Thursday, June 23, 2011

Lunch time




I've been a stay at home mom for a few months now, a very new and educational experience for me. Although I've spent long maternity leaves with each of my children, there was never a doubt that I'll go back to work. For years my kids spent the lunch hours at various child care facilities and babysitters, while I would usually eat my lunch in front of the computer at the lab, trying not to let my sandwich drip on the keyboard. I welcomed the change in my employment status because I finally had an opportunity to spend more time with the kids and pay them a lot more attention. At first they were ecstatic about the fact they will go home after school and not to any of the child care places but then when they realized that the supervision on TV time, homework and piano practice got a lot tighter the enthusiasm waned.  One of the most important issues is of course their diet, and as one of my daughters has celiac and the other is lactose intolerant we have to be creative and very meticulous about what we feed them. Now that I'm home I find it challenging trying to prepare them tasty and healthy food every lunch. The following pasta dish is a great success. It's an adaptation from a recipe by Beth Elon (an Israeli cookbook writer). The best thing about this recipe is that it's very easy to make. Only a few months ago I took pride in the fact that the only thing I cook is hardboiled egg and now the fact that I cook this dish on regular basis to my household liking, is pretty miraculous in my view.   
No pasta sauce can be complete without onion (Yahud Ashkenazi market)


Ingredients:
1 package of gluten-free pasta (we use the whole rice one)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 medium size onions chopped
2 grinded carrots
2-4 chopped garlic cloves
800gr of pureed tomatoes (either fresh or canned)
2 table spoons of tomato paste
Salt, pepper, a few chopped basil leaves
Preparation
Place the oil in a medium size cooking pot and add the onion, garlic and carrots. Sauté the vegetable till the onion softens.
Add the tomatoes and paste and boil the sauce on high flame for 15 minutes than lower the flames to the lowest fire and let it simmer for an hour.
Add a pinch a sugar and the basil.
Take the sauce off the fire and mash it using a hand blender, turn the fire on again and let it simmer for 10 more minutes while adding the salt and pepper.
Cook the pasta as instructed on package and serve.
Bon appetite!

8 comments:

  1. That looks delicious..I am making Aliyah in July. I have 2 boys with Celiac and I could use some help in managing in Israel.

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  2. Lovely recipe will make it for my kids. I am not supposed to be eating anything with gluten in it as well. I do but I try to limit the intake same as milk, whilst I like it it dosnt like me. It can be a challenge but if your willing to cook an do a bit extra its managable. My sister Rebecca is a chef and has a blog writing recipes for GF options. http://intolerantchef.blogspot.com/2011/06/im-on-roll.html

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  3. Thanks Simcha, I'll check her blog looks intriguing. Dear anonymous, please send me your mail or twitter contact, I would love to help.

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  4. Yael, that sounds so tasty, I will have to try it. I've never used carrots in pasta sauce, that is interesting.

    I like cooking when I have lots of time, but that is usually not the case. I hope its ok that I share a really easy recipe that I use for pasta here (this is possibly a more grown up one that kids may/may not like, not sure).

    1. Take about equal quantities of red pepper and cherry tomatoes. (I tend to take 70% tomatoes).
    2. Cut up red pepper into big bite size pieces.
    3. Halve cherry tomatoes.
    4. Put this all in a flat baking dish (so the vegetables do not pile on top of each other too much) with 10 or so whole cloves of garlic (no need to peel, the skin come right off after baking), salt, pepper, olive oil, paprika if you like.
    4. Bake at 220 C for about 30-35 min.
    5. Mix it up with cooked pasta and enjoy!

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  5. That looks great Naya, I'll try it with some gluten-free pasta. Thanks!

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  6. You certainly have to be more creative with the dietary observances in your household. But even with such simple ingredients the outcomes looks delicious

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  7. Hi Yael,

    I came across your site through Sarah Melamed's blog, whom I have befriended recently in Facebook. I am a food blogger in the US (started about 7 months ago) and now I am at a stage whereby I am seeking to find blog sites for guest posting. My blog address is: http://www.chocolatesandfigs.com and if you will visit the site you will see that I am a strictly dessert person. However, even though your blog does not appear to have desserts at all, I thought perhaps that is a good reason to have a guest post about something sweet. So, please please let me know if you are interested in a post about a dessert of uour choice

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  8. Hi Jayne
    I'd love to follow your blog and will be honored to guest post. Do check out my former post on Gluten-free sweets:
    http://yaelruder.blogspot.com/2011/04/mega-gluten-free-chocolate-cookies.html
    http://yaelruder.blogspot.com/2011/01/birthday-celebration-gluten-free.html

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