It’s my birthday today! Are you guys big on celebrating your birthday? For as long as I remember, my birthday has been an obsession of mine. It’s probably just a bit (okay, a lot) egotistical, but I just love the idea of a day celebrating me. I like planning elaborate themed parties with tons of friends (DIY grilled cheese party anyone?), but I also love the flip side of that – spending a day celebrating, just me and my boo.
No matter what I end up doing, there is one absolute must: eat ALL the things. It’s the one day you shouldn’t hold back. I know, I know, veggie sandwiches aren’t what one usually thinks of when they’re thinking about birthday eats, but when I saw this glorious picture of the ultimate veggie sandwich on Instagram, it had to be mine. I’m all about veggie sandwiches (and pizzas too, to be honest). I love the the different textures, the crunch, and the freshness.
This sandwich was truly epic – perfect for a pre-birthday treat!
The Ultimate Veggie Sandwich Recipe
makes 1 sandwich
- 2 slices bread of choice (I used multigrain)
- mayo and mustard, to taste
- 6 leaves romaine lettuce
- 1 small carrot
- 1/2 small cucumber
- salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- 1/8 head red cabbage
- 1 avocado
- handful of sprouts
- 3 slices tomato
- thin slices red onion
Start off by prepping your vegetables. Trip the lettuce leaves to the size of your bread. Julienne or shred the carrot, thinly slice the cucumber and cabbage. Pit and peel the avocado and thickly slice. Toast the bread and let cool (so it doesn’t get soggy). Spread on mayo and mustard to taste and build your sandwich: 1/2 of the lettuce leaves, carrots, cucumber, salt and pepper, cabbage, avocado, sprouts, tomato, onion, then the remaining lettuce and top slice of bread. Wrap tightly in parchment paper or wax paper and slice in half. Enjoy immediately!
i put a candle in it, because birthday :)
Giveaway: I hope you guys like chopping vegetables (and everything else) because for my annual birthday giveaway, I’m giving away a shiny sharp Shun Nakiri knife and a Walnut Boos Block Cutting Board from cuttingboard.com. I absolutely LOVE my nakiri and there’s nothing better than chopping and slicing on a beautiful wood cutting board.
To Enter: Leave a comment below with your favorite birthday memory. I want to hear ALL the details! I’ll randomly choose a winner and notify them through email. Open to US residents only. (Sorry international friends!) Also, if you’d like some extra entries (one per follow), follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest (and let me know in your comment). Contest ends September 17th at 12pm PST. Good luck!
Update: Congrats Willow! Get ready to get your knife skills on! Keep an eye out for an email :)
Happy birthday! Love reading your posts and seeing all your pics! Followed you on Instagram and Pinterest too but I would have done that anyway :)
OH and I forgot to include my favorite birthday memory. Last year my sister and I had a fabulous day that included 85 degrees for breakfast, San Diego aquarium, cocktails and sashimi in la jolla, drunk makeup shopping at benefit, then dinner at Richard Blaise’s AMAZING restaurant at juniper and ivy!!! So basically we ate all the things. And it was good. Then I needed an extra day off work to recover and called in sick!
For my 21st birth I was lucky enough to get to take a road trip with my friends. Coming from Guam it’s pretty hard to get out to the US but my friends and I were able to save up enough and go on a road trip from the west coast to the east. Unfortunately our first stop was Vegas which in hindsight might have been a bad idea because we spent the rest of the trip living off of Jack in the box dollar tacos! Still, that was the best time ever!
A group of friends surprised me at my house at midnight on my birthday with a homemade cake and drinks. I’m a night owl so we stayed up for a few hours talking and laughing. Even though we had made plans for dinner the following night, the surprise was much more memorable. I can’t even remember where we went to dinner!
My favorite birthday memory is my parents throwing me a surprise birthday party when I was 16 in the middle of October (my birthday is June). I had been away that summer and didn’t get a chance to really celebrate, so I was *really* surprised to come home from driving school (ah, to be 16) and find all my close friends at my house with a ton of amazing food. :)
My birthday may be in the middle of December but I always requested a Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake, Chocolate and Vanilla. One of my grandmothers would always ask why I wanted something so impractical during winter and I would just laugh and tell her they were wonderful. But as I got older is was a strawberry rhubarb pie. That same grandmother would grow strawberries and rhubarb during the summer and then freeze enough for my birthday pie. And it always had to be hot with vanilla ice cream.
Last year for my 34th birthday I decided to have an adult pizza party. Despite being a huge foodie and culinary school dropout, my favorite food of all time is pizza. So, 15 of my closest friends and family all joined me at Marra’s in South Philly for a night of laughs, incredible brick oven pizza, and carafes of cheap wine. Each person ordered their own pizza or calzone it was a sea of food and we all shared. I think that was the best part, sampling everyone’s creation. Adult pizza parties are the way to go (especially if you live in Philly, NJ, or NY).
I am now following you on IG, FB, & Twitter.
My parents always refused to let me sleep over at friends’ houses. I always thought it was a strict Asian parent thing… and I think my mother had very serious fears about my being kidnapped. And I definitely couldn’t host a sleepover because that would be hypocritical. So for years I would go to birthday parties and get picked up around 11 when all the fun was starting. For my 18th birthday, my friends begged me to ask my parents to let me spend the night at one of their houses. I still remember being shocked when my mom out of nowhere said ok. Turns out my best friend of 10 years had called my parents beforehand to ask permission (and probably swore that she would sacrifice herself to the kidnappers if it came to that). My first real sleepover at the age of 18 and the fact that my friend spoke to my parents in private (she’s still kind of terrified of them after almost 25 years) are still two of the best presents I’ve ever gotten on my birthday.
When I was turning 25, I was having a bit of a quarter life crisis. We had to evacuate for a hurricane on my birthday (not the first time), which helped put everything in perspective, and my cousin made me a this is your life style photo album with notes and photos from all of my friends
On my 22nd birthday, my mom sent me a bouquet of 21 yellow roses and 1 white rose, with a card saying, ” Through the laughter and tears of the last 22 years, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”