Sunday, August 19, 2007

It's my Birthday!

So, it happened. I turned 28 today. First things first. My lovely husband bought me these birthday presents. I got a really cool tea press, which worked really well and a new garlic press since our old one was dead. He also got me cute stickers, a cool vegan cookbook called ExtraVEGANza by Laura Matthias and the August edition of VegNews magazine (which I now hope to subscribe to). Jared did an awesome job!
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Since I needed to use the mung bean sprouts I grew last week I decided to make a miso noodle bowl for lunch today. I made a homemade broth out of celery, onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, fresh parsley, black peppercorns, soy sauce and mirin. I strained the broth and added miso paste. I cooked soman noodles in a separate pot. I added raw zucchini, snow peas and mung bean sprouts to a big bowl, added the miso broth and noodles and topped it off with a bit more veggies.
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A big bummer having a birthday on a Sunday means having a nice vegan meal out was very difficult. Both of the places we tried going to tonight, Cafe Sunflower and Veggieland, were both closed on Sunday! Turns out a lot of places we like to eat at are closed on Sunday but since we usually only eat out on Saturdays, we never knew. Anyway, we ended up trying a place called Top Spice which is a Thai Malaysian place. It was pretty good and they had many things to chose from. We of course made sure no fish sauce was in our dishes.
Jared got Spicy Basil Tofu:
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And I got Garlic Tofu (Sorry the picture is dark. We turned the flash off):
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Originally, we were just going to get dessert out at Cafe Sunflower or Veggieland so we didn't make a birthday treat at home. Since those plans fell through and we didn't have time to make something, Jared and I bought an apple pie from our local health food store along with Soyatoo Whipped Soy Cream (which was absolutely AMAZING!).
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13 comments:

Theresa said...

Happy Birthday!! 28 sounds so grown up... do you feel like an adult?? Too bad about the restaurants. At least next year your birthday will be on a Tuesday (leap year, right?) so you won't have that problem!

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

Thanks!!
haha, yeah 28 sounds grown up but in a lot of ways I only feel like I'm 22 or something. I'm not sure I will ever feel like an adult?! Ask me in a couple years : )
Really, we should have done better research about the restaurant hours. We just assumed they would be open on a Sunday since its still the weekend. Oh well. We ate pretty good anyway.

Vegan_Noodle said...

Happy 28th birthday!! Looks like you got some awesome gifts! I turn 28 in a few weeks, how does it feel? Hope you had an awesome day, your meal looks like it was quite a success even though it didn't quite go as planned...

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

thanks! 28 feels like I'm officially in my late 20's . . . so, its kinda weird.
the food was all and all pretty good. we would go back to Top Spice.

urban vegan said...

Happy B'day! 28? You could practically be my daughter.

Looks like you had a great day. Keep on enjoying alkl year long.

Anna said...

Hi, and happy birthday! I'm just discovering your blog now...enjoying it. This all looks very very yummy. Wow, I would love to try some of that whipped cream stuff, I wonder if they have something like it in Australia?

Look forward to visiting here in the future!

Anonymous said...

happy birthday!! (albeit a little late) it looks like your man really did well in the gift-department :)

all that food looks incredibly yummy, as usually. i was reading your other post about bean sprouts and now i'm interested in growing some myself. especially after my poor little herb garden died :(

Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...
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Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...
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Lori- the Pleasantly Plump Vegan said...

ah, thanks everyone for the b-day wishes!!

Veganista- thanks for stopping by! I hope they have that soy whipped cream where you are. Its called Soyatoo.

Allie- sorry to hear about yr herb garden! i miss having an herb garden. you should totally get into growing sprouts. its super easy and only takes a few days.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Happy belated birthday!!! looks like you had a wonderful celebration :0)

Unknown said...

happy belated birthday to you!!!

The Saucy Coconut said...

Happy Birthday!

VegNews rocks, you should definitely subscribe.