I love Juicy and Veganese - Lush

Although I try and shop around and not just run to Lush for all my toiletry and beauty needs. Sometimes it is nice to give in and treat yourself and it is even nicer when someone treats you. 

After wanting to try some of Lush's shampoos and conditioners but being too tight to spend my money, a friend brought me I love Juicy shampoo and Veganese conditioner as a treat so I thought I would give you a run through of my opinions on them. 

Lets start with the shampoo. I love Juicy which as the name would suggest does smell lovely and fruit juicy. The smell reminds me of those orange fanta lip balms you can get. This stuff is amazing at removing build up. Your hair feels super clean after the first use, maybe a little too clean. It can feel a little dry after using it which is fine as long as you follow it with a good conditioner. The rrp of this product is £5.75 for 100g which won't last you long so it can be pretty pricey to use as your every day go to but well worth it for a treat. 

Next is the Veganese conditioner which has a very subtle lemon and lavender scent to it which I really like. It is super light yet leaves your hair feeling very soft and nicely conditioned. I did find however that I had to use a lot to get it to cover my hair to ensure that it was conditioned but this might just be because I used it following the shampoo which was a little drying. For price this comes in a little cheaper at £4.75 for 100g. Again probably more of treat. 

I hope this helps you guys when it comes to deciding what products to buy from Lush. If you ever want me to try anything out or want my opinion on anything, just leave me a comment and I will test or try and help you guys as much as I can. 

Fancy Breakfast/Brunch

Breakfast/Brunch is my favourite meal of the day! Breakfast food is just soo good. From porridge to granola, pancakes to bagels. But how to impress guests or friends with an exciting vegan breakfast/brunch. 

I have one very simple and easy answer! Jus-Rol! Yes it may be cheating but who has to know right. I love going to the supermarket on a Friday night and picking up some croissants and pain au chocolats to make fresh for Saturday morning breakfast. They are so simple and cheap. Each pack usually costs around £2.10 and takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes to cook. 

So next time you are struggling to think what to make when your friends suggest breakfast at yours because you are the annoying vegan. Give them a french delight and knock their socks off. You can serve croissants with jam and "butter" or go savoury with cheese and avocado. Whatever you fancy. 

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

If you like super moist and yummy cupcakes then this recipe is for you. They are light and fluffy yet still packed full of a nice chocolatey flavour. I tested these on my non vegan family and they could not believe that they were vegan and that there was no butter in them.

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes but as it is usually only me eating them, I tend to half the recipe and make 6. The cupcakes will keep in an airtight container for approximately 4 days. 

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 cup of non dairy milk 

1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar 

3/4 cup of granulated sugar

1/3 cup of oil (I use olive oil)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 

1/2 teaspoon of any additional extracts (I like to use peppermint to make after 8 cupcakes) if you don't want to add another flavour then just add more vanilla. 

1 cup of plain flour

1/3 cup of cocoa powder 

3/4 teaspoon of bicarb of soda 

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

pinch of salt 

Icing

1 cup of non dairy butter/margarine 

1/2 cup of icing sugar 

75g of dark chocolate 

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 170c (fan)

2. In a bowl mix the non dairy milk and apple cider vinegar. Place to one side for approximately 5 minutes until the milk has started to cuddle

3. In another bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, bicarb, baking powder and salt

4. To your flour mixture add your milk and vinegar. Followed by your sugar, oil and extracts

5. Mix until smooth and transfer to cupcake cases. Fill the cases approximately 3/4 full

6. Place into the oven and cook for approximately 20 - 25 minutes

7. Once the cupcakes are cooked remove them from the oven and place onto a cooling rack to cool 

8. Whilst the cupcakes are cooling, begin to make your icing

7. Melt the dark chocolate over a double boiler

8. Whilst your chocolate is melting, add your butter and icing sugar into a food mixer and beat for approximately 3 to 4 minutes until the butter becomes light and fluffy

9. Once the chocolate has melted again this will only take a minute or two. Place it to one side to cool slightly. The chocolate needs to be warm but not too hot that it will melt the butter

10. When the chocolate has cooled, add the melted chocolate to the butter icing and beat until combined. Once combined, pipe or spoon the icing onto the now cooled cupcakes. 

Enjoy! 

Quick, Easy and Simple Avocado Pasta

If you are looking for a creamy yet light and fresh pasta sauce then look no further! 

Ingredients

Pasta - how much and whatever you like 

1 avocado 

hand full of basil leaves (I use spinach when I don't have basil) 

10 baby tomatoes

1 clove of garlic

splash of olive oil 

pinch of salt and pepper 

2 teaspoons of lemon juice (vinegar works perfectly if you don't have lemon) 

Method

1. Cook the pasta

2. Whilst the pasta is cooking, cut and remove the stone and skin from the avocado and place into a food processor along with the basil, tomatoes, garlic, oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice. 

3. Blitz the ingredients until they form a smoothish paste. The consistency of the sauce is up to you really, I like mine fairly smooth. 

4. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and return to saucepan. Add avocado sauce to pasta. 

This recipe makes enough sauce for 2 large or 3 small servings. 

I often like to take this to work with me and if I do that, I cook the pasta and then let that cool and through in a splash of olive oil to stop it from drying out and then in a separate container take my sauce. Then at lunch time I reheat my pasta and then stir through my sauce. As there is lemon/vinegar in the sauce it should stop it from going brown. 

The sauce will keep in the fridge for about a day maybe two. 

Best Vegan shower gel

When thinking of vegan beauty and bath products, most people jump straight to Lush which is amazing and their products rock but the price of them can seem a little much a time. 

Here are a couple of my favourite low end vegan products, that still smell and make your skin feel lovely. 

Treacle moon 

Their range of products are amazing and cheap. Their products are bath and shower gels, hand soaps and body butters. With scents from Lemonade to almond and cinnamon to marshmallow. Treacle moon can be found in Tesco and Waitrose where the average RRP is £3.00 for 500ml which is dirt cheap when compared with Lush's products. Plus Tescos often have it on offer for £2.00 which is when I like to stock up, although their products last forever! 

Original Source 

Another great easy to find brand of shower gel is original source. Their product range is far to wide to  list but it includes shower gels, moisturising shower gels, body moisturiser, body scrubs and hand washes. You can usually find original source in any supermarket or boots/superdrug etc. Average RRP for these products is £2.00 for 250ml and again it can usually be found on offer in stores. 

I hope this helps for when you are stuck trying to think of cheap vegan shower gels as Lush is great for a treat but far too expensive for every day use, well for me anyway! 

Left over tortilla tortilla chips

I don't know if you are like me but a pack of 8 tortillas is always too much for me so I usually end up freezing the odd one here and there. Today when searching through the freezer I found two in there and thought I could put them to good use before they became freezer brunt. What better use for tortillas than tortilla chips! So simple and so easy. 

Ingredients 

Tortillas
oil (for two tortillas I used 4 tablespoons - just make sure it is enough to coat the chips)
salt
pepper
chilli powder

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180c (fan) and place into the oven whilst it is heating up your frozen tortillas (if frozen, if they are not, simply pre heat the oven and move on). 

2. Whilst the oven is heating up, in a large mixing bowl the oil, salt, pepper and chilli powder (the seasoning can be done to whatever taste you want it to be). 

3. Take the now deforested tortillas out of the oven (they will only take about 2 - 3 minutes to defrost) and cut the tortillas into triangles. I tend to get approximately 8 triangles from each tortilla.

4. Take your tortilla triangles and mix them in the bowl. I do this by simply swirling and tossing them in the bowl (less messy than getting your hands in the oil).

5. Once the tortilla triangles are covered, place them onto a baking tray and cook. Make sure you watch them whilst they are cooking as they can quickly catch and become burnt. They will only take about 7 to 10 minutes to dry out and be ready but make sure you take them out every couple of minutes to move them around and turn them over to make sure they all cook evenly.

Plant based foods do not have feelings.

I am usually so good at staying off my vegan high horse and letting people get on with whatever they want in life. Most of my friends are meat eater so I am used to peoples ignorance when it comes to being vegan and not eating meat etc but on Friday radio 1 mentioned people who think food such as crisps and sausage have feelings and how some people will throw another crisp on the floor if they drop one so the one they dropped isn't lonely. Madness in my mind. 

Plants do not have feelings. They have no nervous system and therefore cannot feel pain or any other emotion. That crisp is simply a cooked potato. It will not get lonely on the floor but that steak you eat was once a cow who had a mum and wanted to live but you see no problem eating that. I really do not understand peoples logic on the matter. If you really cared about the 'feelings' of food, then maybe you would not be eating animal products. 

If you want to eat meat for whatever your reason is that is fine, it is everyones choice but do not go around making stupid comments about plant based foods having feels and worrying about them being lonely etc. What a joke. You don't really care it is all rubbish. 

Rant over.