An Afternoon Snack

I snack a lot. At work, I will have either 4-5 of organic citrus fruits; tangerines, mandarin oranges, satsuma, or clementine - depending on what is available at our Farmers' Market - or a large handful of raw, organic nuts/seeds and dates. On a nice day like today though- we're very fortunate to have such a beautiful and summer weather in February - I prefer to enjoy a glass of cold milk, nut milk that is. 

Lucky me! I just made a jar of delicious homemade almond milk yesterday. This almond milk and my favorite Andean Dream quinoa chocolate chip cookies is a match made in heaven! Just yummy! These vegan, gluten and soy, corn-free, and fairly traded cookies are the best and tastiest store-bought chocolate chip cookies I have found so far. 

Zhouzhuang - Water Town

Pictures taken during a day trip to Zhouzhuang two days ago. Zhouzhuang is one of water villages in China, about 3 - 4 hour drive (with traffic) from Shanghai. Our guide said this town is believed to be China's first water town - with 900 years of history.  Half of the buildings in the village were built during the Ming, Yuan and Qing dynasties.

Banana & Strawberry Chia Pudding

I normally start my mornings with about 2 cups of green smoothie. While smoothies fill me up, they don't hold me over until lunch time. So this chia seed pudding comes to the rescue. And it has become my favorite morning snack at work. I like the jelly texture of soaked chia seeds and I can make tons of variations by using different kinds of fruits (fresh or frozen), nuts or seeds. The possibilities are endless. It is very easy to prepare, super healthy, and delicious! This pudding is also great for dessert - like this one which I prepared as soon as I got home from the farmers market with 3 baskets of organic strawberries this afternoon. I didn't want to wait until tomorrow morning to enjoy this juicy and sweet strawberries. Excellent pudding toppings! 


3 tablespoons raw, organic chia seeds
1 1/2 cups almond milk or any milk of choice 
pinch of pink himalayan salt
pinch of cinnamon
1 organic banana
5 fresh organic strawberries 
a handful organic raisin


Soak chia seeds in almond milk for at least 2 hours or overnight, stir often for the first 15 minutes to prevent clumping. Transfer to a serving bowl, and top with banana, strawberries and raisin. 

Quinoa & Shiitake Salad

It's Friday evening, I am hungry, I don't want a take-out, and I don't feel like eating out alone (hubby is on a business trip). So what's for dinner? There is not much left in my fridge on Friday - I go to Farmers Market every Saturday and/or Sunday, and only buy veggies and fruits for a one-week consumption. So dinner will have to be whatever left there. Glad I have quinoa, a staple in my kitchen that had become my go-to food since I became vegan. 


Quinoa & Shiitake Salad 
- 1/4 cup organic quinoa, cooked per directions
- 1 cup organic shiitake mushrooms
- 1 tbsp raw, organic coconut oil
- a splash of coconut aminos
- 1 garlic, crushed
- 5 leaves organic kale, chopped
- lots of organic greens
- organic cherry tomatoes


Directions
Saute shiitake mushrooms in coconut oil
Add crushed garlic and kale when the mushroom starts to wilt
Pour in the coconut animos then stir 
Turn off the head then add cooked quinoa and tomatoes. Toss together
Arrange greens on a plate than add the mushrooms and quinoa mix. 
Enjoy with a lot of smiles

True Food Kitchen

We finally tried True Food Kitchen at Santa Monica Place 4 months after it opened.  While TFK is not a vegan restaurant, it offers vegetarian, vegan and gluten free dishes - even though only 3 vegan items listed on the menu. I asked about several non-vegan items on the menu to see if they could be made vegan. The server said yes. Good to know for future reference. 

For appetizer, I had Shiitake & Tofu Lotus Cups with ginger, cashew and garlic sauce (pictured above) and melon and goat cheese salad for my hubby. My shiitake and tofu lotus cups were delicious! I could have 2 orders of those for my main.

Hubby had a ravioli dish which he liked. I didn't remember what's in the ravioli though. For my main, I had their organic tomato and roasted vegetable pizza, which was pretty good. 

We rarely order dessert when eating out unless we know for sure the restaurant we visit really has great dessert. But when I looked up their dessert menu and found several vegan dessert; I was tempted. We ended up with two orders to share; dairy free pomegranate sorbet and dairy free chocolate pudding with pistachio and walnut. The sorbet was so refreshing and delicious. It was gone in an instant. The chocolate pudding is also yummy and very rich. 

Overall I am happy. The food is tasty, the service is friendly and the place is beautiful and spacious! Since hubby and I spend our weekends in Santa Monica often, this would be the perfect place for both of us. 

True Food Kitchen

395 Santa Monica Place, Suite 172

Santa Monica, CA 90401

310-593-8300

Real Food Daily - Santa Monica

I am actually not a huge fan of Real Food Daily. While the food is quite good, it is ridiculously overpriced and the service was just okay. But my non vegan hubby can find many items off the menu that he can enjoy. So we go there quite often to both their Santa Monica and West Hollywood locations. Hubby and I went back for late dinner tonight.  

Fergalicious Salad

Hubby went with Fergalicious salad, the special of the week. It had Black eyed peas, garnet yams, red peppers, scallions, watercress, baby spinach, mixed cabbage, toasted coconut, spicy toasted almonds, chili lime vinaigrette. He was very pleased with his salad. I tried a few bites of his salad and it was good.

I ordered tortilla soup which I really liked, followed by the TV Dinner meal which was tempe vegetable loaf, mashed potatoes, golden gravy and steamed vegetables. While the meal didn't look appetizing at all, one of the reasons I waited this long to try it, it was actually not bad. The gravy was especially tasty.

TV Dinner

Real Food Daily
514 Santa Monica Blvd.        And      414 N La Cienega Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401                   West Hollywood, CA 90048
(310) 451-7544                                    (310) 289-9910

Sauce on Hampton Venice

After our weekly Farmers Market run, we're headed to Venice to grab some lunch from the Green Truck. Alas, the truck was nowhere to be seen so we asked our friends at Tortoise for recommendations on restaurants that have vegan options in the area. They and one of the customers, who overheard our questions and was a local, recommended Axe and Sauce on Hampton. Based on their descriptions of the food and the vibe of the restaurant, we decided to try Sauce on Hampton.

The place was packed when we got there but fortunately a table on the sidewalk opened up less than 5 minutes later.  There were not a lot of options for vegan so I decided pretty quickly what to order (which was unusual). They had only one item that didn't need to be veganized; Pan-Seared Flaxseed Tempeh Crunch that had sauteed mushrooms, avocado, diced Persian cucumber, Roma tomato, and lemon juice and came with roasted yellow sweet potatoes . My non-vegan hubby ordered a Turkey Burger with light red cabbage slaw. My tempe wrap was delicious and so was the turkey burger - according to my hubby of course as I didn't try it.  The bill came with homemade  chocolate chip cookies which looked really good - unfortunately it was not vegan. 


Sauce on Hampton
259B Hampton Dr.
Venice, CA 90291
Ph. 310-399-5400

Cafe Gratitude - Los Angeles

We finally made our way to Cafe Gratitude today and were happy with the experience; good food, nice ambience and delicious dessert! 

And importantly, my non-vegan hubby liked the food. Yeah! 

I AM ELATED - that's what I had. Raw version of enchilada, made of live spinach tortilla with sprouted seed filling, spicy mole and cashew sour cream, served with creamy chipotle  coleslaw and greens. 

I AM GRACEFUL - Hubby loved his quinoa bowl with kale, tomato, black beans, sprouts and pesto sauce. 

For dessert, the waiter arrived at the table and said, you are adoring. Yes, that what I ordered :-)  "I AM ADORING", aka tiramisu. I was still full from my main when it arrived, but couldn't resist myself from eating it. I ended up having most of it to go.

Hubby and I enjoyed "I AM BLISS" - chocolate hazelnut cream torte. Both desserts were insanely good and they both were raw. No picture of "I AM BLISS" - it was gone in a flush. 

- I AM HOOKED - :-) and will return soon.

When we were eating, we spotted Julie Stiles come in for to-go order.

Cafe Gratitude

639 Larchmont Boulevard, 

Los Angeles, CA 90004

(323) 580-6383

  

Better Life Cuisine - Santa Monica

Selesai belanja mingguan di Farmer's Market, urusan belanja diteruskan ke Old Town Santa Monica.  Tujuan utama adalah ke toko perabot/tempat pijat/dan restoran vegan Thailand. Bukan mau pijat atau beli perabot atau makan siang, tapi cuma mau beli mangga! Soalnya cuma mangga disini yang cocok dengan lidah saya yang sudah terbiasa menikmati kelezatan berbagai jenis mangga Indonesia. Walaupun harganya $2 sebiji pun diusahain dah.

Biasanya setiap mampir ketoko ini kami selalu beli air kelapa muda. Tapi hari ini air kelapa mudanya ditunda dulu karena sudah kelaparan dan pingin nyobain makan siang di Better Life Cuisine. Restoran ini seperti halnya restoran vegan atau raw vegan yang lain, sangat simpel tanpa dekorasi yang neko-neko. Daftar menunya cuma satu berupa papan tulis besar yang tergantung di belakang dekat dapur. 

Suami tidak terlalu lapar karena sudah makan kurma yang diisi goat cheese, sirloin sliders dan grilled shrimp cocktail tapas style dari Shangrila hotel yang pagi tadi buka stand di Farmers Market. Selain itu tentu saja fresh oyster yang tidak pernah ketinggalan dia coba setiap ke FM. Jadinya dia cuma pesan strawberry smoothie.

Sukar sekali menentukan pilihan makanan. Setelah hampir 15 menit bingung memilih, ahirnya saya pilih lasagna yang dibuat dari irisan zucchini mentah,  dengan saus marinara, bawang bombay, jamur, keju riccota, parmesan, mozzarella, tomat dan daun basil. Semua keju dibuat dari kacang mete. Sebelum menjadi vegan, saya tidak suka lasagna. Tapi lasagna yang saya coab hari ini, OMG lezatnya gak kira-kira. Rasa keju-kejuan ini tidak ada bedanya dengan rasa keju yang asli. Bedanya cuma tidak perlu khawatir untuk menghabiskan semua keju ini. Thai soup yang disajikan duluan rasanya pun tidak kalah lezatnya. Sup yang berbasis santan kelapa ini terasa ringan dan smooth di tenggorakan.


We'll be back very soon!


Better Life Cuisine, Raw Organic Vegan
717 Broadway Ave,
Ph.: 301 458-7620
Santa Monica

Acai Bowls from Backyard Bowl

On our way up to San Luis Obispo yesterday, we made a quick stop at Backyard Bowl in Santa Barbara for delicious acai bowls. Both my hubby and I had the Berry Bowl which was a mixture of the pulp of acai berry blended together with banana, strawberries and apple juice, then toped with granola, strawberries, blueberries, banana and goji berries. Hubby had his with fresh organic non-fat Straus Creamery yogurt.  

Not only did the dish look pretty, but it tasted really good.