Before I begin, I want to say thanks for your Paleo restaurant recommendations in NYC. I have a feeling we’ll be eating our way through Brooklyn. Keep leaving your gastronomic tips in the comment section of yesterday’s post, por favor.
Now where was I?
On my third night at work, I pretty much ate the same stuff as the night before. Yawn.
But when I got home in the morning, the boys were heading out to breakfast, so I joined ‘em for a meal at LYFE Kitchen.
We last dined at Oprah’s former personal chef’s “healthy” fast food restaurant about a month ago, but we weren’t unduly impressed with the dinner menu. LYFE Kitchen offers a slew of gluten-free options, but the menu is built on a low-calorie, low-saturated-fat model. Every entrée on the menu contains less than 600 calories. It’s tailor-made for the 2009 version of me – a firm believer in the USDA food pyramid whose idea of a perfect meal is a vegetarian chef’s tasting menu (perhaps with a side of wild-caught fish). There’s even an inspirational quote by T. Colin Campbell on the wall. And did I mention that the president and CEO is a former McDonald’s executive?
Marone!
So I bet you’re wondering why we returned, right? Well, hope springs eternal, and the gluten-free breakfast menu sounded pretty good. And LYFE Kitchen scores major points for serving food that’s undeniably healthier than the crud on the Standard American Diet (and diner). And most important of all: It wasn’t crowded on a Saturday morning. For this sleepy nightshift worker, that’s a huge plus.
After perusing the menu, I ordered the fattiest breakfast dishes I could find. Fitbomb and I split the Classic LYFE Breakfast (scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and roasted parsnips and potatoes)…
…and a scramble with tomatoes, cheese, and avocado.
How was it?
The minuses: The eggs were so pale I had to ask the staff if we were served egg white scrambles by mistake. (Clearly, these weren’t the brightly-hued pastured eggs we’ve become accustomed to eating.)
Luckily, the kids didn’t mind the anemic eggs one bit.
Also, turkey sausage is just like turkey bacon: Yucky. Compared to the real thing, it just tastes…artificial.
The pluses: the space is airy and inviting, there’s no wait on weekend mornings, and the breakfast prices are super-reasonable for the San Francisco Bay Area (all entrees were less than $7). Also, with a gluten-free menu available, I didn’t feel compelled to make substitutions.
Unfortunately, the portions are small and lack sufficient fat, so I’ll be back only if I have a pre-breakfast or a purse filled with jerky.
After we picked up our salmon from our Siren SeaSA drop-off spot, I went to bed with the sun blazing in the sky and the boys off to the East Bay for their cousin’s birthday party.
I woke up later than usual (6 pm!) and dragged myself to the kitchen to prep dinner. For our no-fuss supper, I formed some sliders…
…and fried them up in coconut oil.
To accompany the beef pucks, I made some zucchini “noodles” with my favorite julienne peeler and cooked them up in the burger grease.
Tip: Keep the zucchini from getting waterlogged by stir-frying on high for just a minute or two. If you keep the noodles in the pan for too long, your dish’ll end up a soggy mess.
I added a splash of Red Boat Fish Sauce, cherry tomatoes, shredded basil, and freshly-cracked pepper and the zoodles were done.
As an additional side dish, I mashed some avocados to make a quick guacamole ’cause you can never have too much healthy fat.
Here’s my dinner plate:
Before I sign off, I wanted to give you a heads-up that I’ll be sending out the second issue of my free e-newsletter on Monday morning. (Want to check out a sample? Click here to view the first issue.) From the feedback I’ve gotten, it looks like folks are digging the content because it’s full of stuff you won’t find on this blog. If you haven’t signed up, you can do so right here. Don’t worry, I’ll never send you SPAM (I don’t like fake meat) or share your info with others. Pinky swear.
