OK. Where is time going?! We’re already totally and completely into Spring and Easter is already over, the days are longer and warmer, and it’s not that I’m not happy about that, but 2016 seems so full of things happening too fast and news, and changes and time seems to fly faster than usual this year! I’ve enjoyed March, it has been – not very good but – nice, so here are a few things I’ve loved this month…

Nuxe Reve De Miel Lip Balm ; Lush Love Lettuce Fresh Mask

Beauty

My lips are as chapped and dry lately as they have never been in wintertime – I don’t know what’s going on but I really can’t go without a thick layer of lip balm on these days. Luckily my all time favourite Nuxe Reve De Miel Lip Balm came to the rescue every single evening this month and it has not left my bedside table for a single second. If you haven’t tried it yourself yet, or haven’t read about it: it’s the thickest, most moisturising and rich lip balm on the market, jam-packed with honey and shea butter, the very best to treat chapped lips! I can totally see the difference in the morning if I forget to apply it the night before!

On other news, I’ve popped into Lush recently and brought home one of their fresh masks, Love Lettuce, one I’ve never tried before. It’s a combination of moisturising, exfoliating and soothing properties with agar seaweed gel, almond oil, honey, lavender oil and almond shells. It actually was quite a blessing this one was suggested to me by the girl at Lush, as my skin is feeling a little bit gross and oilier than usual, and the presence of kaolin in this mask helps with removing the excess oil while also brightening the complexion. All of this in 5-10 minutes!

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Food

Lately we’ve been experimenting with homemade juicing quite a lot and since we don’t love to throw away any of the puree we’re left with after putting all our fruits and veggies in a juice extractor, we like to come up with a few impromptu biscuit recipes to use up them all. The ones in picture were my personal favourites, simply made with 150g of fruits puree (I believe it was of carrots, oranges, lemons and also ginger), 150g whole wheat flour, chocolate chips, 50g sugar and 40ml seed oil – that’s it! But I’m going to share a very similar recipe soon on here – and those are even better!

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Forever21 Open-Front Cardigan ; Forever21 Triangle Bra

Style

At the beginning of the month I went on the hunt for long (but not too much as I’m pretty short) thick cardigans to transition my outfits from Winter to Spring. It wasn’t easy, but when I spotted these Forever21 Textured Open-Front Cardigans I knew I had to have them and bought two of them. I wasn’t wrong as they have been the perfect addition to my wardrobe lately and I’ve been wearing them non-stop ever since I got them: they’re the perfect combination of cozy, practical, soft and casual which make them great to top off literally any outfit! And I love the taupe/cream and burgundy/navy colour combinations!

While I was at it, and since I’ve bought one Forever21 soft bra before and it’s been my favourite for a while, I thought I’d indulge in a new triangle bra: their soft bras are the most comfortable I’ve tried so far and I don’t know if it’s just my body shape, but they fit me like a glove! Totally worth looking into them if you’re after new nice soft corset or triangle bras!

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And that’s it for my favourites this month!
As usual, I’d love to know what’s on your March favourites list! x

With Easter falling tomorrow, it was a little bit sad I haven’t really talked about chocolate at all on the blog yet, right? Well, fear not, me and Lindt have teamed up to bring you a chocolate-y version of the delicious classic that hot cross buns are. Slightly spicy and covered in an amazing honey glaze, with big chunks of melting Lindt milk chocolate in the middle – don’t they sound amazing already? And they are!

Now I don’t know about you, but I have no difficulties in finishing up my Easter chocolate eggs by any means, but if you’ll ever happen to wonder “what I can do to use up my chocolate this year?”, can I say Easter chocolate in baking tastes even better than regular chocolate? So yes, you might as well want to use the excuse that you have chocolate to finish up to try out this recipe, or maybe use the recipe as an excuse to crack open your chocolate eggs a little bit earlier just to make sure you’ll have hot cross buns at the ready for Sunday’s breakfast? No one will ever tell you ate that extra chunk while baking! 😉

Based on your preferences you can use either dark or milk chocolate (or both!), yet I think milk chocolate make them that little extra creamy when warm that it’s never too bad for my liking, you know. Imagine to slice them in halves and spread a nice knob of butter on a warm bun with melted chocolate chunks all over it… have I convinced you yet?

Also, if you plan to bake a big batch (because let’s face it, they’re not the quickest thing to bake – but they’re worth it!), as they’re better eaten fresh, you can always think about freezing some of them after they’re ready, and then take them out of the freezer a couple of hours before, then place them in the oven to warm up slightly just for the chocolate to melt down a bit. They’ll taste as freshly baked!

Recipe adapted slightly from this Jamie Oliver one.

Print

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients

• 250ml whole milk
• 55g unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 large egg
• 500g strong bread flour
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder
• 80g raw brown sugar
• 14g dry yeast
• 75g milk chocolate from Lindt Easter Egg*
• 
  
  
• 50g white flour + 6 tablespoons water
• 1 extra tablespoon brown sugar + 3 tablespoons honey

Instructions

01 :: Place milk and butter in a pan and place on a low heat until the butter has melted completely. Remove from heat and leave to cool down slightly before adding the orange juice and egg and whisking nicely until all the ingredients are combined.

02 :: In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients together: flour, sugar, spices, chocolate chopped into big chunks, yeast and cocoa powder. Use a spoon to give them a nice stir, then make a well in the centre and pour in the milk and butter mixture.

03 :: Use a fork to stir and then your hands to knead the dough until smooth. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place for one hour, or until it has doubled in size.

04 :: Remove from the plastic wrap and knead the dough for a couple more minutes before cutting it into halves and shaping both into sausages. Cut the two of them into 6 equal pieces each and shape each of them into balls before placing on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

05 :: Cover with plastic wrap again and prove for another 45 minutes until each bun has doubled in size.

06 :: In the meanwhile mix together the white flour with water to obtain a slightly wet mixture you can put in a piping bag to create the cross shape on top of each bun just before they go in the oven.

07 :: Bake in preheated oven at 190° for 20 minutes. In the meanwhile prepare the glaze by pouring both the honey and sugar into a small saucepan and placing it on a low heat until the sugar has melted completely and the honey is nicely runny.

08 :: When the buns are done, remove from the oven and brush the glaze on top of each of them. Let them cool for 5 to 10 minutes and serve still slightly warm with unsalted butter to spread on top!

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http://www.miel-cafe.com/2016/03/chocolate-hot-cross-buns.html

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Hope you all have a lovely Easter filled with chocolate and hot cross buns and lots of food & joy!
Will you give this recipe a try? Let me know! x

Spring… I’m never this excited to welcome a new season if not with Spring! Juicy summer fruits are what I miss the most in colder month, and when the first warm comes out I just can’t help but be excited about the months to come and the juicier, softer fruits we’ll be blessed with each day!

Since upgrading our centrifugal juicer to a masticating one lately, we have been having a lot of fun rediscovering our love for fresh seasonal fruits and veggies. The whole point of healthy eating is coming to enjoy all the amazing seasonal products and we are surely mastering the Spring fruits and vegetables juices this year!

Actually we’ve been compiling a small recipe book with our favourite flavour combinations and we are having fun trying new ones each time. Juicing is an art, I’ll tell you! So I thought I’d share with you three of our favourites juices recipes so far, all of them with lots of health benefits and great flavours added to the mixture!

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Don’t know about you and your juicing experiments, but so far, no matter how risked our flavour combinations are, I’ve loved every single one! Even if there’re veggies in there I would never really eat otherwise, and surely not if raw! Probably this is the whole point of it all! I genuinely can’t wait for summertime now – they will be such a pleasure to drink straight from the fridge!

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Would love to know if you give them a try or if you have any recipe to suggest! x