Ghita Boulaich

I wanted to start by congratulating the whole team. As a group we have made such a difference, and I am proud of all our accomplishment. 
I first joined this class because I found the idea interesting, I ended up enjoying it much more than I expected.  since we are the only sus class, I feel like we build a strong sense of teamwork. This class has pushed me to come out of my comfort zone and I believe it to be my biggest merit. 

On my end, I found this platform very interesting and motivating; It helped me keep track of my progress and when I had to make more efforts. My proudest moment us when I fixed my home sink; I am quite a manual person but I didn't think I could do much a thing. The eco-challenge gave me the little push I needed to go vegetarian and well now I can proudly say that I've been meat-free for 4 weeks and going strong! I wish I would have posted more pictures but the food was already in my stomach when the idea came up. oupsiii.. 

I believe that this activity brought us together as a class and should definitely be done with future classes. we can motivate one another and give each other challenges. this is a great way to bring students together! 

On my girlfriends birthday, we decided to have a vegan birthday party. which consisted of me and her close family since covid is still at our doors. I started the day by making her her favourite avocado toast in the morning. She enjoyed it in bed and I might have stole a couple bites  when she wasn't looking.

We then headed to the stables since she's a horse back rider and fed the horses the apples at home that were going to go bad. I had packed a picnic for lunch. I packed vegetarian sandwiches made of soya instead of turkey some vegan mayo and lettuce and tomatoes, fruits, nuts and some sweets.

For supper, her mother order vegetarian pizza which was delicious and we made homemade nachos with our own guacamole and we had a salad ( no one really ate it).

It was a very cool day and it felt good to celebrate a birth knowing that we didn't kill cows or pigs to celebrate!

I ordered bamboo tooth brushes and bamboo utensils for the whole family for Christmas. I found this incredible website where even the packaging is sustainable. Usually my biggest problem with finding bamboo toothbrushes is that they are either not packages ( not very clean) or that they are packaged in plastic ( not very smart).

I also made sure that when I gifted the toothbrushes in the Christmas stockings, the old toothbrushes we had would not be under used or thrown away before they lived they fulfilled their fullest capacity . Knowing that we got them a few weeks ago and that a toothbrush last at least 3 months. It safes to assume that by Christmas it will be time to buy new ones. 

I have also followed the company or their social medias to see if any of their new products could be useful to me or anyone around me. I chose the rainbow ones cause our bathroom definitely deserves some joy! 

As a household, we are leaning into a more pescatarian diet. With the website " seafood watch.org" we can look up how environmentally friendly the sea fish  we buy at the grocery store and in the markets before even buying it. 

You simply type the kind of fish you are buying/consuming and a little fish appears next to your request. If the little fish is red or yellow it means that the farming condition do not deserve to be supported and that we should look for  more sustainable options. 

This system allows my whole family with just a few clicks to buy products we can actually enjoy. We all really enjoy it and will keep using it! 

We just received a composting bin. I have been reading, on Laval's compositing website, the rules, how to properly discard, and reuse the little one in our kitchen and the larger one down stairs. Before the town provided it for us, my mom and I used to have a little system to help our little garden in the backyard grow. 

Now we are in A MAJOR conflict between continuing to make our own compost, doing just the one with the city or doing both.  We sat down as a family and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each option and decided that since it is the beginning of winter we could stick to the composting bin with Laval. 

I believe that this was the right choice. I would like to continue the one for our garden. The tomatoes and peppers definitely  need it. 

I took the bus to the bus and the Metro to access the Vanier campus to work on my sustainability project. The round trip is 68km 

yesterday, me and my family enjoyed 3 vegetarian meal. 

We started the day with some grill cheese, the cheese was locally sourced from a farm in OKA. The bread was a Quebec  Product. 

For lunch, we ate nachos. the cheese was dairy Free. We replaced meat with some Soya. It was delicious! 

For dinner, we ate poke bowls. We put several different kinds of vegetables, sauce and salmon. We each made our own plates and it was fresh and very nutritious.  

I tried a new pasta recipe for supper last night. It was really good! We substituted meat for some tofu and this new tomato sauce we found at a local grocery shop. This morning I made vegans pancakes, they didn't turn out so well, I might try a new mix  next time. 

I bought some jewellery from this women at the flea market. She makes them by hand they are beautiful 

eating vegetarian or vegan is fairly easy when it comes to breakfast and lunch. I tried to include a more plant-base diet to my life. The only struggle is supper since my mom makes it for everyone.