I awoke yesterday morning early and ready to tackle the world. As I hopped out of the shower I noticed my little furbaby(your pet that is like your own child to you) staring at me. I didn't have my contacts in yet but I could tell something didn't look right about her sweet little face. As I bent down to further inspect her face I was alarmed to see that the bottom portion of her eyelid was basically hanging opening and there was a deep puncture like hole right below that. I will spare you the gory details but lets just say it was gross and pretty bad. I began to fuss over my poor eldest furbaby when our new furbaby appeared and then directly ran into her kennel to hide. That is when I knew what had happened. Our fur children like our human children fight over their stuff and our dogs in particular will get into spats every once in a while over chew bones. They have never hurt each other but it appears this time was the exception.
Within an hour I had dropped our oldest child off at school and we were on our way to the vets office. It wasn't until we were waiting for the vet to return to tell us the news that I realized myself and my youngest had not eaten breakfast at all. I was in such in a hurry to get the dog to the vet I had completely forgotten about eating! Whoops!
It turns out the injury to our beloved pet wasn't as serious it looked. The vet didn't want to put stitches in it because of it's location so they used some skin glue and ointments and put her back together again. We were sent home with cleaning instructions and a prescription of antibiotics. Once in the car my daughter reminded me that we had not eaten breakfast yet. I had a list of errands I had to run so I didn't have time to go all the way across town and eat breakfast at home so I looked for other alternatives. I needed something fast and something I could get without leaving the car because I couldn't leave the dog in the car. Fast food wins again! After doing a quick search on my phone for fast food chains that had vegan options for breakfast we went to chic-fil-a. My daughter ordered those wonderful yummy chicken minis that use to be a favorite of mine too. I ordered the oatmeal bowl which came with separate packages of dried fruit, nuts and brown sugar. After stirring in the dried fruit I dug in. Honestly it was not that spectacular, the oatmeal I make at home is ten times better BUT it was good enough and I felt good that I could still eat at "normal" food places and have a vegan option.
Once home I had set up the two dogs in separate areas since I was unable to supervise them at the time and was just about to get some housework done when hubby called. He was on his lunch break and running some errands and wanted to know if my daughter and I wanted to meet him for lunch. He didn't have much time so it would have to something quick...fast food wins a second time in one day....grrrrr! Sure I could have said "no thanks" to his invitation for lunch but ya see I kinda love that man a ton and I truly cherish any opportunity I have to spend extra time with him....I am kinda sappy that way. Hubby offered up a few suggestions but I couldn't think of anything on the menus of those places that I could eat or would want to eat. I could tell he was beginning to be put out with me for being so difficult and then I remembered Wendy's, they have baked potatoes on their menus!
On the way over to meet hubby at Wendy's I started feeling like when you are a vegan in a typical american town it feels kinda lonely. I felt like I couldn't eat at any of the places my friends and family eat at and began to really get down about my future social life. Honestly it is pathetic that more places don't have something decent on the menu that a vegan can eat. Pretty much every item on menus these days contains either dairy, meat or both....and all contain added oils. I suppose if I liked salads it would be easier, hopefully one day I will learn to like salads and can bring my own dressing from home. I wonder if this is how other vegans feel? Like they are some weird out crowd that can't participate in normal societal traditions or conveniences. Seems funny that I am eating the most natural diet for a human beings while other drink the milk of another species and yet I am the weird one.
Anyway, at lunch with hubby I ordered a baked potato with only chives and sea salt, a garden side salad(figured I would at least try) and a lemonade. The tater was really good and very satisfying and I kinda of picked at my salad but since I am determined to eat more greens I managed to swallow down half of it. Hubby ordered a bacon cheeseburger and it really smelled good but I could also see the poor pigs and cows being slaughtered to make that burger every time hubby or anyone else around me took a bite. Whatever desire I had to eat a burger too was quickly put to rest when I remembered the images I have seen on videos of how they really treat those poor animals going to slaughter. Of course the images of all that lovely animal protein feeding cancer cells also helped to curb those cravings too.
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| Our dogs have made up it seems after the eye injury incident yesterday morning. They are now happily growling and barking together at every squirrel, cat and leaf that crosses our yard. |
I was glad to be home away from all the overwhelming reminders of how out of societal norm my diet is. Makes me think I need to make some vegan friends so I can enjoy a nice social dinner ever once in a while.
I was reminded again however when I had to run to wal-mart while my kids were at basketball practice since I ran out of foil and milk for the family. Grabbing my shopping cart I set out for the grocery section and again it hit me. Pretty much 75% of the items were not vegan friendly. Of the remaining 25% only half of those were unprocessed and didn't contain extra added oils and sugars. I found the foil, placed it in my basket and headed to the dairy section. I never realized how large the dairy section is, I mean seriously! Aisle of stuff that as I vegan and informed person I wouldn't dare put in body! At the milk freezers I decided to forgo buying the cows milk and bought almond and rice milk for my family instead. They have had it before when I tried to force the whole family to go vegan last year and they didn't mind it too much so I figured why not. If they complained I would get them their beloved cow's milk because as you may remember I don't want to force them into anything. Once the plant based milk was in my cart it was a long straight shot to the produce section passing aisle after aisle of foods that I now know aren't really food. I didn't buy anything in the produce section since I had already gone shopping on Monday but I wanted to look at the only section in a huge store that I could eat from. There really is a wonderful amount of dishes one can make only from the produce section. Eating only from the produce section doesn't upset me or make me feel deprived, it makes me feel concerned and sad that all that other "food" in the store isn't fit for people to eat and live healthy lives. In line I felt it again. The family in front of me was all overweight as myself. Their cart was filled with piles of meat packages, lots of dairy products and heaps of processed foods like chips, cereals, sauces, boxed meals and snacks. Not one single fruit or vegetable. The mother was chatting with the cashier and I overheard her say they were doing their twice a month grocery run. All of that filth was the only thing this family would be eating for the next two weeks until they did yet another grocery run.....not a single vegetable or fruit....so sad. As I looked around me though all the other carts pretty much looked the same.
Last night I made very very yummy dish! I had planned on lasagna again but with the time constraints I needed something faster so enchiladas it was. I remembered an enchilada recipe I had made last year off of the Dr. McDougal website and although I didn't remember the exact recipe I remember it had potatoes at the main filling so I just went from there. The result was a knock out fabulous dish that everyone liked and I will definitely be making again. I can even see taking these to a pot luck. Here is my "recipe" or rather instructions.
I took a medium sized mixing bowl and filled it half with left over mashed taters(vegan of course) and then added a bag of frozen corn, a can of fat free vegan pinto beans(drained and rinsed), some chopped up leftover sauted peppers, about three large tablespoons of nutritional yeast and mixed it all up. Next I took some whole grain fat free tortillas and filled each one with the filling, rolled them up and placed them in my casserole dish that before hand I had put a thin layer of enchilada sauce on. Last I poured the remaining enchilada sauce on top and covered it with foil and baked it for about 35-45 minutes on 350.When it started bubbling I knew it was done. My one compliant was that the red enchilada sauce was really spicy and added more heat than I prefer but they were still really really yummy. In the future I will use a much milder sauce when making these.
The great thing about enchiladas is that are some easy to try lots of different fillings and sauces on to make a completely different dish. These are going into my meal rotation when I get one set up for sure.
At the end of Day Three I was feeling better physically but a little sad over the realization that meat and dairy industry are literally everywhere you turn your head in the form of fast food chains and aisles of super market fake foods. I was very encouraged however that I managed to eat at two fast food chains in one day and still was able to eat vegan and also that I made a vegan dish my whole family loved for dinner that night.
I am on Day Four today and so far it has been great with a new breakfast item I made today.......but more on that in my next post.
Have an amazing day everyone!
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