You may find yourself standing in front of the sandwich counter at your local health food store.
You may find yourself asking the cute boy who always makes the sandwiches if the bread is vegan?
You may find yourself making the cute boy not so cute by asking if the spinach is organic?
You may ask yourself, "My Goddess, How did I get here?"
So then, because you've frustrated the cute sandwich making boy and because no one in the entire store can really assure you that anything at that counter is, in fact, organic, you realize that paying the $6.99 you're spending on that suspect sandwich could instead be spent on lots of really and truly organic ingredients and you, yes you, can make your own very special sandwich. Lots of them even.
I found myself in exactly that situation this afternoon. The store was buzzing with mothers and fathers and small children pushing their own diminutive carts and while I was encouraged to see so very many healthy and beautiful people shopping for wholesome organics, it still was a bit disconcerting to have my cute sandwich boy have absolutely no idea about the ingredients with which he was about to construct my sandwich.
I was kind, thanked him profusely for his trouble (people I am always very kind, I promise) and then this is exactly what I did.
I gathered into a basket the following:
- Fresh organic basil
- soft organic tofu
- organic sunflower sprouts
- two organic tomatoes
- a small container from the olive bar of garlic stuffed olives
- alvarado street sprouted wheat organic burrito sized tortillas
The total for my purchases was $8.76 So, yes, more than $6.99 initially. I took all of that home and then that's when the magic really started.
Into the Cuisine Art went the following:
The olives, some white and pink peppercorns, a few red chiles, a few sprigs of the fresh basil, a dash of sea salt, 5 cloves of raw garlic and a dash of tumeric. I pulsed that until everything was chopped pretty finely. Then I threw in about a cup of organic raw almonds. Again, I pulsed. Next, I drizzled in organic olive oil. Not too much, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you exactly how much. Enough so things started to resemble a "pesto".
Now I added two thirds of my block of soft tofu. I actually ran the Cuisine Art on LOW until it now resembled a hummus consistency. Then, again, I drizzled olive oil and lemon juice into the mixture while it was running on low.
I ended up with about a half quart of this vegan, organic tofu spread. Which tastes, honestly, like a yummy garlic olive cream cheese spread. I took that and spread it on one of the sprouted wheat tortillas, added fresh organic spinach, sliced tomato, and the sunflower sprouts and wrapped it up like a buritto and then ate it.
It was all really simple and took less than 15 minutes start to finish. The best news is that for less than $10, I've got vegan organic ingredients for at least 6 sandwiches.
I hear a lot from readers and friends that eating organic and vegan is both difficult and too expensive. Honestly, I think the most difficult and expensive part about not eating an organic and vegetarian (or vegan) diet are the long term health effects that will eventually plague you and effect your quality of life.
My life is certainly not perfect, absolutely not. I do know, though, that my health and, more importantly, my vitality is most certainly improved by this diet.
I tweeted recently that if you're considering a change to a vegan (or even vegetarian) diet, I'd be more than happy to help you make the transition in whatever ways that I can. I stand behind that offer and I'm thinking about perhaps using my retooled "dreamsweet" blog to create a month long group who go vegan for 30 days. I know that it seems a very long time, but I also know that any one of us can truly do anything for 30 days if it is something we really want to do.
What do you think? Think you would like participating in that with a group of others who are similarly committed? I'd be there to help and encourage you, answer your questions, give you recipes and even kick your ass when you say, "I ate the cheese!"
Every life change starts with the first step. I guess what I'm saying is, "Who wants to take a step with me?" Let me know and we can make this happen.