Category Archives: crockpot

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: The Season for Cholent (Crockpot Stew, vegan/GF)

Posted on by

This weekend I made our first cholent of the season for Sukkot, the fall harvest festival. We ate it inside our beautiful sukkah, built mostly by my husband, but this year with the help —for the first time — of our very young grandchildren. Cholent warms you from the inside out in chilly weather, and then, just little while later, it is gone.

I have made cholent (a crockpot stew traditionally served on holidays and Shabbat) a thousand times or more in my life, and no two versions have ever come out exactly the same. But, like riding a bike, there is a rhythm to the recipe, and once you get the rhythm, it belongs to you for the rest of your life. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Red Soup for the Holidays

Posted on by

In the days when my house was full of school-age children, I used to make crockpots full of soup every weekend, and hope that it would last into the beginning of the following week to provide warm lunches or dinners until it was gone. I don’t make weekly crockpots anymore, but I still love using my crockpot to make soup in the fall, around the holidays, and in the early spring, before the weather begins to warm up.

This time of year, with the nights cooling and plenty of holidays on the calendar, it’s always a great feeling to fill the crockpot and see what develops. And it doesn’t have to be chicken thighs. You can also fill your crockpot with beans! An overnight crockpot fills the house with a sublime perfume, the stomach with a delicious and satisfying meal, and the hearts of those you feed with all kinds of warm and cozy feelings. Continue reading →

Eating Well and Being Kind to Yourself (with recipe)

Posted on by

I come from a family of knitters. Our family lore includes a story about my mother and maternal grandmother knitting at the movies, with my 10-year-old mom doing the “easy” parts, and passing it to her mother for the sleeves and shaping. And the fact that my grandmother volunteered to knit the less popular dark blue sweaters for the Navy instead of khaki sweaters for the Army. It didn’t matter to her because she could knit in the dark. 

So when I finally decided that it was time for me to learn to knit, it was a little overwhelming. I took some books out of the library, one of which said to make your projects with the best yarn you can afford because the results will be better, and you’ll be more pleased with the finished product. That resonated with me, because it’s exactly what I say about food. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Red Lentil Soup for Rosh Hashanah

Posted on by

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins tonight at sundown. High Holiday foods tend toward the sweet and the circular: sweet to represent our wishes for a sweet new year, and circular to symbolize the seasons that run one into the next, round and round, year after year.

So it is traditional to eat many different kinds of fruits, especially apples, prunes, pomegranates, dates and apricots; and sweet vegetables such as beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, and leeks (sliced into rounds, of course), as well as black-eyed peas and lentils. And lots of honey, especially for dipping bread and apples. Continue reading →

YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Vegan Cholent (Crockpot Stew)

Posted on by

Last weekend, I made this recipe for the first day of Sukkot, the fall harvest festival, and we ate it inside our beautiful sukkah that my husband built last week. It warmed us from the inside out in the chilly 50 degree weather. And then it was gone, I mean really GONE, just a few hours later. Even my father, who said “I don’t like cholent,” ate a huge bowlful and said he changed his mind. Please make a note of that. Continue reading →

Try Nourishing Yourself with Joy

Posted on by

Today we’re talking about diets. To diet is to restrict oneself, to deny oneself pleasure. Well that sounds kind of miserable. No wonder diets don’t work. Who would want to do something that makes you feel bad?

Dieting is a logical consequence of the assumption that overweight is due to overindulgence. But there is a fault — a big, fat one — within this assumption: If it were true that overindulgence were the cause of overweight, then denial would be an effective and viable option for losing weight. But it is not, of course, which is why you have probably noticed that diets virtually never work. Continue reading →