Birthday Treats for a Birthday Girl

Birthdays are a wonderful reason to celebrate with delicious food...especially if you are a foodie, like me! My 22nd bday was a few days ago, so here's a few treats with which I was blessed on my special day!!

Even though it was my birthday, I did do a little cooking. One, because I love to cook, and two, because I really wanted biscuits and gravy on my special morning for breakfast...and there was no one else around who could make them like I like them! Anyway, I made up some whole wheat biscuits and herbed tofu sausage gravy (still working on this recipe! I'll put it up after it's perfected.) for my mother and myself. It was a great morning!

For my birthday lunch, my mom took me to one of our favorite restaurants in Kansas City, and the world, Eden Alley! I had my favorite menu item: the Sweet Potato Burrito! It is a big flour tortilla stuffed with roasted rosemary sweet potatoes, homemade hummus, and brown rice, topped with fruit salsa and served on a bed of organic baby greens. This is such a refreshing meal on a warm summer day!

My mom had the Falafel Platter, which is their homemade baked falafel patties with brown rice, homemade hummus, and warm local pita bread! She loved this dish, and I loved the bite I snuck from her plate!For dessert, we split a piece of their Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Icing and Candied Walnuts...I love carrot cake so much!! This was delish!We also split some of their homemade vegan ice cream! You can't have your birthday cake without ice cream! We got the Coconut-Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and it was mind-blowing! I love the creaminess of the ice cream interspersed with crunchy bits of frozen chocolate chips!!
For my birthday dinner, my dad and his family took me to Waldo Pizza in Kansas City. I adore this place! They are one of the few pizza joints that carry vegan mozzarella and they have tons of veggie toppings! They even have a special vegan menu. So sweet.

For my pie, I got vegan mozzarella, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, and roasted red peppers. This was amaaaazing! Sweet and salty and savory and wonderful.
Aaaaaand they even had vegan cupcakes! My dad and I both got the Cappuccino Cupcakes. I have to say that this was one of the BEST cupcakes I've ever eaten....and that's been a lot of cupcakes! He thought it was amazing, too! It was just sooooo moist and rich yet light and had the most intense cappuccino flavor! I want one now just thinking about it!

While I was visiting my family in KC for my birthday, I also had to hit up the all-vegan restaurant, Cafe Seed! This place has food that would make anyone want to go vegan!

My mom and I each had our respective favorites: I had the Chik'n Sandwich on a Biscuit (which IS what I will eat in Heaven everyday.), served with an awesome side salad... And my mom got the Veggie Burger on a sprouted wheat bun, served with awesome homemade thick-cut fries. This burger has caramelized onions on it, folks! These people are NOT playing around!!

And, since it was my special week, my mom even surprised me with some sorbet! This is the Pomegranate-Blood Orange Sorbet made my Archer Farms, one of the Target gourmet store brands. OMG this sorbet tastes like a push-pop from my childhood!!! And it is beautiful! Tastes really good topped with some frozen berries, too! Aaaaah, summer is here!!