Healthy Parve Meals for the Nine Days

FranticFrummie

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 5:05 am

I make variations on pasta salads with assorted veggies. Use different salad dressings on it to change up the flavors. Use asian noodles with soy based dressings. Easy to fix and it doesn't heat up the kitchen. All salads are great to eat cold, so you can have them any time and don't have to reheat them.

Quinoa salad, couscous, tuna sandwiches, fresh veggie platter with dip. Hard boiled eggs are good to keep on hand, either to slice and mix into salad, or just to grab for a quick protein fix.

saw50st8

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 6:57 am

boysrus wrote:

LIKE!

precisely that. I always find it surprising when my friends are exchanging fancy dairy recipes for the 9 days. for a start, we eat mainly dairy anyway, meat and chicken seem to end up being more expensive. And secondly, the fancy recipes I am talkingabout seem to be more appropriate for shavuous than for the 9 days of miserable aveilus. and G-d knows how much we are feeling the aveilus this year already with so many tragic deaths of our precious Jewish boys who are fighting to protect all the inhabitants of eretz Yisrael. Eini eini yorda mayim, we are already in floods of tears over current events of this year 5774, it is all an extension of our aveilus over Yerushalayim, that we have no stability, no Bais hamikdash. Please Hashem, please end this suffering already.

I made mac n cheese last night (not something that I would call fancy at all) and my kids were over the moon. We can't eat lentils and no one eats beans and there is very minimal fish my kids will eat. So, dairy it is.

Raisin

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 7:28 am

shakshuka is a really great option. Make a double batch of the sauce and spice some of it italian style and some of it spicy for the shakshuka. You can use the italian style sauce for lasagna, pasta, etc.

My younger kids are happy eating pasta and cheese or tival burgers every night. But the adults are not so I make other things for us. I kind of agree with FS - it seems wrong to make multi course dairy meals using expensive ingredients (cream, fancy cheese). But what is plain to one person is fancy to another. Stuffed vegetables, even if stuffed with lentils or quinoa, still seem like a somewhat fancy meal to me. Some people might argue fish is also expensive. My dd hates meat but loves mac and cheese.

Saw - do your kids eat quinoa? Thats a good protein source.

Also lots of stuff to do with eggs. Frittata, omelettes, plain old scrambled or sunny with chips or fried potatoes.

Raisin

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 7:36 am

lots of online recipes - basically a tomato sauce with peppers, supposed to made spicy with things like chilli powder, but you can use any tomato sauce. You cook eggs in the tomato sauce till set.

In restaurants they usually serve it with bread or pitta, but you can make any side dish your kids like. I think it goes well with plain pasta.

ora_43

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 8:09 am

boysrus wrote:

I love this post, but I think we should keep in mind that "fancy" is relative. For some people it's more appropriate to eat lentil stew now rather than fish (fish is expensive where they are, lentils are their usual food), for some it's the exact opposite (ie, lentil stew is a fancy, lots-of-effort dish to them, while fish is just fish). Some people usually eat steak during the week, others were eating vegetarian anyway. Etc.

Talya

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 8:24 am

My husband is suffering enough without the meat. He insists it's because he is type O blood. He asked for salmon tonight so even though I wouldn't normally make it during the week I probably will because I have to feed him SOMETHING. Will prob have it with mashed potatoes and salad.

freidasima

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 8:32 am

Lentil burgers and squash.

Peel and grate thickly three zuccini or squash. take brown or green lentils, soak 12 hours and then boil until soft.
Toss the water it was boiled in . Add an egg and left over challah crumbs, enough to give the whole thing substance. Season to taste add the zuccini and squash the whole thing with your hands to make patties. Either bake or use a teflon pan to fry until brown.

Healthy.

debsey

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 12:03 pm

Dina_B613 wrote:

While I LOVE tofu, I strongly recommend the plant-based meat from 'Beyond Meat.' They have grilled chicken and beefy crumbles - both are light and delicious.

http://beyondmeat.com

These look awesome. What hechsher?
debsey

Della

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 3:18 pm

I'm vegan so I love cooking the nine days:). Last night was homemade veggie burgers with lettuce tomato avocado on Ezekiel buns toasted. Tonight is broccoli and cashew- cheese quinoa burritos. Also making empowered noodle bowl with Thai peanut sauce (brown rice noodles with cucumbers red pepper red onion carrots and edamame) and a lentil walnut loaf.

Most of my recipes are from the Oh She Glows website and cookbook.

I always make macaroni and cheese as a back up for picky kids. Also making laquered salmon with pineapple and Spanish rice one night.

allthingsblue

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 3:30 pm

Monsey Mom wrote:

If you're vegan, where does cheese come into your diet? And I assume the salmon is for our kids, not you, right?

Della

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 3:37 pm

No cheese. The cashew cheese sauce you may be refering to is parve. And delicious! Soaked cashews blended with garlic, almond milk, nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, lemon juice onion powder and salt.

The fish is for my family. I also make chicken and meat for them not during the nine days.

allthingsblue

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 3:39 pm

Monsey Mom wrote:

Cashew cheese sauce sounds delicious!! My husband hates cheese, and this sounds like a great alternative.

Thanks for the recipe.

Della

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 3:42 pm

I'll give you the amounts:
3/4 cup cashews soaked at least 4 hours, them drained. Add 1 clove garlic, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/4 c nutritional yeast, 1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1/4 t onion powder, 1/2 t sea salt. Food processor it and enjoy.

Mrs Bissli

Tue, Jul 29 2014, 3:43 pm

Tofu--get firm (or extra firm) ones, not silky ones for stir-fry.
Many people who complain about tofu as being blah won't complain if it's properly seasoned beforehand.
For stir-fry, I prefer to marinate overnight with a mix of soy sauce (low sodium), OJ, sesame oil. (Slide them first). Or cut into slices, coat with BBQ sauce both sides and let marinate for an hour or so. You can also sautee it straight in a frying pan and drizzle some dressing (Italian worked nicely for me) and serve with sautéed vegetables.

real israeli

Wed, Jul 30 2014, 8:37 am

freidasima wrote:

How much lentils?

Chayalle

Wed, Jul 30 2014, 10:15 am

freidasima wrote:

So here's the rub.
DH tells me that the reason not to have meat is aveilus and therefore no fancy dishes. Nothing but the absolute bare minimum.

And so our meals for the next days other than shabbos are - lunch - fish and rice and salad. Dinner - Scrambled eggs, toast and an apple.

Hurray (not). But aveilus it is.

You are so right (and your DH).

I'm having a tough time figuring out meals that my picky teen who cannot have dairy will eat. Last night I made a beautiful sushi-style salad (plate of lettuce, with slivered carrots, cucumbers, chunks of avocado and mango, topped with a scoop of rice and salmon, and a rice-vinegar dressing) and when I was done, I was thinking how it would be more appropriate for Chol Hamoed than the 9 days.

Tonight's gonna be whole wheat rolls and a creamed soup.

Thank you for reminding me what this is really about FS.

alef12

Sun, Aug 03 2014, 11:51 am

I hear everyone on the no 'fancy' food but yes it really is all relative. I'm allergic to dairy, can't tolerate eggs and can't digest lentils or beans. (Sprouted are ok but that ends up being a big job so I don't do it too often) There's only so much bread and salad I can eat. The kids get dairy some nights (which I need to prepare and serve with gloves on to avoid a skin reaction) and dh takes their leftovers for lunch. But we end up eating a lot of fish. As a kid I lived on canned tuna during the nine days (b4 we knew about mercury lol) and when nursing or pregnant I had a psak I could eat chicken or turkey.

The nine days are really hard for me, even with eating fish. It really annoys me when all the neighborhood women are going on and on about how they 'love' the nine days, how great it is that they don't have to cook/eat fleishigs , how much they love milchigs....blah blah blah...
(another pet peeve of mine is how all the 'womens' events are dairy so I can't eat anything, someone will say "oh I think you can eat this salad, I don't see any cheese in it" yeah right.... someone just dropped a piece of cheese in it from the salad next to it... and no I CAN'T just "take it out" Rolling Eyes

Anyone have any new salmon or flounder recipes for me? Wink

alef12

Sun, Aug 03 2014, 2:03 pm

Raisin wrote:

alef, do you like eggplant? You can make try making eggplant parmesan using tofu instead of cheese. Assuming tofu is ok.

You picked the one vegetable I don't like lol
Anything else I'm game for!