All My Favorites: Banzai Bowls, Seabirds, and True Food Kitchen

Yesterday, I had the best Saturday!  I got to hang out with my favorite people and eat some of my favorite food in Orange County.  

The day started bright and early at Banzai Bowl in Laguna Beach.  The boyfriend and I enjoyed breakfast at the beach watching a ton of surfers, paddle boarders, and cute dogs.    

This is the Maui Sunrise Bowl from Banzai Bowl.  A Banzai Bowl is an Acai smoothie (along with other fruits) with fun, chunky toppers such as granola, bananas, and strawberries.  This is a SMALL size!  It is more than enough and costs around $6.95.  You can make substitutions as well and swap in almond milk, or add spinach to get some of your greens in for the day.  
 

This bowl was refreshing in the hot sun and started my day off in a healthy direction.  There are three locations of Banzai Bowl - Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, and Huntington Beach.  You should check them out! 

For lunch, my sister and I headed to Irvine's Great Park for the Artisan Food Festival.  The festival itself was a little smaller than I had imagined and was mostly either food trucks or booths representing restaurants.  They did have demonstrations but they were spread out over the afternoon.

What the festival did have was my favorite food truck in Orange County - Seabirds.  Seabirds is a vegan food truck which uses fresh local ingredients.  They often tweet that they just picked up certain vegetables from Tanaka Farms that morning and will incorporate them into their lunch menu.  

The best thing there is the jackfruit tacos.  Yes, I did say fruit tacos :)  They take jackfruit and slow cook it until it falls apart in a meaty texture.  It is then seasoned and added to dishes like these BBQ jackfruit tacos.  They were topped with cole slaw and housemade pickles!.  Check out their schedule here.  

After the food festival, my boyfriend and I headed to my favorite shopping mall - Fashion Island.  It was a beautiful day in Newport Beach to walk around and shop.  We had an early dinner on the patio at True Food Kitchen.  I had an amazing salad - the Farmer's Market Salad - which was a mix of kale and mint with asparagus, avocado, peas, artichokes, and manchego cheese, all in a champagne dressing.  I also split the Sundried Tomato and Olive Pizza with Milos.  This is my FAVORITE Pizza.  Its a thin crust pizza topped with pesto, sundried tomatoes, salty olives, and cheese.  Perfection!  Although True Food Kitchen started in Arizona, this restaurant is the embodiment of Southern California food and lifestyle. 

What could top an awesome food day like this - SPRINKLES CUPCAKES!
 I had a coupon for a free cupcake that expired soon - so we cashed it in on the way home.  Dark chocolate banana for me and coconut for him.  I was only going to eat half but..... I'm sure you know how that ended! 

Hope you get to enjoy some of your favorite foods this weekend!  And be sure to check out these great Orange County eateries!