April 2018

MY FAVOURITE LOW SUGAR COCKTAIL

Published on April 27, 2018March 3, 2025 by simplycarinaxo8 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

Now that the weather finally seems to be improving I’ve been feeling the cocktail vibes more and more and am ditching the red wines. However as summer and bikini season are approaching I thought I’d share with you my favourite low sugar cocktail so that you can still enjoy a drink without worrying about your waistline too much.

I’m not sure what to call it yet, maybe Bitter Breeze or something…

Well here it goes. You will need:

A lime
Gin
Diet bitterlemon
Fresh mint
Ice cubes

First pop your ice cubes into your glass – next add to your strength liking gin and bitterlemon (for this glass I used 2 shots of Bombay Dry Gin with ca. 300ml of bitterlemon) – squeeze in half a lime – decorate with another slice of lime and fresh mint.

Et voila – one Bitter Breeze at the ready – now sit back, relax and enjoy!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Published on April 22, 2018April 25, 2018 by simplycarinaxo6 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

“The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.” ― Gaylord Nelson

As it’s Earth Day today I wanted to draw your attention to the unsustainable lives we are living. Through our modern lifestyles we are destroying & hurting our earth, all it’s earthlings and our ecosystem – something needs to change!!!

I would love you all to take a moment and reflect on the lifestyle choices you make and how you might be able to adjust things to live greener more environmentally friendly lives. I urge you all to take part and make a conscious effort to make some little changes so that we may create a happier, healthier planet for ourselves and generations to come!

No change is to small – every little helps and it’s important we all play our part and look after the earth!!!

Here are just few ideas to get you started:

Recycle!!! Everything that can be recycled please don’t just dump it into general waste!
Invest in some stainless steel straws for home use. Refuse straws when out and about or get into the habit of bringing your own straw with you (yes I am one of those people who carries a stainless steel straw in her backpack)
Start buying loose fruit and vegetables and bring your own mesh bags to put them in.
Or why not invest in a local organic veg bag subscription!
Bring your own bag to the supermarket instead of buying plastic ones!
If you are a tea drinker buy loose leaf teas and use a tea strainer (most tea bags are still made with plastic)
Use roll on deodorants instead of aerosols
Try and avoid aerosol products in general. You can swap most things eg. use good old fashioned talcum powder instead of dry shampoo, buy reed diffusers instead of air fresheners…
Invest in a reusable takeaway coffee/tea mug
Buy biodegradable bamboo toothbrushes, plastic ones fill our landfills and take over 400 years to decompose!!!
Ladies – buy yourself a menstrual cup – not only are you saving yourself money but your helping the environment and your body as they are far less dangerous!
Have a go at going vegan (or at least making some swaps and cutting down your animal product consumption) – don’t diss veganism straight away beautiful souls – animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation system combined!
Use reusable cleansing pads instead of throwaway cleansing wipes (reusable bamboo breast pads area great option)
Use natural shampoo & soap bars instead of going through bottles of shampoo and conditioner (lush gave some really nice ones)
Invest in an electric razor/shaver rather than using one use plastic razors.
Install the Ecosia web browser which plants trees as you do your online browsing – I mean what’s not to like – this is such an easy change to make!!

The list is endless, I could go on forever. Please have a look into making some changes ❤ This really isn’t an issue we can ignore!!!

I’ll leave you with another quote:

“It’s going to take all of us, gathering our voices and acting together. Saying, “Not on our watch” to create a future for humans, animals and the environment.” ― Eileen Anglin

P.s. If you already are making some changes I’d love to know what you are doing!

DAY TRIPPING TO YORK

Published on April 11, 2018September 2, 2024 by simplycarinaxo13 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

Yesterday I spent a lovely day in York with one of my best friends from uni. I hadn’t seen Chloe since autumn last year and so it was lovely to catch up again.

I hopped on the train at around 9.55 and arrived in York at 10.40 ish. We started our day with our umbrellas pitched against the pouring rain and fighting a battle with the wind as they kept blowing inside out. Because it was so miserable we decided to do a spot of shopping and went into Primark where I tried some nice pieces on but didn’t buy as sadly non looked good on, but I did come out with some basics that needed stocking up, more socks and simple tank tops and the like.

After having a browse around Topshop and a couple of other stores we sat down in Pret for a bite of lunch and I enjoyed a yummy avocado, olive and sun-dried tomato baguette.

The rain had finally stopped by the time we finished lunch and so we did a bit more window shopping discovering some really beautiful stores (I love a good window display) including a fragrance shop where I had to really resist spending my money. We also crossed paths with a cute tea shop where I bought a loose leaf gingerbread rooibush tea which I am excited to try as it smells amazing.

We then visited the three Harry Potter shops that can now be found in the Shambles and although I didn’t buy anything it made me want to go to the Harry Potter studios even more!

As it started getting colder we went for a pint and a nice long chat before walking along the wall a bit and then going for a cocktail. I tried an Amaretto in da ghetto aha which was super tasty!

Towards the end of the day we treated ourselves to dinner at the Botanist which was really tasty. I had olives for starters and then a delicious aubergine stake with giant Moroccan couscous for mains. I was happy with the Vegan options available, a good selection and lots I wanted try; I shall have to go back another time.

At around 7.30pm we sadly has to say goodbye and I made my way to the station to catch my train home.

It was such a nice day despite the rain. I love York, it’s such a beautiful place and it’s always nice to catch up with friends you don’t see often.

BEETROOT BROWNIES

Published on April 8, 2018March 3, 2025 by simplycarinaxo19 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

It’s time for me to share one of my favourite recipes with you – I hope you are excited!!!

This recipe is from the beautiful vegan cookbook Peace & Parsnips. I love this book and everything I have tried so far has been super tasty, so I can’t wait to try more recipes in the future!

I’ve made this beetroot brownie recipe a couple of times now; the brownies are super easy to make, perfectly moist and of course taste amazing! So no excuse not to try this recipe for yourselves!

I have altered the original recipe a little, but it is quite flexible so don’t worry about experimenting. Anyway, let’s jump right into it!

Ingredients:

300g dark chocolate
150ml vegetable oil
125g Flour
100g Prunes
100g Nuts
200g Silken tofu
125g Beetroot, finely grated
150g Unrefined brown sugar

(I also added some dried apricots and a little rosewater – although apparently not enough of the latter as I couldn’t taste the rose flavour – I need to experiment more with this I future)

Method:

Firstly, melt the dark chocolate carefully in the microwave on a low heat/defrost setting making sure you don’t burn it. Once melted stir in oil. Leave to cool.

Preheat oven to 190 degree.

Whisk tofu and sugar together in a bowl before stirring in the cooled down molten chocolate. Next add the beetroot, Prunes, and nuts (as well as apricots or whatever else you want to add) then slowly fold in the flour until all is combined.

Pour the mixture into a ca. 27×17 cm tin lined with banking paper and level out.

Pop in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes on the middle shelf.

Leave to cool in tray then lift out onto wire wrack and cut into squares. The brownies should be nice and moist with a slight crust on the outer edges.

Best served warm with vegan vanilla ice cream or fruit compote.

And there you have it! Brew yourself a nice cup of coffee, sit down, pick up your favourite book and enjoy this yummy treat!!

Please let me know if you try these as I’d love to see what you think!

LIEBSTER AWARD

Published on April 6, 2018April 6, 2018 by simplycarinaxo13 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

A couple of weeks ago I was nominated for the Liebster award by the lovely m4gical.com; if you don’t follow her already please go check her out she writes a lovely blog from makeup reviews to her wonderful ‘If we were having coffee’ chat posts – go show her some love!

The rules are:
1. Make a blog post saying you’ve been nominated for the Liebster Award
2. Include the picture in your post
3. Answer the questions I ask below
4. Nominate new upcoming bloggers
5. Set them your own questions

Here’s the questions I have been asked to answer:

If you had to rename your blog, what would you change it to?

Ok this is really difficult, I really have no idea, I struggled with the name part of my log the most having had previous blogs before I felt like I was running out of ideas aha, so no idea what I’d choose now if I had to rename my blog! Sorry!

What made you start a blog?

I started my first ever blog when I was about 13 and it was a book review blog hehe. Since then I have had different blogs on and off. I love writing and connecting with people. A blog is the best platform for me to share my passions with others and hopefully inspire and bring joy to other people too!

If you could choose anywhere to live where would it be?

I want to say somewhere warm, but then I don’t actually do well with the heat aha! But I mean Bali and so many other places look amazing! I would want to live in a place with ocean views and white sandy beaches as well as beautiful mountains for walks through stunning scenery close by. A place with an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. A place with like minded people close by…

What’s your favourite colour and why?

Can I say black?! Ok I don’t have a favourite colour, but so much of my wardrobe is filled with dark colours haha. I’d say the autumnal colour schemes are definitely my favourite!

Do you like cake and what is your favourite kind?

Who doesn’t like cake?!? But again favourite?! I’m sorry peeps haha, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you know I’m not good with favourites! I have been vegan since January though and haven’t tried too many vegan cakes yet, I’m looking forward to baking and trying more in the future though! Before I went vegan one of my favourite cakes was a chilled strawberry cheesecake my dad would make for his cafe – it was the absolute bomb! ❤

I nominate:

https://elsielmc.wordpress.com

https://kittyp0p.wordpress.com

https://hunidasblog.com

https://justhannahhere.wordpress.com

https://ameliainhull.wordpress.com

And here are the questions I would like you to answer: