Fitness Friday: Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars

Hi there!

I've been a bit more adventurous with food recently - not that I've been eating weird things but just trying to vary it a bit more than usual.
I've been doing well making eggs with veggies for breakfast and replacing usual carbs with quinoa and cauliflower rice, but snacking is something i need to work on.

I found this recipe on The Daily Hiit blog (link here) and after reading it i knew that I had to try it.

I'm by no means a baker - I am so much better at cooking meals and proper food, when it comes to cakes I am (luckily!) rubbish so don't generally bother.
This recipe however involves no baking whatsoever, its a freezer only type bake - winning.



Here's the main ingredients - almond milk, protein powder, almond meal, coconut oil and peanut butter.
For the topping you need coconut oil and chocolate chips - as well as some kind of chopped or flaked nuts for sprinkling on top.
(For amounts you can read the original recipe, i won't bore you with that!)





Melting the ingredients in a microwave took about 1.5 minutes with regular stirring. I'm always wary of using the microwave to melt things but this didn't seem to cause any issues.

Adding in the dried powders and mixing thoroughly gave a batter type mixture that easily filled the square tin. So far so good, no issues and nothing that i can do wrong:





Next you just have to melt the coconut oil and chocolate chips together to create a super glossy mixture that you just want to dunk marshmallows in!

Pour this on top and you might get something that looks like this:



The instructions then suggest 20 minutes in the freezer.....I would say mine needed more like 2 hours. Not sure why this was but at 20 minutes it was still very gooey like the image below, and after 2 hours it was much more like the bottom image and had set:

Small setting issues aside, these are 100% amazing - if I say so myself.

After I made them on a Sunday around 11am I ended up eating about 4 throughout the day....oops!

I wouldn't recommend it as I felt extremely sick afterwards but OMG you need to make these!!!

I think maybe I'd add a little more almond meal to the mixture next time and it would set better, but these taste so good I don't care that I'll have to eat them out of the fridge.

Do you make your own snacks and bars like these? Do you have any other similar recipes?

I really want to make some more snacks like these - cleaner than shop bought and even more tasty!

L xxx

Topshop Lipstick in Nuclear

Morning!

Quite often I buy things and don't post about them (which is scary really as I think I post quite enough!) and this lipstick is one of them. I've had it kicking around in handbags for a while but even though I wear it regularly I hadn't posted about it, so I decided to change that.

I bought it on a random shopping trip, as most of my purchases are, and it became my first ever Topshop make up purchase. I've heard lots of things about their products and so many rave reviews for things such as nail polishes to highlighters. I thought it was time for me to investigate too!

The lipstick I picked up is called Nuclear and it's from their regular range - i.e. not limited edition.
The packaging was a little odd, the box itself was fine but I did wonder why it was sellotaped shut. Is make up crime in Cardiff that high?!

I wouldn't be surprised actually, this is much more preferable to buying a lipstick and finding out someone else has already used it. Not that this is just a Cardiff thing but as it's where I live and shop most it does seem to be a problem!

I also love the starry pattern on the outside of the casing - the matte black background and shiny stars are pretty but still chic, good work Topshop. The lipstick is a sheer colour which is what I love for daywear, I do sometimes love a bold lip for day but normally for an occasion so I stick with sheer mostly.

The black packaging is quite elegant when the lipstick bullet is twisted up, and I think it looks quite expensive considering the actual price tag of £8. Below shows with and without flash:

The formula is really creamy and sheer, it's hydrating without being too heavy and contains enough colour to know it's there without being over powering. I'd say there's also a certain level of buildability too as you can definitely get a more intense colour if you apply a few layers as shown below

Here is what it looks like on the lips in day light (shocker that we actually had some!)

As you can see it's sheer with a glossy finish and I'd say a good few hours wear time. You'd need to reapply after a meal but then I would say you have to do that with most sheer lipsticks.

Also a little nod to the name - Nuclear. Anything sciencey and coral just screams at my attention and I couldn't leave the shop without it. It's super wearable and the perfect foray into lipsticks if you're not yet acquainted with them, and if you're like me, perfect for an understated lip for work.

It's definitely a winner in my books and I will be browsing their collection next time I'm in store to see if there are any similar offerings.

Have you got any favourites from the Topshop product range? Do product names grab your attention as well or is it just me that's a sucker for them?

L xxx

Holiday Pirates

Hey All

This is probably a bit of a weird post to write but I decided I wanted to share this with you guys if you haven't heard of it. Holiday pirates is a site that finds amazing deals and shares them. You don't book through the site it takes you to the website links to book. My brother had mentioned it to me a few times and it took me a while to look at it myself.

He is forever tempting me with links to great deals he finds on there. Most people around me knew I was desperate to go to Iceland. It was one of those places that head my heart before I'd even been, so when he text me the link to the holiday pirates site for a deal to Iceland for two people for £180 I was very interested. I sent the link to my other half like wow look at this bargain (we'd not mentioned holidays together and he was away with work at the time so our relationship was still kind of up in the air as to what it was) to me surprise he text back saying it looked good and we should look into it.

Holiday pirates is all about finding bargains. This deal was great as I realised you could fly from Bristol to Reykjavik for about £60 pp return. The deal on the site was for a youth hostel so I wasn't keen on that for the first holiday so got browsing for other hotel deals.

I love using holiday pirates for inspiration on where to go, what sites to use to book and what deals are currently available.They also give ideas of different things today. On the site recently I saw a Beer and Spa deal in Poland (link here) for two nights, with accommodation for £49pp.

I love getting lost in sites like this looking at the deals available and planning loads of holidays in my head.

What sites do you use for holiday inspiration?

I can see my brother getting my to download this app was a dangerous choice, it's just to tempting to book them!

Love M

xxx

Eyeliners as Eyeshadows

Hello there!

Since I had my tablet for Christmas I've been next level obsessed with Pinterest - I always loved it for browsing when on the bus and lunch breaks but now I've got a bigger screen to scroll through it's a beautiful thing.

One thing that keeps popping up is the use of eyeliners as eyeshadows, see what I mean by the image below, taken from Pinterest:

I don't know about you but I've got PLENTY of eyeliners kicking around that I just don't use enough. For example, I've purchased both of these sets recently:





Eeek!
Beautiful colours with the best, most blendable and pigmented formula in the business - Urban Decay's 24/7 liners. I was trying to workout how on earth this could work, can you really use eyeliners as eyeshadow?

Sure, colouring in your eyelid is easy but does it stay? Does it blend? Does it actually look good?

I had to find out:

I started off with my usual base make up and coloured in my eyelid with Mugshot. This is a 'light metallic taupe with a slight pink shift'. It's a great base colour and was easy to cover and blend.

I then applied Moonspoon to the outer corners to give some more definition. Moonspoon is a metallic grey with a silver sparkle:

I then applied my absolute fave liner after that - Perversion. It's the most amazing blackest of black pencil liners that no other can compare to. I thought it was a hype thing but I really cannot get over how good it is.

I've worn this to work and it looked no different to using my Naked palettes and also took the same amount of time to put on and blend.

With regards to how long it lasted, without any primer it stayed the same length as eyeshadow normally stays. I haven't tried it with primer but I imagine that the primer will work its usual magic and make the look stronger and last considerably longer too.


I also couldn't resist but have some fun with the colours that I have too, I feel like work needs a neutral palette but after work there are no rules!



I used Faint all over my eyelid - this is described as a matte warm taupe. It's definitely a great neutral colour as the eyeshadow version from the Naked Basics palette is a favourite of mine.

I then applied Vacancy - a bright metallic teal - on my lower waterline and lashline and blended it in.






I really love this colour! You cannot go wrong with a shock of bright teal on the lower eyelid and its such an easy way to go from day to night with minimal effort.

What do you think about using the eyeliners as eyeshadows? What about bright colours on the lower lashline to go from day to night?

L xxx