Are You a Taste Trekker?

Do you start planning your vacations by asking yourself, "Where in the world do I want to eat next?"

If so, the Taste Trekkers Food Tourism Conference  (September 20-22, 2013) might be right up your alley. This conference is the latest culinary adventure proposed by Seth Resler, founder of Mystery Meet. Some of the advertised conference highlights include: a kick-off cocktail reception at The Dorrance on Friday evening, a keynote address from Chef Matt Jennings followed by breakout sessions led by other culinary superstars on Saturday, and a food truck brunch on Sunday. I'm thrilled about the idea of the world's first food tourism conference kicking off here in Providence, so I was happy to back the project on Kickstarter earlier this month. Are you excited about this conference too? There are just four days left until their fundraising deadline, so head on over to their Kickstarter page to check out the awesome perks they're offering backers.

I'll be celebrating my 30th birthday later this spring by taste trekking down to New Orleans with some of my best friends. When we started discussing this vacation, my pals left it up to me to choose the destination- I suspect a few of them were hoping this would be their chance to finally visit my family in Bermuda. I wanted to go somewhere new (that ruled out Bermuda), somewhere fun, and somewhere known for its amazing food. I thought about it for weeks, and finally settled on New Orleans. It seems that foodies in the know agree that this is the American food destination, and SAVEUR magazine has named it the "best food city in the nation" in their April issue. I'm already following a number of local food trucks and restaurants on Twitter so that I can start planning our meals. I can't wait to spend three glorious days eating my way around the city with my nearest and dearest friends!

In fact, it was research for my upcoming vacation that inspired last night's dinner. Jambalaya kept popping up in the articles I was reading, and suddenly I had a hankering for the classic rice dish. I searched a number of different websites for recipes, and found that Cooking Light has a great collection of New Orleans inspired recipes. I loved the low-fat version that I whipped up, and it has made me even more excited to get to the Big Easy! From what I gather, many authentic versions of this dish contain sausage, chicken and shrimp, but I didn't want to spend the extra money on shrimp- after all, I need to budget carefully so that I can eat lots of real, Louisiana jambalaya in May!

A taste of the Big Easy in the Renaissance City

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

Servings: 4 Serving Size: about 1 and 1/4 cup Points Plus*: 9 pts
(Adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

2 tsp Olive oil
6 oz Boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
7 oz  Lean turkey kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 cup Chopped onion
1 cup Chopped bell pepper (I used red, yellow and orange for color)
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1 dash Ground black pepper
1 cup Uncooked long-grain white rice
1 cup Water
1 cup Fat-free reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 tsp Crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp Cajun seasonings (I happened to have two types on hand, and used 1 tsp of each)
1 (14.5 oz) can No-salt-added diced tomatoes, not drained
1 dash Worcestershire sauce

The colors were gorgeous!

Directions 

Using a soup pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Swirl to coat the pan. Add the chicken cooking for 3 minutes, stirring so that all sides begin cooking. Add the sausage, and saute another 2 minutes until starting to brown.

Add onion, bell pepper, garlic and dash of black pepper. Saute for 6 minutes, or until tender.

Add rice, water, chicken broth, crushed red pepper flakes, and Cajun seasonings. Bring contents to a boil, then cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until rice is cooked.

Stir in the tomatoes and the dash of Worcestershire sauce. Cook another 3-5 minutes, until hot.

Serving Suggestion: I decided to sneak in some extra vegetables, and put a half cup of spaghetti squash in the bottom of my bowl before adding my heaping serving of jambalaya. What a satisfying dish!

Pre-portioned leftovers ready for the fridge and freezer

*PointsPlus values calculated using the Recipe Builder on the Weight Watchers website