Woman in Real Life

Over the Christmas holidays, we'll definitely be hitting our favourite all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant...maybe more than once! But the leisurely days of vacation also offer up time for experimenting in the kitchen. It's a good opportunity to make your own sushi rolls (maki) if you've never done it before, or even if you have. If you're new to sushi making, it seems more complicated than it is. Once you get the hang of it, it's an easy and convenient process. Make a little sushi for a snack or a lot for dinner, and get the family involved. Kids can layer the toppings on the seaweed and try their hand at rolling the sushi. Our latest family favourite homemade sushi rolls are these Peach Avocado Sushi Rolls With Teriyaki Sauce. They are simple to make and have a fresh taste that combines sweet and savoury elements.

I know I'm not the only parent who dreads one thing about back-to-school time - namely having to prepare healthy, appealing lunches for the kiddos five days a week. Wayfair challenged me to come up with a fresh spin on school lunch. I knew immediately what I wanted to do - vegan sushi rolls!

There are many meals we disagree on in this house, but sushi is never one of them. We all love sushi rolls with a passion. It may seem like an effort to make your own sushi rolls, but once you get the hang of it, it's really not so hard. Make a gigantic batch for dinner, getting each family member to roll their own, and you'll have enough left to pop into your bento box the next day.

Don't you love the idea of eating your dinner out of one big bowl? In the early part of this year, I renewed my commitment to eating more healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables. (It's an ongoing process.) I became fascinated with the idea of vegan bowls - proteins, grains and toppings in one comforting, healthy lunch or dinner bowl. Vegan bowls are ideal for summer, because you can do minimal cooking on hot days (or none at all really if you opt for a raw foods bowl).

I was excited to learn that vegan food blogger Jackie Sobon's new cookbook is called Vegan Bowl Attack!: More than 100 One-Dish Meals Packed with Plant-Based Power. It came along at just the right time for me, as I was looking for vegan bowl inspiration. You might know Jackie as the creator of the blog Vegan Yack Attack.

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend a blogger summit hosted by Natural Delights Medjool Dates in Yuma, Arizona. I'll have a post about my trip soon, but in the meantime this week's What I Ate Wednesday is heavy on foods that contain plump, tasty and nutritious Medjool dates.

My mid-winter obsession with fruit continues. I stocked up on tons of frozen fruit last week because there are only so many times I want to get fresh berries at the grocery store in one week. The frozen fruits come in handy in the meantime. One day I was craving a warm treat, so I whipped up an easy batch of vegan scones and threw a handful of frozen mixed berries into the mix.

I'm writing this on Tuesday night, having just this evening consumed an all-you-can-eat sushi dinner. My son is away on a school trip for the night and my daughter is at dance classes, so the husband and I decided to visit a fave sushi restaurant. And gorge ourselves to the gills. And then we went to Costco. Where I found it difficult to even look at food, nevermind buy it. But we still managed to spend beaucoup de dollars. Costco is magical that way.

Needless to say, I'm having trouble looking at these food pics, especially the sushi ones that follow. But I will endure. This morning I made some delicious blueberry pancakes using a recipe from Chloe's Kitchen. I love pancakes, but don't want to discuss them for the moment.

Happy Wednesday! I hope you are all enjoying blissfully long summer days filled with friendship, food, family and fun. Summer is short - be sure to take advantage. This past week, I was feeling like I was spending way too much time cooped up in my office meeting writing deadlines.

One day, when these four walls seemed too much to handle any longer, I asked the family to escape with me to a place we all enjoy - the all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. (My sushi obsession is quite clear to anybody who reads this blog regularly.)

As I look back on a week of meals, I see that we haven't experimented with any new recipes (or even used recipes at all for that matter). Part of the week we were visiting my parents. That's where I put together some smores, using graham wafers, roasted vegan marshmallows and chunks of a Go Max Go vegan Snap! chocolate bar. To be honest, I think I'd rather just eat the chocolate.

Here's a What I Ate Wednesday look at food highlights from the past week. Starting with the best highlight of all - sushi! All-you-can-eat sushi actually. My husband had a day off last week during exams and our first priority was a vegetarian sushi lunch.

 

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you are feeling the love today. We are celebrating in the best way possible - by ordering in sushi and following up with chocolate! (I know, I'm sushi-obsessed.)

I thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and the family room a couple of days ago so we can enjoy our little family party in a nice environment. I hung up the heart garland the kids and I made last year. As you can see I have not taken down the giant Christmas ornaments hanging on the light fixture either. I just like them. So I'm keeping 'em.

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.

I'm a worrier. I am. I come from a whole family of worriers. So, when it's back-to-school time, I worry about whether the kids will have friends in their classes, whether they will have nice teachers and whether they will manage to overcome their dislike of French class.

I think that I'm more worried than the kids are - but, just in case, we try to make things a little more fun around here at this pivotal time of year. For our family of four, the quest for more fun tends to lead to a sushi party. Any reason to have a sushi party is a good reason.

Happy Wednesday, August 14th! I'm looking on the bright side today. It's sunny outside and we still have a couple more weeks of summer to enjoy. Right? Back me up here.

The good news is, summer, fall, winter or spring, you can always enjoy a good meal. Last Thursday, my husband prepared a lovely dinner of homemade vegetarian sushi and miso soup. Yum!

For those of you in warmer climes, yes, you read correctly...snow day edition. I'll get to that in a second.

Here's an Insta-Friday look at the week using simple cell phone photos. First, a couple pics of what Jolene the beagle mix and I did on Monday.

Before I go over this week's meal plan, I want to share highlights from last week's meals. The plan went well...meaning I stuck to it even when it was challenging.

Which brings me to Monday. The plan called for minestrone soup in the slow cooker. When I was planning my menu, I forgot that Monday was the "Family Day" holiday. We had to be at my son's first soccer game by 8 a.m. (Who plans games for 8 a.m. on a holiday, by the way?) Nevertheless I stuck to the plan and quickly threw everything into the slow cooker before we headed out. No easy feat, because it takes us 20 minutes just to get the kids out the front door.