***CAFE IS CLOSED TODAY***

Even though Highland Park itself seems to still have power, it's dangerous for people to travel from nearby flooded areas so A Better World Cafe is closed today. We will post as soon as we know tomorrow if things are up and running again.

Stay home and stay safe!

Fabulous Friday Menu for Aug 26

Before fussy ol' Irene comes to visit, come have a nice filling meal today!

Salads:
- Better World Salad (v)*
- Roasted carrots and tomatillos with corn, jalapeno and cilantro and topped with tortilla strips(v)*
- Haricot vert with cherry tomatoes*
- Cantaloupe slices

Soups:
- Chilled local peach with organic yogurt and honey
- Summer vegetable with corn, squash and tomato in a vegetable broth (v)

Sandwiches:
- Turkey with caramelized onion and paprika mayo
- Heirloom tomato with goat cheese on foccacia (can be served hot or cold!)
- Antibiotic/nitrate/preservative-free natural hot dog on whole wheat bun
- Eggplant falafel on wrap with yogurt tahini

Dessert:
- Chocolate chip cookies
- Chocolate chiffon cake with rich chocolate ganache
- Cinnamon-raisin bread pudding

Dinner Entrees:
- Stuffed red pepper with antibiotic-free beef, rice and homemade sauce, served with a green salad and garlic bread - $9
- Eggplant parmesan served with green salad and garlic bread - $8

*upgrade your salad to one of the above signature salads for only $1 more!

As always - keep an eye out on Facebook or our menu board for any last-minute specials we may have!

Selections are subject to change due to availability

We need your help!

A Better World Cafe appreciates everything that our volunteers do for us by donating their time and supplies. Our customers are the best too, giving us that little extra when they can and keeping us going. We love you guys for it!

But speaking of keeping us going, unfortunately our refrigerator isn't doing so well and we need your help before it goes kaput! Chef Rachel is hoping for a refrigerator fairy but that would be a great deal of fairy dust so we'll have to do this the old fashioned way. Have you and your office mates visited lately - how about a collection for the cause? Know of a restaurant supply place looking to make a deal? Let us know!

We want to keep serving you the best, freshest fare we can and want to avoid any interruption in this service. Suggestions, donations and creativity would be greatly appreciated!

From Cub Reporter and Volunteer Diane, reporting earlier today from the dining room of Better World Cafe, where the lunch was darned tasty, the atmosphere lively and the Vacation Bible School kids were cute as pumpkin pie.

Week of Aug 22-26

A little taste of what we're offering this week - watch Facebook and/or Twitter for last-minute additions!
Specials:
~ Zucchini and rice crostata (open-faced personal pie) with ricotta and scallion served, arugula and cherry tomato side salad
~ Pepperjack macaroni & cheese

Sandwiches:
~ Eggplant falafel wrap with yogurt tahini
~ Turkey, carmelized onion and paprika mayo

Salads:
~ Better World Salad
~ Jicama, cherry tomatoes and arugula with a sherry viniagrette
~ Cantaloupe Slices

Dessert:
~ Carrot cake loaf with nuts
~ White cupcakes with fluffy frosting and sprinkles
~ Cinnamon-raisin bread pudding

Complimentary:
~ Macaroni & Beans

It's Friiiiiiiday!

Lots of goodness planned but keep an eye out in case we have last minute additions when you come in! Also, if you haven't visited us for dinner before, many of the appetizers, soups, salads, and desserts as well as some of the sandwiches are available as well in the evening.

Lunchtime Specials:

~ Zucchini and rice crostata (open-faced personal pie) with ricotta and scallion served, arugula and cherry tomato salad side

~ Turkey sandwich with brie from Cherry Grove Farm and a cucumber-smoked paprika mayo

Appetizers:
~ Tomatillo salsa verde with chips

Soups:
~Potato leek from our Chef Richard

Salads:
~ Better World Salad (v)
~ Sugar snap pea with with sesame
~ Cucumber with yogurt

Sandwiches:
~ Heirloom tomato, mozzarella and basalmic reduction on foccacia
~ Eggplant falafel wrap with yogurt tahini

Desserts:
~ Zucchini sandwich cookie with either cream cheese or caramel frosting
~ Banana Cream Pie
~ Chocolate chip cookie
~ Chocolate light chiffon cake with ganache

Complimentary:
~ Orzo with lentils (v)

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Dinner Specials:

~ Peach glazed ham, our house made baked beans and mac & cheese
~ Thai-style marinated eggplant in a coconut-peanut sauce served with brown rice

Selections subject to change based on availability

Selections for week of Aug 15-19

Here's what's on deck for lunch this week - daily choices vary by availability. Keep an eye out later this week for the Friday specials and last minutes updates on our Facebook page!

Lunchtime Specials:
~ Pudgy open-faced stuffed pepper sandwich filled with antibiotic-free beef,rice, garlic butter and mozzarella served on foccacia
~ Turkey sandwich with brie from Cherry Grove Farm and a cucumber-smoked paprika mayo

Soups:
~ Smoky watermelon gazpacho made with fresh ripe Jersey watermelons and tomatoes (v)
~ Chicken meatball

Salads:
~ Better World Salad (v)
~ Sugar snap pea with with sesame

Sandwiches:
~ Turkey with pickled red onions on ciabatta

Desserts:
~ Zuchinni sandwich cookie with either cream cheese or caramel frosting
~ Banana Cream Pie
~ Oatmeal-raisin-pecan-chocolate chip cookie
~ Chocolate light chiffon cake with ganache

Complimentary:
~ Egg noodles with cabbage and butter

TGIF Menu!

Lunchtime Specials:
~Zucchini stuffed with foccacia, mozzarella and vegetables
~Antibiotic-free Angus beef empanada topped with homemade tomatillo salsa (purple tomatillos provided by our friends at First Field)

Soup:
Sm $2.50 /Md $3.50 /Lg $5 - To Go quarts available for $8
~Smoky watermelon gazpacho made with fresh ripe Jersey watermelons and tomatoes (v)

Salads:
Sm $1.50 /Md $3 /Lg $4.50
~Better World Salad (v)

~Beet Salad with lemon vinaigrette (v)

~Orzo salad (v)
~Cherry tomato, cucumber, feta with sherry vinaigrette

Sandwiches:
Half $3 /Whole $6
~Heirloom tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil and basalmic reduction on foccacia
~Turkey with pickled red onions on ciabatta
~Grilled cheddar with roasted red peppers on foccacia
~Cream cheese and our homemade strawberry jam on Nancy's toasted white bread

Desserts:
~Warm vanilla biscuit with whipped cream and blueberry compote
~Chocolate light chiffon cake with ganache

~Lemon blueberry tea slice

~Banana cream pie

Drinks:

~Blueberry iced tea

~Iced tea and coffee

Dinnertime Entrees:
~Vegetarian stuffed pepper with lentils, whole wheat orzo and vegetables, crostini topped with basil pesto, and side salad (upgrade to one of our above-listed signature salads for only $1 extra!)

~Lemon-herb butter free range chicken, roasted fingerling potatoes, sautéed greens. (Herbs of rosemary, sage, thyme and calendula blossom for the chicken provided by our friends at Rutgers Gardens!)

Dinnertime Salad:

~Sandy's corn and pepper salad (v)

Late afternoon drink goodness:

~Chef Rachel's horchata made with cinnamon, vanilla and organic milk

Selections can be subject to change due to availability

Supporter Spotlight - First Field

A Better World Café is grateful for the support all the individuals and businesses that contribute their time and resources to help us keep to our mission alive to help make a sustainable world where all may eat. Every now and then we like to highlight one of these supporters and this week we’d like to focus on First Field, a business quickly becoming famous for their organic Jersey Ketchup. (Pictured: Arianna, intern and Theresa, owner)

Theresa Viggiano was renting a small Griggstown farmhouse and since there was quite a bit of land attached, she and her roommates decided to grow some tomatoes. During the summer of 2007, she and her now husband Patrick Leger had a bonus crop of tomatoes. With all of this extra bounty available, they decided to try their hand at making organic homemade ketchup by playing with Patrick’s Canadian family recipe and what they came up with is a sweet and spicy concoction with only a small bit of organic sugar, the rest of the sweetness coming from their fresh New Jersey tomatoes.

It wasn’t long before they went from selling their canned tomatoes and unique ketchup at their modest roadside stand to getting enough attention and demand for their product that they knew that they needed help expanding their enterprise and reached out to as many places as they could for space and assistance. According to Theresa, “We were selling the ketchup at our farm stand out of mason jars and at the Whole Earth Center in Princeton and realized with demand from a store, what do we do? We need a commercial kitchen! We started emailing everybody, asking schools, asking kitchens. Nobody had the space for us, nobody was willing. Then I sent an email to Lisanne at Elijah’s Promise who was absolutely, totally generous to let us use their kitchen and told us about the different programs at Elijah’s and we were around when Better World Café was getting started.”

In return for the kitchen space, Theresa and Patrick helped teach the students at Elijah’s Promise and in addition, hosted a public Farm to Table event held by Elijah’s Promise for the public to teach methods of canning and preserving foods which included tastings of applesauce and apple and apricot butters, Jersey Cocktail (First Field’s version of Bloody Mary Mix), and their popular ketchup. First Field has gone beyond tomato growing to include other organic produce. “For A Better World Café, we can grow a little bit more fun niche-y things that Elijah’s Promise would be less likely to use in their menu such as purple-green tomatillos and different kinds of eggplant” as seen just last week at their stand at the Rutgers Farmers Market.

As their business continues to flourish, they’ve partnered with other local growers and have now moved their production to a larger facility with the help of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center in Bridgeton. This USDA grant funded Center is a supporter of startup food companies that also believes in the ideals of local and sustainable agriculture and is also finding ways to help ways to bring local produce and preserved foods into New Jersey schools.

Yet even as First Field continues to grow, they still continue to help by continuing to supply us with donations of their wonderful organic produce to A Better World Café and also Elijah’s Promise. We appreciate everything that they’ve been able to do for us and wish them the best of success in everything they do.

(Blog post contributed by Diane, A Better World volunteer)

Lunchtime Menu for Aug 8-12

Take a peek at what we have to dish up this week!

Soup:
Sm $2 /Md $3 /Lg $4.50
Tue - Summer Splendor with tomatoes, beans and summer squash (v)
Wed & Thu - Roasted Eggplant and Garbanzo Bean
Fri - Smoky Watermelon Gazpacho (v)

Salads:
Sm $1.50 /Md $3 /Lg $4.50
Tue - Roasted Beets (v)
Tue-Fri - Better World Salad (v)
Tue-Fri - Cherry Tomato, Cucumber, Feta with sherry Vinaigrette
Fri - Sandy’s Corn and Pepper Salad (v)

Sandwiches:
Half $3 /Whole $6
Tue - Heirloom tomato, fresh mozz, basil and basalmic reduction on foccacia
Tue-Fri - Turkey with pickled red onions on ciabatta
Tue-Fri - Grilled cheddar with roasted red peppers on foccacia
Fri - Eggplant Falafel wrap with tahini yogurt sauce on wrap
Fri - Cream cheese and strawberry jam on toast
Fri - Strawberry jam and organic peanut butter on toast

Desserts:
Tue - Blueberry Bread Pudding
Tue - Chocolate Chip Cookies
Tue & Wed - Vegan dessert TBD
Wed-Fri - Warm biscuit with blueberry compote
Fri - Choc chiffon cake with ganache
Fri - Zucchini sandwich cookies with cream cheese frosting

As always - keep an eye out for any last-minute specials we may post!

Selections are subject to change due to availability

Menu for Friday August 5 2011

Dinner Specials: Available 5-9 pm
- Asian stuffed cabbage-antibiotic-free beef, mushrooms, soy and ginger wrapped in a generously sized green parcel - $9
- Vegetable Lasagna- summer vegetables nestled between sheets of organic whole wheat lasagna, creamy bechamel sauce and cheeses. Served with side green salad and garlic bread - $8

Lunch Specials:
- Quiche Du Jour: Cheddar and cherry tomato $3/slice
- Empanadas filled with roasted cherry tomatoes. (Baked not fried because we love you.)

Soup:
Sm $2 /Md $3 /Lg $4.50
- Summer Splendor- tomatoes, beans, summer squash. Liquid summer.

**Add a side of Buelah's beautiful cornbread for just $1!**

Salad:
Sm $1.50 /Md $3 /Lg $4.50
- A Better World
- Cherry tomato, cucumber, grilled scallion and feta
- Roasted Beet salad in dijon dressing

Sandwich:
Half $3 /Whole $6
- Turkey with pickled red onions
- Grilled zucchini with goat cheese spread, basalmic reduction
- Curried chicken salad

Dessert:
- Chocolate chiffon cake with ganache- $3
- Zucchini walnut bread slice - $2
- Strawberry granola bar- $2.25
- Zucchini sandwich cookie filled with cream cheese frosting $2.25

Iced coffee and tea $1.75, hot coffee and tea $1.25. Refills $1. To go add $.25

Lunch and dinner are available to go. Call ahead at 732-510-1572 and place your order or just stop on by.

First week of August items

Featured items:

Quiche made with cheddar cheese, cherry tomatoes, peppers and onion - TBA

Stuffed vegetables - 1 - $3, 2 - $5

Sandwiches:
Half $3 /Whole $6
- Grilled cheddar with pesto
- Grilled zucchini with goat cheese spread and balsamic reduction

Soups:
Sm $2 /Md $3 /Lg $4.50
- Tuscan tomato with chickpeas

- Cold Cucumber

EDITED to add even more deliciousness!

Salad:

Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and feta over greens with sherry vinaigrette

Dessert:

- Pineapple upside down cake

- Zucchini walnut loaf bread