Just a quick note before I head into the birthday deliciousness. I went through all of my posts this weekend and added some labels to them. I don't know why I haven't done that the whole time but I decided to do it before I added to the post count too much. It was a daunting task but it is done!
Anyway, I had such an amazing birthday weekend and I'm really excited to share it with you. It was relaxing and exceptionally delicious ;) That said, you'll notice that there is plenty of gluten and nightshades in these meals/treats. I decided that I'm just going to do what I want for my birthday weekend and start fresh this week. So check out all of the deliciousness and all of the hauls!
The very first thing I did for my birthday was start my day with a large peach bubble tea. It was the perfect way to start the day!
After I got bubble tea I went to the Sweet To Lick Market and picked up some goodies! They had stocked up on Wayfare products and you know I love that French Onion dip so I grabbed that. I've also been craving queso lately and they had the nacho cheddar dip so I grabbed that as well. I'm really excited to try the soy curls as well! I don't know how I'll try it first but I'm very excited. I have rationalized this haul by telling myself that other than the jerky (which is already gone, let's be honest) everything is gluten free. 😂 The onion dip is so good with carrots so that's how I'll finish it off.
We then went two doors down to the Sweet To Lick Bakery and grabbed some birthday treats! The tart was the most amazing chocolate peanut butter tart and the cookie was my favorite oreo chocolate chip whoopee cookie. I love their treats because they are not cloyingly sweet. That tart was perfect.
I chose to go to Oak House Mexican Kitchen for my birthday dinner because they have a regular menu for my omni family and a full vegan menu for me. It is so nice to be able to choose whatever you want and not have to make substitutions. Wait until you see what I chose.
OH. EM. GEE. You guys. This is the Seitan Tinga Burrito Loco and it was freaking incredible. And massive. Look at how huge that thing is. I got through half of it and saved the rest for leftovers. If you are in the Long Island area I highly recommend Oak House.
The next day I went to Trader Joe's and this is more indicative of what my grocery hauls will look like from now on. No gluten. No nightshades. Lots of yummy produce. I'm not going to lie, the lack of tomatoes is a sad thing for me.
I decided that this first week I am working solely on eliminating gluten and nightshades from my diet and from there I'll knock out the processed foods as well. I'm not really concerned about these three things pictured above as they are all gluten free and not horrific for you.
On Sunday (which I still considered birthday weekend 😂) I made a grilled cheese with the Follow Your Heart American cheese that I got from the market. This is my favorite way to use it and I wanted to have it one more time as I have not found a gluten free bread yet. I'm not sure how I'll use the rest but I'll figure it out. Anyway, I'm not going to lie, I make a damn good grilled cheese, ha! Pairing it with a honey crisp is perfect because it adds a little freshness to the heaviness of the sandwich.
Finally, Sunday night was birthday dinner part two. It doesn't look pretty but it was just as delicious the second time around. I also had the other half of my peanut butter tart later.
So there was my birthday weekend! It was a really nice weekend and having the three day weekend was really great. I'll be back on Friday to show you some of the meals I've come up with for this first week of Gluten Free, Nightshade Free Vegan eating.
Thanks again for all of your support from my last post and for all of the birthday wishes. It truly means so much to me 💜 Have a great week!
