We left Austin on Thursday with a cooler full of goodies from Daily Juice. We had lunch there first and I was able to get their avocado sandwich (they call it Avocado Sammich, I think). It was quite good. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the coconut mayo on it like it normally does, but I still enjoyed it. I’d have to say my favorite things there are the tacos and enchiladas (oh, and the desserts and juices!).
Once we were on the road, it didn’t take me long to tear into my dessert. It’s a Goji Chocolate cookie-thing which was filled with antioxidants from both the goji berries and Raw chocolate. It was yummy. I also bought a cup of their vanilla pudding. It wasn’t long before I devoured that, too. I imagine I’ll be making vanilla pudding once I get home… time to buy some young Thai coconuts and get out the cleaver my husband bought me as a gift a couple of years ago (he likes to surprise me with fancy knives, including my beloved Kyocera ceramic knives).
Later, while on the road, we feasted like kings on more raw organic goodies. Here are the nori rolls we had. Personally, I can’t stand nori, because it’s too fishy to me. I wish I liked sea vegetables, and I’ve tried them many times in an effort to see if “this time I’ll like them.” But, I never do. The exceptions are when I hide dulse flakes or kelp powder in my green soups, smoothies, and dressings. That’s the only way I can tolerate them. However, these rolls had collard greens wrapped under the nori, so I simply peeled off the nori and enjoyed them without it. (This picture is with the nori on it.) A good tip for people who like nori… to help keep the nori from getting too soggy, wrap your rolls in collard greens under the nori, like they did here.
Then, we also had leftover organic romaine lettuce hearts that we used to make little burritos with the different pates we bought from Daily Juice.
After Austin, we headed to Fort Worth where we stopped at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. What an amazing and interesting place. We took some time to walk around and enjoy ourselves. Part of the movie Logan’s Run takes place there, although I’ve not seen that movie. But, I need to now. :) Once we spent some time basking in the sun and relaxing there, we headed to Oklahoma City, OK to meet Matthew Kenney and check out his new academy and restaurant, 105 Degrees.
It’s been such a great road trip. Partly because I’m overjoyed at being pregnant and partly because we’re going at a leisurely pace and not spending long amounts of time each day in the car. It’ll be great to get home and back into my kitchen though. I’m looking forward to making my own Raw vegan food. So far, I’m still feeling great. I don’t have any morning sickness, I’m craving my Raw vegan foods like normal, and there are no aches or pains. October 11th marks the beginning of my 5th week. Exciting!
Similar Posts:
Austin, TX is such a cool town. We arrived Wednesday morning and I was filled with excitement because I knew I was about to embark on a delicious Raw vegan culinary adventure (I heard there are 3 Raw vegan restaurants in town, plus the Raw bar at Whole Foods). The Whole Foods Market headquarters are here with their flagship store. Whooweee!!!!! Talk about FUN! One of my MOST favorite things to do is shop for healthy foods, natural beauty products, organic clothes… all that kind of stuff. My husband and I walked in and he said, “Honey, you just take your time.” I took a deep breath and ventured up and down the aisles, looking for things that I don’t normally find in other locations. And, of course, I found some stuff. They had a nice organic baby clothes section. Here are my scores for Monkey. (Speaking of Monkey… I had another blood test today to check my hormone levels and I’m continuing to do wonderfully! My pregnancy hormone is growing perfectly and the doctor is very pleased. My next round of blood work will be October 14).
But… we didn’t eat at Whole Foods. I saw their Raw vegan bar, and although the stuff looked pretty good and I think it is very cool that they have it there… we opted to have two of our meals today at Daily Juice. For one, the food was awesome (details in a moment) and for another reason, when given the choice between a chain like Whole Foods versus an independent establishment, I like to spend my money on the latter.
Daily Juice was super awesome. I have to say that it is quite possibly my favorite spot ever for organic Raw vegan food. The food was superb. The service was impeccable. The decor and atmosphere were fresh, with an energy that was slightly seductive. I LOVED IT!
For lunch, I had a wonderful green juice made of greens and young Thai coconut water – heavenly! And, for the first time, I tried fresh durian. At that tasting, I decided I would fall into the camp of “not being partial to durian.” It tasted like onions to me, and I’m not a fan of onions. My husband thought it was cool though. I was told that it’s better in a smoothie so my husband decided to try that at dinner time, and I admit, that upon tasting it in a smoothie, I liked it (although I couldn’t really tell it was in there because it was masked by so many wonderful flavors).
We each had a Raw enchilada (the flavors were outstanding), and for dessert, I had a vanilla chocolate cookie-type thing and a cup of vanilla pudding made from young Thai coconuts. As you can probably guess, the desserts were as equally awesome as the green juice and enchiladas.
I simply had to go back there for dinner. They had an avocado sandwich which looked so intriguing, but when we arrived, sadly, it was unavailable (we’re going back there tomorrow though… I hope I can try it then). I started the meal with another large fresh organic green juice while my husband started his meal with the smoothie containing durian. For our main meal we each had two tacos. Again… nothing short of pure deliciousness and rich, fantastic flavors. My husband also had a shot of marine phytoplankton (check out this cool page of theirs detailing benefits of some super Raw foods). After having both durian and marine phytoplankton, he was feeling pretty darn good. For dessert, I polished off another one of their cookie-type things (this one had goji berries in it, too) and another pudding like I had at lunch. I was feeling super duper awesomely vibrant after such an amazing day of organic Raw vegan foods.
We leave Austin Thursday and head to Dallas, then to Oklahoma City, OK, where I think we’ll stop by 105 degrees. It’s a brand new raw vegan culinary institute by Matthew Kenney, which also has a cafe that I’m excited to try. After that, we’ll head to Santa Fe, NM (I heard there is a Raw vegan place there) and then we’ll be going home to Scottsdale, AZ.
Similar Posts:
I'm Kristen, and welcome to my blog. I'm a wife, mom, author, and I love to eat so food is usually the topic of my blog posts. I'm a former (almost decade long) vegan turned back omnivore who enjoys reading, rebounding, coffee, and dark chocolate. 
