Food & Drink

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!

2 TASTY SMOOTHIE RECIPES

Published on April 25, 2017March 3, 2025 by simplycarinaxo3 Comments

Good morning guys,

As you already know I failed the smoothie cleanse challenge I set myself. The thing which really caused me irritation was not being able to eat anything, like physically being able to chew something. So in the end I resulted to having a breakfast smoothie, a lunch smoothie and a meal in the evening.

Sadly also apart from yoga I can’t remember going to the gym last week so I only lost 1lbs this week but onward and upwards! It’s a new week now! And I started it with a healthy day and 1 1/2hs at the gym yesterday! Today I had a yummy smoothie bowl for breakfast too – so the health game is back on!

Anyway I did say I’d share my favourite smoothie recipes with you, so here’s two for you – I hope you enjoy, let me know what you think if you try them!

Peanut Butter Blaster:

1 banana – 1 heaped tbsp of cocoa powder – 1 heaped tbsp of smooth peanut butter – small squeeze of honey – almond milk (however much you like depending on how runny or thick you like your smoothie)

Green Machine:

40g of fresh ginger – a good handful of mint – 1 squeezed lime – 3 squeezed oranges – 1 large handful of kale – 1 pear – 1tsp of greenboost powder – 1tsp of matcha powder – 1/2 mango (depending on how juicy your oranges are you can also add some cold green tea)

Enjoy guys

Love Carina xo

MARCH FAVOURITES

Published on April 3, 2017 by simplycarinaxo3 Comments

Hello my beautiful friends,

So we are now into April and it’s time I share my March monthly favourites!

Vikings – OMG you guys, so if you haven’t watched this yet you must get onto it! Vikings is a historical drama which follows the story of Ragnar Lothbrok a farmer who filled with a curiosity to explore rises to fame by raiding England. I don’t really want to give anything away, but there’s a great set of characters, cinematography is dark and matches the style of the show and it really is up there with Game of Thrones regarding brutality and action. Of course it is fictional however it is inspired by the sagas of the Viking Ragnar Lothbrok, one of the best-known legendary Norse heroes and notorious as the scourge of England and France, and I love getting a look into the culture of past societies.

Ratings: IMDb – 8.7/10 Rotten Tomatoes – 91%

Face Spritz: I have been loving this Vitamin C face spritz from the Body Shop. I use it every morning after I cleanse my face and it just makes me feel fresh and awake!

Ball Mason Jars: After watching so many bloggers and vloggers drink their smoothies in beautiful jars I had to get myself some of these gorgeous Ball Mason Jars! I love them so much and use them every single day! I made sure to buy big jars, 945ml, as it makes me drink more, and I never drink enough aha. So if I have one of these glasses filled with water next to me I will continue to sip at it throughout the day.

Smoothie Bowl: My berry smoothie bowl or smoothie has become so much part of my morning routine that I don’t feel right and refreshed in the morning if I don’t have it aha. Here’s my recipe:

1 large banana – frozen berries (about double the amount of the banana) – 1/2 tbsp of cocoa powder – a little almond milk

Blend together, you will need a good blender and something like a muddling stick to stir the fruit, you want a nice thick consistency, so start with only a little milk and rather keep adding to it. Then top with whatever your hear desires aha. I usually use oats, chia seeds, cocoa nibs, fresh fruit and coconut.

Audible – Ok so I am obsessed with audible at the moment! Audible is a monthly subscription service of audio books. I only signed up for the free trial and payed for one month before cancelling as I can’t afford £8 a month at the moment, however they also have some cheap books which you can buy without being subscribed. So I stocked up on a couple of audio books which keep me company on my walks to town. 4-5 days of the week I walk to town and back whether it be for work or for the gym and it’s around a 25min walk so I get a good 1h of listening in most days.

The book I enjoyed most recently was Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I had seen the BBC adaptation years ago and enjoyed it, but the book was even better and is definitely worth a read, although the BBC adaption is totally worth a watch too.

Well that wraps my monthly favourites up, I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you’ve been loving in March too!

Love Carina xo