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Showing posts from 2021

2024 Contest Wins

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I enter and win a lot of contests but I always forget to track how much I win. This year I am going to have a blog post and keep updating it as I win.  Contest win #3 was a medium mixed produce box from OddbunchCanada. Until this contest i didn’t know much about OddbunchCanada . I can’t believe they are selling a produce box of this size and quality for only $32 plus $4 delivery. It is a lot more produce than I was expecting to get and it’s very good quality. Last week during a trip to Montreal I May have complained that I needed to eat some vegetables after all the croissants and sweets that problem is solved. I will likely order a small box $20 from OddbunchCanada in the future.  Total Value of Prizes so far March 2024 $131 Contest win #2 for 2024 was a Queen Cake from  Strawberry Blonde Bakery . A very yummy vegan cake. I packed some up to share with my friends. I’m not sure what this cake is valued at but cakes range from $44-100 on the website. I will go with a conservative $50. 

Recovery Six months after Uterine Fibroid Embolization (UFE)

It has been over six months since I had Uterine Fibroid Embolization (UFE). I have some previous blogs about getting diagnosed and the day of the procedure. You can read them here my-experience-having-uterine-fibroid.html  and Fibroids-ultrasound-mri-and-ufe-.html  Now it is time to talk about recovery. I will start with right after the procedure to now. It is about seven months after the procedure now.  Where I live you stay overnight in the hospital for pain management they give you a self controlled morphine pump. There are other places where you will go home 4 hours after the procedure. I remember being in my room and people telling me they were going to put things in a locker I asked them to give me the ginger coconut water I had in the bag. I knew I wasn't going to be allowed to get up for hours nor did I feel like it I didn't realize that I wouldn't be allowed to get up all night because of the urinary catheter. It didn't matter because I had no desire to get up

Vegan holiday chocolate tasting

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This is the first year I am vegan and there is a lot of vegan holiday chocolate available so I thought I will do a tasting.    The dark Grand Ferrero Rocher is accidentally vegan. This is the only Ferrero product that does not have milk ingredients so read the ingredients before you buy things may change. I found this on sale for $5.99 at Save-On-Foods other stores like London drugs sell it for around $8. It’s so pretty would make a great gift.  It was a little hard to open at first and it’s hollow in the middle. Once you get the first part open it’s easy to break into pieces but thick enough it doesn’t fall apart on its own. The taste has a more bitter dark chocolate taste than regular Ferrero. It reminds of the chocolate that’s in the chocolate bunny’s you get in the grocery store less sweet and with a lot of hazelnuts. It is a good dark hazelnut chocolate.  Zazubean has a lot of festive flavours. I chose the Blitzen because it was on sale for $3.99 at London Drugs. The other flavo

2021 Online Earnings Update - How I make extra money online in my spare time doing things I enjoy with referral links

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In my last post I talked about investing and now being a good time to buy. How does one find extra income to invest when the price of everything is going up and the full-time job barely covers essentials.  I like my job but I want to do something for extra income where I have control over when I do tasks and don't have to get permission from someone else to take time off. Whenever I watch Youtube videos of people telling you how to make extra income they suggest things like social media things that take a lot of time and effort. Those things are not for me I just want to make a little bit more money doing things I enjoy whenever I want. I have been earning online for at least five years now. I only do things I want to do when I want to do them so you may not think it is not a lot of money and maybe for you it is not but for me it is. There is potential to earn a lot more if you are the kind of person that likes to work a lot I am not that person. I want to enjoy what I do and con

Did I make money investing in Canadian Stocks on Wealth Simple?

A few months ago I decided to try Wealthsimple trade was hoping to get a free stock. I have used Wealthsimple invest for a few years this is the app where I don't do anything and just leave my money with them. I have had great returns even currently while the stock market is down I am receiving more than 15% return on my RRSP and 5% on my TFSA. If you use this referral link for  Wealthsimple invest  you will get free management fees. I thought it would be fun to try Wealthsimple trade so I could learn how to trade myself knowing that I probably would not be able to get a better return than 15% this is for my learning experience. I really did not know much about stocks I invested $100 I wanted to see what would happen fully expecting that I would lose everything and it would be a learning experience. I have since started learning a lot more about stocks by watching Youtube videos and following investors on Instagram. I have invested more into a TFSA account. I never got the free sto

Vegan mac and cheese using leftover cheese

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I had a lot of vegan cheese in my fridge so I thought it would be a good time to try and vegan macaroni and cheese it turned out delicious.  All you need is some vegan butter, vegan cheese, and plant milk. I thought the barista blend would make it creamier but it didn’t do any plant milk will work.  The presidents choice vegan butter i found at no frills is one of the best vegan butters I have tried highly recommend. Melt a little butter in the pan add cheeses and keep stirring. The cheese co cheese and Violife Parmesan block melted really well. The Violife shredded was harder to melt and the slices did not melt at all. Keep stirring and add some vegan cream cheese and plant milk as necessary to get a smooth sauce.  Add some spices for flavour I added curry powder, salt, and pepper. Add macaroni and stir. I added fried onions and basil for more flavour.  Then I added some of the Violife Tex mex and baked it in the air fryer oven. This cheese actually melted well the other Violife varie

I Tried Starbucks Vegan Sugar Cookie Latte with Coconut, Almond, and Oat milk

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This is an update to the post below. I finally tried the sugar cookie latte with almond milk. This is my favourite out of all three that I have tried. I had requested 1 pump of syrup the grande usually comes with 4. It was missing some sweetness but that was my fault I recommend having 3 or 4 pumps of syrup if you try this. The drink was still really good. This is going to be my favourite Starbucks drink while it lasts.    The sugar cookie latte from Starbucks is their first vegan holiday drink. In Canada it comes with Oat Milk and in the US it comes with almond milk in Canada. I don’t like oat milk so I substituted coconut milk.  This drink was good it taste like a perfectly sweetened latte. It has sprinkles on it other than that it didn’t remind me of a cookie at all. I liked it though it had a perfect sweetness to coffee ratio. Since most people will not order their drink with coconut milk I will try it with other plant milk. I tried the sugar cookie latte the way it comes in Canada

Vancouver Planted Expo 2021

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I won tickets to planted expo formally veg expo. Prior to the pandemic I went to veg expo every year. This is the first time I have gone as a vegan in the past I was vegetarian I didn’t check but I assume everything was vegan this year. I was hesitant to go to a convention during a pandemic they checked vaccine passports, and masks needed to be worn if not eating. The booths were spaced out but it was a bit awkward eating samples having to take the mask on and off especially if a booth got a little crowd around it. It never got uncomfortably crowded but I did miss a few booths. I felt there were less wrapped samples than at past events but foodie buddy said she thought it was the same as the past. It was nice to be able to attend this kind of an event after a long time. v When you walk in they had reusable bags with gummies  from Herbaland to take. I liked that they laid out all the coupons/promotional materials on the table so you could take what you wanted. In the past I have volunte

Cereal Tasting

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It has been years since I have bought any Kellogg’s or General Mills cereal. I stayed in a hotel that had breakfast included they had these small cereal boxes so I thought I would try them. I notice the ingredients have changed since the past. The Kellogg’s ingredients are pretty simple now grains, sugar, some are using fruit and turmeric for colour some have artificial colour. There is a separate section on the ingredients for vitamins and minerals The first cereal I tried was FruitLoops. It taste exactly how I remember crunchy, slightly sweet, with a slight fruity flavour. It’s really delicious.  The next cereal I tried was Frosted Flakes. I was expecting it to be sweeter other than that it tasted exactly like I was expecting. It wasn’t insanely sweet but definitely had sweetness to it. The flakes had a nice crunch to them and it wasn’t insanely sweet but does have a sweetness to it. This wouldn’t be my first choice in cereal but I liked it.  The next cereal was corn flakes. I would

Cheesy vegan baked pasta

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I cook everything in the instant vortex plus air fryer oven. I just got a new loaf pan that fits perfectly inside. Vegan feta was on sale so I decided I should make the TikTok viral pasta. I have made it once before with tofu and used a cake pan. The past one was good but I only made it once.  I recently became vegan so I remember what dairy cheese tastes like. This is the first time I have tried vegan feta it tastes more like cream cheese to me but it’s good. Cherry tomatoes were too expensive so I got fresh San Marzano tomatoes they will be a good substitute.  I put tomatoes, olive oil, half a block of feta, and some za’star spice. I got the spice as a free sample and I don’t have other dried herbs so also a good substitute. I cooked this in the air fryer oven at 350 for fifteen minutes.  The feta was all nicely melted but I probably should have cooked the tomatoes for another ten minutes. I have no patience so I added fresh basil and mixed it.  I had already cooked the pasta and it

Reese’s Peanut Butter and Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

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  It’s Halloween night I was going to make vegan peanut butter cups tonight. I saw in the flyer for showcase stores which are an as seen on TV store that they had Reese’s peanut butter. The regular price was $20 but it was on sale for $10. The question was it worth buying a $10 jar of peanut butter just so I could have vegan peanut butter cups?  I followed the method on Thee Burger Dude’s YouTube channel. Scooped out the peanut butter and put it in the fridge while I melted the chocolate. I had a few bars of Lindt dark chocolate from when they were a great price. I melted one bar by putting a bowl on top of the steamer basket in my always pan.  My cups don’t look good because I didn’t work fast enough with the melted chocolate they taste great though. Make sure you have a spoon ready when the chocolate is melted put a spoon of chocolate in each cup. Then put the peanut butter in the centre. Then cover with chocolate and put in the fridge. I put mine in the freezer for about twenty minu

Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo

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I first got a craving when I saw a post from hold_the_olives on Instagram. It was a vegan Olive Garden copy cat picture. The recipe wasn’t posted but in the description it said it was lots of coconut milk, vegan butter, and vegan cheese. My adapted recipe is at the end of the post. I rarely cook with coconut milk but I had a can at home and this dish looked so good. I don’t remember having Olive Garden Alfredo sauce but I have had many good non vegan Alfredo sauces. This turned out delicious I just finished all the leftovers and was so good even after being in the fridge all night.  I searched for a recipe online and the only one that used coconut milk was from the comforting vegan  http://www.thecomfortingvegan.com/2013/04/vegan-fettuccine-alfredo-olive-garden.html?m=1 I adapted the recipe to my ingredients and taste. First I cooked the fettuccine and set aside. I wanted to make two portions. I did not use enough water but I recommend saving some pasta water for the sauce.  In a pan o

Vessi Shoes

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I bought my second pair of Vessi shoes. My first pair I wore everyday since I got them. They also had great grip in the snow. They are so comfortable I stopped wearing my other shoes.  These shoes are vegan, waterproof, and they mold to your feet. You have to buy them online  at vessi’s.com. They are machine washable but I have not tried they are easy to wipe clean  My second pair is a limited edition I bought them because I walk everywhere and they have some reflection so I feel a little safer that cars will see me walking in the dark winter. I love the style.  These shoes really are waterproof. You can see an Instagram Reel of me walking in the rain here  Waterproof Shoes Instagram Reel . My pants got wet my shoes stayed dry.   

Plant based puffs cheese and hot flavours

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  I found these plant based cheese puffs at London Drugs on sale for $3.99. When I first saw the package I didn’t see it was plant based but there was a spicy flavour as I was about to read the ingredients I realized the cheese flavour was vegan.  The texture tastes exactly like the regular cheese puffs which is nice because these are made of fava bean, pea protein, and chickpea flour there is no corn in them.  A serving is half the bag for 210 calories and 10g of protein. Even the sodium level isn’t too bad for a snack it’s 29% of the daily value. It does have 6g of fat but the portion size is big.  The taste is like vegan cheese not exactly like regular cheese puffs. It’s good though if you like vegan cheese it is interesting there is no nutritional yeast in the ingredients as most vegan cheese flavour usually has. It does have lactic acid.  I would probably buy the spicy flavour next time but I liked them. They make a great snack.  I got a chance to try the spicy one. It’s not too c