{RECIPE} Vegan Chocolate Macarons

This week's recipe is in honour of my travels to Paris today!  What could be more Parisian than a macaron!  I so often stare through patisserie windows, at the colourful array of flavours on show & sigh at my inability to eat any of them.  Hence my delight at finally finding a recipe for a vegan version!

This relatively simple recipe comes from the Madcap Cupcake website.  The macarons look delicious, chocolatey & just the right amount of squidgy.  If only I had time to bake them whilst in Paris!  Unfortunately however, my time in the city of lights will be short & sweet.  I am on a tight schedule, as I don't wish to miss the Labor Day celebrations happening in Berlin.

Perhaps during my time in Germany, I will attempt to whip up a batch.  Until then, my fingers are crossed for nice weather, safe travels & good times.  See you guys in Paris!

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{RECIPE} Black Bean & Quinoa Burgers

The Easter weekend has come to an end at last & I have to say, I think I fully over did it on the sugar binge.  I managed to annihilate an entire chocolate fudge cake, several bunny biscuits & a few hot cross buns, all in a matter of days.  I haven't even touched my Easter egg yet!

Attempting to salvage my health & my thighs, I decided to make something healthy for dinner last night.  Scrolling through my Pinterest boards, I managed to find this recipe for Black Bean Burgers, from a great site called Love and Lemons.  Very simple & easy to make (just how I like it), packed full of much needed protein from a mix of beans, quinoa & walnuts & thankfully, as it turned out, seriously delicious!

I substituted the black beans for kidney beans, simply because I didn't have any on hand & served them with roasted baby potatoes & steamed greens, rather than in a bun.  Although, those parsnip fries do look good & I have to say, burgers are my favourite indulgence, especially when washed down with a nice thick shake.

I have three patties left, so I might throw one in a wholemeal bun, snuggle it up on a bed of lettuce, with a few slices of red onion for friends & a pillow of crushed avocado dolloped on top, serve it with a few fries on the side & a nice thick almond milk raspberry shake.  The perfect guilt-free indulgence.

How do you like your burgers?

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{RECIPE} Raw Chocolate Cake with Earl Grey Chocolate Mousse

Today is my very best friend Charlotte's birthday!  She is off to Paris with her fiancé, for a few days & I am most jealous, not least because she will be in my favourite city, but also because she will be in France & I shan't be able to see her.  I do miss her pretty face very much.

A few years ago, we met for the first time & just hit it off straight away.  I remember thinking how much I liked her & how we were going to be the best of friends, whether she liked it or not.  After just one meeting, which involved cocktails & teacups, we headed off to Barcelona together, for my birthday.  For someone I'd only just met, we got on like a dream & had the best time, waltzing round with our floral ice creams from Amorino & sipping on our breakfast smoothies from the food market down La Rambla.

I can honestly say, I have found a soul mate in Charlotte & I always admire how talented she is.  I love reading her wonderful blog, filled with pretty pastel snaps & sugar coated tales of her weekends & her unique creations, which she sells online through her Etsy store, are brilliant & I fully intend on making a large order of lavender hearts & vintage china magnets, when I finally have a place of my own again.  I just know, she will fulfill her dreams in the, hopefully, not too distant future.

So, in honour of her birthday, I wanted to share this recipe I found, by The First Mess.  It's a raw chocolate birthday cake, with earl grey chocolate mousse.  It's 100% vegan friendly & totally raw, which in my book, means guilt-free indulgence!  I don't think you can ever deny a chocolate cake & I thought that the earl grey twist, would suit a tea drinking English rose quite well.

I've never used a dehydrator before, but I would quite like to start eating a more raw diet, as I've read many things on it & it's meant to be very good for you.  My diet is halfway there at the moment; currently, I have protein shakes in the morning, using SunWarrior raw vegan protein blend powder, with almond milk, banana & berries, then something like hummous & crudites for lunch & a mixed salad in the evening.  I do cook potatoes, or quinoa to have with my salad & I snack on dark chocolate, nuts & fruit during the day.

I have to admit though, that on a whole, I'm not big on food.  I'm terribly lazy & I end up feeling uninspired a lot of the time.  So, sometimes, it's quite nice to find these kinds of recipes, which make me excited & want to make them!  I have also discovered LAUREN_AKO & EAT_TO_THRIVE on Instagram, who make raw vegan living look like a dream filled with unicorns & happiness.  Maybe by my birthday I'll be zipped up on Chia Seeds & cutting into my own raw birthday cake!

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