Category Archives: Food

New Orleans Farmer’s Coop

Today, I went to the Marigny to check out the grand opening of the New Orleans Farmer’s Cooperative. Local bands were playing, local food and health producers were there to talk about their products, and it was generally a really impressive experience.

I bought kinds of random local produce and weird health foods like chia seeds and fava beans, and it was grand. I realize I’m the biggest dork ever to have so much fun grocery shopping, but truly, this is a happy place. Just look at the building!

Welcome!

Welcome!

This place has a great selection as well. I was very impressed. Think smaller Whole Foods with fewer rude people, flowers, baked goods, and alcohol. I’m not sure if it’s good to have fewer of some of those things, but it certainly was a friendlier atmosphere.

My pictures aren’t very good because I tried my best not to be a total weirdo taking pictures, but it gives you an idea of the experience.

Most of the produce was from the U.S., and quite a bit was from Louisiana and Mississippi.

In the past few years, and especially after living in Ecuador where most produce is regional and local, I’ve become quite interested in being responsible about my food choices both for health and for the impact I’m making on the environment and local economy. This is just one of many great examples of ways to invest in the local food economy  in New Orleans.

Till next time!

Fresh Pear Bread

This title might sound weird, but what else do you make when you are tricked by grocery store sales into buying 15 local pears for 1.50?

Obviously pear baked goods.

I found this great recipe with normal tasty ingredients and only made a couple changes. Subbed walnuts for roasted pumpkin seeds based on what I had on hand and subbed applesauce for oil (did not affect texture) and halved the recipe to make only one loaf.

Here is the finished product! 🙂

Nope, I don't own a real bread pan.

Banana oatmeal muffins

All of my former roommates, family, and close friends can attest to an obsession of mine: baking muffins. They are just the perfect snack or breakfast.  I’ve made almost every variety of muffins you can imagine. Some ingredients I always keep on hand are bananas and oatmeal because I eat this just about every morning for breakfast. Obviously, when I got home this afternoon after spending all Saturday in the library writing research papers(#gradschoolproblems), I wanted to bake muffins to decompress. What ingredients were available? Bananas and oatmeal.

I saved this recipe and altered it awhile back. It was originally from allrecipes.com, but I can’t find the original one because I changed some things though I can’t remember which things. Anyway, that’s my lame attempt at giving credit.

 

my breakfast for about 3 days. Yes, I always eat at least two.

Banana oatmeal muffins

1 c. oats
3 tbsp. sugar
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 mashed bananas
1/4 c. milk
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (or canola oil)

Makes 8-10 regular size muffins. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

 

 

A day for baking.

Today it is raining in New Orleans. Rain makes me want to read a book, bake, and watch movies. I don’t have a good excuse to read a fun book or watch movies as I have research papers to write, but I have a legitimate excuse to bake!! Since I have this fabulous holiday cocktail game night to attend tonight, I stayed inside after this morning’s class and made the cake batter cookies I was talking about yesterday!

I got this very unhealthy but delightful recipe from a small town Mississippi church cookbook called the Merry Hearts Cookbook. Cute right? Obviously this is not on the internet or I would show you. However, I’m pretty sure the nice ladies who collaborated to make this cookbook wouldn’t mind my sharing the recipe.

yumyumyum

Oatmeal Cake Batter Cookies

1 box yellow cake mix (I used Pillsbury Extra Moist)

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup sugar

1 cup canola oil

2 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup sprinkles–>Actually the recipe called for pecans which would also be great here, but I wanted them to be cute 🙂

Mix all ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees F for about 10-15 min.

This is obviously not a surprising recipe as I’m pretty sure it has been around for awhile, but sometimes it boosts myself- baking-esteem to make a ridiculously easy, can’t go wrong recipe. Though in the interest of full-disclosure, I almost went wrong bc I spilled the cake batter all over my counter and had to sweep it up into the mixing bowl. #imabakingdisaster

Cake batter cookies

=Cake batter cookies

Exciting and random ingredients + eggs and canola oil= totally very not healthy exciting cake batter cookies.

 

I actually had more of a post typed but somehow it got deleted.

These are more exciting anyway and are my contribution to a holiday cocktail game night I’m attending tomorrow! Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!! Time to move on to Thanksgiving celebrations!

Weekend Brunch in Uptown

Il Posto

Il Posto’s Veggie Bagel + salad

This pre-Halloween weekend, a couple of best friends came to visit from far-away Oxford, MS, giving us the perfect excuse to have brunch both Saturday and Sunday. Best. Idea. Ever.

Where we chose: Il Posto and Oak Street Cafe. I had visited both places before, but tried new things that were equally as wonderful as the previous choices. I also realized I always lean towards bagels and bagel sandwiches when eating breakfast out, despite the fact I hardly ever eat bagels at home.

My tidbit of brunch advice at these restaurants: The bagels are fantastic, but then again everything looks great. My friends enjoyed omelets as well. You can’t go wrong.

Oak Street Cafe: omelets and hashbrowns

Oak Street Cafe

Soy lattes

Friday Favorites: Big Bad Breakfast

Breakfast is absolutely, positively the best meal of the day. I’m always hungry at breakfast time, I don’t feel weighed down from previous meals, and the standard fare is always just what I’m craving. When anyone proposes celebrating breakfast time with a special experience, I am all in. Case in point, I had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate (and yes I think that word is appropriate) breakfast with one of my closest friends and my roommate today at Big Bad Breakfast in Oxford. It was everything that name suggests.

I had some coffee, fresh fruit, buttered wheat toast and an egg, made to order. Perfect. Definitely worthy of being featured as a Friday Favorite.

The above pic is one of their t-shirts (which are also really popular and cute) with its logo. Here is the website:  http://citygroceryonline.com/restaurant.php?bbb

Satsuma Cafe in New Orleans

I’m having a grand time exploring restaurants in New Orleans.

The other day, I went to a cafe on Dauphine Street with a couple of friends. It is called  Satsuma. Read their menu at http://satsumacafe.com/. It has something for everyone. While I love vegetarian restaurants and don’t eat that much meat (mostly just seafood), I hate that my meat-eating friends are upset to find no meat if they really want it. Also, I dislike going to restaurants that center everything around meat. All that to say, I like when restaurants are creative with food and have a bit of something for everyone. I think Satsuma’s menu is a good example.

The decor is very unique as well (I promise I’m going to start bringing a camera more often!). There is a lot of interesting art and an interesting vibe. There were lots of folks doing work on computers or reading so I can see that it would be a good place to hang out for a couple hours.

I had already eaten breakfast and it was too early for lunch, so I decided to just have one of their fresh juices (I tried the Sweet Tart). There are no words. It was fabulous. Also, I was tempted to just eat everything on the menu despite the weird time of day.

I will definitely be back to Satsuma!

I think I will start reviewing various restaurants I visit in NOLA. Feel free to recommend some!

Friday favorites: FOOD

Let’s talk food.

Specifically, let’s talk my favorite foods of all time (well, at least recently).

Mmmmmm

Strawberries

I think most of us can agree that when these delicious red berries are in season every summer, they should be eaten by the gallon. And I’m holding to that recently. 🙂

Soy Lattes

Want to know what makes soy lattes far superior to regular?? The light vanilla flavor of vanilla soymilk that doesn’t taste like chemical-laden syrup and the fact that it doesn’t sit so heavy on your stomach like cow’s milk. (maybe that’s just me….)

Bagels

Recently, I’ve become obsessed. Being from the South, I never learned to appreciate bagels truly as a kid. I’m making up for lost time–move over biscuits! Fave combos: bagels w/lox (obvious perhaps, but again, I’m from the South) and whole wheat bagels with hummus.

and speaking of….

Hummus 

Hummus obviously earns a spot on this list. I like pretty basic flavors, nothing too fancy, combined with veggies, on sandwiches, and as mentioned above–on bagels.

Maybe that’s enough for now. I think this should be a regular series though. Maybe “Friday favorites”?

What foods are you loving these days? Does your taste and consumption change with the season?