Meh.

Yep, that was it!  I’m so descriptive and detailed for an English major, eh?!  Ok, ok, here’s the real review, don’t get all angry.

Urth Cafe is most well known for it organic coffee and tea offerings.  And its endless cameos on the rad show Entourage.

Their tea even comes with beautiful “tea art” – what’s tea art you ask?  This is tea art:

Beautiful, eh?

Since I’m unapologetically frugal, I did not get tea or coffee because, frankly, I’d rather make it at home and swirl my finger in the top and call it art (wow, I’m such a brat!).  But I did get the Urth Salad…

The Urth Salad: “Our famous salad made with locally grown mixed greens, feta cheese, Roma tomatoes, organic hearts of palm, garbanzo beans, Kalamata olives, and pine nuts in Urth vinaigrette dressing, served with fresh bread and butter.”
$11.95 for a full size (which is what I got, and honestly I could have eaten two!).  I ate the whole thing down to a few olive pits and skipped the dressing.  Was this salad low cal? Goodness no.  Feta cheese is over 300 calories a cup alone.

The bread it came with:

damn good.

My beautiful friend ordered the vegetarian chili:

With a Cesar salad:

$13.95 (this was the “half” version).  She thought her food was delicious.

Here are my little, tiny issues:  Serving organic foods does not necessarily mean the menu items will fit with someone who regulates her caloric intake, which is fine.  We should all get used to being empowered consumers and being able to make substitutions, etc.  The one thing I would have preferred is that every meal did not come with bread, or, at least, came with an option of breads. The bread was called “rustic” bread – but what does that mean? (By the way, I google searched “what is ‘rustic bread’” and wasted spent about 30 minutes lost in the discussion that still left me with this answer:well, it could be a variety of things. Could mean minimal ingredients were used and made by hand, but it doesn’t necessarily mean whole grains were used. Sigh.  It was AMAZINGLY good, but c’mon.  Delicious sourdough-tasting bread served with butter just doesn’t scream “health” to me.  Also, the dressing served with EVERY salad was the Urth vinaigrette.  By the looks of it — it was the thick vinaigrette type — it could have been a silent calorie deal breaker (could’ve possibly had up to 360 calories for the serving).

That stuff aside — the menu boasted some really awesome items including a grilled cilantro chicken breast with pesto sandwich ($12.50), hummus and taboulei plate ($11.50 for full) and grilled veggies with pesto salad ($11.50 for full).  There was a fruit plate available for $13.95 for the full version — came with either cottage cheese or nonfat yogurt.  That’s a good healthy option, but when I go out to eat the last thing I want to eat is something I already have sitting at home waiting for me.  And for $14.00? There was also an array of delicious looking desserts.  But, like a scared puppy, I could not even look them in the eye.  I hear some were even vegan.

The food was yummy and every single one of the menu items sounded delicious!  The prices were decent enough being that the foods are mostly organic and come from sustainable farms – but still more than I am comfortable paying.  If you simply want food that’s good for the conscience (if you do believe organic food & fair trade items are good for your health and the environment) and calories aren’t too big of a concern for you — have at it.  This place is for you. To keep things rounded out, so that you see I really am a miss cranky pants), the Urth Cafe has a 4/5 rating on Yelp and City Search.  I think I should try the coffee or tea, given that’s their specialty, and then do another review.  Makes sense, doesn’t it!

Do you guys have a lot of vegetarian/vegan/raw/organic restaurants near you? Do you ever get tired of personalizing your food?

Now for all you guys who do not live in the L.A., CA area and the above meant nothing to you — whoops, sorry!  Here’s something that may interest you, or at least make you giggle:

1. I bought more crack chips and eggplant hummus today…dangerous…
2. I made a very random lunch consisting of two slices oroweat toast, less than a 1/4 of an avocado mashed, mustard, onion, lettuce and a sliced hard boiled egg. I calculated it came to a total of 350 calories (a generous estimate).



3. For dinner, my boyfriend and I made mini pizzas for ourselves (though his was a bit different).  Mine was as follows:

The East, South & West Had a Baby Pizza

Ingredients for Two Mini Pizzas

• 1/6th cup Trader Joe’s Curry Simmer Sauce — 35 calories, 1.5 g fat, 1 g fiber, 1 g protein <pictured below>



• 1/4 avocado – 72 cal, 6.75 g fat, 4g fiber, <1 g protein
• 1 oz (2 tablespoons) Trader Joe’s non-fat feta cheese – 35 cal, 0g fat, 0 g fiber, 7g protein
• Onion & cilantro to taste – approx. 30 calories (generous estimate)
• 2 Sonoma Carb Cutting Tortilla — 120 calories, 3 g fat, 14 g fiber, 10 g protein <pictured below>
  

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees
• Place tortilla on cookie sheet and heat for 5-10 minutes until a bit crispy then remove
• Put curry sauce on tortilla and top with all ingredients except the avocado
• Place back in oven for 5 more minutes
• Remove and top with avocado

Total calories for 2 mini-pizzas: 292 calories, 11.25 g fat, 17 g fiber, 17 g protein

Now, shhh keep this a secret — my boyfriend hates pictures, but I snapped one of him making pizza while he wasn’t looking:

That’s him.  The one I love and adore   (was that sappiness coming from Miss Cranky herself? YUCK!)

We all have our sappy moments, right?

Drug #1:  Tortilla Chips with An Identity Crisis

From Trader Joe’s — $2.29 – “Made with a little corn, a little potato and a little brown rice”
10 chips (12 servings) = 140 calories, 7 g fat, 3 g fiber, 2 g protein

but the eggplant hummus dip I consumed them with?

Drug #2:  Freshly Made Eggplant Hummus

From Trader Joe’s — $2.19
For 2 tbsp: 35 calories, 2 g fat, 2 g fiber, 2 g protein

I would HIGHLY recommend these two items.  Seriously, go get them, try them, and tell me you don’t want to swim in a pool of chips and hummus dip after one bite! The chips are the perfect texture and have a hint of sweetness that I adore.  There is also something about the eggplant hummus that surpasses my regular hummus hummus and now…I’m not sure I can go back.  I didn’t cheat on you regular hummus, I swear!  It’s just true what they say: it’s when you’re not looking that you meet the love of your life…

When I came home tonight from visiting a friend in L.A., I was feeling a little under the weather.  That is until I saw that the lovely, insightful, and crafty recipe creator that is Sophia from Burp & Slurp awarded me this:

!  Sophia, you rock.  Check out the other bloggers Sophia extended the award to here.

I would like to extend this award to a few of my favorite bloggers (aside from Sophia, of course):

• Crabby McSlacker & Merry Sunshine – Cranky Fitness
• Jen – Prior Fat Girl
• Lauren – Team Giles
• Elina – Healthy & Sane
• Kari – Running Through Life
• Abbie – Foods that Fit
• Heather – Heather Eats Almond Butter

Ok I’m sure that was more bloggers than I was supposed to choose, but, eesh, there are so many amazing bloggers who I have so much fun stalking following — and there’s even more whom I did not list!

Tomorrow’s post – I went to the oh-so-trendy Urth Cafe in West Hollywood today.  They sell mostly organic items and are well known for their coffee and tea.  Their menu cannot be found online…but your little cranky secret spy over here took some pictures of it! BUAHAHAH!  I shall post the lunch/dinner menu along with my review, tomorrow!

Later this week — I will finally post about that nebulous little thing called fructose! Also, a post on my take on the “Best Life” product emblem.

Night night!