Woman in Real Life

Happy Wednesday on this important day for Canada, as we swear in our new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and his cabinet ministers, 15 of whom are women (16 men). Clearly he's not just good looking, he's smart too. My only complaint is the Canada Goose coat he wore on Halloween. Is fur a thing again? I hope not. Do people know these coats have coyote fur collars? Here's an article about the true cost of these fur-collar coats.

On to What I Ate Wednesday. My son requested lentils and rice for dinner one day and I was happy to comply, as it is one of my fave recipes of all time. I also smashed some potatoes with minced garlic, olive oil, salt and fresh parsley. This pic, above, is my next-day lunch leftovers. I made eight potatoes but this is all that was left. The kids said they prefer mashed potatoes over smashed but that didn't stop them from eating the potatoes up!



Another day's lunch leftovers. I had made Easy Peasy Pasta Salad from Chloe's Kitchen the night before. The recipe calls for wagon wheel pasta, which sounds like fun, but I didn't have any so I used this long, tube-like pasta instead. I was a fan, although my family didn't seem impressed. I think I put in too much fresh garlic for their tastes.


And a look at a full day of meals - this past Monday to be exact. I started the day with fruit and vegan French toast from a recipe in Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck. The French toast calls for nutritional yeast, which seems a bit odd but works out in the end.


You can see I was hungry at lunch, because I sort of threw that pasta all over the plate. More leftovers from dinner, this time kale sautéed with minced garlic in olive oil and spaghetti with the delicious pink sauce from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen: 150 Pizzas, Pastas, Pestos, Risottos, & Lots of Creamy Italian Classics.


I made a vegan Caesar salad from Salad Samurai: 100 Cutting-Edge, Ultra-Hearty, Easy-to-Make Salads You Don't Have to Be Vegan to Love for dinner. And.that's.about.it. Because, by the time I made homemade croutons, hemp seed "parmesan" and vegan ranch dressing I was tired of the kitchen. At least the kids liked the salad, although I used too much fresh garlic (again).


Later on, after sufficient rest time from the salad prep, we (okay my husband) made veggie burgers and veggie dogs. I bought a family-size box of Sol Cuisine vegan (original) burgers. They are always good. They don't have a lot of any particular flavour so they work very well with whatever toppings you enjoy - in this case I had red onion, lettuce, vegan mayo, pickles, ketchup, mustard and avocado slices. Yummers.

How about you? Made any great recipes lately? How much time do you put into a salad?