During Passover there is a big focus on food. It takes a lot of attention to remove anything leavened, make with corn and soy, etc. out of the mix for 8 days! Even though I’m used to devoting a good amount of thinking time to food it seems like Passover has kicked it up a notch for me. The discovery of gluten free matzah has also opened up a whole new world of meal ideas for me! Also going without my usual whole grain carbs is a good change of pace from what I feel like has been a carb-heavy couple of months.
There is a traditional breakfast called Matzah Brei which is matzah soaked with water then mixed with egg, sugar, cinnamon, and cooked in a frying pan. While I was home my dad tried his hand at an adapted version, mixing in about 1/3 of a piece of matzah with one egg, salt and pepper.
I recreated this with a pinch of cheese and had it alongside fresh cut fruit (and not sausage – that was my dad’s!) yesterday for breakfast before my flight back to DC.
This morning for breakfast I wasn’t sure what to eat. I woke up with a stomach ache and I’m not sure what caused it. I had some blueberries and pineapple with a spoonful of charoset and an egg with 1/2 a piece of matzah, half with red pepper spread to eat my egg with and half with almond butter and strawberry jam.
My stomach thankfully felt a lot better so perhaps it was hunger pangs? Either way, it was amazing to have a bit of carbs as part of breakfast to give me some morning energy!
I ate around 9 and my stomach was grumbling by 11:30. I grabbed some pistachios to hold me over until just past noon. Lunch was a hugh jass salad with roasted broccoli, asparagus, carrots, and sweet potato, olives, sundried tomatoes, and a pinch of parmesan cheese.
A couple of hours later I was hungry again and broke into my snack of plain Greek yogurt with cinnamon, pineapple, and a bit of strawberry jam mixed in.
Sure enough, by 4:15 I was hungry and picked up a small cup of vegan leek and potato soup. It was pretty tasty and I was glad to have something that finally filled me up!
I headed to the gym after work and did 35 minutes on the elliptical. This felt a bit tougher than usual, perhaps because of a bad night’s sleep or maybe because I didn’t fuel how I usually do on workout days. After stretching and foam rolling I headed home to relax a bit until I was hungry for dinner.
Around 7 it was time to eat. I started with small bits of potatoes and a dairy free squash casserole that I brought back from home. I also had deconstructed stuffed cabbage (meatballs and cabbage in a tomato-y sauce) with some horseradish. Man, I love my Bubbye’s (grandmother) cooking.
I wasn’t quite full so I had some kosher for Passover tomato sauce mixed with spinach with 2 little pieces of a basil cracker (gf matzah variety!) that my grandmother sent me back to DC with.
I’m snacking on some fruit and hoping that tomorrow when I wake up it feels like a whole new work and my body is a bit more energetic!
Do you tend to eat a lot of carbs / grains throughout the day? Do you miss them when you don’t eat them?
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