Woman in Real Life

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.



It was an unusual (and wonderful) experience in that there were several vegan bloggers on the trip. We were well taken care of and had great options to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's actually hard being home and having to cook for myself now. Poor me. One day we ate at Yuma's River City Grill for lunch. The appetizer was these artfully presented Vietnamese spring rolls with mint, dates, rice noodles, peanuts and a spicy sauce, above.


We also had a pear and candied walnut and date salad over spring mix with a champagne vinaigrette (not pictured). My entrée was penne pesto pasta - penne tossed in basil pesto with pine nuts, Medjool dates and heirloom tomatoes. This one would be very easy to replicate at home.


This lovely dessert is a berry and date crisp with a rolled oat and brown sugar topping. I hadn't thought to put Medjools in a crisp and I really want to do this at home now.


On our first night's meet and greet, our hosts laid out lots of date-centric appetizers, including these Medjools stuffed with a peanut butter filling and topped with nuts.


They even served mojitos sweetened with date syrup.


My favourite dish of the evening was this pan-seared tofu with marsala date sauce.


Some of the group had lunch at Prison Hill Brewing Company in downtown Yuma one day. They mainly have meat options, however I enjoyed the "Sprung Rolls" and a nice salad topped with veggies and onions.


Now for some meals enjoyed at home. Before I left for Yuma the family and I attended the Toronto Vegetarian Food Fest and ate our traditional food fest meal - the combo plate from Govinda's. I look forward to this each year!


Back from my trip (and spoiled as I was) I have been preparing easy meals. I cooked packaged spring rolls one day and served them with fried rice and broccoli with garlic.


The next day I sautéed tofu cubes and added them to the leftover fried rice, along with some spinach. It made for a simple yet tasty lunch.


My husband made a tofu loaf with simple vegan gravy one night and served roasted beets, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes. Clearly we are getting in the spirit of fall cooking.


He also made burritos one day, filling them with homemade refried beans, tofu sautéed with onions and salsa. We had roasted beets, cauliflower and a sweet potato/cauliflower mash on the side.


I made one of our new family favourites one evening - this Vegan Faux Chicken Penne with avocados, spinach and tomatoes. We also had a salad of mixed greens topped with strawberries, raspberries and pecans.


One night when my husband and daughter were out, my son and I decided to go get some veg sushi. Oh how I love veg sushi! We had a mix of sweet potato maki rolls and veggie maki with avocado, something pickled and cucumber. I could eat more right now...

What have you been enjoying lately? Do you use Medjool dates? If so, what for?



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