It wouldn't be my birthday without...

some of Cleveland's great food and booze spots!  I'm very lucky to have a lot of great people in my life who want to celebrate my birthday with me this year.  I'm going to check out Amp 150 for my birthday dinner tonight and then Chocolate Bar for some lunch and possibly a martini bigger than my head on Saturday.  Tomorrow night, I hope to hit up Lava Lounge to meet up with some old friends.  And my old friend, the foo-foo martini.

But it really wouldn't be my birthday with some of my old stand-bys.  The restaurants I've repeatedly gone to over the years, or ones I've recently discovered and can't live without.  Nothing says "birthday" to me like black bean nachos as Johnny Mango.  I mean, does it really get any better?  (only with a fresh squeezed margarita, perhaps)  Then there's the Purple Parma eggplant sandwich at Melt.  Or a pumpkin martini!  Amazingly good!  And worth every second of the wait!  There's also vegetarian night at Lago...that's on Monday, so that will have to be part of the prolonged celebration.  Then there's the espresso martini at Melange.  Or the chocolate covered brownie from White Flower Cake Shoppe.  Top that all off with a Brownie Monster sundae from Tommy's (I think I've had one on or near my birthday for the last 20+ years) and you have yourself one heck of a gluttonous birthday weekend.  Thank goodness I have to run 12 miles this Sunday, so I can burn off all of my birthday goodness.

What's your favorite Cleveland birthday hot spot?

Happy World Vegetarian Day!

Did you know? October 1 is World Vegetarian Day, and the kickoff to Vegetarian Awareness Month. (And to think, until this year, I never even knew such a thing existed!) I plan on celebrating this momentous occasion with some vegetarian grub at Tommy's in Coventry, my go-to for all things vegetarian for the majority of my life.

Vegetarianism isn't for everyone, but hopefully Vegetarian Awareness Month will bring a better understanding of this lifestyle to the general population...

This month is also bringing another delicious vegetarian monthly special at Melt! They're featuring Mom's Meatloaf Melt, which consists of meatloaf (you can get the real stuff or a "fake" meat option), mashed potatoes, ketchup, and Muenster cheese. Sounds interesting right? What's even more exciting is Melt's drink special of the month - a pumpkin martini! Let the pumpkin loving continue! (If you're a fan of Melt, be sure to check out their new snazzy website, which launched today!)

Quick Bites

Despite having my super snazzy IPhone with me all weekend, I totally forgot to take photos of my food. D'oh!

My weekend started on Thursday (I was lucky enough to get a comp day on Friday since I worked the entire previous weekend.) with some football and bar food at Mulligan's in Highland Heights. My boyfriend and I met up with a huge group of angry Ohio State fans who weren't all too please to see Florida win. I enjoyed my spinach and artichoke dip and chicken free buffalo chicken wrap, though.

Friday night, my boyfriend and I went to Beachwood Place to return some clothes that I'd bought for myself on a "fat" day, and stopped for a quick martini at Melange. One bartender there makes them perfectly - not too strong - not too milky tasting. Sadly, the girl who made mine made it really strong. It tasted like something I could make at home...oh well. Afterwards, we dropped by Bangkok Thai for a quick bite. I enjoyed a pine nut stir fry and the fried tofu appetizer. Although it was good, it didn't compare to the meal I'd had in Kansas.

Saturday, I had lunch at Go Bistro. I had a turkey-less turkey sandwich and a side salad. My boyfriend had a chicken BLT and some of the biggest waffle fries I've ever seen. He's extremely picky and loved every bite of his meal. Despite the fact that we were there in the middle of a blizzard, there were a few tables full of people.

Sunday afternoon I met up with my friend for lunch at my all-time favorite restaurant - Tommy's. I'm on a healthy eating kick (no more than 1,500 calories a day and I have to run 3 times a week, lift 3 times a week, and spin twice), so I didn't have what I'd normally get. We started off our meal with the spiked hummus. I love it sooo much. I normally don't like anything with green peppers and olives in it, but it's so flavorful and delicious. Then I had the black bean chili, which is also good and not at all spicy. (I hate spicy things.) I had a tossed salad with thousand island to round out my meal. I love the Muenster cheese they use in salads and the thousand island dressing has such a distinctive taste.

Since I'd saved up some calories at lunch, we had Zeppe's pizza for dinner. (while watching 24!) I'd ordered a discount gift certificate a few weeks ago, so we essentially got 2 meals for the price of one. You can't beat that.

Since pay day isn't until Thursday, I'll be eating at home for the next few days...

I Food

Now that I'm on a blogging kick again, I need to start uploading photos of food. I bought myself an I Phone just for the heck of it and it takes fairly good photos.

After returning home from my trip to Kansas, I've been trying to eat at home. I did sneak out for a quick lunch at Yours Truly yesterday and noticed that they have two of my favorite things on special this month - hummus and sweet potato fries. Mmm. I had the sweet potato fries along with my sandwich and they were SO good. I decided to hold off on getting hummus since I'm headed to Tommy's this weekend. Their spiked hummus is THE best!

Week in Review

I've dined out more than normal this week. I went to Pizzazz last night with my boyfriend. I typically go to the Mayfield Village location for lunch when I'm at work so we decided to go to the University Heights location for a change of pace. I'd forgotten how much nicer the University Heights location is. We both ordered delicious house salads - minus the pepperoni garnish for me. I don't know what they do to their house dressing but it's so good, I could drink it. We both also ordered calzones - spinach and mushroom for me and chicken veggie for him. As with everything else in the restaurant, the calzones were even different from the ones served at the Mayfield Village location. They were smaller and crispier - something that I liked but my boyfriend didn't. They also came with cheese. Delicious, delicious cheese.

Earlier in the week I went to Yours Truly - twice. Still good as always. I tried a new vegetarian appetizer - flash fried artichokes with a side of ranch. Although they were fried, the artichokes weren't greasy or heavy. They were really tasty - even with out the ranch.

I started off the week with lunch from Tommy's in Coventry. Trying to be a little bit healthier, I avoided my favorite falafel sandwich and had some black bean chili and a tossed salad instead.

On one of the few nights where I ate at home I made some homemade pasta sauce with tomatoes fresh from my mother's garden. There's nothing like fresh pasta sauce made with home grown basil and garlic. Sadly, her tomato supply is starting to dry up so I'm going to have to start buying tomatoes at the store again.