Healthy Eats - My Flapjack Recipe

Today I have a delicious, healthy flapjack recipe for you. I originally found a recipe on BBC GoodFood but I changed the original recipe and adapted it so much that I consider it to be my own. What I like most about my recipe is that it doesn't include bananas, whereas most recipes do, and I don't like bananas. I found that most of the ingredients in the recipe we had at home which is always handy.

Ingredients:

1 Apple peeled and grated

50g of unsalted butter plus a little extra for greasing

3 tbsp smooth peanut butter

4bsp of honey

250g of rolled oats

85g mixed seeds (I used golden linseed, sunflower and sesame)

85g of dried fruit (optional)

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 160C/Gas Mark 6

2. Grease and line a 20cm square tin with baking parchment

3. Heat the butter, peanut butter and honey in a saucepan until melted. Once melted add the grate Apple and 100l of hot water, mixed to combine.

4. Put your oats, seeds and optional dried fruit into a bowl and pour in the combined mixture over the top of the oats and seeds.

5. Mix until all the dry ingredients are coated with the wet mixture. Then tip into the tin and level the surface.

6. Bake for 45-60mins until slightly golden. Leave in the fridge to cool, cut into pieces and enjoy!

This recipe is great for people like me who have a sweet but still want to eat healthily, this flapjack will give you your sweet fix without being too unhealthy! 

What do you prefer Sweet or Savory?

Back to School #5 - Tips for getting up

So I went back to School on Thursday and it made me realize that I need some tips on getting up! So I decided that I would do some research and share the tips I found with anyone who (like me) are not morning people. Here are 5 tips I found:

Tip 1 - Plan something to look forward to

I know that I find it easier to get up when I give myself a goal or objective in the next morning, this thing can be something as simple as planning to straighten your hair. If you know you want to straighten your hair then when you first wake up you will get out of bed straight away because you have something planned.

Tip 2 - Never press snooze

If you press snooze once then you will end up pressing it 100 times, so you have to try your best to not press it at all. You have to stay strong and not give in to the part of you that wants to stay in bed.

Tip 3 - Go to bed earlier

This may sound really simple but it makes sense, the earlier you fall asleep the easier it will be to wake up earlier. So if you want to wake up 30 mins earlier than usual then go to sleep AT LEAST 30 mins earlier than you normally would.

Tip 4 - Put your alarm across the room

This is one of my favourite tips that I've ever learnt, all you have to do is put your alarm clock the other side of the room to your bed, that means that when the alarm goes off in the morning you have to go out of bed to turn it off. Once you have gotten out of bed you are less likely to get back in.

Tip 5 - Set multiple alarms close together

If you are the sort of person who just ignores your alarms i would definitely recommend setting numerous alarms within minutes of each other, e.g. 7:00, 7:01, 7:02, 7:03 etc. That means you will definitely be wide awake!

I hope this post is helpful are there any tips or tricks that I've missed? And which tip is your favourite? Be sure to comment below!

My Lipstick Collection

Hey Everyone, so today I'm going to show you my lipstick collection. I have 16 lipsticks which isn't lots compared to some but it is still quite a few. Some of them I have accumulated from who knows where so I don't all of the colours but here there are:

I am going to talk about the colours in two groups of 8.

From left to right: Collection 2000 volume boost 14, revlon colorburst 205, Estée Lauder pure colour 116, YSL rouge pur couture 09, Essence long lasting lipstick 11, Rimmel lasting finish 084, Mac in Samwell Croisiere, Mac in Rose Maiden.

From left (starting 3 in): Baby Lips cherry me, Baby Lips pink punch, Baby Lips Electro Oh Orange, Natural Collection in Raspberry, Natural Collection Berry Sorbet, Natural Collection Pink Mallow, Clinique Colour Surge 215, Collection 200 Ultra Shine 10

I hope you enjoyed this post, see you next time.

Back to School #4 - Natural make-up for school

So we're nearly back to school -eek- (where did those 6 weeks go?) so today I'm going to talk you through the natural make-up that I wear on a daily basis. All products in this post are from the drugstore, are quite cheap and  super easy to use. It consists of four simple steps:

1. Face

I use Seventeen BB balm as my base product, I love it because it's quite light but it gives a really good coverage. It leaves my skin with a really dewy, glowy finish, it also has an SPF 25 which is great for those sunny days when you need a bit of protection. The best thing about this BB cream is the price! It is only £6.99 and is available from Boots.

2. Eyes

For my eyes I keep it simple, no fancy eye shadow or tricky eyeliner, all I do is curl my lashes and apply some mascara. My eyelash curlers are just cheap £1.99 from Superdrug and the mascara I use is a really good thickening mascara called Lash Adapt from No7 which I couldn't find a link for but you can see a similar product here.

3. Brows

One thing that you might be surprised that I do lightly fill in my brows for school but it is something I think looks very natural and it does make a difference. First I lightly fill them in using this angled brush from New Look and shade 5 in the MUA Undressed eye shadow palette. I then use the brilliant Maybelline's Brow Drama in transparent to keep them in place.

4. Lips

To finish off my School make-up look, I use Baby Lips Electro in Oh Orange to give my lips a bit of moisture and colour. I also love the smell of this lip balm, it's delish!

What's your favourite make-up product for School?

Angels on bare skin review

Hey Everyone, a few weeks ago I went to the Lush store in Milton Keynes where they were holding an event. I got to make my very own Angels on Bare Skin cleanser which I got to keep so I decided that I would write a review for you today. Just bear in mind that I made this in a workshop so although it includes the same ingredients as a tub that you would buy it may differ slightly.

Packaging -

I love the black tubs that Lush use they are easy to open and they are a really good size. They are made out of recycled plastic which is obviously great for the environment and that means it is waterproof and doesn't get dirty.

Product - 

This product is gorgeous, I am absolutely in love with it! The product includes lots of lavender so it smells amazing and it leaves your face smelling of lavender after using the product. It also includes ground almonds which act as great exfoliators. The product is said to even out skintone, reduce redness and leave skin with a healthy glow. It definitely does all three of these things excently, I can't fault it!

How I use it - 

I use it at least once if not twice a day and the difference is very noticable. I take a pea sized amount add a small bit of water just to make it moist, massage it between my hands and massage it onto my face, then rinse.

Would I recommend it? - 

Yes definitely! I couldn't recommend it more!, it is a fantastic product which has definitely improved my skin!

It was a great experience to get to make this product and it was great to see all the natural ingredients 

that go into this product. If you are looking to buy a new cleanser I would definitely recoomend this one it is a fantastic product which lasts a long time. I hope you really liked this review see you next time,

Ella x

Back to School #3 - What's in my school bag?

Hey Everyone, so today's post is another back to school post and today I'm going to do a what's in my school bag post. Please excuse the picture quality the lighting wasn't great but I really wanted to get this post up.

This is my school bag it's from a company called classy-bags.co.uk I really love it because it reminds me a little bit of Cath Kidston. It is really practical because it is a waterproof fabric and it feels really sturdy. It cost £20 and came with a free purse which I think is a fantastic price.

In my school bag I have my pencil case which is actually a makeup bag from H&M which cost £1.99. I really love the colours of the feathers and the size is perfect I also quite like the fact that it is transparent. 

The smaller front pocket of my school bag is where I keep lots of small essentials, these include:

3 Lip Balms

A Small Perfume

My Bus Pass

My House Keys

My Locker Key

A Body Spray

The main section of my school bag is where I keep any books I have with me, my lunch box and my water bottle. I also have a pocket at the back where I keep sanitary products and my ohone.

I really hope you found this post useful, I'm sorry it's quite simple but I just really wanted to show you my school bag, pencil case and my everyday school essentials. See you next time!

Ella x

Healthy Eats 5 - Healthy Eating Motivation

Hey everyone, as you will be aware this post is my last weekly healthy eats post so from now on I will be doing the Healthy Eats posts monthly. Today's post is probably the most significant one, healthy eating motivation. Today I'm going to go through tips and reasons for eating healthily and I hope they help motivate you.

The first thing I want to share with you is a fact that at first I couldn't quite believe, I found this fact on @rebeccalouisefitness on instagram.

Your body is 80% the food you put in and 20% the workouts you do.

I've always been a big lover of chocolate so in the past I have eaten quite unhealthily, I always used to tell myself that it was fine because I do a lot of workouts and sport. However this fact proves that you can't just do a lot of sport and expect to have your ideal body you have to eat healthily as well.

If for you (like myself) chocolate or sweets are your biggest weakness, I would recommend only allowing yourself to eat them as a reward for example:

For every 5 pieces of fruit you eat you allow yourself one bar of chocolate.

Or for every 3 workouts you do you allow yourself one packet of sweets.

I think using sweet treats as rewards is a great idea because not only are you eating less sweet treats it will also motivate you to do more exercise or to eat more fruit. You just need to make sure that you stick to the rewards and targets you have set yourself.

I think there are 2 things that are the fall down for most peoples diets and healthy eating routines:

Cravings and going to parties

Cravings are most peoples biggest weakness so if you want more information about how to stop your cravings I do a more in depth cravings post here.

If you know that you are going to party so you know you will probably end up pigging out on an unhealthy but delicious selection of treats then my you would be to eat extra healthily the few days before. That way if you end up eating unhealthily at the party it won't hurt as much because you have eaten extra healthily in the few days leading up to it.

I feel like I've just rambled for ages, sorry! I just do hope that this post can be of some help to you, it certainly made me rethink some of the things I'm eating. See you soon!