Woman in Real Life

Happy Wednesday lovely people! Be prepared for some deliciousness ahead. I don't mean to sound braggy, but - in looking back at food highlights from the past week - I spotted several meals that I recall being extremely tasty. And I think I'm just really hungry right now. I'll write this up as fast as I can because I want to get to eatin'!

One bit of deliciousness this week were these Gardein mandarin orange crispy chick'n nuggets, above. I have to say the photo is making my mouth water right now. On that particular day there were no leftovers available for lunch, but fortunately I had a packet of this yummy vegan chicken in the freezer. I served it with rice and roasted asparagus. The nice thing is asparagus roasts in about as much time as it takes to bake the chick'n and toss it with the orange sauce!


Another favourite meal of mine is spaghetti with the simple vegan pink sauce in Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen. I was missing the big pot of fresh basil we had on our deck in warmer weather, so I recently picked up a basil plant at the grocery store. It now sits in my kitchen window, ready and waiting to add flavour to this sauce, which is made with canned tomatoes, cashew cream and fresh basil.


I am very late to the spiralizer trend. Truth be told, trends irritate me a bit. I think I object to people telling me what I should like. Nevertheless, I bought a spiralizer in December of 2016 and just got around to using it this week. I used leftover rose sauce on spiralized zucchini and found it quite satisfying. Not as satisfying as a heaping plate of spaghetti, but nice.


I put aside my oatmeal habit one day in favour of these incredibly tasty buns with dried cranberries and chocolate chips inside of them. I toasted the two halves in the toaster oven and then smeared on vegan butter. So good. I also had one of these never-fail vegan banana muffins. It was that kind of day - you know, when you just have to go for something so satisfying.


For a complete day of vegan eats, I'm looking at this past Monday, when I again started the day with oatmeal. I topped off the cooked quick oats with maple syrup, walnuts, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and dried cranberries.


This rather messy bowl, above, is leftovers from our previous night's dinner bowls. My husband made noodles, tofu, cauliflower, peas and other veggies and we topped it with peanut sauce. I also threw some of the spiralized zucchini (or zoodles) on top for my lunch bowl.


When those mid-afternoon munchies hit, I went to the freezer for a Tofutti Cutie non-dairy ice cream sandwich. I don't often buy ice cream goodies in the winter, but my family chose ice cream sandwiches as our dessert for Valentine's Day.


For dinner, I cooked up my favourite easy vegan chili. You can find the recipe here. It's simple and versatile - just add your favourite toppings. That day I used vegan sour cream and fresh-squeezed lime juice, but we also really like guacamole on top. We usually serve this chili over rice or quinoa. You can add more veggies to the chili (I chose yellow peppers) and replace some of the beans with veggie ground beef. The kids really enjoy this chili. In fact, I made a huge pot and we were still fighting for leftovers to take for lunches the next day!

Okay, I'll catch you later! I think I have another package of that vegan chick'n in the freezer...

What are some of your favourite tasty meals?


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