I am seriously bummed about this unfortunate news from Cafe Gratitude, just heart breaking!
With great sadness we are announcing the upcoming closing/sale of all Northern California Café Gratitude’s.
At least I got to experience the Berkeley location and Gracias Madre once and hope to get in more visits before the doors are closed.
This has been a crazy week with work, we’ve been making up for the long weekend and I’ve been feeling pretty wiped with barely enough energy to hit the gym and play with this little guy.
Who seems to be too fast for my macro lens lately. :-)
Dinners have been all about fast and simple so far this week and Gena’s Gingery Sunflower Seed Pate fit the bill for last night’s dinner. But I made it even simpler pouring all the ingredients into the Vitamix instead of dirtying the food processor which worked fine.
I also used collard wraps instead of nori and skipped the romaine since I didn’t have any, oops.
Dinner came together in literally less than 10 minutes and the ginger in the pate was wonderful with the fresh apple slices.
The pate was thick enough keeping the wraps from dribbling all over the plate. And I assembled a few more wraps while I was on a roll for pack for lunch today, that worked out great.
Since the last few evenings have been cold and very foggy, I was craving something hot tonight and grabbed a splurge food from the fridge, Daiya Shreds. I rarely buy it because of the price and they’re nutritionally void compared to a fresh, creamy hemp sauce. But once and awhile is fun, especially when on sale at Whole Foods. :-)
I simmered quinoa in veggie broth with chopped tomato, red pepper, grated carrot, chili powder, cumin, lime juice, and a pinch of cayenne for a Mexican theme.
Then melted a huge fistful of Daiya Cheddar Shreds into the simmering mixture.
And topped my serving with more of course.
What I got was a rich and creamy quinoa mixture with a slight spicy kick, not bad at all for a 20 minute dinner. It was very filling and comforting after a long day of running around in the cold and before another chilly run after dinner.
Creamy quinoa?! YUM, great addition to a wrap! I saw someone bake a collard wrap in a blog post earlier this week. Suddenly, I’m needing more green wraps in my life!
Re: Cafe Gratitude. I’ve only been to the one in L.A., which I loved, but I have to say that if the employee’s allegations are true, shame on the owners!
I keep forgetting to buy wraps, so I love when I get them in our farm box.
True on Cafe Gratitude and very disappointing if that’s the case!
Wow– crazy about Cafe Gratitude! I have one of their cookbooks and always hoped that I’d get to eat there some day.
I have one of their book too and need to dive into it again.
Wow! That is crazy to hear about Cafe Gratitude. Unfortunately, I have never had the chance to visit one of the restaurants. On the good side, least I can try the one in Venice. But I know CG is a landmark to many foodies in No. Cal.
Well on the other side…. dinner looks great. Gives me another idea on what to do with all those collard greens I received from my CSA.
dude, that is SO sad about cafe gratitude!!! i never even got to go :(
Comfort food! Healthier comfort food too. That sounds real nice. You’re doing an impressive job making yummy things in short time frames. I need to work on that… Hope your week is going well!
Oh how I wish we had daiya cheese over here! Loving the look of your food. And thanks for reading my story on Gena’s blog and leaving a comment. xxx
Daiya is good, but a pricey splurge for me. Your story was awesome on Gena’s site, thanks for sharing!