The way the holidays fall this year – Shabbos, day off, holiday, day off, Shabbos, day off, holiday, etc – means a cooking marathon for a few weeks!
**Before I go on to menus, I want to share our happy news, that exactly two weeks after our last granddaughter was born, our youngest married son and his wife had their first baby – a girl! We haven’t yet seen her in person due to the holidays but hope to see her soon – in pictures she looks adorable! Thank You, Hashem.**
I got up at 4 am this morning, the morning after Yom Kippur, to get started cooking for Shabbos. I don’t like feeling rushed and pressured, and I’ve really been enjoying doing the bulk of my cooking on Thursdays and having a stress free Friday.
This week that’s not an option since Yom Kippur was Thursday, so getting up early is the best option for me. As I write at 7:30 am, there are six roasts in the oven, a sixteen quart pot of chicken soup simmering on the stovetop, the load of whites is finished and ready to hang, and a load of coloreds are in the wash. I made lunches for the three boys who have school today and got them out to their school van. Now I’ll hang that laundry, and dd8 and I will go to the store to pick up some things that we don’t have since part of the Mishnat Yosef order didn’t arrive this week, and will resume cooking once we’re back home.
My teen boys are all home, the last one arriving in the middle of the night so I haven’t seen him yet. Bliss…you all know how I love when they’re all home. My youngest married daughter and husband were here for Yom Kippur, so they’re still around but will be going back to Jerusalem at some point today.
The boys will take down the pool today (my husband already emptied almost all of it) since it’s on the patio where we’ll be building the sukka, and will start working on the sukka.
To make this time of year easier, whenever I’ve been cooking, I’ve doubled or quadrupled quantities of some dishes to put in the freezer. I don’t have freezer space for everything, so meat, chicken and fish I make fresh before each holiday. Soup and salads are also made fresh. Some dips like matbucha, marinated eggplant/peppers, and pickled beets I’ve canned so those are shelf ready.
That means challahs, dips, kugels, and desserts are what I put in the freezer. Right now I have in the freezer I have: peanut butter ice cream, mango ice cream, leek quiche, potato kugel, onion kugel, carrot muffins, sweet potato souffle and apple spice cake.
My stock of ready made foods helped me a lot on the Shabbos right after Rosh Hashana, when I was so mentally exhausted that I didn’t have any energy for cooking – I pulled from the freezer and some canned goods, and asked my husband and son to make the meat, chicken, fish and soup, and no one could tell I hadn’t been in the kitchen at all that day.
I’ll share what my menu plans have been so far, including for this Shabbos, beginning with Rosh Hashana.
Rosh Hashana 2025 Menu
Round spelt challahs – I made a large batch of ten challahs, froze what I didn’t immediately need
Simanim/symbolic foods for Rosh Hashana nights:
- apples and honey
- roasted beets with honey and basil
- stir fry – gourd, carrots and onion
- leek patties
- black eyed peas
- pomegranate arils
- dates
- baked tilapia
- fish head
Dinner 1:
- challah
- simanim
- chicken soup
- roast brisket with carrots
- sweet potato/potato fries
- Cucumber/tomato/purple onion salad
- Apple spice cake
Day 1:
- Dips: guacamole, fresh tomato, eggplant with tomato/pickle/onion finely diced in, Moroccan carrot
- salmon (honey)
- sweet potato souffle
- leek quiche
- chicken
- cabbage craisin salad
(No dessert, took apple spice cake and onion kugel for kiddush at shul during break before shofar blowing)
Night 2:
- challah
- simanim, plus new fruit – dragonfruit
- (no soup, everyone full from simanim)
- roast meat (with tomato sauce)
- roasted carrots and apples
- salad – raisin cabbage slaw
- dessert – apple plum crumble
Day 2:
- challah
- dips –
- salmon
- chicken
- roast sweet potatoes
- carrot muffins
- onion kugel
- cabbage salad
- tomato cucumber salad
- dessert – apricot compote
Yom Kippur 2025 Menu
first meal on erev Yom Kippur:
- challah (I made another large batch of eight challahs, since the last batch was finished)
- baked fish
- chicken poppers with dipping sauce
- vegetable quiche
- potato kugel
- tomato avocado salad
- cabbage craisin salad
Meal two/seuda hamafsekes erev Yom Kippur:
- challah
- chicken soup
- meat
- dips
- cucumber tomato salad
- Korean carrot salad
- sweet potato souffle
- melon
Yom Kippur kids meal:
- pitas
- hot dogs
- french fries
- chicken wings
- salad
After Yom Kippur – break fast meal:
- chicken soup
- meat
- honey garlic chicken wings
- carrot salad
- cuke tomato salad
- dessert – fresh mango
Shabbos between Yom Kippur and Sukkos :
Dinner:
- challah – from freezer
- chicken soup
- roast meat with carrot and onions (I’m making several kinds and will slice and freeze some for Sukkos)
- roast potatoes with schwarma spice
- purple cabbage mango salad
- avocado tomato salad
- dessert – easy fruit pie
Shabbos Day meal:
- guacomole – (I’ll be making multiple recipes of the first four dips listed and freezing them)
- chumus
- techina
- carrot dip
- marinated eggplant and peppers (from pantry)
- baked tilapia
- chicken (just came home from the store after writing this and got a great sale on fresh chicken quarters – 25 shekels a kg) so updating to say I’ll prepare it all and pop it in the freezer)
- cucumber tomato salad
- Korean carrot salad
- dessert – ice cream
I hope those of you celebrating are enjoying this special time of year and not feeling overwhelmed by the preparation! It’s a lot and give yourself lots of pats on the back for all that you’re doing that is seen and even more for what isn’t seen. When I get time pressured, I still get everything done but tend to feel resentful at people around me for not doing as much as me. I may not express it, but it’s there. That’s my personal tendency I’m aware of and need to work on. So doing more in advance means I’m relaxed and the appreciation I get from others is extra, so it makes for a happier me and a more pleasant environment for us all.
Avivah
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