"And over to a table at the Gratitude Cafe"

Friday, September 3rd progress report
Swear words: 5 (but really little ones...not really even swear words if you ask me
Working out: 0. I know this is bad...but i did walk Ikea
Healthy eating: hard to tell. I ate raw vegan food tonight, super FIBROUS! haha, but not sure if it was low fat
OK so obviously I am not perfect and need to be more disciplined


Tonight Callie and I made our way over to Ikea in Emeryville to get our much needed DVD bookcase/holder/whatever you want to call it. I give us a Todd's "Hi Five!" because before we got in line to get our stuff, we checked out the "2nds" of stuff that was already put together and slightly damaged (most stuff looked fine). Well, there we found an awesome DVD shelf for only $45...and it is perfect! The original one we were going to get was going to be around $150...which sucks.

Soooo, what did we do with the abundance of money we saved at Ikea you ask?! We did what any normal person would do on a friday night at 6:30pm... we went to dinner. But not just to ANY restaurant.

Callie told me about the Cafe Gratitude http://www.cafegratitude.com/ in Berkeley and that she had wanted to go for a while now. We were already over in the area so figured why not try something new. It's the place that my vegan lover Jason Mraz talks about in his song "Make it Mine". We thought it would be fun to check it out since we obviously love him, and we figured I could also check this off my list of new experiences.


The restaurant is a Raw, Vegan, Vegetarian place... so yup everything we ate tonight wasn't cooked at all. I was amazed at how great they made the food taste without even cooking it!

WHAT WE ATE:

I AM ABUNDANT SAMPLER PLATE - Sprouted almond hummus, hempseed pesto crostini, spicy cashew nacho cheese w/flax chips, olive tapenade, buckwheat crackers, spring roll & mini house soupALL of this was great! Especially the little mini cup of tomato soup in the middle.


I AM GRACE FROSTY COCONUT SMOOTHIE - Coconut milk, almond butter, dates & vanilla

I look confused because I am. This tasted like a Vanilla Scented Candle. Really it did... just ask Callie... hence me holding the candle and the raw milkshake. Wonder which one melts the fastest?

I AM GRACEFUL INDIAN BIRYANI BOWL Steamed brown rice or quinoa tossed with seasonal veggies, basil, cilantro, mint & cashews in an Indian coconut-curry sauce. This one was cooked a bit cause of the brown rice...but the rest was raw

I AM SENSATIONAL PESTO PIZZA - Hemp seed basil pesto & olive tapenade on buckwheat sunflower seed flatbread crust served with a side salad

They ran out of pesto, so we got their version of marinara. It was a no go for Callie because it was covered in tomatoes. I on the other hand loved it, tomatoes and all.

I AM AWAKENING KEY LIME PIE Creamy avocado-lime custard topped with coconut meringue in a pecan-macadamia date crust

I AM BLISS CHOCOLATE-HAZELNUT MOUSSE PIE hazelnut mousse topped with coconut meringue in a hazelnut-macadamia date crust

Both desserts were great, and I am not exaggerating. The chocolate one was my favorite. It really was surprising that nothing was cooked because the flavors were intense!

SUPER TASTY NIGHT. IS IT BAD TO GO VEGAN FOR A NIGHT AND THEN TRY HAGGIS THE NEXT DAY? HMMM