This past weekend my husband and I headed south to Lowell & Boston for the weekend.  We stayed in Chelmsford and decided that we just had to go to Life Alive for dinner in Lowell.  We visited the cafe the same weekend last year and they actually had a booth at Boston Veg Fest 2008 (they didn’t have one this year though.)

I enjoyed The Swami which had a- (as described on the menu)- “Miso Curried Sauce sweetening a masterfully-tasty mix of tamari roasted almonds, flame raisins, pearl onions, dark greens, broccoli flowerrs, and shredded carrots, served over brown rice with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.”

Neil enjoyed The Emperor- (as described on the menu)- “Sweet and nutty short grain brown rice, melted cheddar cheese, sundried tomatoes, steamed greens, sweet yellow corn, shredded carrots, tofu and sunflower sprouts crowned by our Satisfying Sesame Miso sauce.”  He got it without the cheese obviously and subsituted with raisins and nutritional yeast.

Neil loved his dinner so much that he just had to hug about it.

For breakfast Saturday morning we went to our old standby Bagel Rising– inside the Espresso Royale on Newbury Street.  We both got the ‘Joy of Soy’ on a whole wheat everything bagel; mine with jalapeno tofu spread and Neil’s with veggie tofu spread.  I enjoyed a double espresso and Neil a soy chai. 

We love Life Alive so much that we went back again for dinner Saturday night.  We started out with a shot of wheatgrass.

I’m boring and got The Swami again- this time with squash.

Neil got The Rebel – (as described on the menu)- “Sesame ginger nama dressing with flax oil and Braggs, tofu, carrots, beets, dark greens, broccoli and hijiki steamed over quino and short grain brown rice”- They were all out of quinoa so he just had brown rice and I gave him half my squash.

For breakfast Sunday we went to Newton Center to Prana Cafe– a mostly raw cafe that serves it’s full menu from 7am-4pm.

I ordered the Burrito – (as described on the menu)-“Wrapped in chard leaves with refried beans, avocado, marinated vegetables, and sour cream.”  I have to say this was the best thing that I had all weekend and was a ridiculous amount of food.

My husband decided that he would be nice and take a picture of me eating the biggest bite ever.

Neil had the Prana Burger – (as described on the menu) -“Taylor grew up in Chicago eating deep fried hamburgers at a favorite family restaurant. This tastes so much better and actually fills your body with the best vitamins, minerals, and enzymes ever so you feel satisfied but not slowed-down. Served on our homemade-n-hearty onion bread.”  This came with yummy crispy kale chips and Neil ordered cashew cheese on top.  It was delicious!

We finally made our way to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival where we enjoyed trying the different samples and meeting various vendors.  We are excited though because we met the owners of a new vegan B&B on Cape Cod and we are excited to check them out.  The owner told us that the vegetarian one we had visited last year is now closing so they are opening to fill the need. 

We stopped up to the noon demo but were really disappointed with it and decided to leave about 10 minutes in.  It drove me nuts that they guy kept calling omnivores carnivores …..seriously??

Anyways the fest was fun but after two years of visiting I don’t think we would go again unless we happened to be in Boston the same weekend it was going to be happening.

We did leave the fest with a wonderfully sinfull treat from Vegan Treats– the Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Bomb- which was incredible.