I’m so grateful to all you Kind Lifers who gave me such great restaurant recommendations while I was shooting Vamps in Detroit.
 
I tried to get to as many veg or veg-friendly restaurants as I could while I was there, but I worked so many hours, night and day, that there weren’t a lot of opportunities to go out to eat.
 
Although I didn't have time to make it to all the places I wanted to go, the recommendations made me drool! Here are the places I loved, and the places I wanted to go but couldn’t make it to.
 
My favorite eating out experience was at Goodwell’s Natural Food Market, next to Avalon Bakery. It was really yummy and so cute. I loved it!
 
I also liked a sushi restaurant I went to while there. I can't remember the name, but maybe some of you Detroit Kind Lifers will recognize it from my description! If so, let me know in the comments below! They had a decent iceburg lettuce salad with carrot ginger dressing and a good burdock sushi roll. Everything probably had sugar in it, but it was a nice treat. The fried tofu roll was great too. The only problem is that the sauce has a little dairy in it – they should make it with veganaise! Everyone harrass them to do this, and maybe they will. For now, you just order it without the sauce. They also made one of my favorite rolls for me: asparagus tempura with avocado in a roll.
 
I had a great brunch with Kind Lifer Lisa at What Crepe, that I blogged about here. On another occasion, I went to the Inn Season Café for brunch. The French toast was really nice, the vegan omelet was yum, and the cinnamon buns were huge! Just like Cinnabon.

This is my husband Christopher at the Inn Season Cafe. I was super pregnant in the first trimester, so food was hard for me...any kind! I hated it, and I wanted to cry. So that's also why I didn't get to eat at all the places I wanted to try.

I really wanted to make it to Amicci’s Pizza, but I just ran out of time. If you’re in Detroit, it sounds amazing! Om Café also sounded good to me, but I never made it there. Mind Body & Spirits is an organic restaurant in Rochester that was also high on my list. I really wanted to check it out, but didn’t get the chance.

Here are some other restaurants that I didn’t get to, but that sound great:

• Red Pepper Deli – heard good things!
• The Jolly Pumpkin – looked great, but never made it
• Earthen Jar – an Indian buffet that plays Bob Marley, this place sounds like a great deal, so check it out if you live in Ann Arbor
• The Whitney – this place makes a great vegan tasting menu if you give them 24 hours’ notice. I didn’t get to try it, but it sounds like a great place for fancy pants dining!
• Sangria – this is a vegan tapas restaurant in Royal Oaks that has dancing too! Sounds really fun!
• Sugar Kisses Bakery – this bakery in Berkley sounds great. I didn't make it, but check it out if you’re in the area!
• Moo Moo’s – this is a vegetarian catering service in Ferndale that could be great for flirts or vegans who need delivery service
• Lark Restaurant – this restaurant is owned by John Sommerville from Top Chef. It’s a fancy place, and looks like it serves every kind of animal on the planet, but he told me he could do a vegan meal. If I were in Detroit again, I would check it out, because I heard his food is great and it’s 85% organic.
• Seva – vegetarian restaurant in Ann Arbor

I know I was in Detroit like a hundred years ago now - I think I left in September! But I had a great time there, and wanted to share. What are some great vegan or vegetarian restaurants in your town?

When I was in NYC recently, I had dinner with a my new friend Joel , and my friend Doug at a restaurant called Jean Georges .
 
First off, the maitre d', Alex Wolf, happened to be vegan! How great is that? The main dude at a super fancy pants restaurant is vegan! Anywho, Jean Georges made the most lovely vegan tasting menu, and the dessert was wonderful too. It was a great meal! I’ll be going back there for sure.
 
I highly recommend it if you find yourself in New York. It’s definitely a special occasion kind of place, so go there when you’ve got something to celebrate!

Photo by Quarry Girl

A little while ago I blogged about how delicious M Café’s vegan benedict is. I had asked them to make it, then begged them to put it on their menu – and they did! When I posted about this dish earlier, people asked if M Café would share the recipe, and they were nice enough to offer it so you Kind Lifers can make it at home. It’s a little involved but sooo worth it! Thanks M Café! 

I eat this every single week since I'm pregnant. Before that, I just had it once in a while. But right now, it's a weekly affair!

M Café’s  Vegan Benedict

For 4 people

Ingredients

• 8 slices whole-grain sourdough bread (we use a French-style baguette)
• 16 slices Tempeh Bacon (recipe follows)
• 1/2 bunch green kale, blanched
• 1 recipe Scrambled Tofu (recipe follows)
• 12 thin slices of ripe tomato
• 1.5 cups Soy Hollandaise (recipe follows)
• Soy margarine, melted, for brushing
• Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
• Fresh chives, minced, for garnish

Steps

1. Toast bread slices and brush tops liberally with melted soy margarine
2. Place two slices side-by-side on each of four warm breakfast plates
3. Lay four slices of tempeh bread over the toasted bread
4. Divide the kale evenly into four portions, and place each portion on top of the tempeh and bread, making a “bed” for the scrambled tofu
5. Spoon the scrambled tofu evenly on top of each Benedict
6. Lay three overlapping slices of tomato on top of the scrambled tofu  
7. Season the tomato slices with sea salt and black pepper, if desired
8. Spoon the soy hollaindaise sauce liberally over each Benedict
9. Garnish each plate with minced chives and serve immediately!

Tempeh Bacon

Ingredients

• 2 packs soy tempeh, cut lengthwise into ¼ inch slices
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup apple juice
• 3 tablespoons dark maple syrup
• ½ tsp natural liquid smoke (optional)
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• oil for pan-frying

Steps

1. Place tempeh slices in shallow dish
2. Combine all remaining ingredients (except oil) and pour over tempeh. Let  marinate for at least 30 minutes before proceeding (can be done overnight)
3. Remove tempeh slices from marinade and pat dry with paper towels
4. Heat oil in skillet and pan-fry tempeh until brown and crisp on both sides
5. Keep warm until ready to use

Scrambled Tofu

Ingredients

• ¼ cup soy margarine
• 1 cup onion, minced
• ½ cup carrot, shredded
• 1 lb super-firm tofu (such as Wildwood brand), crumbled
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
• ½ tsp black pepper (or to taste)
• ¼ cup water
• 2 T green onions, sliced thin

Steps

1. Heat soy margarine in skillet over medium heat until melted
2. Add onion and sauté for 1 minute
3. Add carrot and sauté for another minute
4. Add crumbled tofu, turmeric, salt and pepper, and sauté for another minute
5. Raise heat to high, add water, bring to boil and cook until liquid is absorbed
6. Add sliced green onion and stir to incorporate, and adjust seasoning, if desired
7. Keep warm until ready to use

Soy Hollaindaise

Makes approximately 3.5 Cups

Ingredients

• 1 12 oz package silken tofu, drained
• 8 oz soy margarine
• 1 cup Vegenaise
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp sea salt
• ¼ tsp white pepper
• 1 T agar powder (not flakes)
• ½ tsp hot sauce (optional)

Steps

1. Melt soy margarine
2. Puree tofu, Vegenaise, lemon juice, turmeric, sea salt, white pepper and agar powder in blender
3. With blender running, drizzle in the melted soy margarine until mixture is emulsified Keep warm until ready to use. (Sauce will keep in refrigerator for a week - reheat very gently over a double-boiler) 

If you live in LA, you can also get this tasty treat at M Café. What’s your favorite vegan breakfast?

This year, Real Food Daily is offering gift bags with organic, sustainable kitchen, pantry, and bath & body items - plus chocolate, tea, wine and a copy of the Real Food Daily Cookbook. I love this idea! It could be a steep price for some, but it might be the perfect thing for others! If you'd like to purchase one, you can do so here.

Or, you can make your own gift bags! What would you put in them?

I had the yummiest veggie burger today from O Burger in West Hollywood. The burger was handmade with roasted corn, and it was crispy. It was layered with all of these great veggies, and they had a choice of vegan sauces to go on it, including a vegan thousand island and a vegan chipotle - I chose the thousand island. It was fantastic!

Now, I haven’t really scoured LA for veggie burgers, but of all of the ones I’ve tried, this was hands down the best. It wasn’t too garlicky, it was just good! They also make vegan milkshakes and salads.

The only bummer about this place is that they do serve meat. But the owner of the restaurant only buys meat from organic farms, etc… not ideal at all, but it’s a step in the right direction. Hopefully, one day, they’ll stop using meat altogether. Maybe if everyone storms the building ordering veggie burgers, he will realize he doesn't need the meat!

Who in your town has the best veggie burger?

Photo by Quarry Girl

During my first days back in LA from Detroit, I ran to M Cafe for breakfast. They have a delicious vegan benedict that I had been dreaming of for a while.
 
For years, I have to admit I missed eggs benedict a tad. One day I was in M Cafe, and I saw that they had salmon benedict. So I asked, "Hey do you guys think you can make a vegan one?" And out it came! Then I continued to harass them to put it on the menu, and yay, they did! It's so good. If you haven't had the vegan benedict there, you must run to M Cafe.

I also had my old favorite, the sweet potato salad with wasabi. I don't even like wasabi, but in this salad, it's so mild and delicious. They serve it with green beans and some pickles - sounds weird, but it's great. I tried a new item too - yummy warm biscuits (I think they were from Babycakes). If you haven't been to M Cafe for breakfast yet, run for the vegan benedict! That's what I do once a week.

What's your favorite restaurant in your hometown?

Ubuntu is a vegetarian restaurant that I went to a little over a year ago, during the summer. I can't believe I haven't written about it yet - if you are anywhere near this place, you must go!

They have yoga classes above the restaurant, which we took. It was a nice yoga class. The restaurant is just so special, it's an event! The food is like eating art - it's such an experience.

The space is aesthetically beautiful and the art is pretty - it's got a truly upscale, sexy, sophisticated vibe. Everyone needs to go there at least once in their lifetime. Napa is known for food and Ubuntu fits nicely into the whole food experience of Napa. Just know that it is vegetarian, not vegan - but so vegan friendly. The stars on the menu indicate which items can be made vegan.

Here's everything I loved:

• A big dish of olives - I saw someone with it and it looked so good
• The cool garden green and lemongrass soup was really nice
• Assorted french beans with kadota fig (without parmesan) was incredible
• Chickpea clusters in Napa Smith Ale batter
• The carta da musica with virtually the entire summer garden (got it vegan) was amazing
• Heirloom onions in their natural roasting juices - sweet & sour and amazing!
• We also had dessert, which was really delicious, but I can't remember what we had!

Where do you go when you want a special dining experience?

One day while I was doing Time Stands Still on Broadway, Monica, my understudy, brought in a cookie sandwich - two cookies with cream in the middle. It was from Sweet Freedom Bakery in Philadelphia, owned by Allison Lubert and Heather Esposito. Michael from EcoRazzi.com had given them to Monica for me, and after I tried them I immediately ordered some for the crew...I wanted everyone to taste these yummy treats!

Allison from Sweet Freedom sent me a little taster platter of all the other stuff they have. I had my taste test and my other favorite treat from them was the magic bar! They also have poppyseed cake and chocolate bread, which was good, and oatmeal cookie sandwiches...but I prefer the naughty chocolate chip sandwich. The chocolate cupcake was pretty good too. Check out Allison’s great story of how her bakery came to be:

“Here is the story of how a little vegan bakery came to be…

Chronic throat, ear and lung infections, congestion, insomnia, major dental issues, frequent unexplained bouts of fainting, and digestive difficulties resulting in countless days of missed school didn’t tip off any of my pediatricians when I was a child that I needed a change in my diet.  Even during adolescence and adulthood when my symptoms continued, and acne and anemia were added to the list, no one suggested to me that I might alter that way that I was eating.  Consuming the standard American diet of packaged and processed foods loaded with saturated animal fats, chemicals and additives only fueled these issues.  Though most people eating this way would gain lots of weight, I was continuing to lose weight and have terrible digestive issues (probably due to sheer mal-nutrition!) I felt weak and totally depleted.  
 
It wasn’t until I got to grad school that I realized that my utter lack of energy and declining health was keeping me from realizing my life goals. I had been to countless doctors, and had tested positive for endometriosis, as well as an “unspecified autoimmune disease,” (they thought I might have Lupus, Sjogren’s Syndrome or both).  I was prescribed a number of drugs, including a steroid that induced insomnia and made me feel like my heart was racing out of my chest.
 
Around the age of 25 when my digestive issues were at their worst, (not to mention I would often break out in hives or experience terrible headaches after eating), I was diagnosed with allergies to wheat, dairy, yeast, and cane sugar, among other foods. At my wits’ end, weak and underweight (literally from mal-nutrition!), I decided to seek the advice of a holistic and integrative physician. He was unlike any doctor I had ever visited, and it was a breath of fresh air to me. A devout vegan and raw food-ist himself, the first thing he had me do was read The China Study. He helped me understand that by filling my body with so much dairy and other animal protein, chemicals and refined sugars - my immune system was totally shot. It was as if all the wires in my body had been crossed, and my immune system was not only attacking itself, but also reacting strongly to most of the foods I was eating.  I decided to swap all dairy, sugar, meat and processed foods for raw fruits and veggies, legumes, nuts, and other wonderful and health-promoting plant-based foods. Slowly I began to gain some healthy weight, and all of the symptoms and health issues that I thought were just part of being “me” were fading - I started to feel more alive than I ever had!
 
After I completed my Masters degree in Counseling Psychology, I decided to enroll in a program in holistic nutrition called the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where they further supported my newfound belief in the benefits of eating a plant-based diet.  I opened my own Nutritional Counseling practice to help others to change their diets too.  I learned to adapt all of my favorite recipes without dairy, meat and sugar, and would spend hours in my kitchen experimenting.  
 
Two years later, my friend Heather approached me about opening up a vegan bakery. Heather had a severe sensitivity to sugar (hypo-glycemia), as well as intolerances to dairy and gluten/wheat. Heather thought of the name, Sweet Freedom Bakery, as she envisioned having a place where people could come and enjoy the freedom of eating a baked good that wouldn’t harm their health, their mood, innocent animals or the environment.  After a year of serious planning, we opened up Sweet Freedom Bakery here in Philadelphia.  
 
Today, after almost seven months of being open, we are proud to say that Sweet Freedom Bakery is Philadelphia’s first and only completely vegan, refined-sugar-free, bakery. Because we also know how tough it can be to suffer from food sensitivities and allergies, we took things one step further and eliminated all of the major allergens with which many people struggle. Our baked goods contain no dairy, eggs, gluten, wheat, soy, nuts, peanuts, or corn.  We use no artificial food dyes or colors, no preservatives and no chemical sweeteners (only unprocessed, natural sweetener - many that are low on the glycemic index like Coconut or Palm Sugar and Agave Nectar). We are so excited to see that in the land of Cheesesteaks and Soft-Pretzels that Philly has embraced our vegan goodness. The cupcakes, cookies, crumbles, donuts, magic bars and muffins that we bake fresh every day fly off the shelves! We now ship nation-wide so that we can share our yummy and healthy treats with as many people as we possibly can.

After being open only two weeks, we had the amazing privilege and good fortune that one of our Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches (two cookies sandwiched with a creamy and rich coconut milk/agave nectar-based frosting) landed in the hands of none other than the lovely and talented Alicia Silverstone.  We were so happy to be able to share our vegan treats with her while she was just a quick train ride away from us in NYC on Broadway. (Turns out, she enjoyed our treats so much that she placed a special order from us that we were thrilled to hand-deliver). We will never forget this good fortune, and are thrilled to share with the world that you don’t need dairy, eggs or refined sugar to make an amazingly delicious and healthy alternative to dessert.  Thank you Alicia, for helping us to spread this important message!”

Thanks Allison, you rock! To find out more about Sweet Freedom Bakery, you can visit the website www.sweetfreedombakery.com, or if you live in Philadelphia go to:

Sweet Freedom Bakery
1424 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19146

Do you have a great vegan bakery near you?

Leisha’s birthday came before I left for Detroit to shoot Vamps, so we had some nice quality time before I took off! Six of us went to Elf Cafe for dinner, which was so good . We had such a nice dinner at one of our favorite places in LA.

Yum Elf!

Waitress at Elf

Waiter at Elf

 Waiter and Chef at Elf - the staff all own the restaurant together!

Elf is run and owned by the nicest, grooviest people....so sweet and beautiful with such kind energy. It has the best vibe in LA! You can bring your own booze, and the food is delicious. My favorites that night were the pickles, the oyster mushrooms, the kale salad, the cabbage salad, the flatbreads with dip on the table, the olives infused with orange, the water that is cucumber-infused, the fennel, and the beet carpaccio.....oh, it's all soooo good!

More food from Elf

We went there for my birthday almost 2 years ago now, and it was so nice to go for Leisha's birthday. Leisha, Nina, Christopher and I all had our first date there too...after we first met. You must run to Elf, it's such a sexy, great place, and so comfy.

Frankie

We often run into friends there, as we did that night - our friend Frankie, whose daughter Sonny we were playing with at Laura and Woody's just that morning! I also met a Kind Lifer from Texas, Nicole Stewart, with her husband - what a nice young woman! It was so great to meet them.

After Elf, we went to the Observatory, sat at picnic benches and ate ice cream that Nina and Leisha brought from Kind Kreme. We tried 5 flavors: the Salted Caramel, the Superfoods and the Mint Chip were all faves, but the biggest winner was the Salted Caramel.

What a great night! It was so sweet to see my friends and celebrate Leisha's birthday. I left a week after that for Detroit, which is where I am until the end of September - so it was nice to spend sweet time together before I left. Happy birthday, Leisha!