Woman in Real Life

Time for another vegan weekly meal plan. But first, another week in review.

Last week's plan was fairly successful. We had to make a couple of changes to the schedule, but for the most part the plan ensured that we made decent meals. Yesterday's scheduled meal was Roasted Fall Vegetables and Lentil Salad, but my son's basketball game was right around dinner time so we postponed that particular meal until today (pictured above). The family had lasagna (from frozen) instead and I had a quick fried rice.

I am a self-described cookbook addict. I love to read them more than I even like to cook from them. Now, I adore veggies, especially when someone else cooks them, but my knowledge of vegetables cannot compare to that of cookbook author Lora Krulak.

She kindly sent me a copy of her lovely book "Veggies for Carnivores: Moving Vegetables to the Center of the Plate." Don't be fooled by the word "carnivores." This book is all about vegetables.

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.

Can you believe it's Wednesday already? That means What I Ate Wednesday...to me anyway. I'm into stuff like that.

We had an unseasonably warm day a couple of days ago. Well, in the morning anyway. In the afternoon, it turned cold and rainy. All of that is to say that normally, from September to...oh, about May, we have good soup weather around here.

As the day goes on, my enthusiasm for cooking generally wanes. That's why I love the slow cooker. Throw a simple soup together when my energy is high in the morning, add bread and a salad in the evening, and dinner's on the table! On this particular night, pictured above, I paired the soup with a corn muffin, made from a recipe in How it All Vegan. This black bean sweet potato slow cooker soup is based on a recipe in Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker, a book I highly recommend. I have mixed black beans and kidney beans and added some sweet potato. I also reduced the amount of thyme, because I don't like a strong flavour of thyme. The recipe follows. If endorsements might convince you to try making this, you should know that my kids actually said this soup was good. That kind of high praise doesn't often come from those two...when it comes to healthy meals anyway.

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.