Keeping Kosher Group

Shavua tov! I'm working my way through a vegan cookbook, one recipe at a time. Next week is a chickpea tamarind stew. I'm trying to turn tamarind pods into tamarind paste right now.

Hi Esther: I decided to copy and past your post and write from within so I don't miss your wonderful details. I could not be a Vegan, Iove eggs, milk etc.

Down 1.8 lbs this week, which puts me 58.8 away from goal (65.2 gone, so past the mid-point!). I made Sunday morning my weigh-in day; it helps keep me on track on Shabbos. Got in over 3 hours of walking yesterday (20 minutes to and from shul, 35 minutes being... extremely meticulous... about the mitzvah of escorting Shabbos guests home. Literally walked them to their door and came home. 25 minutes to a Women's Seudat Shlishit; we have them in someone's house every other Shabbat from after Shavuos to September. Light refreshments, guest speaker. I hosted one four weeks ago. After that, my walking buddy and I took a 2-hour stroll.)


Wonderful!! Kudos to you!! Slow and and steady is the way. I know I get overwhelmed when I look toward 20 more pounds. I have to take it 5 pounds at a time.

Zackadoo! I love that! Hope he's doing better. Soot's charcoal gray and, at first, I wasn't sure if he was male or female, so I went with a neutral name.


Soot is a very cool name, love it!!

I mostly cook on Thursdays for Shabbat and do leftovers during the week. When they run out, I go with fritattas, stir fries, veggie burgers, and so on. I still have the fixings for one more wrap from the recipe I made for my lunch at the golf tournament.


I start cooking on Wednesdays for Shabbos in the winter, and on Thursdays in the summer. I also use the leftovers, mostly for my husband. I can't eat reheated cholent and there is so much chicken one person can eat daily.

Mostly, we visit my parents in Montreal at Pesach. A few years ago, though, we went up to Killarney, Ontario. It's about five hours drive north and west of Toronto on Georgian Bay. Gorgeous area, but not much to do if you aren't into hiking, fishing, and boating. We went up mostly for research; that novel I mentioned is set at a boarding school that I wanted in a remote area, but not so remote that students couldn't get emergency medical attention quickly. That area is about an hour away from Sudbury, Ontario. Plus it's sparsely populated enough that I can invent a fictional town without displacing a real one!

Fabulous...I always marvel at someone that write a novel, regardless of the content or genre. I write poetry and I have been doing so for more than 25 years. I have published poems in journals for poetry although obscure, it is a nice accomplishment.

Looking forward to more correspondance.

Hi Esther: Hoping you had a great day.

Hi! I still eat eggs and dairy. I just buy a lot of vegan cookbooks because I make meat for my husband and naturally want pareve for myself. And it seems like too many vegetarian-not-vegan cookbooks are over 50% dairy. I feel I get my money's worth more with vegan cookbooks. That being said, I just had an omelet for lunch and I'm meeting friends for dinner tonight. Having shakshuka. (I know the restaurant and I know that's one menu option that fits my plans with minimal juggling. Just so long as I ask them to serve it in a skillet instead of the bread bowl it normally comes with. I'm not sure the calories exactly, but it's a big bread bowl and some Googling told me that Panera's bread bowls are 590 calories and the image made it look about the same size. So without the actual nutritional profile, I'm going with that. There's an entry in the database for shakshuka from Hummus Kitchen. It looks similar to the one I'm having tonight, so I've got it at 350 calories.)

I love Shakshuka! I agree, a bread bowl is way too tempting! I also order it without the bread, and when the bread comes, I take a small 2 oz piece.

Right now, I would love to be doing my cardio, but hubby called from work to tell me the plumber would be here between 2 and 6 and I 1) don't want to be on the fitness glider in the basement when he rings the doorbell; I probably won't hear it over my music. 2) Answering the door in leggings and a t-shirt is not exactly something I'd like to do and I may not have time to throw on a skirt and longsleeve top before running upstairs. Worst case, I do it after the restaurant, but I hate eating in advance of calories I expect to burn in case it doesn't happen for whatever reason. At least I got my strength training in. It's slow; I've never been especially athletic and until a few weeks ago, I'd never done a lunge in my life. But I'm noticing some progress.

The only exercise I am doing and sticking with is my 3-4 times per week 2-3 miles. It isn't a lot but since all exercise is cumulative and some exercise is better than none...A fitness glider, is that like an elliptecal? I love those. Although I have a three bedroom apartment, it is not big enough to have a treadmill or an ellip. If I give up the guestroom, perhaps, but then when my married kids come for yom tov, there would be no place to put it.

I do some cooking on Wednesdays, but it's usually 'prep' that takes up time. Example: the stew I'm making calls for broth. I used up the last batch. It's pretty simple to make a fresh one, but it's a 20-minute saute followed by a 90-minute simmer. I don't want to have to put my cooking on hold for 2 hours. If I'm doing a dessert that won't go stale/bad quickly, say sorbet or cookies, those might get done on Wednesday too. The tamarind pulp didn't go so well. I used too much water and when I tried straining it through cheesecloth... it got messy. I might try again tomorrow or use the substitute suggested by the cookbook and mix brown sugar with lime juice.

This week for Shabbos I am making, a Middle Eastern inspired spicy saucy meatballs which I will serve over basmati rice. Regular gefilte fish, oven fried bread cauliflower pieces, meat cholent, an overnight potato kugel, salads, vegetable kugel etc. I have guests practically every Shabbos, hence the amount I make..whatever is leftover, most of it my husband will have for supper. I will have a few things here or there, but at least it saves me from cooking after a whole day of work. Cholent I try to keep to 1 cup as a serving, a 2x2 piece of kugel, 1 slice of challah, 1 slice of fish, and I buy low fat dips and stick to 1 tsp and I have 2 different ones.

It's great that you write poetry. I used to when I was a kid and it was 'very good for my age'. I haven't really been inspired to write it in recent years.


Do you have any foods that you truly enjoy and you have it lets say once per week? Thursday is pizza for me. My husband and younger son run some errands for Shabbos and they pick me up 2 slices of brickoven thin crust regular pizza. I make a side salad and that is my special food.

Soot's curled up on my bed waiting out the rain. I'm sure he'll panic and run for the side door when the plumber arrives.

Zackadoo went to the vet this past Sunday. He has a cold which I think Adele my other cat caught. He is on antibiotics for a possible UTI. If Adele keeps sneezing we are taking her to the vet on Sunday. My husband and I took off this Monday and 4th of July. We need some R&R. We may head upstate Sunday, we'll see.

Looking forward to your entry. Have a great Thursday. I am going to weigh myself Friday morning, keeps me in line for Shabbos. If I lost anywhere between 1.5-2 pounds, I will be thrilled.

Hi Esther:

Pardon the hiatus, it has been rather hectic.

My secretary will be out of town for a month to help her daughter after she has her 2nd baby. Her daughter lives out of the country so my HR department was looking for a temp for me. I interviewed someone on Friday who I hope will fit the bill and she actually takes the position.

I attempted to weigh myself on Friday, but the scale's lithium battery is shot, so although I believe I lost weight this past week, I can't enter anything until I fix my scale.

How was your week vis a vis food?

Mine was not too shabby, like I have mentioned before, from supper until bedtime is my downfall but I am trying. Shabbos was great. I made Moroccan meatballs in a spicy sauce served over white rice. We had gefilte fish and challah. My husband bought the pull apart so I had one piece of that. We have so many wonderful choices here in Brooklyn with kosher foods, that I buy the low fat mayo pre made dips. Of course, portion control is still part and parcel. I bought Jalapeno, Shallot, LF varieties. So 1 tsp of each is still less than 1 tbs of regular dips. I made cucumber salad and a corn kugel.

On Shabbos day we had meat cholent, potato kugel, vegetable kugel, cole slaw, challah and fish. Like I mentioned I believe in earlier posts, I have guests, plus I try to not have to cook during the week. Mostly my husband eats the leftovers and I sparingly have some chicken, some leftover salad etc.

I took a four day weekend with Monday and Tuesday off. I really need the R/R. We are going to Ikea today to see if there are any sales on some things I need replaced for my home, such as diningroom chairs, light living room curtains, etc. Tonight, I am going to go see Dispicable Me 3..I am a true kid at heart and I saw all the previous ones. We like to go to the last showing, less crowded and since we are off tomorrow, why not.

Here the weather has been very odd. It has been cool, then hot and humid, then tons of rain, then hot again. I still prefer this over the unrelenting heat for days on end that leaves me bereft of koach.

Anyhow, I look forward to your replies. Hoping that you have had weight loss success, a wonderful Shabbos and even a better week ahead.

Best, Devorah.

Hi Esther:

I lost another pound...so far, since June 11th total of 5. If I can keep up this weight loss pace, by Labor Day, iyh I should reach my goal of 25 pounds..and I for one would be very grateful.

Despicable Me 3 was good, but not as funny as the last two. And from the looks of the ending, there will be a 4th movie. All in all, had a great time.

Today, we are heading into the city and do what we like to call "tourist" walking. Heading towards Soho etc. We love to browse bookshops, all sorts of stores. There is a burger place that is kosher that everyone is raving about so we might check it out for lunch. I don't recall the name off the top of my head.

I battle with some free floating anxiety, which unless through the roof, doesn't help with weight loss, vis a vis I have to be wreck in order to not eat at all chas v'shalom. I downloaded this app called "calm" it is free of charge unless you want the premium package. I don't do well visualizing unless I am guided, and this app has calming scenery with nature sounds, breathing exercises, etc.

I wish, that davening alone would settle my anxiety at times, but Hashem knows I try. Sometimes, we inherit our families peculiarities such as anxiety, worrying etc. Anyhow, I digress. This is about a weight loss journey not "Dr. Phil's couch, LOL."

What sort of holiday is "Canada Day?" Is it similar to our 4th of July or more like our Labor Day? I have not been in Canada since my eldest was 2 and he is now 28! IYH, I would love to visit Niagra again. Also, I hear the mid western parts of Canada, like Calgary are awesome. As they say hope does spring eternal, and maybe, who knows, with Hashem's help we might just get to go there one day.

Yesterday's food monitoring wasn't bad. I even managed to squeeze in some popcorn! Anyhow, have a great Monday and looking forward to another post.

Best,
Devorah