Cruelty-Free Sandwiches! Yum!

As a kid, I LOVED sandwiches. All the time, anywhere. Picnic foods were my favourite. I don’t know what started it, but it was a love that grew quick.

As a vegan, I don’t indulge in bread too often. I try to eat more whole foods and less processed foods. However, I broke that today.

I did a quick grocery shop with my husband this morning, and I picked up a loaf of Silver Hills bread, some Vegenaise, Symphony lettuce (check it out, so pretty and good!), as well as a few other things. I came home, said goodbye to my husband as he had to head to work, and then got out my knives and my toaster. A sandwich was made!

Yes, that was the finished product. Two slices of toasted Silver Hills bread – The Big 16, with one organic, sliced up tomato, roughly 10 small leaves of Symphony-packed lettuce, and Vegenaise, included in the picture for you to see. Not one animal was harmed in the making of this sandwich! How cool is that? And the taste? Delicious! Yum! In fact, I ended up making another sandwich with a different head of the Symphony-packed lettuce and cucumber instead of tomato. Drool…

For those that are wondering, Silver Hills is a bread company that works out of British Columbia. Their breads contain no dairy or eggs, and have excellent ingredients, primarily being made from sprouted grains. Check them out here: Silver Hills.

Day 13

This morning was a bit of a better morning, at least as far as food choices. I don’t even want to get into my lack of sleep.

I woke up and had water first thing (I’m getting better at water at least!). I then waited 20-30 minutes, and had a banana, 4 medjool dates, and some veggies chips. A bit later, I had some organic limeade and my vitamins.

We had to leave the house to get my husband another dress shirt for work. So naturally, we got hungry while we were out, and ate. I had a veggie burrito and tater tots (not the best, but one of the better alternatives). We kept shopping a little more, then grabbed stuff for the way home. My husband got a Pineapple Whey smoothie, and I got a fresh juice made form kale, apples, carrots, and pineapple. The girl went heavy on the kale, but that is a good thing. I could use the extra greens.

Both my husband and I have felt awfully tired today. So we took a bit of a nap before we had to make arrangements to meet with my dad. On the way to meet with him, we did a quick gas station stop. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but my stomach feels bloated and full! Almost like my digestion is at a stall. At the gas station, I picked up a candy bar (sometimes the excess sugar helps my digestion keep going), and an aloe drink. The bar actually did help soothe my stomach a little. I’m not really sure how this works. And the aloe was soothing and hydrating of course.

I didn’t eat much else today, but before bed, I had 3 pieces of Silver Hills Squirrely bread. Two with an avocado, cucumber, lemon juice and a dash of salt and pepper, the third piece with peach jam made with xylitol. I am thinking this was a little too heavy to eat before bed.

Day 10

This morning, I woke up at 5:30 sharp. What time was my alarm set for? 7:00. I have so much energy I can’t even finish sleeping in the morning! Seems a little strange…

So the first thing I did was drink a cup of water. Time to start getting the body hydrated!

For breakfast, I had an organic mini seedless watermelon. Almost halfway through the melon, I started wondering how I was even going to finish the thing. It was a beautiful red flesh, sweet flavour, and very little white flesh melon. So delicious. Somehow, I just kept eating and ate the whole thing!

I got ready, went to my chiropractor and acupuncture appointments, and then starting thinking those food thoughts again… I wanted so bad to stop and get sushi. Oh my goodness, it took the whole drive home for me to talk myself out of going. Not that it’s not vegan (cucumber rolls, avocado rolls, etc…), but it’s definitely not rawtill4 and I really don’t need to spend the extra money.

Somehow, I did it again! I beat my mind, came home, made a sandwich with Silver Hills Squirrely bread, an avocado, some lemon juice, cucumber, this raw ranch dip, and some salsa. I then had another fifth of my fresh mango cake with some vanilla coconut yogurt on top. Not the best raw meals, but it did stop me from spending extra money and it will tide me over for now.

For supper tonight, I’ve asked my husband to go to our stir fry place where I can get different fruits and veggies that I want, served with rice and noodles. I can’t believe I’m craving rice! I used to dread eating it. I have such a craving for it today!

After my husband came home, we got ready and went to our stir fry place. Oh, it was so good! I made a mix of carrots, bean sprouts, cauliflower, chick peas, tofu, mini corn-on-the-cob, pineapple, dried cranberries, peanuts, kale, noodles, and coconut rice. I use sweet and sour sauce and coconut milk as a topping. Oh it was so delicious. I even indulged and had a green onion cake. It was just so good and so filling! I couldn’t eat it all.

After we came home and let the food digest a little, we got ready and went to the gym. I did 30 minutes of treadmill cardio, followed by some variations of lunges, walking high kicks, stretches and the chiropractor exercises. It was a good energizing workout.

When I got home, I finished that fantastic stir fry. In fact, I wished I had more. Maybe next time I’ll make my stir fry bigger! 🙂

That was basically it for the day. I’m feeling good!

Day 8

Today was a different day. Today was a busy morning, getting my husband’s clothes ready for his new job that he’s currently stressed about (in school this week, doesn’t have a chance to start making money until next week), as well as making sure I had everything and was ready for my students’ PAT today.

I did not eat breakfast, and pretty much snacked on bananas, apples, Bolthouse Vanilla Chai (which is vegan!), apple juice, and other school-approved snacks that I had bought. I snacked pretty much for the first 5 hours of the day. Oh boy… not the best food, but not necessarily the worst.

Because my students missed their gym time and morning recess, I gave them a 45-minute recess after lunch. They were such troopers, and I was proud of them. After all, they were writing for 2-3 hours straight. It gave me an opportunity to not only get some fresh air, but also to soak up some good vitamin D!

When I came home, I was so happy to find my new Organic Box! It’s like opening a present every time to find these beautiful organic fruits and vegetables. This time, I also ordered some organic seaweed chips for my husband and I to try. They were DELISH! We ate the whole bag (my husband ate more than I did, but I still had a fair share!).

Before heading to the gym, I had two pieces of Silver Hills Squirrely bread with peanut butter and peach jam made with xylitol. I also had some rainbow carrots with a vegan ranch dip I also ordered in my Organic Box. The dip was ok, but I have to be honest when I say the rainbow carrots are not particularly my favourite. Maybe I’ve become so out-of-touch with the taste of real carrots again. We’ll see.

At the gym, I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes, then did some lunges, walking high kicks, some stretches, and my chiropractor exercises. I felt so good and energized the whole time.

When I came home, I took a look at those mangos I still have done nothing with (should have done something with them yesterday. They are really going to go bad soon!) So tonight, I took out the blender, cut all of the good flesh off of them, and pureed it with a little vanilla and macadamia oil. I then took out a bowl and mixed some flour with baking soda, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. I then mixed the two together, put it in a shallow baking dish, and waited for my fresh mango cake to cook.

While I was waiting, for tonight’s supper (really need to fix my whole eating raw until 4, cooked after 4), I blended 4 bananas (also need to be used asap) with some unsweetened vanilla almond milk and 5 medjool dates.Talk about filling!

Day 5

Another morning where I got to wake up on my own. No alarm clocks needed. Too bad this wasn’t every day!

The first thing I did when I woke up was drank a bottle of water. I know for an absolute fact, I did not get even half as much water in as I should have yesterday. So without a thought, I chugged a bottle back.

For breakfast, I ate four mini red bananas. If you haven’t had red bananas before, you should try them! They have a hint of raspberry and are super yummy. However, be careful. They take FOREVER to ripen, but when they do, they ripen really quickly. I had a bunch of 8, and 4 are ready. The others are still very hard.

After breakfast, we got ready to go to the gym… except we didn’t go to the gym. We went to the mall instead.

On the way to the mall, we stopped at Tim Horton’s for my husband. I was so proud of myself! I did not indulge in a single doughnut or a single drink! I was so hungry (4 mini bananas were definitely not enough). I waited until we got to the mall and then bought those Korean potatoes I’ve been eyeing for a long time. They were so good – well worth the wait!

We shopping for 4 1/2 hours! But we managed to get him everything he needed which was good. At least for his first day of his new job. We’ll have to shop more tomorrow.

After coming home, I was so tired from shopping. I ended up taking a nap while my husband went to the gym without me. Then, when I woke up, I started my phone calls. Not including my husband’s mother and grandmother, I also had 4 of my own to call (mom, stepmom, two grandmothers). I’m not much of a phone person, so it’s unusual for me to call that much but it was good to talk to everyone.

While I was on the phone, I ate a big salad made from 50/50 Organic Mix, organic blueberries, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, soya nuts, organic cucumber, and my usual dressing made from avocados, a spoon of vegan cream cheese, and salsa. Yum! Yum! Yum!

We went and got groceries at 9:30 p.m.! We never go that late, but even after my husband came back from the gym, he had to call his mother and grandmother for Mother’s Day. So it took quite awhile.

While we were shopping, my husband found these organic jalapeño corn chips that he ate while we were shopping (don’t worry, we paid for it still). I tried one and they were absolutely delicious.

After we got home, right before I went to bed, I took two pieces of Silver Hills Squirrely bread, and put a little peanut butter and a little peach jam made with stevia. Takes me back to the pb&j sandwiches as a kid. Yum!

We Finally Got It… And He’s Happy!

I never knew looking for a truck could be so stressful. It’s been 3 weeks. Two down payments and cancellations. And endless online and offline searching. I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of sleep we’ve lost and the amount of frustration we’ve endured. Truly endless. Or so it seemed.

One thing about trucks is they cost a lot, especially where we live. So the decision either came to 0% interest on a new truck that cost much more money, or be charged some interest on a used vehicle that may not cost as much money, but usually had a fair amount of mileage on it.

To add to the frustration, my husband has owned 3 trucks before and therefore was not willing to settle for something ridiculous. We also deal with a mad amount of winter (snowed the first week of September…) so having 4WD and other features was important. He also wanted a diesel which automatically lifts the price. Oh boy…

Slowly throughout the weeks, we whittled down a few things. One, that he didn’t want brand new because the price was so high. Two, that we were sticking with lower kms on a used truck. Three, that it had to be diesel. Four and almost decided from the beginning, it had to be a Dodge.

The problem came that we had to find a Dodge with low kms that was a diesel and not out of our price range and that was the true struggle. Prices for trucks are simply outrageous. And then one caught his eye online.

There was a silver Dodge, lifted (he likes lifted), rugged brand new tires, nice looking wheels, diesel, 15 000 km, only 2 years old, still covered by all the factory warranties, some cool features, and a very fraction of the price it would have been new. It’s still at the high end of our price range, but doable.

So we went to look at it to make sure it wasn’t just one of those circumstances where the vehicle looks awesome online, but there are tonnes of things wrong with it when we get there. Truth be told, it was exactly as it looked.

The dealer man met us, was incredibly nice, gave us the keys, told us to have fun, and was very friendly and easy to sit with to discuss the truck. It was a small used dealership, very family friendly. I mean seriously, the men were sitting around chewing Double Bubble. Not much more friendly than that!

The truck was great, and made my husband feel so happy. I of course venture on the thoughts of pricing and what it means to dedicate our finances to this vehicle for the next several years, but again, it is doable, and most importantly, it made him happy.

Don’t get me wrong, the truck is nice. Aside from a couple dings in the bed, and the absolutely tiniest bump in the door (the dealership agreed to pay for this), the truck is incredibly unused. My assumption would be that the person who previously owned it could no longer afford it. I mean this truck probably cost upwards of $60000-70000 brand new. But it runs nicely, it looks nice, and it’s huge. Oh my word is it huge! The thing’s a beast! But at least I know my husband will be safe driving around this soon-to-be-frozen-place we call home. It’s his new baby and he loves it and that’s what makes me happy.

Not the best picture, but it was taken late at night when we finally took it home. Makes the Challenger look tiny!

Have you ever experienced extreme stress trying to find a new vehicle? What obstacles did you face?