Israeli Breakfast

Hi, friends! Apologies for the lack of posting in the past few weeks- with work, GRE prep, and trying to go out and have fun in the middle of all of this, i haven't had too much time to sit down and write.

Looking through my posts, I realized that I haven't blogged about food-related matters in quite some time.  For me, this is absolutely crazy.  The foodie in me is dying to tell you about all of the foods that I've tasted and fallen in love with this summer right now, but i'll have to space them out over the next few weeks.  I have done some serious eating this summer (here's hoping those jeans still fit!), and taken a lot of pictures of food to boot.

So, I thought we could start with the first meal of the day, a typical Israeli brunch/breakfast! A few weekends ago, with a friend's recommendation and some good online reviews, my friend Michele and I went to Dylan's Art Cafe in Tel Aviv.   I can always count on Michele for an insightful, lively conversation, and this time it was accompanied by equally awesome food!

The breakfast started off with two drinks for each of us- we picked hot tea and orange juice.  This was closely followed by an assortment of breads accompanied by cheese, yogurt spread, olives, roasted red peppers, and eggplant. I could have made a meal of just the bread and cheese, but we hadn't even got to the main event yet!

In true Israeli fashion, our meal came with classic Israeli salad, which consists of tomatoes and cucumbers, dressed with lemon juice, olive oil and sometimes parsley. I've had Israeli salad many times this summer, and it's definitely a staple that I'll hold on to when I go back to the United States.

Just as we had caught up on each others' summers and began talking about our respective plans for The Future (sob, sob. Luckily, Michele is a year older than me and gives out great advice), our main dishes arrived.  I ordered Shakshuka, and Michele ordered eggs on toast.

Shakshuka is this great tomato-based egg dish, which is basically a few eggs cooked into a savory tomato/vegetable sauce.  In a word, YUM. Talk about starting your day with a bang! Shakshuka is delicious, and this was one of the best I've had in Israel :)

After eating all of this food, we rolled out of the restaurant feeling pretty damn good.  We walked around Tel Aviv in that post-meal coma that I love so much, until I headed back to Rehovot on the train.  I can't wait to do another Israeli breakfast one of these weekends before I head back home :) Also, thank you Michele for a great day!  Whether it's in Israel or the U.S. or anywhere else, I hope we get to meet up again soon!

Strawberry-Almond Scones

My post-semester laziness has lasted about a week and a half, give or take.  I've been waking up close to lunch time and watching way more bad TV than I care to admit!  In rare moments of productivity, I casually throw a couple of items into my suitcase, or wander into the kitchen to make some calorific baked good that i will probably never do enough cardio to actually deserve... :)

entering... these scones! strawberry-almond with a buttermilk glaze.

remember when i made these scones? The original recipe from that post is so versatile that it was quite easy to modify it to suit my strawberry craving.  and yes, I fully recognize that I had the option of simply eating fresh strawberries if I actually craved them.. but that wouldn't be any fun, now would it?

Applesauce Muffins

 

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! Since I'm supposed to bake for a big party tonight, I'll keep this post short. Last week, I made applesauce muffins for the first time, and they were a big hit! It was my first time baking with applesauce, but I'm definitely going to use it more often now :)  

Best wishes for 2013!

-Meena

Applesauce muffins (1 dozen):

2 Cups of flour

1/2 Cup of sugar

1 Cup of Applesauce

1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup soy milk or regular milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  In a mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the applesauce, soy milk, vanilla and oil.  Fold the dry ingredients into the applesauce mixture until a thick batter forms.  Pour the batter into a greased muffin tin and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple Topping

It's gotten to that crazy point in the semester when the nights are getting longer, everyone is up to their eyes in work, and we all just want Thanksgiving to come around so we can eat our weight in pumpkin pie.   

Peanut Butter Banana Nutella Crepes

So this is what happens when I have extra milk, and nutella is on sale:)  This was my first time making crepes, so i pretty much stuck to this recipe.

if i had to summarize in one word: NOMS.

making crepes was the best Sunday morning decision i've made in awhile.   usually, i 

Almond Milk Pancakes

Ahh, Friday morning pancakes.  During the school year, i would never have time to indulge in pancakes from scratch on a weekday, but i'm enjoying my family's full size kitchen and well-stocked pantry when i'm at home:)

For a while now, I've been meaning to come up with a healthier pancake recipe. This one is not as close to healthy as I would like, but it's getting there, since I decided to swap out buttermilk for almond milk. 

Chocolate Chip Muffins with Banana Topping

For the millionth time this year, I found myself in possession of black bananas.  I should really just plan ahead and buy less bananas, but where's the fun in that?  Being in a "brinner" kind of mood, I settled on making muffins with banana topping :) and being a chocolate addict, they obviously had to be chocolate chip muffins.

 Yay, bananas.  Also, a very very big thank you to Sylvia for