Since my morning round the clock sickness has finally passed, I’m thankfully back to cooking (and eating) like normal. Here’s a glimpse of the yummy summertime meals I ate this week.

I chopped up some Beyond Meat, marinaded it in BBQ sauce and warmed it on the grill (on foil) for a few before adding it to a salad. More on Beyond Meat (my new obsession) next week.

I saw this recipe for portobello mushrooms in a gravy, wine sauce over polenta on Diners Drive-ins and Dives and had to try my own version. I used a vegetarian brown gravy mix (he used his own made from beef) and left the polenta creamy instead of making them into cakes. I also cooked the polenta in veggie broth instead of milk, butter, and cheese to lighten it up a bit. I was surprised at how well it turned out because I couldn’t find the recipe online so I didn’t measure anything – just followed along loosely from my TiVo’d show. Not too shabby..

Then we went out for Bun and Pho last Saturday for lunch. Viet Pho is near us but we just discovered them for the first time. It’s MSG free and all fresh and really good. This was my tofu noodle bowl, it’s so addictive we already went back again last night!

For some reason I would rather eat floor cleaner than tomato sauce this pregnancy. Sad I know especially since we love to grill flatbread pizzas in the summer. Instead of sauce, I made a parsley pesto with sunflower seeds, parmesan, and olive oil as the base, and then topped them with red peppers, farmers cheese, and spinach. Light and perfect for a quick summer meal.

Bowls. It’s what we eat most often for dinner. This one had quinoa, tempeh, spinach, cauliflower, zucchini, guacamole (fresh of course), and then topped with two homemade salsas. We change out the veggies depending on what we have in the fridge, but quinoa and tempeh are the mainstays. Other variations are grilled veggies using BBQ sauce or Asian bowls with stir fry veggies on top.

I made this Frozen Pink Cheesecake and our lives haven’t been the same. Mike and I agree it’s our favorite dessert I’ve ever made. It’s perfect for summer and it’s actually healthy- basically fruit blended with yogurt on a crust of almonds. It’s so easy to make and perfect for company since you just blend it all together and pop it in the freezer. Get the recipe HERE from my fave food blog Green Kitchen Stories and download their recipe app too.

The other Green Kitchen Stories recipe I made was for Banana Granola. I’ve been eating yogurt topped with fresh fruit and granola everyday and I didn’t want to keep buying the ready made kind laced with tons of sugar. This is lightly sweetened with agave, but the coconut oil, vanilla, and bananas give the real flavor.