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Daisy Green

Saturday brunch, for me the most coveted meal of the week and in London there are endless options for avocado on toast with poached eggs or something a little greasier if that is your thang.

After becoming slightly bored with these same-y but seemingly must hang out brunch spots, Saturday brunch kind of lost its spark. Until Daisy Green was brought to my attention, a small chain with already 6 locations across London. After urgently checking the menu, I was counting down the days until Saturday! From just looking at the menu I was immediately struck by how Daisy Green took healthy brunch to the next level – this was more like a menu from LA, it even included activated fermented charcoal bread mmmmmmm.

This place was burning a hole in my mind, I decided to check out the one most accessible to me in Little Venice, where I was imagining sitting out on the canal on a summers Saturday morning. The reality was slightly different, with a small amount of canal but more of the M4 flyover, urban is an understatement. Daisy Green is Australian inspired and this really shines through as soon as you enter, a relaxed, fun and friendly vibe.

Two paragraphs ago I said how I was bored of avocado on toast with poached eggs, however the Daisy Green version had me – served on activated fermented charcoal bread witch avocado, labne, lime and lemon dukkah. A good staple made more interesting, it was delicious with a multitude of flavour and virtuous at the same time, even the bread was good for you! I also tried the french toast served with greek yogurt, berries, griddled mango, shaved coconut, bee pollen and pure maple. Again I loved the mixture of flavours and goodness here, anything coconut always taste good in my opinion.

Daisy Green is perfect for Saturday Brunch, when you want to eat healthy but still want to get over excited about what your eating and for it to taste amazing, I need to go back and try their famous banana bread sandwich

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Tanya’s

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It is still a new year, is it still a new you? Although this is a typical new years post, this chic, healthy restaurant is for all year round. Located in the ME hotel in Chelsea, in its very own green house, with a strong plant food power ethos, a green house seems the natural home for Tanya’s. My favourite part of the decor is the large blackboard above the counter with a changing daily quote “I tried to be normal once, worst two minutes of my life.” Tanya’s menu is brimming with nutrients and literally no nasties, in other words no wheat, sugar and mostly dairy free! A small warning, with the knowledge that nothing is ‘bad’ for you, it can lead to a dangerous over consumption of food.

Menu highlights include; raw pad thai, smashed avocado on onion bread and mushroom meat tacos, all fresher than fresh and full of flavour. The flavour may come from the unexpected, slices of fresh mango delightfully accompanied the taco. The onion bread is divine, we had to order more and with no guilt because it is good for you, it nourishes you!

Tanya’s is the first place in Europe to serve superfood cocktails, mixing vodka with cold pressed juices and ingredients including lemon, beets, carrot, ginger and chia seeds. There is also a large variety of hot drinks all can be served with three different types of milk; almond, hazelnut and hempseed. Cow is not for now! My vice, matcha green tea latte with almond milk. It was only a year ago when the Good Life Eatery was the only place this side of the Atlantic to serve these! The LA way is catching on, healthy food has never been so popular in London.

Dessert, something that you would not normally associate with healthy food, except at Tanya’s, healthy desserts are the order of the day. It is the strangest feeling when you genuinely don’t have to feel guilty when eating dessert. We tried a whole selection and my favourites were, the berry cheesecake, with a base made of milled seeds and nuts and the peanut butter cupcakes kill me!

Weather it is a new years resolution or your way of life, go to Tanya’s to eat nutritious, healthy, tasty food. Simple. Eat to your health!

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Good Life Eatery

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So some people say healthy food is boring and tasteless, others say you only live once so you may as well enjoy all the naughty treats. The GLE don’t agree! I truly believe the best thing you can do is eat a little bit of everything and not too much of anything. But if you can eat and drink foods that are like medicine to your body then why would you not? For some that might be a ‘health day’ once a month and for others every day is a health day.

After my trip to California at the end of last year I became a little obsessed with their attitude, healthy eating and lots of outdoor exercise (whilst ignoring the crazy toxic Hollywood parties.) The GLE on Sloane Avenue is a small, fresh slice of the Californian way and in London it looks like the new way is here to stay!

This is a no reservations cafe that is open till 8pm so still good as super early dash for dinner. For weekend brunches arrive early, the Californian way is spreading fast! As soon as you walk in you are bamboozled with  gluten and dairy free free meals, treats and drinks. So let’s start with drinks, cold pressed vegetable juices really have turned into the latest fashion accessory, I love the pure nourishment that comes in every single bottle. Green is the new black, my advice is go green juice and you will never look black! Now for hot drinks, in my opinion the highlight of the whole menu, the piece de la resistance – matcha green tea latte with almond milk. Healthy yet creamy, calming yet energising. The protein shakes are also a must try, with a base of almond milk, packed with berries and super-food supplements, perfect as a  post workout snack.

The food, there is a strong range of super food salads as well as ‘sandwiches’ and other treats. My favourite salads are The Good Life salad and the Raw Rainbow Pad Thai. The Good Life includes; kale, quinoa, puy lentils, roasted sweet potato, toasted walnuts, goji berries, nutritional yeast with an orange tahini vinaigrette. Fresh, delicious and beaming with nutrition. The sandwiches are all the standard fillings of chicken, bacon egg and avocado but on wheat free breads such as chia flax seed bread – a guilt free sandwich! Lastly the small plates, where I find my go-to option – All greens egg white fritatta served with an almond basil pesto. Simple, yet so effective and not to mention, super tasty.

Can you imagine being able to eat cakes and baked treats that are not actually that bad for you? Of course you can at the GLE! Almost all the baked treats are gluten and dairy free, including chocolate cake, carrot cake and apple and blackberry crumble. There are also spelt croissants and quinoa and spelt scones. Pure indulgence that you don’t make you feel as naughty as they normally do!

 

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Planet Raw

My week in LA seemed at some points to centre around getting to RAW. We managed it on the last day.

Set in not the prettiest of locations right on the busy Santa Monica boulevard, at the front of a small shopping mall. Similar to Segal you can sit outside in the sunshine but you will only have views of the highway. Any thoughts about the view will vanish quickly when you are presented with the menu. Never have I seen so many healthy, nutritious, wheat free AND still enticingly delicious options in one single menu. Also with such a wide range of culinary inspirations – American, Mexican, Italian and Japanese which should be off putting but in this environment it somehow works. The choice was too much and we were too intrigued so we ordered quite a few dishes to share.

My main choice was one of the RAW sandwiches, delicious vegetables in between large flaxseed crackers, seasoned with Mexiacn spices – completely delicious and the best feeling knowing every aspect of your meal is nurturing your body in some way. the sushi was another highlight, different but tasty and purifying. Now to the drinks, this will blow your mind, it has to be one of the best in the world for ingredients, variety and health!

After much consideration focussing around taste but also health benefits the drink would give me, I went for instant detox potion (hibiscus, slippery elm bark, milk thistle seed, cascara sagrada, apple juice & lemon) The taste was completely unrecognisable for me, at first I didn’t enjoy it, but the detox potion quickly grew on me. For me planet raw sums up California – healthy, zaney and nutrious and trip to LA would not be complete without coming here

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Saf

Are you on a detox? Do you have a food allergy? Are you about to dance on tables in your best swimwear? Do you just like healthy food?

If the answer was yes to any of these questions SAF is for you, an organic vegan restaurant for a scrumptious guilt free lunch or a pre/post workout snack. The salads are full of every super food, antioxidant ingredients that you can imagine and all the vegetables are RAW (better for you) hot options include risottos and curries and even a special healthy burger (they do exist, you possibly just need to alter you mindset.) Not forgetting the gorgeous freshly squeezed drinks menu. You will leave SAF riding your high horse, with a spring in your step. Don’t eat chocolate on the way home!

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