For college students, maintaining a lifestyle of regular exercise and mindful eating habits can seem hopeless. Thus, the arrival of the New Year spells out resolutions more health-driven than better correspondence with high school friends.
Some students designate their utmost priorities to eliminating Top Ramen and frozen pizzas from their kitchens, paying more frequent visits to a treadmill and opting to cook meals at home rather than dine out.
But University students don’t need to run out and buy Rachael Ray’s 30-Minute Get Real Meals just yet. Eugene offers healthful food options that making dining out guilt-free. The four following cafés have excellent fare for college-friendly prices and serve to make healthy eating a reality.
Laughing Planet Café
This café offers creative dishes made with hearty ingredients, including black beans, brown rice, chicken and Tillamook cheddar. There are no mystery meats or ingredients here, so customers can stay health-conscious. Most meals on the menu resemble Americanized, organic Mexican cuisine, such as burritos, bowls and quesadillas. One quesadilla, dubbed the Governator, has mashed organic potatoes, broccoli, Tillamook cheddar and pico de gallo. The café, with three separate Portland locations, also serves fresh-squeezed juices and smoothies, salads, soups and cookies. The café’s ambiance is quirky-casual, decorated with a random array of toy dinosaurs. Customers pay at the counter stocked with vegan cookies and sweets, and the food gets delivered to their tables within minutes.
Holy Cow Café
Located in the University’s EMU, Holy Cow Café is a healthy alternative to its food court counterparts. The family-owned café serves to help its customers “make food choices that are healthier for them and for the planet” by serving vegetarian, organic ethnic foods, according to its Web site. The menu includes pasta dishes (such as Pad Thai and Tony’s Rigatoni) Indian cuisine, tofu and tempeh creations and falafels. Everyday the café also has a salad bar stocked with dozens of toppings, including vegetables, white cheeses and tofu. The café offers “10 Reasons to Eat at Holy Cow” on its Web site, www.holycowcafe.com/index.html.
Morning Glory Café
By far the most health-conscious on this café list, Morning Glory Café serves organic and mostly vegan dishes in its yellow-walled breakfast nook. The café’s menu exemplifies the emphasis Morning Glory places on serving nutritious meals without compromising flavor. The café makes its own salad dressings like organic ketchup and tofu sour cream to replace the high-calorie and sugary sauces typically found in grocery stores. Home-made vegan pastries, such as banana bread, chocolate peach danishes and cranberry walnut muffins albeit sugar, are baked daily. The French toast is refined sugar-free, and the pancakes are multi-grain. As for the savory dishes, most are made with loads of vegetables and can be served with eggs, tofu or tempeh. The hippie café displays local artists on its walls, and the sign “Do as you will but harm none” hangs from its ceiling.
Café Yumm!
Owner Mary Ann Beauchamp gave Café Yumm! its name because of the response elicited by many who tried her and husband Mark’s signature Yumm! bowls, according to the “soul satisfying, deeply nourishing” café’s official Web site. Topped with the couple’s own Original Yumm! Sauce, the café’s most popular dish, the Original Yumm! bowl is filled with brown rice, red and black beans and salsa. Other meals include Yumm! wraps, salads and sandwiches. The owners choose to list the ingredients in their menu items, even their chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, to show customers pure, natural ingredients are their priority. This blue jeans-appropriate café has two locations in Eugene and will be opening more in 2007. And yes, customers can buy Yumm! sauce by the bottle.
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