Review of Little Miracles Drinks* | Beating the 3pm Slump

Tea is pretty much my life. I've got a whole shelf of it at home (versus only two shelves of actual food), and I love looking out for new varieties. However, I've never been a fan of iced tea - it's such an odd concept, I mean, I like my tea to be toasty so I can use it as a hand and belly warmer. But, these organic Little Miracles drinks* kind of changed my mind about that. 
I recently worked in an office and found it excruciatingly difficult to stay awake - staring at a screen all day is hardly exciting. So, I found myself relying on sugary snacks to keep me awake, which only really resulted in a vicious cycle of a sugar buzz, then a crash, then a need for more sugar - aka hello vending machine, sigh.
So, I figured these were worth a shot, and I have to say overall I enjoyed them, even if the flavours were a bit hit and miss for me. In the end, if I don't like rooibos tea I'm probably not going to like cold rooibos tea with added ingredients - so bear this in mind if you decide to pick up one of the range in the future! I was pleased that Little Miracles had such a range of herbal teas as the basis for the drinks however and two key flavours definitely stuck out for me: I could drink the green tea & pomegranate* and the lemongrass tea and ginger* versions every day and not get bored. Green tea is my baby and pomegranate is such a delicious flavour that I've gone out and totally stocked up on a whole bunch of these so that I can perk myself up during a blogging or writing slump!
Have you tried any of the flavours? I'd love to know what you thought  

Halloween Snacks | Spook Me

We all love a bit of festive cooking right? I've prepared this uber quick recipes for you guys to get in the spirit of things towards the end of the month!
Jelly-filled Oranges
Jelly sachet (flavour of your choice) Oranges
Create and set the jelly. Slice the top off of the orange. Using a knife/fork/spoon/your fingers to scoop the insides of the orange out. Carve an image of your choice in the skin of the orange. Cut the jelly up into cubes and fill the orange up with it!
Oat and Honey "Scab" Cookies
I used the recipe from my Great British Bake Off book, featured here, as a base. My hatred for cinnamon led me to leave this out however, and I replaced the dried fruit with mixed red berries.
To create the topping I warmed up 100g of frozen blueberries in the microwave and then mashed them. I spooned the warm gooey mixture over the cookies. 
What are you cooking up this halloween?

Clean Nut-Free Vegan Oat Bars

This is one of my favourite recipes I've made in a while. Recently I've felt a bit lost on the snacking front - so many shop bought snacks contain masses of sugar (hello the delicious and marketed as 'healthy' Nature Valley bars). My boyfriend is allergic to nuts, so I can't go for nakd bars or healthier options like that either. Starting to reach minor levels of insanity, and feeling myself ogling the crisps when food shopping, I decided to take matters into my own hands and home make some oat bars. A final plus is that they work out cheaper than store bought ones.

Ingredients (makes 1 batch):

300g porridge oats

2 ripe bananas

200g soft figs

50g dried cranberries

3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
3 tablespoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Handful of chia seeds

1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Finely chop the figs. 

 2.) Mash the bananas and mix them together with the honey, vanilla essence and figs .

(It may not look pretty now, but don't worry, they're delicious)

3.) Mix the oats, chia seeds and cranberries in a bowl. 

4.) Add the wet ingredients to the bowl and mix. 

5.) Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper or baking parchment. Press the mixture into the tin.

6.) Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until it's darkened to a golden brown a little. Cut up and serve. 

What's your go-to healthy snack?

Love and Light

Steph

Festive Healthy(ish) Mini Apple Tarts

This post may seem a tad late, BUT Christmas is not over yet (at least the holiday season isn't!). So, these are the perfect nifty little snack for a buffet table or light pudding - you could even add a dab of natural yogurt if you feel like it.

Ingredients (makes 12 tarts):

2 cooking apples (should weigh roughly 1lb)

75g demerara sugar

100g wholemeal flour

50g butter 

Pinch of salt

250ml water

1.) Peel and chop the cooking apples. 

2.) Put the apples in a pan. Add the sugar and the water. Put on to stew for 25 minutes.

(This is not the prettiest of pictures, but trust me when I say it tastes nice!)

3.) Cut the butter up into chunks. Rub into the flour with your fingers in a bowl until it reaches a breadcrumb consistency.

4.) Add a little bit of water, and with the blade of a knife mix it in. Continue to do so until you have created a dough. Tip: add in small chunks so it doesn't get too wet too quickly!

5.) Leave dough to chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

6.) Roll out the dough - use a cookie cutter to make 12 circles. Press into a cupcake tin.

7.) Put a teaspoon full of apple in each tartlet.

8.) Cut out a small shape from pastry to place on top of each one - I chose holly leaves, but anything works!

9.) Place one on top of each tartlet.

10.) Cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!

Hope you all had wonderful Christmasses!

Love and Light,

Steph

**All photos are property of Sophie Hartley**

Check out my new Facebook page here!