happy birthday to me!

my birthday was yesterday, but that didn't stop us from actually celebrating over the entire weekend! i have SO many photos, so i am going to break it up in to different parts and make a few posts over the next few days.
saturday eric and i woke up and slowly got ready for our adventure of the day! i really wanted to go to vegan treats to get some things for my birthday, and it's about an hour and a half away.
we stopped by the post office on our way out of philly and i picked up a package from my mom that contained birthday goodies.


after a stop at goodwill in allentown we made it to VEGAN TREATS!


it's slightly overwhelming. you mean i can eat ANY of these amazing looking desserts?! i ended up deciding on donuts, brownies and a sticky bun. but eric is a sneaky one and had actually pre-ordered me a german chocolate cake!! my favorite. it was really awesome of him!



we had to try the donut asap.




eric was sneaky once again and had already found a place for us to eat lunch.


thai food! i hadn't had any in so long.


we both ordered thai basil fried rice, super spicy!


then we drove back to philly to get ready for the party!
i'll end this post with some photos of the goodies we bought at vegan treats.

photos from the weekend

well the big news of the weekend is my brother and jackie came to visit!

they arrived thursday afternoon, but i was at work and had to work all day friday, so saturday was the first chance we got to hang out.



saturday was spent walking all over philadelphia. we tried to shop, but the only place we bought things was lush.




of course we stopped along the way to do tourist things, like look at the liberty bell through a window.


we walked from one side of philly to the other, and stopped at good dog for lunch.




the best thing about eating with them? well chase is the odd man out! we (jackie, eric and i) are all vegan. i figure chase can suffer since we have all been to our fair share of bbq places.


it's ok though. luckily philly has a lot of restaurants with a great mix of dining options.


after lunch we walked some more.


jackie has a way more awesome photo of this and hopefully i can snag it soon.

sunday morning jackie and chase took the bus up to nyc. i wish i could have gone, but i had a lot of household things i needed to complete.

made pancakes for breakfast. i am determined to get a good pancake recipe down.


and i was really corny and made eric heart shaped pancakes!


check out these awesome salt and pepper shakes i got for christmas!

the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. cleaned, went to the gym, went grocery shopping.
for christmas eric got me a dehydrator and we are planning on using it for the first time this week! hopefully we will have some awesome food.

Christmas??!

Sorry I (Eric) have left most of the posting to Lauren. But to update a quick synopsis of my Christmas break. I headed to Pittsburgh early in the morning and Bill Brown picked me up from the airport. We then headed to a their local Co-op which I am a big fan of.

Bill needed some Kava Kava..

I was hungry and I there was only one place on my mind… The Quiet Storm. Slowly becoming a staple on my Pittsburgh To-Do list.

The man the myth..

They have plenty of vegan everything… almost too many options.

I started out with the chicken noodle soup and Bill got the mac and cheese. Next course for me was the "cheesy snake" veganized, which Bill recommended. It was delish! For dessert I had a cinnamon roll that finished the meal off nicely.

Bill had a spicy thai tofu wrap. Luckily I got a bite in before he at the rest.

The rest of that day led to me and him drinking at the bar until my cousin picked me up and I finally made it to Ellwood City. Thank again Bill for the pick up and sitting at the bar even though you had to be at work : )

Holidays are always a great time of seeing family members and hearing random arguments and of course eating. I would like to thank both my grandparents for making food especially for me. They made me meatless marinara, egg-less latkes, delicious bread, ect, ect. Thank you again!

I wish I would have taken more pictures but oh well. I did get to see my cousin’s baby for the first time, Gino, "the godfather."

And finally my grandpa Max. Always great seeing the family. Hope everyone had a good holiday.

photos from the weekend

ugh, it was hard to go back to work after a four day weekend. but it was a fun one!

we had a great new year's eve at a friend of a friend's house.


things might have gotten a little rowdy.




we missed the mummer's parade new year's day, and i was bummed. hopefully next year?

eric and i take care of two stray cats (with the help of our neighbors). it got really cold and windy this week and we had been meaning to build them some shelter. at first we just used an old cat litter box, which ms. white approved of.


but then eric got some spare wood and built them a shelter, which he then covered in trash bags to keep out the rain. grissom approved.


after saving the cats we met up with friends for chinese at kingdom of vegetarians. it was a yummy start to the new year.






and then we decided to head to the mummer's parade after party, or something like that...
but everytime we decide to do something, juli usually doesn't have her bike, so we have to improvise.


trying to get on...


ok, juli's on, but will she stay on...


success!


we made it down to south philly for the party and it was freezing!!


i wish i could explain what the mummer's is, but i have no explanation.


fist pump!!


the next morning we went out to brunch. vegan french toast, yes!


eric's brother was in town...don't they look so much alike? jkjkjk


later on in the day i made some special cookies. no, not special in THAT way.


and hung out with grissom.


and also had pizza!


sunday morning we woke up to a text from juli asking if we wanted to do brunch. um yes please?


we went to memphis taproom.




beer mimosas




i got pumpkin stuffed french toast. score one for having french toast two days in a row!


eric got the tofu scramble. see that blurry thing in the front? that is smoked coconut and it was amazing.


juli got the most un-vegan thing on the menu, scrapple with eggs on top.


and adam got the tacos bruncheros, which looked really yummy.




we ended up doing more stuff later on, but i forgot my camera. oops.