Full of gratitude

Scrumpdillyitious is how I describe my favorite vege-burger in the house, the classic with almond sunflower patty on rosemary bun!!

Yessiree, it is delish. But also if you are ready to power up on some major energy and don’t want to get weighed down with the gluten in the buns you have to try the Essential Lentil.

Plus I ALWAYS add avocado. What vegan would not appreciate the goodness of delicious avocado on anything? Am I right or am I right??

It is that fabulous time of year again when family comes around to celebrate the holidays with loved ones. I for one am looking forward to spending time with my kids and my brother will be serving up some tofu-turkey with savory stuffing and mushroom gravy! I am so stoked for the coming week!

I for one am thankful to be working at Nature’s Express where the food is awesome and the people are magnificent! I’d like to give a shout out to my work family for the team work and love they show one another each day as we prepare and serve delicious nourishing food to all of Berkeley.

Joel, Brenda, and Molly…You rock as managers, creative visionaries and consistency officers!! Danny your purity of spirit is remarkable and thanks for the smiles I get each time I read the “Hella Mayo” scrawled across the labels of the best mayo I ever tasted!. Sue, Matt and Regan…I gotta say I am loving the vibe we create on Sundays at NE, especially today. Sue, for your cheerful smile, spicy ideas, and unwavering kitchen support, Regan for your intellect, creativity, and mellowness, which helps us all breathe, and Matt for your speed and accuracy, not to mention the amazing rolls in collard greens!! Jacob, I love your vigor and enthusiasm. Your wit makes me laugh! Francisco, its so great how you know the best stuff about the local culture and the music scene. Thanks for your happy spirit and skills on grill! Luis, “The Machine” as Mike puts it. You are awesome to work with, never a complaint outta you! You embody the positive attitude thing! Ambrose, it is super wicked how you do food presentation! I love it, and your willingness to help. And lastly, Mike, the nicest smiling face anyone ever did see! Thanks for showing me the ropes and helping to keep us all on track!

Finally, to our customers, you are super rock star fabulous! Your feedback is great I love sharing the healthy abundance with you! Happy Thanksgiving community and family!

Hello Berkeley NE peeps!

Hello sheeple and peeps! Ok, I stole that from Stephen Colbert, but it seems appropriate seeing as I am about to fly off to DC for the Rally to Restore Sanity! Yipee! I am writing into the vast number of NE readers to say please come by the restaurant tonight and give me your best sign ideas! Please introduce yourself and jot down your best line for the sign. Then you can say you knew me when….that is pre-restored sanity days….and I am sure that Jacob will be happy to make you your favorite sandwich this evening and we can really keep the night hopping! Also, come and see what’s new with the remodeling of our store. If you can’t make it in this evening for food and great conversation, I will be in all week Tues-Thurs, working the day shift and staying dedicated to the vegan masses before I fly!! Looking forward to your company! Over and out, Mary Rose

Food Waste…70 times more than the BP oil spill for Americans in one year! Yikes!

Food Waste…70 times more than the BP oil spill for Americans in one year! Yikes!

I ran across this link via a friend of mine on Facebook. This is incredible. If you have 9 minutes to spare, click here and press the play on the audio strip.

I am so glad Nature’s Express already gets this….Really, very little goes to waste in our store and at the end of the day our employees take whatever fries and quinoa macaroni noodles are left over (which is minimal due to proper planning) to gobble up at home! I used to get the benefit of soup leftovers too, but Joel, our chef, figured out a way to finish off the day with NO soup leftovers!! Boo Hoo for me.

VegFest and Meeting Dr. Myers

As a relatively new employee of Nature’s Express, it was so exciting to have been invited to work at VegFest in San Francisco over the weekend. I was also looking forward to the day because I was finally going to meet our founder and owner Dr. Carl Myers. The day did not disappoint! The morning started off with Molly and I arriving and setting up the Nature’s Express booth among all the other incredible displays and vegan enthusiasts. Soon Dr. Myers arrived and greeted us warmly. He was scheduled to give and hour long talk on the benefits of the vegan lifestyle and diet. I was impressed by his and his wife’s open and loving demeanor. Molly attended Dr. Myers talk and then returned to watch the booth so I could attend a talk given by John Robbins.

John Robbin’s eloquence and style pulled his audience into a wonderful sort of warm cocoon. I was inspired and felt an immediate sense of community in the room. It made me realize that our true equity is, now more than ever, sharing that sense of community by exchanging ideas, supporting healthy choices for the body and the environment, and doing it with ease and tenderness for one another. As you may be able to tell, I left the auditorium beaming. I was smiling because I realized how lucky I was to be working with other vegan food enthusiasts and people who shared similar values and goals; that of sustainable living, making the healthiest dietary choices and generating positive, smiling vibrations.

Finally today, when I was back in the restaurant, Dr. Myers came in to visit and see how all of us were doing in Berkeley. Many of our customers had the chance to meet and talk with Dr. Myers since he made himself available throughout the entire lunch hour rush. I observed many happy conversations and new bonds being made here in our local health conscious community, where by the way….all are welcome vegan or not.

I for one, look forward to hearing from all of you and sharing the incredible experience that is Nature’s Express; Fresh, organic, tasty vegan food prepared by a new breed of business people empowered by shared humanistic goals and values!!

Pickling Day!

We like to make things at Nature's Express.

Being in the kitchen, creating new tastes and textures for a range of palates is what we do. Trial and error occurs on a daily basis.

Our drive is to nourish people with fresh, real,tasty food.

We make our own mayo, ketchup, soft serve, sauerkraut, pickled ginger, desserts, burgers......

It was time to take on pickles and we did!

We can now add house-made dill pickles to our repertoire - and believe me when I tell you - they are amazing! Come in and ask for a sample and taste for yourself!

Pickling day

Cucumbers and brine

Danny, our fermentation master

Soon to be yummy pickles!

"fermentation station"

Let the fermentation begin!

A tip about quinoa noodles that we accidentally stumbled upon in our kitchen

If you're allergic to wheat or just want to try a different kind of pasta then quinoa pasta should be on your grocery list.

It's gluten free, it's an alkaline food and it scores low on the Glycemic index. On top of that, it has a delicious natural buttery flavor and a great texture. It's easy to cook, whether you're making spaghetti or a baked casserole. We do have a tip about cooking with quinoa noodles that we accidentally found out about a couple of weeks ago.

We use quinoa noodles for our Mac & Cheese so when chef Joel decided to introduce a macaroni salad to our menu he naturally went for the quinoa noodles that we already had on our shelf.

He made a batch of macaroni salad, we taste tested it and it got the round of approval.

The next day we tested it to see how the flavors melded over night.We were surprised to find that the noodles were crunchy!

Joel had an idea to turn the crunchy macaroni salad (which was not a typical creamy mac salad but more of a Greek style with kalamata olives, olive oil, artichoke hearts, etc..) into a warm pasta primavera dish. As soon as the quinoa noodles were heated up again they became soft and delicious as if we just cooked them! We offered the primavera as a special that day and it was a hit.

So, if you're going to make a cold salad with quionoa noodles be sure to either eat it all in one day or make the recipe suitable so that you can re-heat the leftovers :)

Happy eating everyone!

Happy Birthday Joel!!!

We're late on this but here's a big belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to most awesome kitchen manager, Joel! He brings humor, calm and balance to our kitchen.

Joel, you are a pleasure to work with and to know!

!