Wedding planning

 So my goodness, I did not appreciate the planning and money that goes into a wedding until I started really looking into planning mine.
I have changed my mind on where I want my wedding approximately 1000 times, I have changed my mind on the details for the ceremony 2000 times and the reception a few hundred.
I still have no idea what I want.
Originally I wanted a huge over the top fairytale ball! We set a modest budget of 10,000CAD.
Then after a trip to Cuba one day while day dreaming I started building other dream trips, I've caught the travel bug. As it turns out for 10K I could fly from Toronto to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong to Tokyo, THEN back to Hong Kong and from there back to Toronto for about 6000CAD for both myself and my fiancé and that still left 4000CAD for park tickets and hotels.
So that changed my dream. I cannot justify spending a tour of Asia on 1 day.
This has lead me to some creative money saving ideas and I am still unsure of which I will end up doing but I will pass along my wisdom as it comes.
One of the first and best tips I got was from a co-worker she recommended I look into banquet halls owned and marketed towards South Asians. I googled  'Indian banquet halls' and a large list of halls that hadn't shown up on any of the numerous bridal sites or forums I had already exhausted, came up.
Most of these halls have similar pricing and wow. The average venue in the low range around me ranges from 70-100$ per person including bar, the newly discovered South Asian venues ranged 45-60$ per person including bar!
I was blown away. My fiancé and I love Indian food another bonus for us if that many Hindus are vegetarian and as a result these halls have a large vegetarian selection and most dishes can be made vegan.
 For those who prefer traditional north American or European dishes these halls are still very accommodating and can also do menus fitting those needs.
If you have never been to or seen a South Asian wedding they are decadent affairs, the décor in my opinion is too die for. I love the regal and over the top décor and these centers being used to accommodating such extravagant events generally include quite a lot of lavish décor at little to no extra cost.
For anyone looking for an all inclusive venue that is affordable this is my number 1 recommendation.

Vegan Burger Helper

cook & prep time approx 20mins
Serving paired with side salad 3-4 served on it's own 2-3
Firstly I hate when a recipe blog has like a two page story of everything the cook did that day before they cooked to get to the recipe, so I wont do that.
For those who enjoyed hamburger helper in there pre vegan days I have a recipe for HEALTHY, cruelty free vegan burger helper. This came in an attempt to make a cheese sauce but tastes much more like hamburger helper so we are going with that!
What you will need :

• 1 package of yves ground round (or any ground 'beef' alternative)
• package of noodles
• 1/4 onion diced
• 1 1/2 cups of unflavored non-dairy milk (cashew is creamiest)
• 2 tbsp non-dairy butter
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• splash of olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste 

Bring pot of water to a boil and add noodles while the water boils/ noodles cook splash a frying pan set to medium heat with olive oil , mix quarter Onion with ground round and fry. While the ground round and onion are frying mix remaining ingredients together in sauce pan and bring to a light boil. by the time your noodles and ground round are done the sauce should also be done.
Drain noodles and then mix sauce and ground round in together.
And you are done!
Easy ! I like to top mine with sriracha.

The Problematic Hunt for Perfection

"Why worry? If you've done the very best you can, worrying isn't going to make it any better"

~Walt Disney

In my previous posts, 'Nobody's perfect' and 'Disney's Animal Kingdom For Your Consideration' I touched on perfectionism, the attitude of "if you can't do it perfectly don't bother" and life's grey areas. Still I think this topic merits a more in depth look. This entry is going to focus on problematic perfectionism within the vegan community but this is not a vegan specific problem I'd argue this can be applied to almost anything in life but I want to focus on this for a second. The opinions expressed here are my own and maybe controversial but I feel this is an important discussion to be had.
Every step counts. There is a difference between a plant based diet and being vegan, vegan is an ethical choice and complete life style where as plant based is a diet for health or personal reasons that does not extend past diet and can include any version of a 'mostly vegetarian or vegan diet'. I totally understand why people feel it is important to differentiate the two, this can get foggy as its usually easier when ordering food to say vegan than to explain plant based to servers, and this in turn causes confusion about what is and isn't vegan.
  The original definition of vegan "A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals" .
Things start getting complicated when you get past dairy,eggs and meat and start looking into things like oysters,insects, medicine, etc.  The original definition is in a sense sort of vague in the sense that it used words like strives and practical this is very important because this takes into account life's challenges ,struggles and grey areas. In a world unfortunately centered around animals being products and that being the norm accessibility becomes and important factor, someone may hold all the core beliefs of a vegan but have to bend in action and this is not something they should be crucified for.A single parent on social assistance may have no choice but to feed their family zoodles which contains dairy or some other bi product due to finances and/or whats available at the local food bank.
Now of course this is an extreme scenario and generally not what vegans are addressing when they call something out as not vegan or not vegan enough but some of the harsh language and anger I've seen makes me wonder what the affect would be if someone taking positive steps saw and felt they cannot be pure enough and give up,
What I am saying is we need to be kind and compassionate teachers, not police. People do and will look for way to justify wrong and actions and make excuses for why they can't strive for better but we can't know who is and is not doing that and in the end the only actions we are responsible for are our own, so being cruel because something 'isn't vegan enough' or because someone relapsed with old habits, does not discredit their progress, it discredits yours.
Everyday we should strive to be a little better and harm a little less without obsessing over mistakes or road blocks along the way. If you dig deep enough or look hard enough our actions no matter how well intended will cause harm somewhere be it pollution from our car, energy waste from our computers, animal products in our medicine, there is no perfection and trying to hold ourselves or other to an unreachable standard only makes the fall hurt that much worse when we realize we can't reach it.
So educate people, hold yourself and others accountable for words and actions but do so kindly and without forgetting everyone has a journey and struggles, not everything is black or white the world indeed is grey.

All Star Sports!

"A team isn't a bunch of kids out to win. A team is something you belong to, something you feel, something you have to earn."

-The Mighty ducks

Coming from Canada and during a low dollar saving money is key to making a Disney trip possible.

The cheapest way to do Disney is to camp at 50USD a night but I am not much of a camper so we did the next best thing, the All Star Sport Resort! The All Star resorts will always be your most affordable hotel option for on property. We chose sports because Jamie is a huge sport fanatic. 

My favorite thing about the all stars is how over the top themed they are! All of the All Stars have a very over the top, cartoon look and theme. 

All Star Sports has 5 sports themed buildings you can stay in which are : football,baseball,tennis,basketball, and surfing. There are 2 pools one baseball themed in the Home Run Hotel you can find a nautical baseball diamond complete with pitcher Goofy and his water cannon and over in , of course Surf Board Bay you can chill out to surf music around the second pool. 

We had originally wanted to stay in either the football themed Touch Down Hotel or the baseball themed Home Run Hotel but upon arrival we had the option of a free upgrade to a preferred room if we stayed in Surf Board Bay. Surf Board Bay ended up being nicer than expected we stayed in a room tucked to the back facing the trees that conceal a little playground. The rooms themselves are a little plain but again this is the lowest budget location so its to be expected I was however a little disappointed we didn't get towel animals which was something I was extremely excited about.

One of the greatest things about this resort is that it is the first of the All Stars on the bus route. So if your there during a slow time when buses are being shared you are more likely to get to and from the parks faster than guests from the other All Stars. I found the bus waits and rides from this location to generally be very fun and fast. The only exception was leaving EPCOT right at closing but of course leaving any park at closing will leave you waiting and if I am not mistaken I believe EPCOT was also the furthest so again wait is to be expected.

One thing I love about Disney resorts is that not only do they give guests quality h2O+  products but h2O+  doesn't test on animals and most of there products are vegan!(http://www.h2oplus.com/category/about+us/faqs.do)

For dinning All Star Sports has one busy food court! Options for vegans include vegan mickey waffles upon request with potatoes or toast for breakfast. For lunch and/or dinner the option is that standard veggie burger with fries, I didn't ask about pasta I did ask about the pizza and sadly they did not have vegan cheese but you could order veggie toppings no cheese. The food court as I mentioned is crazy busy most of the time but I still ate there almost daily I love mickey waffles and potatoes! 

Over all we both loved staying at All Star Sports Jamie doesn't want to stay anywhere else ever! I however do want to try POP Century which has more vegan options and/or The Art Of Animation because of how decorative their rooms are!

For further reading on the specs of the different resorts checkout http://www.wdwinfo.com/

Want to learn about Veganism?

"Have Courage and Be Kind"

-Cinderella

I put together this little pack for people interested in learning about veganism. I put it together quite a while ago but figured this might be a good time and place to share it. The links, books and films mentioned below answer pretty much every question I have ever asked or been asked about being and becoming vegan. Included are recipes, meal plans, information on environmental aspects as well as animal rights and the bottom is a list of vegetarian, vegan and/or plant based public figures. I hope this helps people on their journey and that you learn a little something. Articles: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/natural-health/vegan-sources-of-protein/

<- site is great for healthy recipes http://www.nursingdegree.net/blog/19/57-health-benefits-of-going-vegan/

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/justin3.htm

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/?page=article_samplenutritionprograms

http://greatist.com/health/complete-vegetarian-proteins

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4771/10-Vegan-Sources-of-Protein.html

http://www.peta.org/living/food/top-10-reasons-go-vegan-new-year/

http://nutritionfacts.org/?gclid=CNih35WdxMYCFQeLaQod1kILgw

Cook Books:

Thug Kitchen *contains swearing and possible cultural appropriation

Forks Over Knives Cookbook

China Study All Stars

Documentaries: (inrecommended watching order) Forks Over Knives (*disclaimer*some data debated) Food Inc (isnt related to cutting out meat but good food film) Cowspiracy (focus on enviromental issues&diet) Speciesism the movie (raises ethical questions) Recommended Books: Beasts : What animals can teach us on the orgins of good and evil By Jeffery M. Masson Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs & Wear Cows By Melanie Joy PhD The Pig Who Sang To The Moon: the emotional lives of farmed animals By Jeffery M Masson Skinny Bitch By Rory Freedman & Kim Barnouin Famous vegetarians and/or Vegans: Intellectuals: Greek philosopher Pythagoras (known for Pythagorean theory, 6th century BC vegetarian activist) Plato Leonardo Da Vinci William Shakespeare Voltaire Leo Tolstoy Sir Isaac Newton Socrates Vincent Van Gogh Benjamin Franklin Nickola Tesla Einstien Franz Kafka George Bernard Shaw Mark Twain Tomas Edison Henry Ford Steve Jobs *rumored* Abraham Lincoln Susan B. Anthony Ghandi Gautama Buddha (founder of buddhism) Celebs :

Jon Stewart Richard Gere Steve-O Carrie Price (hockey player) Natalie Portman (PhD & Actress) Ringo Star Paul McCartney Stella McCartney Bob Dylan Bob Barker Dustin Hoffman Jerry Sienfield Travis Baker David Duchovony (there are obviously way more but this is becoming a novel lol) Atheletes : Patrik Baboumian - World Record holding Strong man Bill Manetti - body builder Carl Lewis- Olympic track star Joe Namath - NFL Quarterback Martina Navratilova - Tennis star Tony La Russa - NFL Manager Robert Parish - NBA star Prince Fielder - MLB David Scott - Iron man Billie Jean King - Tennis Star Jim Morris - 79 year old body builder http://www.greatveganathletes.com/

Cinderella's Royal Table : Dining with Royalty

"No doubt you saw the whole pretty picture in detail. 

The young prince bowing to the assembly. Suddenly, he stops. 

He looks up. For lo... there she stands. The girl of his dreams. 

Who she is or whence she came, he knows not, nor does he care, for his heart tells him that here, here is the maid predestined to be his bride."

-The Grand Duke (Cinderella 1950)

Cinderella's Royal Table is located as it should be right inside of Cinderella's Castle. When you enter that castle your royal family will be greeted as such and you will receive your royal invitation to dine with the princesses (a little ticket with your parties information on it). You shuffle into line to meet Cinderella before heading upstairs to the dining room. Fun fact while your in line look around, up and down you should be able to find some of Cinderella's friends have joined her in the royal life, that's Gus Gus and Jaq you can spot.

After meeting her highness 

Cinderella you take the spiral stair case up to the dining room. CRT is a signature dining experience so it is pricey, very pricey if you are paying out of pocket you are looking at up to 75$ per person (price does depend on age and time) or if your on the DDP 2 sit down credits. So this location is usually followed by "Is it worth is?". I would argue yes. More for the atmosphere than anything else.

 CRT is a character dining experience during which you get to meet 5 princesses including Cinderella. If you were to wait in line to meet each of the princesses separately you could easily spend an entire day just due to wait time of 20-60mins per character. A part from that you are getting the chance to dine in a castle! 

Your meal also comes with your choice of a wand and wishing star or a sword, they do tend to show gender bias on this but don't feel weird asking for which ever you want it was noticable during the make a wish ceremony that some boys felt left out as they waved their swords around like wands because they had no wand. If your an adult don't let them forget you, you are also entitled to your souvenir the stars go great in a scrapbook! 

We chose to do CRT for breakfast the main perk of a breakfast dining reservation particularly at this location is that if your reservation is early enough you can get in at take pictures in front of the castle with little to no crowd! For us this didn't work out as planned however because it was during the ABC Christmas special filming.

So as vegans there really isn't an on the menu option at breakfast other than mickey waffles (totally fine by me though). Our waiter was very courteous he brought us soy milk for our coffee and for our meal we got mickey waffles, potatoes , salad, oatmeal (which was a bit to bland not a fan) and fresh fruit. The good was OK but I was more there to meet the princesses than anything else. 

For lunch and dinner there is an on the menu option of seasonal gnocchi with roasted vegetables eggplant, mushrooms, and squash tossed with gnocchi, arugula, brown butter sauce, and finished with shaved drunken goat cheese and leeks.  Also available with Rice instead of Gnocchi.  As a Vegan Offering without cheese and butter sauce. The lunch and dinner option does sound better but I may again do breakfast so we can do morning photos but if your a foodie I'd say lunch and dinner sound like a better bet.

The princesses are rightfully announced by a trumpet sound, it can be loud in the dining room so you may miss it but you wont miss the princesses themselves, as they enter one by one and begin their tour of the dining room. It can feel like you are being skipped because it is hard to tell what the order they are doing it but be patient your turn will come. Each princess stops at each table for photos and a quick interaction which is really lovely and it feels more natural than the regular meet and greets in my opinion. I will say I wish I had stayed calm and not worried so much about holding them up so I could have gotten better photos I really didn't love any of the photos I got here sadly, but that was totally my own fault.

I would definitely recommend that people make time to do Cinderella's Royal Table if you plan to meet the princesses during your trip it's a much more fun and authentic way to do it compared to waiting in line for a 30sec meet and greet repeatedly throughout your trip. It will save you a ton of time and is one of the most fun ways to meet the characters and get lost in the magic.

Disney's Animal Kingdom: For Your Consideration

"I have a great love of animals and laughter"

-Walt Disney

*Disclaimer : This Entry maybe controversial to some I am giving information based off of my research and experience to help those deciding and am trying to be as balanced as possible.

When I first realized OMG I AM ACTUALLY GOING TO DISNEY! I started researching things like, what can a vegan gal like me eat? A puzzling result of this was that it seemed many of the best vegan options lay in or near the Animal Kingdom a park which I assumed the majority of vegans would be boycotting. While this is definitely a very controversial topic in the veg Disney fandom it's one I want to talk about, calmly and frankly to help others decide. 

My ultimate decision post trip is that the world we live in is not black and white, but rather grey. I don't think we can treat all animal captivity as equal for multiple reasons such as, habitat loss, danger to endangered animals,and injured animals. There isn't the free space there once was for animals to live wild natural lives we humans have gotten our greedy little hands into just about everything, if we haven't chopped down , invaded or polluted an area we've most likely infiltrated the area with poachers because of this creating safe and yes artificial environments is becoming in my opinion important. With that said it's important that we do so responsibly which brings me back to not all captivity is created equally. Some species like, whales really can't thrive in captivity their size paired with how much they move makes creating a space they could potentially be happy and healthy in impossible. I feel I should note here Epcot has dolphins and I was not able to get a satisfactory answer as to how they got there but my basic understanding on them is that they were born in captivity. 

This blog could really become almost a book going through each animals needs and stories I will touch on some and the pro's and con's. If you thought the beginning of this was too pro park let's get into negatives. The United States has very loose laws in regards to exotic animals and because of this they have problems with sketchy backyard zoos and private citizens owning animals they are to equipped or qualified to care for (for more view The Elephant In The Living Room). I haven't been able to 100% confirm this allegation so take it with a grain of salt but it is rumored that the state asked Disney to take animals from these sorts of situations and that Disney declined and imported animals needlessly. 

Similarly prior to the parks opening 31 animals died due basically to staff carelessness , 4 cheetah cubs drank toxic materiel, and several birds were ran over by safaris. Ultimately inspectors declared that the number of death verse the number of animals in the facility worked out to be very low. To Disney's credit though unlike many parks/zoos they did take immediate action to rectify the mistakes and to avoid future accidents. (For further reading : http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-05-14/news/9805140239_1_disney-animal-usda-inspectors-animal-kingdom )

Related to animal deaths in 2014 the Animal Kingdom was listed among the worst zoos for elephants, and it wasn't the first time they made the list. Questions have been raised as to whether or not their status was earned or if it was used to gain publicity for the list itself, which is worth considering. Considering elephants are still used and abused in circus's and some of the zoos I've witnessed I do wonder if they deserve to be ranked 10th worse, but that doesn't justify the carelessness that lead them to making the list. Unlike many facilities that make these sorts of lists do to poor day to day living conditions for animals Disney made the list due to specific events that could have been avoided (for further reading http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-animal-kingdom-elephants-20150112-story.html ) One of the incidents was the death of a pregnant elephant who died while being transported to another facility for treatment, it is my understanding that after this event Disney upgraded their prenatal care capabilities.

By now Disney's Animal Kingdom is looking pretty bad so lets move back to the pro's. As I mentioned each of these tragic events lead to immediate positive changes and upgrades on Disney's part, that seems basic but is really worth noting, it's not often that facilities admit to doing something wrong in words or action unless forced to by legal agencies or public outcry, but Disney seems quick to improve with little to know push needed, and that is important on many levels. Disney's quick response to these tragic events in my opinion shows an authentic care for the well being of their dependents. 

Another very important aspect to consider is the actual enclosures. One of the main problems many people have with many zoos are the enclosures. Often just in regular conversation this comes up when discussing zoos or similar facilities so let's look at what makes the Animal Kingdom different in that respect. The Animal Kingdom is 500 acres the largest of all the parks giving the animals more space than any other park/ zoo I know of. The habitats are made to appear and feel as large and natural as possible. For a more detailed look at the enclosure read here http://www.technicallydis.com/?p=58 .

It's also worth noting that unlike here in Canada which should never be home to exotic animals due to our climate, Florida's climate is generally very warm and more suited to host these sort of animals.

Disney's Animal Kingdom also does a lot of work for wildlife conservation so more animals can enjoy and maintain happy, healthy wild lives, which of course wold be ideal for animals. The Animal Kingdom has also worked with Jane Goodall and what Jane deems OK I am inclined to lean towards as well. For more on this see 1.https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/content/conservation-collaboration

2. https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/environment/  

The number one positive I find about the Animal Kingdom is the transparency. Transparency should be common place, but it isn't and that's something that makes this facility standout. The train to Rafiki's Conservation Station leads you through a mini behind the scenes showing where the animals sleep and they can choose whether or not to enter the safari zone while I was there, there was an elephant that had chosen to stay in his/her pen despite the gate being open. At the conservation station in addition to learning about animals and conservation you can actually see parts of their veterinary clinic and watch minor procedures.  In additions to this for an extra fee you can take a complete behind the scenes tour. 

Currently Disney's Animal Kingdom is home to a mix of rescues and animals born in captivity that can't be released.

These pro's and con's and the gray world we live in leads me to put Disney's Animal Kingdom into a solid gray category. It's not as good as an actual conservation park, but is vastly superior to the majority of zoos and parks containing animals. From an abolitionist point of view which I don't entirely disagree with I understand why this isn't enough and from a welfarist  point of view this is about as good as can be expected from a for profit. 

So where do I stand? Well at the last second while there I did decide to check the park out, I only had about 3 hours there so I did not get to see it all but between my research, talking to staff past and present, and the state of the world in general, I am OK with it. Some of these animals when the park opened in the 1990s may have had a better life in the wild but now with the current population of those unable to live in the wild, the safety and care they are given I really can't hate on them. 

On quote that stuck out from a vegan former employee who supports the park was that Disney "treats the animals in it's care better than their human staff". 

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here, I get and respect all the reasons people give for boycotting this park, they aren't wrong. However I also see reasons why it's worth not boycotting. 

I hope the information given here will help people form their own opinions and make their own informed choices which ever it maybe.