March 2015 Glossybox

Is it me or did this month's box come later than usual? I feel like I've barely had a chance to try these out this month! But I've given it a good go.

Naobay - Moisturizing Peeling - Full size £13.71

The first thing I noticed about this product was the packaging. The wooden lid makes this feel quite luxurious and expensive. I tried a bit of this on my hand and couldn't quite put my finger on what it smelled of, but it was pleasant. I am not sure if this is supposed to dry and peel off as I left it for a fair while and it stayed wet so I had to wash it off, am I doing it wrong haha? I'm yet to try this on my face so I will definitely have to give it a go.

Sleek MakeUP - Pout Paint - Full size £4.99

I love the strong colour of this pout paint and it's the first one I've received that I would actually wear. The colour I received is 'Port' and is a lovely deep berry colour. This has really great staying power (it was a nightmare washing the swatch off my hand!) but what I love about this is that you can put on a small amount to stain the lips or put on more and layer it up for a glossy effect. You can also mix these with other colours so I'm curious to see if anyone has done this and had a good result?

Essence - Lash Princess Volume Mascara - Full size £3.30

I own a lipstick in this brand which was nice but didn't appear to be very long lasting. I love the packaging on this mascara, it feels and looks a lot more expensive than £3.30! Most mascaras have the same effect on me so I did enjoy using this. I feel like I never need to buy a new mascara as Glossybox send us so many! 

Dove Advanced Hair Series - Shampoo & Conditioner - Full Size £5.99

In all honesty, I get a bit bored of shampoo/conditioner samples. I'm one of those people that will use whatever is on offer and I'm not fussy about brands. The mini sized tubes are handy for the gym and these did make my hair feel lovely and soft and I would perhaps purchase the full sized versions if they were on offer. I noticed my hair was less frizzy and I had less flyaways after using this.

ncLA Los Angeles Nail Lacquer - Full Size £13

I put this on straight away and loved the colour. I own a few coral and orange shades but that's because I find it such an easy colour to wear, especially in the spring/summer as it goes with a lot of my bright outfits. The colour I received was called "I only fly private" what a funky name! This does dry quickly which is ideal for me as I have a busy lifestyle and little time to wait around. It also lasted a good few days before I noticed any chipping. Ideal!

 Please let me know what you got in your boxes, I love reading other people's Glossybox reviews!

To sign up to Glossybox, click here.

Polagram - Poloroid Prints

I recently used a referral code to get myself some prints from an app called Polagram which can be found (available on iPhone and Android devices). I ordered some poloroid style prints which I uploaded straight from my phone right there and then.

It couldn't have been simpler, and I absolutely love the quality and style of these prints, I just need to figure out what to do with them!

To order yourself some prints simply download the app. If you use my referral code PGXTXW88 you can get £5 off your order. Prints are only 29p each! What a bargain. No minimum spend required.

Easy Easter Treats – Chocolate Nests

With Easter right around the corner, I thought I would talk about some of my favourite Easter treats and tell you how to recreate them. I always remember my mum making these every Easter. I think it was just an excuse to buy and eat mini eggs which is the same reason I am doing this today. These are so simple to make, and cost next to nothing to make. The hardest part is actually making them into cakes and not eating the mixture direct from the bowl!

Ingredients:

300g Chocolate (I used milk but feel free to vary this!)

1 bag of Mini Eggs

300g Cornflakes

Cupcake Cases

(Makes approx 12)

All you have to do to make these is melt the chocolate, and slowly fold in the cornflakes until they have a good covering of chocolate. Scoop the coated cornflakes into cupcake cases and add a couple of mini eggs to the top of them. Leave to cool and the cornflakes should stick together nicely, like little nests!

It really is that simple. These are great, and go down a treat with people of all ages – trust me!

Let me know if you’re making any Easter treats!

Summer Salad Ideas - feat. Florette Salad*

I don't know about you, but as soon as the weather starts to get a bit warmer I crave fresh foods and salads are at the top of my list. Gone are the days where I will chow down on soup and hot meals, as soon as the sun is shining it's time to get my salad on!

Many people I know have the misconception that salads are 'boring' and fair enough if you're just going to pile up some leaves on a plate then it's not going to be too exciting but there are SO many things you can do with a salad and hopefully this post will inspire you to come up with some of your own variations.

The first Summer Salad recipe is one I got from the Florette Salad website. They have some really inspiring ideas and ways to use their salads in food and I urge you to check them out here. This grilled chicken Caesar salad is not only healthy, it is packed with flavour. The baby kale is a superfood and is packed with vitamins A and K. This took very little time to prepare which is what I loved most, healthy fast food! You can find the full recipe here.

The second salad I came up with was a Tuna Nicoise salad which is one I have loved for a long time. It is also so easy to prepare. For this salad which served 4 people, I used 1 bag of Florette Classic Crispy Salad - 1 can of drained tuna - 4 hardboiled eggs - 2 large tomatoes - 2 spring onions and a handful of green beans. I used a pre-made honey and mustard dressing, but Florette have a great recipe for a homemade dressing over on their website.

The final Summer Salad idea I created was something I consider a bit more substantial. This would be great for carb lovers that are trying to introduce salads slowly or want to try them out without going completely leaf mad. For this salad I used Florette Classic Crispy Salad, pasta, bacon, mushrooms and some low fat cheese. You can throw it all together in a pan, but I prefer to mix the cheese into the warm pasta so it melts a bit, then mix the salad in cold. This is a great salad to take to work for lunch cold.

For more recipes, please check out Florette's website for plenty of Summer Salad Ideas and be inspired this summer to eat healthy fresh food. 

Let me know in the comments what your favourite salad is.

*The Florette Salad was provided free of charge in order for me to create these recipes. All opinions are my own. For more information, please see my disclaimer. 

The Pigs Norfolk - Spa Room Review

I recently booked an overnight stay for myself and my boyfriend and decided to stay at The Pigs in Edgefield. Their spa rooms caught my eye and I HAD to book one. Complete with an outdoor bath/TV, sauna and fire-pit I thought this would be a trip to remember.

I booked us the dinner, bed and breakfast deal which included £25 meal allowance per person which was more than enough to cover the cost of our food for the evening.

When I booked our stay, I asked for a birthday cake and then a week later I couldn’t remember if I’d ordered one or not so I emailed them to confirm  and they got back to me very promptly which I thought was really good customer service.

We arrived around 3pm ready for check in and were taken straight to our room. We were shown around and also told where the firewood was for the firepits. There were also complimentary marshmallows to burn if we wanted!

The room was huge. The bed was 2 single beds pushed together, it was massive and really comfy. The TV was large, and everything was clean. My favourite part of the room was the outdoor sauna and bath. The sauna was the first thing we tried out and it was a luxury! They even provide sauna oils so we tried some of that out too.

We went for dinner about 7pm. For starters, or 'iffits' as they are called at The Pigs we had a selection of scotch egg (amazing), fritters and potted pork. All enjoyable, the scotch egg was my favourite. For main course I had the plate pie off the specials menu which was chicken and leek. It was delicious and piping hot and came with mash and gravy. My boyfriend had the steak. We didn't need dessert as we still had the cake in the room!

The next morning I woke up early to try out the bath and was greeted by a centipede! Eeek! I guess that's the price you have to pay for the outdoor amenities!

Breakfast the next day was lovely. We could help ourselves to the breakfast table which had juices and cereals, then choose from the menu. I had a sausage and onion sandwich and my boyfriend chose kippers with poached egg which he really enjoyed.

Overall I really enjoyed my stay at The Pigs and would love to go back. It was a shame we didn't get to use the firepit so that's something I would like to do if I went again, perhaps in the summer.

Our stay at The Pigs ended with us watching the eclipse too, which was really fascinating. 

If you would like to check out these rooms yourself and perhaps book a mini getaway, you can visit The Pig's website here.

Gingerbread Raw Nak'd Bars - Recipe

I absolutely love nak'd bars. I am obsessed with them, this is my current stash and when I run out I will most likely be very sad. Until I decided to look at the ingredients and put my food processor to the test! I was unsure of the correct ratios so I sort of made it up a bit but they turned out amazing!

Ingredients:

4 pitted medjool dates

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup almonds

1 cup pecans

Water

I firstly ground the almonds and pecans until they were finely chopped. I wanted some texture to my bars so didn't completely grind these to a powder.

I then added the dates, the ginger and cinnamon and a teaspoon of water and blitzed everything together until it formed a sticky paste.

When the paste had formed, I took it out of the food processor and pressed it into a lined baking tray. I then put this in the freezer for 20 minutes to set, then chopped into bars. this made approx 10 mini bars. I didn't even get a chance to get a photo of the finished product because these went down so well in my house! Apart from being a bit more crumbly than your average nak'd bar these tasted spot on. Perhaps I will add more dates next time to help them stick a bit better.

I can't wait to experiment with other flavours! What's your favourite nak'd bar? Will you be making your own version?

Easy Falafel Recipe

Ever since I got a food processor for Valentines Day I have been making so many things that I've never been able to make before and high up on my list was falafels. I didn't follow a particular recipe for these, I sort of made it up as I went along but they tasted so good. I had mine with salad, mayo and a pitta bread but I can imagine these would be lovely with all sorts of accompaniments, hot or cold.

Ingredients:

1 400g can of chickpeas 

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp garlic salt

1/2 an onion

1 egg

The juice of half a lemon

Combine all of the ingredients (except the chickpeas) and blend until smooth.

Add the chickpeas to the wet mixture and pulse until they are broken up but not completely blended to the texture of hummus. 

When the mixture looks similar to the above, take out a tablespoon at a time and roll into balls. This recipe makes around 8 falafel balls depending on how big you want them. Mine were golf ball size.

Spray with frylight or the equivalent and bake at 180 degrees Fahrenheit for around 20 minutes until golden. You can also shallow fry these but I find them healthier baked this way.

Serve hot or cold. These will keep in the fridge for about a week.

Let me know if you try this recipe!