Our favorites

So, the house is almost done.  Some finishing touches like covering the dining room table are left.  Meat is defrosting to start cooking, sugar is boiled, the kids have started juicing the lemons and oranges, quinoa is all milled so we have quinoa flour.  YAY!  It feels a lot like Pesach! T declared I am Pharoh and he knows how the Jews felt in Egypt as I am a slave master with all the chores I am giving them.

With the kid's food allergies many typical foods we can not do.  We do not do eggs, nuts, fish, dairy, and one can't have potatoes.  I am sure I am missing something but it makes the holiday interesting and we have to think more outside the box.  This is why Pesach is my favorite holiday.  I love having to dream up fun and different recipes.  I love seeing the kid's faces light up as they declare me the top chef of our home when a new recipe works well.

A few of our favorites-
Chicken nuggets:
boneless skinless chicken breasts
red pepper
onion
carrot
quinoa flour or potato starch
shmultz or oil

grind the chicken in the food processor.  Peel the veg and throw it into the food processor to grind it up.  Mix with chicken.  Heat some shmultz or oil in a skillet,  Form patties chicken nugget size and coat with quinoa flour or potato starch.  Cook in skillet.

Chicken ball soup:
In soup pot throw peeled zucchini, sweet potato, carrots, celery, onion, salt, and water in.  Take ground chicken and combine with either grated potato or in our case now sweet potato and zucchini.  Form balls like you would matzah balls and throw them into the pot.  Cook until it smells and tastes like heaven.

Stuffed peppers:
1 batch tomato sauce
1 zucchini
peppers
ground beef
quinoa
onion

Grate onion and zucchini.  Mix ground beef, quinoa (cooked), and grated veggies.  Stuff peppers and put in a pan.  Top with tomato sauce and bake covered 350 until cooked through.  You can stuff eggplants or zucchini the same way.

Tomato sauce:
a handful of tomatoes
2-3 onions depending on how big they are
white wine
salt to taste

Chop onions and saute till clear.  Add in tomatoes cut into quarters.  Add white wine so its about 2ish inches on the bottom.  Cover and let cook for 45 mins.  Uncover and blend with either the immersion blender or food processor.  Add salt to taste.  If it has a slight alcoholic taste still cook a bit longer.

Eggplant salad:
onion
tomato
eggplant

Chop onions, tomatoes, and eggplants.  Saute the onion until clear and add in eggplant.  When the eggplant is almost cooked through add the tomatoes.  Let it stew a bit.  We serve it with salads and on the 8th day when we allow our matzah to get wet eat it shmeared on matzah.  Otherwise its really yummy with the chicken nuggets from above or burgers.

A Chag Kosher v'Sameach!