Birthday Celebrations
My brother turned 27 yesterday! I can’t believe my older brother is going to be a daddy in just a few months! I’m so excited for him and my lovely sister-in-law. They’re going to make fantastic parents (and I cannot wait to be an aunt!) Since I’m lucky enough to be in the same city as my brother and his wife, birthday celebrations are always a lot of fun. Even though my parents are back in Ohio, I’m thankful to have family here in Virginia. My brother and his wife were the biggest motivation for me moving here, and I so happy to be near them.
So in this little “What I Ate Wednesday” here’s what some of my meals have looked like, including my brother’s birthday dinner!
Breakfast
I’ve broken out of my smoothie rut, and I’ve been enjoying greek yogurt with frozen blueberries. I wish blueberries weren’t so expensive. Regardless, this breakfast does a pretty good job of keeping me full. If you’re really looking for a protein packed breakfast, try this trick with your Greek yogurt.
I love how simple and quick this breakfast is. I’ve been doing more blog-writing in the morning before work, so a breakfast that is quick to prepare is key.
Lunch
Since I didn’t have any leftovers to pack, I grabbed this salad from the cafeteria at work and paired it with a side of tomato soup. It wasn’t bad, for cafeteria food. I love chickpeas on my salad, because they give it a little more staying power than just veggies.
Afternoon snack
I’ve seen so many bloggers raving about Quest bars, but when I tried the brownie flavor, I was terribly disappointed. I wanted to like it, but I thought it tasted like a shoe. I’d heard good thing about the Cinnamon Roll flavor though, so I gave it a shot, and it actually did taste pretty good. I ordered a box on Amazon, because they’re super expensive to buy individually. These only have 170 calories, and pack in 17g fiber and 20g protein. (You can order them here.)
That bar will keep you insanely full, I swear. Maybe I’ll add Quest bars to my next round of Protein Bar Reviews.
Dinner
The birthday celebration! We went to dinner at Stuzzi, which is a local Italian place that serves Neapolitan style pizza. It’s pretty good (although I have so many pizza places I love) and it’s a little nicer than your standard pizza joint, so it was perfect for a birthday. Alex and I split a small plate of gnocchi (which was creamy and delicious) and a vegetarian pizza. The pizza had mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, and artichokes. So yummy. I think pizza is my favorite way to get vegetables…
After dinner, Alex and I walked to Sweet Frog because I’d be craving fro-yo all week. Gotta love frozen yogurt. I loaded my chocolate/cake batter/cookies n’ cream combination with lots of chocolate. What can I say, sometimes you just need some chocolate. It was the perfect ending to a delicious dinner.
No family situations for me but I can’t say no to a freshly glazed Creme Brรปlรฉe on my birthday!
Cake! I love a cake on my birthday and so does most f my family, its gotta be gluten and dairy free so a challenge sometimes but always delicious. I love the picture of breakfast : )
haha tasted like a shoe :p I never tried quest bars but I’ve seen so many people rave about them– must be the newest thing in the blog world lol I don’t think I”ll be trying them though since I saw the ingredients had cashews in them and I’m not a cashew fan lol Happy Birthday to your Brother! I usually just do the dinner with family thing and a cake.. nothing too thrilling haha
The Quest bars are a bit iffy for my sensitive stomach so I stick to the natural line and only have them every so often, but the cinnamon roll is one of my favorites! (And just to add to what hundreds of other people have likely told you, they really are fabulous warmed up).
Throw some granola on the fro yo next time…delicious (if I do say so myself!) : )
Our birthday tradition is that I bake a big birthday cake from scratch for everyone in our immediate family (and the occasional friend). Hudson chooses vanilla cake/vanilla frosting. David likes chocolate sheet cake with fudge frosting. When we lived in Texas near my sister, my nephew would decline the cake and ask for chocolate cream pie instead. I love baking for my family!
I like to get things done in the morning, so quick prep breakfasts are ideal for me too. The birthday celebration dinner looks delicious! I like quest bars, but the brownie one is actually one of my favourites haha. That is good that you enjoyed the cinnamon even though your didn’t like the brownie one!
So I got stuck a little back in time when you redirected us to your cake batter yogurt creation. Lol. I literally spent the next 15 or 20 minutes reading through your old posts. ๐ THEN I remembered that I never commented on this one. haha.
Haha, you are too sweet! I’m glad you found some old posts you enjoyed ๐
GOSH you take such beautiful pictures. And all of that food looks incredible. Now that I think about it, we don’t really have any birthday traditions. Well, except we hold each other to the “it’s MY birthday week!” rule if we want something. ๐
Aw, thank you! I’m still learning my way around my camera, but it’s fun!
The only birthday traditions that we have is to celebrate big! Happy birthday to your bro! ๐
Isn’t it funny when you get stuck on a craving. I get that fro-yo craving every once in a while too, and when it happens, it’s imperative that I find a way to stop and indulge. ๐
Exactly! Otherwise it’ll be on my mind forever! ๐