Bidding Farewell To My 27th Year

Last night’s Birthday bash was a good time! I was a bit slow moving when I got up this morning, but it was nothing a little juice, water, hot yoga, and Union Square Café Bar Nuts couldn’t fix…

Eric asked me to make the famous Union Square Café Bar Nuts -a double batch! Everyone always raves about them and they make the house smell intoxicating…a great appetizer. I followed the recipe to a tee, except substituting the butter for Earth Balance.

Karly, Dan, Jesse, Zac, Jaime, Henrick, Steve, Ange, Nienke, Preena, Morgan, Sarah, Adam, Lisa, Nicole, Blake, Stephanie, Ricki, Cameron, Nancy, Jen, Eric and I made up the group. It was a full house!

We had a few organic red and white wines, Corona, Organic Mill Street, Sangria, and some hard liquors for the alcoholic bevs.

And some Kombucha, pop, and juice for those not drinking.

The potluck was a success…so much good food! Lots of vegan and gluten-free options as well.

On the menu:

• Mediterranean Salad
• Kale salad
• Scalloped Potatoes
• Chickpea sunflower burgers
• Edamame Caviar
• Lentil Stew
• Fresh-inspired layered spinach salad
• Red hot chips & salsa
• Homemade Edamame hummus and veggies (I used my fav hummus recipe and added 1 cup cooked edamame)
• Samosas

Ange’s Whole Foods Re-Creation, Edamame Caviar:

Check out the sweets! Everything was vegan and a lot of it was also gluten-free.

The desserts:

• vegan chocolate cake
• raw cookies
• Raw crepes with berries & cream
• Happy Hemp Two-Bite Brownies
• Lemon poppy seed Bundt cake
• Raw triple berry fruit crisp

Also, check out the vegan chocolate cake from Whole Foods that Karly brought. It was absolutely delicious. Moist and super chocolaty. :) I had no idea that Whole Foods made vegan cakes!

I was birthday song serenaded. :)

Raw crepes from Lisa:

I will be hounding her for the recipes and making these crepes stat!

I also got spoiled with thoughtful cards and gifts. :)

After beer, wine, and Sangria last night, I was not feeling so hot when I woke up this morning!

I made myself a big juice to start the day off right…

About half hour later my headache was gone. It’s a miracle. Then I had a breakfast of leftover raw crepes with fruit crisp, water, and finally, hot yoga late morning. I almost bailed on yoga, but I was glad I went because I felt human afterwards.

Today, was more prep & cleaning and then potluck #2 with family. We were celebrating Mother’s Day, my FIL’s birthday, and my birthday. May is a busy month!

We kept it simple with salads, a BBQ, and a few leftovers from last night.

Shout out to my BIL, Dave! (He reads my blog every day) :)

I had 3 more glasses of wine tonight…hopefully I won’t regret this tomorrow. ;)

I had a veggie burger, Ezekiel bun, ketchup, BBQ sauce, and a few salads all mixed together.

[Do you notice that these photos are a bit fuzzy? I wasn’t using my tripod…it makes a big difference.]

I had some leftover vegan chocolate cake & a brownie bite for dessert. :) There is one slice left and I’m hoping Eric doesn’t bring it to work tomorrow…

Well, after a fun weekend, I need to rest up for my Birthday tomorrow.

Hmm, it looks like someone has already beat me to it…