Breakfast: Remember my interview with Dr. Michael Greger discussing his new book, How Not To Die? I learned that cold brewing tea is more nutritious than brewing tea with boiled water. I’ve been promising myself to start cold brewing my tea. Now that it’s hot, it seemed like the right time. I prepared a bottle of Green Tea the night before and it was cool and ready to drink in the morning.
Lunch: We purchased a few Groupons a few weeks ago for Dharma’s in Santa Cruz. When we come out to the Bay Area I always check Groupon to see if they have any special deals for the places we like to frequent. We headed south over the hill to Dharma’s thinking about what to get. Gary knew he’d be ordering his favorite, the Breakfast Burrito and the House Chai.
I went for the Tempeh Reuben. I hadn’t had it here in a long time and remembered loving it decades ago. Either I changed, or the dish changed or both but it wasn’t as good as I remembered. To begin with it was so SALTY! I am extremely salt sensitive since we don’t salt our dishes as home. Plus, the vegan version uses Daiya cheese, and I have never liked it. I ordered it without the Daiya and when I bit into it, I knew it was there. I scraped off what I could. If it had been real dairy cheese I would have brought the sandwich back. Other than the salt and the cheese, it was a beautiful day in a lovely space. We were happy to sit and eat outdoors and play with our phones with free WiFi.
Daily Green Juice: Next stop was the Staff of Life. We wanted to do some grocery shopping and headed towards New Leaf. But we passed Staff of Life and decided to go there instead. Back in the ’90s I used to love Staff of Life. They always had a wonderful atmosphere and were ahead of all stores anywhere I had been when it came to vegan food and vegan treats. Nowadays, it is not as special to me to find soy milk and vegan ice cream because most groceries carry them. That’s a good thing, but the thrill is gone. We went into Staff of Life, which is now in a newer building across the street from the original location. I was delighted to discover the magic is still there. The atmosphere is happy, laid back and so groovy, man! I ordered a Bruce Banner green juice to sip on while we shopped.
Dinner: Back at Gary’s brother’s home I wanted super clean food. We ate with his brother’s family in the big house. I made a Chinese Cabbage Salad with Peanuts, Bean Sprouts and Tahini Dressing. Tammy made a Tomato/Cucumber/Olive Salad and Quinoa. We also had steamed Green Beans. I was so satisfied and stuffed.
Gary’s nephew Zach came home and started making one of his new green smoothies. He crams everything he can into the Vitamix – Beets, Kale, Broccoli, Bananas, Berries and Orange Juice. He shared it with everyone. I made room for it in my belly somehow, sipping slowly.
Hi,
I would love your recipes for the Chinese Cabbage Salad with Peanuts, Bean Sprouts and Tahini Dressing along with the Tomato/Cucumber/Olive Salad and Quinoa. It looks amazing! May I also have the smoothie recipe of Beets,kale, broccoli, bananas, berries and orange juice.
Thank you. Dionne
Hi Dionne,
We having been staying in a pool house for the last month at my partner Gary’s brother’s home. We don’t have all the items in our normally well stocked pantry but we are having fun making food from a few simple ingredients.
For the salad, I took a small head of Napa Cabbage and chopped it into shreds. You can do it easily with a food processor but I just used a knife. I chopped up four scallions and minced about a half a bunch of fresh cilantro. I tossed in a small bag of beans sprouts and about half a cup of peanuts. We tossed it with about a double recipe of our Tahini Dressing. I don’t have specific amounts, it just came together. We do have similar recipes that you can find here: https://responsibleeatingandliving.com/napa-cabbage-salad/ and here: https://responsibleeatingandliving.com/chinese-coleslaw/.
The Tomato Cucumber Salad was just tomatoes and cucumbers tossed with some Kalamata olives and no dressing. It was simple, fresh and delicious. Here are some of our Tomato/Cucumber Salad recipes: https://responsibleeatingandliving.com/cucumber-tomato-salad-with-parsley-and-mint/, https://responsibleeatingandliving.com/cucumber-salad.
As for the smoothie, I cannot say, I didn’t make it. If you have a high-powered blender you can have fun and make your own smoothies. Here are a couple of our favorites: https://responsibleeatingandliving.com/pina-colada-kale/, https://responsibleeatingandliving.com/mango-almond-green-smoothie/.
The Quinoa was plain, rinsed and cooked in water.
Best regards,
Caryn