Birthday Dinner

Heathen son's birthday is tomorrow. His EIGHTEENTH birthday. Wow. I'm reminded of an old saying - the days are long but the years are short. That's so true with kids. I can remember days when he and his heathen sister were younger and I was certain the day lasted 48 hours at least. Now I look back and they're both grown. My baby turns 18 in less than 24 hours (6:32 p.m. to be exact!). He and his sister both get to vote for the first time in this election. And they're both looking forward to it, too, which thrills me. :)

When we were figuring out what to do to celebrate his birthday as a family, we found out that, lo and behold, he made plans with his friends on his actually birthday evening. Hmmm, go figure. Then he has plans the next night to see a friend from out of town. So our only option was to do something the night before. Tonight.

We used to go out for birthday dinner celebrations but there have been several birthdays in the past when he and heathen sister have both asked that I make them a favorite meal instead. This year was one of those years and, considering how we've changed the way we're eating, it definitely made it easier than finding a restaurant with a plant-based menu. However, he couldn't decide on one thing he wanted for dinner... so he asked that I make TWO things instead. Being a good mom (I hope!), I agreed.

So dinner tonight consisted of his two favorite casseroles (and probably sweet hubby's favorites as well) - both things I've made in recent weeks and featured on this blog even - "chicken" spinach pasta bake and spaghetti casserole. So I'm not going to take up much time on those two items since I've featured them before but I will share a picture just because they look so good and yummy...




The nice thing is that there are plenty of leftovers for lunch and probably dinner tomorrow night, too! I like that! :)



Of course you can't really have a birthday dinner without a birthday cake, right? Heathen son asked for a spice cake like I made recently when we had Bill and Kay over for dinner. I discovered there are plenty of cake mixes that are vegan -- and I knew that you can make a cake with cake mix and pumpkin because I found a great recipe on Pinterest some months ago. It's wonderful! And completely fat free, too. So is the frosting glaze.

For the frosting glaze, I mixed 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1/4 cup of applesauce, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 tablespoons of almond milk. I heated this together in a small saucepan until it was well blended. After the cake was out of the oven (bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees), I poured the glaze over the hot cake and let it soak in. It's only been out of the oven for about 10 minutes so we're waiting for it to cool a bit longer before cutting into it. :)



The singing and birthday present has to wait until morning. )

- Posted by Jennifer

Location:Home, sweet home