The Loving Cafe in Ft. Wayne

My birthday week has officially begun... which means more vegan food and treats than usual! Fuel for the blog I guess. This holiday weekend we spent time at my sister's house which is 4.5 hours away. Conveniently in the middle of the drive is a strange little vegan restaurant called The Loving Cafe (which seems to be somehow related to the Loving Hut, but not directly related). Half the menu is Asian food and the other half is American but it is all vegan and pretty darn good.

Panini sandwich at the Loving Cafe

This time I had the panini sandwich which had tofurkey, vegan cheese, coleslaw, and vegan mayo on it. The bread was really really good too. I think I detected a hint of mustard on it as well. You sort of roll the dice at the Loving Cafe because the menu is constantly changing depending on what they happen to have on hand. They have a board at the restaurant that they can switch out the menu items so they change it often but always have a big selection. They also have really good soup. I have tried the Kale & Potato soup (2nd time this trip) and my husband got the Almond Broccoli soup. I prefer the kale potato - the almond soup was weirdly sweet to me.

Overall I give this place a good rating because it is a good find, especially in non-vegan friendly Indiana. That being said, you have to be a little flexible and open minded to enjoy it. They also have quite a few dessert options, some of them even raw. Last time I was there I ordered chocolate ice cream and they gave me a TON of it for just a couple bucks. It was really rich and delicious.

I wouldn't rate this place as necessarily healthy, but they advertise that it is healthy just because it's vegan. Many of the sandwiches are covered in vegan butter and mayo. The soup is made with vegan cream cheese. All of which is fine if you are looking for some vegan comfort food (which I was!) and not overly concerned with calories, etc.

On our way home we stopped by my father in-law's house and he gave us a TON of veggies from his garden. The picture below is just a fraction! We will be having a tomato-fest this week for dinner so get ready for some tomato recipe posts.

What is your take on the vegan = automatically healthy issue? How do you balance the (sometimes rare) access to vegan food at a restaurant and wanting to eat healthfully at the same time?