Dani's Dirt

Warning: this blog contains my makeup-free face. Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, cuz we goin vegan up in here.

I live smack dab in the middle of nowhere, and halfway on the way to everything. My closest small city is Joplin, which is an hour away. For something a little more urban like Tulsa, Springfield or Topeka I’m looking at easily a two hour drive. As you can imagine my Middle-of-Corn, Kansas is an EXTREMELY rural area. We basically have a few fast food restaurants, a grocery store and Walmart which is small and doesn’t carry many specialty items. (and we’re one of the bigger towns in the area.) This has presented major challenges for my part of this vegan adventure.

Waking up yesterday and realizing I couldn’t put on makeup was fantastic. (I slept in a little longer) However, realizing I had nothing to wash my hair with… not so fantastic.

After the shower fiasco of Monday morning, I was then presented with my next obstacle, my beloved coffee. Sure coffee is vegan, but the creamer and Splenda I normally drown it in… not so much. Thankfully, last night at Walmart I stumbled across Pure Cane Certified Organic Sugar.

So yeah I was that girl… The one doing a happy dance in the store aisle.

Since you’ve probably gathered a picture of the area I live, you can understand why finding vegan friendly toiletries, makeup and food has been difficult for me. I don’t give up easily though. A co-worker suggested washing my hair with baking soda as a shampoo and apple cider vinegar as a conditioner. I was skeptical, and David let me know my head would probably be like a 7th grade science experiment—volcano style, but this morning I tried it anyway.

It was strange. Very different from what I’m used to, but basically I made it a paste and patted it onto my scalp, rinsed it out, and then poured the vinegar onto the ends of my hair. It worked!! And it didn’t leave my hair smelling like vinegar, which made me happy. Thanks to my sister I also have a scrub made from oats and olive oil that exfoliates and moisturizes (double win!), and for washing my face I’m using coconut oil (thank you Pinterest) which also both cleanses and moisturizes (Heck yeah!)

Okay, enough girl talk, lets get down to the food. I can honestly say so far I have not been left feeling hungry and everything has been very tasty.

Monday
Breakfast: Two apples with organic all natural peanut butter. I attempted straight coffee (not a fan.)
Lunch: Unsweetened Tea (That was not very southern of me) salad with spinach and romaine, chopped red bell pepper, pickled okra and cucumber with a dressing I made from fresh lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper and a little Italian seasoning.Dinner: Sweet Potato hash tacos with black beans, and Simply orange juice.

Tuesday
Breakfast: All natural oats topped with sliced banana, and COFFEE!!! Sweetened with sugar (listed earlier) and soy milk.

So far my most exciting find in my little rural Walmart has been vegan butter and the organic sugar. Because of my location and work schedule, all the food I consume is made by me, I currently don’t have access to tofu or anything specialty. This means I welcome recipes with open arms, so please pass them along! And any other tips you have for me or David. I will be posting all my recipes for my vegan made meals on a separate post.

Be sure and follow David’s progress at FarmingAmerica.org and our twitter feed at #DandDgovegan.

And I speak for both of us when I say thank you for all the warm wishes, encouragement and advice you’ve shown us both so far!