Help me be healthy in Israel

Log in / Sign Up

List of Forums + New Post Recipe Box Usergroups Following My Posts Bookmarks

Private Messages Advanced Search Rules New User Guide FAQ Advertise Contact Us

Forum -> Recipe Collection -> Healthy Cooking

Previous 1 2

View latest: 24h 48h 72h

Sanguine

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 8:04 am

It's a little odd for a gan to say only mezonot snack (cookies and cake?). It's always a fruit not junk. Maybe it's just a rule for this year which has different Shmitta hashgachot. The ganenet would have to sort all the garbage at the end of each day

amother

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 8:11 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Why does it matter the kind of cheese it is made from? And how much do the cheese sticks cost where you are from?

Real Mozzerela doesn't have any additives or chemicals and you can get a pack of 24 cheese sticks cholev yisroel at the Costco in Monsey for like $6.

finallyamommy

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 8:14 am

amother wrote:

Try looking at pennylessparenting.com she lives in Israel and cooks healthily

That's pennilessparenting.com. And I agree. She's one of my best friends and she's great at coming up with creative menus that are both inexpensive and healthy.

LisaS

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 8:30 am

I know exactly what you mean! Fresh delicious food is abundant here, but healthy food that you can pack for your kids to eat many hours later is a much smaller category of food.

No advice, just validation.

amother

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 8:37 am

amother wrote:

Real Mozzerela doesn't have any additives or chemicals and you can get a pack of 24 cheese sticks cholev yisroel at the Costco in Monsey for like $6.

Wish I lived in Monsey Very Happy

heidi

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 9:16 am

I have been through 6 years of gan cumulatively here, with one more to go. I have never never never had a ganenet discourage healthy food choices. In our ganim the kids are not allowed to bring anything for a snack that's not a fruit or a vegetable. I think you need to have a talk with the mifakachat of the gan. This sounds downright weird.
Shmitta is probably tough for you, and I'm sorry about that. I guess you can try to convince yourself that it's the yisurin of living in eretz yisrael.

Smile1234

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 11:30 am

OP, What area do you live in? Maybe we can recommend good fruits and veggies stores near you?

Also, does your area have a mechira schunati? The one near me only has badatz eidah hachareidis chu"l from arava dromit or jordan/europe. The fruits and veggies I've gotten there have been very nice overall.

amother

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 2:04 pm

OP here.

Thank you to everyone who responded. I really appreciate all the ideas.

I realize that I may have sounded negative in my post, sanguine, because I was extremely frustrated with this whole business at the time of writing it. I haven't done a lot of comparing between America and Israel since I moved here years ago, but lately I've started feeling disillusioned by some of the things here and it's made me miss some of the things I had in america. Which spurred me to write this post. I felt a little attacked by your post, to be honest. I didn't want to say it before but it's still bothering me hours later. I've been here for many years and I'm here for a reason. I love the life. But that doesn't mean I can't be frustrated by some things.

I realize what people said above is true. My mother didn't really know how to cook growing up, so while my meals weren't so healthy, the snacks were, since they were easy to buy. I guess that's why I have this image in my head of healthy eating as granola bars and baby carrots. I am not the super healthy type (I.e. quinoa and all that), and my husband is DEFINITELY not. He must have carbs to get full, and he really likes simple food like pasta and meat. I try to cut up veggies to put in a lunch sandwich but I usually can only get him to eat a few bites after he's already bentched! I have to learn to sneak them into his meals.

Today I made a big effort to go to the store and buy fruits and veggies. I cut up a lot and put them on a plate and the kids BH ate them. I wasn't able to find all the produce that I wanted - I've been here for two shmittah cycles and I know it's not only because of shmittah - but I will admit that once I made the effort, I was able to find. I could not find good tomatoes or sweet potatoes, they were all really gross, or any grapes, but I was able to get most of the stuff on my list.

You are right though that I think my main issue is the meals. I have a hard time planning meals because of all the things I mentioned. It does not bother me that my daughter eats a white bread sandwich in the morning. It bothers me that this is how her meals look like: Breakfast: sandwich Lunch: bread, maybe a yogurt Dinner: something not amazingly healthy

I only learned to cook after I got married, so I think I just need more ideas and practice to get it down. And the truth is, I am very weak and anemic (yes I'm taking pills) so I find it really daunting every time I have to go out shopping. I was really sick for a month and a half and today was my first day out, and the whole trip was so exhausting that I can't imagine going again in a few days to get more veggies (I could only take what I could push in the stroller with the kids up the hill, which wasn't tons).

I guess I should change what I'm looking to get out of this post to: Help me make good wholesome meals for my kids that they'll actually eat!

mommy321

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 2:26 pm

I hear you. I think it's the limited budget getting you down, and you seemed to hint that you're stretched very thin anyway, so your brain is not bursting with ideas.
When you have no money here, it's like- pasta is cheap and fills my kids. Everything else is expensive and doesn't fill them.

This is what I make for dinners/lunch (not gan lunch) when we have money for proteins:

tuna, and grilled potatoes- I put them on the grate rack in the oven for an hour.
eggs
meatballs/rice
hamburgers (no bun) with salad
shabbos leftover meals- cholent, chicken/potatoes, chicken soup with rice, and leftover cold stuff meal- fish/egg salad/tehina/veggie salads
homemade pizza from sourdough
veggie lentil soup, sometimes blended

I always make an israeli salad or at least have plate of cut up peppers, cucumbers.

I think the best snack available besides fruit/veg is rice cakes or almonds.

Gan is homemade bread sandwiches with peanut butter, and a peeled cucumber, and apple slices. My superfrum ganim are fine with that, shmitta and all. Your situation with that is unique, I think.

I don't know your background, but if its BT, there's a shock at being limited by kashrus, money, AND the foreign country (what's available), AND the foreign culture (what's 'accepted'- whoever cared what anyone else ate back in the day?).

I have the health food store problem, too. It's good to have an Rav on speed dial when you go- some things are beseder but you'd never know the difference.

amother

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 2:32 pm

mommy321 wrote:

OP here. Thank you for this post. It was really helpful. You totally understand me!

I think I'm just super exhausted between work and the kids and managing everything that I just don't have the koach to think of and prepare good meals. I work in the mornings while the kids are out, and then again in the evenings til really late. I don't sleep well at night and I feel stretched very thin.

Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?
- Do you have a good veggie lentil soup recipe that you could share?
- Do you make the hamburgers from scratch?
- How do you have time to make REAL food!

Thanks again, it was really helpful.

mommy321

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 2:33 pm

I LOVE Penniless P. but I'd say just ask a Rav before following the advice on foraging, mine said no heter due to the chashash of infestation. The biggest cooking lesson I learned from her is that no one is too poor to use spices, and they jazz up a lot of foods, especially repeat meals.

I try to use all of my leftovers- so with proteins, I've learned that if I make it pretty boring the first time (salt/pepper), then spicing up the leftovers 2nd time around isn't overkill.

Sanguine

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 2:35 pm

amother - I'm sorry I attacked you. I'm sorry if you felt attacked but your post sounded like a hysterical new Olah (Maybe I should be nicer to new olim) and I felt like just telling you to get a grip and learn to adjust and everthing will be fine (but you say you're not new here) -(I was going to play "guess who amother is" with all your hints but I really have no idea who you are and we're not in LII so you're safe from my game Smile

). Sorry I "attacked".

BTW - I think there's something wrong with your ganenet. As someone (I think Heidi) said, I've also had many years of gan and never never heard of a ganenet insisting on a mezonot snack and not a fruit or vegetable. It's always a sandwich plus fruit/vegetable. Many ganenets make you bring 2 - One for Aruchat esser and one to be cut and shared later.

amother

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 2:39 pm

OP here.

I've always had all the ganenot/metaplot say the same thing. But I'm going to try anyway tomorrow to send some veggies instead and see what happens!

I feel like this post has been some kind of therapy for me, haha. I'm starting to talk it out and now I see what my issues are.

I think my main issues are: planning my meals, and having energy to actually follow through with them.

How do people do this?? I have zero time in my day! (I'm working now, just stopped my clock to write this post.)

mommy321

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 2:45 pm

I am able to make some scratch stuff because I don't work as much as you. Kol Ha Kavod.

Lentil/veggie- soak a cup of lentils in fridge a day before if possible

a few hours before you need it:

Sautee onions in butter if it's milchig
Add other veggies (I use whatever I have- some combo of zucchini, red peppers, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin, a lot of fresh garlic) and stir, let them get a little done on the outside.
Add water to cover plus an inch or so
throw in lentils (they drink some of the water)
salt, pepper, garlic powder (you can always taste and add but can't subtract)

bring to boil, reduce to simmer, leave on for 2+ hours with lid on, on the smaller flame as long as it's still simmering
blend with an immersion stick blender

serve- croutons or grated cheese optional.

mommy321

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 2:52 pm

Hamburgers from scratch

(same mix as meatballs- often I use 1/2 for meatballs 1/2 for patties and make them at the same time for less setup/work for 2 meals)

meat
1/3 cup quick oats
salt
pepper
1-2 eggs

mix.
meatballs- shape small balls and drop in sauce made of sauteed onions, a can of pineapple including juice, 2 tomato pastes, salt/pepper, vinegar, and garlic powder (all this cooked up then blended, THEN add meatballs, cover, and simmer on low).

hamburgers- make balls the size of clementines, gently flatter in plan and fry both sides in shallow oil, don't crowd the pan. I sometimes add a squeeze of mustard to the 'hamburger' half of the meat mix, but not for the meatball half- the mustard won't jive with the meatball sweet-and-sourness.

amother

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 2:54 pm

Thank you so much, mommy321. You've really inspired me to get back on track and try again. I used to do these kinds of things but I got so tired of trying to balance everything that I settled into an easy (but not healthy) food routine.

This was really helpful and I am going to IYH try to get back on track.

Thank you!!!

mommy321

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 3:08 pm

amother wrote:

You're welcome, may you have parnasa b'shefa and lots of nachas from your yiddishe kinderlach. Smile

Dev80

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 3:15 pm

Good for you OP for wanting to take control back of the kitchen! Hopefully you'll find some easy and quick, healthy and filling ideas that you can rotate and the food prep won't take as much time. Ground turkey is a relatively cheap alternative (would probably cost you less than many dairy dinners). Also tilapia is relatively inexpensive and then you feel like you're eating another protein.

You may find this food blog helpful: http://morequicheplease.com/
she's vegetarian, living in israel, and a lot of the recipes are health conscious.

The snacks are hard, I also find my kids get bored of just crackers/pretzels everyday. Is dried fruit healthy? My kids like some dried fruit like craisins/raisins. There are also breadsticks that are about 9-10 shekels a package that are yummy and hopefully better than a lot of other snacks.

This is a great thread and you are so justified in that you are having a hard time finding time/energy to prepare meals for your family, so don't think there's anything wrong with you!

ora_43

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 5:07 pm

OP, you mentioned shopping at a store farther away. Just in case you didn't know, a lot of grocery stores offer online shopping, at least in cities.

What helped me with healthy cooking was getting more gadgets for my kitchen. I used to not see the point of kitchen gadgets at all - why have a rice cooker when you can just cook rice on the stove, etc. I now have a rice cooker, food processor and slow cooker. It makes it much easier to make healthy meals, because chopping vegetables is so much faster and because food can be cooking when I'm out of the house.

About snacks - my kids like fruit, pita with hummus, red peppers, veggie sticks, yogurt (I get the plain yogurts sometimes, and let them add a bit of silan or jelly), potatoes and sweet potatoes (which they can prepare themselves in the microwave. (We also have a microwave... )). In case any of that works for you.

SJcookie

Mon, Feb 16 2015, 6:25 pm

DH and I used to be very much into healthy eating (and we also only eat certain hechsherim, so I know it is not always easy). We're trying to get back into it...
For breakfast: you can serve granola trailmix (granola, craisins, diced apricots, and some chopped nuts), freshly squeezed orange juice (this is actually extremely easy to do if you have a juicer), oatmeal with fresh cut up fruit, yogurt with some honey and cinnamon, hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese muffins (chossidmom has a great recipe posted on this site), etc.
For lunch: well - I sympathize, as my son only agrees to eat PB/jelly and chocolate spread. So I put it on whole wheat bread. Peanut butter, although fattening, is very healthy. You can add in a banana. Many kids like that combo.
Dinner: protein like grilled chicken (or baked shnitzelim - I bake my shnitzelim by just dipping the cutlets in mustard and then dipping them in crushed seasoned cornflakes or breadcrumbs), mock shwarma (baked or fried chicken breast in shwarma spice), scrambled eggs, schnitzel fish or baked fish with lemon, garlic, parsley, etc.
carbs/side dishes can be brown rice with mushrooms, whole wheat pasta w/ tomato sauce or homemade pesto sauce, mashed sweet potato, baked potatoes, roasted vegetables (whatever is in season - potatoes, carrots, parsnip, beets, etc.), steamed green beans...
And a nice big Israeli salad. You can throw in some olives and pickles - Israeli kids love those Very Happy

I struggle in the snack department. Lately I have been trying to make homemade smoothies (we have a cheap 100 nis blender and it works great for smoothies) with whatever fruit I can find + yogurt. Cut up fruits, apple with peanut butter, carrot/celery sticks with salad dressing, pita triangles with humus or gvina levana, homemade whole wheat apple muffins, carrot muffins, banana-chocolate chip muffins, oatmeal craisin cookies, etc.

good luck!!

Page 2 of 2

Previous 1 2