By popular demand, here is my favorite muffin recipe - these muffins are so easy and bake so fast, and you can add anything you want to them (including things your kids won't eat!) The original version of this recipe came from my mother in law, but I modified it.
You can literally be eating your muffins in 15 minutes from now! I've even made these for breakfast - before coffee!
Ok, here it is:
15 Minute Oat Muffins
Ingredients:
1 Cup Rolled Oats (you can use the quick oats, but I prefer the old fashioned type - better flavor)
1 Cup flour (or oat bran, or whole wheat flour or wheat germ)
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or any other extract)
1/2 Cup apple juice or soy milk (today I used white grape juice, you can also use water if you don't have anything else)
1/4 Cup oil
2 eggs
1/3 Cup sugar or honey
Extras: raisins, blueberries, chopped apple, mashed banana, flax seeds, nuts, chocolate chips, pomegranate seeds, etc... (and that's just what I've tried it with! Try combining groups of extras - it's like trail mix in a muffin!)
Preheat the oven to 425 F
Mix all ingredients together
Fill 2 standard sized muffin tins, filling each cup about 3/4 full
Bake for 12-15 min
בתאבון! Enjoy!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Oh Joyful Rapture! Gloriously Delicious Soup!
You mean not everyone gets this excited about soup?? But it's SOUP. Soooup. In the winter... hot, cozy, creamy or chunky, spicy, comforting soup.
And I do believe, in my humble opinion, that I've mastered the art of zuccinni soup. I challenge any of you to make this soup and tell me it's not the best zucchini soup you've ever eaten!
Ok, here it is:
Ayelet's Mother of all Zucchini Soup
Ingredients:
1 Tbs oil or butter
1 large yellow onion, diced
1/2 tsp chopped fresh red chili pepper
(or 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper)
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 carrot, shredded
7-8 zucchini, cut into chunks
salt
pepper
garlic powder
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice or 1/4 tsp lemon salt
Directions:
In a large pot, sautee onions in oil just until translucent, add the chili pepper and stir. (Do this even if you are using cayenne!)
Add the potatoes and carrots, continue to cook over med heat for about 3-5 minutes.
Add the zucchini and pour in enough water just to cover.
Cover pot and bring to a boil. Then lower to a simmer and stir occasionally for 45 min - 1 hour.
Add salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste, and the lemon.
(Trust me, you won't taste the lemon. It just adds the right amount of acidity to bring out all the taste!)
If you have an immersion blender, use it now! If not just let the soup continue to simmer until everything is mushy and smooth.
Serve, and Enjoy!!!
My kids finished their bowls - this is big news!
I've currently had about 4 bowls and even Tzachi couldn't get enough of it! He loved it!
And I do believe, in my humble opinion, that I've mastered the art of zuccinni soup. I challenge any of you to make this soup and tell me it's not the best zucchini soup you've ever eaten!
Ok, here it is:
Ayelet's Mother of all Zucchini Soup
Ingredients:
1 Tbs oil or butter
1 large yellow onion, diced
1/2 tsp chopped fresh red chili pepper
(or 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper)
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 carrot, shredded
7-8 zucchini, cut into chunks
salt
pepper
garlic powder
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice or 1/4 tsp lemon salt
Directions:
In a large pot, sautee onions in oil just until translucent, add the chili pepper and stir. (Do this even if you are using cayenne!)
Add the potatoes and carrots, continue to cook over med heat for about 3-5 minutes.
Add the zucchini and pour in enough water just to cover.
Cover pot and bring to a boil. Then lower to a simmer and stir occasionally for 45 min - 1 hour.
Add salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste, and the lemon.
(Trust me, you won't taste the lemon. It just adds the right amount of acidity to bring out all the taste!)
If you have an immersion blender, use it now! If not just let the soup continue to simmer until everything is mushy and smooth.
Serve, and Enjoy!!!
My kids finished their bowls - this is big news!
I've currently had about 4 bowls and even Tzachi couldn't get enough of it! He loved it!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Birth and healing (a journal entry)
I've been avoiding my birth boards, and birth, and myself for more than six months. If healing has happened for me, it has been passive - like the way your body heals from a cold if you ignore it long enough,and then one morning two weeks later you realize you slept all night and you're not congested at all.
In the past two weeks Birth has hunted me down, forced me to remember her and remember how much I once loved her. And also how vicious she can be. How subvertivly she injects her precepts into every other chapter of your life. She found me, I cowered and she insisted that I watch. That I be present and informed and that I bear witness to her beauty and her ugliness, her silence and her fury, her undying strength and her paralyzing fear.
I watched, I advised, I conferred, and I wept.
And now I know that there is an active part that I must play in my healing - and I must take this step. Today it was shown to me that I am at the hub of a network of people that need to be connected and that the butterfly effect that I pray will ensue can affect real, tangible change for women giving birth here in Israel.
I'm putting this here in the hope that getting these thoughts out will be a step towards making them a reality. I know I'm being ambiguous, but that's because it's still ambiguous to me. And it feels too big to put into words. But this purpose has filled me the way water fills every crevice of space in its container, the way it will even defy gravity to fill in each crack. As I find the words, I will share them. But for now I feel I have taken a necessary step just by writing this down.
In the past two weeks Birth has hunted me down, forced me to remember her and remember how much I once loved her. And also how vicious she can be. How subvertivly she injects her precepts into every other chapter of your life. She found me, I cowered and she insisted that I watch. That I be present and informed and that I bear witness to her beauty and her ugliness, her silence and her fury, her undying strength and her paralyzing fear.
I watched, I advised, I conferred, and I wept.
And now I know that there is an active part that I must play in my healing - and I must take this step. Today it was shown to me that I am at the hub of a network of people that need to be connected and that the butterfly effect that I pray will ensue can affect real, tangible change for women giving birth here in Israel.
I'm putting this here in the hope that getting these thoughts out will be a step towards making them a reality. I know I'm being ambiguous, but that's because it's still ambiguous to me. And it feels too big to put into words. But this purpose has filled me the way water fills every crevice of space in its container, the way it will even defy gravity to fill in each crack. As I find the words, I will share them. But for now I feel I have taken a necessary step just by writing this down.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Some recent pictures...
Cuz I've been remiss:
That's me hiking at night at the Jordan river with six adorable seminary girls!
Yitzchak in all his fleecy yumminess!
My little Diva - she chose her own clothes!!
Mommy's pride!
Notice the snail that they are observing, this is why it takes us an hour and a half to get to gan!
Odeliya and Yitzchak having a tea party in their "club house" (i.e. large cardboard box that Yoram snagged from work)
Hope you enjoy my kids as much as I do!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Olives that Irked Me
On the way to Odeliya's day care there is this one house that has a small grove of olive tree that hang over onto the path. As the olive harvest began back in Sept, the kids started to notice the olives ripening on the trees and I pointed out that soon the owners would harvest their olives and they can pickle them or press them into oil. (The local olive oil factory will actually press your olives for you!) But as the olives continued to ripen, and we started noticing more and more olives on the ground, I started to get annoyed.
It is a fact that this year's olive harvest was particularly slim - olive oil prices here have gone up because of it, and here's a family with enough olives for maybe 2-3 liters of oil and they're letting it rot! They are going to go to the supermarket and buy bottles of olive oil and cans of pickles olives, instead of harvesting their bounty! And now there's fewer bottles on the shelf for people like me that don't have the privilege of having olive trees!
We talk about depletion and lack - there is no lack in the Universe! Hashem's bounty is abundant! But we are lacking in our self-preservation, because we think that the things we use come from the store. We forget where the things we need really originate - and that's in the Earth.
I remember one Sunday back in the US (when Sundays were a day off!) when Yoram was putting up shelves and needed more wood. So Netanel, then barely 3 years old, said, "So we need to go to Home Depot to get more!" I asked him, "Netanel, where does the wood come from?" and he answered, "Home Depot." At which point we educated him on lumber and the process of turning trees into shelves. We watched videos online and looked at books, and now he knows that wood comes from trees.
I think we all need to take a step back and remember where the things we buy come from and the work that goes into putting it there. Before I buy something from the store, I ask myself if this is something that I could conceivably make on my own. And if the answer is yes, then I do.And I'll leave that product on the shelf for someone who can't conceivably make it on their own.
It is a fact that this year's olive harvest was particularly slim - olive oil prices here have gone up because of it, and here's a family with enough olives for maybe 2-3 liters of oil and they're letting it rot! They are going to go to the supermarket and buy bottles of olive oil and cans of pickles olives, instead of harvesting their bounty! And now there's fewer bottles on the shelf for people like me that don't have the privilege of having olive trees!
We talk about depletion and lack - there is no lack in the Universe! Hashem's bounty is abundant! But we are lacking in our self-preservation, because we think that the things we use come from the store. We forget where the things we need really originate - and that's in the Earth.
I remember one Sunday back in the US (when Sundays were a day off!) when Yoram was putting up shelves and needed more wood. So Netanel, then barely 3 years old, said, "So we need to go to Home Depot to get more!" I asked him, "Netanel, where does the wood come from?" and he answered, "Home Depot." At which point we educated him on lumber and the process of turning trees into shelves. We watched videos online and looked at books, and now he knows that wood comes from trees.
I think we all need to take a step back and remember where the things we buy come from and the work that goes into putting it there. Before I buy something from the store, I ask myself if this is something that I could conceivably make on my own. And if the answer is yes, then I do.And I'll leave that product on the shelf for someone who can't conceivably make it on their own.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The "Mother's Curse" Has Befallen Me
Ok, Ma, admit it! Once upon a time, when I was a little, curly headed toddler, being my adorable, opinionated, stubborn self - you wished this upon me! You said, "I hope one day you have a daughter just like you, and then you'll know what it's like!" Well, I hope you're happy now, Mommy, because I now know what it must have been like - and I'm sorry!
One day last week, as the morning began to wane, and my little, curly-headed toddler was still not dressed, I decided to try a new tactic. I grabbed a crayon and a piece of blue paper and started drawing.
Me: Look, I'm drawing a picture of Odeliya! Here are her pretty curls, her big brown eyes, (My model expresses interest.) And here's your beautiful smiling mouth, (big grin from the model!) But, uh oh! where's her shirt? I can't draw your shirt because you're still in your pj's!
Odeliya immidiately starts to pull off her top, and I'm feeling kind of smug... and then - she whips around, grabs the crayon from my hand and says, "I will draw it!"
So much for creative parenting! Grrr!!!
One day last week, as the morning began to wane, and my little, curly-headed toddler was still not dressed, I decided to try a new tactic. I grabbed a crayon and a piece of blue paper and started drawing.
Me: Look, I'm drawing a picture of Odeliya! Here are her pretty curls, her big brown eyes, (My model expresses interest.) And here's your beautiful smiling mouth, (big grin from the model!) But, uh oh! where's her shirt? I can't draw your shirt because you're still in your pj's!
Odeliya immidiately starts to pull off her top, and I'm feeling kind of smug... and then - she whips around, grabs the crayon from my hand and says, "I will draw it!"
So much for creative parenting! Grrr!!!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Vaccines: Irradicating illnesses or causing complications?!?!
Don't get too excited now, I'm not writing this because I have the answer. I'm currently struggling with this question, and if I am, well darn it, you might as well join in too!
One more disclaimer here: this is my blog. I can write whatever I want on it and if anyone reading it experiences a feeling of being offended by anything I write, then you should be aware that it is your own sensitivity to the subject that is causing you to feel offended. My personal thoughts and points of view are just that - personal. If you agree - awesome! If you don't - equally awesome! We're not here to be clones of one another, we're here to engage in dialogue and learn from everyone.
I know vaccines are a sensitive issue, and I'm hoping that you will comment and share your thoughts and findings with me.
Let's start with what I know.
Now let's talk about the risks of vaccines in general:
The concept is brilliant. Use the body's own excellent mechanism of immunity to build antibodies for illnesses without actually being sick. It's the delivery method that's the problem.
Those of us who are "label-readers" are probably careful not to buy products that have lots of preservatives - or any for that matter. It's one of those things we can do to reduce the tax on our kidneys and liver. So think about this. We're careful not to eat preservatives - the stuff we ingest goes through a lot of processing before it reaches our blood. And yet we don't think twice before injecting a syringe-full of preservatives directly into our blood stream! (or muscle which is also more directly absorbed into the blood than food) - actually, not even our own, our tiny children's blood!
Even if the pharmaceutical companies in the US don't use mercury anymore, they are using some other preservative to keep those little germies safe till they get into baby's body! I know my language is a little alarmist right now. I admit it. So let me restate that in a more factual, non-emotional way: The vaccine is includes various chemicals in order to effectively administer to the body. The chemicals that are most often used are thimerasol (which is mercury, is not used in the US anymore, but if you're not in the US then ask!!) , formaldahyde, aluminum, ammonium sulfate (yes, as in ammonia that's found in urine and cleaning products), 2-phenoxythenol (a preservative with known toxicity levels - this is present in almost every vaccine your child will receive!), and more. I found a list of ingredients from the CDC website, and then went and looked up the specific ingredients. Here are the links for your enjoyment:
Center for Disease Control
List of Vaccine Ingredients
some sources for what the ingredients actually are:
www.3dchem.com
http://science.jrank.org/
http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-2_Phenoxyethanol-9926486
http://environmentalchemistry.com/
http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/ingredients.html
Just like everything in life - and especially in health care - we have to weigh the benefits against the risks.
So then we get into looking at each individual vaccine and asking, "is it worth injecting all this poison into my child's body?"
Well, unvaccinated kids put the vaccinated public at risk. Did you know that?
It's true. Our vaccinated immunity sort of assumes that we're not actually coming into contact with the real thing, and when unvaccinated people are actually exposed to a disease, they can cause complications for other people. Freaky.
There was recently a mumps outbreak in Jerusalem. It seems it was brought over from the US, from a Jewish sect that feels that vaccination is against the Torah. The majority of infected people were actually vaccinated for mumps which is cause to question the effectiveness of the mumps vaccine. Although it's only given together w/ the measles and rubella vaccine (MMR) and the evidence shows that the immunity for those two are pretty high. Original article.
So I'm still not sold on vaccinating. I don't want my kids to get sick, I don't want them to be the cause of other people getting sick, but I also don't like the idea of bombarding their tiny little systems with known toxins.
One more disclaimer here: this is my blog. I can write whatever I want on it and if anyone reading it experiences a feeling of being offended by anything I write, then you should be aware that it is your own sensitivity to the subject that is causing you to feel offended. My personal thoughts and points of view are just that - personal. If you agree - awesome! If you don't - equally awesome! We're not here to be clones of one another, we're here to engage in dialogue and learn from everyone.
I know vaccines are a sensitive issue, and I'm hoping that you will comment and share your thoughts and findings with me.
Let's start with what I know.
- I know that the Creator gave us perfectly functioning bodies with an intricate system to process and eliminate toxins from the body. (In other words, our bodies are fully equipped to get rid of the crap we put into it - literally!) But I also know that in today's world, the amount of toxic materials we are exposed to is enormous! I believe that it's more than we were created to handle. And there's a limit to what we can protect ourselves from. (I feel another post coming on about that!)
- I know I'm not vaccinating my kids for flu or chicken pox. In families that are generally healthy, those vaccines are very useful to parents who are unable to stay home and care for a sick kid. We are a generally healthy family who focus on immune building diets and practices, and if my kid gets the flu, I am grateful to be able to stay home and tend to them until they recover. And although I'm all about irradicating illnesses, the chicken-pox vaccine doesn't provide better immunity against infection than actually having and fighting chicken-pox. So for our family, if my kids don't get chicken-pox on their own by the time they're 11, then I'll start the vaccine, b/c that's when the benefits begin to outweigh the risks.
Now let's talk about the risks of vaccines in general:
The concept is brilliant. Use the body's own excellent mechanism of immunity to build antibodies for illnesses without actually being sick. It's the delivery method that's the problem.
Those of us who are "label-readers" are probably careful not to buy products that have lots of preservatives - or any for that matter. It's one of those things we can do to reduce the tax on our kidneys and liver. So think about this. We're careful not to eat preservatives - the stuff we ingest goes through a lot of processing before it reaches our blood. And yet we don't think twice before injecting a syringe-full of preservatives directly into our blood stream! (or muscle which is also more directly absorbed into the blood than food) - actually, not even our own, our tiny children's blood!
Even if the pharmaceutical companies in the US don't use mercury anymore, they are using some other preservative to keep those little germies safe till they get into baby's body! I know my language is a little alarmist right now. I admit it. So let me restate that in a more factual, non-emotional way: The vaccine is includes various chemicals in order to effectively administer to the body. The chemicals that are most often used are thimerasol (which is mercury, is not used in the US anymore, but if you're not in the US then ask!!) , formaldahyde, aluminum, ammonium sulfate (yes, as in ammonia that's found in urine and cleaning products), 2-phenoxythenol (a preservative with known toxicity levels - this is present in almost every vaccine your child will receive!), and more. I found a list of ingredients from the CDC website, and then went and looked up the specific ingredients. Here are the links for your enjoyment:
Center for Disease Control
List of Vaccine Ingredients
some sources for what the ingredients actually are:
www.3dchem.com
http://science.jrank.org/
http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-2_Phenoxyethanol-9926486
http://environmentalchemistry.com/
http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/ingredients.html
Just like everything in life - and especially in health care - we have to weigh the benefits against the risks.
So then we get into looking at each individual vaccine and asking, "is it worth injecting all this poison into my child's body?"
Well, unvaccinated kids put the vaccinated public at risk. Did you know that?
It's true. Our vaccinated immunity sort of assumes that we're not actually coming into contact with the real thing, and when unvaccinated people are actually exposed to a disease, they can cause complications for other people. Freaky.
There was recently a mumps outbreak in Jerusalem. It seems it was brought over from the US, from a Jewish sect that feels that vaccination is against the Torah. The majority of infected people were actually vaccinated for mumps which is cause to question the effectiveness of the mumps vaccine. Although it's only given together w/ the measles and rubella vaccine (MMR) and the evidence shows that the immunity for those two are pretty high. Original article.
So I'm still not sold on vaccinating. I don't want my kids to get sick, I don't want them to be the cause of other people getting sick, but I also don't like the idea of bombarding their tiny little systems with known toxins.
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