One of my must-do’s on vacation is to do a supermarket sweep bringing back local food favorites to recreate each areas unique cuisine at home. No place I’ve been has more iconic foods and flavors than New Orleans.

This Oregon born girl was excited to try to meld the two worlds together; adding in more vegetables, but with Cajun flair.

My first attempt was Creole seasoned roasted kale. Going to the grocery store, Rouse’s, with locals was great because they showed us the must haves, with this seasoning being at the top of their list.

Preheat the oven to 425 °

Line a baking sheet with foil (I just do this for easier clean up)

Pile high with kale

Drizzle olive oil over (I only had coconut, so that’s what I used this time) and sprinkle the Creole seasning to taste

Roast 15 minutes, mix and roast another 5 minutes

Serve with hot sauce, if desired.

Oregon meet Louisiana 😋

Incorporating the holy trinity was my next food adventure. The holy trinity in Cajun cooking is using celery, onion and bell pepper into savory dishes. No attention is paid to even knife cuts, or if they should be diced or minced or julienned; you just chop them up. I kinda like the no rules. This threesome is so prevalent that often large batches are made so they’re ready to go for the next recipe. Talking to a waiter while we were there also reminded us that the chopping must be done by hand, no food processors. In fact, he gave us a great quote of NOLA wisdom, “taking the easy street, takes the heart out of it.”

In my quest for more vegetables and our garden’s consistent over abundance of zucchini, I sautéed them with zoodles.

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 medium zucchinis
• Coconut oil
• Creole seasoning
• Voodoo flavored Zapps chips

Sautee holy trinity in coconut oil over medium heat until nearly softened

While that’s cooking, spiralize zucchini

Add zucchini to pan and cook until just soft

Add Creole seasoning to taste and sprinkle crushed up voodoo chips on top!

Sounds crazy, but super good!

Stay tuned for more Louisiana inspired dishes, but with a vegetarian Oregon flair 😊

I know I’m not the only one. You see all the pictures online of beautifully styled food in equally as lovely backdrops or locations. And you just think there’s no way you could recreate this or ever measure up.

So, in an attempt to be more transparent, thanks to my recent attendance at the International Food Bloggers Conference. And full disclosure, I was too distracted by the excitement outside the conference walls to even be in full attendance. I want to see more, not less honesty on social media.

So, here it goes. This is truly what my kitchen looked like my first night cooking upon my return home. Not only are all the foods out, ingredients spilled and not an inch left of counter space; you can even see that we’re in the middle of a kitchen remodel. And by ‘in the middle’ I mean that it’s only been three years since we’ve had cupboard doors or baseboards or trim work done.

Yes, I am a hot mess. And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone 😊

Continuing on from my last blog post, another tasty idea using zucchini sheets www.tiffanyhaugen.com – Zucchini Sheets

Brainstorming led me wanting to incorporate the sheets into a pie, lining a baking dish with them. Kind of imagining a vegetarian option of a cross between shephard’s pie and chicken pot pie.

Ingredients:

• 9oz tempeh
• 3/4 cup Maya Kaimal Coconut Curry sauce (I find this at Costco)
• 1 cup Abborio rice
• 1 onion
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 carrot, I used purple cause it’s pretty
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 head broccoli
• 2 tsp garlic
• Salt/pepper to taste
• Zucchini sheets
• Plum fruit leather
• 1/2 c peanuts

* Bonus 😊 I was lucky enough to have fruit leather on hand. It was made from this recipe www.tiffanyhaugen.com – Fruit Leather

Directions:

• Slice tempeh into thin strips and place in dish with the coconut curry sauce and let it marinate for a few hours
• Preheat oven to 425°. Slice tempeh into stripes and bake for 15 minutes, then flip and bake for 15 more minutes
• Make rice according to directions on container, using the onion and vegi broth
• Cut up all the vegis and make a pretty design on baking sheet 😉

• 
• Drizzle vegis with olive oil and toss with salt, pepper and minced garlic. Bake at 425° for 25 minutes.
• When all the elements are finished cooking. Layer zucchini sheets in a 8 1/2 x 11 sprayed baking dish

• Fill with rice, tempeh and vegis. Top with plum fruit leather strips and bake for 10 minutes at 425°. Because I wasn’t sure how the fruit leather would turn out, I only covered half of the dish, just in case it was horrible. Good to leave your options open. 😊

• When done, top with chopped peanuts

Another winner! Can’t wait to see what is next🤔

One of the biggest perks and most fun aspect of this blog is sharing food and ideas with my fun, foodie friend. At only 1.5 miles away, it’s super easy to trade all of our creations back and forth!

So, you can imagine my excitement when she stopped by with her newest masterpiece, zucchini sheets. Or as she coined them, flavor layers, because you can go as wild as you want, flavoring them with herbs, spices; the possibilities are endless.

www.tiffanyhaugen.com – Zucchini Sheets

Brainstorming ideas of how to incorporate them into a casserole, led me to eggplant. I was thinking either Mexican, replacing the corn tortillas or Italian and replacing the lasagna sheets. When I saw the eggplant cutlets at Trader Joe’s, the heavens opened and sang.

Ingredients:

• 1 box Eggplant cutlets
• 6 zucchini sheets
• 1 onion
• 1 zucchini
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 8 oz mush
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1 Tbsp parsley
• 1/2 Tbsp oregeno
• 1 small bunch fresh basil
• Pepper to taste
• 1 2 lb jar marinara sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425° and grease baking sheet. When ready, bake eggplant for 10 minutes. Flip, bake for 5 minutes more. Then broil for last 5 minutes.

Chop vegetables and saute over medium-high heat until soft. Add in garlic. Saute for 30 sec. Add in herbs. Mix. Add half of the jar of marinara sauce. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Once eggplant is done and the vegetable/sauce is done. You can start assembling the casserole.

In a sprayed 8 1/2 x 11 casserole dish, layer zucchini sheets. 2 fit perfect. Then eggplant. Top with the vegi sauce and repeat. Dump the rest of the marinara sauce over the casserole. I ended with zucchini sheets on top.

Bake in a 425° oven for 10 minutes.

Remove and let cool slightly.

I topped with grated Parmesean cheese, more basil, because yumm! and a few cherry tomatoes from our garden.

I was really pleased with how this tasted. I just wish you could see the layers better. But, that’s why my momma always said, you can’t judge a book by its’ cover. It may be ugly, but it’s yummy! 😋