Woman in Real Life

I was off watching my son's school basketball tournament today, so I'm late with my What I Ate Wednesday post. Here's a quick look at some of the meals I enjoyed this week, starting with a tofu and veggie stir-fry on top of Chinese noodles.

Here's to Friday! If you're at work, you're probably doing the bare minimum, just waiting for the weekend to arrive. If you're at home with kids, you're probably waiting for the husband to get home so he can take over the diaper changes and the walks to the park.

However you spend your weekend, make it a good one. I hope all of my American friends enjoy their Memorial Day weekend.

And now for Insta-Friday, a look at the week in cell phone photos. Apparently this week was largely about pizza for us. In my What I Ate Wednesday post this week, I mentioned that I am consumed with thoughts of sushi and pizza. I found many pizza pics on both my cell phone and my Nikon this week.

It's What I Ate Wednesday and time for a little look at some food highlights from the past week. I have been trying to eat less chocolate and other sweet stuff. Hence the dried apricots. I grabbed a couple of apricots whenever I craved something sweet. For about two days. Then the apricots were gone.

Last week, I went without a menu plan for the first time in several weeks. How did it go? Well, I definitely am more inclined to cook if I have formulated a plan and bought all the necessary ingredients (or most of them anyway).

On the other hand, it was a nice little break just deciding what to make at the spur of the moment. And my husband did more of the cooking than usual. Even better.

Left to his own devices, he made pizza one day. This is my vegan pizza with Daiya cheese, mushrooms, zucchini and olives, above.

If you are like me, some days you enjoy cooking and/or baking, and some days you would rather clean the bathtub, organize your closet or do basically anything but cook.

Maybe it's the approaching fall weather grabbing hold of me, but, for whatever reason, I felt like trying some new recipes this past week.

It started with Laura's recipe for no-bake Toasted Coconut Brownie Bites (above). They are formed mainly from peanut butter and ground flax, with just a bit of agave for sweetening. They are healthy and yet strangely addictive. I used to love coconut-covered doughnuts. These aren't quite the same, but they are a fun treat nevertheless, and much healthier.

By now, we all know how important it is to eat breakfast. I don't know about you, but sometimes I just don't feel like eating first thing in the morning. So, I picked up a box of these healthy organic food bars from Taste of Nature (at Costco). They make for a simple, portable breakfast snack with protein, fibre and all natural ingredients including nuts, raisins, sesame seeds and agave nectar. And, they taste good too!


For my birthday, my parents generously gave me the money to buy this Keurig platinum edition coffee brewer (also from Costco). I don't really drink coffee, but I will have the occasional decaf, and this machine can be used with many kinds of tea as well. So, I can now pair my quick food bar with a very quick tea! Today I enjoyed a Chinese green tea.

The kids and I enjoyed a quick lunch at my parents this weekend. I made a simple vegan pizza using spelt dough and pizza sauce I got at the health food store, topped with Daiya vegan cheese. The kids had tortilla chips baked with real cheese and dipped in salsa. I added leftover tofu that I had baked in teriyaki sauce and olive oil the night before, along with some baby carrots (which my daughter will only eat dipped in honey).

I had lunch with friends on Monday. I went for a vegetable soup with pesto, which came with potato chips (which I haven't eaten yet). My friend bought me the root beer for my birthday.

My husband made me a vegan chocolate cake using light spelt flour and topped it with some vegan buttercream icing. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the icing is pink. It clearly came out a little thin, but I never think that's much of a problem. We just put extra icing in a little jug and poured it on our individual slices.