Vegan Wagamama - VEGATSU

So I FINALLY had the time to go to the Noodle Lab here in London, which is an experimental branch of Wagamama, which, like the former suggests, displays a wide variety of classic and new dishes to try. In fact, the menu has lots of vegan and veggie meals available!

I already knew what I was ordering, the long awaited Vegatsu. My newly vegan colleague got the same, and my other colleague, got King CookDaily's collaboration with Wagamama - COOKMAMA. My non vegan colleague loved the CookMama (pictured above) and said it was filling, so filling that she took half of it home so I cannot wait to try that out too.

Service was fairly quick, but oh my, the serving size did not disappoint! I can literally eat for England, so when I say I was bursting at the seams after this, I am being deadly serious. I got some of their usual vegetable gyozas because I love them, and, like I said, I'm a hungry person.

Usually I find the "protein" part of the meal is overshadowed heavily by it's carb/veg counterparts, and the ratio is way off. However, this was most definitely not the case. In fact, I could say that there was more than enough of the seitan (the chicken alternative) to go round. Accompanied with a generous portion of white rice, slathered in their infamous curry sauce and a lovely, fresh side salad, my tastebuds are salivating as I'm typing this - it was delicious!

I rather simple dish when you think about it, all the elements worked so well together. I haven't had the chicken alternative to compare but I don't even care (rhyming level 100), it was like comfort food that you'd want to curl up onto the sofa having a quiet night in...I should've ordered another to take home. The only "negative" was that it was a bit salty...I think it was the curry sauce but I really don't mind considering I love anything savoury.

VEGATSU: £8-9, seitan coated in crispy panko breadcrumbs covered in an aromatic curry sauce with sticky white rice and a side salad 

Overall I'd give this a 9/10 just because the average person might have some reservations about the salt, but I liked it. Also, because the dish does contain seitan covered in panko breadcrums, it isn't for those with a gluten sensitivity (like me), or worse. Now, usually I can eat gluten once in a while like this meal, but with the stress of recent events and what not, the gluten has had a really bad effect on me, so will sadly not be having the meal anytime soon :( but hopefully, they see how many people love this dish, and will decide to make it a permanent dish at ALL Wagamama locations.

East meets West fusion - Mediterranean vegetables x Chickpea Tikka Masala curry

20mins / Serves 6

I live off homemade curries like 90% of the time as they're so easy to make! This recipe is even easier if you're having a lazy day, as all the vegetables are pre chopped too. The pre made Tikka Masala sauce is absolutely beautiful and is also gluten free! (Recipe for homemade tikka masala sauce coming soon.) This is lerfect for if you're hosting a dinner party too and you don't want lots of extra veg hanging around.

Ingredients: cost - £4.20 (All from Tesco)

Chargrilled Mediterranean vegetables (Contains aubergine, red pepper, yellow pepper and courgette) - £2
Free From Tikka Masala cooking sauce - £1.50
2 × can of washed and drained chickpeas

Additional:

1-2 onions (depending how you like them)
2 tbsp garlic mince or 2 garlic clovea
Seasoning to taste (I added about 1 tbsp of garam Masala, cumin, turmeric and hot curry powder. Also some mixed dried herbs)
Half a tin of coconut milk (optional, could add chopped tomatoes instead - I did 1/4 of both)

METHOD

Let the frozen veg defrost by about 25% prior to cooking.
Sauté the onions in a little oil or some water if you're oil free. Add the herbs and spices and fry for about 1min and add the chickpeas to the pan. Continue frying for a couple of minutes.
Add the vegetables. The vegetables to contain a little oil so it should assist in keeping the previous ingredients moist.
Cook until the vegetables are defrosted by about 80% and add the Tikka Masala sauce.
Simmer for 10mins before adding either some coconut milk or chopped tomato.
Leave to cool and serve how desired. I served mine with long grain rice.

Hope you enjoy!

Green Smoothie pt.1

Serving size: 1 large (meal), 2 small (snack) / Time: 5mins

So, this is one of my go to green smoothie recipes. I have a fair few variations so watch this space! I often have this on Saturday morning when I'm not in a rush to go anywhere, but I've left it too late to eat anything and therefore deliberating whether to eat lunch or breakfast. I guess that means brunch but yknow when you just can't be bothered to make something? And you want something quick to eat? But filling and nutritious? Yeh, this'll do it for ya!

Ingredients:

-Big handful of spinach


-Handful of kale
-1/3 of a mango or 80g frozen mango pieces
-1 banana
-250ml apple juice
-200ml water (or to your desired thickness)
-Half the juice of one lemon
-Tsp of spirulina
-Tsp chia seeds (optional)

Method:
Funnily enough, just whack into a blender (after you've washed all your fruits/veg ofc - click here to see how I wash mine thoroughly) and Bob's your uncle!

Hope you enjoy this refreshing smoothie!

I'm back! But I hate vegans??

At the beginning of 2016, I wrote a post here on why I've decided to go vegan...absolute cringe at that...you'll see why if you click HERE. But through trials and tribulations, slip ups and finding my own flair, I'm proud to call myself vegan!

I personally think I'm a pretty good vegan, imo, FYI...just saying.

Now I know there's apparently "different" types of vegans which I feel is kinda elitist and snobbery. If you're vegan, in my opinion? Doesn't matter whether you're an ethical vegan or not. The end goal and outcome is the same. We don't eat/consume animal products and we're doing our best to be more environmentally friendly. I went vegan for purely personal reasons but just because my initial mentality for doing so was selfish per say, I'm not vegan for the right reasons? Bullshit. (There's no filter on this blog, btw.) I'm still vegan for health, but also for ethical and environmental grounds too.

The end goal is EXACTLY the same as us vegans, in one way or another, have the same end goal - whether it be for health, ethics, environmental reasons or whatever, none of us are contributing to the cruel industry of animal production for selfish gain.

Now, forgive me for any grammatical errors or if anyone takes offence to this (I'm ranting without the editing), however, self righteous "I'm ONLY vegan for the animals and health vegans are sooooo annoying" vegans need to step back down off their high horses. Instead of denigrating those in a community that we are ALL apart of, let's uplift each other and unite to try and spread awareness to those not engaged with veganism. You want to eat kale salad everyday? That's cool. You wanna eat potato waffles and vegan nuggets all the time? You do you. You want to spend your free time preaching the benefits of veganism whether it be for for the self or the ethics? Also good. You wanna sit and drink three glasses of vegan baileys whilst writing a blog post? Well...ok? Anyways, let's stop criticising each other on "who's a better vegan" and just make like a smoothie and chill :)

Let's sway veganism from the superfluous, prestige and borderline charm offensive omniscient flair us vegans more often than not get categorised as. Let's spread ALL the benefits of veganism that have benefited us and can benefit others too!

Notting Hill Carnival, 2017

Anyway, rant over. I'm *hopefully* back and ready to blog about all the food, fashion, beauty etc etc etc so I'm hoping anyone crazy enough to even read my blog, will find something helpful...or probably somewhat hilarious. Here for your entertainment. Follow me, it's free ;)

♡ Peace n love ♡

(Ps - was defo drinking a lot of the new vegan baileys, so excuse the rambling. Btw, It's lush...blog post on it soon, probably 4 bottles later...)

L.A Girl Pro Concealer Review + Demo

L-R:Orange & Yellow, Fawn, Chestnut, Mahogany

So, everyone who's anyone knows about these concealers. They've been raved about in the beauty community, especially on YouTube, with makeup lovers and beauty gurus galore, going crazy over these little tubes of amazing-ness.

I've been using one of the concealers, 'Fawn' (every dark skin girls' favourite), to highlight the usual areas of my face (under my eyes, down the bridge of the nose, my forehead, cupids bow and chin), for a while now, but I wanted to expand my collection because...why not? This shade blends so effortlessly so I decided to order a few more shades that I thought I would benefit from on eBay. Just type it into the search bar and there you go, L.A Girl concealers and other products from the same company, galore!

For reference, my shade in MAC is one shade lighter than NC50, with very strong yellow undertones.

L-R: Fawn, Chestnut Mahogany, Yellow & Orange (without flash)

Fawn:
-Perfect highlight shade for those who are about an NC50/NW42-45
-Yellow/warm undertone
Cheshnut:
-Perfect concealer for shades NC50/NW45
-Yellow/warm to neutral undertone
Mahogany:
-Contour shade for anyone darker than NC50/NW42-45 (must be used sparingly tho), would suit shades perfectly as a contour for shades darker than stated above.
-Neutral to warm undertone
Yellow Corrector:
-Perfect for brightening up highlighted areas
-Great for adding more 'yellow' to foundations that might be too pink/red/cool
-Strong yellow undertone
Orange Corrector:
-Great for cancelling out dark circles under the eyes, blemishes, scars and acne scarring
-Great concealer for those with a 'brown/medium' skin tone to dark
-A 'burnt orange' appearance, more neutral to cool undertone

L-R: Fawn, Chestnut Mahogany, Yellow & Orange (with flash)

PROS
-Water based concealer , so no oily faces for my oily/combination skin girls. All the same, it is not drying at all those with drier skin
-Easy application - has a brush attached to the tube
-Small and lightweight -  compact for travel
-Comes in a variety of shades from very fair to very dark, and also also has a green corrector for cancelling out redness.
-Full coverage

CONS
-In major UK cities, acquiring this product shouldn't be a problem as most beauty supply stores (hair shops) usually stock these. Might be a little difficult elsewhere, but if so lots of websites, especially eBay stock these concealers.
-Do not dilly dally when it comes to blending these concealers. As they are water based, they tend to 'dry faster' than other oil or cream based concealers, which might be hard blend out if left too long. Can also get a few droplets of water when squeezing the tube instead of product.

With these ranging from £2.60-5 in the UK, you cannot go wrong with these concealers. For the price point and quality, L.A Girl has created something wonderful that caters for all skin tones and shades!
9.5/10 (-0.5, because I wish they were sold at Boots or Superdrug or something!)

Check out my demo of the concealers HERE on YouTube!