Tag: veganblogger

First smoothie in ages!

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I forced myself to go to my Pilates class the other day after not getting much sleep. Seriously, it was a battle. But, guys, I did it! I promised myself that, afterwards, I’d go home and make a nice smoothie. Because all this cake baking is making me feel extra unhealthy, plus I miss making them. So here it is…

Oh, and I also used prickly pear cactus water instead of plant-based milk, and OMG, it’s the best thing ever! If you haven’t already, you gotta get yourself some and try it ASAP! Click here to buy.

Ingredients

4 tsp crushed almonds

4 mint leaves

1 parsley stem

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp Hemp seeds

1 1/2 cups cactus water

1 tsp agave syrup

1/4 cup of blueberries

2 pears

1/4 cup of chopped celery

 

…yes, it’s very random but it’s yummy, I promise! Just chuck it all into a blender.

TIP:

It taste better cold so add a few ice cubes into the blender 😊 x

x

Homemade SWEET POTATO VEGAN BURGER.

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It has taken me 3 attempts before getting it right. I seriously wanted a nice flipping burger that doesn’t contain meat and egg and whatever other non vegan stuff they put in burgers. So I refused to give up trying.

It could still be better though, only because after a few bites, it kind of became really squashed. Not sure how else to describe it, sorry, I probably sound really illiterate right now. If you know of an ingredient I can add to make sure it does not happen again, please tell me, I’m dying to know, is it breadcrumbs? 😌

INGREDIENTS makes 3 burgers – 4 if you wanna be stingy.

3 sweet potatoes – peeled and cut into small squares

1 chopped onion

2 chopped cloves of garlic

Handful of parsley

2 tbsp of sunflower seeds

Half a cup of olives

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp Paprika powder

3 tbsp of hot water

2 tbsp of flaxseed!

Some vegan buns, I just used bagels!

Toppings:

1 pineapple cut into circles

1 avocado cut into thin slices

1 onion

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METHOD:

1. Put the sweet potato in the oven and cook until soft.

2. While they are cooking, chuck the onion, garlic, parsley and olives into the blender and literally just pulse it. If your blender doesn’t have any options like mine (Why do they even make them like that?) then blend for literally 1 second. Don’t allow it to become soggy!

3. Take it out of the blender and put aside. While you are still waiting for the potatoes to soften, mix the hot water with the flaxseeds and let them soak together for 5-10 minutes. It should become quite thick. This will stop the burger from crumbling.

4. Once the sweet potatoes have cooked, mash them up! I warn you, it’s effort. Try not to leave any large lumps.

5. Add all the ingredients together including the flaxseed and water, paprika and lemon. Mash it again and then start preparing the burgers by shaping them into thick circles.

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5. Place the burgers onto a very hot non stick frying pan, no oil! And cook for 15 minutes, turning them over every couple of minutes.

6. When you see that they are starting to harden, fry the onions, pineapple and your buns/bagels if you wish.

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7. Top it off with avocado and serve 😌

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Kidney Bean and Lentil Curry Soup

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INGREDIENTS

1 can of kidney beans

1 can of lentils

2 cloves of garlic

1 whole onion

Juice of one orange

Juice of half a lemon

2 cups of almond milk

2 tbsp of curry powder

1 tbsp of turmeric powder

1 tbsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp of red Thai chilli powder


HOW TO MAKE IT

1. So what you want to do first is drain your lentils and kidney beans and then boil them together until they become soft.

2. Drain half the water from the pan (you will need to use the rest of the water later) and Put to one side to cool down.

3. Whilst it cools down, fry the onion and garlic on high heat. Once they have gone a golden colour, turn the heat down a bit and add the almond milk, red Thai chilli paste and all the other ingredients, except the orange and lemon juice, and stir. This is your sauce.

4. Now you are going to blend HALF of the kidney beans and lentils with the sauce until it becomes creamy. Then add it back to the pan, heat off!

5. Throw the remaining beans and lentils into the soup and add the lemon and orange juice. If it is toooo thick and lumpy then simply add some hot water into it an stir.

6. Pour into a bowl and top with whatever you like. I used mint and almond flakes.

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Xxxx

Struggling with an itchy scalp?

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It’s one of the most irritating things to suffer with…Constant itching, dandruff, greasy hair, which all result in having to wash it even more than you already do!

My scalp went through a stage where it started to itch like crazy, I’m not going to lie, I thought I might have gotten nits as I worked with children, but nope. Not nits, luckily.

I began to wash my hair way too much because it started to get very greasy, which isn’t normal for my hair as it is thick and curly, I could literally get away with washing it once every week. It ended up being 3 times a week. If you know curly hair then you know this is not good. Washing this hair type too often, dries it out and ruins the curls. It’s generally not good to wash hair too often anyway, as you can strip it of it’s natural oils.

I went online and researched some shampoos that help with dandruff and itchy scalps. One that stood out to me was the Ginger Anti Dandruff Scalp care shampoo from Body Shop (£8.00 for 400ml bottle). Body shop is cruelty free. Ginger has amazing anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, plus the reviews on this product were mostly positive! So I did buy it. It worked. My hair stopped itching and stopped becoming greasy.

The only down side to this shampoo is that it leaves your hair feeling quite dry, I describe this as ‘horse hair’, it’s not that bad, I just over exaggerate a lot. But it’s nothing that can’t be fixed, just buy a conditioner that has moisturising properties. I use the Banana truly nourishing conditioner from Body Shop (£6.00 for 250ml bottle). It’s amazing and smells amazing too. Sometimes this isn’t enough for thick and dry hair though, you definitely would need a hair mask. I recommend the Virgin olive oil deep conditioning hair mask by Vatika Naturals (£4.99 for 500g from Tesco) Heads up, it’s not cruelty free!

 

Pleeeeeeeease if you guys know of any organic, cruelty free hair masks that actually work, let me know!

Xx

‘Budgie Smoothie’ according to my mum…

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So it kind of went like this,

Me: “Mum if I wanted to name this smoothie, what would be a good name?”

Mum: “Hmmm, I’m not sure”

Me: whilst holding it and walking next to my budgie: “Omg look, it matches lily(my bird)”

Mum: “That’s it! Name it budgie!”

Me: “No mum that’s weird”

Mum: “Oh shit, you can’t any way, it’s supposed to be vegan”

😂😂😂

This yummy smoothie contains:

• Two large handfuls of Spinach and 1 pear.

• A whole mango with half a banana just to thicken it up so that I can layer both flavours because my blender is absolutely rubbish that it can’t really blend frozen fruit. Should probably invest in one. I much prefer frozen fruit to layer. But the smoothie still tastes quite amazing 😌

• Blend the different layers separately and place in the fridge to thicken and cool before pouring it into your glass.

Xxx

Dates and Banana chocolate cake

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I admit, I actually had no idea what I was doing whilst making this cake. But somehow that’s when it ends up being better because you have no expectations.

So the day before making this, I made some vegan chocolate brownies (coming soon) and had left over chocolate sauce that I did not want to go to waste because it tasted like heaven 😍 Also had 2 bananas that were so so soft and I would have no eaten them like that. So here it is…

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of oats

2-3 bananas

1 cup of gluten free self raising flour

 

For the chocolate sauce

2 bars of dark chocolate

1 cup of almond milk

 

For the dates topping

1 Cup of dates

1 cup of almond milk

2 large tbsp of vanilla soy yogurt

1/2 cup dried banana

DIRECTIONS

1. Firstly pour the self raising flour, oats and chopped bananas into a bowl

2. Melt the dark chocolate by heating up 1 cup of almond milk into a bowl using the microwave. Once heated, put the chocolate into the milk and stir until melted an combined together.

3. Pour the chocolate sauce into the bowl with your oats and flour and stir. If it’s too lump add some more almond milk.

4. That’s it! Pour your mixture into a non stick cooking tin and top with some bananas and dates.

5. Cook on low heat for 40-50 minutes

Now for the date topping. Mmmm…

1. Chop the dates into little pieces and put into the blender.

2. Add almond milk and vanilla yogurt to it.

3. Blend until thick and smooth. If it ends up quite runny just add more dates, the dates will thicken it up.

Once your cake is cooked, leave it to cool down before putting your date topping over it. Decorate with dried banana and place into fridge xx

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Layered smoothies

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GREEN SMOOTHIE – Bottom layer is Kale, grapes, pear, chia seeds and tsp of Spirulina. Middle layer is Spinach and Banana. Top layer is Kiwi blended with almond milk and Maca Powder
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Frozen Mango and Strawberry
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Coconut milk with chia and hemp seeds. Topped with frozen blueberry and banana.

🍓 Vegan & Gluten free Strawberry Cupcakes 🍓

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Makes 18 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS 

1 tin of Chickpeas

2 cups of Gluten Free self-raising flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

A box of strawberries

2 tbsp Maple syrup

2 tbsp baking soda

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tsp of apple cider vinegar

2 large tbsp of vegan butter

Ingredients for the Strawberry icing

2 cups of powdered sugar (I just used icing sugar)

1 tsp of pink colouring

1 tbsp of strawberry flavour

2 tbsp of vegan butter

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Drain and blend the chickpeas until there aren’t any lumps left and empty into a bowl.
  2. Add all the ingredients into the bowl except the strawberry and stir.
  3. Now chuck the strawberries into a blender and blend. (Remember to leave some strawberries for topping of your cupcakes). Pour it into your bowl.
  4. If your cupcake mixture is not turning out so smooth just add it to the blender for a bit (this is exactly what I done). My blender is quite rubbish so it didn’t blend the chickpeas properly so that is exactly what i done.
  5. Evenly pour your mixture into cupcake holders and place in the oven for 35-40 minutes. I put my oven on its lowest heat to make sure they cook properly from the inside. But bare in mind, chickpeas will make your cupcakes quite moist.

Now for the icing – Best part of any cake 

  1. Mix the icing sugar, vegan butter, pink colouring and strawberry flavouring all into a bowl and just keeeeeeep stirring. God it is so tiring without an electric mixer. I kind of need the arm workout so I embraced it. Mix until fluffy.
  2. If your icing is not thick enough just add more powdered sugar to it. Leave it out or place in the fridge, whilst your cupcakes cook.
  3. Once your cupcakes are ready, leave them to cool down. You don’t want to add your icing when they are still warm… it will melt. 
  4. Decorate as you wish and enjoy 🙂

 

Don’t really know where I’m going with this…Turning Vegan I suppose?

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Okay so I was sitting at the dinner table one day looking down at my plate full of chicken. I then looked up at my beautiful budgie (Lily or Lilo, she has two different names because for a whole year I thought she was a girl, only to find out she is really a boy. So now it’s just weird to think she is a boy and that I have to give her a boy name. But okay we will talk about that later). The thought came to my mind that ‘if that was my bird on my plate would I still eat him?” HELL NO. I love animals and always have done from ever since I can remember. ‘So why am I eating them? Why am I not doing what I know is morally right?’

That’s it. I made the decision to stop eating meat then and there. My family thought this was one of my ‘why is the world like this’ moments as I often come out with these random views and lectures about the world from completely OVER THINKING life. Proud to say I proved everyone wrong.

Turning completely vegan was much harder, well, harder in the sense that I knew I couldn’t cut everything out straight away without knowing what else I could eat (still learning btw). I knew that if I did this for real it will be forever so it had to be done properly. I did not force myself to stop eating and drinking certain things, it all happened quite naturally especially after seeing videos on Instagram about the dairy industry. Oh god!

Note to anyone wanting to become vegan: Do not do it if you think it will result in eating chips, pasta, rice and noodles with the occasional salads and fruits. It won’t work.

If you feel you have to force yourself to the point where it makes you unhappy. STOP! Yes it is good to be aware of what you eat but being happy is so much more important. This is coming from an animal lover so believe me.

Any way long story cut short (or was this not short at all? I don’t know) becoming vegan was the best thing I’ve ever chosen to do. It’s not just morally satisfying, it’s also SO HEALTHY! I feel a lot better within myself. No matter how many people tell me otherwise. I have blood tests to prove it.

P.s I don’t know how this even makes sense but it seems not even blood tests are enough to prove to people that there is nothing wrong with me.

Keep an open mind xxx