Homemade Jam • Perfect Gift Idea

Are you ever stuck on what presents to get people? Luckily I love getting people there perfect gifts so I am here to help you out! Firstly as you can gain from the title of this post I have a small cute and super easy present. Homemade Jam would be perfect for that family member that you can't think of what to get them. It takes 5 minutes to make and not only is fresh from being homemade, but as you made it yourself it shows that you've spent time and effort on someone. Also this gift is fully vegan!


Ingredients:

• 500g Pectin Sugar (I used Silver Spoon)
• 600g of chosen Fruit (I used mixed berries)
• 1 tsp of Vegan Butter

Recipe:

1. Mash the fruit in a sauce pan, I used a potato masher
2. Once all mashed up add the sugar
3. Over a low heat mix the ingredients until the sugar dissolves
4. Add in the butter
5. Once butter is mixed in increase the heat until boiling
6. Once the mixture is boiling continue to stir for 4 minutes
7. Transfer to clean jars/containers 

I got my jars from hobby craft as they are cheap and look so nice with the added message on the front.

Being Vegan at Disneyland Paris

When I originally booked to go to Disneyland Paris I was not Vegan, so I didn't have to worry about the cuisines they offered. But three months before I left for Disney I discovered the Vegan lifestyle and immediately changed. I then began to research what Vegan options where available in the Parks and I was shocked at what I found. There's barely anything in the park for Vegans! I'm so glad I did research as I knew to pack lunch, which in fact also helped to save me money.
I decided that taking food for lunch, dinner and snacks would be the best option for me! As breakfast is included I didn't have to worry about that. For lunch each day I made a wrap. I took tinned veg and kidney beans in my suitcase to put in the wraps. I made them big so they were filling and lasted a while. I also took snacks in a banana and a snack bar, I also took oranges from breakfast. Then for dinner I had couscous because to make it all you need to do is add hot water! Which is perfect as you don't get a cooker at Disneyland ;) All this took no time to prepare and lasted me all day! I also took a 2 litre bottle of water. and yes you can take all this into the parks! People think you can't take food in but you can!!
Though if you don't want to take pre made food there are a couple of options. The first being the most accessible which is fries, fries are everywhere, though not the most tasty and quite pricy its an easy quick option. Then at the Bella Notre you can get the Rigatoni Napolitana. Then the Agrabah Cafe has a variety of vegan options at there buffet. Out of all the restaurants in the park these are our only options! Everything else pretty much is meat and cheese, which is sad. But which smart positive thinking you can survive being Vegan at Disneyland Paris because I did ;)

Cauliflower Rice • Healthy Vegan Dinner

Feel like a stir fry but don't want all the unhealthy unwanted calories? Then look no further! The answer is here! Cauliflower Rice does not only give the texture of a beloved take out but also tastes good and is super nutritious! The recipe is so simple as well!! You can obviously pair it with what ever you want, I added it with yummy veg!

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole Cauliflower
• Choice of Side i.e. veg
• Herbs, I used coriander, and Garlic (Optional)

Recipe:

1. Cut up the cauliflower head into smaller stem cauliflower
2. Add to a food processor and process until the appearance of rice
3. If you don't have a processor you can use a grater
4. Place into a bowl and cover with clingfilm 
5. Pierce the clingfilm
6. Microwave for 6/7 minutes
7. Enjoy! (in the mean time of making this don't forget about your side!)

Hearty Chilli • Vegan Recipe

On cold winter evenings you need something that just warms you up and that tastes delicious! I have created just the thing for you! A hearty chilli with both a baked sweet potato and fries. And yes it is all healthy! I'm not going to lie I did not think it would taste as good as it did! Below I have my recipe for the chilli, as you can pair it with what ever you fancy! If you want to accompany it with sweet potatoes then click here to see how to cook them!

Ingredients for the Chilli:

• 1 Onion
• 1 Red Pepper
• 1 Can of Red Kidney Beans
• 1 Can of Diced Tomatoes
• 1/2 Cup of Tomato Puree
• 2 Cups of Vegetable Stock
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 1 Tsp Mild Chilli Powder
• 1 Tsp Turmeric
• 1 Tsp Paprika

Recipe for the Chilli:

1. Cut up the onion and pepper and dice the garlic.
2. Sauté the onion and pepper in a large non stick pan for 7 minutes.
3. Add the Garlic and fry for a further minute.
4. Add in the stock, tin tomatoes and tomato puree, mix in and leave for 2 minutes.
5. Drain the kidney beans and add them to the pan and mix in.
6. Turn down heat, cover with the lid and leave to simmer for 10 minutes.
   
   

How to cook Sweet Potatoes • Baked Potato and Fries

Sweet Potatoes taste so so good and should be used more than they are! I only started eating them once I started eating healthy. I wish I started eating them sooner, not just for there health benefits but because there taste is just delicious! Two ways I use them is either to make baked potato or fries! I forgot to take pictures so I will update this post when I make them again.

Baked Potato
To cook these simply:

1. Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius 
2. Slit the top of the potato
3. Put in the oven and cook for 40-45 minutes
4. Enjoy!!

Fries

To cook these simply:

1. Pre heat the oven 200 degrees celsius 
2. Cut your potato into fries
3. Add seasoning of your choice, I normally add chilli powder and coriander
4. Put in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes
5. Enjoy!!

Banana Oat Cookies • Healthy Simple 2 Ingredient Guilt Free Recipe

As I missed National Cookie Day yesterday I thought I had to make up for it this morning! So I decided that I wanted cookies for breakfast. Though as a student I didn't want to go out wasting money buying new ingredients that I didn't have. So I examined my cupboards and then I simply thought of a combination that I thought would work. Banana and Oats! Simple! I normally have oatmeal for breakfast anyway so it would be similar! I am happy to tell you that it actually worked too!!! They are also very healthy and guilt free!

Ingredients:

• 1 Banana
• 3/4 Cups of Oats (I used organic jumbo oats)

Recipe:

1. Peel your banana, cut it up and place in a bowl
2. Put in the microwave for 30 seconds
3. Mash up your banana with a fork and then add your oats
4. Here you can also add what ever you fancy e.g. chocolate/berries
5. Cover your baking tray with baking paper
6. Add mixture in spoonfuls
7. Cook in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes, depending on how crunchy you want them
8. ENJOY SOME YUMMY HEALTHY GUILT FREE COOKIES!!

Gift Ideas • 100% Vegan • Grandad

Don't know what gifts to buy your Grandad that are totally ethical!? Well you're in the right place! Here is what I got for my Grandad's.

My one Grandad enjoys to drink wine out of a whiskey glass. He has a old glass he always uses so I looked online and found a website were you can create personalised ones! Personalised gifts are always a great idea because it shows you've put extra thought into the gift by making them unique for your chosen person. I got my personalised whiskey glass from Getting Personal.

My Grandad LOVES chrunchies, but obviously they are dairy, and with the dairy industry being really corrupt I definitely don't want to contribute to its profits. So I researched how to make my own vegan crunchy and then I found that there was some already made that you can buy! As you can see these are from the Fabulous Freeform Factory, which you can find in organic shops such as whole foods, you can also buy them online!

Pasta 'n' Greens • Healthy Vegan Dinner

Tonight for dinner I was craving pasta, as its a beautiful creation! I just had to decide what to put with it. I try to always make sure that around half of my meal is always veg, ya know being good to my body and all. As its becoming colder and colder I recently just crave warm foods. Though I wasn't craving traditional tomato sauce. So I decided on a classic that my nan always used to cook me ... mushy peas!! I love them so much!! Then looking through my freezer I also decided on spinach. So with my veg box all checked out and complete I needed some good old protein... enter lovely kidney beans. These taste so good and have such good benefits! Well so does everything in this bowl (I used wholewheat pasta which is healthier).
Basically you just cook everything separately as advised as theres so many different varieties of each of the ingredients used but just for this example I will show you what I did.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 Cup - Wholewheat Pasta
• Handful of Kidney Beans (leave to soak overnight unless you got tin versions)
• Handful of Spinach
• 1 Whole Tin of Tesco Mushy Peas
• 1 Teaspoon of Garlic

Recipe:

1. First if like me you don't have tinned Kidney Beans you need to cook them first as they take a very long time to cook through. You have to leave the simmering for 70 minutes.
2. Once the Kidney Beans were almost done I started to boil the pasta. 
3. Leave the pasta to boil for 10-12 minutes
4. Then boil the spinach and put your peas in the microwave at the same time as they have the same duration to cook.
5. Cook both for 2 minutes.
6. Then put it all together! Obviously you don't have to present it like me... after I took the image I just mixed it all together!

Gift Ideas • 100% Vegan • MUM

For some reason people think its hard buying Vegan presents. The moment I told my family I was Vegan my auntie started to panic on what to buy me. But after you think about it, its actually very easy! Just stay away from things like big branded chocolates and cosmetics and go for the vegan kinds! I have put together this post to show you different ideas to of gifts to get for different family members from your Mum to your Grandad.

Firstly MUM 

Firstly I would just suggest to write down lots of different things your mum is interested in. I always love to present gifts well as it shows you've put more effort in. So I decided to put all my mums gift into a gift baskets, which I have never done before, so should be interesting! Then I just had to fill the basket!

These are the overall gifts for Mum

Here is the base of my present the basket which I simply got here from eBay

My mum is a big fan of christmas decorations so I had to add one in! This is a cute candle holder that looks beautiful when lit up! You can find them in many places including Amazon here.

My mum also loves cats! I came across this at Animal Aid's Christmas Fayre and had to pick it up!

No present is really complete without chocolate is it?
So I went organic and just simply got my mum some
Vegan chocolate! Which I hope she enjoys!

This may look very weird but my mum is obsessed
with chickens! And every year the kitchen needs a
new calendar. So instead of getting one on the high
I shopped online to get one slightly different.

If like my mum yours is also obsessed with chickens then you can find this lovely calendar here. 

Also I added this to the presents! Gotta have a classic in there ;) On christmas day when everything calmed down
there's never really anything good on the TV. So I got mum this for us all to enjoy!

ALSO DONT FORGET THE FLOWERS!!!

Pizza Express • Eating Out Vegan

I have always wanted to eat at Pizza Express, even before I had a vegan lifestyle. Everyone always recommended it and I put it on top of the pizza hiarachy though I had never previously been! Walking through the door the atmosphere was so relaxing, not to busy and beautiful Italian music in the background. We were shown to our seat and given the menu and I already knew what I wanted before I opened it. I wanted the pizza famous in the vegan world... The PIZZA PIANTA! ... I just had to wait for my family to decide on what they wanted.

After they finally decided we ordered! This part was a bit awkward, after each of us ordered our pizza's I asked about the dips that come with the dough balls (dough balls are 100% vegan). The waitress told me I could have the parsley and garlic butter ... butter? I thought that was weird. Unless they make butter differently in Italy! So I had to look it up on my phone and we cannot eat the parsly and garlic butter dips! We can have the garlic oil and chilli oil!

So when our food was brought over I asked for some chilli oil to accompany my pizza and dough balls. The pizza was perfect!! (I asked for it without rocket and olives) It tasted divine! One of the best pizzas I have ever eaten. They are like PIZZA GODS. I ate mine so slowly to treasure every part. I highly highly highly recommend you visit pizza express! They are extremely vegan friendly. You can even take in vegan cheese which they will add/swap on your chosen pizza! Well done Pizaa Express, Well Done.

Animal Aid's Christmas Fayre • London 2015

What a cute, cosy, christmas day out! I have been counting down the days until Animal Aid's Christmas Fayre since London VegFest in October! It certainly didn't disappoint! It cost only £2 to enter and there were a variety of different stands, from chocolates to clothes.  It made me so happy being back in a place with people that thought like me! And that everything I was looking at was created without harming any animal at all!!
As soon as I walked through the door I straight away stocked up on some chocolate as you should! Then I wondered around all the different stalls just chatting to people on the same wave length as me. Its strange how talking to people I don't know at these vegan events, seem to understand me more than people I have known for years.
Overall it was of course smaller than Vegfest but I loved it! You had loads of different charities and different products to buy! I put my name down on every emailing list I could find. I also donated to as many different charities as possible! I love that everyone is coming together to save all of the animals of the World!
Finally the one stand I was most looking forward to was of course Ms. Cupcake aka The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in Town! At VegFest I bought a cookie from them and it was so delicious! I went back for more but they had sold out :( So this time I was going to take the opportunity with both hands and I was not leaving empty handed! There was so much to choose from! In the end after a lot of deliberation I decided on a couple of there cookies and an Oreo cupcake... YUMMY! I just can't tell you how good they are! They are better than non-vegan bakes! I gave some to my non-vegan friends and they said the same thing!! 10/10 to Ms. Cupcake! Hopefully it won't be long until we meet again!

Planet Hollywood • Eating Out Vegan

I got to admit I was scared about this one! I went to Planet Hollywood a couple of years ago and from my memory I could remember everything had meat in it! Im not joking! I was even debating if they would have a meatless salad for me! Also this time my mum book the pre theatre menu which scared me even more as instead of being able to chose from a whole menu I was going to get a menu with about 5 options overall!
So we arrived and I knew I could happily drink some alcohol and it be 100% vegan as I know what brands are and aren't vegan. Then we just had to wait for our table, which wasn't at all long. Then we were called to our table and the worry started a little. I was then given a menu with I believe we did only have about 5 options! I can't remember overall. The worrying thing was that my family of non-vegans were even saying they didn't like the choices!
As the waitress came over I asked her about the only vegetarian option... which contained cheese, if without the cheese it was vegan and it was! So I opted for the Pasta Pomodoro, which I was happy about as I love pasta. My mum also asked for a side of garlic bread which the waitress was lovely in telling me its not vegan :( which made me sad a little but hey ho I was excited for my dinner!
We waited a normal time for dinner, around 30/35 minutes and then our food arrived. I have to admit I was disheartened by what I received. Everyone else plates where over flowing with food and mine was the opposite! It was a small portion and wasn't even presented nicely!
The food did taste nice though! But it was not at all filling... luckily for me my family had so much food there were so many chips left over which I had to steal to fill me up!
Overall, it tasted good but I was 100% not given enough to be satisfying. So overall I was disappointed, it's really expensive too.

Film Review • Bridge Of Spies

Spielberg has teamed up with Dreamwork's and Tom Hanks to create his recent Cold Wartime movie, Bridge Of Spies. I hope you don't mind lengthy films because this ones a long one, at 2 hours 21 minutes this film is a commitment. Half of me loved this film but then half of me didn't. The casual film viewer inside of me liked it, but then the film student inside of me escapes changing my opinion.

Overall the story was so captivating and interesting and makes me want to research more into it! I wonder how much of this 'based on a true story' film is actually true. 

Image from http://movieweb.com/bridge-spies-movie-poster-tom-hanks/

Throughout you see the struggle of a man that has to convince a supreme court judge that an Illegal Alien in the USA is not a spy. At the time of the Cold War, even know thats a difficult task to do. The film progresses to show how the media and government control what we know and see, which immensely relates to todays World. Though I enjoyed the majority of the story the end ruined it for me. You see the struggle of residents in Germany and how there lives are being ruined by the context of what is going on during this time (Berlin War). Yet this happy American man gets to go back to his perfect safe home and just forget about the World he has seen. The film ends seeing him as a hero, giving us facts of what he further went on to achieve. Just forgetting about the struggles of the rest of the World. 

Though I had half and half views on the story one thing I loved overall was the Cinematography. My nerdy side is coming out but it was all so beautiful! The shots used, there angles, there colour... it just made me so excited! The use of long takes also makes any film geek squeal. I love love love long takes as it shows off the talents of the cast and crew and makes me appreciate the films so much more.

I tried to make this short and simple with NO SPOILERS... I hate spoilers! I would recommend this film as it is interesting (though only go if you can handle long films). Also its Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks!

Cosy Club • Eating Out Vegan

People have always recommended Cosy Club to me, even before I was Vegan, and I've always wanted to go! I have walked past it many times thinking its probably way too expensive as it looks like such a nice place. Well let me tell you it wasn't at all expensive! I ended up going for a lunch on my birthday with my mum and we were shocked at the great value!!
As soon as you walk though the doors you are met by this amazing homely feeling. we were shown to our seats straight away and given menus. I asked about vegan options, to only find out they have a completely different menu for us Vegans! Just like royalty ;) There was so much choice unlike other restaurants, my brain couldn't cope! To the right you can see the whole Vegan menu that cosy Club had to offer!

After being stuck for choice I decided on the Vegan Breakfast, as I have one never had a breakfast at a restaurant and two it just sounded so yummy! I also chose to accompany it with a green tea. The waiting time was normal for any restaurant of around 25/30 minutes. Though we didn't even notice the time as we were having a lovely catch up! I was super excited to get my meal, I kept looking over my shoulder for the waitress! Then it arrived and oh my gosh it looked so good! I mean look at it!! After talking this picture I ate every single bite! ... MOUTH WATERINGLY GOOD! There was baked beans, sourdough toast, warm hummus, cooked tomatoes, peppers, mushroom and fried potatoes. I now need to go back and have it again and I also want to try everything else on there menu!!

After devouring this yummy meal we got the bill and it came to under £20! Both meals with drinks! I was so shocked and super happy! With the bill I left this super cute card to say thank you for the Vegan option. I always carry them with me just in case i need to use them! They are such a good idea and way to get our message across more and show the demand for Vegan Options.