Vegan Lasagna midweek treat.

Lasagna is a lovely midweek meal and it's even better when you know that its completely cruelty free. Without garlic bread its absolutely syn free as well and it also contains some speed food. So if you're on slimming world that's fab. Make some nice wedges or a big salad or both. Chill out with something nice to drink and maybe a bit of your favourite show. Serve it on a romantic night in or make it for your family as a healthy low fat dinner. Either way you need it!

So lets get down to making it. 

Ingredients: 

For the sauce:
One tin of chopped tomatoes
Two tins of sweetcorn
One garlic clove 
1/2 tsp of salt 
Pinch of pepper 

For the rest:
Lasagna sheets 
Two garlic cloves 
Veggie mince 
Tin of chopped tomatoes 
One vegetable stock cube 
A hand full of chopped mushrooms, use as many as you like, I used 6.
One large onion
Salt to taste 
Tsp of dried basil
Red pepper optional.

First of all chuck your chopped onions into a pan. Spray them with fry light or use oil if your not a slimmer and fry them until they start to become clear. Then throw in your mushrooms and red pepper and fry for another minute or two. Pop your veggie mince in and mix all together. After another couple of minutes add your tomatoes and crumble in your stock cube, minced garlic and basil.
While you're mince fries put all of your sauce ingredients into a blender and blend together until smooth. 

Now layer up just like you would a normal lasagna. Mince then pasta then sauce. Repeat until your last layer was sauce and pop it into a 200 c oven. The sauce on top will crust and be delish. 

Enjoy!

We all scream for nice cream

This week I lost another three and a half pound's at slimming world, meaning I'm practically transparent. I was craving something naughty, so for a celebration this was the perfect treat. Technically this is called a "tweak" because I'm taking away the filling quality of the banana by blending it. In fairness its not like I can have that many of the free foods so I'm calling this free. It uses a teaspoon of choc shot which is half a syn. It went down so well and I'll be making it again for sure because in fairness nice cream is an amazing substitute for ice cream. Its no where near as bad for you, in fact its pretty good for you, so that's a plus! The pictures not great but we'll make the most of it guys.

This is probably the easiest recipe that's ever happened apart from toast.

• 3-4 bananas cut into small pieces and frozen overnight.
• A hand full of strawberries or fruit of choice. You could even use frozen fruit.
• choc shot or other low syn sauce. choc shot is proper amazing though and you can get loads of flavours like chocolate orange and hazelnut.
• Splash of vanilla extract 

You need a food processor ideally but some blenders manage. Just give it a go.

Get that frozen banana out, chick it into your food processor and blend away with a splash of vanilla. You will need to give it time to become a smooth creamy consistency. Then whack it in a pretty glass and shove some strawberries or frozen fruit in layers. I used the choc shot to cover the inside of the glass so its all the way through.

Pop something fancy on top and scoff your chops.

Lushie life

Sometimes the day to day grind of work, housework and everyday adulty life gets on top of us. Even now at 28 I am still figuring it out. Its all a journey though and we're going to power through guys. Time out of life is essential if you want to keep you're stress in check. As well as a cheeky half an hour in my favourite cafe I Love a good old bath whilst binging my current obsessions on Netflix, yes I watch Netflix in the bath, candles and all. One of the best things to accompany a bath is obviously a bath bomb, mountains of bubbles or bath oil.  For me its all about LUSH and I love nothing more than to try their latest additions.

                                                            SO WHITE.                                            SHOOT FOR THE STARS 

I love seeing other peoples videos and blogs about the lush products they've  tried and for some reason I also feel compelled to do exactly that. So I'm going to review my favourites as well as the ones that I hadn't been quite so taken with. These two are some of my most recent buys and I can't wait to try them out.
I'll do the first one on this post and then the other in my next LUSH post. 

Shoot for the stars:

There is nothing better than a deep blue bath of glitter and a shed tone of candles. This bath bomb is full of rich orange and bergamot scents and its shimmering conditioning stars will nourish your skin leaving it beautifully soft whilst covering you with a golden sparkle. At first I thought there were just three stars but when it had finished fizzing away I found that inside there are about six more. They smell like honeycomb and are made out of coco butter as far as I can tell. They float around like stars in the night sky before melting away into the water, the colour is so deep that you can't see your hands at the bottom. I love this one, it was so relaxing. My skin is incredibly soft and glittery because I stayed in the bath for like 2 hours binging Netflix with a cup of tea. 

I recommend this one to anyone.

Check out this link to see the ingredients list.
https://uk.lush.com/products/christmas/shoot-stars

So get the candles on and have a bath. 

Pasta and meatballs vegan cheat

An all time favourite of mine was pasta and meatballs, full on comfort food. It's a meal that I missed, so I improvised and made a vegan cheats pasta and meatballs that's quick, easy and filling. Its also only 4.5 syns on slimming world if you're interested. Snuggle up on the sofa with a big bowl of this to warm you up whilst watching your favourite show.

Ingredients:

One can of chopped tomatoes

One stock cube

One large onion diced

One clove of garlic minced

3 Linda McCartney sausages

½ tsp of dried basil or fresh would be lovely also.

6 white closed cup mushrooms diced

Oil or fry light to fry the onions (fry light is syn free)

Pasta of your choice.

Optional:

Extra garlic

Red pepper thinly sliced

Cheese to top (violife prosociano parmesan is great) 

I used the original sausages which are 1.5 syns each but these two are amazing also. The chorizo ones are 0.5 syns each and the red onion ones are free on slimming world.

Method:

Put your pasta on to cook, then put your sausages into a 200 c oven for around 15 minutes. Whilst they are cooking fry your onions and mushrooms until soft. Add your chopped tomatoes, the stock cube, minced garlic and basil. When the sausages are ready, chop them into meatball sizes and chuck them into your sauce for another few minutes. By now your pasta should be ready, so strain and serve! Quick, easy and amaze. 

Pumpkin and coconut soup

When I was a young boy I always looked forward to autumn. I loved wrapping up warm when the nights drew in and the smells of the changing seasons in the air. My family was on that got excited about Halloween and bonfire night, as bonfire night is also my mothers birthday, and one thing that was a constant in the years growing up was her fantastic pumpkin soup. Unfortunately her recipe was not vegan or I would have found a way to persuade her into giving it to me. So over the past few years I have been making my own soup and now this autumn warmer recipe is my yearly addition to the season and is a perfect accompaniment for any Halloween or bonfire night get together. It's rich creamy and filling and will not leave you disappointed. So weather your huddled around a bonfire or watching some scary movies with friends be sure to have this to keep you cosy.

Ingredients:

• One large onion.
• 500g of pumpkin, peeled and diced. 
• 500ml of vegetable stock. 
• Two tablespoons of coconut cream scooped from the top of the coconut milk, more if you fancy.
• Oil or fry light. 
• Tsp of salt. 
• One clove of garlic minced.
• Pepper to taste.

Method:

Gently fry the onions in the oil or fry light on a low heat until they loose their colour, then add the diced pumpkin and fry with the onions. 

Whilst they fry, boil 500ml of water and stir the stock into it. 

Now the pumpkin has some colour add the stock, minced garlic, coconut cream and salt. 

Bring to the boil and then let simmer for 25 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft.

Now its time to blend it all together in a blender or food processor and serve with some lovely fresh bread and lots of dairy free spread. 

Tip: To be flashy, Scoop out the flesh from the pumpkin and then use the empty pumpkin to serve. 

Shout out to my veegs!

I haven't always been vegan, for years I was a meat eater who always intended to do better by the world. I was raised to be loving, appreciative and to care for nature and the creatures in it. When I was 20 I got into an argument with a friend about animal rights and my strong love for all creatures, they simply commented on my hypocrisy which really made me think and evaluate my life. This for me was the start of my vegetarian journey and was a massive step towards the man I wanted to be. Years went by and I felt good about my life choices and my view of the world until I met a vegan. Another discussion arose around animal welfare, I argued my case stating that I only ate free range eggs and that being vegetarian I was as ethical as possible. They gave me some information and expressed an interesting point of view. I basically thought "Preachy vegan" but they had left me with something, an idea that I was not truly doing my best. So I did my research, after I had seen the true horror of the egg and dairy industry I stopped being vegetarian there and then which was the start of my vegan journey. I thank them for being informative because if it wasn't for "preachy vegans" I'd have never known any better and years later I have never looked back because it was the best decision I've ever made. 
It doesn't matter if you've been vegan for a few years or a few minutes, this blog aims to provide you with guidance, tips and tricks to make sure that your plant based lifestyle is as easy and enjoyable as ever. Good for you for not wanting to live a life of convenience at the expense of thousands of helpless creatures that are exploited, neglected and slaughtered every day. Because of this I will be rewarding you with inspiration and encouragement. There are hundreds of fantastic vegan products just waiting for you to try, as well as some terrible ones that catch you off guard and ruin your dreams. I'll share some of my favourite finds as well as providing you with some fantastic recipes that will have your minds blown, Yes Blown! because you deserve it. I will be posting about some of my other obsessions including lush cosmetics (in fairness who doesn't love lush!) and have a strong urge to share ideas on relaxation and stress management. Hopefully you will leave my posts with something useful, inspiring or therapeutic. So there we have it, a basic introduction to the blog. Enjoy!