buying a new car / key lime & coconut tarts

My husband and I recently bought a subaru.
Go ahead. Tell me that I'm a liberal, a lesbian or a homeschooling mother of three because to you I will simply say Ha! I am destroying that stereotype, one granola bar at a time. But let's be honest, stereotypes develop for a reason...
Take my car buying experience. As soon as I walked through the door, I was royalty; the most beautiful and interesting person they had ever met (translation: ignorant car buyer going to slaughter). Everything I said warranted a light chuckle and a nod of the head. I could do no wrong in this fantasy world of shiny cars and shinier smiles; all they wanted to do was help me. Or so I thought. Now I'm not so ignorant as to be fooled by these kinds of sales tactics, and fake niceness is right at the top of my list of least favorite things. Believe me, I've been there, on the other side, handing out orchids to tourists and pretending to care about their Hawaiian vacation when I'll I really wanted to do was con them into buying timeshares. And I did. Again and again with the slyness of a used car salesman. All they wanted was directions to the Cheesecake Factory and now they are going to a free luau with orchids behind their ears after buying a timeshare they don't want = Job done (I quit that job to save myself from becoming the slime of the earth). But I digress...
So I'm buying a new car and I don't know about you, but in my estimation there can only be so much conning going on. I know the msrp is a joke and I can work with that. I just have to play their game, hem and haw over everything and scrunch up my face so that I appear to be in deep contemplation. Lie and tell them I'll come back later after I've thought about it some more (even though I already know I'm going to buy the car). I know what I'm doing...
The sales guy I'm working with keeps disappearing with a line like "I don't have those numbers in front of me, in fact I'm not privy to them, but I can check with my manager and see if he can work something out for you". Because I'm special, right? Wrong, they say the same bs to every poor slob who walks in, and you know what, most of them probably eat that crap right up.
I finally get the numbers in front of me after negotiating with the guy for an hour (translation: I ask for a deal, he theatrically sighs and carries on, then talks to the manager, then comes back, then sighs and tell me that they don't normally do this, but he wants me to be happy, etc...bs, bs, bs).
Then it gets interesting...I buy the stupid car so they should be happy, right? Well they are, but not until I've bought all of the extra crap that I don't need. The extended warranty I understand, but why doesn't it include everything? I have to buy tire and wheel coverage separately, dings and dents separately, and the worst of all? A little extra called glasscoat. This is a poly-based paint that bonds to the paint job on the car and apparently protects it (translation: covers it with an extra coat of paint that it doesn't need so the dealership can make more money off of you). As I write this, I'm embarrassed/pissed that I fell for it. The salesman that sold me the car hands me off to the king of slime balls, the dreaded "manager". He's a greasy, baldheaded guy stuffed into a wrinkled shirt, who's about to see how stupid I am. A few stories and two framed photos of his family later, we're big buddies and he's let me in on a little secret: this glasscoat stuff really works, and it's only $7.99 per month. With horror in his eyes he recalls to me the dangers of tree sap and road salt. How could my precious new baby subaru handle it? So I sign up, then realize three days later (thanks to my father's brilliant opinion: "that's *$%^!") that I don't want it anymore. Now upon signing, my "new best friend" had told me that I could easily alter anything if I changed my mind. Yea, right. I called them up and told them I didn't want it anymore. They were shocked! stunned! stupified! and told me I had to bring in my contract and that it was going to be very complicated. Great. So I went in and my same bff tried to sell me on it again with the premise: "I'm not going to try to change your mind, but...(enter sales pitch here)". After he ranted on for several minutes, I told him that I didn't understand why a brand new car needed another coat of paint. He brought up the tree sap again and I started getting antsy.
"I don't want it, period", I finally said. And that was the end. No more glittering smiles and fake chuckles; I had become the dreaded customer with an opinion. He grumbled and started punching keys on his computer, all the while telling me that no one had ever canceled glasscoat before, so he wasn't even sure if he could cancel it. Now I really hate this guy. Not only is he blatantly lying to me, he's making me feel like I'm the problem. I want to say "I'm on to you, you money grubbing snake!" but instead I say, "you expect me to believe that this is the first time a customer has ever canceled glasscoat?" He looks at me with beady eyes and lies to my face again. Then he says he can't change the contract because it's already "in" (in where? a secret vault of untouchable contracts?), so he'll have to write me a check for the amount.
"Does this mean that I'm going to be paying interest on it?" I ask. In a nutshell, yes. Then he asks me if I want the tax back. Um...duh, I think to myself. He says he might not be able to get it back. I am ready to scream at this point and my unicorn friend has decided to test drive the new outback while waiting for me. I whisper to him to park under a pine tree and wait for sap. Then I look back at my enemy, the stuffed turkey of a manager, and ask "if I return something to a store, do they give me my money back and keep the tax? No, because that would be illegal." He smiles and says he totally understands, but somehow this is different, more complicated (translation: he wants to keep the tax because he's a thieving bastard). He calls someone named Debra who must have all the answers, but alas she's unavailable. He's going to have to get back to me on that. Oh, but he'll take my credit card number and call me once he finds out. I look at him square in the face before I leave and say, "you're on my side, right?" His sweaty palm grabs my hand and I want to say so many horrible things to him, but my unicorn friend anxiously flags me down. I go outside and we get into my shiny new subaru, and my unicorn friend tells me that he accidentally stabbed his horn through the sunroof of the outback he was test driving. "Great", I say, "there goes my tax."

It's the middle of winter and you've just gotten screwed over by a car dealership. Solution? Indulge in some velvety smooth key lime tarts to lift your spirit! This recipe is raw, free of refined sugars, gluten free, soy free, and guilt free because it's made from healthy ingredients like avocado! Hooray!

Key Lime & Coconut Tarts

Crust:
1/2 cup almond flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 cup dates, pitted
pinch of sea salt

Filling:
2 avocados, pitted and removed from skins
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil (I use Dr. Bronner's)
2 T coconut nectar (you can substitute agave nectar or honey)

Topping:
Handful of shredded, unsweetened coconut (I use Let's Do Organic)
Zest of one lime

Add crust ingredients to a food processor and blend until crumbly and moist. Press mixture into six ramekins or muffin tins or vessel of your choosing. Now blend the filling ingredients in a high-speed blender (like a Vita-Mix) until smooth and fluffy. Add a dollop of the filling to each ramekin and spread over crust. Top with a sprinkle of zest and coconut flakes. Chill in the frig for at least an hour before serving. Makes 6 ramekin-sized tarts, enough for 6 unicorns seeking revenge.