Sharing is Caring

Stacee Alario
Pi Beta Phi

Part of the struggle many people face when making the switch to local, all natural food is their lack of recipes. Natural ingredients are fabulous, but most of the time people don't know how to cook them. Who would be better to ask how to prepare our food than the people growing and harvesting it?

As I meet people involved with this movement, I always try to remember to ask them for their favorite recipes. All the ingredients to their recipes are available in organic form or in local markets. These are some of the recipes I have learned from the people involved with the slow food movement.

Mrs. Moore's Baked Yard Bird:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, have a glass baking pan and foil to cover

Coat chicken breasts in olive oil and line up in pan

Squeeze fresh lemon on top, and season with salt, pepper and sliced garlic

Cover with foil and cooking at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes

Remove foil for chicken to brown and keep cooking for 15-20 minutes

Elaine Muhaimin's Stew Chicken:

Cut how ever many chicken breasts you intend to serve into small, square pieces

Season chicken to your liking (bay leaves are her favorite seasoning)

Put in pan over medium heat and stir for about 45 minutes

The chicken will create its own broth but if after 45 minutes there isn't enough for your taste, organic chicken bouquet, flour and chicken stock can be used to supplement

Elaine Muhaimin's Chicken Jerky:

Slice chicken breast and marinate in soy sauce, peppers and lemon juice for 1-3 hours

Put in a dehydrator at 120 degrees for about 6 hours

Courtney Moore's guacamole:

Take the pit out and peel the skin off 4 avocados, mash with fork to a consistency of your choice

Add 1-2 diced tomatoes

Add 1 large clove of garlic

Add in 2 tablespoons of minced onions and cilantro (to taste)

Add salt and pepper to taste

Add small amounts of lime juice, tasting in between (the less ripe the avocados are the more lime juice will be needed)

MJ's Roasted Vegetable and Orzo salad:

Take 1 eggplant, 2 squash, and 3 different colored peppers (you can add onions, or anything else you'd like) and slow roast then in the oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes (flipping it at half way through) with garlic and olive oil

Lightly toast pine nuts

Toss with cooked orzo and fresh feta

Add 1/3 cup of olive oil, 1/3 cup lemon juice and about 15 leaves of basil

Mr. Robinson's Fried Okra:

Cut up okra, season with O'bay seasoning, Tony Chachere's, black pepper, garlic, cayenne pepper, and onion powder

Batter in Louisiana Fish Fry using a little water and about a tablespoon of milk

Fry in Canola Oil

Stacee is a junior studying mass communication and political communication.  You may contact her at salari2@lsu.edu.