A a child, I always looked forward to eating a Linzer cookie during the kiddish after Shabbat morning services. There was about those 2-layered sandwich cookies stuck together with jam, with a hole on the top. With this memory in mind, I recreated the Linzer cookies of my childhood using gluten-free and vegan ingredients
Read MoreIt is almost Passover. Of the items that you might otherwise sell along with your chametz, many can be discarded. What are some of the items that should be pitched?
Read MoreBy shopping at a farmers market, you can discover new fruits and veggies, talk to the farmers who grow your food and get their recommendations on how to prepare it. But the experience can be overwhelming. Here are fourteen easy ways to make your visit very successful.
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Modern living provides many conveniences. Unfortunately, those conveniences also come with a suffocating amount of packaging and waste material. The most ubiquitous are glass, paper and plastic.
These include:
Paper-based cartons from packaged foods
Cellophane and paper wrapping from perishables at supermarkets like Trader Joe’s
Cardboard shipping boxes from Amazon and other online retailers
Plastic food and cosmetics containers of all shapes and sizes
Glass jars
Much of this ends up in landfills or recycle bins. But a lot of it can be reused – in particular, glass jars.
Have you ever noticed the wide array of glass jars that seems to proliferate around foodies? They tend to have jars all over their homes. Glass is an incredibly durable, safe and functional material that has an almost endless supply of uses.
Glass jars enjoy a very hearty second life in our household. They can be reused for a wide variety of purposes:
Wide-mouth glass salsa jars can be used for homemade sauces like applesauce and barbecue sauce, homemade pesto or dried fruits like raisins, plums and goji berries.
Narrower 24-oz glass mayonnaise jars (like those from Primal Kitchen or Chosen Foods) can be filled with homemade nut milks, grape juice or morning smoothies.
Glass spice containers can be refilled with bulk spices at stores like Whole Foods and Cooportunity. With the easy availability of bulk spices in major American cities, there is no reason to throw away those cute little jars only to buy a new one right afterward.
Larger glass jars (32-oz, 64-oz and larger) can be filled with bulk grains like oatmeal and flour. These can be labeled and stored in your pantry.
Tall, skinny olive jars can be turned into vases and filled with water and freshly-cut flowers.
Jam jars can be used to grow plants with large pits such as avocados and asparagus, or even Chinese Lucky Bamboo plants. You can even fill them with potting soil and add seeds and water.
Jam jars can also be used as drinking glasses. When your drinking glasses all break, as will inevitably happen when you’ve got a family, you’ve got a whole new supply waiting for you! We’ve even gotten into the habit of using 8-oz mason jars as drinking glasses when we’ve worn out or lost the tops.
Those 12- or 13-oz glass bottles of kombucha or almond milk that you purchase at the Farmer’s Market on a whim or that you buy at a health food store can be refilled with your own home-brewed kombucha. Don’t recycle them so quickly!
This only scratches the surface for reusing glass jars! Additional non-kitchen or non-food uses include using jars to organize the odds-and-ends in your desk drawer, your kids’ bedroom or your bathroom.
Rather than throwing them away, or even recycling them, I hand over the cardboard boxes to my kids. They’ve made toy robots out of them, used them for storing toys and hacked them apart into a myriad of construction projects. In our home, boxes enjoy a long second life.
Plastic is ubiquitous in the modern supermarket. It is most commonly associated with soda bottles and bottled water. However, many packaged foods (such as yogurt and plant-based milks) also come in plastic packaging.
Unlike cardboard and glass, plastic has very limited secondhand uses.
Unfortunately, empty plastic food containers should not be reused for a variety of reasons:
Plastic containers cannot be heated or cooled too much because they may leach chemicals into the food.
They absorb aromas, colors and dyes.
They may also grow mold from excess moisture.
Most plastic food packaging containers are not dishwasher-safe.
Finally, plastic containers are not usually clear, so you can’t see what’s inside. This limits the utility of using them as storage for food. One good use, though, is for refilling salt: You could buy a plastic container of Himalayan pink salt, then refill it with salt from a supermarket bulk bin.
A good non-food use is for storing kids’ pencils and crayons, as well as other little toys.
When it comes to glass, there’s no need for anything to go to waste. What other uses for glass jars have you discovered?
The other day my kids took over the kitchen to make infused water. 💦 💧 They chopped up organic lemons and cucumbers. We don’t drink juices, sodas or other sweetened beverages, so for them it was an opportunity to try something tasty and refreshing that was not plain water.
What are the benefits of infusing your own water?
You get to:
Choose your own fruits, veggies and herbs to infuse
Naturally consume more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants while you drink water.
Keep yourself hydrated by encouraging you to drink more water overall
Why is this SO MUCH HEALTHIER than simply purchasing a store-bought flavored water?
It is best to avoid most commercial infused-water brands such as Bai (“water infused with flavor”), LaCroix and Bubly.
They:
Contain “natural flavors” (which are not so healthy and the subject of several lawsuits) and other additives
Are made from some form of purified water (as opposed to spring water)
Come in plastic or aluminum containers (which are wasteful) and, in the case of the cans, usually contain BPA
When you infuse your own water, there are no natural flavors, preservatives, added sugar or BPA (in the cans).
You can chose your own flavor and nutritional profile to make it fit your needs.
And you can also choose your own water: if you prefer spring water, reverse-osmosis water or even Brita-filtered tap water, at least you know what you are getting.
Choose your own fruits, veggies and herbs to infuse.
Chop up the fruits and vegetables.
Grab a 32-oz (or larger) mason jar and fill with water.
Drop the fruits, veggies and herbs into the water.
Cover and leave in the fridge overnight, for up to 12 hours.
We purchased a spout to fit the mason jar so the water doesn’t spill when we pour it.
There’s no reason to buy an infuser. The only benefit is that it keeps the flavor elements from mixing with the drinking water.
And there’s no reason to buy flavored water in the store.
Save the money. You can make this yourself. It’s much healthier.
“You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food.”
It’s a brand new year. A lot of people will make resolutions in January to eat better and live a healthier, more conscious life. Then they will fall off the wagon by February. The problem is that eating more consciously is a habit that takes practice, just like establishing any new habit. And it can also be brutally expensive.
When my wife and I scrapped our old way of eating about five years ago, our monthly food expenditures shot up at first. That’s because we were shopping for produce at the most high-end markets like Erewhon in West L.A.; buying super-pricey, grass-fed and humanely-raised kosher meat; and stocking our pantry with bulk items that we never had before. We were trying to “do the right thing”. But our approach was neither sustainable nor sane.
When you decide to eat healthy, it is tempting to get over-ambitious and overbuy. But with the right knowledge, eating healthy need not be a scary expense.
In this article, I outline several strategies to make the transition easier so the resolutions stick.
Get to know the Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen lists put out by the Environmental Working Group. Not all fruits and veggies need to be purchased organic. For instance, avocados, bananas, onions, eggplants, asparagus, frozen peas and sweet potatoes generally have much lower pesticide levels than other crops.
Organic canned goods can be purchased from house brands at Walmart, Target and Smart & Final for less money than at Ralph’s, Whole Foods or Erewhon. Sometimes, even the organic versions of the 365 Everyday Value brand at Whole Foods will feature prices nearly in line with conventional products. But always check that the cans are non-BPA.
Eating healthy, organic and unprocessed food doesn’t have to be out of reach for your budget. And farmers' markets aren’t always more expensive than supermarkets. If you shop around your local farmers' markets and hit up different vendors, you will often find prices below supermarket rates. You may also get more bang for your buck. For instance, I purchase heads of kale from Underwood Farms and Sunrise Farms that are much larger than what you would find in the supermarket, for the same price or less. The biggest upside is that it is freshly picke
Mainstream snack brands like Saltines and Ritz crackers are very cheap. But they are also ultra-processed and highly refined foods with little to no real nutritional value.
On the other hand, many very pricey artisan brands go on sale on a regular basis at Whole Foods and Sprouts. These include Mary’s Gone Crackers, Simple Mills crackers and Banza chickpea pasta. I’ve seen these brands discounted as much as 35% for 2-3 weeks at a time. Use these opportunities to stock up on them.
If you are an Amazon Prime member (who isn’t these days?!), download the Whole Foods app. You will get access to coupons so you will know what is going on sale ahead of time. You will also receive an additional 10% off sale items when you have the app scanned at the register.
Costco is an essential destination for people who want quality organic and healthy food. When it dawns on you, as it eventually did for us, that you cannot make everything from scratch, Costco is also an excellent source of packaged kosher snacks for the kids:
Dried mango (organic and unsulfured)
Chestnuts (Gefen brand, organic)
Organic hummus school lunch-sized containers
Tnuva sheep feta
Simple Origins organic penne pasta (lentils, brown rice and buckwheat)
There are many, many other excellent and healthy kosher items at Costco at very reasonable prices.
You can find bulk bins in most health food markets. In Los Angeles, these include Sprouts, Whole Foods and Cooportunity. When you take advantage of the bulk bins, you can purchase as much or as little as you need and you still get the bulk pricing.
We have been gradually buying more of our grains from these bins: oatmeal, millet, quinoa and amaranth. When you have access to so many varieties of grains, you also have the opportunity to experiment with grains that you’ve never eaten before, without the commitment that comes with a large bag and hefty price tag.
You can also buy most of your spices in bulk and refill the old glass containers. Spices do not last forever in your pantry and there is no reason to waste them. Look for spices that are whole, organic, non-irradiated and certified kosher. Just remember to label the spice with the purchase date, as the packaging will not reflect when you added new spice to your old container. You will save a lot of money in bulk vs. small spice jars.
Some comparisons (prices are from Frontier Co-Op brand at Cooportunity supermarket):
Organic garlic powder
2.4 oz jar is $2.71/oz
1.0 oz bulk is $1.06/oz (a savings of 61%)
Organic paprika
1.7 oz jar is $3.49/oz
1.0 oz bulk is $1.07/oz (a savings of 69%)
Organic Ceylon cinnamon
1.8 oz jar is $2.70/oz
1.0 oz bulk is $0.73/oz (a savings of 73%)
For more information specifically about spices, you can read this post.
Not everything is cheaper in bulk, though. For instance, almonds ($14.99/lb), walnuts ($14.99/lb) and cashews ($13.49/lb are very expensive.
A very viable option is to grow some of your own food. All you need is a sunny space indoors or a narrow strip of land in your backyard. We’ve grown basil, oyster mushrooms and sprouts in our apartment. It’s also another interactive way to involve the kiddos in the food process.
You can buy an entire basil plant at Trader Joe’s for about what it costs to purchase a few cut leaves packed in plastic wrap.
Whole Foods sometimes sells oyster mushroom kits. Or you can order one from the resources listed on this site.
Seed-growing kits like Hamama and True Leaf Market are great for growing your own microgreens.
There is a common misconception that healthy food is expensive and beyond the reach of the average consumer. On the contrary, some of the healthiest food is also the most affordable.
The biggest key to shopping healthy-on-a-budget is to plan before you go. It’s very tantalizing to overbuy – whether at a farmers’ market or at Costco – only to relegate some of that produce to the trash can. It’s also very easy to shop for convenience. But that costs steeply.
Talk to your spouse once a week to plan out meals and the ingredients required to make them. Don’t forget to plan for healthy packaged snacks for the kids.
Compile a list the night before. I use the Reminders app on my iPhone. I have a list for each market that I shop at, including each farmers’ market. That way, I can plan out the best places to purchase each fruit or vegetable. This also curbs the urge to splurge at the last minute because you forgot to eat breakfast and are hungry.
To paraphrase Michael Pollan: buy (real) food, just enough, mostly plants.
The farmers market is a family ritual for us, a weekly adventure of discovery. Every Sunday morning at 8am, we take a trip to the Larchmont Village Farmers Market in Los Angeles. My kids talk to familiar farmers; schmooze new vendors; sample fruits, kombucha and dairy-free yogurts; and assist one of the vegetable vendors in shucking corn and de-leafing broccoli.
It is one of the highlights of their week!
People constantly ask me how I have been able to convince my two primary school-aged boys to eat healthy, unprocessed whole foods.
It’s really quite simple.
As a parent, I’ve learned that it’s not enough to espouse a certain lifestyle. You must actively practice what you preach – or your kids call your bluff. When you are conscious about the food that you eat, when you discuss the sources of your food with your kids, when you establish new eating habits together and allow them to actively pick out their food each week – you and your kids grow together in your habits. They will crave what they experience and they will feel confident in their choices if you feel confident in yours.
After avoiding kale chips for several years, my younger son started eating them a year ago because my wife mentioned that kale makes nightmares disappear. Does it work? According to him, it is the only foolproof method!
It’s not perfect. There are occasional slip-ups at school and tense standoffs in our pantry.
You also learn to find substitutes for common conventional foods. For instance, my younger son loves starch. So we take him to Trader Joe’s to pick out pastas that are more nutrient-dense than traditional, refined flour pasta: brown rice & quinoa, lentil, black bean. And sometimes to Whole Foods for his current fave: Banza chickpea pasta.
There is strong social pressure to conform, however. Friends and family constantly get on my case for not allowing my kids to eat processed foods, partake of cake and ice cream at birthday parties or eat pizza, dairy and packaged snacks. They hound me that my kids are somehow missing out on “the fun things in life.” I point out that I have trained my kids with the knowledge to decide what goes into their stomachs. They choose to eat what they like, not what the majority is having.
My older son had a schoolteacher a couple years ago who got angry at him for refusing to eat the matzo that they made in class for Passover. She sternly told him that "if you don't have Celiac disease, then you are missing out on valuable nutrients in your diet”. The teacher was caught off guard when he responded back, deadpan, that refined flour has no nutrition!
Whether it’s a farmers market, a trip to the local supermarket, a visit to a farm or even planning an Amazon Fresh order together, involving the kids in the process is very important. It will pay dividends throughout life.
Kosher food can be both tasty and nutritious. It need not be filled with cheap refined carbs, sugar, salt, preservatives or filler. The purpose of Consciously Kosher is to teach people how to eat a kosher diet rich in nutritious, predominantly unprocessed whole foods. The recipes and meal hacks are simple and quick, to accommodate parents juggling careers and multiple kids.
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