Monday, October 15, 2007

Santa Cruz

I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Santa Cruz, California. What a cool place - the downtown is packed with eco friendly stores, thrift shops, and vintage clothing stores. Best of all, we found two amazing vegetarian restaurants that I highly recommend.

C'est La Vie was an upscale cafe with a menu of cooked and raw vegetarian foods. We tried the "live appetizer combo" which was amazing - spring rolls filled with veggies and wrapped in zucchini with they wonderful 'yum yum sauce' for dipping. Raw tortillas topped with this amazing cashew cheese, and a garbanzo-less hummus. For entrees, we tried the veggie burger made from nuts and grains, a Yummy Bowl - quinoa with veggies, tempeh and more 'yum yum sauce'. The kids split a big plate of black bean nachos and a cheese pizza. I wasn't brave enough to try the live pizza but next time, I will try all the live dishes. Judging by the appetizers, I'm sure they'll all be amazing. We didn't have room for dessert but the vegan coconut cream cake, chocolate mouse pie, and vegan banana split sounded great.

On Sunday, we checked out the Saturn Cafe. They had amazing brunch entrees to choose from with a choice of organic eggs or tofu. I had the vegan breakfast of scrambled tofu, potatoes, local sourdough toast and organic jam. My husband loved the breakfast burrito. One of my daughters had this amazing stuffed french toast - not too sweet and oh so good. My other daughter chose from the lunch menu - brown rice and tofu. For lunch and dinner, they have an amazing selection of vegan burgers offered with fries, shakes and all the regular 50's diner type fixings. This was a fun place to take the kids.

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