FAMILY FROM OUR WEDDING

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

CHANUKAH, HANNUKA, CHANNUKA, HANUKAH.. YOU CAN SPELL IT ANYWAY YOU WANT BUT IT'S CHANUKAH TO ME

WELL Chanukah falls early this year.. usually it is tied right in with Christmas... Chanukah is a minor jewish holiday but is a very familiar jewish holiday because it is the one most associated with Christmas because they tend to fall near each other.. However , since jewish holidays go by the jewish calender they never fall at the exact same time each year... Long story to be saved for another post... Hence, Chanukah starts tonight.. If I had kids we would have a bigger celebration.. so its just Steve and I .. we light our menorah.. and somewhere over the next 8 days.. we shall exchange chanukah presents and make our potato latkas .. (potato pancakes fried in oil) ( boy that stinks up the house in a oily oniony way ) Here is a healthier version of Potato pancakes in case you want to indulge in this once a year treat... this is from FOODFIT.com :
Low-Fat Latkes
This recipe serves:
8
3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes

1 medium onion
1/3 cup matzah meal, or unbleached white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup egg substitute, or 2 eggs plus 4 whites
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
a sprinkle kosher salt or coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil spray (or 2 tablespoons olive oil)

Serve with:
non-fat or low-fat sour cream
applesauce

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place a couple of non-stick baking sheets in the oven and preheat to 450°F .
2. Peel the potatoes and onion and coarsely grate in a food processor fitted with a shredding disk or on a box grater. Grab handfuls of the grated vegetables and squeeze tightly between your fingers to wring out as much liquid as possible.
3. Transfer the grated vegetables to a mixing bowl and stir in the matzah meal, baking powder, egg substitute, parsley, and plenty of salt and pepper. (The latkes should be highly seasoned.)
4. Spray the hot baking sheets with oil (or drizzle the oil on it and spread with a wooden spoon) Spoon small mounds of potato mixture onto the baking sheet to form 2-1/2 inch pancakes, leaving 1 inch between each. Bake-fry the latkes in the oven until golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes per side, turning once with a spatula. (When you turn the latkes, try to flip them onto spots on the baking sheet that still have oil.)
5. Transfer to plates or a platter and serve immediately with sour cream and/or applesauce.


192 calories I think for a couple of them..



I lifted this picture from AMAZON.. I prefer the mix... lol.. yeah call me cheap and easy.. I add an onion and a real potato to stretch it out a bit.. and its tasty and fine

about 160 for 4.. give or take a few calories






We have a unique menorah.. it looks like this.. : I bought that for Steve a few years ago for Chanukah.. we use it.. we have several others but this is the one we enjoy the most..


Eating for me is right on target.. however.. here is the big issue.. HONI IS NOT VERY GOOD EXERCISING.. does tearing apart the kitchen and putting everything back in with the wedding gifts count as exercising in sort of an untraditional way.. I know I know.. okay.. we have a great membership at this great club.. and we need to use it.. I called Steve this morning.. and told him as always how much I love him .. he asked me what he did wrong LOL.. I said nothing.. the only reason I was calling was to say how great our eating has been .. but that we need to incorporate exercising with it.. I told him we don't have to break our necks just something.. we do a lot of walking when we go to the flea markets.. so thats good.. but we need more.. so we are going to work on that ...
Well... all is well for a cold and Sunny Tuesday
Wish me well
Wish you well too

10 comments:

A Lighter Life... said...

Hi Honi,

Here's wishing both you and Steve a very happy Chanukah! I hope that the two of you have a lovely, lovely time :-)

Well done for staying on track with the healthy eating. You are doing so very well!

As for the exercise, no, I'm not the best with it either, haha. I keep threatening to up my pace AND increase the distance, but it never seems to happen!! :-(

Anyway, you are doing fine hun. It's all about modification I guess. Just do what you can AND what you feel like ;-)

Look after yourself lovely!

Hugs, LL x

(Ps: *LL* is how I am signing myself off from now on)

Thanks for adding my new link to your blog hun :-D

Grumpy Chair said...

What a neat menorah!

My hubby and I have been walking every night. It's nice because be get away from the kids, yet still be nearby (walk around the block) and we can talk without being interrupted!

Twix said...

Mmmmmm!!! Potatoe pancakes!! Mmmmmmmm!!! I love these! Yummy! :D

Thanks for the recipe! Now get to the gym or I am going to track your Honi butt down and motivate it! Mwahahahaha!!!

~Laura said...

I have never had potato pancakes but they sounds tasty. Happy Chanukah to you and Steve.

I know what you mean about the walking and exercise. Since the time changed and the weather is cooler I just seem to be dragging and cannot get back in the groove of walking:(

Unknown said...

Love the wedding pics! You looked magnificent. Great job with the eating and good luck on the gym. Find something you love and keep your change of clothes in the car all the time so you don't have that excuse not to go. And don't go home thinking you will get back out because the couch is way to hard to pull away from for me once I cross the threshold! :)

Lora said...

Happy Chanukah! (did I spell it right?) Even though I'm Christian, I've always been interested in the Jewish celebrations as they are all rooted in the old Testament and even Jesus partook in them! Your Menorah is a hoot!

ps...your picture is beautiful - what a loveley couple!

Daniele said...

Happy Chanukah honi!
My partner is Jewish, although he's not practicing it.. but I have come to enjoy lots of wonderful Jewish foods, including Latke's... yummmm!
Keep up the good work and thanks for visiting my blog. hugz

Diana Swallow said...

I wish you and Steve a very happy Chanukah! You already know of my love of Latkes and I really appreciate that low fat version, I'm going to make them like this from now on, Ken doesn't really like a lot of fried food (except fish and chips LOL) so this will work out nicely. I also use the basic latkes recipe but in place of potato I use zucchini and they are really good too, now I'm going to try your low fat recipe with the zucchini because I think it would be a healthy side dish.

Hope married life is treating you as wonderful as you are wonderful.

HUGS!!

Critter said...

I need to work on exercise too. I just can't seem to find the time or energy. I guess I will have to make time. Happy Chanukah Honi!!

Princess Dieter aka Mir said...

Happy Chanukah, Honi!

Oh, stop tempting me with the word "latke".

::not looking, not looking:

The Princess--who likes hers with lots of scallions and some sour cream...