Breakfast Archives | Page 2 of 3

Healthy Green Smoothie with Spinach, Kale and Banana

March 13, 2015 By Karen

My family loves a good ritual, and I find comfort in traditions that remind me to take time out of my everyday nonsense and reflect on where I am, how I’ve gotten here, and who has filled my heart along the way.

My brother Brian’s birthday was St. Patrick’s Day, and when we were little we always celebrated with Shamrock shakes. They were a special green treat, and I always looked forward to the trip to McDonald’s for that cold and creamy drink that went so perfectly with hot and salty fries.

Tuesday will be the 30th anniversary of a different birthday tradition though. Every March 17th since I was 9 years old, I have celebrated my brother’s birthday with six green helium-filled balloons: one for him, one for my mom, one for my dad, one for my brother Andrew, one for my abuelita Julita, and one for me. The people who loved my brother the most. But these balloons aren’t headed for a party; they’re headed for the sky….

Coconut Maple Granola

February 4, 2015 By Karen

I bought mint chocolate chip ice cream last week. It’s something I rarely do, because I have no control over myself when it’s in the house. But I did. I bought it. The super premium, extra rich and delicious kind, that’s actually white, with tons of chocolate slivers. On Thursday night I had to go out for an hour, and when I walked back in the door at 8:30, I headed straight to the freezer. The kids were tucked in already, Brian was on Skype with a friend, and I just wanted to decompress. So I filled a small ramekin with my ice cream (proud of myself for attempting portion control,) and curled up on the couch. Intending to pull up Downton Abbey on the DVR, I turned on the TV and what’s on live but The Biggest Loser season finale. It’s not like I even watch this show, but it’s impossible not to get sucked in. There’s one incredible transformation after another, with stories to boot about the importance of making healthy choices so you can live a happier, longer life. So I watched… and ate my ice cream. And then there was a commercial, and because it wasn’t recorded, I actually had to wait for the show to resume. So while the participants changed into their “weigh-in” clothes, I went back to the freezer for what was now a heaping second helping of ice cream. And as I saw before and after images of 100 pound weight losses, I continued to spoon my ice cream in, fully noting the irony.

But that’s normal, right? Knowing logically what the smart thing is, the healthy thing, yet consciously doing the opposite? And when I say normal, I don’t mean that it’s something to be proud of, it’s just something that is. It’s reality. So that night I indulged myself with the ice cream, and then I did in fact watch Downton Abbey, and then I realized that the final episode Parenthood was on. And since I was already emotional, I knew that I would be guaranteed to have a good cry if I stayed up to watch it too, and so I did. (I stayed up, AND I cried. Did you see it? So good.) And none of those decisions were smart or healthy. I was still recovering from the plague that hit our house, and I had a full day on Friday, but I was up until almost midnight. There goes healthy choices…..

But I redeemed myself. While Thursday night was a wash, I knew I could start the next day with a clean slate. A smart breakfast with some plain yogurt, fruit and granola. …

Martha Stewart’s Buttermilk Pancakes

January 5, 2015 By Karen

Have you heard of the show Master Chef Junior? It’s a cooking competition show for kids ages 8-13 that airs on Fox on Tuesday nights. We missed the first season entirely, just finished the second season this weekend, and are so excited for the third season to start tomorrow night (Tuesday, January 6th.) If you haven’t seen it yet, pause what you are doing and go set your DVR. I can honestly say that it is my favorite cooking competition show of all time. While the grown-up versions are often filled with drama, pettiness, and conniving, self-absorbed chefs with more tattoos than compassion, Master Chef Junior is inspiring in every way. First of all, these tiny home cooks have more skill in the kitchen than I do, by far, and I am four times their age! Knocking out cream pies, smoked aiolies, breaking down giant Alaskan salmon, and frying up chicken, with knife skills and flavor pairings that have never crossed my mind, I learned something from every episode. And I’ve actually been moved to tears while watching because these children and judges are nothing but encouraging and supportive of each other. Gordon Ramsey might be foul-mouthed and mean as hell to adults that he judges, but here the man is like a good-hearted dad who speaks honestly and fairly to these kids, with the goal of building them up to be the best they can be. All of us should have such a mentor.

When we started watching this show together as a family, my big guy was on the edge of his seat. His jaw dropped as they wielded their knives, and he couldn’t get over how sophisticated their plates and palates were. When it was time for contestants to be sent home, he was anxious, and then upset that someone could “lose” with a dish that was so far ahead of anything he knew how to do.

But mostly, he’s been excited. While he stood by my side and mixed cookie dough and made muffins as a toddler, it had been years since he had any real interest in the kitchen. All of a sudden, that’s changed. “Hey Mom, Sean’s only 10! How can he do all that??!!??” was quickly followed up by, “I want to do that! Can you show me how?”…

Thankful: Dorie Greenspan’s Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits

November 27, 2014 By Karen

Thankful.

Lucky.

Waking up to a kid that calls out, “Mom, can I get up? My tummy is telling me I neeeeeed to dance.”

Finally finishing “The Princess Bride” with my big guy, and around 20 pages before it ends listening to him belly-laugh at the scene of the “mawidge.” Knowing tonight he’ll get to watch the movie for the first time ever, and in the company of his uncle and grandma, the latter who’s been saying to him “Have fun storming the castle” his whole life. Getting to watch it through his seven year old eyes.

Going out to dinner for the umpteenth time in three weeks, thanks to my kitchen being off limits, and not only having the ability to do so, but a great meal with my family, where nobody spilled the water on his lap, or fussed over the order. And having my own belly-laugh over a line my husband said. In public, laughing inappropriately, too loud, tears streaming down my face. And I couldn’t stop.

Health. My own. My kids’. My mom’s. My brother’s. My husband’s. His mom’s. His dad’s. His sister’s. Her husband’s. Their daughter’s. Our friends’.
…

Pear and Cranberry Crisp with Gingersnaps, Oats and Almonds

November 19, 2014 By Karen

Mom, will you die when I’m tall?

No sweetie, I’m not going to die until you’re very old and I’m very very old. Being tall has nothing to do with it.

But Mom, what happens when I die. What will I do then?

Well, when you die, you don’t really have a chance to do anything else.

That’s sad, Mommy. I’m going to be very sad when I die.

Oh sweetie, you don’t have to worry about that right now. It’s not going to happen for a really really long time. But you’re right, it is a super sad thing when someone dies, and crying about it is what people do. Just like I cry about Zayde sometimes.

Did Zayde know me Mom?

No. You were in my belly when he died though, and he knew you were on the way.

Four years ago, on the day after Thanksgiving, my dad finally let go after an eleven year battle with multiple types of cancer and all the complications that came along the way. Over the course of his illness he suffered much of the time, enduring a stem cell transplant, multiple rounds of chemo, radiation, and more pills and pains than anybody should have to. But here’s the amazing thing: during all that time he maintained an intense desire to keep going. To live. To be present as best he could, and to participate in and witness the big life events. He defied all the medical odds, and despite being told he may only have six months, he made it over a decade. They weren’t easy years. They were anything but easy. Yet whenever you asked if it was worth it, he always responded with, “Well it sure as hell beats the alternative.”

My dad didn’t die when I was tall (at 5’1″ I’m never going to claim that description,) and he didn’t die when I was old. By years, he wasn’t very very old either, just 66. But his health caused him to age too quickly, breaking his body down.

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving 2010, there was the same question there had always been: will this be his last? I was at my own home in New Jersey when the call came that it was time. Honestly, I can’t remember right now exactly when in the day I heard, but I was planning to have a house full of people that afternoon for dinner. I had already made the caramelized onions for the gravy, the cranberry sauce was chilling, the green beans were trimmed, and the cornbread was drying out for the stuffing. Should I leave the turkey in the oven and head to the airport immediately, or would there be enough time to wait until the morning?…

Chewy Sesame Granola Bars with Dark Chocolate Chunks

October 20, 2014 By Karen

Have you ever watched your favorite movie or television show and felt envious of the soundtrack that magically enhances the lives on the screen? From the opening credits to a certain character’s theme song, the music changes the mood of a scene and influences your reactions as you watch. Well, my house seems to have a built in soundtrack. Okay, it wasn’t actually installed in 1928 when the house was first constructed, but with the brilliance of modern technology (otherwise known as our Sonos system that Brian controls remotely,) music miraculously pours through speakers all over my house when I least expect it.

Sunday morning, butterflies flew about my stomach as I mentally prepared to run my first ever 5K. Like I mentioned before, back in July I couldn’t even run for sixty seconds without huffing and puffing and feeling like I needed to collapse. After years of avoiding it, I embarked on the Couch to 5K program, and consistently trained for the first 9 weeks, working up to running nonstop for 30 minutes, which covered two out of the three miles I needed. But summer ended, the mornings have been dark, life got in the way, and I let my new found exercise routine slide. I’d been in denial that October 19th was just around the corner, the date of our town’s annual 5K. But sure enough it had arrived.

I’d been deep in suds as I attacked the dishes, worrying that I was going to be walking more of this race than I wanted to, when the music started playing and Melissa Etheridge’s “I Run for Life” pumped into my kitchen. Luckily, I’m married to a man who has the uncanny ability to pick just the right tune for every occasion. And although I’ve loved this song for years, I never would have thought to put it on myself. (Honestly, I’m the one always listening to audiobooks, NPR, and podcasts, and sadly music often falls off my radar.) Have you heard it lately? Well, if you lived on my block you might have heard me belting it out my kitchen windows at the top of my lungs early Sunday, because it changed my whole attitude about the day. Minutes earlier I had been anxious that I was going to disappoint myself, “failing” to run this race the way I originally intended to, but then Melissa reminded me why I decided to do this in the first place….

Pumpkin Apple Noodle Kugel

October 13, 2014 By Karen

I know my last post was a bit on the heavy side, so I have decided to go easy on you today. This one is all uplifting, so sit back and relax. First of all, I have some fun news: despite (and who knows, maybe partly because of) the serious nature of what I wrote on Wednesday, people clearly are drawn to all the words in the title Brown Butter Brownies with Dark Chocolate Chunks, because they have gone wild for it on Pinterest! In just five days, almost 350 people have pinned the recipe! As someone who is just starting to learn about Pinterest, I find this kind of amazing. I don’t yet get exactly how the whole thing works, but am thrilled that people see the picture of these brownies and want to remember them. If you’re reading this now, and are one of those people, thank you! Every picture on Tasty Oasis is easily “pinnable,” so if you want to have a visual collection of recipes, pin away! It has boosted the traffic to this blog tremendously in such a short period of time, and even more people have subscribed to get emails about new posts. (Have you? It takes just a minute, and you’ll be notified every time something new comes out. You can click right here to do it now.)

A couple of weeks ago I posted a recipe for Noodle Pudding with Cinnamon and Raisins , also called kugel, which is a traditional side dish served at the Jewish holidays this time of year. Only slightly sweet, it’s a lightened version of an old family favorite, and one that I make year after year. But as luck would have it, later that same day I happened to see an article on Food52 called How to Make Kugel Without a Recipe, by Sarah Jampel. She has a great write-up about all the different ways you can take your kugel, and you should definitely check it out. But in one line she off-handedly mentioned pureed pumpkin, and all of a sudden my wheels started turning. Why had I never considered this before? It’s fall, and pumpkin recipes are everywhere! And then I thought about my other fall love: apples. So I had to rush to the store immediately for more noodles and got started on recipe testing. …

Noodle Kugel with Cinnamon and Raisins

September 21, 2014 By Karen

As a kid, there was always good food in my house: healthy, nourishing, and comforting. But I was never aware of how it came to be. I have vivid memories of grocery shopping with my mom (two overflowing carts to feed our household of six,) but very few of her actually cooking because I didn’t participate in it. She tells me that she spent hours sitting on the kitchen floor pouring over “Gourmet” magazines, looking for recipes when my brothers and I were young, but it doesn’t even sound familiar. I know in theory that she cooked a Shabbat dinner most Friday nights until I was nine, but I can’t tell you what we had at them. For a family that wasn’t very religious, I somehow only remember the special occasion foods she made like brisket and latkes with homemade applesauce at Hanukkah, harroset (an apple, walnut and red wine mix served during the Seder) at Passover, and one of my very favorites: kugel on Rosh Hashana.

For us, kugel meant a slightly sweetened noodle casserole served as a side dish at the holidays. But as I grew older I learned that kugel means different things to different people. Both noodle “pudding” and a savory potato version (that’s basically a casserole approach to latkes, potato pancakes, hash browns, or whatever you want to call them,) come from Eastern Europe and are a traditional part of Ashkenazi Jewish cooking . There’s even a carrot kugel, which we called carrot pudding that looks nothing like pudding at all (at least not in the Bill Cosby Jell-O sort of way,) but more like a bundt cake. It’s hard to believe it’s in the same category because it doesn’t even slightly resemble the kugel I share with you today. (But stick around, because I’ve got a pretty great recipe for that carrot one and hopefully I’ll get to it soon!) If you want to know even more about kugel, there’s a detailed write up about it here.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year, and part of how we celebrate is to eat foods that reflect the wish for sweet beginnings and good things to come in the year ahead. Apples dipped in honey start the night, and honey cake often ends it. But the main meal can incorporate that theme too. Which is why this slightly sweetened noodle pudding is the perfect side dish to serve at the holiday table with brisket or a roasted chicken, or even Spice-Crusted Roasted Salmon. Made with broad egg noodles, it’s a bit creamy, with the warmth of cinnamon and a juicy pop from the golden raisins sprinkled throughout. The top gets nicely browned, so not only is it delicious, it’s pretty to look at….