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Simple, Colorful and Crunchy Baby Bok Choy Salad with Apples, Peppers, Tomatoes and Craisins
Baby Bok Choy was on sale this week at our local market. I was determined to create a new colorful and crunchy salad using the baby bok choy as the base green. I added bright tomatoes and peppers for color and green apples for crunch. I finished the salad off with a sprinkling of…
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A Month of Perfect Low-Carb Omelet Choices
I never enjoyed eating breakfast until I started a low-carb diet a couple of months ago. In the past, I would skip breakfast because eating an early morning meal just never agreed with me. I would feel nauseous after eating early and the nausea would linger, affecting my entire day. Breakfast is important and especially…
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Crockpot Drunken Mushroom Soup
I love the heartiness and depth of a wine-based mushroom soup. Mushrooms and wine are a combination made in heaven, with the wine adding depth to the earthiness of this soup. Made in a crockpot, this drunken mushroom soup is a cinch to prepare and is simply divine. INGREDIENTS 2-3 packages whole or sliced mushrooms 1…
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At War with Weeds: A Homemade Non-Toxic Weed-Killer
Our nineteen year old son, Aaron, is our resident landscaper. Aaron has always been a budding entrepreneur and handy around the house and yard. When he was thirteen years old, he took some of the monetary gifts that he had received for his Bar Mitzvah celebration and purchased a bright red lawn tractor. He convinced…
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Wow Uses for a Simple Dish Detergent Bottle
My mother has always been the ultimate recycler, decades before recycling and upcycling became fashionable. My mother still decants oil from a large container into a clean dish detergent squirt bottle. The squirt nozzle is perfect for squirting oil onto salads, roasted vegetables and a saute pan. It keeps the oil contained and helps place the oil exactly where you…
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Simple Cheesy Zucchini Logs: Gluten Free and Low-Carb
Davida and her friend, Chava, made delicious calzones for Melave Malke a few weeks ago: Davida’s Easy and Delicious Calzones for a Melave Malka Feast. Although the calzones looked and smelled heavenly, Don and I were only able to enjoy them vicariously. Since we are still on low-carb diets, we needed to find an alternative cheesy…
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Three’s a Crowd? A Trio of Floral Arrangements
I love to arrange flowers of the same color and my favorite floral centerpieces are white. Often, I can find beautiful flowers at my local supermarket that are sold as three bunches for a single price. When that happens, I usually pick all white flowers and I arrange them as a trio of floral arrangements. When time…
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Simple Chocolate Bark with Flowers and Dried Fruit
Chocolate bark has become one of my favorite simple and beautiful dessert embellishments. This week, I created a sweet and delicious bark that was sweet, bright and beautiful with some surprisingly savory ingredients, as well. I melted a combination of white and milk chocolate and added fresh pansies from my flowerpots, mint and rosemary from…
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Simple and Easy 5-Ingredient No-Boil Lasagna
This is the simplest and most delicious lasagna recipe that you will ever make. It requires one mixing bowl and one baking lasagna pan with no boiling . It creates a firm and easy to slice lasagna with minimal effort and mess. It takes only a few minutes to prepare and one hour…
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Simple Mini Cheesecakes with Gorgeous Garnishes
Shavuos is on its way! Cheesecake is one of the staples of the upcoming holiday of Shavuos, since we are commanded to eat dairy foods at our festive meals (Countdown to Shavuos: Floral Inspirations and Dairy Recipes) on Shavuos. This year, Don and I are still on a low-carb diet. We didn’t want to…
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Perfect Salmon with Roasted Vegetables
My childhood friend, Pam, hosted and enjoyed many guests for her son’s Aufruf (literally meaning “calling up”) Shabbos. It was an exciting Shabbos for Pam, her husband Ron and her family, as her son, Ariel, is getting married this week. It is customary for a Jewish groom to be called up to recite a brocha (blessing)…
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A Few Good Blossoms: Floating Arrangements
I began this SimpletoWow blog in January with an original post, It’s all about the arrangement (psst….even with last week’s roses), on arranging last week’s open and just-wilting roses. It was intended to showcase simple and wow ways to use what you have in surprising and unexpected ways. As the Jewish holiday of Shavuos approaches (see Countdown…
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Upcycled Glass Jar Floral Arrangement: Simply Stunning
My friend Marilyn, and her family joined us for a meal over Pesach (Passover). Since we were in a small apartment in Jerusalem with our extended family, we did not have enough room to host everyone in the dining room. Instead, we set up tables and ate in the courtyard. Marilyn sent flowers before Yom Tov…
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Bekurim: First Fruits from Hollister
This morning, on my return from my morning walk, my neighbor, Hollister, surprised me with a wonderful gift. He handed me a bag with the first heads of lettuce harvested from his vegetable garden. I protested that he should keep this precious first harvest for himself, but he insisted that he wanted me to have…
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Chards of Colorful Chocolate Bark: Whimsical and Delicious
Chocolate Bark is so versatile and beautiful. The finished product can be elegant, playful or whimsical, depending upon the ingredients selected. The background can be any type of chocolate, dairy or pareve. The embellishments can be any combination of sweet or savory to create beautiful colors, tastes and textures. I have tried so many different…
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Simply the Best Caesar Dressing
Caesar dressing takes a simply leafy salad and creates a wow. I have found that if I want to make sure that just about all my dinner guests eat the salad, all I have to do is prepare Caesar salad. Men will eat Caesar salad. Kids will eat Caesar salad. Just about the finickiest eaters will dig in to…
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Countdown to Shavuos: Floral Inspirations and Dairy Recipes
We are commanded to count 49 days or 7 weeks of sefira (counting) from Pesach until the holiday of Shavuos. Every night after it gets dark, we make a bracha and count one more day toward Shavuos. While Pesach commemorates our becoming a nation and our freedom after our miraculous exodus from Egypt, Shavuos commemorates our…
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Simply the best cholent…with low-carb ingredients
Tzippy Respler Don and I are still on a low-carb diet. During the week, we try to eliminate carbs almost completely. On Shabbos, we allow ourselves to enjoy a small amount of challah at each meal, but still try to adhere to the low-carb protocol as much as possible. Cholent is a challenge, because it is…
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Scallion Confetti Curls: A Simple Garnish
Garnishes put the wow into a dish. This one is fast and simple. Cut green part of scallion into three to four inch sections. Slice narrow and long ribbons with a sharp paring knife. Separate scallion pieces into thinnest slivers possible using knife or by hand. Drop the green onion slivers into ice water and submerge…
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Asian Red Cabbage Salad…Simple and Wow
Salads should be simple and beautiful. This Asian-inspired cabbage salad was developed by my daughter, Leah, and for the past year has been one of the most popular salads in our home. Red cabbage is such a gorgeous color that it wakes up just about any salad. In this salad, the color and texture contrast…
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Mini Tefillin Bag Favors for a Bar Mitzvah
For the Bar Mitzvah celebrations of my nephew, Chaim, and a friend’s son, Shmuli, I decided to make miniature tefillin bags filled with cookies to use as favors and cupcake toppers. Tefillin bags store a Bar Mitzvah boy’s new tefillin and are so symbolic of a young man’s unique new adult role as part of…
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Simple and Satisfying Tofu Salad
Tofu is a wonderful ingredient to add to a salad for a satisfying source of protein. Tofu is like a sponge; it merely absorbs the flavor of your marinade. I find that extra-firm tofu is a reliable ingredient for roasting, grilling and sauteing and I use it often. To cut down on cleanup, I simply slit…
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Davida’s Easy and Delicious Calzones for a Melave Malka Feast
Melave Malka (Saturday night meal) is the name given to the meal that we eat at the Shabbos has departed. The literal meaning of the words Melave Malka is “accompaniment of the queen”, referring to our escorting of the Shabbos Queen out of our homes after the spiritually uplifting Shabbos. The Shabbos is often metaphorically described as a…
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Simple Chocolate Bark with Flowers and Dried Fruit
I love thin and delicious chocolate bark embellished with all my favorites. It is a simple dessert and also makes a perfect garnish for a simple cake or mousse. It is the perfect accompaniment to Simply the Best Flourless Chocolate Cake As your bark background, you can use your favorite chocolate: white, milk or dark. The…
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Simple Onion Baked Chicken Cutlets
This recipe is a simple go-to recipe when time is short and I need to crank out a delicious and hearty meal with very little lead time and a minimum of effort. It requires very little hands-on time and can be baked in the oven in about 20 minutes. It is crispy and crunchy, delicious and very…
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Balsamic Beet Slaw: Easy, Fresh and Delicious
Leah is our resident vegetarian. She loves to mix up salad ingredients and find her own combinations of vegetables and dressings. As a midnight snack this week, she created this delicious beet salad. I often shred and/or spiralize vegetables and keep them in containers in the refrigerator. I also prepare dressings weekly and refrigerate them in…
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A Salad Bar for the Entire Week
Our family loves salads and we try to spread the love to the rest of the world. From the time that the kids were eating solids, salads became a mainstay in the Respler home. It is rare that we make the same salad twice because there are SO many options. Most recently, when I entertain,…
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Simple, Creamy and Perfect Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette
Our favorite dressing is balsamic vinaigrette. Nine out of ten times when ordering salad at a restaurant, we choose balsamic vinaigrette. For the past many years, every time I made a balsamic vinegar-dressed salad, I would take out half the contents of my spice cabinet to dress the salad. A few weeks ago, I took…
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Simple Low-Carb One-Pan Shwarma Chicken with Rainbow Roasted Vegetables
This shwarma chicken recipe transports me to those amazing shwarma places all over Israel. Although the shwarma flavor of this dish is reminiscent of Israeli Shwarma often served in pita or lafa, this recipe is low-carb since the shwarma is surrounded by gorgeous roasted vegetables instead of a bread pocket. This recipe combines the magical…
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Simple and Delicious Croutons Fashioned from Leftover Bread or Challah
Last week, I focused on bread and challah-related recipes. This week, you may have some leftover challah. I rarely put leftover challah into my freezer. Instead, I convert it into croutons or bread crumbs. I find that when I put leftover challah in the freezer, it usually just sits there until just before next Pesach…
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Simple DIY Cajun Blackening Spice Blend for Low-Carb Atkins Cooking
I have been on a low-carb diet for the past many weeks. One of the most important aspects of the diet is finding flavor and texture in ingredients that are low-carb. I have prepared fried fish using spices instead of breading. I have found new toppings and new spices that replace the flavor and texture…