Woman in Real Life

Happy Wednesday friends! There have been a couple of pretty darn hot days around here this week. Our air conditioner still isn't working - we are awaiting our trusted repairman, who is recovering from an operation for another week or so.

I'm not really good (at all!) at withstanding heat. Let's just say I don't get as much done as I would like when the house is 35 to 40 degrees Celsius inside! I have been careful to stock up on lots of delicious and refreshing fruit. I really crave fruit in summer and I find the whole family will eat lots of fruit if I wash it and put platters of it out regularly.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I have been so busy making Christmas garlands (and a couple of new recipes for vegan sweets - to be posted shortly) that I haven't kept up my What I Ate Wednesday duties. But today's the day! I'm going to play catch-up by showing you a few pics from the last couple of weeks.

In a vegetarian/vegan household, we have come to rely on certain trusty grocery products that we know and love. In busy times (and when is it not busy?) it's great to have healthy, store-bought products at the ready to help you make a quick meal or snack without sacrificing good nutrition. I thought I would share a look at some of these items today. Plus, we have also sampled a couple of new products lately that I want to tell you about. Likely some of our grocery favourites are your favourites too!

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.

We were out of town all weekend for a basketball tournament slash visit with my sister. So, Monday arrived without a fresh infusion of groceries or any plan for what we could eat. On this particular What I Ate Wednesday, my food choices will tend to show that there was little in the fridge.

But first, before we left for the weekend I made this red lentil, potato and tofu curry. It was the first time I attempted this recipe and I really enjoyed it. I will make it again for sure.

You know when you're sick and you can't eat much? That was me last week. In the midst of a flu (or whatever that wicked, wicked virus was), I (shamefully) recall looking down at my belly and thinking, "my stomach looks pretty flat." When I finally hobbled woefully downstairs after a few days in bed, my mom said, "You look skinnier already." And I said, "I know" with a distinctive hint of joy in my voice. It's sad, but true. That is the one up-side to being sick - pride in your flatter tummy.

In this case it's easy go, easy come, though, because I don't really see a big difference now. To be honest, food turns me off a bit still. But I didn't mind swallowing a bunch of pasta and pizza when my husband made it this past Sunday. He made rapini pizza (my favourite) for me and pasta with Yves vegan meatballs. Pictured is the lunch portion I had the next day. I stirred some leftover chickpea salad into the pasta for extra nutrition.

The weekend was so busy I barely had a moment to rest. We went to bed at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday and had to be up at 8:00 a.m. to get ready for my mom's birthday party on Sunday. The point being, I am still feeling a bit sluggish a couple of days later. So, as I share a look at my Tuesday eats, you'll see that I kept it pretty simple. In the morning I nibbled on a fruit and nut trail mix.

Happy What I Ate Wednesday! Yep, that's a picture of me in one of my happiest moments - they generally occur when I'm eating at a restaurant. Especially if it specializes in vegan food. It's nice not to have to skip most of the menu!

Now that it's finally warm...sort of...some of the time, I'm thinking about salads and barbecue veggies and fruity desserts and all those warm weather yummies. When you are making the most of spring and summer, a sandwich becomes an acceptable dinnertime meal, right?

That's what we did on Sunday after spending more than five hours shopping with the kids. We had planned to have a barbecue, but we got home late and exhausted, so we cooked up Gardein vegan chick'n nuggets and sauteed veggies to make sandwiches with. You can also see a bit of my drink - rum mixed with Blue Sky natural cola. Summer weather seems to call for a nice beverage too.

Happy Wednesday! Today's edition of WIAW is all about what I ate on Tuesday. I have no additional food photos this week because we were travelling on the weekend for my son's basketball tournament in Niagara Falls.

There was some fast food involved in our travels (hello Harvey's veggie burgers!), as well as a stop at the grocery store for prepared salads, sushi and cut up cantaloupe. There may have been an evening of rum, cola and chips with the other basketball parents too. There has to be a bit of fun for us parents too, right?

Anyway, I started off my Tuesday by making pancakes from a mix. I topped them with Earth Balance margarine and maple syrup and served Yves veggie sausage and orange slices on the side.

It's sunny today! Temperatures are still below zero and there is supposed to be another winter storm on Thursday, but I'll take the sunshine while I can get it.

This What I Ate Wednesday I'm taking a look at what I ate yesterday. It was the day after the Family Day long weekend and there were few groceries to be found in our house. I wasn't sure what I could even pack in the kids' school lunches so I got up (relatively) early and made fresh banana chocolate chip muffins. We always have ingredients for those (except I was short half a banana). I also gave them veggie hot dogs, orange slices and snacks. This is a long way of saying that my breakfast ended up being banana muffins with half of an orange left over after I prepared the kids' lunches.

It's Wednesday and it feels like the start of summer around here. After a few cold days, we are back into a couple of steaming hot days. If only we could go to the beach! But the kids are in school and there is work to be done.

We are starting to get a little bit into fall cooking. I made a vegetable soup the other night. I love the ease of preparing soup. For another dinner, my husband made roasted vegetables and rice, which we enjoyed with Gardein Mandarin Orange Crispy (fake) Chick'n, pictured above.

It seems to me that there are those people who like vegan dairy substitutes and those who don't. My husband doesn't like them, for example, but I do. My favourite product is Daiya's vegan mozzarella shreds. So, I was pretty excited to discover that Daiya has some new products on the market.

First up, I sampled Daiya's cream cheese style spread. I haven't had a morning bagel with cream cheese for years. This product is indeed smooth and creamy as the label says. It spreads beautifully. It's also free of soy. I really don't know how they do it. It tastes pretty good too. You have to keep an open mind if you're going to try it, though. It's not going to taste like the dairy-based cream cheese you're used to.

It's What I Ate Wednesday once again, and boy what a busy week. With Shrove Tuesday yesterday and Valentine's Day tomorrow, there's lots of food to be made (and eaten) this week.

Yesterday's dinner was...well, pancakes of course. But let's get back to that later.

I am trying my best to keep up my weekly meal planning. This is week four. Read on for this week's menu plan.

Last week started with Monday's Vegetable Soup with Lentils. This is a old favourite that my husband and I began making many years ago. The recipe follows. What I really like about this soup is that it's simple - you throw in the ingredients and let it cook for an hour. That gives you time to make a salad, slice up your bread, pour a glass of wine and relax.

On Sunday, I shared my vegetarian menu plan for this week. (Well, it's vegan for me and vegetarian for the other three family members.) Today, on What I Ate Wednesday, I'm looking at a few meals I consumed in the past week, before my menu plan kicked in. Visit me Sunday to hear whether my plan was a success. I'll share any of the recipes that work out.

With all the effort that goes into holiday meals, sometimes we just feel like slacking off the rest of the days, don't we? Well, I do.

This What I Ate Wednesday, I have a few meals from the last week to share, but not many, because I just didn't make much or take many photos. I have spent a lot of time in pajamas.

Above, on Saturday I put together a lunch from whatever groceries were left in the fridge. I boiled a sweet potato and some regular potatoes and made a mash. I baked tofu in teriyaki sauce. I used leftover pesto on pasta. We had rapini and roasted veggies left from the day before. Finally, I boiled some carrot slices. I quite enjoyed the mishmash of tasty stuff.