Hot Lunches To Go

Leah and Kate were part of a small but great crew of volunteers who helped prepare and hand out the hot lunches today.

We served hot lunches to go at today's Wednesday Community Meal since Kempton Hall, where we usually serve, was being set up for tomorrow's Community Thanksgiving Meal.

Because it's been so cold here, it was important to us to still serve a hot meal that would warm our guests, so we made vegetarian chili, hot dogs and brownies.

Most of the beans that we used for the chili were donated by Shephard Chiropractic Clinic which recently held a canned food drive for us.

To the beans, we added zucchini, red onion, tomatoes, garlic, chili powder, cumin and a secret final ingredient — tofu! We received a donation two cases of silken tofu from Good Samaritan Hospital and it worked perfectly in the chili. It added lots of lean protein to the dish and no one even noticed it was there.

When I mentioned to one guest that there was tofu in the chili he wasn't fazed a bit and said, "That was so good, I hope you make it again."

We served 200 meals today.

Homemade Enchiladas And An Early Halloween Celebration

Mary and Cheryl helped me make the enchilada filling today using canned goods donated to us by Shepard Chiropractic Clinic. I opened the cans, Mary emptied the cans and Cheryl stirred. It was teamwork at its best.

We celebrated Halloween a day early at the Wednesday Community Meal by dressing up and serving homemade enchiladas.

Being the last and fifth Wednesday of the month, we were expecting to be busy today and boy were we right. We served 490 meals during our two hour service.

Today's meal - enchiladas topped with sour cream, roasted potatoes and roasted veggies.

The enchiladas were made lasagna-style which is the fastest way I know how to put them together. We first made a filling using black beans, kidney beans, refried beans, ground beef and onions. And then made a quick enchilada sauce by using canned tomato sauce and seasoning it with cumin, chili powder and garlic.

We then assembled them by filling large hotel pans with multiple layers of flour tortillas, filling and cheese. The enchilada sauce topped a final and top layer of tortillas and then it was into the oven to bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

After the bit of baking, we added sliced black olives and more cheese, covered them with aluminum foil and baked for another 20 minutes until they were bubbly and the cheese was melted.

All of the canned items we used today, and we used a lot, were donated to us by Shepard Chiropractic Clinic which recently held a canned food drive just for us. We are so appreciative of their support and generosity. Besides the tortillas, cheese, onions and beef, the enchiladas were put together using ingredients solely from them. Thank you Shepard Chiropractic Clinic! You helped us feed hundreds!


Today was also fun because it was an early Halloween celebration and many of the volunteers dressed for the occasion. We even served a special Halloween dessert made by Cheryl - slices of glazed chocolate and vanilla marble cake topped with orange sugar sprinkles.

Halloween Cake

Linda

Pat and Amanda

Steve

Joe