Drink Your Greens | Berry Salad-y Smoothie

There is some smoothie under all that fruit I promise! However, I cannot promise that I won't make any more puns like the title for this blog post - I'm already nostalgic for studying English lit! I've pretty much fallen in love with smoothie bowls recently (something you will be fully aware of if you follow my instagram @steph_nourishmindandbody), and so it's good bye pint glasses, hello smoothies with lots of added fruit. This particular recipe was inspired by my need to get more salad greens into my diet; unfortunate because I detest them when solid and filling up my plate. BUT, all is not lost: concealed by the taste of banana and blackberry, I've managed to sneak some lettuce, cucumber and even celery into this smoothie without too many protestations from my tastebuds!

Ingredients:

2 bananas

2 apples

handful of blackberries

couple of cucumber slices

1 celery stick

handful iceberg lettuce

150ml milk alternative (I use rice milk)

2-3 handfuls spinach

large pinch flax seeds

1.) Peel and chop the apple and banana. Chop the celery, lettuce and cucumber.

2.) Place in a blender with the remainder of the ingredients. Whizz for three minutes and you're ready to go!

Enjoy! 

Love and Light

Steph

Goodbye Patchy Foundation | Hello Real Techniques & Loreal

As I've got combination skin, foundation can be a bit of a nightmare for me in terms of day-to-day wear, especially as my skin is often too dry for it to spread evenly, and oily enough to get spots by having it on all day (EURGH!). So, having abandoned my disappointingly poor quality one from The Body Shop, I picked up this brush and foundation as an I'm-mid-way-through-my-penultimate-essay-for-my-degree treat. And yes, I did attempt to justify buying new beauty products for THAT lame a reason. 

Superdrug is pretty much a haven for beauty and lifestyle bloggers. Every time I pop in intending to buy one product I get so wrapped up in everything that I seem to leave with half a basket full - you can never get enough lipstick shades right?! This time I managed to escape with just these and a Makeup Revolution palette, which I will be blogging about at some point soon!

This Real Techniques expert face brush has completely changed my experience with foundation. Gone are the days when I used my brush and THEN had to blend my foundation in, ugh. Now there are no sharp bristles scratching away at my already sensitive skin, and the foundation seems to blend perfectly. I cannot wait to get my hands on more from the collection to see how it affects other aspects of my makeup!

As my skin is really pale, I purchased the L'oreal True Match foundation in nude ivory, but they have a whole range of albeit quite light colours. This foundation really works to cover blemishes and makes sure my skin tone's even. I have to admit I have fallen a little bit in love with it, and will definitely be repurchasing when it runs out!

What's your favourite foundation at the moment?

Love and Light

Steph

Vegan Risi E Bisi

Risi e bisi is a Venetian dish which basically means "rice and peas", but as a literature student I love it simply because it rhymes. This is a ridiculously simple dish that you can have on its own, or as a yummy, healthy carb side with a meal. I was surprised at how tasty this ended up in the end - even my boyfriend (who hates peas) offered to swap his dinner for it! Plus, it's totally vegan and nice and creamy, so it's pretty much a win win. 

Ingredients (makes 4 servings):

125g brown rice or paella rice (I used a mixture)

Small white onion

2 garlic cloves

750ml chicken/vegetable stock

250g frozen peas

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 tablespoon parsley

Sea salt

Ground black pepper

1.) Heat the coconut oil in a pan. Chop the onion, crush the garlic and add. Cook for 5 minutes on a medium / low heat. 

2.) Create the stock.

3.) Add the rice to the saucepan and stir for a minute, allowing it to soak up the flavour. Then add the stock and bring it to the boil.

4.) Reduce it to a simmer for 25 minutes.

5.) Add the peas and cook for a further five minutes.

And enjoy! You can freeze any leftovers for another day!

Love and Light

Steph

Spring Favourites 2015

Summer appears to be finally approaching (aka here in the UK it doesn't rain every single day anymore, hallelujah!). So, I thought I'd do a little post on what's been keeping me sane and positive over the hectic last few months of my degree. I've been studying at the University of Warwick for the past three (almost) years, and making my student houses feel a little homely is really important to me. Here are just a couple of picks that have helped spur me on recently to achieve everything I want to get done without being super miserable in the meantime.

Living as the sole female in my university household of five means that anything that smells nice is a MAJOR win in my book. I'd previously tried the Lenor Unstoppables after cheekily borrowing them when I was at my parents' house, but hadn't got around to purchasing them. When I did I was jubilant. My washing now smells gorgeous, even after coming out a washing hamper that it *may* have been in for a couple of weeks. You can get a whole variety of scents of these, but Fresh has remained a firm favourite!

Plus, combined with my new Sure maximum protection 'Confidence' deodorant, I feel like I'm fully prepared for the heat of summer. This leaves me mostly sweat (and body odour) free all day, and I honestly haven't found anything that compares at all!

The last couple of months have been super stressful trying to juggle what seems like seventeen different things all at once. So, taking time out to relax with a cup of this delicious Clipper strawberry green tea every evening has proved a great way to get a little "me" time in. I love sipping this whilst sitting down to write one of my favourite recipes down in my Paperchase recipe book.

Also, as we've both been so busy with university work at the moment, me and my boyfriend have started to try and allocate a little fortnightly "date night" so that we at least spend some time together without our laptops. As student times can be a bit rough on the pocket, we don't splurge on these too much, so a night in together with Netflix, a nice meal that we've spent time cooking and a relaxing massage is a winner! This has been my favourite way to spend time together this Spring, and The Body Shop's sensual massage oil smells absolutely amazing - it's our go-to at the moment!

What have been your spring favourites?

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Homemade Natural Hair Mask to Restore Vitality and Strength

As someone who has recently had uber-long hair, I've had to appreciate that it does take time and a bit of effort to keep it looking nice. So, hair masks and deep conditioning are things I try to keep up with doing from time to time to give my hair that a little extra pep. However, hair masks can be quite expensive, and often have a lot of added chemicals that aren't brilliant for your hair, so here's my homemade recipe - it'll cost you about £1 to make and have brilliant results (even if your male housemates do think you're insane for wandering around smelling a little eggy for an hour or two!).

Depending on your length/thickness of hair, the ingredients will need to be tweaked a little. When my hair was the length in this picture I used two bananas, two eggs, a couple of tablespoons of honey and about six tablespoons of olive oil. But as it is now (just below shoulder length), I would halve the recipe.

So, here are the benefits of each of the ingredients:

Banana

Helps to repair damage as they contain potassium and protein. Also helps to moisturise the hair.

Honey

Full of nutrients which not only help to restore dry and damaged hair, but also encourage the growth of hair follicles.

Olive Oil

Helps to encourage your hair's natural shine as well as softening it. It also aids the development of a healthy scalp.

Egg

The protein in these is great for strengthening hair as well as encouraging growth.

Finally, I would suggest that when you wash it out you use two rounds of shampoo to make sure you wash everything out. I found that it made my hair super soft, and helped to keep it volumised. Blend the ingredients together rather than mixing to make sure you don't end up with little lumps of banana in your hair - I learnt this the hard way, and believe me, it was not fun! Rub it into all of your hair, especially your scalp for maximum effect and leave it in for at least half an hour.

What is your favourite recipe for a homemade hair mask?

Love and Light

Steph

Baked Chicken in Tomato Sauce

This is going to be an uber quick post as this is such a simple dish. BUT it is packed with flavour, so don't worry about it tasting simple too. 

Ingredients (makes 1 serving):

1 chicken leg or breast

1 serving of my chunky tomato, onion & carrot soup (here)

Black pepper

Salt

1.) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

2.) Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place on a large sheet of foil. 

3.) Pour the sauce over the chicken. Loosely wrap the foil up around the both of them. Cook for 45 minutes.

Any comments or questions are always welcome :)

Love and Light

Steph

Favourite Detox Tea

I've tried quite a number of detox teas over the last couple of years, and my main reaction to all of them has been effectively "ew". If you're interested in looking at a kind of detox tea "programme", however, you might want to try Bootea, which I've reviewed here. 

This Clipper's Organic Detox Infusion tea is so good that I was actually sad when I realised that my box was running empty and I wouldn't be able to continue having them. Whereas a great deal of detox teas taste horrendous in my experience (somewhere between piles of Autumn leaves on the ground and gingerbread men), this tastes of berries and leaves your mouth feeling cleansed.

As you all know, I'm a great fan of nourishing your body in order to nourish your mind, I think health teas are quite important. This one helped to get rid of bloating, which in my experience always makes me feel a lot happier and less uncomfortable. Plus, taking time out of my day to sit down with a cup of this had a really calming effect on me, and re-energised me to keep me going throughout the day.

What are your favourite teas?

Love and Light

Steph

Mango Madness Vegan Smoothie

This smoothie came  out a glorious golden colour and is perfect in this lead up to summer. Here in England the weather is pretty unpredictable, and almost always contains a seemingly endless amount of drizzle. So, this is a good way to start off your day, or relax int he afternoon whatever the weather to bring a little bit of sunshine into your life.

Ingredients: 

1 banana

3 small / 2 medium sized apples

handful of raspberries

200ml rice milk

1 mango

handful of flaxseeds

handful of spinach

1.) Peel and chop the apples, mango and banana. Place in a blender.

2.) Add the rice milk, spinach, raspberries and flax seeds. Blend for two minutes. If you leave out the spinach you end up with a bright pink smoothie, which can be great for kids (or if you're just a fan!).

3.) Enjoy. Top with honey, oats, and chia seeds if you wish.

Love and Light

Steph

Any comments/questions are always appreciated