App of the Moment: Vegetarian Society

I have to admit that I didn't find becoming a vegetarian very difficult.  I was already eating a predominantly plant based diet and never thought that meat was particularly amazing.  I'm also one of those people that would happily just cut up a whole load of vegetables, chuck them in a frying pan and just eat them like that.  But when I moved in with my partner last year I had to become a little 'adventurous'.  He was kind enough to agree to eat vegetarian at dinner time, but it did need to be a little bit more varied and like a traditional meal.  To begin with I used (and still do) the Quorn recipe book, which is a great book for converting traditional meat meals into vegetarian ones, but we have been wanting some more variety and for that I've been turning to the Vegetarian Society app.

This app is unbelievably easy to use.  You can click tab on Search to get all of the recipes or if there is a specific ingredients or food type (ie tacos or sushi) then you can type it into the Enter keyword/s box and click on search.  But I'm not usually able to be that exact and tend to do more 'in the ballpark' type searching using the menus by tapping on the 'All' sections beside each title.  Meal type is whether it's a starter, main, soup, etc; Diet is whether you have any dietary requirements such as vegan, gluten free, nut free, etc; Preparation type is based on your cooking abilities and covers simple, moderate, gourmet, and recipes for caterers; Occasions is if it's for a specific occasion such as Christmas or Burns night (we are in Scotland after all); and lastly Cuisines is the usual Indian, Chinese, Italian, American, etc.

As I'm trying to transition into a more vegan diet I use the Diet section most to select all the Vegan recipes the app has.

What you get after your selection or search is a list of all the recipes available on the app for that request.  The best thing about the list provided is the fact that you can also see whether the recipes are vegan, egg free, gluten free, wheat free, nut free, and low in flat.

Once you click on the recipe the first page with give you an Overview about the recipe, how many it will serve, and the preparation time.  You can then tap on the Ingredients and the Method for the recipe.  You can also tap on Save at the bottom of the page which then saves it to your My recipes.  You can get to this directly from the front page next time you open the app.

You can get this app for free from the Vegetarian Society's website (oh and this is not a sponsored post, I just like the app).

Happy eating!

June The Vegan Kind subscription box

So another lovely The Vegan Kind vegan, lifestyle box came to my door again at the beginning of this week and I wasted no time in opening it to see what we had this time.

To begin with is the usual sheet letting you know about the guest recipe contributor is, information about the charity that The Vegan Kind supports (which is Teen VGN's Vegan Summer Camp, and details about the products in box.

The recipe this time is a Creamy Avocado Pesto Pasta by Fettle Vegan, run by Amber who produces plant-based recipes.  I love avocado's and I love pesto so this is right up my alley and I've already added it to my list of menus for next week to test out.  The biggest test will be whether or not my partner, Jim, likes it.

The first thing I saw (and the first thing I ripped into before even taking a photo) was the Hoots Cheese and Onion Multigrain Snack.  This was really nice, not too cheesy or strong, and I really liked how crunchy it was.  I also liked the fact that Hoots is now removing animal products from their food.  Jim liked them too and actually took the pack out of my hand.

The next product I tried was the GranoVita Vegetable Pate. I spread it on some toast to try it and while it reminded me of a meat based pate I had at school years ago it wasn't something that I was particularly keen on.  It was salty tasting to me (it has sea salt added to it) and I'm not a fan of salty food, but if you do like slightly salty food then you should try this.

The next product I pulled out was the Good Full Stop Chocolate and Orange Bar which is a chocolate and orange fruit and nut bar.  It definitely tasted of orange chocolates and which quite easy to eat on that front.  The texture was squiggy though, I prefer my snacks to be crunchy.

I actually took the Foods of Athenry Chocolate and Raspberry Cookie with me when Jim and me went to Lunan Bay (East Scotland).  This we really liked.  It's not a chewy as usually cookies are, which we actually thought was a good thing, and the flavours were not too overpowering.  All and all this one was definitely a success and I will definitely be looking out for these when I'm having a cookie monster moment.

This was the last food product I pulled out, and actually the one I was most interested in, was the Smooze Fruit Ice.  I have a real ice-cream addition.  Not chocolate, not cakes, and not biscuits, but ice-cream.  Normally when it kicks in, and I give in, I get a big tub of Cookies and Cream which I finish completely.  What I'm hoping will happen is that this might be able to replace that as a smaller, vegan version of this to help with the cravings so I don't fall of the wagon.  Mango was the perfect one to get as it's a fruit I love and this was a really nice product.  I'm not sure it's exactly the same of the Cookies and Cream, but I think I will be able to use this as a substitute while I deal with this addition.

For me the best part of this box is the non-food products and this one was the Green People Sun Lotion.  I am a fan of Green People and have purchased and enjoyed their products in the past (specifically their sunscreen), so I was really pleased to receive this.  I was also intending on buying some sunscreen on the day I received this box as I'd run out, so this was perfectly timed.  This is a great product, rubs into the skin really well, isn't white, and lasted a long time.  I would recommend this (this size is £13.50 on the Green People website).

Click here to read my blogs on the April and May The Vegan Kind boxes.

Project Pan Update #5 and Other Products

Firstly, I should apologise to those of you who are kind enough to read my blog for not putting up posts for the last two weekends.  Life took over and I didn't want to put up posts that were rushed and half-arsed.  But I'm back and I will try and also post the two posts I had intended for the last couple of weeks as extras this month.

So, we have now finished five months of me working on using up the products in my Project Pan.  I have to admit that things have definitely slowed down now and I am losing my momentum a little bit.  One thing I have realised doing this is that, even though I seem to like buying beauty products, I'm not really someone who actually likes using them.  It's just not something that comes naturally to me nor is it the first thing I think of doing when I want to relax/ feel good/ have something to do.  This has highlighted to me why getting rid of these products and keeping my routines simple is a good idea.

I have managed to finish off two products this month.  The first is the Neutrogena Hand Cream I got for Christmas.  This took much longer than I thought it would as I was using it every night.  It is a relatively good product, more like a grease than a cream, and worked well on my dry hands (which my work's hand soap really helps dry up).  However, it hasn't worked any better than my shea butter or olive oil (though it does sink into the skin a lot quicker) and the fact that Neutrogena is not cruelty free means I won't rebuy this product.

The second product wasn't actually part of my original Project Pan but is the Natural Collections lip liner in almond I wrote about in my last Project Pan update.  It isn't actually completely finished, but the pencil has disappeared into the lid and I can't get it out.  This lip liner is great for the price and would probably suit most people, but it didn't really suit my natural lip colour so I'm glad it's now gone.  As far as I'm aware Natural Collection is a cruelty free company though so I may look at other products of theirs in the future.

The eyeshadows are carrying on with the same steady pace as before.  To me this part of the Project Pan is going really slowly, especially when I watch others' Pan that Palette on YouTube.  I had hoped to have more eyeshadows finished by now so this part is a little disheartening.  The white eye shadow is going quicker now that I'm also using it as a highlighter.  I have been using an eyeshadow brush to put this on the top of my cheeks, but am now going to use a larger face brush that should help move it along quicker.  The pan on the silver eyeshadow is getting larger and the shadow around the pan is getting so tantalisingly thin that I'm trying not to get too hopeful.  The dark grey eyeshadow hasn't moved at all and I think I will leave it now and just use it as an eyeliner once the brown eyeshadow is finished.  I think I'll just need to keep plodding on with these.

I'm still working on the Elf Teal eye liner and, while it is getting smaller, this is another product that seems to really be going on forever.  This is going to be one of the products that I concentrate on this month with a view to have it finished in July.

The second product I'm going to be concentrating on in June is the Max Factor red lipstick in Cherry Kiss.  I have made some progress on it in May, but as I was concentrating on using up the nude lip liner I didn't reach for it as much as I could.  So this month I'll be rocking red basically every day (cue constant teeth licking).  I think I can actually finish this off this month and that will leave me with just two lip products left in the project to use up by the end of the year.

I have been using the Mac Creme Cup lipstick this month with the almond lip liner.  It has gone down, but as their lipstick is relatively pigmented I haven't really needed to use that much with it.  I have to say that the colour with the almond lip liner didn't really suit my skin colour, but now I should be able to adapt it.  However, I'm not going to worry about this lip colour this month until the red has gone.

The Lily Lolo eye primer is yet another product that is steadily plodding along.  I will be happy when the bottom half of the yellow primer is finally used up and then I'll feel that I might be able to finish that by the end of the year.  Fingers-crossed, maybe by the next update......

The one product on my Project Pan list that I added this month was the Dove Summer Glow moisturiser fair to medium skin.  I had brought this last year before my brother's wedding so that my legs didn't look so pasty white and hadn't used it since.  I'm not entirely sure why I decided to do that as I don't like the smell of self tanner and I don't really like the colour my skin goes.  I've been using it regularly in May and I will definitely finish it in the beginning of June, so I'll be finding myself in the weird position of actually getting paler over summer.

The last product I've used up is one of my Bioderma Micellar Waters.  This is another product that isn't actually on my Project Pan but that I'm looking to use up and not re-purchase in my path to going completely cruelty free.  I brought two large bottles in one go and this is the first one I've used up.  I don't actually go through these particularly quickly as I tend to use coconut oil to remove my make-up on a daily basis.  The micellar water does work but I find the oil much more effective and more gentle, especially on my eyes.  I won't be buying Bioderma Micellar Water again as they are not a cruelty free company, but I might look into getting another micellar water as it is useful to have on days I can't use oils to remove my make-up.

Nail polish this month has been a complete no show as I haven't even been wearing any.  I just haven't been in the mood to put any on and really haven't minded having my nails all natural.  It has made me realise that once these have all been used up and I replace them with more natural products I will probably only get one or two for me to wear now and then rather than a variety of colours.  Hopefully I'll have something to show next month.

So, that's eleven products used up - only another twenty-four products to go.

Below are links to all my previous project pan blogs:

• Introduction
• Project Pan Update #1
• Project Pan Update #2
• Project Pan Update #3
• Project Pan Update #4

May The Vegan Kind subscription box

So last Saturday there was a knock on my door and it was the postman with my The Vegan Kind box.  I was quite excited about it as I did really enjoy the last one and I was interested to see what I would get this time.

On top was the information about The Vegan Kind, the charity they support, and a description of all the products.

The recipe that came with this month's box is the Summer Fruity Water by My Fruity Kitchen.  I haven't had the chance to try this yet (though I have tried the cashew cream cheese from last month and it's delicious), but am thinking this is the perfect time with all this sun - maybe with gin added.  I have had a look at My Fruity Kitchen website though and the recipes look amazing - the Healthy Chocolate Milkshake is most definitely on my list.

Unfortunately I'm not a fan of Salt and Vinegar (I know, I know, that's really weird and unusual) so I didn't get the chance to try these Popchips.  But I am keeping an eye out for these in a flavour I like as the idea of getting to eat something that's crunchy (my favourite snack) without all the oil.  I'm not sure if the other flavours are vegan though so I'll need to check on that.

This is definitely the product I'm most intrigued by, I don't think I've even seen water that's actually been tapped from a tree.  TAPPED ticks all the boxes with it's organic trees, no refined sugars, not from concentrate, and it contains 25% of your daily manganese (an antioxidant).  The only thing that worried me about this is the fact it comes from a birch tree (the pollen of which I'm allergic too).  Thankfully there was no reaction to it and the taste is very mild.  You don't get a particularly strong taste of the berries themselves, in fact I can taste the grape juice more anything, but it is refreshing and something I will look for if I'm needing something when I'm out.

I love peanuts, absolutely love them.  In fact, I have to be very careful I don't eat entire bags all in one go, so I was interested in how this would taste.  Protein bars don't tend to taste particularly pleasant by any stretch of the word and the last time I ate a protein bar it had whey protein in it.  I ended up feeling ill afterwards and haven't eaten one since. However, the Creative Nature Peanut Protein bar contains pea protein instead of whey and there was no negative impact from it.  I wouldn't say I was particularly keen on the taste, even with the peanuts in it, but it would definitely be my first choice over any other protein bar if I decided I need one.

The one thing I missed when I became a vegetarian wasn't bacon (I know, I know, I'm weird) but chewy sweets.  I used to love them and they would be my snack of choice at the cinema.  The Jealous Life Tropical Wonder Sweets don't have quite the same chewy texture I'm used to, but they still have quite a squiggy feel and the flavours are amazing.  They taste the most like the fruit they are meant to represent then any sweet I've had before.  I'm definitely going to be looking out for more flavours of these in the future.

As my diet has become healthier and more plant based I've become less interested in chocolate, but I do enjoy having a little bit now and then.  It's mainly dark chocolate that I go for now and the chilli flavour is my favourite.  I've never seen the brand Conscious before and I was very interested to try a completely vegan chocolate bar.  The one thing I will say about this is that if you love mint you will love this.  Made from peppermint essential oil it is a very strong flavour and cuts through the bitterness of the cocoa.  I've already had a look at the Conscious Chocolate website and they do have chili flavoured.  Going to be getting myself one of those I think.

I particularly love the non-food items in these boxes and this time it's this Friendly Soap facial cleansing bar.  I like that this is fragrance free, which is usually the first thing I choice, and the very small number of ingredients (cocoa butter, olive oil, coconut oil, and water) which are all ingredients that work well with my skin.  I haven't tried this yet as I still have a face wash that I'm using at the moment, but once that is finished I will move onto this.  I'm actually enjoying using a bar soap over shower gel to wash my body and I'm expecting the same will be true for my face.  I might even moved to a bar to wash my hair.

On top of the discount codes you get for most of the products in this box you also get a code for a free pack of Sgaia vegan Streaky Rashers.  I've never heard of Sgaia before and haven't seen any in any of the stores near me, so I had a quick look online to see what they produce and it seems to be the vegan equivalent of gourmet meat.  I am thinking of getting the streaky rashers for my partner Jim.  He's not vegetarian/ vegan, but is trying to greatly reduce the amount of process meat he eats for health reasons.  These might be a particularly good substitute.  

So far I've enjoyed the two The Vegan Kind boxes I've had so it'll be interesting to see what June brings.

See my last blog on The Vegan Kind here.

Project Pan Update #4 and a Quick Declutter.

So this month hasn't been a particularly good month for using up my products. Firstly I was ill at the beginning and this time it took me a while to feel well enough to even vaguely bother with putting make up on.  My work contract had also ended at the end of March and it seemed a bit pointless putting any on to fill out online applications.  I've never been one to feel that I have to wear make up so I just didn't bother. 

That being said, I still managed to make a fair amount of progress on the eye shadows.  I don't think I'm going to finish all the shadows I wanted to by the end of the year, but I should at least finished the oldest ones. Using the white shadow as a cheek highlight is definitely helping me work through it.  I'm not going to lie, it isn't the most natural highlighting ever, but if it helps use it up I'm happy to be un-natural.  The brown eye-liner is the one I'm most surprised about as it now seems to be going much faster than I expected.

The product I'm most happy with is the Lily Lolo primer as I've now hit pan on the yellow side.  Right now I'm trying to get all the product on the left side and will then work my way around. I use this part of the primer to put over the red areas of my face before I add more product and it works really well for this.  The only thing this product doesn't work well for is an actual eye primer.  I have very oily eyelids and this didn't help keep my eye shadows on, but if you have drier lids it might actually work for you. 

I had hoped to have this Elf Teal eye liner finished by this point, but seeing as I only used it for about 1 week I haven't actually made much progress.  I will be using it almost every day from now on so hopefully the next up-date will mean that's it gone.  Still enjoying the colour though.

This product isn't on my original list, but as it's a colour I don't tend to reach for I wanted to use is up.  It is the Natural Collections Lip Lines pencil in Almond.  However, it really doesn't match my lip colour and looks more orange on me than anything else.  I was using it now and then under my Natural Collections Fig Leaf lip stick to vary the colour and I'm doing the same now with the Mac lipstick I'm trying to use up.  It is a very hard pencil, but does product a good pigment of colour.  I actually quite like using the pencils from this range.

 

While in the past I was trying to work my way through one lipstick at a time I did find that I began to get very bored of it by the end, so I've decided to work on two this time.  They are the Max Factor Colour Elixir lipstick in Cherry Kiss 840 and the Mac Cremesheen in Creme Cup.  I'm not particularly keen on the smell of either of these, but the Max Factor is particularly unpleasant.  I quite like the colour, but the smell and the fact that Max Factor is not cruelty free means I definitely buy this once it's used up.  It does seem to be going quite quickly though.  The Mac Creme Cup isn't a colour the most people would recommend for my olive skin tone, but as I usually wear a lip liner with this it actually looks fine.  I also find that as my lips are very pigment a swipe of this actually produces a tea rose colour.  Mac is also not cruelty free and so I won't be buying this colour again any way.  I really just brought this to see what the hype is about Mac lip sticks and I while I like the texture I don't think it's much better than any other lipstick.  

I might not have been wearing makeup while I wasn't working but I did decide to go through my stuff and get rid of a whole load of things that I no longer use or like.  The pile ended up being a lot larger than I was expecting and I'm quite pleased about that.

I got rid of a number of tops and pajamas which either had holes in them or are now completely misshapen.  I also got rid of a whole load of boxes, books, and accessories that I had been keeping because I liked the look of but never actually used or reached for.

Next were three pairs of shoes that just hurt my feet.  I was quite upset with the brown boots as I've had those for years and wore them almost every day.  But, unfortunately, all the padding inside was completely gone and even adding inserts didn't make them more comfortable.  I shall be looking for a replacement.

These are a leftover from my stationery obsessed days.  I just kept collecting stationery but then never actually used them.  So I finally gave up and just gave them to a charity shop so someone else can actually get some use out of them.

Now that I have a temp job I'll be back to wearing makeup almost every day and will hopefully have a number of finished products to show next time.

Below are links to all my previous project pan blogs:

• Introduction
• Project Pan Update #1
• Project Pan Update #2
• Project Pan Update #3

Product Review: Conditioners

I've been using more 'natural' conditioners for many years now.  It started after I had been having problems with mild eczema on my skin that wasn't lifting and when I thought I had dandruff but all the anti-dandruff products weren't actually working.  So I started doing a little research and found out about the possibility of some common ingredients in our beauty products being allergens.  As my scalp seemed to be where I was having the most problems, along with down my lower back (where the products runs down when I wash my hair), I decided I would start with conditioners and shampoos.  I should probably explain my hair type first.  As with the rest of me, it's dry and, while I do have a fair amount of it, it's fine and easily tangled.  It doesn't really get greasy though and I can easily get away with only washing it every three days.

So conditioners first.

The first conditioner I'm starting with you unfortunately can't actually get anymore, but it's one I've used and loved for years and now judge all other conditioners by.  I was very sorry when I found out they'd stopped making it and bulk bought it.  It is the Naked Rescue Shea Butter and Olive Oil Intensive Care Conditioner.  While I don't dye my hair and almost no heat on it I still like to use an intensive conditioner as it reduces the frizziness I have a problem with.  I found that this conditioner not only smelt nice, but it also made my hair very soft, greatly reduced the frizziness, and the skin problems I was having on my back went away.  Once it was all used up (I do mean all) I started looking for something new.

The next conditioner I tried was the Kind Natured Nourishing Ylang Ylang & Sage Conditioner.  I picked this conditioner up from Boots as it seemed to tick all the boxes that had made me love Naked products.  It is sulphate, paraben and petrochemicals free and has the 97% natural stamp.  I did love the smell, but the actual product did nothing for my dry hair.  In fact, my hair became even frizzier than before and I definitely had to do an oil treatment afterwards.  I think if your hair was less fine and actually more on the greasy side it would actually suit you, but unfortunately it wasn't for me.  I haven't tried any of their other products, but I might try the Super Shine conditioner.

So I was having a little wander around my local Holland & Barrett and noticed the Australian Organics Nourishing Restorative Conditioner.  This product has no petrochemicals, synthetic colours, synthetic fragrances, or animal bi-products.  I actually really like this product.  It smelt nice, did make my hair feel very soft, and did go a long way to helping with the frizz.  I did still need to use a bit of oil afterwards to help with the frizziness and it wasn't as good as my beloved Naked conditioner, but it was a good substitute.  

I then decided I would try making my own.  I had a little look on google and actually found a good recipe from a YouTuber I'm already subscribed to - Ela Gale.  Ela's does a number of DIY videos so it's definitely worth checking out her channel.  The recipe I tried was the Natural Deep Hair Conditioner as these are the conditioner that seem to work best on my hair and I already had products I needed.  It was very easy to make and smells great, but I'm actually finding it a bit too thick for the type of hair I have.  It's definitely helping to reduce the number of split ends I'm getting, but my hair doesn't actually absorb that much of the product and I end up having to wash my hair at least twice.  Even with this double wash my hair still has some oils left in it causing it to stick together once it has dried.  I have now started using less but adding the Argan Oil Hair Treatment.  This has definitely helping my hair absorb the conditioner more (and it's helping me use up the Argan Oil) along with blow drying my hair a little when it's almost dry.  I still like this conditioner but I think the coconut oil in the recipe is just too thick for my hair type so, when I make it again, I'll swap that out for argan oil or olive oil and see how that goes.

I think I'll keep up with making my own conditioner at the moment as it's actually pretty easy to do and uses products I already have in my home.  I also know what's going into it and that means there's less chance of me having a negative reaction to it.

Is there a more 'natural' conditioner that you use or do you have a favourite DIY recipe?  Let me know  as I'm always happy to try more.

Mini Film Review: Racing Extinction

I want to start a little series (a little like the 'App of the moment') that talks briefly about the films that I've watched which have helped galvanise the decisions I've made about my lifestyle.  They are not necessarily films that got me first thinking about the subject or that gave me any additional information, but they are more visual aids which remind me of why I'm taking steps to leading a more sustainable lifestyle.

The first one I want to write about is the one that means the most to me and that's Racing Extinction.  If people I've met know nothing else about me they know that I love all wildlife and my main focus in living sustainably is to protect that wildlife.  The way I see it, as they evolved on the planet along with us all species have just as much right to be here as we do and we have no right to cause their extinction.  But there is also the fact the health of this planet, and therefore our ability to live on it, relies on these species being here.  Even if you think that it's ok to loose some species, we just don't know which species are important to the health of the ecosystems and therefore can't justify losing any.

In Racing Extinction they document some of the species that are already extinction, are functionally extinct, or are now facing extinction and the activities we are doing that are causing this.  While they only look at a few species, this is true for most species on the planet.  The photography goes between stunning, beautiful footage of the species in their natural habitat to footage of the species now as a product being processed for selling on the market.  The thing that is really highlighted is the sheer unsustainable number of species being removed from the ecosystems that you really can't get your head round until you see the picture.  The footage that had the most impact on me was when they showed the sheer number of shark fins spread out across a few roof tops.

During the documentary they use the latest technology to not only show the amount of carbon dioxide being produced in our day to day activities, but to project the information onto buildings which allows member of the public to see and hear information about a number of species and the issues they are facing today.

It also shows the individuals who are working hard to help highlight the issues and to make a positive difference, showing that it is possible for an individual to make a difference. 

The thing I really love most about this documentary is, while it does honestly portrays the bad situation we are racing towards, it also highlights that we can still make a difference, we can still fix this.  It is possible for us to change our behaviour and save this amazing planet.  They start the campaign 'Start With 1 Thing' (#startwith1thing) in this movie which encourages us to just do one thing to begin with to lower our impact on the planet.  If I was to recommend something it would be to start by looking at what you eat.  It also contains one of my favourite quotes (great for when people say 'Well what's the point?'), which is 'Better to light a candle than rage against the dark'.

You can find Racing Extinction on their website, Twitter @racingextinction, and Instagram @racingextinction.  In the UK you buy the movie on Amazon or through YouTube.  I would definitely recommend it, especially if you're needing a little push.