Veggie Day. Yesterday not only did I make the vegan soba salad and had a bit of it for lunch, I went for an all-out be-good-to-yourself kind of day. I had a massage (mmmm....) and then went to Fairfax, a very easy-going hippy flavor kinda place to walk in the sun and explore some of the shops. I particularly wanted to stop by Good Earth Foods, a grocer that my friends have been raving about. It was nice, but smaller than I expected.

I stopped for dinner at Lydia's Lovin' Foods organic vegetarian restaurant. Perhaps the stop was inspired by reading an article in the LA Times about Roxanne Klein who has been gone for some time from the raw food, well any food scene. It had the real scoop on why such a talent has been absent, and how she's coming back. I thoroughly enjoyed her raw foods restaurant which was quite a destination place in Larkspur. She brought food to an art form, and I wish I had been taking pictures of some of her creations. I took many friends there, vegetarians and non alike, and we were always wowed.



Given that bit of inspiration, I decided to make it a complete veggie day and stop in at Lydia's Loving Foods. I have tried some of her raw crackers carried by Whole Foods, and was impressed, but had never been to her restaurant. I was not quite able to bring myself to do her all raw menu, but still, her vegetarian offerings cooked as they were, were quite tasty. I started with Oven-Baked Nachos and had them add an avocado to the small order (which I still took most home of). They were piping hot with perfectly ripened tomatoes on top.



Then I sampled the Home-made Veggie Burger, made with beets, carrots, celery, fresh parsley, bell peppers, quinoa, sunflower seeds, brown rice, pumpkin seeds, olive oil, tamari, herbs and flax seeds, on a sprouted wholewheat bun. It had a side of "almond creme" for spreading instead of mayonnaise. It the burger was quite tasty, and half of it came home too.


Since I don't get to Fairfax often, I splurged on an order of Tropical Mango Pie, made with mango, banana and coconut in an almond crust. Three bites of this, and the rest of this cool, fresh dessert when into a take-out box too. One usually thinks of veggie food as unsatisfying or unfilling, but it can actually be more so that more traditional fare. I also enjoyed a "Love Potion" which is fig juice with orange essence. The color (brownish) was not appealing, but it tasted quite fresh and good.

When I do a day like this by the end of the day I often have a nice tingling all the way to the tips of my fingers and feel great, like today. There is some obvious good to this kind of eating, and you don't have to do it every day to feel benefits.