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Passover

Anyone have any good ideas of what to eat for passover that is feeling and healthy?

Sun. Apr 20, 9:10pm

Excellent question! I'm struggling with that right now. Most of what I usually eat is veggies and fruits with lots of whole grains. Hardly any meat.

If you're strict with Passover, there's 8 days you can't have noodles, rice, peas, beans, etc. The basis of my eating plan :-( What's left for me is mostly just fruits and veggies. Not very filling and satisfying.

I may just eat those things anyway, giving up only bread like most modern US Jews...

But I'd still like to know what kinds of meals others are having.

Monday, April 21, 2008, 12:02 AM

I'm curious. Is this like a jewish lent where you have to give up bread like we usually give up meat or something else that we really like?

Monday, April 21, 2008, 12:16 AM

PP, it's sorta like that, except you don't choose what you give up, there is kind of like a list of stuff you give up without exception (but it varies on exactly what type of Juwish tradition a person follows)
Generally the idea is when the jews were fleeing egypt, they were on the run and had no time to prepare certain foods, like anything fermented (wine etc) or anything leavened (like breads, stuff w yeast)
So jews emulate that diet to appriciate the hardship their people went through while on the run.
I hope that explanation doesn't come off offensive to anyone, and like I said there are many variations to this

Monday, April 21, 2008, 8:24 AM

I think you did a good job explaining it and it was very well put.

Monday, April 21, 2008, 8:43 AM

Jews are allowed to drink wine (and lots of it) during Passover :)

I buy whole wheat matzo and though it still tastes like cardboard I use it with matzo brei and even lasagna.

Try sweet potatoes for your latkes..better than white potatoes if you are concerned about carbs.

And Happy Passover !!

Monday, April 21, 2008, 9:29 AM

Lean meats, fruits and veggies. I look at it as a mini-Atkins diet!

I made hoppel poppel this morning - put some salami in a frying pan til it's crispy and you can drain off some fat, or just buy low-fat to start with, then add in matzoh pieces that you've soaked in water til soft (and then drained), and scrambled egg mix (eggs and milk), scramble it all together and top with a little cheese.

Not the healthiest, but if you count up the calories, you can do it for 300-400 calories, and it's really filling! My recipe, for 2 people, uses 4 eggs and 1 piece of matzoh, so each person there is getting 210 cals from that, so it's just the salami and cheese that are the variables. You can use a lot or a little.

A sheet of matzoh is around 100 cals, so that's something to remember when you make different foods.

A piece of matzoh with a thin spread of peanut butter is good.

When I was little, my mom used to pack me sandwiches on the matzoh - corned beef w/ mustard, for example. By lunchtime, the matzoh had gotten just soggy enough that it didn't crumble horribly when trying to eat it. It was like a treat b/c it was something different.

Also, you can use egg noodles (depending on how they're made) during passover. There are some that are kosher for passover, at least at my grocery store.

Monday, April 21, 2008, 10:22 AM

Strict Orthadox jews do not ingest any grape products, including wine. Just thought I'd throw that out there for those wondering about any confusion above

Monday, April 21, 2008, 10:53 AM

Interesting (about the wine). So, then, why does the Passover sedar (ceremony) call for drinking 4 glasses of wine?

And why do the rest of us (non-Orthodox) drink wine that is "Kosher for Passover," and truly gross, if by doing so, we're breaking Passover anyway? Why not just drink the good stuff?

Monday, April 21, 2008, 11:14 AM

I just got an e-mail from iVillage (I get daily e-mails from them with diet tips), and today's was a link to a bunch of healthy Passover recipes. The page gives recipes, including nutritional info per serving. Link below:

Link

Monday, April 21, 2008, 11:32 AM

I had not heard about wine and Orthodox so I went to my favorite Jew in the Know source, Chabad.org and they have info on serving wine at Passover

http://www.chabad.org/

Click on holidays. Passover, Sedar and then look for wine

Monday, April 21, 2008, 12:08 PM

According to chabad.org (I went there, per the pp's posting), you are supposed to drink 4 glasses of wine with the sedar, and can substitute grape juice for the wine if necessary.

I'd say this means that Orthodox Jewish people do consume grape products and wine during Passover.

Monday, April 21, 2008, 2:21 PM

Hi, I'm not any of the previous posters, I think the confusion about wine is coming from a very strict orthadox belief about wine called "yayin nesekh", a prohibition against consuming any grape product that was not grown and fermented by a jew. This goes back to a strict prohibition on drinking or ingesting foods, and certaintly wine, which was also being used in idol worship (aka by another religion).
The basic idea was if a non jew made the wine, it might be sold to jews for their worship, but also used in the worship of other religions, makeing the whole batch unclean, so only wine made by jews could be trusted to be pure in it's purpose.
There are some very specific sects of Orthadox jews that will not ingest any grape products on passover unless they or their jewish neighbors created the wine themselves, to be extra sure they are observing yayin nesekh. (Because many small sects of Jews do not agree that Kosher standards fully cover aspects of yayin nesekh).
Now these groups who observe in this way are going to be such a minority you may not find alot written about them, but I do come across them in my work (religious related).

Monday, April 21, 2008, 2:35 PM

To 2:35

Your explanation does sound vaguely familiar...the part about bein gsure it was made by Jews. Thanks for clearing that up

Monday, April 21, 2008, 4:54 PM

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