Eating A to Z: A, P, and Z

A is for Aloe Vera Drink
(Since trying this, we have also eaten something that starts with "A".)

We don't go to Trader Joe's often, but we do enjoy going once in a while to find new things to try.  The kids especially look forward to trying different dried and freeze dried fruits.  As we were walking around last time, Josiah was claiming he was thirsty and spotted the aloe vera drink.  I was skeptical that he would like it, especially since it contains pulp, but we bought it to try.  The one we got was grape flavored.  We tried it after we had refrigerated it.  All of the boys and Hannah enjoyed it.  Elizabeth thought it was okay.  I liked it more that I expected.  We only really tasted the grape flavor.  The pulp was not very noticeable.  Isaac liked it so much, he decided we should make grape infused water.  We still need to do that!


Z is for Zucchini

Zucchini is something my kids have had infrequently, but I don't think it's really ever been something focused on, so we decided to try it.  We ate it raw and sauteed.  Elizabeth was the only child who didn't want to eat more of it raw.  But she did say it was better than she expected, as she had thought it would be more similar to cucumbers.  She did say should would probably eat more of it with ranch dressing.

I had originally planned to use the zucchini in a veggie lasagna, and the kids were on board!  However, knowing that David would prefer to not have the extra veggies in his lasagna, we decided to saute the zucchini and eat it as a side to our lasagna.  We used this recipe 
http://low-carb-news.blogspot.com/2014/01/sauteed-zucchini.html 
as a guide and added mushrooms. 

 My kids love mushrooms for some reason!  i had some trouble getting the zucchini to brown, and so I ended up cooking it a little longer than I would have preferred.  But the kids, except Nathanael, loved it!  They thought the zucchini took on the flavor of the mushrooms; they at all of their zucchini and then left the lasagna behind, saying they weren't hungry.  We went to Panda Express a few days later, and the mushroom chicken had zucchini in it.  They were thrilled to have it again!  I think we will try to roast it in the oven next time or maybe try zucchini pizza boats.  I'm glad to have another veggie to add to our repertoire!


P is for Pho Bo Tai

David and I had a chance to go out for a date one Sunday.  We went to a Vietnamese restaurant called Linh's Bistro.  David ordered the Pho Bo Tai.  The restaurant's website describes is as ,"Vietnamese noodle soup consisting of broth, linguine-shaped rice noodles, a few herbs, and meat."  He ate quite a bit, but still had a large container full to take home.  The kids and I had some for lunch the following Wednesday.  The broth was delicious!  The kids all enjoyed the beef  pieces.  Elizabeth quickly ate her soup.  She loves trying different soups.  Josiah said he liked it, except the onions, but it took him a while to eat.  Isaac didn't like the onions.  Then he decided he didn't like the noodles.  I eventually ended up adding leftover zucchini and mushrooms to help hide the texture of the noodles, and he finished it then.  Nathanael took a while, but he ate his.  Hannah ended up falling asleep during lunch, but seemed to enjoy it before she fell asleep.

This photo was borrowed from http://www.linhsbistro.com/, the restaurant where we bought the soup.