Coconut Brown Rice Pudding

You know how we feel over here about desserts that are pareve on purpose – that is, without fake dairy in them. This rice pudding is just that! Just mix some rice and coconut milk, a little bit of sugar and spices, and you have yourself a dessert in a couple of hours!

That’s right, it takes a while to cook, but it’s all unattended cooking time; all you have to do is stir once every 40 minutes or so. I’d imagine that this works well in the slow cooker, too. I’ll have to try that out!

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Chocolate-Covered Frozen Bananas

This post is in honor of the best news ever!

Whenever I buy bananas, some of them start to turn brown before I can eat them. Seriously, they’re green when I bring them home, and when I wake up the next morning they’re already overripe! I usually peel them, cut them into chunks and freeze them for smoothies, but there are other things you can do with frozen bananas; You can dip them in chocolate and coconut or pistachios and eat them for dessert!

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Pesto Roasted Tomatoes

Your side dish can’t get easier than this. If you have pesto in your freezer (either store-bought or homemade will do?), then you can prep this dish in about five minutes. Have basil growing like a weed in your garden? Then it might take a bit longer to make, but it’s still pretty simple, and always a big hit. Continue reading

Spicy Black Bean Veggie Burgers

Even though we aren’t vegetarians, we’re no strangers to veggie burgers. Our freezers are usually stocked with Chik Patties and other MorningStar Farms delights, but those have some problems; they’re filled with preservatives and they’re dairy! Our veggie burgers are pareve and consist only of natural, fresh ingredients. Try adding corn, hot pepper or any other flavor variety to make them your own and you’ll never buy a frozen veggie burger again.

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Devil’s Food Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

We wanted to make a special dessert when our mom had a full house for Shabbat a couple of weeks ago,  so we consulted Jessica’s favorite book for some inspiration and came across this chocolate cake. Good enough to feed a crowd, because who doesn’t like chocolate, and we made it special by baking three 8-inch layers; we don’t eat 3-layer cakes every Friday!

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Meatless Mondays: Lemon and Artichoke Pasta

Mm, artichokes! This week, Meatless Monday goes vegan with this easy and flavorful dinner. Lemon and shallots bring out the flavor of these frozen hearts, so you can enjoy the flavor all year ’round.

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Sweet Kaak

Sweet kaak is nothing like regular kaak, except that it’s also kinda like a bread stick. Actually, it’s really more like a cookie made with orange zest. I usually don’t love orange zest, but for some reason I absolutely love sweet kaak. It’s a traditional Syrian treat, one that if I have in my cookie jar (okay, fine, I don’t have a cookie jar, but I do have airtight containers that I can leave on the counter and store cookies in) I will finish in about a day. Basically, they are sugar cookies that are twisted. Yum! Continue reading

Cherry Apricot and Pistachio Biscotti

I love biscotti! They are the perfect after dinner treat, and are a great treat in the morning to dip in coffee. These cookies are filled with dried fruits and nuts, which makes me think they’re healthy, too! I usually take my time and make teeny skinny biscotti, but these are great cut a bit thicker, since you get a mouthful of the dried fruit. Plus, it makes making the biscotti that much easier. Continue reading

Old-Fashioned Banana Cake

The problem with making desserts for Shabbat is that we can’t take pictures of the final project…I mean, you can see the cake and how it looked right out of the oven, but you can’t see it sliced and on a plate, which is too bad because this cake was pretty. Okay, the pan is a little bit messy, but at least my counter is clean! Oh, and the other problem is that you have to make the desserts pareve. Which means no cream cheese frosting! Those who dare to eat pareve whipped topping dolloped some on top of their cake. I ate it plain and it was amazing just the way it was. Continue reading

Roasted Artichokes

It finally feels like spring and artichokes are here! I admit, artichokes used to scare me. Until a couple of years ago I’d had the frozen kind and the kind that came in a jar, but never the real thing. Then one day Jessica and I decided to buy some and learned how to boil them online. We were instantly converted to fresh artichoke people (while wondering who first figured out that there was a delicious heart hiding among the spiky leaves?!), but I’ve moved on to baking and roasting rather than steaming them these days.

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