Birthday?

Hi everyone, At work, we celebrate everyone's birthday with a sugar-filled cake (usually ice cream, I started this a couple years ago). We all file into the conference room, sing Happy Birthday stand around all uncomfortable like, and everyone but me eats the cake. This doesn't bother me, even though I have to turn down cake three and four times for people to get it. "Are you sure you can't have just a little?", etc. I told them that sugar free ice cream makes me sick, and they leave me alone. However, my OWN birthday is coming up in two weeks. I have made it clear that I can't have cake, but that doesn't mean that everyone else can't. (there are three birthdays on my birthday too (for all you astrologers out there, it has to show some sort of hiring trend. In fact there used to be FOUR until the vice president cashed in his stock and ran away to Florida.) Anyhow, of the three of us, one guy always takes the day off, and the other is IT and generally isn't there unless one of us breaks something. He does show up for his cake, but doesn't expect it. That leaves me. I've been asked what I wanted, and I jokingly said a salad. Well the idiot who takes care of the birthday celebrations has taken me seriously, even though I flat out told her that I was kidding . She keeps talking about having salad on the 20th. Anyhow, my real question is: Does anyone know of a dessert-like food that would substitute in this situation? Something high in protein? I would love to show the rest of the office how I eat every day. I can find sugar free cake recipes and the like, but the word "cake" kind of scares me to begin with. Thanks for any help you can give, Julie PS: NO JELLO. If all else fails, I'll ask for sugar free popsicles. I love those things.

I'm sorry, am I missing something? I don't see a link. I did get some SF cheesecake flavored pudding today. I loved that stuff preop. Haven't had it in a while. Key Lime yogurt is the best! And Key Lime cheesecake is better! You should try that. Julie

You might go to the Splenda website as they have recipes. I've not tried a cake but I have used their bar-b-que sauce recipe. I did make some carrot cake bars using splenda as well. And I know there are brownies and such recipes as well. These could probably work if you just eat a couple of bites and chew slowly. But if you want to avoid the whole cake thing, why not go with crudites and low fat dip? Depending on the level of interest & fanciness desired, you could even check around at some Chinese restaurants to see if they do the fancy vegetables--the ones in shapes of flowers & birds. That would make it much more celebratory. And throw in some boiled shrimp for protein! Happy Birthday, by the way, Sally

Hey, thanks! Splenda is my best friend! This birthday thing is not too big. It usually is long enough to sing Happy Birthday and eat cake. It lasts at most 10 minutes. Fancy vegetables and dip is too much. But thanks anyhow. By the way, what is a crudite? Thanks for the suggestions and good wishes. Julie

Dear Julie, Crudites is just the formal name for raw veggies with a dipping sauce! Sally

I'd let her do the salad. I'd bet a lot of people would enjoy it and she seems to want to do it. Happy Birthday. Loris

I would totally let her do the salad, but it's not really a meal type thing. Plus I don't want to upset the apple cart, so to speak, and some people would get kind of mad if instead of ice cream cake they got tomatoes, cheese and lettuce. It was suggested to me over on the main board that I make some weird brownies with black beans of all things. I mentioned this at work, and got stared at. Then she told me she might like to try that if it actually tasted like brownies. We shall see. (it's got protein, too. ) Thanks for the good wishes. Julie

I don't know about lots of protien, but a fruit parfait type thing would be great, just layer vanilla yogurt(they have light and fit which is sweetened with splenda) and lots of fresh summer fruits like berries and melons, and maybe some s/f cool whip? I always do fruit and cool whip for desserts. Karyn