This is the best zucchini bread I have ever had! Sweet Zucchini Bread with Citrus! I have made it a few times and every time I make it everyone raves about how good it is. The best part of this recipe is the orange peel, it adds such a sweet and yummy flavor. Once I may have tried it with both orange and lemon peel, I'm not sure though. But I definitely did use less sugar this time 1 1/2 cups instead of 2 and I think I could even take it down to 1 or less and it would still be fine. I also use all whole wheat flour and it comes out just delicious!
Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Not your mom's split pea soup
Looking for a great soup to warm up those winter nights? This is not your regular split pea soup!
I found this recipe a while back and have made it a couple of time now. A great twist on regular split pea soup and even better it is vegetarian! Yum Yum Curried Split Pea Soup.
Enjoy!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
The Stand
At The Stand one day with my parents we found a banana about the size of our baby that week, 20 weeks 4 days.
small faces
The baby at 24 weeks!
I can't wait to see if this little face is what the baby actually looks like when s/he is born.
moving, moving, moving....
This baby is moving all the time! Not yet have I been woken up by all the baby movements at night, but during the day I get to feel the baby moving all the time. It took me a while to realize I was actually feeling the baby, probably not until week 19. I was feeling things inside of me but wasn't sure what they were. Around week 18 and 19 I was feeling what felt to me like muscle spasms, and to my surprise these little muscle spasm feelings were really just the little one inside of me!
Some morning I wake up and just lay on my side for a while and enjoy feeling the little one moving around. Y was so cute the other day, he woke up before me and rolled over and put his hands on my belly and tried to figure out where the baby was, and thought it was so cool that I was sound asleep and he could feel the baby moving! He had only felt the baby for sure one time before this, so this was a big and exciting occasion!
My favorite is when i lean up against something like the sink when I am doing dishes and the baby moves with a clear "Hey! What is that pushing up against me, it's cramping my space in here!" Feeling this baby is making it all so much more real, despite the growing belly, I have still kind of not been able to believe that this is all real. It just seems like might wake up one day and it was all a dream, or someone is just going to say, "just kidding, you are not really pregnant!" I don't know why I feel this way, ultrasounds helped me to believe that there is REALLY a baby inside of me, but feeling the baby move is making it so much more real, and exciting! I am getting so excited to meet this little one.
Some morning I wake up and just lay on my side for a while and enjoy feeling the little one moving around. Y was so cute the other day, he woke up before me and rolled over and put his hands on my belly and tried to figure out where the baby was, and thought it was so cool that I was sound asleep and he could feel the baby moving! He had only felt the baby for sure one time before this, so this was a big and exciting occasion!
My favorite is when i lean up against something like the sink when I am doing dishes and the baby moves with a clear "Hey! What is that pushing up against me, it's cramping my space in here!" Feeling this baby is making it all so much more real, despite the growing belly, I have still kind of not been able to believe that this is all real. It just seems like might wake up one day and it was all a dream, or someone is just going to say, "just kidding, you are not really pregnant!" I don't know why I feel this way, ultrasounds helped me to believe that there is REALLY a baby inside of me, but feeling the baby move is making it so much more real, and exciting! I am getting so excited to meet this little one.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Lemony Lentil Soup with Cilantro
Since I found this amazing Lemony Lentil Soup with Cilantro it has become one of my favs! I use more lemon and well probably more cilantro than the recipe calls for but I am not sure since I don't always measure while I am cooking. I love lentils but even people that don't like lentils or the usual lentil soup will like this one. The lemon and cilantro add such a different taste to the lentils and it is really refreshing!
One of the best things about this soup is it i quick and doesn;t use very many ingredients. I actually don't use the allspice and I don't blend anything just saute the onion and add in the lentils water and veggie stock, then when it is almost done add in lemon juice and finely chopped cilantro and serve!
Enjoy!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
magical garden
On Friday I was looking at my "wee little garden gnome" and thinking how he might just belong in my herb box above the kitchen sink. I didn't ended up putting him there but after what happened Friday night, I think even more he belongs in there!
My herb box was only full of mint, that was from the centerpieces from our wedding and has been thriving for months now. After all the other herbs one by one died and I thought the mint was alos on its way out, it miraculously came back and has been thriving ever since. So what happened on Friday night you may be asking yourself now? We had just come home from a wonderful meal at our friend's house followed by a great game of bananagrams, and I was getting ready for bed, when Y screamed to me from the kitchen to "come here and look at this"! He told me to look at the flowers, so I looked at my small plant with purple flowers next to the herb box expecting to find some crazy looking spider, but then he said, "what you don't see it? Look at the mint!" So I look at the mint....and what do I discover a bunch of crazy looking yellow mushrooms.
I told him they were definitely not there earlier that day when I watered the mint and was contemplating the wee little gnomes potential new home. They just popped up.
So when Shabbat was over on Saturday night we as carefully as could be picked them out and then tried to do a little research on them on the internet. So it turns out they are called Leucocoprinus birnbaumii ofcourse named after a Jew. They apparently grow in house plants and are pretty common. They won't harm the plant or people, unless we eat them. I like mushrooms, but these ones, yuck! They might come back and I guess if they do I will definitley have to put my wee little gnome in with them!
My herb box was only full of mint, that was from the centerpieces from our wedding and has been thriving for months now. After all the other herbs one by one died and I thought the mint was alos on its way out, it miraculously came back and has been thriving ever since. So what happened on Friday night you may be asking yourself now? We had just come home from a wonderful meal at our friend's house followed by a great game of bananagrams, and I was getting ready for bed, when Y screamed to me from the kitchen to "come here and look at this"! He told me to look at the flowers, so I looked at my small plant with purple flowers next to the herb box expecting to find some crazy looking spider, but then he said, "what you don't see it? Look at the mint!" So I look at the mint....and what do I discover a bunch of crazy looking yellow mushrooms.
I told him they were definitely not there earlier that day when I watered the mint and was contemplating the wee little gnomes potential new home. They just popped up.
So when Shabbat was over on Saturday night we as carefully as could be picked them out and then tried to do a little research on them on the internet. So it turns out they are called Leucocoprinus birnbaumii ofcourse named after a Jew. They apparently grow in house plants and are pretty common. They won't harm the plant or people, unless we eat them. I like mushrooms, but these ones, yuck! They might come back and I guess if they do I will definitley have to put my wee little gnome in with them!
Monday, November 9, 2009
ch-ch-ch-changes
My life is in a process of change. It's pretty hard to believe. Despite that my belly is getting bigger I think I am still in a bit of denial. Even after seeing our baby move I feel like I still don't believe it. Below are the pictures we got of our beautiful baby from 13 weeks 6 days. The first pick is the normal US picture of the peanut looking thing, that is our baby.
While we were getting our ultra sound done they asked if we would do it again in the next room. They had a new machine and needed to test it out on women at various stages of pregnancy. So lucky us we got super clear and more detailed pictures, including a 3Dish picture of the babies face.
Top frontal view, that looks more like a baby bear than a person, if you ask me.
This one is a side view of the face, you can see the nose and lips to the bottom left.
That's a good looking spine!
Look at that face, we think s/he has my nose already!
While we were getting our ultra sound done they asked if we would do it again in the next room. They had a new machine and needed to test it out on women at various stages of pregnancy. So lucky us we got super clear and more detailed pictures, including a 3Dish picture of the babies face.
Top frontal view, that looks more like a baby bear than a person, if you ask me.
This one is a side view of the face, you can see the nose and lips to the bottom left.
That's a good looking spine!
Look at that face, we think s/he has my nose already!It was incredible seeing thiese live pictures and seeing the baby move. I think I am starting to feel the baby moving, but I'm really not sure. I guess I'll know in a few weeks for sure. What an experience. It is so weird watching my body change, I look in the mirror and don't even recognize myself these days. There was a while where I was every morning waking up and saying that I think my tummy is bigger. And no joke, I was totally serious!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
tut tut it looks like rain
Winter has arrived, two days ago it was still hot and I was still wearing sandals and now today it is so cold and wet I needed to wear my new winter coat. There doesn't seem to be fall here, it really just goes from summer to winter, same with spring, it never seams to arrive it just goes straight from winter to summer. I never seem to live in a place with 4 seasons. now I just live in the extremes, but I guess that's Israel for you, always extreme! for now I am just going to try and stay dry and warm and keep drinking my new favorite tea, bedouin chai with a little agave nectar and soy milk, yum yum!
sooo tired and so many months
A lot of time has passed, 3+ months since I have been posting. Time is flying by and I am just exhausted these days. Back in July was the 1 year anniversary of my first date with Y and this past Saturday was the 1 year anniversary of when we got engaged, this means that I have been married for almost a year. This year is just passing so fast. It feels as if we have been married forever (in a good way of course) but it is also so hard to believe that it could also be that we have been married for 9 months!
Life is basically the same, just trying to be a good wife, whatever that means. And not be too tired, I am exhausted these days. Life goes on...
Life is basically the same, just trying to be a good wife, whatever that means. And not be too tired, I am exhausted these days. Life goes on...
sukkah
Sukkot has come and gone. I had so many ideas for sukkah decorations this year but in the end only had time to make a few. Y and I sat up late the night before sukkot began finishing up a few decorations.
My inspiration came from:
And these last three came from Creative Jewish Mom!
My inspiration came from:
But as you can see I only really ended up using ideas from Creative Jewish Mom. Here are a few shots of what our sukkah looked like.
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009
plastic bottles, plastic bottles, and more plastic bottles
I have found my new obsession, plastic bottles!
So many plastic bottles are wasted and thrown away, some recycled, but mostly thrown away. I recently started to cut them in half and use the bottom halves as planters to transplant my growing jalapeno plants. I was saving the tops and have come up with a few ideas of uses for them like:
I began to search for what other ideas are out there and came across all these cool sites...
Re-Nest
Crafting Green World
Dollar Store Crafts
Enjoy!!!
Reduse, Reuse, Recycle
So many plastic bottles are wasted and thrown away, some recycled, but mostly thrown away. I recently started to cut them in half and use the bottom halves as planters to transplant my growing jalapeno plants. I was saving the tops and have come up with a few ideas of uses for them like:
- tea light lanterns...filling them with and and putting a tea light in them and hanging them in my back patio
- cutting them up and turning them into hanging deocrations
- cutting them in shapes and and creating mobiles
I began to search for what other ideas are out there and came across all these cool sites...Re-Nest
Crafting Green World
Dollar Store Crafts
Enjoy!!!
Reduse, Reuse, Recycle
a far way to have come in a year
Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of my first date with my amazing husband! Wow!
It is hard to believe that it has only been a year since I made aliyah and met my husband.
Just 5 days after arrived and officially became an Israeli I went on my first date with my husband.
To celebrate last night I made yummy black bean burgers and then we went out for ice cream. After enjoying my cone of Ferrero Rocher and Mint Chip we walked past Cafe Hillel, the site of our first date. My husband thought I was cheesy, but I don't care I thought it was cute, and was delighted that he even remembered exactly where we sat.
A year can be filled with so many surprises!
It is hard to believe that it has only been a year since I made aliyah and met my husband.
Just 5 days after arrived and officially became an Israeli I went on my first date with my husband.
To celebrate last night I made yummy black bean burgers and then we went out for ice cream. After enjoying my cone of Ferrero Rocher and Mint Chip we walked past Cafe Hillel, the site of our first date. My husband thought I was cheesy, but I don't care I thought it was cute, and was delighted that he even remembered exactly where we sat.
A year can be filled with so many surprises!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
so many plastic bags
I have so many plastic bags every time I go to buy something I get an other bag. Its just part of the culture, here so much so that when I say I don't need a bag I get a funny look. For years now I have been wanting to make a reusable plastic shopping bag our of old plastic bags. Recently I had the idea to make a basket for toiletries our of plastic bags but couldn't find a pattern. Two days ago I came across AltUse and the daily product was plastic bags and one of the uses is little storage baskets.
On AltUse they have a link to NezumiWorld with many uses for plastic bags. What a good way to reuse these bags, besides of course trashbags!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
aliyaversary #1
One year ago today I made Aliyah and officially became an Israeli Citizen.
It is hard to believe that a year has passed already since I landed in Israel and received my Teudat Zehut (Israeli ID card) and Teudat Oleh (Immigrant ID Card). This year has been full of so many new and exciting things, of course the biggest, my marriage to my husband!
I love living in Israel, although I am far from my family I know that this is the place to live. Here I can live a true Jewish life in the Holy Land, the land that God gave to us! Israel is full of its ups and downs but I wouldn't give it up for anything. Ridiculous things are always happening, juts the other day someone from the Electric Company came to turn our electricity off because we had a bill from last year that we didn't pay. We had never heard abut this until then and when inquiring why we had never heard about this bill and why our new bill was exorbitantly high, we were told that there was a strike and so no one received their bills and no one was checking the meters. So instead of sending us a bill for what we owed they send someone out to collect the money or turn the electricity off, Thank God we were home. And apparently our new bill was SO high because in their estimation they said we used 3000 kilowatts when apparently we used only 300. We only learned all of this after a lot of question asking. RIDICULOUS! But still I love this small little turmoil filled country that is ours!
B'Shanah Ha'Ba'ah B'Yirushalayim!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
vestish
I love this look, I tried it with my own brown scarf which I can buy here for about 15 Shekels = $3.75. Everyone loved it and couldn't believe it was a scarf just tied around my kneck when i showed them!
In the same spirit I found this pattern on knitty.com and can't wait to make it. Knitty.com has great patterns, always something fun to knit!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Holy Hevron Wedding
What a Holy place for a wedding!!!
Mazal Tov Sarah and Eli!!!
Mazal Tov Sarah and Eli!!!
Right here in Hevron in front of Ma'arat Ha'Machpela are the kvarim (graves) of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, and even Esau's head is buried there.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Green Thumb
Recently I have been really working on growing plants around my house.
My neighbors have created a garden and a few weeks ago I went out with the wife to have a tour of their garden and she gave me a bunch of her plants to see if I can get them to grow in front of my house. I started with keeping them in water to get their roots to grown before planting them.
I really liked the way they looked so I started picking a bunch and putting them in various size and shaped vases and glasses. And they looked so great on my recylced plastic bottle green tablecoth and infront of our window covered in passion fruit vines.
I am also keeping fresh lavendar flowers in jars around the house. And am also attempting for the second time to grow my own lavendar. Along with the lavendar are tons of organic jalapeno sprouts that I really need to transplant into a bigger container, I can't wait for them to started growing peppers!!
I started giving them away I have so many seedlings. I am now searching for cute pots to put some of the seedlings in to give as gifts.
Lupin has her plants potted in great ways, if I could only find vintage pots like her.
This growing passion really started with the herbs from the centerpieces from our wedding. I have them growing above my sink in the kitchen: parsley, peppermint, nana (spearmint), zatar (hyssop). I've been loving pinching some off and putting it in my cooking.
A few weeks ago i added a few zatar leaves to my hummus I was making and it really added such a great taste!
Next I am hoping to start growing basil and cilantro, I tried cilantro but I think I used the leaves in cooking to soon after transplanting it so it didn't last.
The green around the house is so delightful that I even put plants in the bathroom, bamboo above the sink and 3 small succulents on a shelf in the shower.
My neighbors have created a garden and a few weeks ago I went out with the wife to have a tour of their garden and she gave me a bunch of her plants to see if I can get them to grow in front of my house. I started with keeping them in water to get their roots to grown before planting them.
I really liked the way they looked so I started picking a bunch and putting them in various size and shaped vases and glasses. And they looked so great on my recylced plastic bottle green tablecoth and infront of our window covered in passion fruit vines.
I am also keeping fresh lavendar flowers in jars around the house. And am also attempting for the second time to grow my own lavendar. Along with the lavendar are tons of organic jalapeno sprouts that I really need to transplant into a bigger container, I can't wait for them to started growing peppers!!
I started giving them away I have so many seedlings. I am now searching for cute pots to put some of the seedlings in to give as gifts.
Lupin has her plants potted in great ways, if I could only find vintage pots like her.This growing passion really started with the herbs from the centerpieces from our wedding. I have them growing above my sink in the kitchen: parsley, peppermint, nana (spearmint), zatar (hyssop). I've been loving pinching some off and putting it in my cooking.
A few weeks ago i added a few zatar leaves to my hummus I was making and it really added such a great taste!
Next I am hoping to start growing basil and cilantro, I tried cilantro but I think I used the leaves in cooking to soon after transplanting it so it didn't last.
The green around the house is so delightful that I even put plants in the bathroom, bamboo above the sink and 3 small succulents on a shelf in the shower.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Time Flies
It has been over 4 months now since my wedding. Things are settling slowly slowly. We are really making a house, the furniture is coming together and we just got a washing machine and dryer installed today! Wow my first big appliances!
Being married is awesome. Everyday brings new adventures.
We finally got our video from our videographer and we have two amazing clips that he made for us.
Go to YouTube to watch the "High Quality" versions!
Being married is awesome. Everyday brings new adventures.
We finally got our video from our videographer and we have two amazing clips that he made for us.
Go to YouTube to watch the "High Quality" versions!
Monday, March 2, 2009
3 weeks
Its hard to believe I have been married now for 3 weeks! Me a wife, a married lady! It is still a bit surreal. I am definitely enjoying it and it and I keep finding myself saying that it just feels so normal.
We had such an amazing and beautiful wedding. People are still telling us how it was one of the best weddings they went to and how special and spiritual it was. We broadcast the chuppa live on the internet so our friends and family abroad could watch it. We got married in Jerusalem and one friend who couldn't make it actually watched it online. The chuppa ended up being and hour and a half, we couldn't believe it was that long but it was so beautiful no one really noticed.
Here you can see the hair vine I made and my bouquet I ended up getting. The woman who did my hair couldn't believe I made the hairpiece myself, and she wants me to sell them, she said she has a lot of brides who would be interested in a hairpiece like what I made. So I guess I have a new little side business. That's what life in Israel is all about, piecing together jobs to make up one.There ended up being possibly 400 people at the wedding, 300 intended guests and 100 more that came to celebrate with us. We couldn't believe how many poeple were able to come it was truly amazing! There were a lot people we missed but will BE"H be seeing soon in April when we go to North America. This will be my first trip to Toronto and meeting alot of my husbands family and friends who were not able to make it to Israel for the wedding. Husband, hee hee, I still have to get used to that part. More adventures to come...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
about a month to go...
I can't believe it, in two days it will be a month until my wedding! This is such an exciting time, we have been accomplishing so much in such a short time. Today we started to begin deciding on centerpieces and flowers and all that fun stuff. We are going to have centerpieces that are plants that people can take and plant. There will be a mix of herbs and flowers. This is a great way to be more environmental as well as it goes with the fact that we are getting married on Tu B'Shvat, the Birthday of the trees!
I am looking at having a bouquet of orchids. While looking for pretty bouquets I came across some really interesting bouquets and this was just one I thought was really interesting.
I will probbaly be going with something a little more like this one though.
My DIY roots are coming through...I am not so into the idea of wearing a tiara but I did want to have something in my hair. I found some really cool and amazing tiara and tiara alternatives online and many on www.Etsy.com I decided to make my own thing to wear in my hair. In my search I came across a bunch of "hair vines" so I decided to make my own out of pearl beads, I am excited to wear it, I think it am eout pretty good. I showed it to a friend of mine yesterday and she couldn't believe that I made it. Way to go DIY roots, I knew all that craftiness would pay off one day!!!
Wow 32 days to go...
I am looking at having a bouquet of orchids. While looking for pretty bouquets I came across some really interesting bouquets and this was just one I thought was really interesting.
I will probbaly be going with something a little more like this one though.
My DIY roots are coming through...I am not so into the idea of wearing a tiara but I did want to have something in my hair. I found some really cool and amazing tiara and tiara alternatives online and many on www.Etsy.com I decided to make my own thing to wear in my hair. In my search I came across a bunch of "hair vines" so I decided to make my own out of pearl beads, I am excited to wear it, I think it am eout pretty good. I showed it to a friend of mine yesterday and she couldn't believe that I made it. Way to go DIY roots, I knew all that craftiness would pay off one day!!!Wow 32 days to go...
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