Savoy's Health Cafe & Planet Organic

Today, my mom took me out for lunch to this nice little Indian place called "Savoy's Health Cafe". I was really excited because it was my first trip ever to a veg-friendly restaurant!

We both ordered the dossa with spiced veggies, sort of like a crepe made with 3 different flours. It was so good! The dossa itself was so intriguing... it was light and kinda crunchy and chewy at the same time. I've just looked up a recipe and I think that I'll try to make some dossa sometime, even though I hate rice. The vegetables inside were delicious too, except that there were potatoes and I hate potatoes. :( The spices. though, were AMAZING- I could NOT figure out what they were!

The dossas also came with a yummy dal (lentil soup) and a pair of deliciously spicy chutneys.

Needless to say, I ate well. :D I really should have brought a camera or something, because it all looked to amazing, too!

We also bought two fresh juices to share, one with carrot, beet, apple, orange, and ginger. The other had carrot, apple, orange, ginger, bell pepper, and daikon. And they were both amazing- great enough to convince me to buy my own juicer! I liked the first one -with the beets- the best (I think it was called the Energizer).

The verdict on Savoy's Health Cafe? I don't eat out enough to give a real evaluation, but I do know that it's a place I'll need to come back to. The menu isn't huge, but there are a number of vegan options. And the very extensive list of juices is impressive- apart from the specials (which are blends), you can get cucumber juice, or carrot, or beet, or melon, or spinach, or one of the many others...


Then, later today, I finalllllllly made a trip out to Planet Organic. They really need to build one closer to home, because it's a pain having to drive so far to get to a health food store. We had to pick up my brother from a friend's house so it was just a quick trip, but I managed to get a nice bunch of staples:

Egg replacer! FINALLY! It' s not the Ener-G brand, but who cares? At least I'll be able to bind waffles and make yellow lemon squares in the future. :)


Supposedly, iron is better absorbed when legumes have been soaked or sprouted, so I've decided to start sprouting again. Plus, wouldn't lentil sprouts be lovely in sushi?


I would pass by the agave nectar in the store, think about buying it, then just be like WHATEVER and turn around to grab a new bottle of flax oil. But not today! Finally, I decided to get some agave nectar, and I've tried a little bit and it's amazing. So good. My awesome littles sister tried some too and she loves it, woohoo!


Yesterday, I ate a few sunflower seeds... so today, my mom insisted on buying a biiiiiig, like FIVE-POUND bag. Uh, yeah.. "Mom, I like sunflower seeds, but not THAT much..."


TEFF. It just sounds so manly. Sure, those little grains may be tiny, but I'm sure that they pack a big punch of masculinity in every one. Plus, they're real high in iron (25% of your DV per 1/4 cup!), so TEFF's manliness just makes sense.

Anyways (I think that agave nectar is getting to me), I think that I'm definitely going to make a yummy porridge mix. TEFF, quinoa, amaranth, barley, oats, and wheat berries are all invited. Maybe millet too...

AND, if I'm feeling up to it, I might try making some Ethiopian Injera bread. I'll have to grind the grains, but that's no problemo. Plus, I was considering buying the teff flour, but it's 20 cents more than the grains! :o


I'm not a fan of processed or packaged foods, but energy bars like the Vega ones are great for those desperate times when you don't know if you'll be getting anything to eat, or if you're out all day. Case in point: I've been going to those FIFA U-20 World Cup soccer games for the past 2 weeks, and sometimes we'll be out all day then go straight to the game. I'm sometimes too lazy to whip up a quick salad to take with me, and the stupid people at Commonwealth Stadium take all your food away anyways. Argh.

So yeah, energy bars are great for desperate times. :)



And finally.... ALMOND BUTTA! My mom picked this out, and she never reads the packages, of course, so it's actually a roasted almond butter. I'd prefer it to be raw, in all honesty, but this stuff smells (and tastes!) soooooooo good...

In the rush, I forgot to buy nori, wakame, hijiki, millet, steel-cut oats, and a few other things. Ah well, I'll just have to go back sometime, then!