At SweetArt, the popular bakeshop and café near the Missouri Botanical Garden at 2203 S. 39th, chef-owner Reine Bayoc serves an entirely vegan breakfast and lunch menu, with decadent baked goods and savory vegan meat plates and sandwiches. In addition to her successful South City restaurant—featured on Netflix’s 2021 reality TV series Fresh, Fried, and Crispy—Bayoc created the plant-based Love and Magic Kitchen brand. As for dinnertime at home? “I am a proponent for quick and easy,” she says.
Plant-Based Focus
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“I am not someone who will ever bash vegan meat and meat substitutes because I like them, and they’re delicious,” says Bayoc, a mother of three. “But at home, I make sure that we are having whole foods, because I know my kids are going to junk it up through the day—especially now that they have money in their pockets and they are semi-adults.” For Bayoc, whole foods are “foods that are minimally processed,” including vegetables, beans, lentils, millet, and quinoa. After eating a vegetarian diet for many years, Bayoc transitioned to vegan cooking, first removing dairy from her family’s diet to help manage her son’s asthma and eczema symptoms.
Quick-and-Easy Routine
“I need to make things that can be done in 10–15 minutes if it’s through the week,” Bayoc explains. Go-to meals include soups, tacos, wraps, and loaded salads. “Now that [my kids] are older and have activities, if they eat within the 20 minutes that I’ve made food, I feel as though that is a successful dinner,” Bayoc says. “It’s that time where we can joke with each other and talk about the day.” That time together is important to her, even if just for 15 minutes.
Sample Weekly Dinner Menu
Monday: Falafel with hummus and pita and fattoush salad
Tuesday: Veggie crumble tacos with lettuce, salsa, cheese, and guacamole
Wednesday: Black-eyed pea hummus wraps with pickled red onions, lettuce, and roasted red bell peppers
Thursday: Burgers from SweetArt
Friday: Curry peanut noodle stir-fry with broccoli, peppers, onions, and crispy tofu
Saturday: Indian takeout
Sunday: Vegan broccoli and cremini mushroom alfredo with seasonal salad
