Woman in Real Life

The other day my mom told me she misses my What I Ate Wednesday posts. With Mother's Day coming up on Sunday, I'm doing this post for her. (I'll get you something better too Mom. I promise.) Mother's Day for me this year will involve getting up around 5:30 a.m. to do my daughter's hair and makeup for a dance competition. You don't know how much I love my usual breakfast in bed, followed by hours of reading magazines! (I made my husband promise I'll get to do this another day.) Hopefully at the very least my little girl will be less critical of my hair and makeup work this weekend. ("The bun is crooked! The eye shadow's not the same on both eyes!")

For this (oh-so-rare) What I Ate Wednesday post, I'm looking at all my vegan eats from yesterday. I cleaned out some of the pantry shelves a couple of days back and discovered foods we had been neglecting, like a Bob's Red Mill healthy, whole grain pancake mix. Sometimes I crave pancakes when the family isn't home and a pancake mix can be a great solution (instead of making a big homemade batch of pancakes just for myself).

I added a flax "egg," coconut milk, olive oil and frozen blueberries to one cup of the pancake mix. That made six pancakes. I ate four and my daughter had the extras for an after-school snack. Which is a very long way of saying, I started my day with blueberry pancakes (and strawberries)! Oh, and a cup of green tea.


Lunch was leftover Mexican Rice, broccoli and burritos filled with homemade refried beans, store-bought salsa and a sauteed mix of zucchini, onions and cubed tofu.


In the afternoon, I was craving hot chocolate, so I tried Kathy's recipe for Melted Hot Chocolate. It involves melting in real dark chocolate and adding spices like cinnamon. I took Kathy's advice and sweetened my hot chocolate with coconut sugar. It was really good! And hey - don't feel guilty for splurging on this treat - you're getting antioxidants!


I then decided to make Angela's gluten-free and vegan Flourless Thumbprint Breakfast Cookies from the Oh She Glows blog. They are free of sugar and oil too (unless you follow Angela's optional suggestion and put coconut oil on top). Of course, if you use a bottled jam there will likely be sugar involved, but it's an ever-so-small amount, haha. I welcomed the jam in the centre of these cookies because they are otherwise incredibly healthy and a bit more bland than the cookie type I'm accustomed to (hello chocolate chip!).

These cookies are sweetened with bananas and I actually found I like them more when they cool down, because the banana flavour becomes stronger. I ate two fairly quickly so I guess I like them well enough. And I think my little girl had three, which means I'll make them again. They are packed with oats and banana and chia seeds so they will be a good, healthier snack for my sugar-loving daughter.


Dinner was leftovers from Sunday night. The fridge was starting to fill up and I didn't want food getting pushed to the back of the fridge and thrown out in a few days. So we used up leftover lentils and rice with fried onions. I also sauteed peas, minced garlic and Bragg's Liquid Aminos to toss with leftover cooked spaghetti. And we had a green salad with carrots and a homemade olive oil and vinegar dressing.


When pancakes aren't on the menu, but you want something more exciting than toast, here's another breakfast idea for you. Visit yesterday's post to make this simple, healthy and tasty Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Nice Cream, above. Ice cream for breakfast? When it's made from bananas, then yes! Why not?

What does a day of eating look like for you? What would you like to add more of to your diet?


Linking up to WIAW at Sprint 2 The Table.