Woman in Real Life

Summer is the optimum time to add more fruits and veggies to your diet. It's a healthful transition that need not be painful. In fact, it can be quite simple and a whole lot of fun. This recipe for Strawberry Peach Green Tea Ice Pops, for example, is a unique and fun way to enjoy fresh fruit that appeals to adults and kids alike.

We all know by now that eating fruit provides us with numerous health benefits. As part of an overall healthy diet, fruit reduces our risk of developing chronic diseases and provides us with essential nutrients to help us not just survive, but thrive!

I have been enjoying fresh fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, bananas, nectarines and plums this summer. So, just in case you need a little nudge to add more fruits to your daily diet, I thought I'd share a little refresher on the benefits of eating fruit. Here goes:

Sometimes I just feel too tired (lazy?) to go grocery shopping. And then it becomes slim pickings for meals and snacks around here. Especially through six solid months of winter. Fortunately with the arrival of spring comes renewed energy, and I have been hitting up the grocery store regularly to replenish our stock of fruits and veggies. Having lots of fresh produce in the kitchen means a much healthier week for me and my family. It always reminds me of the advice that raw chef Pedja once gave me for adding more raw foods to our diets - add healthier choices to your diet and they will naturally begin to replace the unhealthy foods by sheer volume. And, surround yourself with fresh fruits and veggies. Simple and powerful.

Before I get to this week's What I Ate Wednesday, I have two winners to announce. Congratulations to K.S. Barrett, the winner of Lucy's delicious vegan and gluten-free cookies. Congratulations to Brenda W. too! She won the Crofter's organic jam. I have sent you both emails. Enjoy these wonderful products!

This week I have been consuming smoothies almost every morning. I have been experimenting with smoothies that don't contain non-dairy milks for a change. This one, above, is pure fruit and water (I think so anyway. Sometimes I forget what I threw in there.)

It's What I Ate Wednesday and I am taking a look back at some food highlights from the past week.

I discovered a lot of fruit pictures on my camera. I'm continuing to serve fruit for me and my family as often as possible.

Happy What I Ate Wednesday! I'm sharing some food highlights from the week as usual, but this week I also enjoyed a few great snacks that I want to tell you about.

I have a fierce sweet tooth and I have always loved jelly beans. What I don't like is artificial colours. Not good for anybody, especially children. Luckily, there is a delicious alternative.

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.

I am finally joining my (crazy fit) buddy Laura for her menu planning challenge.

I always think about planning my meals for the week, but I rarely do it...at least not in any really successful way. But it's a new year and a perfect time to re-examine my priorities.

Happy What I Ate Wednesday! So far I haven't made any Christmas cookies. If I had, I would be forced to show you lots of photos of all the cookies I nibbled on while I was baking. That's still to come.

In the meantime, a look at some of the stuff I ate this week. 

I like my smoothies to be a little (or a lot) sweet. So, rather than going totally green, I added a bit of veg and a lot of fruit to my breakfast smoothie today. The result is this delicious yet healthy green-ish smoothie.

It's Friday. Have a good one. And don't worry too much about your Christmas shopping. It will get done. It always does. (By the way, that little encouragement was just as much for me as for you -- I have barely bought a single present.)

Normally I would call this Insta-Friday, with the "insta" representing cell phone photos. But I am mixing cell phone and camera photos, because I am tired of the quality of my cell phone photos. Nope. No iPhone 5 over here. Not that I'm jealous.

I am including this photo of fruit to illustrate a story about kids...my kids. I sent pears and apples in their lunches yesterday. Mostly they came back untouched. So, I cut them up after school and put them out like this. They ate it all. Apparently they are too lazy to bite into a whole fruit.

I'm not going to lie to you. Halloween is here, and I'm going to be dipping into some treats.

Okay, truth be told, I have already had a few treats. I might have indulged in a couple of small packets of Swedish Berries...and a couple of chocolate bars.

I'm going to limit myself from eating too much candy though. How am I going to accomplish that? Why, by baking of course. If I have some homemade treats to consume, I won't be so tempted by the chemical-infused packaged goods.

Now for a What I Ate Wednesday look at what I ate on the weekend...besides candy of course.

I’m off to a school field trip (outdoors on the hottest day of the year) with my daughter today.

And that’s it! What foods have you enjoyed recently?

This picture of my son and my husband trying on some "hockey hair" in a Clearwater Beach tourist shop is a fond reminder of our vacation.


I am still working on the photobook of our vacation (talk about procrastinating). In the meantime, I also have this grouping of photos to remind me of the fun we had.

My husband and I enjoyed seeing the whole gang, and, of course, eating Nonna’s food. We only told her we were coming a few hours before dinner time, so we offered to pick up some take-out. But, she would have none of that. I don’t know how she does it, but she had a whole big meal waiting for us. You can see in the pictures the ravioli and spaghetti that the others so enjoyed, the kamut penne that I had, and a dinner plate of: breaded and fried tofu, salad, cauliflower, asparagus and roasted potatoes. Nonna finished with a lovely fruit platter. We later had espresso or tea and a platter of chocolate chip bars that I made from a recipe in How it all Vegan.


On Tuesday, we had fun watching my son and his friends participate in a dribble, jump and shoot competition.


I also made Hannah’s delicious Coconut Vodka Sauce and served it on penne with sides of baked tofu and broccoli with garlic, olive oil and salt.


You know I had to have some sweets too! Besides making my favourite banana bread and some yummy berry oat bars, I also made these berry muffins from a recipe in Vegan Brunch.

When all of this eating occasionally upsets my tummy, I turn to my tea drawer. (It was once a tea chest, but the increased varieties necessitated a tea drawer.) For real tummy emergencies, my go-to brand is this Traditional Medicinals Eater’s Digest tea. It just works somehow.

Have a great weekend!

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