Woman in Real Life

The weather is warming up significantly around here. We were promised some sort of record-breaking warm day today. I'm not sure we're quite going to make it, but the temperature is expected to go up to 13 degrees Celsius this afternoon. It's warm for February, but today it's also accompanied by dense fog. With most of the snow melted, the yard is just plain ugly. But I'm not complaining (okay, I'm complaining a bit) because spring is surely on the way!

This What I Ate Wednesday, I'm looking at highlights from the last couple of weeks. I don't seem able to post as regularly as I used to, but I hope spring takes care of that too. More energy, more ambition, all that good stuff. As I said on Instagram, between sick days, PA Days, exam days and snow days, I had one or both of the kids with me quite often over the past month or so. That has limited my creative time and also my time spent experimenting in the kitchen. Once the kids were finally back at school for a stretch, I decided to make a special breakfast just for me. The kids aren't hot on the idea of coating French toast with coconut, so I made one of my favourite quick, easy and delicious breakfasts - the coconut French toast from the incredible Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week.



This vegan French toast is made with simple ingredients, such as flour and cornstarch. Top it with vegan margarine and pure maple syrup for a decadent-tasting morning treat. I love it so much I made it for breakfast again today. The first time I used raisin bread. This time it was a plain whole wheat bread. Both were delicious.

The kids and I have been getting back into the habit of making nice cream for snacking. We most often like to make this Strawberry Maple Nice Cream, topped with chocolate chips. It's a healthy, nourishing alternative to ice cream. You can even have it guilt-free for breakfast!


Since we're looking at highlights from the last two weeks, we have to include this smoothie that I whipped up for Valentine's Day. You could obviously make this Beet-ing Hearts Blood Orange Smoothie for yourself or your sweetie any time of the year. It's not only tasty, it also offers potential health benefits, with the addition of juiced beets and other good stuff.


Speaking of Valentine's Day, that's going to be the day I share with you for a look at a full day of vegan eats. I was obviously already thinking of sweet stuff in the morning, because I ate social tea cookies for breakfast, and sipped on the cinnamon steamer from the Oh She Glows recipe app. (You can see I didn't manage to make my cinnamon/sugar topping look elegant. A sure sign I just wanted to get to drinking it.) This steamer contains coconut oil, cinnamon, ground ginger, molasses and other interesting ingredients. At first I didn't like it, but I cut the amount of cinnamon and ginger in half the next time and now I'm addicted.


For lunch I had roasted asparagus, leftover lentils and rice and Daiya Deluxe Alfredo-Style Cheezy Mac. This macaroni and "cheese" is dairy-free and I like to eat it topped with a sprinkle of Herbamare.


To celebrate Valentine's Day, we ordered Chinese food for dinner. (Because not cooking is my Valentine's Day treat to myself.)


My sweet daughter made us these Fail-Proof Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes from Oh She Glows for dessert. One of her Valentine's Day presents from us was a new icing tip that allows you to swirl three colours of icing together. She was excited to try it out and I think she did a great job.

My last What I Ate Wednesday post included a look at some mini vegan chocolate cakes she made for us. At 12, she now bakes brownies, cupcakes, cakes and cookies with little or no assistance. It's a blessing, I'll tell you!

Have you had many sick days and snow days this winter? Do you like to make nice cream? Do you like to bake?