Healthy Vegan Carrot Cookies | Food | Recipe

I've been a lot into cooking and baking (especially baking) and experimenting with new food and new ingredients for the last few months. I started living healthier, workout more to keep my fitness level up, so I thought 'what about the food?' I watched so many videos about healthy food and researched in the world wide web so many interesting and healthier options, as well as substitutes for certain ingredients and foods. For example, I stopped drinking dairy milk as soon as I found out that plant-based milk is actually a lot better for you - my favorite one is almond milk, so delicious. I also want to say that even though this is a vegan recipe, I am not vegan. I like eating healthier and I've been trying to be conscious of what I am putting into my body. This doesn't mean that I won't be eating a piece of totally unhealthy cake or croissants every now and then, I want to be more aware of what I am eating and eat less animal-based products. Maybe I will go vegan some time in the future because things like that do take quite a bit of time - maybe I won't, who knows that yet?

Anyway, let's get started with these very yummy and healthy carrot cookies!

First of all, this is not a recipe by me, it's by @my.vegan.friend on Instagram and please go check her out, she has some amazing food and recipes posted on there.

Nonetheless, I've changed it slightly at some points.

You will need: 

• 270g oats
• bananas (340g)
• apples (350g)
• carrots (200g)
• 3 tbsp of date syrup/maple syrup/ (honey)
• 2 tbsp of almond butter
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil
• 3 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 tsp of nutmeg
• 1 tsp of ground ginger

Firstly, preheat the oven to 200°C. Then mash the bananas in a bowl, grate the apples and carrots and add them into the bowl to the mashed bananas. Once this is done, you can then add the remaining ingredients and mix them together with the fruits and vegetables. 

Done with this step? It should now look like this after you have successfully mixed all the ingredients together. I know, at this point, it doesn't look too appealing - let's be honest. But I promise, it gets better! Also, even though it doesn't look the best, it already tastes good. The mixture should stay fairly thick, so if it's still a bit runny, add more oats to it and it shall have the perfect consistency.

Next, we need a baking tray as well as a baking parchment. Take a tablespoon and take bit by bit more of the mixture out of the bowl, onto the spoon and onto the baking parchment/tray. Do round and kind of flat shapes, just how cookies look like. Of course, you can do any shape that pleases you - if you fancy a rectangle, do a rectangle. If you fancy a flying unicorn, do a fyling unicorn.

For the last step, all you have to do is put the cookies into the preheated oven and bake around 20-30 minutes until golden-brown. Take them out after that and let them cool.

Last but not least, ENJOY!

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Vivid Matte Liquid by Mabelline | Review

This little beauty item is from Maybelline's new range and is called the "Vivid Matte Liquid". This one is in the shade 50 which is called 'Nude Thrill'. It is a really lovely decent nude shade with kind of a pinky/coral undertone, it basically gives your lips a little bit of that healthy color but it doesn't go overboard. You just can't overdo your lips with this product. 

It's kind of a mixture between a lipgloss and a lipstick but I would rather call it a liquid lipstick than any of the other options because it's not as sticky as a lipgloss but you do apply it as if it was one. So, the application is very easy - just as you would do with every other liquid lipstick or lipgloss, pop it on 'em lips. I feel like the end of the applicator is a teeny tiny bit more pointed than the ones of other products, so it becomes super easy to do your lips fairly nice even when it comes to putting it on your lipline, I can assure you, you're going to do it neatly with this one. Which takes me to the next point: the consistency. It's sort of thick on your lips but not sticky at all; you do feel that there is something on your lips but it's quite nice and not too heavy. Plus, it smells so good I can't even cope. I just wanna run around the house sniffing this liquid lipstick. Is that weird?

I'm more of the matte lips type of girl, so I was very excited to try this and all I can say is: I love it. I love it so much, I've been wearing it all day every day for the past two weeks. I just really like the matte finish that it gives your lips, it doesn't dry them out and it stays on for fairly long, especially when you put a lipliner underneath it. It's really good quality for that price (about 5£). 

The one thing that disappoints me is the color range. There are about 8 different colors or something like that which most of them are quite bright ones. There is only this one nude color and all the other ones are those vibrant shades like a bright pink, orange and red one and one darker berry shade. Personally, I don't really wear these shades on my lips because I like to keep them quite decent (obviously nothing wrong with bright colors on the lips). Most of the time I would go for a nude lip and I'm a bit sad that there's only this one nude option because I love this liquid lipstick so muuuch. I really do hope they'll bring a few more nude colors out that I can buy to have a bit more of a variation. Other than that, I highly recommend buying or at least trying it. I have no regrets there.

Hope you had/have a lovely Sunday. X

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Picnic Evening

One day last week it was such a beautiful and sunny day, my best friend and I decided to go to the park and do a little bit of a picnic. It was so lovely to catch up because we have both been away on holiday, so we didn't really get to hear a lot from each other. 

Even though the sun was out and it was really warm, there weren't a lot of people there that day which was kind of surprising but we didn't really care - we had almost the whole park to ourselves. We sat down on our picnic blanket, put out our food - watermelon, carrots, cucumber, blueberries and bananas - and listened to summer music. While we chatted away about everything, the day went by and at some point we decided to take loads of pictures. By loads, I mean LOADS of pictures, literally about 300. So here are only a few summery shots that we took. The flowers were so beautiful, they instantly put me back in holiday mood! 

It was a gorgeous day. And a bit different because we don't really get to do a picnic that often which kind of makes me sad since sitting outside in the sun with some delicious food and your best friend puts you in a very good mood. It was also nice not being on the phone too much or generally on the internet, just a bit of calming down and relaxing. I would highly recommend to grab your friends and food and just chill, it's so much fun, I promise.

What I'm wearing:

Denims - H&M

Shoes - H&M

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Paint Your Nails | Summer Edition (+ ULTIMATE TIP)

I really love painting my nails. Well, not actually the painting part but choosing the color and the result when it's all dried. Choosing the color, for me, is the fun part because when mother nature changes the season, I change my nail color scheme. Just to make it fit the season. So I thought, why not make a blog post about it? This one's the summer edition, as it currently is summer - or it's supposed to be, not quite sure with all the rain here where I live..

I've picked seven different colors from different brands - affordable and some more expensive ones. Whenever the season changes, I feel like I should make my nail polish match it. So in summer, I always wear bright colours, mostly pinky, coral or red ones (got all the warm colors there) or pastel tones which look so good on your nails when you have a bit of a tan. 

From left to right:

•  p2 color victim in "801 catch me!" - a beautiful bright pink (1-2 £)
• Essie in "sunday funday" - I LOVE this color, looks so summery (7 £)
• Jette my love in a bright orangey red with gold shimmer in it (doesn't say the name)
• ASTOR perfect stay gel shine in "207 Creamy Coral" (6 £)
• ANNY in "304 Little Sister" - more decent one but it's a perfect blush color (9 £)
• Essie in "spaghetti strap" - gorgeous pastel color for your tanned hands (7 £)
• Sally Hansen hard as nail Xtreme wear in "340 Mint Sorbet" - absolutely in love with this pastel mint tone and it stays on for so long even without a top coat ( 7£)

These are the ones that I really enjoy wearing on my nails during summer. Hope it gave you a little bit of inspiration. I also wanted to say that you shouldn't be afraid to wear bright colors. Paint on your nails whatever you want, as long as you're comfortable with it! 

ULTIMATE TIP: Some of you may or may not know this but I've come to learn that blowing your nails to make them dry faster actually slows the process down BUT it makes them dry quicker if you put your freshly painted nails into (ice) cold water. I usually put them under the tap and hold them under the cold water for about 30 seconds and I do believe that it helps.

Hope you had a lovely weekend and let me know if I should do these every season. X

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Benefit Roller Lash | Review

 Today is Friday and Friday means, it's the weekend! So let's celebrate that with the launch of my new blog and a little review of the Benefit Roller Lash Mascara. 

Since I'm quite the beauty and cosmetic enthusiast, I'm always on a hunt for new products and ones that I haven't tried yet. And this one was one of these products. I've purchased it a few months ago, so I've had plenty of time to try it and to conceive an opinion on it. An opinion I want to share with you, that is. I heard great things about this mascara from other people - the packaging might have allured me into buying it, too. Maybe. Possibly. - so I decided to give it a go. 

First thing you see (of course) is the packaging. Oh, the beautiful packaging! It's actually quite simple: a black bottle with the pinky writing on it and the lid in the same pinky shade. The lid isn't smooth like the bottle itself, it feels rubbery which is different but not uncomfortable. Plus, it has a lovely pattern on it.

Now on to the product itself. On the back it says "super-curling & lifting mascara" which to me, is totally true. I remember trying it for the first time and I was like WOAH. That was my genuine reaction to it because my lashes were so much longer and curled, I was impressed. Now, I naturally have quite long lashes, so I'm always trying to find mascaras that give my lashes that little bit of extra volume and curl-effect. This mascara does everything: makes them longer, makes them curled, makes them voluminous. It doesn't give the lashes super volume, I believe there are mascaras out there that do more to make the lashes look fuller that I haven't found out about yet but it's alright. I'm happy with this one, it does the job. A great job, in fact.

The brush is a plastic one which I actually like more than the big ones that look fluffy because I feel like you can seperate the lashes better and the application becomes easier. We all want an easy application and lashes that don't seem to be glued together, don't we?

But the one thing that I don't like about this mascara, is that it is quite 'wet' in the consistency, especially when it's still quite new and hasn't been used a lot. I am not fond of the amount of product that comes onto my lashes by the first stroke already because then I have to go over my lashes multiple times to kind of brush the product out of them. Sometimes I just don't have the time to sit there for solid ten minutes and only do my lashes. Once I passed the stage and there was a little bit less product in the bottle, it all got very easy to apply. 

So all in all, I really like this mascara, it is a high-end product, so it's more on the pricey side. If you aren't really into these wet mascaras, you will be a little bit annoyed by it at first but it really is worth the money - I would always recommend it.

♥♥♥

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