Last night my mom and I had a relaxing evening. Manicures, pedicures, 10 minute massages… life is good! After pampering ourselves, we walked over to Zen Palate, a plant-based trio of restaurants that have been around since 1991. We sat in the back room, which had a floor-to-ceiling window that was very, well… zen!
A lot of the items on the menu rely on meat substitutes, which I’m not a huge fan of, but we found several items on the menu that looked enticing. We ended up both ordering the South by Southeast: beans and hearty soy croquettes served with a light & spicy Vietnamese-style lemongrass sauce, with moo-shoo rolls and blanched veggies. We both gobbled our dishes right up! The croquettes tasted a bit like a lentil loaf (the vegetarian version of meatloaf) and the kidney bean/barley mix was smokey-sweet, with a light barbeque flavor. Nom nom nom!
My dad and I also recently returned to the Green Bean Café, one of my new favorite haunts. We both ordered the same thing as well: the Organic Spicy Glazed Tempeh with sweet potato, steamed vegetables, spiced glazed gravy. Dee-lish! I need to get more adventurous with tempeh; whenever I have it at a restaurant, I love it. And it’s been a while since I’ve made this Sweet Potato Stuffed with Caramelized Tempeh and Sautéed Kale…
For dessert, I took home a goji berry-filled macaroon, which was almost as good as Gina’s.
Ooh! Before I forget, I want to show you my most recent new-to-me food find! I spotted this almond milk “yogurt” at Whole Foods the other day and brought it home to try out in my Overnight Oats.
It’s a little sweet on its own (and high in sugar) but it was great for breakfast! I’m glad to see so many non-dairy options cropping up.
In non-food news, yesterday I went for my free haircut a Bumble and Bumble University. This was my second time at the school (I got some ombre highlights about a month and a half ago) and had a great experience! I’ve been growing my hair out for a while, so it was all pretty much one length. Flat and lifeless.
My stylist (who’s been cutting hair for 13 years, so I wasn’t nervous… shout-out to Rob at Art & Science in Chicago!) took off about two inches and gave me a lot of layers all over. He also re-shaped my bangs, which I’d been growing up. It’s an easy haircut- the below photo was taken after showering at night and letting everything air-dry- and I think makes me look, overall, a lot healthier.
And speeeeeeeaking of healthy, as of Wednesday morning I am officially off of antibiotics. No more nurses and bi-weekly blood-drawings, no more IVs, and hopefully soon, no more side effects of the medicine I was on. My PICC line has been removed (it didn’t hurt much, just gave me the heebie jeebies) and other than a few scabs and scars scattered across my body, it’s hard to to tell anything happened nearly three weeks ago. Craziness!
So in celebration, I’m featured on the Cold-EEZE website as their May Wellness Guru! Check it out for my tips on how to fight a cold and stay happy when you’re not feeling so hot. Hint: one of them involves a fuzzy friend!
Well, I’m off to finish packing for the wedding! I’m terrible about waiting until the last minute, as you can see…
Have a great weekend! What have you got planned?