My Birthday

The week before my birthday I kept getting asked the same question about my birthday party; "What can you eat?" My family was trying to plan some sort of dish that Stu and I could eat while they were having hot dogs and hamburgers. I share my birthday party with my nephew Nick, who turned 4 this year. The theme was Iron man! I finally told everyone not to worry, I would bring myself a GFV cake and have salad.  But two days before the party I ended up in the hospital Emergency room for excruciating pain and found out I have fibroids. So needless to say I was not feeling up to baking a cake. 

When I arrived at my parents house, my sisters and niece were so excited to show me that they had made me chocolate covered strawberries with vegan chocolate chips and a GFV chocolate cake! I could not have been more proud of their efforts and they were too. We laughed as they shared the whole experience with me of them venturing into whole foods not quite knowing what gluten free was, and looking for Gluten free, wheat free and "vegan free" cake mixes! lol.. Until a kind shopper overheard them discussing the matter and gave them the rundown of what gluten free means and what vegan means, She helped them pick out the cake mix and egg replacer and they even made the frosting. I smiled ear to ear because the thought really does mean alot and the cake was delicious.

We also had a beautiful salad for lunch. All in all they went out of their way to make it special and it was.

On my actual birthday at home, Stu surprised me with a vegan gluten free version of my favorite dish: Panang! I used to eat chicken panang from every Thai restaurant we went to. But his version was amazing and included unexpected ingredients like sweet potato and kale. While unexpected, they seemed to belong in the dish and really complete it. I will find out which recipe he used and post it. 

GFV Panang

Once the kids left to their dad's last night, we finished out my birth week with something we have not had in a long time. Dirty Martinis with blue cheese stuffed olives. On his way home from work, Stu picked up some vegan blue cheese and some Belvedere vodka. He stuffed the olives while I mixed the drinks. While the texture of the blue cheese was not the same, we found that the longer it sat in the drink the more it tasted like the real thing. Verdict: more dirty martinis tonight :) Cheers!