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Healthy Unicorn “Frappo” Alternative (Vegan)

Unless you have been living under a huge rock for the past three days, you couldn’t avoid hearing about Starbucks newest marketing gig, the Unicorn Frappuccino! For the past few days, Mashable, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even late night shows spoke of little else.

Frappuccino is a Starbucks’ trademark for its line of blended, ice-cold coffee beverages. This particular one was marketed as “sweet and fruity transforming to pleasantly sour” that will change its flavor as the ice melts and you mix it “to reveal a color-changing spectacle of purple and pink.”

While it looks extremely colorful, I was positively surprised that there were no chemical food colorings in the extensive list of ingredients. However, the drink made from a mix of flavored syrups and sauces, for example, Starbucks’ Crème Frappuccino Syrup, vanilla syrup, mango syrup, classic syrup and white chocolate mocha sauce, as well as something the company calls “fairy powders” — a.k.a. Tons of sugar and natural food colorings.

While no one in their right mind would think of this drink as healthy, its high sugar, saturated fat and sodium contents might surprise most. A venti version of this drink, made with whole milk and topped with whipped cream, has 500 calories, 55% of your daily value of saturated fat and 19 spoons of sugar!!!!

(Source: Starbucks)

I was willing to let my girls shared a small one, but when we went today, we were told by a (probably relieved) barista, that the drink sold out and no Starbucks in the area has them anymore.

So, I tried my best to create a delicious, but super healthy version of this drink. Since I have not tasted it and I did not use any crazy syrups and sauces, it won’t taste the same, but it’s fun to look at, yummy, and nutritious.

Healthy Unicorn Frappo Recipe

I tried my best to recreate the same tasting experience of different layers of sour and sweet. And I am happy to report that my girls loved it…

Healthy Unicorn "Frappe" Alternative
 
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You will have to work very fast as the ice will melt, so make sure you gather all your ingredients before you start.
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • Frozen Blueberries
  • Frozen Strawberries
  • Pineapple or Mango
  • 0.5 cup Almond Milk, Coconut Milk or any other non-dairy milk
  • Ice
  • Maple Syrup
  • MooTube BlueBerry Flavor or equivalent
  • Required Tools: Blender
Instructions
  1. Recipe Note: If you don't have all ingredients frozen, you can blend ice with the fruit as well.
  2. PINK LAYER:
  3. Blend 8 ripe, frozen strawberries with some almond milk, coconut milk or any other non-dairy milk. Add a little maple syrup to taste and spoon it into a mason jar or glass.
  4. BLUE LAYER:
  5. Cut the frozen yogurt stick into pieces. Blend for a few seconds and add frozen blueberries. Blend another 2-3 second until crushed but not mixed. Spoon into the mason jar.
  6. YELLOW LAYER:
  7. Blend equal amounts of pineapple or mango with ice until combined and slushy. Spoon on top.
  8. If desired, add sprinkles.

Have you tried the real thing? What did you think? Share with us your thoughts below.

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Our Table Cookbook Review [incl. Apple & Honey Rosh Hashanah Muffin Recipe]

I always wanted to write a cookbook — ever since I started cooking when I was 7 years old. My mom always joked, that the skill to cook skips one generation and since my grandmother was a very good cook (see Oma’s Lentil Soup recipe from last week), it was mostly up to me as a young teenager to cook family meals.

This wish became stronger over the past few years, as I have been cooking for my children. It is important to me to serve my family nutritious, healthy, and diverse meals to my family. My 2 girls have started to enjoy critiquing the food my husband and I put on the table. As a family, we mainly cook vegetable-based Italian food — with some German meat dishes mixed in for Shabbat and Yom Tovim.

I tell you all this because I recently had the opportunity to review Renee Muller’s new book “Our Table — Time-Tested Recipes, Memorable Meals” and after reading it, I have no desire to write one of my own. I simply couldn’t do better than Renee has already done.

And here is why:

ourtablecookbook

The first thing that you notice about this cookbook is that it is beautiful. No, actually, it is stunning. From cover to cover, the food in the photos is styled so elegant, but yet simplistic and approachable – just like the recipes that emphasize the characteristics of North Italian cuisine with is fresh, flavorful and homely approach.

I recently gave away most of my kosher cookbooks and kept only three special ones because they were wedding gifts. I did this because I could not stand how the recipes mostly relied on processed food. I try to feed my family on whole foods (preferably grown locally or even at home), so that was not an option. I was so excited to see that I have only discovered one recipe that calls for duck sauce!

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Over the past few weeks, I picked it up and read the stories that are included in many recipes. If you are new to some techniques used in this cookbook (e.g., how to shape, cut and cook gnocchi), you can follow along with 11 video tutorials that come with the book.

Since we are a bit crazy about goat cheese, this Rosh Hashanah, I am looking forward to integrating the following recipes into our Yom Tov menu:

  • Creamy Mozzarella Balls
  • Butternut Squash Cream Soup
  • Caramelized Onion Goat Cheese Tart
  • Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Salad
  • Sea Salt Caramels
  • Apple & Honey Rosh Hashanah Muffins

The last recipe I am especially excited about since I was allowed to share it with you today:

Apple & Honey Rosh Hashana Muffins from OUR TABLE: TIME-TESTED RECIPES, MEMORABLE MEALS
 
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Dairy/Pareve || Freezer Friendly || about 48 muffins At our house, Rosh Hashanah cannot happen without honey muffins. At least, that’s the way my kids see it. It’s a family project, and by now, a family tradition, too. This recipe was given to me by a relative in Israel who bakes them all the time and claims that no matter how many batches she bakes, there are never enough. She’s absolutely right. We once baked a quadruple batch of these (sans the apples) for a bake sale on our block and we were left without a crumb!
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Jewish
Serves: 48 Muffins
Ingredients
  • For the apples
  • 2 Tablespoons butter OR margarine
  • 4 Granny Smith apples, diced
  • 4 Tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • For the muffins
  • 2 cups prepared tea, lukewarm
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups oil
  • 2 cups honey
  • 12 eggs
  • 6 cups flour
  • 2 Tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 heaping Tablespoons cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
  2. Prepare the apples: In a saucepan, melt butter over a medium-low flame. Add apples, sugar, and cinnamon; cook until apples are fragrant and soften a bit, about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
  3. Prepare the muffins: In the bowl of a stand mixer, on medium speed, combine tea, sugar, oil, honey, and eggs. Mix until smooth. Reduce speed; gradually add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
  4. Fill each muffin cup halfway with batter. (I like to use a cupcake pen for this; I find it very helpful.) Top with a teaspoon of prepared apples. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out almost dry with some moist crumbs attached.

If you are looking for beautiful, simplistic and fresh food made at home with love rather than in a factory, you should buy this book.

Image Credits: Renee Muller Our Table & Artscroll 2016

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Oma’s Perfect Healthy Lentil Soup

This lentil soup was one of my favorite meals growing up! My grandmother (Oma is the German word for grandma) used to make such a yummy lentil soup that this recipe has become somewhat of a family treasure. And today I want to share with you.

omas-perfect-lentil-soup

Today one of the other parents in my children’s school asked on our Facebook group what they send for lunch. She was somewhat stumped because she was sick of making a bagel with cream cheese every single day. My children’s school has some nut and seed allergies, it’s a sugar-free school and all days except one is dairy or parve (so no meat) — which does make packing school lunches somewhat of a challenge.

So, when we sat down for family dinner and devoured this soup and my 7-year old said: “Mommy, this is really the perfect soup, you know?!” I decided I will write it up so other families might enjoy it too.

Vegetarian Kosher Parve Lentil Soup

This soup is so quick to prepare and needs almost no oversight while cooking — you can literally prepare it in less than ten minutes.

Today was a rainy day and I felt like making soup. So I made it today for lunch between writing and scheduling close to a Bob's Red Mill Lentilshundred social media posts and writing another 1,500-word blog post for my daytime job as a digital marketer. And taking the time to get dinner prep out of the way by the time the girls came home from school gives me back some precious time with them.

A quick word to the lentils. I am trying to eat as clean as I can, so I love to buy organic whenever possible. When it comes to lentils, I really like the Bob’s Red Mill Heritage Beans Brown Lentils for their nutty and earthy flavor.

I love this recipe because:

  • Great for meal prep: You can cook huge batches and freeze them in smaller portions.
  • Kid-Friendly. Kids love it – it makes great school lunches and gets kids to eat their veggies easy…
  • Easy-to-travel with. You can prep this soup ahead of time and portion it out in wide-mouth pint mason jars, that can be stored in the fridge for up to three days or you can even can them using a pressure cooker. Then grab and go for an easy brown-bagged lunch for work or on a business trip. Just heat up in a microwave.
  • Super healthy. Lentils are an amazing source of dietary fiber and important minerals such as iron, copper, phosphorus, zinc, and manganese. These yummy legumes also include protein, molybdenum, folate, pantothenic acid, potassium, and vitamin B1 and B6.
  • Budget-Friendly. Okay, it’s cheap. Even if you buy all vegetables organic, you will still come out to about $10/pot which serves 8-10 people.
  • It’s vegetarian, vegan, and kosher parve. There are no animal products used, so go ahead and enjoy.
  • Oh, and did I mention, it gets even better the next day when you warm it up?

Yes, I love this soup. 🙂

Oma's Perfect Lentil Soup
 
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Recipe type: Healthy
Cuisine: German
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
  • 1 Small Onion
  • 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
  • 6 Small Carrots
  • 2 Large Russet Potatoes
  • 1 Bag of Lentils
  • Salt, Pepper to taste
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 1 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar (optional)
  • 1 Tsp. Brown Sugar (optional)
Instructions
  1. Put the olive oil and finely chopped onion into a large, heavy-bottom soup pot and let the onion become translucent on medium heat. Don't let it burn.
  2. In the meantime, peel potatoes and carrots. Cut into ½" pieces and add to the onion into the pot.
  3. Then thoroughly rinse the lentils and add. Add salt, pepper, and one bay leaf.
  4. Fill with filtered water until all ingredients are well covered.
  5. Once it boils, set the timer for 15 minutes. Test if the lentils are cooked.
  6. Add vinegar and sugar before serving and mix well.

Germans like to eat their lentil soup without tomato paste in it, but they add sugar and vinegar just before serving. Pair it with some fresh baked Bauernbrot with some butter spread on top and some (home-brewed) ale beer for the adults and you will be in heaven.

If you are feeling in the mood to switch things up, you could add celery (we just don’t like cooked celery in our family) or if you eat meat, you can add a thicker hot dog-like sausage called Bockwurst.

I would love to hear what you think – please let me know how your’s came out!

All my best, Hannah

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Recipe Review: Chocolate Cream Pies

Chocolate Pudding Recipe

There are a few things I sorely miss from Germany that I simply cannot find here in the United States. Two of them are Griesbrei (which is a milk pudding made from something similar to grits or polenta) and real chocolate pudding (not the processed stuff you can buy in the store).

That is because Griesbrei and chocolate pudding are a huge part of my childhood. Whenever we were sick, in need of comfort or when my mom did not know what else to make for breakfast, lunch or dinner, she would make us one of those.

So, when I saw these chocolate cream pies in mini mason jars last week, I was euphoric. I planned to make them for Shabbat because we had some friends over who have three children of their own.

Mini Chocolate Cream Pies
Photo Credit: The Girl Inspired

Here is my result:

DSC_0003

My whipped cream is not so fancy. I just poured some fresh heavy cream in a mason jar (not more than a 1/4 of the mason jar) for 90 seconds, and you have yummy, healthy whipped cream. No extra sugar or extra additives.

DSC_0002

Great Taste, But The Texture Was Too Thick

Let’s start with the most important part first: taste! I loved the taste when it was still warm – it was so chocolatey! It reminded me of my childhood… I was in heaven. It is great cold as well, but as it cools and sets, it thickens a bit more – as a cream pie should.

Also, I do not bake in my Ball mason jars, as the manufacturer does not recommend it for safety reasons. So, I opted for crushing the Oreo cookies including filling in my food processor and using that as my “crust”.

I was a bit surprised at how much it was. The recipe is a great amount for a bake sale or birthday party, but it was too much for everyday use. Next time, I will half the amount.

The only thing that threw me off with this recipe is how the instructions are written. Since I use the same plugin, I know it is a WordPress limitation to some degree… but for someone that does not like instructions to start with, mixing them with general notes was confusing.

That’s it for today – happy cooking. 🙂

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Yom Ha’atzmaut Beer BBQ Sauce

Finally, after a long winter, the weather is starting to warm up. With Passover behind us, we are fast approaching Yom Ha’atzmaut! And what better way to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day than with a barbeque?

Yom Haatzmaut BBQ Sauce

Today, we are going to make a delicious barbeque sauce that you can use to marinate chicken, steak and even veggies in. Last night, we marinated chicken and steak in it and the steak tasted like juicy, tender ribs! Yuuumy!! They were heavenly. It also makes a great sauce for sloppy joes, topping for burgers or even a dip for fresh veggies.

Beer BBQ Sauce

The secret to this BBQ sauce is the beer, the apple cider vinegar and the maple syrup. The beer and the vinegar tenderise the meat, while the maple syrup balances the umani flavor of the Worchestershire sauce with a slightly sweet note. It all finishes off with a slight kick from the cayenne pepper.

Yom Ha'atzmaut BBQ Sauce
 
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Summer time is BBQ time. This sauce can be made in big batched and canned. It makes a great Father's Day gift, a host(ess) gift for barbeque loving friends and family or simply a yummy flavoring for your Yom Ha'atzmaut BBQ.
Serves: 20 oz.
Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 3 large garlic cloves
  • 1 small can of tomato paste
  • 4 ripe tomatoes cut into small pieces
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • ⅓ cup maple syrup
  • ½ cup of good beer
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan and add chopped onions and garlic.Stirring constantly, cook until onions become translucent (4-5 minutes).
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer until it has reduced by a third.
  3. Puree sauce with a hand immersion blender. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Carefully, full sauce in sterilized jars and refrigerate. Enjoy within 2 weeks.

Storage: Once you fill the sauce in sterilised mason jars, you can keep them refrigerated for up to two weeks.

Happy Yom Ha’atzmaut!