As the title is giving away already my birthday was spent in the very best laid-back attitude yesterday. It being a weekday meant I wasn’t able to visit my parents and celebrate with my whole family. I’ll visit them on the weekend, though, so inspired by several lovely bloggers I decided to celebrate Birthday week instead. Let’s get partying WIAW style today! Thanks for hosting, Jenn!
Cookies as a mid-morning snack while lounging around – bliss!
My mum was able to come to the city I’m living in after work. It meant a lot to me she took the almost two-hour journey (one way) just to take me out for lunch and do a little shopping – yet another reason why I love her so much.
Not having a huge choice when it came to picking a vegan lunch spot I decided on a cute all-organic vegetarian restaurant. I’d never been there before but the great service, am sure to go back now.
Their daily changing menu – we certainly went on a particularly good day!
We met two friends of mine and ordered beverages to toast on my birthday. This might be slightly seriously embarrassing but while everybody else got the obligatory bubbly I ordered my favourite Yogi tea: Sweet Chili. The servant may or may not have been slightly irritated but I simply don’t enjoy the taste of alcohol. Keeping it classy with afternoon tea, right ;)?
Additional bonus: Being the only one to get a small piece of Ayurvedic spice cake on the side.
Okay, I know all you’ve been waiting for is the food so there you go.
Beautifully arranged salads to start with.
My mum got a vegan “Flammkuchen”/Tarte flambée topped with soy cream, vegan bacon bits, fresh tomatoes and vegan cheese. One of my friends got the vegetarian Tarte Flambée which I didn’t snap a picture of but it looked similar.
The other friend of my ordered the Mushroom Tortellini with creamy Portobello sauce. While I didn’t try this one she surely enjoyed it a lot.
Not that I was biased or anything but my entrée obviously was the showstopper ;): Root vegetables with glazed carrots, finely mashed potatoes (“Kartoffelschnee”) and lentil ragout. Seriously amazing!
Eating out is something I didn’t do all too often during the past years thanks to my ED. Seeing as I enjoy it such a lot I’m making it a goal to challenge myself to do it more often and not pick the lowest calorie dish on the menu.
You might wondering where the obligatory birthday cake picture is but I have to disappoint you for now. Not throwing a huge party and my mum being around for a few hours only would have meant eating a whole cake by myself ;). But it’s still going to happen when I’m at my parents’ for the weekend so be back for more birthday week awesomeness!
What do you like to do on your birthdays? Do you prefer them laid-back or go all out?
Most importantly: Do you celebrate birthday week?
Aww it looks like you had a wonderful celebration!! Your mom is awesome for coming down to spend the day with you…that’s what motherhood is all about 🙂 And it’s completely alright that you skipped out on an alcoholic beverage for some tea (obviously I’m torn because I love tea but love me some wine or champagne as well 🙂 )! It was a weekday after all. Hopefully this weekend you’ll make up for it though 😉 More importantly, I’m glad that you’re making such great strides in your food choices when eating out! Visiting restaurants is very enjoyable but can also be very challenging and stressful, but you’re dealing incredibly well. Good for you!!
Oh and to answer your question – I am all about laid-back birthdays. I honestly hate celebrating my birthday so I always try to make it as low-key as possible.
Agreed! Celebrating birthdays is similar to New Year’s Eve in my opinion: Lots of pressure from others expecting you to go all out host a huge party when all you want is a low-key day.
I’m really hoping to eat out more often this year. My mum likes to – not that she wouldn’t enjoy cooking herself! – so chances are I’ll have a partner in crime here ;).
Happy happy birthday! I wish all us bloggers could get together to celebrate. 🙂
All the food looks delicious. I’m glad you had a nice birthday! ❤
I've never celebrated birthday week.. but that's a great idea for my 18th birthday this year. 😀
Thank you, Shannon! Yes, it’d be awesome if we could have huge blogger meet-up – and hey, we’re at least living in the same country after all :D.
Definitely celebrate birthday week especially when it’s your 18th!
Happy birthday! It looks like you had a perfect birthday. Laid back celebrations with a few close loved ones are the best, in my opinion. May your birthday week continue to be wonderful!
Thank you, Carli! Birthdays are definitely all about being with your loved ones.
Happy Birthday, love ❤ That's so sweet of your mom to come and visit you, and you better believe that I'll be looking for that birthday cake picture this weekend 😀
Thanks, honey! Hoping to still get my cake because my mum voiced several objections to a vegan cake. Well, maybe she doesn’t know why it means so much to me because her comments surely weren’t meant in a mean way.
Looks like you had a fun and delicious birthday! I love laid back birthdays. Although I also like to go have a fun crazy time too since I’m pretty nerdy and chill in my every day life. Can I have everything from that restaurant though? That place looks scrumptious.
That place was so cute and I’d have loved to show some pictures of the interior, too. But my mum was already annoyed by mum snapping pictures of the food so I opted against it. I’m sure you’d have enjoyed the food, though.
That restaurant looks sooo good, especially the flatbread!
I hope you have a great birthday week! 🙂
Thank you! While I did only have a bite of my mum’s Flammkuchen it was nice for sure. Nothing to rival my entree, though ;).
What a fabulous birthday celebration!! I hope the rest of your week is just as amazing dear ❤
That’s nice of your mom to make the trip! And I’m absolutely all for birthday week…hell, birthday month!
Birthday month? Oooh, you’re giving me ideas …
A happy birthday to you! I hope you do get that cake and it was worth the wait. 🙂
Thanks, Ameena! Looks like I won’t be getting it this weekend 😦 but hopefully one of the following ones.
Happy birthday hun! Hope you’re having an amazing week.
And birthday week? I go all out and claim princess status on my birthday month! I’ve been doing it since I was a little girl!
Thanks, love! Sheesh, seems like I’ve missed out on birthday month all of those years! And I guess seeing as it was my birthday at the end of January I can’t claim February as birthday month?!
Happy belated birthday!! Hope you’re celebrating the entire week (it’s birthday week after all!) Which you seem to know hah. All this food looks delicious! I definitely have a hard time eating out still, but it gets easier each time I just do it!
Thank you so much, Lisa!
Practice makes perfect is definitely a saying applicable to eating out, too. That being said I’ll need to practice a lot more which I plan on doing. Hope it’ll get a lot easier for you, too!
happy belated birthday! and cookies should always be eaten for breakfast during any good birthday celebration!
Thanks, Sara! Cookies should be eaten (for breakfast) more often in general 🙂 – not just on birthdays.