Think you could talk about ingredients and recipes for 17 hours straight? This past Wednesday, Our Cook Quest invited foodies on Twitter to take part in a most-of-the-day-and-night chat called Food Fest. Moderators would take an hour-long shift, tweet one ingredient every 10 minutes, and chat participants responded with recipes. It looked like this:

I signed up for the inaugural hour, 8-9 am, and chose Eat Right With Color – the theme for National Nutrition Month (March) – as my ingredient guideline. I tweeted a color with one fruit ingredient and one vegetable ingredient, every ten minutes. Despite the early hour, we had good participation and the chat yielded great ideas for eating the colorful ingredients I tossed out.

Did you miss out? I’ve got your back (or stomach, maybe) after the jump, where I’ve listed the recipes from Food Fest’s Eat Right With Color hour.

To start off, RED ingredients – strawberries or beets:

• ourcookquest: Beet corn roasted pepper strawberry salad w/ shallot sherry vinaigrette.
• Mandoochoi Add diced beets to meatloaf or sloppy joe. Extra moist and earthy after taste.
• EatingTheWeek RED recipes: beet, peach, basil salad http://bit.ly/d8mFir & fruit (strawberries+) salsa, cinn chips http://bit.ly/JT9Ft
• ourcookquest Candied beets & strawberries for trail mix, topping cheese cake, etc.
• ourcookquest Wine poached beets w/ strawberry creme fraiche.

Next, ORANGE – peaches or butternut squash:

• thekidcancook Curried Butternut Squash Soup http://thekidcancook.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-want-my-butternut-butternut-butternut.html
• EatingTheWeek ORANGE recipes I like: Peach ginger scones http://bit.ly/gVylMI & butternut squash, chipotle soup http://bit.ly/eViatj
• Mandoochoi peach jam/spread. Add couple cloves of garlic + 1 sp of chopped fresh thyme in a cup of peach. Savory/sweet
• ourcookquest Butternut mousse w/ peach whipped cream & smoked pecans. All abt dessert this morn.

YELLOW ingredients – lemon or corn:

• Mandoochoi Tamale: fresh corn + seeded jalapeño + queso(or any soft cheese)
• familyfoodie Love making salsa with fresh corn
• McMedia Corn Cakes with REAL Maple Syrup
• ourcookquest Johnnycakes w/ corn kernels lemon zest & poblanos.

GREEN’s turn – avocado or kale:

• poodle_power avocado, bacon, cheese on a hoagie roll, broil a min, squeeze fresh lemon, heaven!
• EatingTheWeek GREEN recipes: kale, quinoa, carrot, raisin salad http://bit.ly/eb1wTY & 1/2 avocado, 1 kiwi, diced, spread over toast
• Mandoochoi Kale chip: 1bunch clean/dry/bite size cut kale+1T evvo+1t salt+choice of seasoning. Bake 350 drg oven for 10 mins 2 brown edge
• ourcookquest Thinly sliced raw kale large dice avocado topped w/ shaved mahon cheese w/ bacon vinagrette.
• Mandoochoi Avocado mashed potato: equal amount of well ripped avocado and potato: buttery wo extra fat

BLUE or PURPLE – raisins or eggplant:

• Mandoochoi Eggplant parmesan fries. Make sure to drain out extra liquid from eggplant. Panko bread crumb adds extra crispiness
• EatingTheWeek BLUE/PURPLE recipes I like: Pasta w/raisins, br sprts, bacon http://bit.ly/gcNyTv & eggplant apple curry http://bit.ly/eUO8Cv
• McMedia Purple Potatoes, roasted with garlic & rosemary
• ourcookquest Roasted baby eggplant stuffed w/ raisin walnut couscous.

Last one was WHITE – banana (inside, not peel!) or parsnip:

• EatingTheWeek Recipes w/WHITE: thyme-rstd parsnips, root veg http://bit.ly/iguFce (at end) & banana, choc, oatmeal cups http://bit.ly/bu84q
• Mandoochoi Parsnip confit by cooking in bacon or duck fat. Slow cook in the oven then broil it for 5 mins(or brown outside)
• ourcookquest Parsnip chive mash w/ broken up salted pimenton coated banana chips on top.

Thanks again to Our Food Quest for inviting me, and to all the chatters who contributed great recipe ideas. The party continues over at #OCQ247 on Twitter; drop by anytime. Now go eat your rainbow today and give some of these recipes a try!