What I eat in a day. #6

I'm back with a new what I eat in a day post! As always this doesn't include snacks just core meals.

As just an fyi, I don't follow any specific way or diet like raw/low fat etc anymore, I just eat whatever I crave and since it's been a year now since I changed to vegan living, this is all I ever crave! Sounds crazy but legitimately, fruits, grains, veg, starches are all I ever really want to eat.

Anyway on this weekend Aldi had kiwi and mangos on sale for 50c so I decided to make a fruit platter! Coupled with a sunny morning it was a pretty perfect breakfast!

I happened to have more fruit later this day. Here, I blended strawberries, dates and frozen bananas with passion fruit and some coconut flakes.

For dinner I ate these new spicy Mexican beans I found on special offer in Aldi! Sourdough bread with hummus and rice and spinach meant I got all the good stuff too! Protein, iron and good fats to name a few! 

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Cruelty free skincare for hyperpigmentation and acne-prone skin.

Since making the switch to a vegan lifestyle I've been researhing more and more about cruelty free cosmetics so that I don't support any form of cruel practices. Luckily I didn't own many brands that tested on animals before the switch anyway!

That said, I also wanted to make my skincare more natural with as little 'un-pronouncable' ingredients possible. As a rule of thumb I try to stick to ingredients that I've at least heard of before...except for when it comes to scarring! I've got my fair share of hyperpigmentation left over from when I had severe acne. So to combat that I've got a few glycolic products as (apparently) that's what works best at getting rid of scars.

As someones suffered from various forms of skin conditions, mild to severe acne, eczema, dryness , oiliness- the lot! I'm not going to say that this is the answer to all your skin issues or that this is the perfect routine but at the moment it's doing a pretty good job of helping me clear my skin- something that, so far, no other product 
or routine has been doing.

Now I've been using these Nip+Fab products for over a month now and definietly see subtle changes. The exfoliator is a must if you have dull, dry skin or if you've got any acne scarring like myself.
Ingredients like almond oil, shea butter and aloe vera make it the perfect consistancy for it to do it's job without being too abrassive!
I usually exfoliate about 2 a week.


Every other day I actually do very little to my skin. Depending on what it's like each morning I might not wash it at all! If I do, I'll splash some water on my face and then I'll put of my diy astringent on it. I mix 2 parts water with 1 part Apple cider vinegar and 1 part Rosewater. I find that once this drys in to my skin is super soft and it helps keep the oil at bay. 
Each night then, I'll generally do the same thing and once the toner has done its thing I put some coconut oil on to add extra moisture.

As for price point, this is possibly one of the cheapest and simplest skin routines I've followed. 
I got my Nip+Fab products off of Cloud10 Beauty, who have free international shipping on orders over €15 ! 
The serum was €15 while the exfloiator was €10, not bad compared to in store prices!
A litre bottle of Apple cider vinegar can be found at any health food  store for about € 15 euro too which is pretty good too considering it lasts ages! 
And I got the coconut oil from Tesco for € 2.50! Bargain!

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Vegan in Brussels.

Hellooo,

It's been a while, aye? Between college, job hunting and binge watching various TV series, I've let the blog slack a little recently. That said, I'm back today with a bit of a travel post. Recently I visited Brussels for a few days on a bit of a spontanious trip. Seen as this was pretty much my first time going abroad on  a plant based diet, I thought I'd do a bit of prior ressearch to see what my options were.

Surprisingly, Brussels isn't a bad place for plant based options. I stayed in a hotel about 20 minutes away from the main village and even still I was able to find a veggie take out truck called Greenway in the train station accross the street from me! Unfortunely I didn't end up actually getting anything from them, but it seems like a great one to try out if you're in the area!

Even though the flight was only a little over an hour I of course, still brought plane food because why not? A litre of water, dates, pistacheos and watermelon pretty much hit the spot for me. I had the watermelon before leaving my house and brought everything else with me for the flight! Unfortunely I forgot to save the pictures from my snapchat (xemmajanefx) after uploading them so I have considerably less and ones of considerably worse quality.

Since Belgium is thee place for chocolate, I thought it best not to miss out. So, I found this cute little vegan shop called Vegasme, which is apparently only opened since Febuary. They had everything from dairy free ice cream to milk, cheeses, snacks- everything! I also spotted these Vego bars that I'd thought were only available in America but I guess not! I'm not going to lie, it was probably the best chocolate ever! It pretty much tasted like a Ferero Rocha bar!
White chocolate was also a must since it's pretty hard to find a decent bar of it here in Ireland.

Aside from the chocolate, I ended up having some Asian take out one night, chips and salade another, falafel wraps and veggie burgers galore! All in all, Brussels offered some pretty kick ass vegan food!

I'd also recommend checking out these places too!

*Ami - 13 Rue de Lesbroussart Ixelles (awesome veggie burgers)

* Dolma- 329 Chaussée d'ixelles, Bruxelles 1050 (buffet style+ super cheap) 

*Den Tee- Rue des Chartreux 66, Brussels

* Vegasme, Chaussée des Waterloo 367 

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5 Vegan Breakfast Hacks.

I thought I'd do a quick post of some food hacks I've learned in the last few months about making subtle changes to encorprate more planet friendly, healthy meals! I've acumilated most of this through experimenting and of course from the Internet and other vegans favourites. 

1. Oats

This is a bit of a two in one. Even before coming to this lifestyle I always enjoyed having porridge for breakfast as it's super filling and quick to make. I simply switched the cows milk for almond, soy, rice, coconut, hazelnut..the options are endless. My fave is definitely the nut milks! They add an extra creamy taste and are all genuinely nicer! On top of this I add mashed banana into the mix while I'm cooking the porridge on the hob(Also tastes much nicer like this).

Alternatively you could make overnight oats which seem to be pretty popular right now. Basically do the same thing but put them in the fridge the night before! (Note that generally you need less oats this way because the milk is soaked up a lot more so you've got a much thicker consistency) 

On top of this, I use oats as flour too. Just blend up some oats until they turn to powder and voila, you've got gluten-free flour.

2. Chia seeds

These are a staple for me. An awesome source of protein and omega 3, I love to add them to cereal, smoothies or porridge. Useful for baking too, you can actually use this instead of egg! Simply mix 1 part chia seeds with 3 parts water and leave in the fridge for 10 minutes-done! You're left with a gloopy, sticky consistency minus the period! Win win!

3."Nice-Cream"

Done to the death at this stage, nice-cream is the equivalent to ice cream without the crap! Freeze some bananas overnight and place 

in a blender with a small bit of water and you're done. You could add berries or cocao powder to change up the flavours. If I tried to credit all the youtubers and bloggers who've tried this out, I'd be here forever.

        

                                               

4. Pancakes

This is quite possibly my favourite. I normally mix a random amount of flour and milk and one again, I use a mashed up banana instead of egg! It honestly taste dreamy-so much more flavour than a normal pancake and half the cholesterol and fat! In fact this is a meal that would keep you satiated for hours with 0 cholesterol and very low fat-with most of it coming from the oats! 

5. Cake 

This is one I've yet to try out but apparently most generic cake mixes are accidentally vegan appart from the ingredients you have to add. So instead of adding egg and milk, people some how came up with the idea to add coke cola or any soda instead to get the same results! I've seen videos where this looks like it light matey works but I've yet to taste it.

Which ones your favourite? 

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X

What I eat in a day #4 hclf

Hello again,

So I started this day with cereal for a change. I couldn't decide which cereal I wanted so I ended up mixing oats,fruit and fiber as well as wheatabix! Seems like a lot of food,and I guess it is but it tastes so good! I posted the vitamin content of this meal in itself over on my Instagram  HERE** It's one of the best ways to get all your B vitamins. While it won't give you 100% of all 12 of them it gives you close enough and complete satisfaction in some,all in your first meal of the day!

After doing a workout I decided to make a creamy "protein" smoothie which is one of my all time favourites. It has 3 bananas, almond milk, 4 or so dates, peanut butter, coconut sugar and carob powder for a chocolate-y taste! You could add some protein powder if you like, I didn't have any at the time but you get get plenty of different hemp and rice ones! 

 Doesn't look the best but this was actually super tasty. I added a curry sauce to the rice and some Siracha sauce and seasoning to the rest

Whats your fav food right now? 

X

Vintage Galore.

Hi all,

Yet again I've found myself gavitating towards my vintage pieces. I always love styling outfits around these kind of pieces because they make everything 10 times funner. The fluffy top is one of my mams oldies. I always find absolute gems in her wardrobe. Actually the retro jacket is from her closet too! It's like an 70s/80s dream. Everything from shoulder pads to bold colours to crop tops!
I thought the textures of this look worked really well together  the smoothness or the jacket coupled with the hairyness of the top I guess, it makes for an interesting combo. The jeans keep it somewhat interesting with the patchwork at the knees while the pointy boots stick with the overall polished theme. I also think this would look fab with a A-line denim skirt or a pair of brightly coloured structured trousers to give it a more definite 70s look!

What's your favourite fashion era?

Boohoo jeans// vintage top and jacket.

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X

Tones.

Aloha,

Happy 2016 and best wishes for the year! 2015 was a bit all over the place to say the least so here's to 2016 and making it the best year yet!

Now, on to the important stuff..so I've created this outfit before but I felt like it needed a little more styling and a different kind of style vibe. I paired it with these trainers from New Look this time. I've always wanted the Adidas x Pharell range but never managed to get my hands on them and of course not having a job doesn't help when all the colourful ones are crazy prices on ebay and the likes! So I feel these fill the void in my wardrobe!

Do you have any great wardrobe dupes?

The Bomb.

Helloooo,

So naturally I've found myself addicted to wearing my new Boohoo bomber. You can mix it with anything and it comes pretty well, and it definitely adds something to any outfit, an edgy vibe or a pop of colour. My mission of incorporating more colour into my wardrobe is still underway. Pretty much with any money I have to spend on clothes I spend it on as much colour as possible!
With the colder weather coming in and the winter pieces in full swing in the shops, they are filled with deep, rich colours so at the moment I've been eyeing up mostly pastel colours as that's all that there seems to be in the shops. That said, before you know it we'll have spring upon us once again sure so maybe I'm better off embracing it , right?

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1D style vibes?

Hiii,

So last sunday myself and Zara headed out to see 1D in the flesh. Yep, this is where I'm at- NO REGRETS...anyway we didn't do the whole "queuing up for 12 plus hours" malarky and still had a decent enough spot in the crowd. 
Now first off, this was the first time I've ever been to a 1D gig, secondly they're real?! 
I've probably been standing to more concerts than I've been sitting so with that in mind, I can definitely say that 1D fans are something else!
I was buzzing for each song considering I hadn't even heard Kiss You live let alone Drag Me Down or any of their current songs so I don't have many pictures because well, I was way too busy enjoying the actual show! 

Aside from all that, the guys put on a pretty amazing show thanks to their own skill as well as the atmosphere and the crowd in general (no sadness over a certain someone being missing surprisingly..you may even be able to see a certain poster in these pictures that had someone hung to say about certain someone...) since I've only recently become obsessed with their music and their performances, I can honestly say that the fandom is one of the best parts about it all. During Little Things there was a fan project set up for each night, our night seen fans who were standing holding up signs reading "Go raibh maith agat" which is something I don't think is seen in any otheer fandom to be honest.

With all of this in mind I recreated the outfit I wore that night, because well with all the excitment I kind of forgot to take photos on the night. I planned on getting proper photos but the wheather appeared to think otherwise!  Anyhow, I basically wanted to try and channel their style a little bit but without much effort and without spending a fortune (we don't all have money for ysl, Harold) I did a post on taking style inspiration from Harry which you can catch here!
Now if my Adidas trainers still fitted me it all would have "wrked out" and I would have had a bit more of a Larry vibe (oi oiii) but sure I took the "chonce" anyway. So I've got a funky shirt thats pretty much wide open with some long chains and some pointed shoes for some Harry inspo.
All in all, I dare anyone to go to one of their gigs and not enjoy it..

What would you wear to a concert?

Sky High.

New look shoes// Forever 21 jumper// Topshop jeans//Pennys shirt. 

Hello again...

Very much a chilled post compared to my last  (which you can catch here) this time around.
In an effort to gather more colourful pieces in my wardrobe I bought this sky blue jumper which I surprisingly love. I'm not usually  one for blue pieces unless they're a really deep,rich shade as I tend to find that blue kind of washes me out and can seem a bit cold to be honest.
That said, I figured it was a nice piece to start off with. I've recently put myself on a spending ban for anything black so as a first purchase I thought this was a decent option. Granted, I know I'm wearing this with pretty much all black but..baby steps,baby steps..

Have you put yourself on any spending bans lately?

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Formal.

Hellooo,

I've got a formal outfit this time round for a change. But first off, I've got a legit question: how in the world do models wear heals on the runway? Honestly, anything that has my foot at a 90 degree angle with anything less than a chunky heel, kills me. I lasted about an hour in these shoes before I died. Without being too dramatic, it was pretty much a calve workout and I still felt the muscle pain days after! Pretty much convinced it was a workout...

Aside from that though I had a pretty good night. I don't think anyone can resist a good formal occasion sometimes. In this instance it was my debs/prom and basically the final hurdle as regards school related events. I'm not quite sure how much wear I'll get out of this dress but regardless it was a worth it!


Have you had your debs/prom yet? 

X

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Vintage Fun.

Boohoo jeans// Boohoo tee // Vinatage shirt // Nike trainers 

Finally getting back into the swing of things now that summer is well and truly over. With college, along with everything else starting back up for everyone one now, I'll be figuring out a routine in the coming weeks so that I can keep posting regularly enough. Incorporating some lifestyle posts here and there, style inspirations of the moment and maybe even more frequent "what I eat in a day" posts are most definitely on my agenda.

For this outfit though my aim was to mix a street/sports luxe kind of look with a very refined vintage look. I think it worked out fairly well! If I had loose jogger pants or suitable tracksuit bottoms I would totally pair them with this look for a more focused sports x vintage look but I guess the jeans kind of tone it down slightly.

What's your favorite way of jazzing up a casual outfit?

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