Recipe

MY FAVOURITE FRESH JUICE

Published on May 14, 2018March 3, 2025 by simplycarinaxo11 Comments

Good morning beautiful souls,

I hope you had a great weekend! I must apologise for not posting last night, I had a busy weekend and was busy socializing both evenings and thus didn’t get around to finishing a post. So I thought I’d recycle a post this morning as it’s an easy peasy recipe for a fresh yummy start to a new week.

Here goes, this is my absolute favourite fresh juice of all time. Sadly making fresh juice can be quite expensive sometimes, so this is a treat, however occasionally you can find reduced fruit so keep your eyes open and look in local fruit and veg shops too!

The drink – it’s nothing special, just freshly squeezed oranges, grapefruits and lime with a sprig of mint, but the combination is kinda amazing!

I would usually squeeze 3 oranges, 1 red grapefruit, 1 lime and garnish with a sprig of mint. I would also recommend popping the freshly squeezed juice in the fridge to chill before drinking or adding and ice cube or two – it is the most tasty and refreshing when cool!

Well I really hope you all make this because I’m obsessed with this juice aha. Do let me know if you try & enjoy it too!

VEGAN MERINGUES

Published on May 2, 2018March 3, 2025 by simplycarinaxo21 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

If you follow me on Instagram (@simplycarinaxo) you will already know that I made vegan meringues the other day!!

If you’re a meringue fan but are like myself a vegan and can’t eat eggs or are allergic to eggs or even just fancy trying something new, then this recipe is for you.

I’ll warn you in advance, although easy it takes almost 3hs to make these meringues, but they are super tasty and so it’s totally worth it!

Now you might be wondering how on earth you can make vegan meringues when one of the main ingredients is egg white. Well I’d heard ages ago that chickpea brine could apparently be used as an egg white replacement and so when I stumbled across this recipe I was eager to test it.

I was a bit skeptic at first but apart from turning out somewhat hollow and crisp rather than chewy, they were very tasty!!

If you’re not drooling already at the thought of a meringue dessert then here’s the recipe for you to test yourself :

Makes 6-8 meringues

400 g can of chickpeas which should yield

100g of aquafaba (brine)

110g of caster sugar

Vanilla seeds

Whisk the aquafaba at high speed until stiff white peaks are formed; this will take about 15-20 minutes.

Mix the vanilla seeds into the sugar before adding the mixture to the aquafaba a couple of spoonfuls at a time, making sure the sugar is whisked in properly before adding the next few spoonfuls.

When all the sugar is mixed in and the meringue is thick and glossy, it is ready.

Preheat the oven at 130 degrees centigrade and line two baking trays with grease proof paper.

Spoon the mixture (I’d say a large heaped tbsp) onto the baking tray well apart as the will grow quite a bit.

Now bake for 1 3/4 – 2 hours until the meringues are fairly firm unto and on the base. Take out of oven and leave to cool completely.

Once cool, you can enjoy this delicious treat however you like. I suggest some vegan vanilla ice cream and a fruit compote or fresh berries!

Now enjoy!

If you give these a go do let me know how they turn out!!

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!

COCKTAIL O’CLOCK

Published on March 2, 2018March 2, 2018 by simplycarinaxo12 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

For Christmas my friend Anna gave me a bottle of the Edinburgh Rhubarb & Ginger Gin and I was instantly in love! Hands down the best gin I have ever tried! Now a while back Alice from Zest Of Alice posted a photo of this Hortus Rhubarb & Ginger Gin Liqueur on Instagram and told me it was only £11.99 at Lidl! I got very excited and as soon as I had a chance I went to have a look for myself and low and behold this beautiful bottle was on a shelf just waiting to be bought by me! I picked a bottle up immediately and then also decided to try the Hortus Raspberry Gin Liqueur. So I thought I would do a little recipe & review of these two gins – enjoy!

My friend Anna came over for dinner on Wednesday and there couldn’t have been a better opportunity to try out these new gins than with my fellow gin loving friend. I personally love to add a slightly flavoured tonic to my gin cocktails to give them that extra something in flavour and thus I picked up an Elderflower Tonic and a Lime Tonic from Tesco to mix the Liqueurs with.

We tried the Rhubarb & Ginger Gin first and although good I have to admit it couldn’t best the Edinburgh Gin. I would probably buy it again as I did enjoyed it and it is cheaper but if just based on taste, its flavour just doesn’t quite pack the same punch as the Edinburgh Gin, sorry Hortus. Next to be put under our scrutinising taste buds was the Raspberry Gin and with this one I must say I was disappointed. I love raspberries – they’re one of my favourite fruits – but something about this raspberry flavoured gin was sadly too sweet / too sickly and too artificial for both myself and Anna. I will not be purchasing this gin again.

However that being said everyone’s taste buds are different and you might really like the raspberry gin, so don’t let me put you off from trying it! If you decide to go for a bottle here’s how I prepared these two gin cocktails:

Start with some ice cubes in a large cocktail glass – then add 2 shots of Hortus Gin – fill the glass to your strength liking with 1/2 elderflower and 1/2 lime tonic – next garnish with some fresh lemon or lime or even pop in some cucumber !

Et voila – easy peasy gin cocktail – now sit back and relax!

Tip – I bought these amazing cocktail glasses from Poundland the other day, they are really sturdy glass and great for cocktails. If you don’t already have cocktail glasses I suggest you pop into your local Poundland and treat yourself to some! Well worth it – and so are my stainless steel straws! Please look after our environment in little ways such as using non-plastic reusable straws at home ❤

P.S. Please do let me know your favourite gin recipes and whether you have tried these two flavours before!! I’d love to know!

BUTTERBEAN DIP

Published on January 26, 2018March 3, 2025 by simplycarinaxo9 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

I have recently been obsessed with this Butterbean dip for the Peace & Parsnips recipe book. It is soo good I just had to share it with you! I use my mini food processor to blend this delight together and recommend you buy yourself one (you can find a link on my Shop page) it’s cheap and super useful. The Cookbook is another I would recommend – even if you aren’t vegan I believe it’s great to try different healthy meals you wouldn’t usually eat and have some fun exploring new recipes. Anyway here goes the easy quick Butterbean dip:

Ingredients:

Garlic (I would use at least 4 large cloves – use this as your starting point and you can always add more or less depending on your taste)
Butter Beans
Parsley or Coriander (I like to use quite a lot of fresh herbs, more than in the recipe, but again start with a little and keep adding to suit your taste)
Pepper & Salt
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice

Method:

Depending on the size of your blender you might be able to make this in one go or like me have to split the ingredients in half and blend two lots.

Chop up you garlic and parsley/coriander and put into blender
Add the Butter Beans, the olive oil and the lemon juice
Grind some salt and pepper into the mix
Now blend together

Suggestion – I admit I never measure the lemon juice and olive oil, I just keep adding them into the mix bit by bit until I get a smooth slightly thicker than hummus consistency

Ways to use the Butter Bean dip:

This recipe comes in the cookbook as an accompaniment to the beetroot burger (which recipe I will most definitely be sharing at some point too as it’s amazing!) but I have since used it in many different ways and here are some of my favourite – have a go and see what you like and if you can think of any other ways to use the Butter Bean dip, do tell me because I would love to know!

Use it like a dip (make it less thick by adding more oil, lemon juice or a splash of water) then chop up some carrot and cucumber sticks or use bread sticks, dip in and enjoy!
My favourite is probably these pitta breads – pop a pitta in the toaster and spread the Butter Bean dip on then top with tomatoes or cucumbers or whatever topping you like!
I tried this one for the first time last week and though it was yummy – the Butter Bean dip works well in a wrap and filled with delicious fresh veg like carrots, cucumber and salad – you could also add some falafel which would be scrumptious.

FAJITAS

Published on January 19, 2018March 3, 2025 by simplycarinaxo19 Comments

Good evening beautiful souls,

The other day I made vegan fajitas – it’s one of my favourite easy meals to make and so I thought I’d share my recipe with you – I hope you enjoy!

(serves 4-5 people)

Ingredients:

1 onion
4 garlic cloves
1 red pepper
3 large tomatoes
1 chilli
1 can of kidney beans
Tofu (Instead of meat I use tofu, although I guess you could use vegan mince as well)
Fajita spices
Salad
Wraps

Method:

Chop up your onion, garlic, pepper, chilli and tomatoes
Drain the tofu and cut up, then marinate in the fajita spices. Tofu by itself is rather tasteless I feel, but marinate it in fajita spices and it changes everything.
Fry your onion and garlic in a little olive oil, once a little brown add the peppers and chilli. After 5 mins add the tomatoes and kidney beans
Wash the salad (I used Kale to fill the fajitas, but it is quite coarse so any other salad would work well too)
Fill your wraps (I recently discovered these amazing beetroot and spinach wraps in Tesco – I definitely recommend). Alternatively you can use romaine lettuce as a wrap which makes for a lighter fresh meal.

Now sit down and enjoy!

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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