I’ve blogged about Cafe Gratitude before (and here), but it’s so good that I’m blogging about it again. For a friend’s birthday over the weekend, we went to see the Gertrude Stein exhibit at the SF MOMA and then to lunch at Cafe Gratitude. It was a super fun day for sure!

We started lunch off right with a bottle of wine. I don’t think Cafe Gratitude served alcohol the last time I was there, but they now offer a few different beers and wines. We had a bottle of the organic chardonnay and it was good.

Another thing that’s different since the last time I was there was a whole selection of cooked foods on their menu. I still got the same thing I always get… the raw enchilada:

And just like always, it was delicious! A friend ordered the raw mac & cheese. I had a bite and it was good:

Another friend got the cooked tamale. I didn’t taste it, but she said it was good, but very spicy. It was so spicy that she didn’t eat most of it.

One other thing that we got to try was the coconut bacon. It’s flaked coconut with some spicy, smoky, maply something and it does sort of taste like bacon.

Next time, I just might get the raw mac & cheese topped with the coconut bacon. Yum!

I’m obsessed with smoothies.  I make one every morning and I think I would experience symptoms of withdrawal were I not to have one (or two) every day.  On Saturday, I made this one:

I know it sounds a little strange, but it really is tasty.  The bell pepper gave it a little kick.  Yum!

And Sunday, I had pretty much the same thing, except without the bell pepper and grapefruit and with some kale and banana.  Matt was curious at how many calories these smoothies have in them so I did a rough calculation of Saturday’s smoothie– 273.  That’s it!  Both of us expected it to be higher.

Today, I’m enjoying banana, orange, strawberry, flax (1 full TB), zucchini, kale, and carrot.  Delicious!  If you’re planning to try one of these for the first time, I have to caution you to not expect them to be like milkshakes or all-fruit smoothies.  These do have some texture to them and probably aren’t as sweet as what you’d expect.  But how else can you cram so many good-for-you foods into one meal!

My favorite smoothie of the week:

This smoothie concoction peps me up more than coffee ever could.  It also keeps me full for several hours.  It makes quite a bit, probably enough for 2 servings, so I have half first thing in the morning and the other half mid-morning.  It really is much better than I’m guessing you’re imagining it is right about now.  I’ve also made some tasty smoothies using zucchini, which will be on the menu again tomorrow morning.

Seriously, can you think of a better way to start your day?  And a smoothie can be made in no time at all– certainly much quicker than making a pot of coffee.  Throw this together in the morning and drink it on your way to work.  Try it just once and I know you’ll be as addicted as I am.

I don’t know what happened, but I totally got out of the habit of enjoying fresh juice for breakfast.  *sigh*  As I’ve posted about before, I brought home oodles of citrus from my Dad’s trees and I thought I’d get some good juice out of them this morning.  I also had some broccoli in the fridge that I’ve intended to have for dinner the last several nights, but never got around to it.

+  = 

I used 4 small carrots, a bunch of broccoli with stems, 1 apple, and 2 grapefruit.  It’s amazing how filling this juice is!  And this is a neat tip (thanks, Dad, for telling me about it).  Put a plastic produce bag around the shoot and inside the collection bin of your juicer.  It catches all of the bits that sometimes fly out the back and all you have to do for cleanup is toss out the bag.  Voila!

I’m really enjoying my Raw days– coming up with new things is exciting!  Two days ago, I soaked a bunch of oat groats, buckwheat groats, pumpkin seeds, almonds, and sunflower seeds (all in separate soaking containers) and threw a little bit of each into what I’m calling a Raw cereal!  I also put in a small handful of raisins and a few raw pecans, then sliced some banana over top.  For milk, I just used some store bought rice milk.  I know, I know, it’s not Raw, but it’s what I had.  I can’t bring myself yet to spend a fortune on raw almonds to make my own almond milk.

If you’re interested in exploring a Raw diet, this website has been extrememly helpful to me and is a good place to get started.  It explains the reasons why to do it and provides some good as well as detailed step-by-step directions on soaking and sprouting nuts and seeds.  I’ve also been reading a lot of Raw blogs lately and I hope to make the time soon to update my links section so you can check those out too.

In the meantime, have a good weekend!  And make some yummy vegan food.

I’m on “vacation” this week, meaning that Emma is spending some quality time with her grandparents.  This has meant that I don’t have to prepare regular meals and can be on my own schedule, which has been really nice.  I’ve eaten mostly Raw the last 2 days and I feel great!  Honestly, I don’t feel tired and it’s extremely cleansing (catch my drift).  Breakfast has been a big green smoothie and that keeps me full until lunchtime.  For my breakfast smoothies, I’ve used  some kale (2 leaves, stems removed), oranges (peeled and quartered), water, frozen banana chunks, a pear, some frozen strawberries and a squirt of agave and flax oil.  Because of the grittiness of the pear, this smoothie needs to blend for 30 seconds to a minute.  Our blender is kinda crappy, by no means “high performance,” so blending time is dependent upon how efficient your blender is.

Yesterday for lunch, I made a Creamy Carrot and Parsnip Soup and a Chunky Chopped Salad (or a “clean-out-the-fridge-and-throw-whatever-you-find-in-there” salad).  I used my new mandoline slicer to make pretty julienned strips of fennel, red beets, carrots, zucchini, apple and cucumber, then chopped up some cauliflower, green onion and cherry tomatoes.  My salad was topped with the Sweet Dijon Dressing that I’m so in love with.  Very filling and very delicious!

For my Creamy Carrot and Parsnip Soup, I blended 3 peeled medium-sized carrots with 1 peeled medium-sized parsnip, a handful of raw oat groats, and enough warm water to get everything going.  Once it was done, I added a pinch of S&P.  The flavor of my soup is great, but the texture takes some getting used to.  I’m not a smooth soup kind of person and it was hard for me to get used to the fact that there isn’t anything to chew in there.  I found it easiest to drink it though a straw instead of using a spoon.

For an afternoon snack, I whipped up another green smoothie yesterday.  Dinner was cooked and wasn’t all that exciting, so I won’t blog about it.  I will say that after my smoothie, I really wasn’t that hungry for dinner last night.  I was pretty surprised at how filling it is and I think I’m pretty hooked on smoothies right now since blending and drinking is much more efficient than chopping and chewing.

Today for lunch, I had the same salad as yesterday with some spinach leaves added in.  I was feeling like maybe I wasn’t eating enough fat, so I whipped up this Coco-Mango Berry Super Smoothie.  YUM!  When I buy coconuts, I don’t always eat the meat after drinking the water, in which case I’ll stick the coconut meat in the freezer.  So I used some of my frozen coconut in my lunch smoothie along with some banana, an orange, a handful of spinach, 1 kale leaf (stem removed), and some frozen blackberries.  Alongside, I had a few olives.  Man, do I love olives!  After eating my salad, I could only drink half my smoothie, so the rest will be my snack this afternoon before my Hula Hoop class.

You’re probably wondering why it is that I love kale so much.  My husband has asked me why I put it in everything and I bet you’re wondering too.  I first love kale because it doesn’t’ taste like anything when you put it in smoothies, or hide it in baked goods.  You may be surprised to learn that kale, like all leafy greens, is a good source of protein.  It’s also an excellent source of vitamins A, C and K and manganese and a good source of fiber, calcium, iron and folate.  Leafy greens are super duper because they stimulate digestion, strengthen immunity, and cleanse the body of toxins.  I’ve also read that leafy greens can reverse the graying of hair.  I seem to find more and more gray hairs every time I go looking for them, so that’s reason enough for me to get down with the greens.

OH, and a note about coconuts.  In my previous post, I mentioned that Asian markets are the places to score decently-priced coconuts.  Well, at Whole Foods today, I noticed that their price for them was about $2 each.  I didn’t remember WF being so expensive.  At the Asian market I went to, I got my coconuts for $1.20 or so.  If you’re into coconuts, it’s definitely worth a special trip.

I’ve been trying hard lately to eat more Raw dishes; salads obviously being the easiest way to accomplish this goal.  I get tired of the same salads with the same dressing.  In fact, I find myself getting tired of salads altogether if I eat them every day.  So, I try to change it up a bit and give each it’s own uniqueness.

A few days ago, I tried this Fennel Orange Kale Salad from Kristen’s Raw.  In place of the hemp oil, I used cold-pressed organic flax oil.  I also didn’t have any kalamata olives, which was SOOOO depressing because I bet they’re awesome in this salad, so I used some cherry tomatoes.  My salad base was a mix of romaine lettuce and chopped kale.  Raw kale in a salad is a bit much for me, so I had to mix it up a bit with some crunchy lettuce.

Yesterday for lunch, I whipped up this salad using romaine lettuce, fennel, raw beets and cherry tomatoes.  I made this Sweet Dijon Dressing to go over it and it was AWESOME!  I found it to be a little thick, so I thinned it out just a tad with a TB or 2 of water.  This dressing is seriously good.  I think I’ll even try a ranch style version using the raw zucchini as a base and incorporating some of the herbs found in ranch dressing.

Today’s lunch was the same salad from yesterday, except I used a box grater to grate some carrot, beets and fennel.  Once I put the dressing on, I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over the top, which really made it super delicious.  I’ll have to remember to do that from now on.  Today, I had my salad with a banana and some coconut water.  Fresh coconut water is so delicious.  If you’ve never tried it, you’re seriously missing out.  I put mine in the fridge right when I bring them home from the store so that the water is nice and cold when I am in the mood for having some.  And, I’ve found that Asian markets have the best prices on coconuts, about 20 cents cheaper than my Whole Foods.  Be sure to buy the young coconuts (they have white all the way around).  The brown ones are older and don’t have the water inside.  Intimated about opening up a fresh coconut?  Here’s a video to help you:

As I’ve said before, I’ve become very interested in the world of Raw cuisine.  The more I read about it, the more I’m convinced that sicknesses/conditions/diseases are primarily a result of a poor diet.  As far as food goes, it doesn’t get healthier than this.  For the last week, I’ve been trying to eat Raw during the day and then have a cooked dinner.  So far, so good and, even just after a few days, I’ve noticed that I feel better, have way more energy and eat less.  It’s amazing!  I’ll make up a big batch of juice and that will keep me feeling full as much as a big meal would.  It’s also something that isn’t that hard to do and I’m finding that I’m actually craving Raw dishes and fresh juice more so than cooked food.

The juices that I’ve been enjoying this week have contained a combination of grapefruit, apples, rainbow chard, beets (greens attached) and carrots.  Adding the grapefruit gives the juice a little zing and, surprisingly, doesn’t make the juice super tart.  The sweetness from the apple and beet help to balance it out.  And the juice from greens really doesn’t have that much taste, so even though it looks like “swamp” (as my hubby pointed out to me), it really is quite delicious.  Emma even drank almost a whole cup of it yesterday and, if you read my blog regularly, you know how picky she can be.  The kid who wouldn’t eat chocolate muffins is drinking “swamp” juice.

It really is an amazing experience and I encourage everyone to try it out for at least part of the day.  If you feel sluggish, have some weight to lose, or have health issues incorporating more Raw foods into your diet can be a tremendous help.  To get you started, here is a great website with tons of easy recipes.  I know that the idea of eating Raw is overwhelming at first because it’s so different from what you are used to.  The key is to start small– find a recipe that sounds good, doesn’t require a bunch of fancy machinery (dehydrators or juicers) and go for it!  You have TONS to gain and nothing to lose.

Today, I made this Raw Cinnamon Oatmeal.  It was supposed to be breakfast, but I was uncharacteristically not very hungry this morning and ended up making it closer to lunch time.  I did soak my oat groats overnight, changed the water and soaked them again in fresh water up until I was ready to use them.  It really is very important to soak them for a long time, otherwise they are extremely chewy and hard.  Half of the recipe equals one serving, which has been the only thing I’ve eaten all day.  And I’m not famished.  In fact, I feel great.

This oatmeal was really good– I could still taste the apple and raisins even though they were all blended up.  I did have mine with some warm rice milk which makes this nearly Raw since the rice milk obviously isn’t Raw.  A very healthy, filling way to start the day!

The recipe for this is from another “cook”book that I got for Christmas, Raw: The Uncook Book: New Vegetarian Food for Life.  As you can guess by the name, this is a book filled with raw recipes.  While some are pretty complicated, this berry porridge recipe couldn’t have been easier.  It’s a combination of oat groats (I found them in the bulk foods section at Whole Foods), berries and dates.  The oat groats are soaked for at least 30 minutes (I soaked mine overnight) and then everything gets pureed.  The recipe, which calls for 2 cups of oat groats, says that one recipe serves one.  Emma and I could barely eat half because it was so filling.  We had the other half for breakfast this morning, topped with some extra blueberries.  It’s sweet and filling– in fact, having this for breakfast this morning at 8 am kept me full until lunch at 1 pm.  Surprisingly, Emma really liked this stuff!

This weekend was all about keeping things light and healthy.  Lots of veggies and grains– filling things that aren’t packed with tons of calories.  Actually, we ate some form of a wrap for lunch and dinner Saturday and Sunday and I have more planned for the week. For Christmas, I was the lucky recipient of several cookbooks, one of which influenced my weekend wraps.

The first is I Am Grateful: Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude from Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco. A good friend of mine, Brianne, introduced me to this place and I love it! It’s a bit on the pricey side, but you have to remember that you’re filling up on good food and good food is often more expensive than bad (don’t expect $1 cheeseburgers here!). Anyway, I was so happy to get their book because now I can make that stuff at home.

For my first attempt at Raw food preparation (I guess you can’t really call it “cooking,” can you?!) I went for the marinated vegetable recipe because it was one that didn’t involve fancy machinery like a food dehydrator. You take a combination of vegetables– I used carrots, radishes, zucchini and grated broccoli stems– and marinate them in garlic, ginger, cilantro, and lemon juice. Amazingly enough, the recipe can be found here.  Flip through the rest of the preview, this book is great even though some of the other recipes are a bit complicated.

I opted to wrap the veggies in a romaine lettuce leaf because (1) it’s a lot easier than making their spinach tortilla recipe and (2) I had them in the fridge!  One thing that I changed to the recipe is that I used about a teaspoon of cold pressed flax oil in place of the olive oil because I didn’t want to use 2 TB as the recipe suggests and I wanted to get more Omega 3 bang for my fat and calorie buck.  These were great and I will definitely make them again.  You get great flavor from the garlic, ginger, and cilantro and very few calories.  I even made the Jalapeno Mint Chutney to go with it, but thought the wraps were better without it.

For lunch on Sunday, I made a Tofurky wrap. I’ve made these lots of times using whole wheat lavash, but thought I could save myself the 110 calories by wrapping it up in a romaine lettuce leaf. It wasn’t quite as good, but was still tasty. I could definitely get used to wrapping things up in a lettuce or cabbage leaf instead of bread. I’m sure it’s much better for my waistline too.