vegan, gluten and milk free dinner...

So, Saturday night we invited our next door and across the street neighbors for dinner. Our next door neighboor, Crystal is allergic to wheat gluten and the Polish neighbors across the street are vegan and their daughter is allergic to milk. Wow... that really limits the options. I ended up sauteing carrots, onion, red, yellow and green bell pepper, and two kinds of zuchini in olive oil with salt and pepper. Then I added two jars of Bertolli organic spaghetti sauce and simmered until we were ready for dinner. I also made Spaghetti squash for the noodles. If you have never tried it, you should, it is VERY cool! and now is the time as it is a winter squash. All you do is cut the squash lengthwise and bake it at 375 for 30-40 mins, rind side up. Then you flip it over and take a fork and run it through the flesh and it shreds up just like spaghetti. When you put sauce over it you don't even really notice that it isn't pasta. Crystal brought dessert that I know we will make again for sure, so easy and light. All you do is heat up a can of peaches on the stove and put a few in a dish with a little scoop of vanilla (she brought over soy ice cream because of the milk allergy), then sprinkle corn flakes and cinnamon on top. It was really tasty, and something you could pretty much always have the ingredients for on hand.

It was really nice to have them over for dinner, exp. the Polish neighbors (we have gotten together with Mark and Crystal before). We had a really nice time talking with them about Poland, this is their first time to the US and they arrived in September. We took over some brownies last sunday which is when we found out that they were Vegan. I learned a good lesson that day about bringing new neighbors a potted plant instead of food. I felt bad for taking them something that I don't think they could eat. I hope that they will feel comfortable asking us if they need anything...