A Vegan Birthday + my first ever youtube video!

 Last friday was the 20th October 2017, my 21st birthday. There are some people that don't really care about their birthdays, but not me - I feel really connected to it and it's the most important day in the year for me, I can't even explain why. So this year I decided to capture what I did and especially, what I ate (since food it the most important thing for me...).

I started the day with some yoga. I've recently started doing yoga workouts from youtube everyday and I love the channel Yoga with Adriene. I'm on day 25 of the 30 days of Yoga series. 

My yoga outfit :) the sport bra was thrifted and both the sweatpants and the yoga mat were hand-me-downs

After yoga, I had some oatmeal for breakfast. I usually let the oats soak in almond milk overnight to get them soft and microwave them in the morning (I don't really like cold oats!) I usually put some cinnamon after heating my oatmeal, and this time I also added some cacao powder because it's my birthday and chocolate is my life.

Outfit of the day ~ Gotta love that awkward posing
Rise clan sweater, hand-me-down jeans and natural world shoes

 

I headed to college for one class, and then took part in a moment of silence to honor the victims of the fires that have been happening here in Portugal. It's infuriating and heart breaking that something like this could happen in our country, and I wish for the best for the people who have lost everything to this tragedy. I honestly can't put my feelings into words, and I cannot imagine the pain these people are going through. I hope better luck is on their way.

I then went on to have lunch with my boyfriend and my family at my favorite vegan place in Lisbon: Ao 26. I asked for a "Meaty" burger (made from lentils) with added vegan cheese and a side of sweet potato fries with vegan mayo. It was really, really good.

Both my brother and my boyfriend got the Carbonara, and my parents got the paneer. I took a bite of everything and it was all delicious, but my favorite was definitely my burger!

Boyfriend's carbonara

My father's paneer

For desserts, my father and my boyfriend both ordered chocolate cake, while my brother and my mother asked for Crème Brûlée. As for me, I asked for something I have no idea what it is - but it's delicious. The waitress said something like "Danesce" but it probably isn't spelled that way. I suppose I'm an adventurous eater, and it's worth it.

My dessert, it was sort of a chocolate, creamy pie with figs on top

Chocolate cake

Crème Brûlée

Again, everything was delicious but I chose the best - even though I had no idea of what I was choosing!

We finished eating pretty late, and when I got home I knew I had to hurry up and start preparing for the dinner party, since not only I wanted a fancy meal but also, I needed a birthday cake. 

I baked my absolute favourite cake of all times - Carob cake with chocolate icing. It's a recipe from a portuguese vegan cookbook called "Cozinha Vegetariana para quem quer ser saudável" (Vegetarian cooking for those who want to be healthy) by Gabriela Oliveira - I love her cookbooks. My cake doesn't look like in the picture in the book, but the taste definitely makes up for that.

(I also had made some chocolate mousse from aquafaba on the day before, which, as always, I forgot to take a photo of.)

But that was only for dessert! I still needed to cook us a fancy meal for dinner. I cooked a dish of potatoes, tofu and spinach I mentioned in my last post, that I also took from a Gabriela Oliveira cookbook [the most recent one, named "Cozinha Vegetariana para festejar" (Vegetarian cooking for celebrating) - I just use spinach instead of cabbage ]

I also asked my grandmother to make me some vegan rissoles - I have no idea of how she makes them, but she knows what I eat and what I don't. She makes these out of vegan chorizo (and magic, I'm guessing!) and they're delicious!

My family thinks I'm crazy for taking this photo

 

And that was it. We sang happy birthday, watched a few videos of me and my brother as babies and, quicker than I'd like, the day was over. 

Although I spent my morning at school and my afternoon cooking, it was one of the best birthdays I ever had. I usually plan a party with my friends, it never goes as planned and I get really disappointed. This time I decided to keep it simple, celebrate with my family (and good food!) and I'm really happy about how things turned out.

Besides taking photos, I decided to also record and make a Youtube video out of my day. I love editing videos and I've been doing amateur videos for a while, but always for myself and my friends, I never made one public. I admit I'm really nervous, I know the quality sucks and my editing could be better, but if I don't do this know I'll just keep wondering what could have been.

I don't know if this is my first and last video or the first of many. I would definitely like to make more in the future, since I love editing videos and I watch a lot of youtube.
Let's see how this goes!