchen towels instead of paper.

I went and got about a dozen extra towels (love Target) and committed to using them instead of paper towels. We kept our paper towel dispenser, but our consumption has gone down to about one roll a week. When do I use the paper towels? When we're out of the cloth ones (oops, forgot to do laundry) and occasionally for certain kinds of messes, like paint, which would stain the towels permanently. Otherwise, we've all become accustomed to the cloth towels.

Then I brought up the idea of cloth napkins.

And interestingly, my family went along with it just fine!

I ordered these wonderful napkins (and snack bags) from Gnome Clothes, a great little etsy store. They're a nice soft flannel, in different colors, and my kids love them.

(And then I hit Cost Plus and found a whole bunch of napkins on super clearance. I didn't care what color, and they are great.)

But the best part of the whole thing is this: I bought, while at Cost Plus, a pretty little wicker garbage can. And I leave it in the kitchen for the dirty napkins and towels. When it's full, we take it downstairs and wash napkins and towels. Perfect, don't you think?

We have cut our napkin use down to zero. I even put the cloth ones into lunch boxes.

(Except when we had a large party outside the other night. We actually had to look for paper napkins.)

What other disposables can we ditch?

I'm still working on it, and you can too, with Amy's challenge: Ditch the Disposables.

This napkin thing is working great for me.
Go see what other things are working for folks here....

Eat this Lunch

So...I'm sure you (my 6 loyal readers) have wondered where I've been! I haven't commented on your blogs. I haven't been posting to my own. (Maybe that's because there are 829 posts in my Google Reader right now and that just seems intimidating.) I haven't installed the new Chrome browser. I haven't been twittering...much. Let's just say getting school started for the kidlets has made me b-u-s-y!

Not to mention there are a few holidays coming up soon.

I had big plans for my blog for the month of Elul. And while Elul isn't quite over yet (thank heavens, since I'm not at all ready for that), I think I might not quite get to a big Elul fest around here. But I will work on it. Stay tuned.

Just to show you what kinds of things I've been doing (and enjoying mightily, I must add), here is a sample of the kinds of lunches I've been packing. Will these lovely masterpieces continue for the whole year? Well, the kids have got to eat, and not school-lunch-food. So...probably.



Isn't it pretty? Not quite as ambitious as some. But it works for me!

(And those of you 6 loyal readers know that I usually participate in the Works-for-me-Wednesday carnival. Wouldn't this have done nicely? But you see, since I've been living in the non-online world, I didn't notice the memo that it was a Backwards Edition this week. Oops. Oh well.)

Growing Things....

Yes, I know I haven't posted lately. And yes, I know that I haven't wrapped up camp.

But life does seem to be moving on quickly, and now that we're home, we're busily catching up and revisiting all the things that we left behind for two weeks! When I left, these cute tomatoes were not even in existence! And now...look at them...


And there were super-tiny pepper buds but now there's this really long pepper!

(Actually, does anyone know -- this is a "Red Chili Pepper" plant -- is it going to turn red on the vine?)

It's pretty amazing that this little garden is growing without much assistance from me. We've been watering it (okay, my mother-in-law and God watered while we were gone) and I staked the plants, but I wouldn't say that I've done much else. Maybe it's time to mulch? But I do think that leaving it alone works for me. Or maybe I'm just lucky!? Who knows....

I'm already planning next year's garden. Maybe we should eat some tomatoes first.

The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting

Wow. I am totally in love with this lecture, The Gifts of Imperfect Parenting by Brené Brown that I've been listening to. I was lucky enough to win a book from her blog (it was so good, by the way) and when she mailed it, she threw in a copy of her recorded lecture. I had no idea what a gift she was giving to me.

{{{{Deep breath}}}}

I am so excited about it, I keep sharing bits with my husband, my friends, my colleagues, basically anyone who will listen to me. And I'm not even done with it yet.

So far, this is the basic idea that permeates all that I've heard:

“What if our children are imperfect when they get here and it’s our job to teach them loving-kindness?”

A while ago, I wrote this in an interview for Bella...

I want to be patient and quiet and unruffled. My children teach me daily that I'm not any of those things quite yet. I want to be loving and joyful and strong. My children teach me daily that these are what I have to be.

What I love about the connection between these two ideas is that not only are my kids imperfect (and that imperfect is OKAY), but I'm imperfect too...and that's part of life.

I feel like I have so much more to process and consider and think about thanks to Brené. My mind is racing, I have so many ideas and thoughts on how to integrate and accept and use her beautiful words.

A few more thoughts: First of all, Brené is running a track-by-track commentary on her blog for the whole CD. It's great. And since she writes like she talks, I can now hear her voice. Which cracks me up. Secondly, run, do not walk, to buy this CD. Trust me on this one.

This is definitely working for me right now. Go see what's working for other people.

Books and Tzedakah - What Could Be Better?

I am so excited to have found this project that Skip to My Lou is doing. Sign me up!

From Skip To My Lou's post:
While we are encouraging our children to read this summer we can be helping poor families all over the world! Read to Feed is a reading motivation/service learning program from Heifer International. Children are inspired to read more books for pleasure, while raising money, through sponsored reading, to help end world hunger and improve the environment.

I am so in love with this idea for so many reasons.

1. I am always looking for cool ideas to encourage my son to love to read.
2. I am always looking for ways to help my kids learn about tikkun olam, our responsibility to repair the world.
3. I love Heifer International and all that they do. I think their concept is so simple and yet so amazing. I use their animals-as-gifts idea for so many things (including Father's Day....) and I'm always recommending them to Bar and Bat Mitzvah students.
4. How amazing to put these things all together into a summer project!

The Read to Feed site is not working quite yet, but you can go check out Heifer's site as well as Skip to My Lou's site and join in the reading-and-helping-others party!

(I'm actually drawing a link-blank on how I got to this project, so to the great blogger who sent me her way -- thank you! I'd also like to point out how things work out...I have been catching up on blog reading, trying desperately to think about what Wednesday's post would be...and then I found this! The blog-world works for me!)

I'm Having a Quickie too!

One person in my house likes to take looooooooonnnngggg showers.

Guess who.

It's not me.
It's not my husband.
It's not the little ones.
It's the 6 year old.

Yep, he likes to take long, steamy showers.

(Me, I can go from pre-shower to fully dressed for work in about 15 minutes!)

So when I saw that the Crunchy Domestic Goddess has a Quickie Shower Challenge, I knew this was the way to do it!

I told David all about my friend Amy, who lives in Colorado, and that she had a challenge for him. He was very excited, he even wanted to do it in under five minutes (which we did). And not only did David take a shower in about 2 1/2 minutes, he did it with his brother Sam!

Aren't you impressed that I showered two of my children in under 5 minutes?
They were really clean too.
Who knew that all it took was a timer challenge!? The allure of a challenge for a 6-year-old.

The only downside? Since Sam didn't quite get the idea of the "challenge" (2 years old is a little young to get it, right?), he was pretty upset at the abrupt end to his shower. We'll work on it.

Later in the evening, I even showed David Amy's blog and had him read the headline on the post. I introduced him to her children and we talked about all the ways that we can help the environment. He even told me that in his Kindergarten class they have cups with their name on them instead of throwing them out each day. I had no idea they were so environmentally-aware in his school.

I'm quite excited about this opportunity to cut down on our water usage.

According to Amy, "reducing the length of your shower by just one minute could save you up to 1,825 gallons of water each year." Wow! You can join the challenge too....

There are even cool shower timers available, although we used the kitchen timer. (Later, we timed toothbrushing too. I think I'm getting a bathroom timer.)

This is what is working for me this week!

P.S. The Kosher Cooking Carnival is up...take a peek!

Aren't they cute?

I'm not a gardener. Never have really grown or taken care of anything plant-like.

But somehow, I feel a yen to grow vegetables. (I'm still not taken with the idea of flowers, although they are pretty.) It seems a little like a requirement to start becoming greener...to eat some tomatoes that weren't grown halfway across the world.

I've started reading some gardening blogs. Just a few, mind you, I'm not going overboard here! And, thanks to eating lots of Stonyfield Farms yogurt (a whole other post...how much yogurt my kids eat), I now have a free subscription to Organic Gardening magazine.

So I decided to try "container" gardening. I bought a few big bins, put in some soil, and bought these cool plants that come in pots that don't have to be thrown away! That is the part that worked really well, by the way.

So here they are: three different kinds of tomatoes, oregano, basil, chili peppers, and some lettuce seeds.




Grow babies, grow!

So here are my questions, o wise Internet:

1. I used some organic potting soil mixture that had some composty-type things in it. When I flipped over the bags at home to cut them open, it said "not for containers." (Actually, it was after I had loaded almost all the dirt into the containers that I noticed this sign.) Why? Will it be a problem?

2. I bought a "tomato tower" because my dad assures me that they are going to get bigger. When do I put it in?

3. Besides water and sunlight, what else do I have to do? (For my halachically-minded readers, do the laws of first fruits apply to gardens, or only to gardens in Eretz Yisrael, or not to gardens at all? I've never paid a lot of attention to these laws, not being the growing-things-type.)

Hopefully this will all work for me!

What doesn't work...

...believing that the tie-dye shirts from the store that say they are color-safe really are.

Even after a few washes.

'Nuff said.

What doesn't work for other folks? Check it out here.

-----
Every spring Jewish Women International's Mother’s Day Flower Project sends beautiful bouquets of flowers to 150 battered women’s shelters across the U.S. in time for Mother’s Day, while it raises funds for programs that help victims of domestic violence throughout the year.

What a fabulous way to honor your mom or any other woman in your life. Click here to make your gift! You can't get an actual card delivered in time for Mother's Day anymore but you definitely can get an e-card...so if you're still deliberating, try this out...I know it will make a difference to your mom and to other moms too.

Matzah Brei Variations....

Have you ever had Matzah brei? It is one of my favorite Passover foods. Basically, it's like matzah French toast. But better and with more variations. It's also a GREAT way to use up matzah. (because it uses a lot but many people will eat it!)

(Like most "traditional" foods, you might hear that Bubbie's is "the only way" to make it "right." But I promise you, there are a lot of variations...endless!)

A basic recipe:
Take about 5-6 boards of matzah. Crush them up in a big bowl. Put in some warmish water and let soak for a few minutes while you do the next step. Crack about 5 eggs into a bowl (egg substitute does work), scramble. Some people add milk. Some don't. If you're planning to make the matzah brei savory, then add salt and pepper to the eggs. If you're planning sweet, then don't. Drain the matzah, squeezing out as much water as possible. Add the eggs to the matzah and mix it up. Then heat some butter in a large frying pan and pour the mixture in. If you like it pancake style, then let it cook until you can flip it. If that is too complicated, then just stir it around as it cooks until it's all done. Serve...with salt and pepper, or syrup, or jam, or honey...

Okay, some variations:
- Saute onions in the pan before you add the matzah/egg mixture.
- Saute the onions. Add some lox (smoked salmon) to the matzah/egg mixture and cook.
- After it's mostly cooked up, add about a cup of pico de gallo and a few handfuls of shredded cheese. Mix well, until warm through, and serve with guacamole, salsa, and sour cream.
- Saute spinach, mushrooms, artichokes, you name it and add in. Add a little garlic too. Why not?
- Add cream cheese, lox and green onions into the cooked matzah brei.
- (I'm a vegetarian but I know that some people add salami...then you wouldn't want to add milk, of course.)
- Add cinnamon and sugar to the matzah/egg mixture.
- Soak the matzah in warm apple juice instead of water. Add few dashes of vanilla and cinnamon to the matzah/egg mixture.
- Chocolate chips go over huge.
- Chop up strawberries, mangos, bananas, etc and add to the matzah/egg mixture before cooking.
- Toppings: chocolate syrup, melted white chocolate chips, caramel sauce, raspberry sauce, dust with powdered sugar...use your imagination!!!!
- Some people use Matzah farfel to make it, which is actually just pre-crushed matzah. Why do they sell this stuff? We can just break up our own, you know. Sometimes the farfel is finer/softer than regular matzah but this year it is clearly just broken-up matzah. Whatever.

Each year we have a Matzah brei cook-off at our synagogue on the first day of Pesach, before services. I, ahem, have been the winner on a couple of occasions...I make a mean matzah brei. The other night I had it with lox and onions and then, um, added maple syrup. It might sound weird but that's how I like it! This year I made the Mexican variation at our temple event and it was a huge hit.

That's what works for me. How 'bout you?

(Yes, those are Matzah boxers...available at Menschenables Judaica. If you think that this is a necessity for your Pesach observance, of course.)

Yummy and Healthy Pancakes

In the spirit of using up everything in the house before Pesach (Passover) comes, here's my newest favorite healthy pancake recipe...

Using Hogdsen Mills Whole Wheat mix, I follow the directions for "apple pancakes" and add a cup of applesauce (or whatever mushed up fruit I can find, I used up some leftover babyfood bananas and prunes once too!), instead of regular oil, I use flaxseed oil, and I add some cocoa powder and cinnamon for a kick. Plus, of course, a few chocolate chips in each pancake. That way the kids think they're getting a treat and I know they're getting a really healthy breakfast! Plus, they keep really well in the fridge or freezer...and of course they taste great.

Even better with some fake sausage on the side.

Yum!

That's what works for me today.
Come back tomorrow for some great last-minute Passover tips!

I ♥ a greener Target!

Seriously, though, doesn't everyone ♥ Target?

And now even moreso...because Target has...reusable shopping bags!


Not only that, but they're cute and red.

AND they have, along with the usual flat-bottomed ones, ones that zipper back into a handy little pouch that fits nicely into my purse.


Oh...I think I've gone to Target heaven!

Why is no one making a bigger deal of this!?


But...I must admit, the checkout clerk tried to put my re-usable bags into the plastic ones. We straightened that out right quick. She did put the ice cream into a little plastic bag before I caught her (didn't notice until I got home) but I guess that's okay.

Small steps, people, small steps.

This week's Works for Me Wednesday is a "Greatest Hits edition." My post here is basically a continuation of this one, which I think was one of my favorite WFMW posts. What works for you?

Putting my Money Where My Mouth Is...

As I've said before, I'm not a big fan of Halloween. It's overdone, it's overhyped, it's over-sugared, not to mention that it's not exactly based on my religion.

On the other hand, I'm a big fan of Purim. The two holidays are not equivalent in any way (let me be very clear about that) in their meaning or purpose, but they do have the costume thing in common. At the age of 6, which my oldest is, that is the thing that he notices the most. (I know he'll learn more about the holiday and learn to appreciate it for what it is, but for now, it's all about the costume.)

Here's how the Halloween thing went this past year in my house:
David: Mom, I want to be an Ice Ninja for Halloween.
Me: That costume costs $40.
Him: So will you buy it?
Me: Nope. You have to earn the money yourself!

And so he did. As well as a then-5-year-old could (extra chores, helping out, saving gifts, etc). So I bought him the costume once we had the money in hand (and I didn't make him pay for the shipping....aren't I a nice mom?)

Now, you might think that I would have my kid wear the same ($40) costume for Purim.
But not so.

David: Mom, I want to be Harry Potter for Purim.
Me: Hmm...

So I bought him a Harry Potter costume. For about $40. I even bought a light-up wand.
And I reminded him as I gave it to him that he earned the other costume but this one was a special Purim gift. And I think he got it.

What did I learn?
I have to put my money where my values are. I have to show my kids that when it's important to me, I'll buy. Purim is important to me and I want my kids to be excited about it, to wait for it eagerly, to love it! And you know what...he really loved wearing his Harry Potter costume for our Purim Carnival (and hopefully to the one my husband will be taking him to on Friday while I'm back in Israel)

This is what works for me.
I ♥ Purim!

See what Frume Sarah has to say today...our Purim Party is going strong!

P.S. I'll be in Israel again starting tomorrow, just until Tuesday. Please try not to post anything earth-shattering, okay, since I won't be reading blogs. You can, however, follow my trip here at my blog!