The Big Easy, NOLA, The Crescent City…whatever you call it there's one thing that isn't up for debate.  New Orleans is one of the greatest food cities around!  Rather than try to put it into words, I thought a photo journey through our recent trip would be more appropriate.  If you missed them, check out my New Orleans Foodie Itinerary and New Orleans Nightlife Guide.

Go ahead and take a spin through our foodie photo tour below…you'll be planning your own foodie visit to New Orleans in no time!

First things first…breakfast.  SavoryGirl's favorite meal of the day. I have to say that any city that serves grits alongside most breakfasts is an immediate win…but beyond the creamy, buttery grits we had some amazing breakfast.  Pulled Pork Cakes over Mustard Greens with Poached Eggs Creole Hollandaise, Grits and a Biscuit (EAT). Strawberry Shortcake Cornmeal Pancakes (EAT). Banana Fosters French Toast with Boudin Sausage (Surrey's)  Yup, this is a fantastic breakfast town!

I love me some oysters and I have to say New Orleans had some of the biggest, plumpest oysters I've had in a long time.  So salty-sweet perfect and plentiful…which means cheap! If I had more time I would have had oysters every day I was there…those you see above are from Dickie Brennan's Bourbon House…sit at the bar, order a drink and enjoy the atmosphere of local oysters being shucked and served right before you.  I really loved this place and highly recommend it. 

Sunday:	Italian Vegetable Stew
Monday:	Leftovers: Papaya Salad with Grilled Shrimp
Tuesday:	Leftovers: Italian Vegetable Stew
Wednesday:	Leftovers: Italian Vegetable Stew
Thursday:	Mexican Style Tofu Scramble with tortillas and fruit
Friday:	Leftovers: Mexican Tofu Scramble
Saturday:	Eat Out

We're continuing our simple and healthy trend this week with a mostly vegetarian menu…summer's right around the corner you know! So first up is a new recipe from Bon Appétit for an Italian Vegetable Stew. It's a little wintery since it has collard greens and kale in it, but it looked so rustic and yummy I just couldn't resist…served alongside some hearty whole grain bread and you have yourself the perfect Sunday meal.

Then we'll have some of our yummy Papaya Salad leftovers from late last week with grilled shrimp and then since I'm at a local conference this week Christian will have the Italian stew leftovers for a couple of nights.  We'll finish the week out with a spin on our typical egg tacos, but this time substituting tofu for the eggs.  It's another new Bon Appétit recipe and since I pretty much love anything Mexican I'm sure I'll love it and I hope you do too!

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!  In honor of this fun, yet often American abused holiday I thought I'd stay away from the bars and instead share a collection of some of my past favorite Mexican recipe posts. If you've been following SavoryGirl at all you likely know by now that I think I may have been Mexican in my past life.  It's hard to go two weeks without one of my weekly dinner menus including something Mexican inspired and it's almost guaranteed that I am making some version of Huevos Rancheros for breakfast on the weekends.  So let's take a spin through SavoryGirl's Mexican past creations...

First up is my all-time most popular post...Eva Longoria's Chicken Tortilla Soup.  It's a little hard for me to swallow that a once in a blue moon recipe that I ripped out of a People Magazine while traveling has been the most popular post on my blog for the past 2  years, but I can indeed stand behind the recipe.  This soup is better than most that I have in great Mexican restaurants.

Sunday:	Indian-Spiced Chicken with Chickpeas & Spinach
Monday:	Flounder Poached in Fennel Tomato Sauce with Quinoa
Tuesday:	Leftovers: Indian Spiced Chicken and Rice
Wednesday:	Asparagus & Leek Frittata with Sweet Potato Home-fries
Thursday:	Leftovers: Frittata & Home-fries
Friday:	Eat Out
Saturday:	Spicy Thai Green Papaya Salad with Grilled Shrimp

After almost a week of eating fabulously decadent and delicious food in New Orleans I'm ready to get back in the swing of healthy, homemade cooking!  So I'm being a bit ambitious this week, leaning on leftovers less and planning to make four dishes...two new and two old stand-bys.

We're starting off the week with the new recipes...both from past issues of Bon Appétit that I finally had time to catch up on during my plane rides.  The chicken dish is pretty straightforward although it does have quite a long ingredient list, most of which you'll have if you have a well stocked pantry. The flounder is a nice easy weeknight dish, but instead of using jarred marinara as the suggested base I'll likely use canned San Marzano whole tomatoes and crush them up with my hands. A bit fresher and more authentically Italian.

We end the week with a seasonal frittata and then a culinary journey back to our Thailand vacation where we learned how to make traditional Som Tam while in Chaing Mai.  Som Tam is a spicy thai green papaya salad...not like the sweet stuff you get in the Thai restaurants here in the States. Nothing like a yummy trip down memory lane for a fun Saturday night.  We'll get some Thai beer and maybe even make mangoes with sticky rice for dessert...hope you join us!

Sunday:	In New Orleans - Dinner at Commander's Palace
Monday:	In New Orleans - Dinner at Le Foret
Tuesday:	In New Orleans - Conference Finale Dinner
Wednesday:	Returning from New Orleans
Thursday:	Tortellini Soup
Friday:	Breakfast for Dinner
Saturday:	Leftovers: Tortellini Soup

Well, I'm sorry to say that I'm not going to be much help for your home cooking this week.  I'm in New Orleans for a conference until late Wednesday night and then we're keeping it simple for the rest of the week while I get back into the swing of things. By keeping dinner simple hopefully I can get a few workouts in so I can start exercising off all of those beignets and fried oyster po'boys.  Man I love New Orleans!  If you're heading there yourself anytime soon make sure to check out my Foodie Itinerary and Nightlife & Cocktails Itinerary to plan your culinary journey!

In the meanwhile, please feel free to check out my past menus or recipes to fill your week with delicious home cooking.  I'll be back to my normal menus next week.

This is the second of two posts on New Orleans foodie travel...my first post was focused on eating well while visiting the Big Easy.  This one is all about enjoying your beverages and the nightlife just as much as the food! I have to give credit where it's due on this one though, my friend from business school and New Orleans native, Dave Heap, provided almost every single one of the recommendations below. Trust me on this...when it comes to drinking and having a good time, Dave is your man so I'm confident that we are all in extremely good hands with this inside source.

Have any favorite spots to imbibe of your own in NOLA that you don't see listed here?  If so please share! Otherwise, happy drinking...and as Dave said to me, "be safe and have fun out there. But not too much fun....we want you back in NOLA for more!!"

Sunday:	Eva Longoria’s Chicken Tortilla Soup
Monday:	Grilled Tilapia with Ginger Chile Salsa & Grilled Asparagus
Tuesday:	Leftovers: Tortilla Soup
Wednesday:	Leftovers: Fish Tacos with Black Beans & Swiss Chard
Thursday:	Leftovers: Tortilla Soup
Friday:	In New Orleans for Jazz Fest!
Saturday:	In New Orleans!

We're heading back to my most popular post ever this week...Eva Longoria's Chicken Tortilla Soup.  I have to say, it's slightly depressing and a bit embarrassing to me that week after week for the past year plus that a T.V. celebrity's  recipe remains my most popular post, but what can I say?  People either really like Eva Longoria or they really like Tortilla Soup!  From what I recall, the soup totally lived up to the hype so I'm looking forward to making it again.

Then we'll pull out some leftover Ginger Chile Salsa from the freezer that we made a few weeks ago to dress up a grilled fish and asparagus dinner.  The rest of the week we'll be keeping it simple and rely on leftovers as we get ready to head out to New Orleans for Jazz Fest! If you're heading to Jazz Fest as well, make sure to check out my Foodie and Nightlife posts on NOLA before you go.

As always...if you need suggestions to fill in the gaps while I'm out of town visit my menu archives or recipes page.

New Orleans has a very special place in my heart...the first and only time I've ever been there was 11 years ago on my cross-country road trip to move from my hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts to San Diego, California with my now husband.  Since we were tight on cash and camping our way across the country, New Orleans was the only big city on our 2-week trip and we totally fell in love!

I'm finally heading back for a work conference and Jazz Fest, so while my time will be tight I'm going to make the best of it! Luckily I know a few locals so my 11 year gap shouldn't slow me down at all.  Between all of the conference meals and Jazz Fest food I will only have a few meals to explore on my own, but in typical SavoryGirl style I'm going in prepared and sharing my full itinerary for all of the places I would want to check out if I had the time.

So next time you're heading to New Orleans go ahead and use this foodie itinerary as a starting point to plan all of your great culinary adventures in the Big Easy and then let me know what you think.  The drinking and nightlife version will be coming next week, so stay tuned.  If you like what you see, feel free to check out my past foodie travel posts here.

Sunday:	White Chicken Chili with Corn Tortillas
Monday:	Quinoa and Sweet Potato Stuffed Mushrooms with Roasted Red Pepper Salad
Tuesday:	Leftovers: White Chicken Chili
Wednesday:	Leftovers: Stuffed Mushrooms with grilled Asparagus
Thursday:	Leftovers: Baked White Chicken Chili Enchiladas
Friday:	DIY Pizza Night
Saturday:	Eat Out

We're keeping it pretty simple this week with two new recipes with leftovers that will stretch and keep our bellies happy throughout the week. The first is a spicy white chicken chili from my favorite Slow Cooker cookbook, so the recipe that I linked to above isn't the exact recipe I'll be using but it's pretty close. To make sure we don't get too bored with the leftovers one night we'll turn the chili into baked chili enchiladas. Fill some large corn tortillas with leftover chili, roll them up, nestle them in a greased caserole dish, top them with some shredded cheese, cover with foil and bake at 350° for 20-30 minutes or until heated through and the cheese is melted. Yum!

Our second new recipe of the week is one I stumbled on when I was searching for gluten free snack ideas online...somehow I landed on this Quinoa & Sweet Potato Stuffed Mushroom recipe and it looked so simple and delish.  For a side we'll just make a simple spinach and roasted red pepper salad with a bit of shaved Parmesan and walnuts and then grill up some asparagus when we have leftovers.

Leftovers keep a busy week simple for us Tuesday through Thursday and then Friday we have a little fun with a good 'ole homemade Pizza night.  Hope you all have a good and delicious week

Sunday:	Pork Stir-Fry with Tangerine Chili Sauce
Monday:	Rosemary Grilled Salmon with Ratatouille covered Grits
Tuesday:	Leftovers: Pork Stir Fry
Wednesday:	Leftovers: Black Bean Salmon Tostadas & Grilled Asparagus
Thursday:	Breakfast for Dinner
Friday:	Friends Visiting!
Saturday:	Friends Visiting!

I was doing a bit of Spring cleaning and stumbled across this Pork Stir-Fry with Tangerines and Chili Sauce recipe that I had ripped out of a Bon Appétit a few years ago.  While I was on a bit of a cleaning binge and really wanted to just throw everything in the trash this one looked too yummy to pass up, so we're making it for our Sunday dinner.

Monday we're taking a salmon skewer recipe and making it a bit simpler and more in-season by serving it alongside grits covered with ratatouille instead of skewering the salmon with tomatoes.  Grilled skewer season is right around the corner...but it's not here quite yet!  For the ratatouille I'll simply sauté up some chopped onions, mushrooms, and eggplant in olive oil until they soften and begin to brown a bit.  Then I'll add a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, some capers and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Cook a bit longer until the sauce thickens and there you have it...easy ratatouille!