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6 Amazing Vegan Dishes You Have to Try

Though January may be over, this doesn’t mean that you have to abandon your ambitions to live a vega ...

Read more
How a Poor Diet Adversely Affects your Skins

We spend a lot of time talking about food. We look at recipes and how to improve upon them. We discu ...

Read more
6 Great Ways to Entertain your Guests at a Dinner Party

Making sure that your guests are entertained when you are hosting a dinner party is paramount to ens ...

Read more
Cooking For Your Pets: The Newest Cooking Trend Taking the World By Storm

Lockdown and isolation have done some weird things to us as humans. We have all found ourselves tryi ...

Read more
5 Fantastic Dishes You Can Bring Along to Any Sporting Event

There are so many different sporting events for you to go see, whether it’s for a new experience, a ...

Read more

6 Amazing Vegan Dishes You Have to Try

February 20, 2021February 21, 2021

Though January may be over, this doesn’t mean that you have to abandon your ambitions to live a vegan lifestyle. It is a common misconception that vegan food is bland and expensive, yet those are the main reasons that people choose not to follow a vegan lifestyle. Vegan food can be extremely delicious and even extremely affordable, but due to the common misconceptions that are often shared by skeptics, this is not as widely known as it should be.

Vegan Milkshakes

Though this isn’t necessarily a meal, a lot of people choose to use milkshakes as a substitute for a small meal. This is because milkshakes are extremely filling and can be a valuable source of nutrients. Your milkshake could be as healthy or as unhealthy as you want. If you are someone who wants to have a milkshake that has plenty of health benefits, you could even add some curcumin supplement or protein powder.

Vegan Lasagne

Even if you are vegan, you can still eat all of the comfort food that you know and love. This includes lasagne. There is a vegan alternative to all of your usual lasagne ingredients, this includes the meat. If you use the right herbs and spices, then you probably won’t even be able to taste the difference from your usual lasagne. If you aren’t quite the cook, then you can actually find a lot of companies that produce premade lasagne options, so look out for them.

Chocolate chip cookies

Being vegan doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be healthy. Vegan chocolate is available from many different places, so you could do a standard chocolate cookie recipe, just with vegan alternatives. Again, if you are someone that isn’t exactly a fan of cooking, you can find premade chocolate chip cookies at most major stores.

Spiced tomato soup

There are some vegan dishes that are extremely healthy and also extremely tasty and spiced tomato soup is one of those. The ingredients required for tomato soup are extremely affordable, which means that you won’t break the bank to prepare a large quantity of this meal. This meal is also delicious when accompanied by nice bread.

Winter stew

If you are someone who is a fan of comfort food, then you probably love a good winter stew. A winter stew has extremely basic ingredients, yet is delicious. If you are someone that likes to have beef with their stew, you can find a beef alternative that will make it feel as though you are eating the real thing.

Topped fries

Again, not every vegan meal has to be healthy. Sometimes we want to pig out and eat some delicious food. Sometimes plain fries just don’t cut it and so this is where topped fries come into place. One of the best vegan meat alternatives available is jack fruit. Jackfruit, when seasoned correctly, can taste exactly like pulled pork. This makes it the perfect topping for your fries.

How a Poor Diet Adversely Affects your Skins

January 23, 2021

We spend a lot of time talking about food. We look at recipes and how to improve upon them. We discuss the hottest food trends and best restaurants. But one area we have not touched on enough is how food affects us physically. And we are talking more than just our general energy levels and body fat.

Today we want to look at how a bad diet can cause a number of issues with your skin. This might surprise you, but the food you eat is directly related to the quality and health of your skin. But how are the two connected?

Nutrients

We get most of our needed nutrients from our food. This is a basic bit of information. But it is often overlooked that these nutrients are also responsible for the health and quality of our skin.

Spots are the biggest and most obvious side effect of a poor diet. You may notice that when you start eating a lot of greasy food you tend to break out in spots. This is less to do with ingesting the grease and more to do with the fact that grease can be absorbed in your fingers and skin accidentally.

So while you are eating bits of grease may come into contact with your face and then lead to spots breaking out. Which is a massive annoyance as you all most likely know.

If you do not get enough healthy food in your daily diet you may notice your skin starts to get dry and itchy. This is because the body does not have the necessary ingredients to keep your skin healthy. Did you know that a poor diet can also cause hair loss? This is because your scalp is still affected by anything that affects the skin. And sure, you can rejuvinate your scalp with pep factor or other products, but the damage can have lasting effects on your hair.

Hydration

Doctors and health experts are always banging on about staying hydrated. But that is because people don’t realize just how important it actually is to stay hydrated. Our bodies are 70% water. But this doesn’t mean our bodies produce all that water. Rather it means we need to keep putting more water into our bodies.

Water affects everything from our energy levels to, surprise surprise, our skin condition. Our skin uses the water in our bodies to stay healthy and soft. Without it the skin drys up and starts to crack.

Hydration is a great way to combat bags under your eyes as well. It is why you see people put cucumbers on their eyes. Cucumbers are mostly water. So the skin can directly absorb a lot of nutrient-rich water directly from the slices.

So, if you want to improve the quality of your skins there are a few things you need to be doing. Firstly, you need to drink more water throughout the day. Especially if you are exercising.

Secondly, you need to cut down on greasy food and get more nutrient-rich foods such as fruit, veg or super-foods such as nuts.

6 Great Ways to Entertain your Guests at a Dinner Party

January 23, 2021January 24, 2021

Making sure that your guests are entertained when you are hosting a dinner party is paramount to ensuring everyone has a good time. Of course, the food and drink are just as important but without entertainment, you may find that your guests are a little unsatisfied with the evening you have provided. Good entertainment doesn’t have to be expensive and if you are crafty about it you can provide great entertainment for your guests without having to spend a thing. At the end of it, all your guests are looking for something that is fun and entertaining so don’t worry if you don’t have the budget to put on a huge production.

Music

Music is one of the most effective ways to entertain a crowd and it can be done in a variety of different ways to suit a specific audience or event. You could hire a local music act to perform at your home to really wow your guests or you could stick to the classic karaoke for a really good laugh. Whatever form of music you choose to host at your dinner party I’m sure that as long as you provide high energy and a selection of music that will appeal to a varied audience that it will go down well and earn you points as a host.

Live Performance

Although music would be the obvious choice when it comes to hosting some kind of live performance at your dinner party, there are many other acts that could be just as entertaining. You should look into what performers are working in your local area and keep your eye out for anything a bit different to really impress your guests and end your dinner party on the right note.

Games

If you are a host who lacks the resources to provide lavish entertainment for your dinner party then have no fear, you don’t need live professional entertainment to have a good time and it shouldn’t matter to your guests as long as they enjoy themselves. Playing games with your guests can be a great icebreaker to help you all get to know each other in preparation to have a nice night. Why not take a look in your cupboards and see what games you have tucked away, it is said that the best entertainment is what you make yourself and simply having a laugh with your guests can be just what you need.

Drinking Games

If you want to take the fun further then you could even start playing some drinking games with your guests, as long as everyone is of the legal drinking age and willing to participate in a bit of alcohol to get everyone laughing could be what makes your dinner party a success. A great drinking game to play would be never had I ever and everyone who has played this game before will know that the most embarrassing never have i ever questions are the best.

Competition

A great way to finish your dinner party could be to host some kind of competition or quiz to bring out the competitive spirit within your guests, this is another activity that doesn’t have to cost much and is a great icebreaker if you are hosting a dinner party with people you are not exceptionally close with. Simply research online to put some kind of quiz questions together, source a prize of some sort for the winner and you are ready to go. A competition to end the evening can be a great firm of entertainment to make sure your guests are not bored during what is supposed to be a fun event.

Fireworks

If you are out of options for entertainment for your dinner party, or if you have left it too late to organize something properly you could always put together a small firework display. After a long meal, there can be nothing better than getting outside for a few minutes with a hot drink and watching a small fireworks display. After the many years that fireworks have been brought out as a form of entertainment, there is no point in making things hard for yourself when you have a reliable source of entertainment available.

Cooking For Your Pets: The Newest Cooking Trend Taking the World By Storm

January 16, 2021January 22, 2021

Lockdown and isolation have done some weird things to us as humans. We have all found ourselves trying any activity to try and fill all of the free time that we now have available and some of these activities have been quite odd. During isolation, we have also had a lot of free time to hang out with those that mean the most to us, our pets.

The internet has gone absolutely crazy with thousands of different trends consisting of activities that we can do with our pets and one of the most popular ones is cooking meals for our dogs.

Now, this doesn’t just mean putting their tinned meat into the oven and adding a bit of garnish, no. Thousands of people have taken the time to make full animal-friendly meals that admittedly look a lot better than the food some of us have been eating during the lockdown.

Where did the Trend Start

Though not one person can take ownership of starting the trend as it is something that has been going on for years. However, Tiktok user MelissaDay is one of the main reasons for the trend’s recent revivals. Like many of us, Melissa was furloughed from her job in advertising and found herself with a lot of free time on her hands. Because of all of this free time and the fact that she lived alone, Melissa decided to purchase two dwarf hamsters to keep her company. She quickly fell in love with these hamsters, named Perky and Percy, and quickly dedicated all of her time to them.

On her Tiktok, Melissa documented her transition from advertiser to dedicated hamster mum. She showed herself completely decking out their cage and building various assault courses for them to compete and exercise on. After creating dozens of assault courses for them to complete, she finally decided it was time to create a treat for them. Her plan was simple, she wanted to treat herself and her hamsters to an identical three-course meal that they could all enjoy.

The product of Melissa’s venture was a lot more appetizing than you would imagine. She made a completely vegetarian three-course meal, consisting of seasoned veggies and even pancakes for dessert. She set up a mini table on top of her own and even had some candles lit for the two, along with some wine and crackers. Perky wasn’t really interested in the event and nibbled every now and again at a cracker, but luckily for Melissa, Percy was around to hoover up any food that Perky didn’t want to eat.

All in all, Melissa thought that the meal was a success and has since started to cook homemade food for her hamster more regularly, sharing her own recipes online.

Not just Hamsters

Of course, after hearing about this, other animal owners had to get involved and there has been an influx of online videos, showing animal owners preparing meals and snacks for their beloved pets.

A real community has really started to grow around the matter and if you look online, you are bound to find recipes that would even be appealing to eat for humans. With this trend, a lot of people have also come to the realization that a lot of the food that they have been feeding their pets is made of low-grade ingredients that could be leading to an increase in obesity and other health issues for the pets and have sworn off ever buying from big-name brands ever again.

There has also been an influx in the creation of companies that make gourmet meals for your pets delivered straight to your door. So, make a comfortable bed for your golden retriever, polish the silverware for your cat, and prime your guinea pig for some wining and dining.

If you want to try some recipes out but don’t like the sound of any of them, don’t worry. You can simply google ingredients that are safe to use for your animal and put your own together. Making up some tasty treats for your pets may also encourage you to get adventurous with your own cooking.

5 Fantastic Dishes You Can Bring Along to Any Sporting Event

January 14, 2021January 22, 2021

There are so many different sporting events for you to go see, whether it’s for a new experience, a family day out, the first date because you’re a dedicated fan or just an impulse purchase of tickets you’re bound to have a great time. Each time you attend a sporting event will be a different but equally amazing experience to the previous one. Every sporting event you attend you’ll learn more about the sport. Soccer for example is one of the most popular sports in America and has one some of the most popular sporting events too when attending soccer games not only do you have some of the best experiences thanks to the great atmosphere and meet some friends for life but you learn about general things surrounding the sport.

In the case of soccer, these general things may include fun facts like Greenland has never been able to compete in a FIFA tournament as they don’t have a recognized soccer team because they are unable to grow grass to create a soccer pitch or helpful advice for your friendly weekend games like don’t put your soccer cleats in the washing machine after playing as this will ruin your shoes, instead stomp off the dirt and hand clean and leave to dry at room temperature to maintain the condition of them for as long as possible. Another thing you’ll have noticed from attending sporting events is how expensive the snacks and drinks are there if you’re like us and want to save yourself some money you’ll be wanting to bring your own food with you.

If you regularly attend sporting events you might have already figured out the best dishes to bring but if you’re a newbie or just looking for some new ideas we’ve found 5 absolutely fantastic dishes that are perfect no matter what sporting event you’re attending, this means you can spend your money on some fun merch rather than an overpriced hotdog. It’s also likely that these dishes will taste much better than whatever food you can purchase at the event.

Pasta-Bake

Pasta-bake is the first dish that we’d recommend to bring with you to a sporting event. Pasta bake is just as delicious cold as it is freshly cooked, this is good for a sporting event because you can prepare it the night before or it could be leftovers from your dinner. All you need is some Tupperware and a fork and another thing that makes this dish great are that it isn’t messy to eat.

Salad

Salad is another great choice; you can whip up a salad just before you leave to go to the event so it’s a good last-minute dish or if you’re trying to eat healthily then this is a great choice as it is low carb and filled with nutrients. This is also a great choice for vegetarians and vegans whose needs may not be catered for at the event.

Sandwiches

Sandwiches are another great option for sporting events, they’re quick to make before the event and they’re even easier to eat than the other two dishes as no fork is required. Just wrap them up in some tin foil and they’ll be fine. There is also a lot of variety in this dish as you can choose whatever filling you want for your sandwich.

Soup

If you’re going to an outdoor sporting event in the winter then the soup is the perfect dish for you. You can make your own homemade soup or if you want to keep it simple as possible you can use tinned soup. Just fill a flask with your chosen soup and it’ll help keep you warm during the event.

Wraps

Wraps are another great dish suitable for any sporting event and they also have lots of variety. This is perfect for people attending as a group as they can be suited to everyone’s needs, a vegan can choose a falafel and hummus wrap where a meat eater can go for chicken and cheese. This variety makes it easier to find a dish to take with you when you have different diets than the people you’re attending.

All The Appliances You Need to Run a Luxury Cafe

January 11, 2021

If you’re considering opening up your own luxury café as a new business venture then there are hundreds of things to take into account. It’s important to take into account the external environments that can affect your business including the pandemic and various lockdowns that keep occurring to make sure your business won’t go bankrupt as soon as you open. Some other things to consider before you make the big and exciting decision to open your luxury café is to think about if your café is going to sell alcohol as well as hot drinks and food, if it is then you need to ensure you have a license to serve alcohol, it differs from state to state how to get on so check with your local government.

If you decide to start offering takeaway and delivery once you open your café to deal with the lockdown then you’ll have to make sure all of your delivery vehicles are ensured, to do this you’ll just have to adjust your business insurance to include this. It’s important to have a good business plan when you open a café making sure that your luxury café is in an area with the right demographic who will visit it, also making sure that you’re aware of the competition in the area as if there is already a well-established luxury café in the area you may struggle to gain customers. Finally, you must make sure that if you advertise as a luxury café you are one, we’ve found some appliances that’ll help you to run your luxury café.

Ice Makers

Ice makers are one of the most underrated appliances for luxury cafes, not only is it higher quality ice so improves the quality of the drink you serve but it also helps with practicality. Making ice can take a long time so will have to be prepared in advance, however, this can take up lots of freezer space that may be needed for other things which causes a problem. By having an ice maker, you have constant access to instant ice which is great for a luxury café. There are ice makers in every budget all ranging in quality, we would recommend any of these ice makers from Tramontina as they’re not overly expensive and still durable and of good quality.

Coffee Machines

It’s likely that in your café coffee will be the most sold item on the menu, so to successfully run a luxury café it’s important you have high-quality coffee machines. You’ll need a coffee maker that is durable, can produce a high quantity of coffee during the day to meet demand and to avoid having to brew coffee all day. Having 3 or 4 of these machines would be an investment to think about as it’s important to be able to keep up with demand. Alongside this, a good quality espresso machine is absolutely necessary as most coffee drinks contain this.

Blenders

Blended drinks have massively grown in popularity so you’ll want to make sure you can provide blended drinks to keep up with the trends. You’ll probably only need one blender when starting out so make sure you spend that bit extra to make sure it’s a high-quality blender as could be needed to blend hundreds of drinks a day. An industrial blender would be the best thing, the price may be off-putting but it’s better to invest in a really good quality one than have to keep replacing a cheaper one if it breaks.

Which Type of Stove is Best for Your Kitchen?

January 9, 2021

Choosing a kitchen stove is an important decision with many factors involved. Most people use their stove at least once a day so it’s important to make the right decision for you. This will depend on many things like your cooking habits and your lifestyle. People have different needs for their stove from being a passionate cook who’s invested in cooking that has different food demands so needs to be able to cook many things, or if you have less time in your lifestyle to spend on cooking you may want a stove that is easy to clean to give yourself extra time for other things. When choosing a stove, it’s also important to make sure the one you choose fits into space in your kitchen so make sure you take precise measurements before purchasing a stove.

Electric Stove

Electric cookers have two different types; electric coil stove and electric smooth stove. Electric coil stoves are perfect for anyone who is on a budget as they tend to be the cheapest option, or for anyone with a young family or are just messy themselves. They are extremely resilient so you can scrub up any mess without worrying about potential damage. They’re also suitable for anyone who uses cast iron pans as they’re tough enough to handle, unlike other less resilient stoves. Electric smooth stoves have a glass top and are good for anyone who wants to spend as little time as possible cleaning up after they’ve cooked. As they’re usually made from glass it’s important to know how to choose cookware for a glass top stove as a lot of cookware will cause damage to the surface and leave scratches.

Induction Stove

Induction stoves tend to be more expensive than electric stoves so always take this into account when making your decision. However, many people think they’re worth spending the extra money on as there is no open flame and no hot surface that needs to cool down. This is ideal for anyone who may forget to turn their stove off or anyone with young children who could potentially get hurt. The newer technology involved in creating the induction stove means that heat is only created on the stove when in contact with induction cookware making it an extremely safe stove. This also adds to the costs of the induction stove as you’ll also have to purchase new induction cookware with it.

Gas Stove

Gas stoves are one of the most popular stoves as they are extremely versatile. As soon as you turn on your gas stove you straight away have a constant flame, this flame is visual which makes it easier to tell how hot it is and allows you to change temperature easily. The flames on a gas stove allow you to cook food not only quicker but also more evenly. While gas stoves are generally quite expensive to initially purchase, they are cheaper to operate than other stoves so if a gas stove is more appealing to you but the price puts you off remember to also take this into account. Gas stoves are particularly ideal for anyone who lives in an area with unpredictable weather that can often cause power outage as you’ll still be able to prepare food with your gas stove. When deciding what stove is best for your kitchen it’s also a good idea to remember that gas stoves can be dangerous, if it’s left on and unlit then the stove is just releasing gas into the air which could cause problems.

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