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 :)
Now that I’m thinking about it, most of my birthdays have been either so boring as to be indistinguishable from any other day or involved me crying at some point, so this was actually a pretty tough assignment. The only birthday I can think of that was actually fun was my 16th. It happened to fall on a Friday and the weather was really nice and my parents let me miss school to go get my license. I remember driving into school after passing the test and honestly feeling like the coolest person who had ever lived driving the Mercury Sable that I had inherited from my grandmother. And I had missed all of my real classes and only had electives left and my friends had wrapped my locker in gift wrap and they had all chipped in and bought me this really pretty ring and it was seriously one of the best days of high school.
When I was 16 we went to NYC for my birthday (which falls around Thanksgiving) and we had dessert at the Plaza. I was a complete chocolate junkie, so I ordered chocolate mousse. The whole experience sounds pretty frou frou to me now but it was all so exotic and amazing at the time.
I remember one birthday, my family didn’t feel like ordering cake. Instead, my dad took a pomelo & stuck a candle on that. My twin brother and I went along with it, singing & blowing out the candles. After that, we ate out at our favorite restaurant. The pomelo cake was exactly like something my dad would come up with, and it was all in all a really fun night!
Oh yeah, I already follow you on Instagram. :)
When I turned 16 my friends threw me a surprise party. They all acted like they were busy on my birthday and planned to do things with me separately. The only one who made plans with me on my actual birthday wanted me to go horseback riding with her. I didn’t want to go because I’d fallen off a horse as a child and was still traumatized, but my parents insisted that I go (citing the ol’ “get back on the horse” thing…lol). I was soooo mad at them for “making” me do something I didn’t want to do on MY 16th birthday! I went, and managed to get on the horse without too much panicking (although I was on the edge of freaking out the whole time!), and my friend sloooowly led us on trails to a nearby park…and there were ALL my other friends, hanging out and waiting with cake and gifts! Oh, and my “mean” parents were there, too, taking pictures (on roll film, because it was a looooong time ago!). It was a fun surprise…but I have to admit that I did NOT ride the horse back to the stable. I took a different kind of “horse” back — one of my friends had a Ford Mustang so I rode in that! ;-)
My best birthday was the year before I got engaged when my friends and I went to dinner and then to karaoke afterwards – while we were there, they brought out the cake. They had ordered a cake with a huge drawing of an engagement ring on it – clearly a hint to my boyfriend. We all had a good laugh and the following year when he did propose to me, we jokingly compared my real engagement ring to the drawing on the cake.
My favorite birthday memory is when I turned 3, my parents had my first “real” birthday party – a piñata and everything. Unfortunately, my mom, having never bought a piñata before, thought it came already filled with candy. The kids all spent like 20 minutes breaking it open, only to find it completely empty. We still have pictures of thirty angry children ripping apart the shell of the piñata.
You know how when you’re little, when it’s your birthday, you’d take a treat into school to share with your classmates? Since my birthday falls between Christmas and New Year’s, I never got to do that on my actual birthday. But one year, the teachers had gone on strike and we began the school year a month later than normal. To make up for the lost time, rather than have the usual winter break, the days in between the holidays would be used to make up for the missed days in September. I was so young that I don’t think it mattered to me that I was in school when I was usually at home playing with Christmas presents. I was so excited to take in my two-dozen cupcakes on my real birthday, and I’ll never forget it.
Love the vegetable sandwich–I always forget how delicious sandwiches can be.
Favorite bday memory is going to Peru as a surprise from my (now) husband. I got to celebrate my bday for 10 days as we ate the most delicious street food–roast chicken, alpaca, corn with cheese–and see places like machu picchu for the first time. One of the tastiest trips ever, and beats most bday dinners ive ever had in the US
My mom used to wake me up with presents on my bed, my favorite breakfast in the kitchen and a day dedicated to making me feel special. Oh, to be a kid again!