Woman in Real Life

Photos courtesy of Happy Kitchen.Rocks, Yummy Mummy Kitchen, Soup Addict, My Darling Vegan

Living in a climate with four distinct seasons, I try to see the best in each one of them. It's not that difficult to see the positives in fall. Cool breezes, richly hued leaves, warm sweaters, steaming mugs of hot cocoa topped with vegan marshmallows...and soup. Ah, soup. Soup can even make winter more palatable. For the first two months anyway.

Soup recipes are usually simple to make. They are frequently free of gluten. They are easily made vegan with the help of a good veggie stock. Soups are ideal for healthy, homemade meals. And many soups can be whipped together quickly. Those that cook for a bit longer allow you time to make other foods (like homemade biscuits!) or tidy your kitchen.

When my son was a little guy, he loved carrot soup. Those were the days - when I could easily get his toddler self to scarf down bean stews, lentil soups and all kinds of nutrient-dense, mama-made entrees. He's 15 now and he has long been exposed to the wonders (salt, fat, sugar) of takeout food. Still, I do what I can to make sure he eats healthy at home, so I thought I'd try putting carrot soup in rotation again. Worst comes to worst, I love fresh, homemade vegan carrot soup myself.

When I last made this Carrot Coconut Soup, my son may have turned his nose up at it. In fact, he may have made himself a "hashbrown" sandwich, made up of fried hashbrown patties tucked inside a tortilla wrap with a sauce of mayonnaise mixed with sriracha. Sigh. But even if he eats a small bowl of this carrot soup alongside his other meal selections, he'll get a good serving of vegetables.

I know, I know, why am I talking about soup in the middle of summer! But now that our air conditioner is fixed, I frequently find myself craving this simple, healthy Red Lentil and Vegetable Soup. (Maybe I should turn down the air conditioner?)

No matter the season, when 5:00 p.m. rolls around and you don't have plans for dinner, this soup seems like a pretty great idea. Trust me. Keep a bunch of red lentils in a jar in your cupboard and you'll be good to go. Red Lentil and Vegetable Soup requires very few ingredients and it practically cooks itself. No kidding.

I love to sample new natural and organic products. And I love to save money on my grocery shopping! That's why I always keep an eye out for the Healthy Shopper coupon book at my local health food store. It contains loads of coupons for the natural and organic products I prefer to buy for my family.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to receive this package, pictured above, recently. The nice people at the Healthy Shopper sent me their healthy picks for the fall of 2013. The package contains products from some of my family's favourite companies, like Pamela's. I'm looking forward to using the flour blend and the chocolate cake mix. Both are wheat and gluten-free.

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.

I've said it before...this menu planning thing works. There are many times when I want to skip making dinner and buy some Taco Bell for the kiddies.  Then I think of my menu plan, posted on my blog for all the world to see. And I persevere.

Monday's Quick Asparagus Pasta was actually quicker than going for Taco Bell. Nothing fancy, but I enjoyed it. One snag in the plan, though. I needed asparagus. Turns out that's the one thing they didn't have at the grocery store. Does that happen to you too? The one thing you want isn't available that day?

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.

Noodles. Yum. Probably my favourite food in the world. Well, except maybe chocolate.

Wednesday has rolled around once again, and it's time to share food highlights from the past week.

My husband made garlic noodles, breaded tofu and broccoli one night. Here's what was left for my lunch the next day. Nice to see that the family ate most of the broccoli.

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.

This month, What I Ate Wednesday focuses on the theme "Spooky Snacks & Healthy Halloween Treats."

I certainly treated myself (oh yeah, and my family) to some fun snacks this week, including two of my favourite easy and delicious squares. Pictured above, berry oat bars. Yum.

I'm not sure what the weather's doing at the moment. One day warm sun, the next cold rain. That's September around here, I guess.

Anyway, for today's What I Ate Wednesday, I am looking back at a week of eating that included a lovely end-of-summer barbecue. Maybe we will get a few more barbecues in (with my husband wearing a coat out on the deck and me watching from inside).