26th Birthday!

I wanted to start my birthday post with a couple pictures of the cakes my mom made me for my birthdays as a child, these cakes were amazing! I have never tried to decorate a cake, but I doubt that I would have the ability my mom had to make these:

I'm not sure I was looking so sad, I mean look at that amazing Get Along Gang cake!!

I didn't have an amazing homemade cake today, but I did have a great birthday.

This morning I woke up really hungry and had a blueberry-oat bar that I made last night. These were amazing, I found the recipe last week on FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I made these because I figured that my husband would love them because he is more of a blueberry fan than I am, but I thought these were amazing. Each of these squares has about 100 calories and I had 2 at 6am.

My husband suggested since it was my birthday we should stop and get my favorite morning drink. Today I got something different at Starbucks: a skinny caramel latte. At the office I also had a luna bar around 9am.

I went to the gym for a lunch time spin class. In 40 min of spin I burned about 350 calories, I was really working hard according to my heart rate monitor. It was appropriate that I used this today because it was last year my husband got it for me as a gift on my 25th birthday.

After spin I was starving and didn't want what I packed, but ate it anyway. I packed 1/2 cup of oatmeal with a very very very ripe banana and a sample of udi's granola. I was smart and used water from the water cooler today and not the faucet that is still full of dirty water. I couldn't even finish this because I wasn't really in the mood for it and I think the banana in it was just too ripe for me:.

Here is the little sample that I picked up at the grocery store, it may have been about 1/4 cup. I thought it was good, although being that it was in my oatmeal I may have not got the full effect of the taste.

My afternoon snack was grapes and pineapple.

Dinner tonight was at one of my favorite restaurants, Abay. I think it is the only Ethiopian restaurant in Pittsburgh. This place is BYOB so my husband brought my favorite bottle of wine (I had two large glasses):

I started with a bowl of soup "Vegetarian Shorba Soup prepared with lentils, carrots, potatoes and onions in a vegetable-based broth."

Dinner was a vegetarian combo where I could pick any four of the vegetarian items on the menu; I happened to pick all vegan options. For those who haven't had Ethiopian it is served with a unique bread and you eat with your hands by using the bread to pick up the food.

Here is what I picked from the yellow item up top clockwise:

"Butecha Ground" - chickpeas mixed with olive oil, diced onions and green peppers.
"Kay Sir Dinich" - Potatoes and fresh beets stewed and blended with garlic, ginger and onions.
"Fosolia" - String beans lightly spiced and sautéed with carrots and potatoes.
"Ye' Abesha Gomen" - Kale, peppers, ginger, garlic and onions slow-cooked in a mild sauce.

When we got home Steve and I split a cupcake he had bought yesterday at Whole Foods. He even put a candle in it and sang. Here is a picture pre-candle:

With half of the cupcake we had some Edy's Slow-churned Take the Cake ice cream.

Well this newly turned 26 year old is beat, so off to get ready for bed!