Don’t blink. That isn’t a typo. It’s the name of a new food company in San Francisco that wants to make it easier for you to eat healthful.
Beautifull! opened its flagship store/cafe in San Francisco’s Laurel Village Shopping Center this spring. More locations are planned, including one in Palo Alto early next year.
The stores make prepared foods that are free of hormones, steroids, additives, preservatives, refined sugars, refined grains, butter and cream. A team of chefs and nutritionists have come up with dishes that can be enjoyed in the store, wrapped up to-go, or delivered to your home or office in whatever amounts that suit your needs.
I know you’re thinking, “That sounds way too healthy to taste any good.” Admit it.
Heck, I thought that, too.
But I ate those words, along with some tasty samples that were delivered to my house recently.
Wonderful whole grains, along with fresh, delicious fruits and veggies are staple ingredients in the offerings.
The “Tea-Smoked Salmon with Red Quinoa & Edamame Salad” (market price) is a signature dish. The salmon, house-smoked over Asian tea leaves, is moist, tender, and yes, wonderfully smoky tasting. It tops Peruvian red quinoa, buttery edamame, carrots, red peppers, and crunchy hijiki seaweed, tossed in a gingery vinaigrette. It’s a dish redolent of Japanese flavors.
The “Chinese Chicken Salad” ($9.99 as an entree salad) also is a taste of Asia, with nutty sesame oil and tangy rice wine vinegar in the Asian honey mustard dressing. The roasted chicken breast was just a tad dry, but that can happen when it’s pre-sliced ahead of time and refrigerated.
The “Whole Grain & Bean Enchiladas with Salsa Verde” ($7.99 as a prepacked meal) are corn tortillas filled with scrambled free-range eggs, golden quinoa, pinto beans, and yellow pepper, then topped with feta, cilantro, and spicy salsa verde. There was so much flavor going on that I didn’t miss the meat at all in this dish.
Kids will love “Kamut Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs” ($6.99 a pound). Parents will love how good it is for the wee ones. Lean turkey meat combines with rolled oats, spinach, Dijon mustard and herbs for big, bountiful meatballs atop spaghetti made of Kamut, a grain high in protein and minerals. It all gets tossed with a simple tomato-basil sauce.
Baked goods also are offered. The blueberry ginger muffin($2.99) is super moist with a crunchy, sugary top. It’s made with whole spelt flour, almond meal, whole wheat flour, organic nonfat yogurt, apple sauce, agave nectar, and fresh blueberries. It’s one of the best, most complex tasting blueberry muffins I’ve enjoyed in awhile.
Oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookies ($1.99 each) are big-fisted. They aren’t as decadent as ones made with butter. Their texture is definitely dense, not chewy or crisp.
The “Oatmeal Souffle with Blueberry Compote” ($5.99 each) was quite intriguing. Imagine your morning oatmeal made into a convenient muffin shape. Made with steel-cut oats, free-range eggs, organic almond milk, pear juice and vanilla, it has an almost custardy texture. It comes with a blueberry compote to pour over the top. I could eat this for breakfast regularly and be quite a happy person.
Prices for the food are not cheap, but reasonable, given the high-quality ingredients, plus convenience.
It’s definitely a nice alternative to take-out, greasy pizza on those days or nights when whipping up a home-cooked meal just isn’t gonna happen.