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Chik-fil-A Yummy

As most of you know (well at least the people that know Evan pretty well) he is in love with Chik-fil-A and would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh wait!! whenever we're in Atlanta he does that anyway.

Needless to say, there ain't no Chik-fil-A here in Israel! So now that we've started experimenting with cooking the food we miss from home (like Evans' favorite Spicy Garlic Chicken that I posted here) we attempted to make Chi-fil-A nuggets! And they were a success.

Follow this recipe that Evan found for Chik-fil-A Chicken Sandwich from Top Secret recipes. We paired the nuggets with some crispy fries and it was a fun fun dinner!

 

We're definitely going to be making this again! Next time though we'll try and actually make the sandwich because the chicken will fry up better in bigger pieces.

~Marina

Happy Australia Day!

Today is the 2nd annual Abraham Hostel Australia Day party. Also, there was a vintage clothing sale that afternoon in which Evan found me a bunch of cute stuff! Score!!

 

~Marina

Easy DIY Breakfast Parfait

Breakfast has been around for-ever and it can be a multi step journey to goodness or it can be as easy as 1-2-3! This recipe of a breakfast parfait can be done a million and one different ways, but all of them are super easy and can be adjusted to any persons liking. 

Here is my version:

Easy Peasy Breakfast Parfait:

strawberries, cut up
banana, sliced
granola (I like Green's Crunchy Muesli)
yogurt ( today I used plain Greek)
honey (optional)

Layer all ingredients as you like.  Gobble up immediately!

You can use any kinds of fruits or berries that you like, blueberries, even apples, grapes, dried fruit like dates and apricots (they are so yummy here, I think I'll try that next time!) Experiment, and you'll have tons of different delicious breakfasts that take no time at all!! 

What do you like in your breakfast parfaits? 

3 weeks until our trip to Europe, I'm so excited! It's going to be so cold, we're going to Istanbul, Sofia and Bucharest. Anyone have any places they recommend?

~Marina

How do you like your tuna?

In September I started babysitting three little girls.  They are the cutest, ages 6, almost 8 and 9. They love eating tuna salads and avocados for lunch and I try to give them as much veggies and fruits as I can in between the days when they have pasta leftovers in the fridge. They also like beans and edamame and tomatoes and yellow peppers and carrots with humus. Thanks to them, I've been loving eating tuna and avocados too! Evan loves eating tuna and can only eat one kind (Kirkland albacore white), so we've always had it in the house, but I was never really raised on it and only ate it, well, rarely. Now, I know that I like my tuna salad a little moister than he does and I have discovered that adding more things to it makes it more fun to eat! I love tomatoes and corn too so this recipe with tuna and tomatoes and corn is perfect!

Tuna Rosada Salad
as adapted from Laylita's recipes

2 servings

1 tomato
1 can of tuna in water
1 teaspoon of mayo
1/4 can of corn

Mix mayo and corn. Then add tomatoes and corn.  tada!

I like the name of the salad. Of course there is a ton of stuff I left out of the original recipe but all I was looking for was a small dinner salad. Adding the onion, carrots, peas and egg and serving it all in an avocado on a bed of lettuce would be great for a big lunch! 

The first time I made this salad, I put it in an avocado!

~Marina

O what a beautiful morning!

O what a beautiful morning! O what a beautiful day!! It's Election Day in Israel and most work and schools are closed. The weather is a beautiful 73 deg F.

So we invited our friends Benjamin and Glen and grilled out... I made a delicious corn - tomato salad that I found on Pinterest from abountifulkitchen.  I've made it before and it's always a hit at our barbeques and its perfect for a quick meal. We paired it with some steak, hummus and pita (staples at every meal in Israel).

Here is my version of the recipe. 

Fresh Corn Tomato Salad
adapted from abountifulkitchen
serves 3

1 small can of corn (or you can boil corn and then cut it off the cob and cool)

2 large fresh tomatoes

1/2 large onion

1 tablespoon of shaky basil

two to three sprigs fresh oregano (optional)

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

coarse sea salt, fresh ground pepper to taste

Chunk tomatoes and onion and mix with the corn. Sprinkle with basil and toss with olive oil and vinegar. Season to taste. Serve chilled or room temperature

Tips:

-The recipe called for white vinegar, but I like red wine vinegar.  White balsamic (sweeter) vinegar or apple cider vinegar would also work. Its not recommend to use regular balsamic vinegar. The dark red color will discolor the onion and corn and the overall look of the salad will change. 

The boys enjoyed a Goldstar or two and I had a light fruit beer - Leifmans Fruitesse. 

 

~Marina

Shabbat Shalom

We woke up late yesterday and went out for brunch in a cute little cafe in Nachlaot. Knowing I was going to have a big Shabbat dinner tonight, I decided on a healthy snack.

I know we've talked a lot about Shabbat dinners before but I think this one has been my favorite in a long time. Lots of people, great atmosphere, all the food was so good and lots of wine!

Shabbat Shalom
~Marina

Shabbat Morning smoothie

This morning I wanted to try out a new recipe I found for pancakes but somebody didn't want to wait and was aching for cereal yet again. Fine, another smoothie morning for me! So I decided to try peanut butter and chocolate this time. I didn't have any syrup or cocoa but chocolate chips did the trick. It's nice to sometimes eat (or slurp up) a little extra chocolate from the bottom of the glass! I also threw in there a decadent teaspoon of cherry jam. 

Cherry Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie

1 cup of milk
1 handful of chocolate chips (that's all I had, but 1 tablespoon of chocolate syrup will mix better I think)
1 teaspoon of cherry jam
1 tablespoon of peanut butter

Blend together til smooooth.

(I'll get better with the pictures as I go, I promise!)

... and now, another cool article from iGoogledIsrael - 10 Interesting Facts


~Marina

Mixed Berries

I love all kinds of berries. They are just to fun to eat and each has a distinct flavor. In an attempt to keep up with Smoothie Breakfast Mornings I wanted to make a berry smoothie this time.

I was all set to make this Berry- Banana Smoothie, freezing the banana and 6 strawberries the night before. One mistake I made late in the night was to forget to take off the banana peel and green tops off the strawberries before freezing them. Needless to say (and I'm a lil embarrassed), it was just not possible to peel the banana and get the strawberries into peices this morning.

Oh well, at least I had another idea!!

1/2 fresh (not frozen) banana
1 cup of greek yogurt, plain flavor
2 handfuls of frozen mixed berries (from a package of cranberries, raspberries, red and black currants, strawberries, gooseberries, etc.).

Blend all this together and voila! A frozen ice creamy smoothie consistency. Sweet, creamy, a little tart and sour but SO good! I saved the extra for a nice treat later!

I enjoyed it in a nice short glass with a spoon in a warm room. Winter here in Israel can be brutal with constant winds and occasional downpours making it bone-chilling-ly cold.

Evan and I have been living here in Israel for 1 year already. What a year it has been, so many people have come and gone, while a good group of constant companions remains. 

This winter already has brought a large amount (by Israel standards) of rain and a nice snow storm. Speaking of rain, check out this great article from iGoogledIsrael:  "Thanks to all that rain over the last few days, the level of the Dead Sea (as well as the Sea of Galilee) has risen by some 10cm - the biggest rise in over 10 years!"  -  Floating in the Dead Sea  

Yessss - now there's even more water to float in! 

~Marina

Chiquita Banana Morning

Here is another smoothie for breakfast recipe. Banana - Oatmeal Smoothie adapted from Chiquita Banana.

1 banana
6 almonds
4 teaspoons of yogurt (I used peach yogurt instead of Greek yogurt because we had an open container)
1/4 cup of cooked oats
1 handful of crushed ice

Blend til smooth!

It turned out really yummy, I just wish I had a bigger blender.

(sorry for the photo, I took a couple sips before remembering to take a picture)

~Marina

Strawberry- Banana smoothie breakfast

Plain and simple but delicious.

Strawberry- Banana Smoothie

makes 2 servings

1 ripe banana
6 strawberries
1 cup milk
Blend together til smooth!

~Marina

Roast chicken over Pita bread

Tonight I made dinner following a recipe that Evan sent me from HAARETZ.com. It was so good!

Roasted Chicken over Pita Bread- 
A Middle Eastern-style recipe adapted from the Slim Peace website.

Serves 3

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 large onions, chopped
Pepper, turmeric, salt, cumin and cinnamon, to taste
2 chicken breasts (about 10 oz.) chopped very thin
3 whole wheat pita breads

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottom pan and cook onions until they are golden. Add the salt, spices and chicken breasts, and cook while stirring until the chicken is fully cooked.
3. Spread the chicken and onions evenly on the pita breads and transfer to the oven for a few minutes.

We paired it with buckwheat kasha and had a nice dinner watching Cheers!

~Marina

Jerusalem by Snow

As the city awakens, cries of joy are heard throughout the streets.  Yesterday it rained and hailed all day and it was pretty nasty out (yay for no work and cancelled classes!) and overnight the entire city was blanketed in 5 inches of snow!! 

This morning Evan and I woke up at 7:30 and went out to play before everything melted!  More than 2 hours later it is still coming down hard!  Here are a few pics and more are up on Facebook!

 ^ From Tsahal Square, the Old City, a view in the direction on Jaffa gate.

 Date palm trees covered in snow.

Our street, Agripas.

~Marina

**Holiday Greetings** Part 2- New Year 2013

Hello folks

We sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas

I wanted to conclude this seasons posts with one on how people celebrate the New Year here in Jerusalem

well...they really don't. Since most of Israel follows the Jewish Calender, we celebrated the New Year during Rosh Hashanah in September. Happy 5773!!

Most restaurants and bars will be open with special deals and whatnot so is another reason to go out and party. Tel Aviv is one place that is serving up some fun. Read about it here: Celebrate Silvester.

My cousin Roman is here in Israel leading a RAJE trip and I'm really happy to see him. He brought us lots of presents from Mom and Dad (like warm Patagonia sweaters, slippers and warm long underwear, very important to have in an apartment with no heat). Thanks Mom and Dad!

Also, wanted to thank Mark and Cindy for all the goodies they "got" us! Sweaters for Evan, pea coat for me, hoodie jacket for Evan, etc.

 

I decided to make a veggie stir-fry for lunch.  Here is my recipe:

End of the Year Sweet Paprika Stir-Fry

 

1 yellow pepper (thin slices)

2 baby eggplants (thin circle slices)

2 long carrots (thin circles slices)

1 small head of broccoli (and some of the stem)

1/2 can of sweet corn

1.5 tbsp EVOO

2 tsp sweet Moroccan paprika

drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette

1/2 tsp of Kirkland kosher salt

1/4 tsp of Italian seasonings

Really easy from here on. Toss all the veggies and seasonings together. Heat and add a little EVOO to the wok and then saute all the veggies, covering them from time to time to steam the broccoli. That's it! and it turned out great and I had leftovers! =)

NYE dinner was great at Sushi Rehavia
(Thanks Mark and Cindy)

(Salmon Tempura, Sunshine Roll, Avocado Roll and one other one, I don't remember)

Then we went to Abraham Hostel for their New Years Eve Celebration and then out with Roman and his RAJE group! The evening was a success and we'll post pictures some pictures on Facebook soon. 

Hopefully it won't be 5 months until the next blog, so as we say here, see you later, Lehitraot!

Happy New Year 2013

 

~Marina