This is going to be a short post. I am obsessed with NAKD Bars and have been for the longest. I always stock up on them when they're reduced down to 50p in the supermarket (MySupermarket is literally the best thing ever for quick comparison, I'll probably do a post on it sometime).

                           

Anyways, back to the post, NAKD has recently come out with a new flavour in their bars (well, two if you count the Lemon Drizzle, but that's been out for a while and I'm not a fan of lemon so...*shrugs*), and the other one is "Blueberry Muffin". Now let me tell you, I'm not a fan of cakes but I used to LOVE blueberry muffins, and made healthy alternatives for breakfast all the time! 

What I love about this bar in particular, is that they've got actual bits of blueberries in them! They've got the flavour PERFECTLY. My absolute favourite was Bakewell Tart...was...it's a close 2nd now 

So, after all that I'd date it 10/10 for everything *off the buy a case load*

NEW! Tesco's vegan ready meal range!

So I spent the little bit of money I had left for the week and bought this purely because it was NEW and VEGAN. Vegan ready meals? Now that is something I can get on board with. 

It is from a new brand exclusively made for Tesco called Wicked Kitchen. At first glance I thought this is for those that have an extra few pennies to live the lavish life of buying gourmet ready meals. I do personally think that this isn't for the everyday, minimum or low income wage person to grab everyday, but nevertheless, a treat for the majority. Saying that, it is priced at the same price or a bit lower than Tesco's Finest ready meal range.

There was a plethora of dishes in the range available in my local Tesco (albeit a large Tesco Extra store), but was told by a colleague who informed me that she saw it in the small Tesco Express', which is quite mainstream - so that's good!

So, the dish I got was the Gunpowder Potato Chana Masala - I love me a good curry (if you see my Instagram, you know I'm not lying), so you could say I'm a curry connoisseur (I'm not). I was very scrupulous of the flavours but oh my goodness - the aroma that brushed past my nose was something else. 

Fragrant notes of saffron, curry leaves and cumin were plenty, so I was expecting a lot from the taste, which also didn't disappoint. The chickpea curry was flavoursome, the potato was seasoned well and the rice was lovely.

I'd genuinely give this a 9/10, I thought it could do with more sauce, but I just wish I had more as it was so lovely!

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!

Basic Banana Bread

Serves: 5 / Time: 10mins prep, 35-40mins cooking time

Banana bread is my favourite lazy day breakfast food. And by lazy day I mean Monday to Friday, working week where I do not have the time to make breakfast in the morning. Well, I just value my sleep more and I'm not that much of a breakfast fan. But I know I'll get hangry and have no energy an hour later so in my adult life thus far, I've made it a habit to eat breakfast. Adulting at its finest, eh?

Jibber jabber aside, when I make this, I slice it up and can either it cold or warm it up (the latter being my preference). I would wrap it up in foil to keep it warm,  and carry it to eat on the tube...during rush hour...lush. Now I tend to eat it whilst I'm doing my make up, and it's nod messy like cereal or a smoothie BUT...it's so filling!

Ingredients:

2 cups oat flour*
1 cup self raising flour*
3-4 large bananas
1 cup plant milk
1/3 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cinnamon (I add more cos I love it)
1/2 cup cinnamon sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp coconut oil (optional if oil free)

I use gluten free flour - I but gluten free oats and grind it to flour in the blender, so I always have some on tap. Gluten free AND vegan baking is different from the "norm" so keep checking the oven to make sure the mixture hasn't burnt/dried out.

METHOD:

Mix the flours and cinnamon sugar in a bowl together.
In a blender, mix the rest of the ingredients until smooth.
Transfer the wet ingredients to dry and combine until fully mixed.
Grease a bread tin or line it with baking paper.
Transfer the mixture to the tin, put a few banana slices on top to decorate and put in the oven for thirty minutes.
Check to see whether the mixtureis firm or not. Leave in the oven for ten minutes.

Once down, take it out on a cooling rack and serve anyway which you please.

Hope you enjoy!

♡ Peace n love ♡

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!

How to wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly

Washing your produce, no matter where you get them from, is essential. Not just because they might've dropped somewhere, or that they're expose to the elements, but because (unless they're home grown), they are usually covered in "nasties". By nasties I mean, pesticides, preservatives, and a whole other bunch of chemicals and toxic elements that we do not need in our system. Unfortunately, running things under water just doesn't cut it anymore, so I've got a couple of quick tips when it comes to cleansing and eating the things us vegans apparently only eat. Yeh, I went there.

1) If it's not organic, try not to eat the skin. Although people agree to disagree with this, (Google is free y'know, how do you feel about this?) It is best to peel off the skin on produce like apples, cucumbers, potatoes etc, as it removes any residual pesticides lurking in the skin.

2) Use a brush and soap to wash hard fruits and vegetables - Soap?! I haven't gone mad, I promise...yet. I often have a designated washing up brush and pour a little bit of fairy liquid onto the brush, and scrub my produce clean. An old wives tale, or a Caribbean thing it may be, but it works.

3) APPLE CIDER VINEGAR. I have a whole post coming on this nauseating beauty right here. But in the meantime, one of it's many uses is getting any nasties off your produce, especially on smaller or more delicate ones such as berries. Use 1/2 cup or 100ml for (e.g) a couple of punnets of berries and a punnet of plums. Optional, alternatively AND concurrently use 2 tsp of bicabonate of soda too. Soak produce for 10-15mins, use hands to gently wash produce under plain water too.

Hope this helps!

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...)