Beat the Passover Panic With 5 Preparation Tips and a Great Recipe Resource

At this time of year, even before Purim has come and gone if you mention Passover you may notice people look a little tense. There is so much to do in terms of cleaning and searching for chametz (leaven), and in the kitchen. For some reason cooking and baking for Passover scares people. I don't know if it's the fact that the whole build up to Passover is stressful, or the time element (most people have 1 or 2 days in a kosher for Passover kitchen to do all their cooking), but there's no denying the fact that people find it stressful. Here are 5 top tips to help you beat the Passover kitchen panic:

1. Plan your seder and yom tov meals in advance: find recipes, decide what you want to make and plan it all well in advance. After you have done that, think of some ideas for weekday meals that your family will enjoy. Try to find easy Passover recipes, as well as some that can be made in advance. In addition to main meals and side dishes, don't forget Passover desserts and cakes. Store bought cakes really can't compare to home made ones. One year I made only 2 cakes for the first day of the holiday. Before I had even lit candles the first one, a particularly delicious flourless chocolate cake had been devoured. Since then I always make 2 of those in addition to other cakes.

2. Prepare your Passover menus and shopping lists in advance. Once you have selected your menu and found the recipes make an accurate shopping list. Throughout the year many people have a store cupboard full of essentials. During Passover the situation is different, and you don't want to run out of sugar, and have to go to the shop right before the holiday begins. Believe me, I have been there!

3. Don't under-estimate how many eggs you will need! Almost all Passover recipes contains eggs and we go though dozens during the holiday - from matza brie to cakes, kugels, omelets, quiches and Passover rolls everything needs an egg or two or three. If you plan your menus in advance, then you can really figure out how many eggs you'll need. Whatever figure I work out, I always add an extra tray - if kept in the fridge eggs last well over a month.

4. Before you start cooking and baking, make sure you have all the gadgets and kitchen utensils that you need. So many times I have taken out a lemon only to realize that last Passover my zester had broken, or that the measurements on the measuring jug are no longer visible. To counteract this at the end of every Passover I tape a list to my Passover cupboard door reminding me what I need to buy for next year.

5. Remember that you are supposed to enjoy the holiday! Don't be a slave to the cooking, take a break and remember that it's all about freedom from slavery.

Healthy Crock Pot Recipes With Easy Preparation

The other day I was looking through my grocer's weekly sale flyer and I found myself thinking, "The easier the preparation, the worse it is for you." Think about fast food. No preparation, but completely unhealthy.

I continued my thoughts through meal preparations - frozen TV dinners, frozen pizza, frozen "meal in a bag", boxed dinners, the list goes on and on. We are so concerned with doing things quickly we are hindering our health by jamming our bodies full of preservatives and things with names too long to state and too difficult to pronounce.

I pictured my grocery store, which wasn't difficult since I'm usually there at least twice a week. I love my grocer's produce section, seeing all the fresh fruits and vegetables; I usually spend most of my time there. However, thinking of all the isles that follow, my thoughts were once again confirmed. Packaged food after packaged food - even in the organic isle! I know that cooking with natural ingredients is the best way to go, but how are we to do it if we're bombarded with packaged, boxed, preserved food?

Thinking about my own cooking, I know that I use more "pre-packaged" items than I probably should. For convenience sake, I often used frozen vegetables and canned tomatoes. I feed my kids boxed macaroni and cheese. However, they don't eat frozen dinners, ready-made frozen chicken, and we never eat at fast food restaurants.

These thoughts drove me to research my own recipes; were there a handful of crock pot recipes with extremely easy preparation that are healthy? I did find a bunch, and although the recipes with canned soups tend to be higher in sodium, I believe I found a nice balance between easy preparation and health. Plus, every recipe on the list has 10 ingredients or less. You can view these recipes at http://www.natalies-recipes.com/website/easy-healthy-recipes.aspx.

When it comes right down to it, we want to be healthy and feed our families healthy meals. However, our busy lives often take over and prevent us from doing so. I hope that I have offered you some options to avoid the frozen dinners and fast food restaurants and create healthy meals with ease.