Elana’s Pantry

Charoset

Charoset is one of my favorite Passover foods. During the Seder, this sweet, fruity dish holds a special, symbolic place, reminding us of the mortar which the Jews used to bond bricks while enslaved in Egypt.

European Jews (Ashkenazi) traditionally use nuts, apples, cinnamon and sweet wine for this dish. Jews of Middle Eastern descent (Sephardic) commonly use raisins, figs dates and sesame seeds. In general, Middle Eastern Jews have a far richer culinary tradition than European Jewry and charoset is no exception to this rule. In her Book of Jewish Food, Claudia Roden lists 3 Sephardic versions of charoset and 1 Ashkenazi type. Further, Wikipedia lists 5 variations of Sephardic charoset to one Ashkenazi recipe.

Of course, my version of charoset is a blend of the two traditions –and as always, lower in sugar than the standard fare.

It seems that everyone has their own favorite family recipe for charoset. What’s yours? If you have one, feel free to leave it in the comments section.

My Favorite Trail Mix

Coaching my son’s little league team is a hoot. Technically, I am assistant coach. Make that “more than” technically; I am definitely assistant coach. Pete (my friend Blair’s husband) is head coach and he is fantastic. All fun, yet full of discipline and focus. It is so great to see how he hustles twelve little 9 year olds around the field, keeping them busy with baseball drills and motivating them to concentrate on the task at hand.

Of course, being a Jewish mother, I am the coach that is very concerned with food and keeping blood sugar stable (you could say I’m head food coach).

Today before practice, I was quite busy, running here, there and everywhere; so on my way out the door to a day full of errands and meetings, I made half a gallon of trail mix for the team. They loved it. If only Coach Pete had given them more snack breaks!

Here is my recipe for what I simply call “Favorite Trail Mix.”

This trail mix is convenient, plenty filling and nutritious to boot. The dried cranberries are rich in simple carbohydrates –much needed energy when exercising, the macadamia nuts have protein, which slows down the aforementioned carbs and makes this mix stick to your gut and the chocodrops are packed with the anti-oxidants found in dark chocolate.

Best of all, this trail mix makes for a delicious snack food that pleases the gluten-free as well as those with no food restrictions whatsoever. I can check food off my little league list, now all I have to do is make sure not to embarrass my 9 year old on the field or in the dugout!

Fig Tapenade with Walnut Crackers

Inspiration struck today. As did its friend creativity. The sun was bright for the third day in a row over here in Colorado and my faith in all things good returned. Whatever had a hold of me –seasonal affect disorder, Mercury in retrograde, who knows, who cares –it’s gone! I took a long slow walk and saw the last patches of melting snow, flowers popping up through mud and upon arriving home, I observed sap running down the maples in my front yard.

Spring, glorious spring. Even if it’s a taste, or just a tease, how it does brighten one’s outlook! In celebration of this beautiful weather I made a raw recipe that was unusual, yet delicious. I think this gluten-free fig and olive tapenade would make a fantastic hors d’eoeuvre for a dinner or cocktail party and goes nicely with these walnut crackers.

Although I have several different cracker flavors in my repertoire, I created these walnut crackers today to accompany the fig tapenade. They complement each other nicely.

The lovely Anina, who I had the pleasure of meeting at the Valentine’s cooking class I held in February, gave me the idea for this recipe. She told me about it during the class and then emailed me the epicurious.com version, which includes goat cheese, stewing the figs and a couple of other steps that I omitted in my quest to keep things simple. Especially with the warm weather approaching, I wanted to make this complex, sweet-savory dish raw and light.

I hope you like it. Please write up a comment if you have other suggestions as to good “vehicles” for delivering the tapenade –i.e., what would you serve it on?

Power Bars

For the past few months, I have been playing around with power bar recipes. When I’m on the go, I want to grab something that is packed with nutrition, not too sweet and plenty tasty.

I’ve made this power bar recipe a bunch of times now and my taste testers (that would be my husband who is a very direct and rather stringent critic) have given it their official seal of approval (that would be eating an entire tray in two days flat).

When I saw Heidi’s video on power bars yesterday, I knew it was time to go ahead and post mine. For those of you who are not yet familiar with Heidi, I have mentioned her here a few times. She is my favorite food blogger and author of the delightful book, Super Natural Cooking.

I love her power bar video –her voice is so soothing and the content so tranquil that it might put you into a trance. It’s almost like watching a yoga video. Gorgeous shots of California’s Big Sur interspersed with her recipe –what more can I say? See this delightful video yourself!

Almond Power Bars
2 cups almonds (raw)
½ cup flax meal (flax seeds ground in a blender)
½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
½ cup unsalted almond butter (roasted tastes better)
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ cup coconut oil
4 drops stevia
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup dagoba chocodrops (optional)

1. Place almonds, flax meal, shredded coconut, almond butter and salt in a food processor
2. Pulse briefly, about 10 seconds
3. In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil over very low heat,
4. Remove coconut oil from stove, stir stevia, agave and vanilla into oil
5. Add coconut oil mixture to food processor and pulse until ingredients form a coarse paste
6. Press mixture into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish
7. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, until mixture hardens
8. In a small saucepan, melt chocodrops over very low heat, stirring continuously
9. Spread melted chocolate over bars; return to refrigerator for 30 minutes, until chocolate hardens
10. Remove from refrigerator, cut into bars and serve

Makes 20 bars

These no bake, high-protein, high-fiber bars are based upon Melissa Diane Smith’s recipe for Amaretto Protein Bars in her book Going Against the Grain and are a cinch to make. The chocolate topping makes them seem a bit decadent (skip it if you must, they’ll still come out fine) –though dark chocolate, rich in anti-oxidants has now entered the echelon of power foods so I’ll keep it on mine.

By the way, the photo above is actually of Macadamia Power Bars. To make that recipe simply substitute raw macadamia nuts for the almonds and raw macadamia nut butter for the roasted almond butter.

Granola

I love granola; sweet and crunchy, it always satisfies a good snack attack.

I also get a kick out of using the term “granola” to ridicule my Boulder brethren. However, when I’m feeling earthy, dousing myself in patchouli (which my husband dislikes to no end) I can easily apply the term to myself –even though I’m more of a yuppie than a hippie. I guess that would make me a yippie.

Alas, I digress. Several years ago when I first encountered the live food diet, I created this recipe for a crunchy live granola. Even though he’s not a hippie, yippie or yuppie, my husband really likes it and so does my younger son. The little guy eats it with yogurt, which makes for a tasty and filling snack.

Grain-Free Granola
2 cups almonds
1 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup raisins
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt

1. Place nuts and seeds in a large bowl, cover with water and soak overnight
2. Place raisins in a separate bowl, cover with ( ½ to 1 cup) water and soak overnight
3. Place the raisins, along with their soaking water in a food processor and puree until smooth
4. In a fine mesh metal strainer, drain and rinse the nuts and seeds and discard the soaking water
5. Add nuts and seeds to the food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped, to the consistency of granola, then add vanilla, cinnamon and salt and pulse briefly to incorporate these final ingredients
6. Transfer mixture onto two large parchment lined baking sheets
7. To make live granola, place in the oven on the lowest setting (usually 135 degrees) for 24 hours
8. For instant gratification, bake 45 minutes in the oven at 250 degrees; for this more decadent treat, I sometimes drizzle agave over the granola, or add shredded coconut, currants and other dried fruit
9. Serve

Serves 12

Enjoy this nutritious power packed, grain-free, gluten-free, healthy raw granola with fresh fruit, plain yogurt or as I do, simply by the handful.

Yogurt with Orange and Coconut

Yum. My boys love this dish and somehow, a few simple ingredients thrown together look so elegant and appetizing. This easy snack for two takes mere minutes to make.

Sesame Crackers

Every time my friend Patricia, Pilates Diva extraordinary, comes over she walks out of the house with a handful of these crackers. I promised her I would make this recipe my next post. Happy crunching!

This highly nutritious gluten-free cracker goes well hummus, guacamole and other tasty spreads.

Mango Tango

As the weather warms, I follow suit and warm weather fruits make their way into my shopping cart.

Today I found gorgeous yellow mangos. I bought one and when I arrived home did the mango tango –a dance of slicing this slippery fruit.

I let the boys chew on the pit –a sweet and messy diversion for hungry little ones.

Liberté, Egalité, Crudité

It’s a vegetable revolution! They’re back. Vegetables, that is. They never really left, actually. Sometimes we just forget about them. If I take 10 minutes to chop up some carrots, cucumbers and yellow peppers, the boys will eat them the moment they walk in the door from school. That bowl is usually empty by dinner.

No recipe for this one. Just get yourself some good organic veggies, scrub and chop!