Restaurant Meals

Of course eating at home and knowing the source of your organic food is the best option for those of us being very careful about our diets, but sometimes a girl wants to  go out. I do it quite a bit, actually, since that is the chapter in which I find myself with friends and family, including a husband, teenage daughter and a son in college, none of whom have much interest in eating the kind of food I'm choosing. I do have one wonderful friend who is walking a similar dietary path to mine. Liat is vegan and gluten free, but she has previously tried a paleo diet and has always been conscious of maintaining health through natural means.

It was Liat who brought me to The Loving Hut last week. I didn't even know we had one in the Atlanta area! Though I have added meats to my vegan diet and have subtracted gluten, I found plenty of fabulous, delicious food there. Liat and I split a Basil Spring Roll appetizer with peanut sauce -- so delicious and fresh! We were starving, so I forgot to take a photo before wolfing down my portion. Next, at Liat's suggestion, I had this eggplant dish, gluten-free. It was so rich and fabulous, and I loved the fresh cucumber and tomato with the tamari-based sauce. I needed a doggy bag for most of the rice here. Liat chose a ginger baby bok choy saute. We each shared a little of our entree. I loved her food too, for totally different reasons. The ginger was strong -- just the way I like it. I can never have too much of that pungent root. Thanks, Liat!

Forgive the awful photo on this one. I'm not so great with my phone-as-camera after dark. In my defense, it is one of the older phones, though it did take the lunchtime Loving Hut photo above, so it's most likely user error here. I'm old fashioned. I'd rather use a camera as a camera, and a phone as a phone. But I digresse . . . My husband and I love a little restaurant in Roswell called Bistro VG. On my other blog, A Midlife Vegan+, I have blogged about many fabulous meals I've eaten there over the years. With my new diet I had to pull out my reading glasses once again to select the most appropriate food. I started with my all-time favorite salad -- Simple Arugula -- without cheese, and then dove into this yummy pile: broiled wild salmon (rare) atop an amazing quinoa and veggie concoction. I cannot say enough good things about this plateful. It was strange yet familiar. It tasted like health and decadence all rolled into one. It was sublime. They are putting my food on menus now! :)

Finally, I want to share some pretty darn good drive-thru my husband picked up for me. This is from Panera: The Chicken Cobb Salad With Avocado. I asked for it with NO CHEESE, and with the dressing on the side. The chicken is hormone-free, tender and flavorful and the rest of the ingredients, egg, bacon, tomato, romaine and avocado, hardly needed a dressing at all. I only put a little on the tines of my fork. Next time, I think I will opt for lemon and olive oil instead. Though the ingredients in the dressing had none of the "forbidden items" there were a couple of chemicals I didn't recognize. Why not choose cleaner next time? This salad was amazing. I really like that you can get menu, nutrition and ingredient details on Panera's website while your husband is sitting in line at the drive-thru. Another great option for the health-based diner!