Eat the Alphabet #4: E

The Letter E

We jumped to E because Toby wanted to have E food for Easter weekend.

On the menu this week:

Elk, eggplant and Edam enchiladas
Warm edamame, eggplant and endive salad

Eggs

Elderflower soda

I'm still trying to find a good gluten-free wrap that doesn't crack and isn't tough.
We used Food for Life brand tortillas. They're pretty good if you warm them up enough, but then they dry out and get tough pretty quick. Drenched in sauce they were alright.

Warm Edamame and Eggplant Salad

1 cup frozen shelled edamame (soy) beans

1 cup cubed eggplant

1 cup sliced endive

1 tsp garlic powder

2 Tbsp butter or margarine 

salt and pepper to taste

Heat edamame and eggplant with a bit of water in a medium sized sauce pan or fry pan.

Let steam with a lid on for about 8-10 minutes until eggplant is very tender.

Drain any remaining water off and return to stove with butter and garlic powder.
Heat and stir until coated.

Add endive and toss just enough to coat and heat slightly.

Transfer mix to a large heat proof bowl for serving.

Add salt and pepper if desired.

Serves 4 as a main side dish

Toby likes it! (minus the eggs because he's allergic)

Toby thought my eggs looked like eyeballs and wanted me to include this photo..

I was going to try braving escargot for our E meal, but...we didn't, lol.

Also, no dessert this week. I had eclairs and elderberries written down, but gluten-free vegan eclairs are hard if not impossible to come by, and I wasn't about to make them. Also elderberries are not a common thing to come by.

Hope everyone had a good Easter!

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #3: A

The letter A

Finally got around to A! I was going to wait until spring, but I had all the other ingredients, so we went ahead with it.

First of all, a salad:
Avocado, apple, and anise

 The scene to my left...Play-doh man...not interested in helping today

I've never eaten an artichoke in my life... MAYBE one time when it was on something served to me in a restaurant, but even then I may have picked it off.

So naturally, LET'S FIGURE OUT HOW TO COOK ONE!

This video was the one I watched for how to cook and eat. She's adorable and I want to be friends with her.

Turned out pretty good... I may or may not be buying like 4 more next time I go shopping...

 With that, Albacore tuna
and Asparagus and arugula soup, sprinkled with asiago cheese.

Dessert was applesauce, almonds, apricots, and sprinkled with allspice.

The artichokes were better than expected, but Toby didn't like them.

I'm not a fan of anise, but I wanted to try it again.
The asparagus I bought was kind of woody so it didn't blend nicely and the soup has a very grassy texture, but it tasted ok.

I wanted some alfalfa sprouts for the salad too, but couldn't find any and by the time I had all the other food planned there wasn't time to sprout our own. I'm hoping to do a bunch of sprouts this spring.

We has apple juice to drink, but for the adults among us, the juice is good with a splash of amaretto too!

Advocaat is another A drink... but... it's kind of awful....

First three letters down, 23 to go!

Happy Eating!!

Community Soup

Ok, ok, I'm breaking up the Eat the Alphabet project by doing this, but I wanted to post it.

Toby and I just got the book Community Soup by Alma Fullerton from the library.

I picked it up because I like the collage artwork, and really any story about food in Africa. It's a very short book and easy for the little'uns to follow.

What I didn't know was that, after telling a story about all the things they put in their soup, there's an actual recipe in the back!

I read the recipe to Toby and he wanted to make it right away. 

We used almond milk, but I had goat cheese so we put a few chunks of that in.

(All the peppers and cheese sank to the bottom so here it doesn't look like we put anything on top.)

It was really good!

I found it kind of thin and I like thicker soups, so if you're the same I'd recommend only using 4 cups of water/stock.

In the front it says that part of the proceeds from sales of this book go to

The Creation of Hope project.

I also want to post a link to Organics 4 Orphans, a Canadian based charity that I donate to that doesn't focus on GIVING food to communities in Africa, but instead on EDUCATING them in the subjects of farming, disease prevention through food, nutrition, and earning an income off the surplus.
They arm communities with knowledge, seeds and water to help them feed themselves.
Check them out!

And go see if your local Library has this book!

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #2: C

The Letter C

C is another one of those letters that seems to have a lot of foods begin with it.

We chose to have:
Chicken with curry powder
Salad with: carrots, celery, cauliflower, corn, chick peas, cilantro, cumin, 

cider vinegar, canola oil (I was going to put cranberries in and I forgot!)
Crinkle cut cucumber

Cherry (and pomegranate) juice
Cheddar Cheese
Corn Chips

Toby wanted a picnic

Salad recipe: Makes a good sized personal salad, or sides for two

1/3 cup finely chopped raw cauliflower
1/3 cup cooked or canned corn nibblets
1/3 cup chickpeas
1 stalk finely chopped celery
A hand full of baby carrots, cut finely lengthwise, or one
regular carrot cut in 2 inch pieces and then sliced finely.
1 tsp dried cilantro, or 1 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
Pinch of cumin
1/2 Tbsp cinder vinegar
1 Tbsp canola oil

Blend all ingredients together in a bowl and serve.

And for dessert? Chocolate chips, of course.

I wanted to do a coconut curry dish, but I think coconut is one of those things that inexplicably
causes mood swings in our house, so we avoided it.
Coconut water, a stir fry with coconut oil, chocolate coconut cupcakes, or coconut flakes on a salad would also be great ideas.

Happy Eating!!

Eat the Alphabet #1: B

The letter B

No, I didn't start with A. I warned you it won't be alphabetical. I'd like to wait until we have our own asparagus to eat, but since this is the winter-that-never-ends, we'll see.

We had LOTS of ideas for B, it seems like most foods start with the letter B (maybe someone should to a study as to why?)

This was dinner a few nights ago:
Baked bacon and beef burgers
Stir fry with bok choy, beans (frozen from our garden last year), bean sprouts, Brussels sprouts (requested by Toby, as apparently he loves them), basil and butter

Bread with balsamic dip

Toby cut up all the bok choy for the stir fry.

And for dessert, blueberries, bananas, and banana blueberry muffins that we made.

Also on our list were beets and broccoli, but at the time I didn't have any, and I felt we had enough for a full meal.
I would also suggest serving the stir fry on a bed of barley, but we couldn't do that as we eat gluten free. Maybe a glass of brandy for those of us who could use a drink?

Happy Eating!!