Health and Happiness in LA: Yard House and Family Dinner

It's been a lovely week with my family! My mom, step-dad, and brother went home today and I'll be going home on Saturday.

On Monday we went shopping at an outlet mall and had lunch at a chain restaurant called Yard House. They have a gigantic beer selection and surprisingly, an entire vegetarian menu featuring Gardein products! I got the BBQ Chicken Salad with no cheese and vinaigrette on the side, instead of the dressing it came with. I didn't want to make too many changes so I just picked off the fried onions and tortilla strips.

It was really delicious and flavorful, and I didn't even really need the dressing. It had romaine, corn, black beans, tomatoes, avocado, red pepper, carrots, Gardein "chicken" strips, and the fried onions and tortilla strips I picked out.

Mixed together:

Great lunch! It's always nice to find a chain in the Midwest that has nice vegan options.

We did some awesome outlet shopping, so I'm going to have great Fashion Friday posts coming up! But not this week, because I haven't been taking any outfit photos.

We invited my step-grandma over for dinner to celebrate her birthday. She became my mom's step-mom when my mom was in her twenties but she is the closest thing I have to a grandma. She just happens to live in the same town as my dad so we get to see her most of the times that we visit my dad. I think it's cool that my mom's step-mom hangs out with my dad and my step-mom, and she really loves my baby brother. My family tree is wayyy too confusing to draw.

Here she is blowing out the candle on her birthday cake:

The only candle we had was from baby brother's last birthday - a 1!

Dinner was veggie burgers, fruit salad, and corn on the cob. We had Amy's Quarter Pounders and everything was delicious.

And vegan carrot cake from the Merc for dessert! The Merc is a co-op grocery store in Lawrence. They usually only sell slices of cake, but my mom went in and asked if she could buy a whole one, so they defrosted one for us. It's the same cake I had on my last birthday, and it is delicious.

My step-dad was making my baby brother totally crack up!

Isn't he adorable?

Source: http://healthandhappinessinla.blogspot.com/2011/07/yard-house-and-family-dinner.html

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