Hunger Action Month: Sweet Potato Birds

As Hunger Action Month comes to a close, I want to extend a huge thanks to all of you who donated to the Food Bank this month. I greatly appreciate those who shared my posts, checked out the links, wore orange, and helped spread the word. I have one last project to share for Hunger Action Month 2016: Sweet Potato Birds.

I bought three sweet potatoes and showed them to Trevor. He declared that one looked like an eagle, one like a quail and one just looked like a sweet potato. So we turned two of the sweet potatoes into birds and used the other for spare parts.

To make the quail: 

Peel a whole sweet potato. Put the peels onto a plate. Use the spare sweet potato to carve a topknot and to sliver a pair of wings. Add two toothpicks for legs; together with the tail end of the sweet potato, it should now stand up in the peels. Attach the wings with toothpicks and carve a slot for the topknot. Use a food marker to add eyes. 

To make the eagle: 

Peel just the pointy end of the sweet potato to make a beak. Carve an eye and add a pupil with a food marker. Put it onto a plate along with an eagle's favorite food: fish. 

 

After photographing our sweet potato creations, we took them apart and cut the sweet potatoes into chunks. We put them in a foil pouch with a small pat of butter and a teaspoon of maple syrup. After about 20 minutes in the oven, they were perfectly done and SO good. 

I decided to collage all the orange edible crafts Trevor and I made this month... and I realize now that we made only bunnies and birds! Here I'd thought we'd made a wide variety of stuff, but apparently not! At least the ingredients are mostly different from project to project!  

While Hunger Action Month is coming to an end, hunger continues. Please continue to support your local Food Bank by donating money or food, volunteering your time, or simply spreading awareness. Each of us can make a difference. 

Hunger Action Month: Carrot Soup with a Swimming Bunny

Our family has gone orange during September for Hunger Action Month. As part of our celebration, we've come up with a creative and healthy orange meal each week. This time, it's carrot soup. With a swimming bunny crouton.

Carrot Soup

                                         2 T. butter                      2 lb. carrots

                                         1/2 onion                        2 c. broth

                                         2 cloves garlic                 4 c. water

Roughly chop the onions, garlic and carrots. Heat the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are brown and soft. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the water and the broth. I used chicken broth because we had it on hand, but you can use vegetable broth if you want to keep this vegetarian. To keep it vegan, swap out the butter for oil. It's a flexible recipe. Turn the heat to high. When the liquids are boiling, add the carrots and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the carrots are soft, approximately 20-30 minutes. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup. Season to taste. Garnish with grated cheese, a sprinkle of nutmeg, and/or pie crust bunnies.

Pie Crust Bunnies

                                          1 1/3 c. flour              1/2 c. shortening (chilled)

                                          1/2 tsp. salt                3-6 T. ice water

                                          black food marker

Mix the flour and salt. Use a fork to cut in the shortening until it resembles coarse crumbs. Using the fork, stir in just enough ice water for the dough to come together into a ball. Roll out the dough onto a mat and use a knife to cut out the shapes (see photo). Put them on a baking sheet and cook at 375° for approximately 8 minutes or until barely darkened. Remove from pan and let cool enough to touch. Use the food marker to add faces to the bunnies. Float the bunnies in the carrot soup, inserting each piece diagonally so that the face and feet are sticking up out of the soup.

Lest you think you can skip the pie crust and just use white bread for your bunnies... 

The bread started absorbing the soup the SECOND I put it in. I took this photo as fast as humanly possible. Within minutes, the bunny was completely orange and soggy and his face was just starting to run. Conversely, the pie crust bunny stayed crisp and looking just as good for 10 minutes. So definitely go with the pie crust. You can make the bunnies in advance and keep them in a ziplock bag or even freeze them. 

About the food writers. I have two different brands: Wilton and Bakerpan (affiliate links). They work well on some foods and not great on others. Neither worked especially well on pie crust or white bread, but they were good enough. They're meant for surfaces like candy melts, fondant, royal icing, and marshmallows, but I use them for all kinds of other things. You keep them in the fridge. I've literally had mine for over a decade and they're still going strong.

Hunger Action Month Presentation

Yesterday, this happened:

Trevor had asked his teacher if he could give a presentation to the class as an ambassador for Hunger Action Month. We invited his friend/classmate/neighbor Avery to help. 

Avery came to our house on Tuesday to prepare for their presentation. We drizzled orange Wilton Candy Melts (affiliate link) over popcorn, then bagged it up with a note. We decorated a shoebox to hold donations. We practiced what each of them would say during the presentation.

And somehow, we resisted eating any of the popcorn until everything was done, even though it smelled amazing. 

The finished bags looked really cute. 

 

So did the donation box. 

Trevor and Avery did a great job teaching their classmates about hunger in our community. The kids were very bothered to learn that 1 in 8 people do not have enough food. They were amazed that the Food Bank can provide 2 meals for every $1 donated. They were surprised to hear that the Food Bank is able to get food much more inexpensively than we can, so while donating food is wonderful, donating money is even more helpful. They were eager to learn more about volunteer opportunities sorting cans and bagging produce at the Food Bank. 

 

Each of us, no matter our age, can make a difference in the fight against hunger. These two 10-year olds have educated 30 others (who presumably will educate their friends and family). That's where it starts. 

Hunger Action Month: Tangerine Rabbit

Last week, I shared my orange turkey lunch for the first day of Hunger Action Month. Today, I'm sharing an orange-themed lunch that Trevor made. No surprise... it's a rabbit.

Graphic made with PicMonkey, of course.

Wash and dry a tangerine. Turn it so that the stem end is facing forward. Insert toothpicks into two baby carrots, then slide them into the tangerine where the ears would go.

Use a Sharpie to draw a face on the rabbit. Cut a large marshmallow in half and stick it to the tangerine.

One tangerine, two baby carrots and a marshmallow is not a balanced meal, nor enough food for Trevor. So he created a 'woodlands' environment for his tangerine rabbit from sweet potato chips and peanuts. 

Thank you to all who have shared my post, spreading the word about Hunger Action Month! And an even bigger thanks to all of you who have donated to help the Food Bank!! Our family is continuing to accept donations for the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. If you donate to your local Food Bank, please comment below so I can count you toward our family's goal of 40 donations for the month.

An Orange Lunch for Hunger Action Month

September is Hunger Action Month. Our family is joining with thousands of others to do what we can to help fight hunger. Hunger is a major problem worldwide, affecting approximately 1 in 8 people. Together, we can make a difference by advocating, raising awareness, donating and volunteering our time. Orange is the official color of hunger relief, so I'm starting off September with an orange lunch! 

Materials: cheddar cheese, nectarine, dried apricot, Cheetos, chocolate sprinkle, biscuit cutter, knife

Begin by slicing some tasty tail feathers from the nectarine. Fan them out on the right side of the plate. Use the biscuit cutter to make a circle of cheddar cheese. Overlap that slightly on the feathers. Use the knife to make a cheese wing and a cheese neck and put those in place. Put a dried apricot on the end of the neck to make the head, then add the chocolate sprinkle eyeball. Finally, find two Cheetos for the turkey's legs. In retrospect, I wish I'd added a Cheeto wattle. Still, I like it. And it was a very tasty lunch.

Please join us in helping to fight hunger this September. 

You can:

• Wear orange to show your support
• Learn more about hunger in your community
• Teach your kids about hunger
• Volunteer your time at your local food bank
• Give food
• Donate money

Our family is committed to getting 40 donations to food banks as part of Steve's ongoing 40th birthday celebration. We are accepting donations of any amount, which we will pass along to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. If you prefer to donate to your local Food Bank, that's great! Please comment below so I can count you toward our family's goal of 40 donations.