Woman in Real Life

This What I Ate Wednesday I'm going straight to a look at a full day of eats. It happens to be my Tuesday menu. I feel like it looks like I'm on a diet. I usually eat more food than I ate yesterday. In reality I just didn't feel like making anything special.

I started the day with a smoothie made from banana, cherries, pineapple, strawberries, chia seeds, water, orange juice and Natural Calm.

This past week has been event-filled. Of course, there was Mother's Day on Sunday. One of my favourite days - I usually get to spend the morning curled up in bed with a pile of books and magazines. Unfortunately this year I woke up the night before Mother's Day feeling sick. I ended up staying in bed a little longer than I planned on Sunday. My husband slept in a bit too, so my usual breakfast in bed turned into a late brunch in bed.

Today I'm doing a proper, traditional What I Ate Wednesday. The What I Ate Wednesday linky party that Jenn hosts involves sharing a look at a full day of eats. Breakfast through to bedtime. Nowhere to hide. None of this showing highlights from the week like I usually do. It is a day's entry from a food diary, if you will - in pictures. If you're a dietitian or health aficionado you could, in theory, tell me what I'm missing in my daily diet. If you wanted to. Which I'm sure you don't.

Anyway, this is a look at my Tuesday foods. The kids and I slept in a bit after staying up late for my daughter's dance showcase the night before. My daughter requested fruit done up in the Yonanas frozen treat maker for breakfast. We used frozen strawberries, bananas, peaches and blueberries. (I am currently out of my fave frozen cherries - I have been to two stores at which they were sold out.) When I make Yonanas for my daughter in the evening, she asks me to add a "surprise ingredient." It's usually chocolate chips, so not really a surprise but always welcomed nevertheless. Sometimes I stick a cookie in the middle. Despite the fact that it was breakfast I threw in some chocolate chips and the three of us had frozen-fruit-that-seems-like-ice-cream for breakfast.

Happy Wednesday! Food, lovely food! Why do we think about it so much? Sometimes it's with excitement - like when we're checking out a new restaurant. Sometimes it's with dread - what am I going to make for dinner? We could all eat food just to survive but instead we've made something wonderful and seductive about it.

My What I Ate Wednesday food highlights from the week begin with this falafel sandwich that my husband made on Sunday (in between my son's basketball games). He used Casbah falafel mix to make the falafels themselves. (You rehydrate the mix with water, form balls and then fry them in oil.) It has pretty good ingredients and the end result is tasty. We also put on canned beet slices, lettuce, pickles (a necessity!), hummus and a tahini sauce. It make a quick, filling and fairly healthy lunch (except for the fried in oil part maybe).

My mid-winter obsession with fruit continues. I stocked up on tons of frozen fruit last week because there are only so many times I want to get fresh berries at the grocery store in one week. The frozen fruits come in handy in the meantime. One day I was craving a warm treat, so I whipped up an easy batch of vegan scones and threw a handful of frozen mixed berries into the mix.

The fam and I have enjoyed some nourishing and tasty meals this week. Nothing complicated - just good comfort food for dreary January. On Sunday, the husband's dinner-cooking day, he made burritos with refried beans, sautéed peppers and mushrooms, diced tomatoes and guacamole. He also made homemade French fries and this easy and satisfying Mexican rice recipe.

As you can see, I was so hungry I took a few bites of my burrito before I remembered to take a photo. It was pretty delicious.

The past week has been all about balancing writing deadlines with kids' activities. Although my husband is home for the summer, I try to make it out to swimming lessons and soccer games whenever possible.

The combination of work to be done and a family home for the summer has resulted in simple, quick meals. Something's gotta give, I always say. We had potato gnocchi with homemade tomato sauce one night. Probably a green salad that I forgot to photograph too. We've been having lots of quick green salads.