It's been a while since I posted a dinner meal.  Sometimes I'm exhausted after a long commute home and I just want to throw something easy together.  So here's one of those meals that takes very little preparation and allows me to unwind and relax while it's cooking.

Wild rice - it takes an hour to cook, but if I get it going the stove as soon as I walk in the door, it's ready when I'm ready.

Gardein Crispy Tenders -  delicious, packed with protein and easy to bake in the oven.  I mixed up some agave nectar with mustard for a dipping sauce. 

Veg spring rolls - one of my all time favourite foods in general.  Plus they are easy to pop in the oven and these mini spring rolls only take 12 minutes to cook.  By the time I toss them in the oven, I've already changed out of my work clothes into something comfy and had a chat with baby girl about how her day was.

Edamame - again, so easy to make, steamed and sprinkled with a bit of sea salt.

Hello Halo!

Another delightful discovery at the little grocery store that I mentioned before.  I usually skip past the shelves full of cookies and wafers because there's never anything vegan-friendly there.  Well, now I know why one should never say never.  These tasty treats called Halo are organic and made with vegan marshmallows. 

I bought two flavours: S'mores and Nutty Marshmallow, and packed them in a couple of my lunches.  The bars weren't quite what I was expecting - I kind of envisioned them to look like the pictures on the wrapper.  But they satisfied my sweet tooth :)

Torfurky Pizza!

There's a small locally owned grocery store in our neighborhood that constantly surprises me with random organic and vegan groceries.  For example, the other day I was delighted to discover a few varieties of Tofurky pizza in the freezer section.

I thought I'd try the Tofurky Italian sausage with fire-roasted veggies first.  They also had a cheese pizza and a "pepperoni"version.  I raced home and snapped a few pictures before baking it in the oven for dinner.  Unfortunately I didn't trake any photos of the baked version. 

YUM!  Although I don't often buy frozen prepackaged meals, this was a nice treat, and I'm looking forward to trying the other kinds of Tofurky pizzas.

Summer lovin

Loving the chili lime hummus that I bought at the market recently.

Garden Lunchbox

Lately they've been celebrating different themes weeks at baby girl's daycare, and I try to incorporate the theme into her lunch.

For Garden week, I added some fun colored sushi grass along with the cinnamon-raisin bagel with tofutti cream cheese and watermelon balls.  There's a butterfly nestled into the chickpeas, and a "cheese" flower rests on a bed of spaghetti.  And a little packet of organic bunnies for a treat.

Nice little catch from the local summer market

There’s nothing like a bountiful farmer’s market to herald the beginning of warm breezy summer (even though we're still waiting for sunny skies here in Vancouver).

I took baby girl to the market with $40 and a handful of change in my purse and came home with $20 left over and a small stash of goodies. 

Fragrant helitropis plant, fresh carrots and aromatic sweet basil, granola king (sweetened with honey), Bean Boy chili lime hummus, and two varieties of vegan pate.  All from local merchants.

I just did a big grocery shop the other day so we didn’t really need to stock up on much.  I had my eye on a few other things, and since this particular market comes every other week, we’ll definitely be grabbing more goodies next time around.

The Bean Boy chili lime hummus wasn’t too spicy, baby girl liked it and she isn’t usually a big fan of spiciness.  The lime really comes through and is an exciting difference from traditional lemon hummus.  It was a fantastic accompaniment to our fresh carrots!

The chili lime hummus was the most expensive thing we bought at $5.50.  $2 for the granola, $3 each for the pates, $2.5 for the basil, $5 for the heliotropis plant, and $2 for the carrots.