Birthday Weekend Recap

This past Sunday, I celebrated my 37th birthday! My parents came up on Saturday to spend the day with us and treat me to a birthday dinner. I always have such a hard time picking a restaurant to go to. We usually go to the same places over and over again, but I ended up picking somewhere we hadn’t been in quite a while.

Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant.

They give you three different types of salsa: mild regular salsa, a smokey chipotle one that was a little more spicy, and a sweet tomatillo based one. The chipotle one was the best, but none of them were just outstanding. The chips were nice and thin, which I really liked.

For my entree, I ordered the Sauteed Chicken Zucchini.

(From the menu)

Lightly sautéed premium chicken breast with sliced zucchini, roasted red peppers and corn in a delightfully spicy cream sauce.

I liked the spicy cream sauce and the chicken was nice and tender. I ordered the smaller portion, but they have a larger one that comes with two chicken breasts I believe.

After we left there, I did a quick search on my phone to find an ice cream place that we had been wanting to try.

Henry’s Homemade Ice Cream in Plano has been open for over 25 years and has won numerous awards for their ice cream.

There was quite a line, which is usually a pretty good sign. I got a kid size, which was still a good size portion. I really liked the flavor, but I wish that there had been more chunks of Strawberry. 🙁 My dad had the Butter Pecan and there were tons of pecans in it.

We finished off the evening with a quick stop at Trader Joe’s (my mom’s first time!), then stopped for coffee before saying goodbye.

Sunday

I slept in, and then we headed over to Potbelly for a late lunch.

Their Farmhouse Salad with the Potbelly Vinaigrette is one of my all-time favorite salads! So good!

Next, we headed over to the Shops at Willow Bend Mall over in the West Plano area.

My mom had given me some birthday money to spend when they were here on Saturday. I ended up getting a purse at New York and Company for 50% off! I needed one badly and getting one for half price was really nice! I also tried on several shirts that were on clearance there, but none of them looked good on me.

I also stopped by Sephora and picked out a new lip balm, and when I went to check out I also got a free birthday sample. I got a sample of Benefit’s new They’re Real! Mascara and their Watt’s Up Highlighter. I don’t know if I’ll actually use the highlighter, but I can’t wait to try the mascara. Tina said that it was the “best mascara ever” on her blog recently.

After we left the mall, we headed over to another one of my favorite shopping/dining areas, Watters Creek at Montgomery Farm over in Allen. It’s an outdoor mall with beautiful landscaping and great shops and restaurants.

We had wanted to try Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, but there was a line out the door, so we decided to go to the Brio Tuscan Grille instead. It was cool enough by this time that we were able to enjoy dinner on the patio.

My husband went with the Chicken under a brick dish, which he’d had the last time we were there and I chose the Sweet Potato and Chicken Risotto.

(From the menu)

With pancetta, roasted chicken, sweet potatoes, asparagus, Parmigiano-Reggiano, thyme and pine nuts.

The risotto was nice and creamy, there was plenty of chicken and I liked the saltiness of the pancetta with the sweet potatoes.

There were some ducks in a pond right next to the restaurant, so I took our leftover bread down to feed them after we had finished our dinner. There were some baby ducks and several adult ones. There were also some other really tiny baby ducks that I didn’t get a picture of because they were crazy fast and my battery was dying, but they were adorable!

It was an incredible birthday weekend, and I am so grateful to my parents and my husband for making it happen!

*Only one day left to enter my Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil giveaway, so be sure to enter if you haven’t already!

 

What’s the best birthday you’ve ever had?

By Tempie at July 4, 2013.