Birthday Weekend

I’ve been slacking this weekend, I know. But I have an excuse, it’s my birthday and I’ve been celebrating all weekend. Celebrating with a house full of dogs since we’re still dog-sitting my dad’s sweet dog.

And giving this little guy lots of cuddles.

I also made myself a luxury salad for lunch yesterday using truffle oil.

I drizzled it over a massaged kale salad with nutritional yeast, Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute, and blue corn chips.

For a simple and fast lunch salad.

Hubby treated me to The Chef’s Table for dinner last night which is always an adventure for me.

It’s a very fancy, small scale restaurant with a small menu that a skilled chef prepares at a bar. But there’s rarely a lot of vegan options on the menu and I usually end up requesting something vegan and surprise me which never disappoints. We started with a classy little Beet Tatar appetizer, roasted and marinated chopped beets served in little lettuce shells.

Very fun to eat and pleasant tangy and savory flavor from capers and balsamic vinegar.

My main dish was a lovely grilled portobello mushroom stuffed with corn, tomatoes and other roasted veggies, served with a tangy pesto sauce and grilled summer squash.

This morning I had a fun gift opening session that included clothes, gift cards, jewelry, and books – such a lucky girl!

Then I met my mom and sister at The Plum Cafe, an epic vegan cafe in Sacramento that serves plenty of vegan comfort food and all you can eat of it for Sunday brunch!

I just adore the old house it’s in, so fun.

I got to open more cards and gifts and found a theme to these cards and my sisters even got me the same card, lol!

My brunch plate was kind of a disgraceful display of vegan comfort food, but it’s my birthday, right? Cheesy vegan pasta, french toast, biscuit and gravy, hash browns, and spicy tofu scramble – very filling!

And for dessert, my mom surprised us with a coconut lime vegan cheesecake to share that was nicely creamy without being too heavy.

Whew, what a filling brunch! So filling that I wanted to keep dinner lighter, but still fun tonight. I grabbed a monster zucchini from our garden, sliced it into long quarters, boiled them for 15 minutes, scooped out the seeds, stuffed with a fresh made marinara sauce, and topped with Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella Shreds. Then baked at 350 degrees for 15 minutes for vegan pizza zucchini.

The result was very fun and tasty, the vegan mozzarella melted nicely over the zucchini added a creamy coating and the garlicy marina was perfect for zinging up the zucchini.

It’s been such a fun weekend that I’m a little bummed it’s back to the grind tomorrow. But also looking forward to getting back to better eating after all the fun foods.