Slow-cookin’ it up #Vegan style. Yummmmmmmmmm!! #jillybites (Taken with instagram)
The Veggie Grill!!!
As a foodie, I think it is wise to explore the entire food spectrum and, thankfully, in recent years, with the popularity explosion of vegan delights (especially in Los Angeles) being a vegan or a vegan-lover-wannabe (like me!) is super easy and YUMMY!!!
There are many places to try a vegan dish and one you MUST try is The Veggie Grill off Sunset Blvd. It’s bright, cheery, and the service is always excellent. Order items like VG-Cheeseburger with the Red Cabbage Slaw as your side (that red cabbage slaw is something wonderful), Uptown Nachos (sooooooo good!!!!), Mac-n-Cheese (zero dairy for our lactose intolerant friends), or for a super tricked out meatless yet meaty sandwich get the All-American Stack with the Sweetheart Fries. They also serve natural sodas, beer and wine! Sit outside on the patio, people watch (always highly entertaining), and chow down on the all-natural plant-based food. Yum! Yum! Yum!
P.S. Secret: I personally choose to believe that when eating vegan calories do not exist. I extend the same freedom to you! ;-)
My Favorite Salad in the City of Angels
There are a wide variety of food “preferences” in Los Angeles; gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, vegan, macrobiotic, Adkins diet, Zone diet, the list goes on and on and I’m sure I’m missing many! Now, one of the many wonderful joys of living in Hollywood, is that there are numerous fantastic chefs designing delectable eats that cater to our specific tastes. And I’m reaping the rich rewards.
M Cafe de Chaya, on Melrose off of La Brea, is a brilliant delight in the healthy, macrobiotic way of eating. The M Chopped Salad is my absolute favorite salad, one that I crave! Direct from their menu, it contains “hearts of romaine & mixed greens, avocado, cucumber, chickpeas, herb-baked tofu, scallions, umeboshi pickled radishes, carrots, beets, tamari-roasted almonds, crumbled tempeh “bacon” & tofu-peppercorn ranch dressing.” (If you haven’t noticed, I have a slight ranch theme threaded through my blogs. And I’ve tried almost every food with ranch, what can I say? It should be it’s own food group or maybe I should have been born in the South …) Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.
This salad is dining perfection. I order it without the pickled radishes and scallions and I get either the fresh beet juice lemonade or kale lemonade or their smooth, organic soy cappuccino to drink. *Sigh* I’m actually getting hungry for it right now, it’s that good! The M Chopped Salad is fresh, crisp, and crunchy with the precise balance of flavors in every bite.
What I also love about M Cafe, is that the chefs use organic whenever possible, and do not cook with refined sugars, eggs, dairy, red meat or poultry. So for a modern take on the macrobiotic lifestyle, M Cafe de Chaya proves that eating this healthy is REALLY this tasty and good for you!
