Lucid Nutrition

Beets Living Foods Cafe. Austin, Texas

Nourish your body and soul. Celebrate Life. Honor the Earth. A new addition to Austin's restaurant scene, Beets Living Foods Cafe features an upscale raw food dining experience. You can enjoy breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack or dessert, and take pleasure in discovering how delicious healthful cuisine can be.

I am so glad to have another place in town to enjoy raw vegan living foods! We vegans deserve an upscale place to enjoy our meals and not just holes in the walls that reek of patchouli and eighty year old furniture. This place is unique and well designed. The menu is beautiful and it is so hard to choose what to order.



Thanks to our friendly waitress, my partner and I opted to split the daily special. Out came two good sized enchiladas with tex mex cabbage salad (cabbage, tomatoes, green onion, and peas marinated in sundried tomato powder, olive oil, garlic, spices, and crystal salt) It also came with a  small side rainbow salad topped with seasoned seeds and a sweet yet tangy cilantro lime dressing. So fresh!!



We also ordered a cup of curried carrot soup, a velvety blend of carrot juice, orange juice, miso, garlic, lemon, spices, pine nuts, crystal salt. It is hard to believe a cold soup could be so warming! It had just enough kick to make it addicting. To drink we ordered a 'Green On Me' Juice (kale, celery, romaine, parsley, lemon, and ginger) and a Grapefruit Fizzy Lizzy :)

Even though I was satisfied after about three bites (all those nutrients tend to set the hunger switch off) we still decided to have something sweet. Naughty!? ;) For dessert, we ordered the oatmeal cookies. Next time we will try the 'I-Scream!' If I wasn't so full then, I would have went for it. Did I mention they gave us complimentary bites of chocolate cheese cake? It was divine. Totally worth the $6.95 a slice. People don't realize how much work and time goes into preparing raw vegan desserts. It takes practice and is a high form of art!

Overall, it was a wonderful and fulfilling experience having lunch at Beets Cafe.  We even got to meet the owner Sylvia Heisey and the super creative Chef Alicia Ojeda. They were both so approachable, friendly, and informative. They have a great selection of raw vegan books by Victoria Boutenko and dvds by our own local raw foodist informer Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo who I had the pleasure of meeting last year at her Magic in the Kitchen cooking class.

Beets Cafe will have their grand opening on Saturday, November 14, 2009

Time: 2:00pm - 10:00pm

2:00pm--Rip Esselstyn speaks about the benefit of a "plant strong" lifestyle
3:30pm--Cheryl Lynn Van Kirk demonstration Organic Food Grade Cosmetics and Hand Facials Star Flower Essentials
4:30pm--Dr Ritamarie Loscalzo speaks about fresh n fun living
5:30pm--On View "The Meatrix" http://www.themeatrix.com
7:00 pm-- Alicia Ojeda Culinary Demonstration
8:00 pm-- Live Music, Organic Wine, Signature Beet's Treats

I'll be there early. Come say hi!

Hours are Monday- Wednesday 8am to 8pm
Thursday-Friday 8am-9pm
Saturday 10am-9pm
Closed on Sunday

Location: 5th Street Commons
               1611 W 5th St. Suite 165
               Austin, TX 78703
               512-477-BEET (2338)

Go in and experience the vitality of living foods. Your body, soul, and mind will thank you.

World Peace Diet Lecture, Friday Night

If you are in Austin Texas on Friday December 5th you should stop by Casa de Luz, Center for Integral Studies to hear Dr. Will Tuttle give his lecture and presentation on The World Peace Diet from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

And if you are unfamiliar with the Casa de Luz, you are in a special time. The vision is this:

The philosophy of how to live a great life (Macrobiotics) is the founding idea for Casa de Luz. This is an all encompassing philosophy, which includes all methods of supporting health and freedom. Our mission is to offer a sacred space for those that want to bring their disciplines to share with the community. Casa de Luz is open to all. Our reason for being is to practice and live in integrity. We believe that living with integrity includes practicing, learning, teaching, and sharing actions and philosophies to develop conscious living and cognition. It also takes commitment, authenticity, appreciation and openness to being wrong. The search of improvement is necessary, least we become arrogant and dogmatic. This is a place that is ever changing and colored by the practices that people bring to share.

In order to fulfill its complete destiny, Casa de Luz will create a full spectrum village which will be designed to include smart living modalities. Humanity's recent industrialized development has created conveniences that have proven to be detrimental to the overall health of all things on earth. The automobile, while wonderful, has proven to destroy well being. Industrialized foods have been made tasty, attractive and cheap, yet not only do they lack nourishment, but they also cause illness. By design, a village can support well being for all.

Besides being the gathering place for various forms of study including yoga, cooking classes, tai chi etc... the Casa de Luz kitchen prepares the most delicious foods all based on the macrobiotic regimen served buffet style in a communal style of seating. Every time I go there, I meet someone so interesting and on the brightest path of lucid living. It's wonderful. I will be meeting with Will before the event to capture some new video footage for his website and getting some details about his experience on th 13 month full time book tour in his solar powered RV across the country which is nearing completion. As you can tell,  he is one hard working, compassionate man planting peace daily and it has been great working with he and his wife Madeleine to help grow their online presence.

If you are unable to attend this event make sure you join the World Peace Diet Network, Read the Book, or follow Will's blog. Getting to know his mission and understanding his life work will definitely strike some harmonious chords in you and make you healthier too. Inside and Out. Really.

Oh and when you come to town call me or DM me on Twitter and we will visit Casa de Luz together :)