ottawa foodies

Now that a new year is here do you have any food related New Years resolutions? Anything from making changes to your diet or learning a new dish?

I plan (yet again) to reduce my carbohydrate intake and eat more whole grains. Does anyone have any foodie plans for this year?

Buy more locally grown produce.

Eat less quantity, more quality.

Go to Atelier.

Lose the 10 lbs I put on over the holidays!

great thread idea pasta lover! :)

& start a supper club
& grow my own veggies + herbs on my window sills of my apartment
& dine at www.gracerestaurant.ca when i go visit friends in toronto (what other restauraunt offers milk and cookies as a dessert!?!)
& continue to buy local and organic food
& continue to eat non-processed foods
& try a new recipie from this great book i bought last fall www.amazon.com once a week

Not a NY's resolution but given the timing, it will be construed as such ... go vegan-ish (again). It won't be easy since I am a HUGE meat eater but I've done it before and am going for it again.

Continue foraging & preserving my foraged goods (wild mushrooms, berries, ramps)

Sorta like BigMouth, go vegetarian-ish... so pretty much flexitarian. Gonna try to cut out beef mainly but pork, chicken, etc. is also fair game though not as frequent as I usually have it. I'll eat more seafood though (but not replacing other meats pound for pound) so... well, whatever. Haha.

Mainly doing it for carbon footprint and health reasons.

I haven't been in Ottawa long (September) so I plan on going to the Parkdale Market in the spring! :D

I would love to eat less meat. Can anyone recommend good sources of iron that one would want to eat copious amounts of? Seriously, I'm iron deficient, and aside from spinach and legumes there isn't much in the way of non-heme iron sources.

Aside from this, I want to eat healthier. I also want to increase my repretoire of fancy dishes.

This reminds of last year's Resolution Topic... Do You Have Any Foodie Goals for 2009 = www.ottawafoodies.com

Well along with the "usual" items... Eat Healthier and Drink Less (or in the very least better quality).

Here then is my list for 2009 and how I fared:

1. Go somewhere in the city of Ottawa that is considered to be more "high end" (Domus or Beckta perhaps). NOT ACHIEVED - Primarily due to Ca$h Flow

2. Try to find better Fish & Seafood Restaurants in Ottawa (try the Oysters at Whalesbone). NOT ACHIEVED - Primarily due to Ca$h Flow

3. Finally get "into" the Wellington Gastropub (we have terrible luck with this spot). NOT ACHIEVED - Tried again once or twice, as a walk-up but never any luck.

4. Attend another Chef's or Winemaker's Dinner. NOT ACHIEVED - Primarily due to Ca$h Flow

5. Have some great food on the outskirts of Ottawa. ACHIEVED - Great spots included - Jean Albert's, The Branch, and Castlegarth

6. Take another cooking class. NOT ACHIEVED

7. Take another wine course. ACHIEVED

8. Organize an "activity" dinner with friends (like Urban Element or DiVino Wine Studio). NOT ACHIEVED

9. Get more authentic Bar-Beeee-Q in my diet (until something is found within Ottawa that probably means another trip to Syracuse's Dinosaur BarBQue). ACHIEVED - Made several trips to the USA... including the deep south, and also discovered Jean Albert's locally.

10. Try a food that is not normally within my "comfort zone". ACHIEVED - Experimented with Low Country Cuisine while in South Carolina.

In general, "The List" will pretty much remain the same for 2010.

Well, I'd love to drop a bit of weight, but my real resolution is to do more baking this year. To that end, I've joined the Daring Bakers and Tuesdays with Dorie and have made my own puff pastry and a tarte tatin and a homemade gingerbread house (well, an igloo), so far.

Other than that, it's back to my mostly vegetarian diet with meat only when I eat out (and after I finish the tourtiere in the fridge).

happy new year!

lady who brunches I also have low iron levels (and had anemia at one point) so I face the same issues trying to find foods high in iron. So for now I continue to include red meat in my diet. The only iron supplement I know of is Floradix although I tried it for awhile and it didn't seem to help.

Resolved to do it last year, and resolve to do it again this year: I will strive to drink more wine than I purchase. It's an uphill battle!

Other than that, I think I want to eat more duck and pork. More specifically, I want to make duck confit and pork belly in the comfort of my own home.

LWB, here's a list of some veg iron sources:

Sea vegetables (nori, wakame, and dulse)
Iron-fortified breakfast cereals
Legumes and pulses (beans, lentils, and peas)
Soybeans and tofu
Dried fruit (raisins and figs)
Pumpkin seeds
Leafy green vegetables (spinach, kale, bok choy and cabbage)
Broccoli
Blackstrap molasses

Iron absorption can apparently be helped by having an accompanying food that is high in vit C and cooking vegetables rather than eating them raw. Also, avoid having dairy and tea (the tannins in it are the problem) at the same time as iron rich foods because they inhibit iron absorption.

Personally, I take a multi-vitamin daily to ensure that I'm getting enough iron and B12 because I've tested low for both of them in the past.

Hope that helps.

Sources:
www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.htm
kidshealth.org
www.pcrm.org
www.pcrm.org
www.vegsoc.org/info/iron.html

Mers-very good suggestions. You can also increase iron a bit by using cast iron pans to cook your food. Calcium inhibits the absorption of iron, so don't eat at the same time. Non-heme iron is what you are looking for. For some people digestive enzyes increase absorption of all nutrients so they may be beneficial. A consultation with a naturopathic doctor could also be helpful. Good luck!
Almost forgot my resolutions-eat more vegetables and eat less meat is the main one.

My resolution is to prepare/cook half my meals at home... Yes, that would be stepping up. Steeply. (My bank account will thank me.)

expand and improve upon our new kitchen
buy more local produce and meat
smoke/BBQ/grill as much as possible
keep being awesome

As a kitchen Designer I can help you with that Monty!

I don't really make resolutions but I have a list of thing I am working on...
- getting back to making my own bread again (I miss the hand kneeding!!)
- learning to use my new pasta making attachment on my KA mixer!!
- eat more fish
- eat more veggies, cut down on protein which is usually more than needed...
- eat more sushi!

I like buying my food at Perogies take out on 1129 Baxter Rd., they have very good selection of perogies and vegetarian salads.... I would recomend this for every dody!

Go away shill! You are doing yourself more harm than good

We've bought Perogies from there and have enjoyed them but if you continue to spam every G.D. thread on this board with your transparent advertising, one of my New Year's foodie resolutions is to never visit your store again. Zymurgist is correct, you are doing your business more harm than good. One or two mentions is fine, but this is getting rediculous.

To start exploring some of Ottawa's butcher shops mentioned in the Favourite Butcher thread.

oh yes...and more pickling and preserving like I used to do!

I'm making good on my foodie resolution of approving the huge backlog of new entries on this site. I've completed editing and approving all new vendors (there were about 90 of them to slog through). And now I'm tackling the 300 or so new foods that have been entered since the middle of last year.

Thanks for all your contributions folks!

And I already noticed you got rid of my Hot Waitresses FF :-)

My foodie resolutions:
1.Do not waste food. This will help me to save money and keep my fridge tidy.
2.Eat more fish and veggies (for health)
3.Study wine (for fun)
4.Try many bakeries in Ottawa ( study for my future career:as a pastry chef)

There was a good little bakery in Chinatown that closed just before Christmas, permanently. I asked around and people said the owner did not think she could compete with T&T. I'm sure she could. I haven't been to T&T yet, but I refuse to line up. I've been told by people who did shop there the quality and freshness is less than you can get on Somerset.

no no - which bakery? not the one on summerset? I don't really like the buns at T&T.