Power Boost from Health, Happiness and Horses

(Read to the end to find a super mega discount code!)

Where to start, where to start!

I LOVE this product! It is deliciously chocolatey, and amazing in my breakfast shakes. I've been using it for a week now, and it has really helped with sustaining my energy levels.

The taste is perfect - chocolaty, just sweet enough, and it gives my rather bland tasting Purition shakes much more flavour. When I have added different flavoured Choc Shots it has been amplified yet again - chocolate heaven!



This is what the product has to say for itself:

Power Boost supports weight loss, healthy blood sugar, and lean muscle support through L-glutamine—an amino acid found in your muscles. Not only will you find a myriad of additional benefits, but a delicious cocoa flavor boost as well!

Additionally, Power Boost helps improve protein metabolism, stamina recovery, and branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) amino acids that maintain muscle on a low-calorie diet. These medium-chain triglycerides accelerate conversion and appetite suppression, giving you a convenient way to get the most from your nutrition without sacrificing quality.

I've had a really tough week with fatigue this week (I had waaaay too much fun going to see Stevie Wonder at the weekend!) and this has definitely helped. I had it with my lunch whilst I was at work to help get me through the long days. Each time I had some it had an almost cup-of-tea-like effect, but on my whole body, not just my brain.

As I am a teacher, I like to be active and enthusiastic in my lessons, and even battling fatigue all week, I have managed to get the best out of my students. Unlike other (dreadful!) energy drinks, this doesn't have the effect of disturbing your sleep like Monster, or Red Bull - a definite positive in my books!

The best  part of this product is that it is gluten free, and dairy free! It's made from real foods, with no nasties lurking. It's the perfect supplement to start your day with.

If you'd like to know more, please don't hesitate to contact my friend, Suzanne.

Health, Happiness, and Horses

GUESS WHAT!!!! You can get 15% discount with postage included by using this code:

JurassicYum

Make sure you don't miss out!!!

Parcel Time! - Ariix from Health, Happiness and Horses

I have already mentioned that my friend Suzanne owns a company called Health, Happiness and Horses which do a variety of nutritional supplements (and more!). Today I received a parcel from her! Hooray!

Cute little box ^_^

Ooooh.... what is this free-from magic....?

It's a chocolatey booster for my shakes! The Pure Nourish Power Boost is designed to be a healthy energy lift, as opposed to those dreadful carbonated abominations. I'll let you know what I think when I've tried it!

Food Review: Kind Dark Chocolate, Nuts and Sea Salt

My local Tesco Express has a really small 'free from' section with a small choice of foods, I was looking for something to try when I spotted the Kind dark chocolate nuts and sea salt bar, which, sounded delicious.

It's Gluten free, Dairy free, 60% nuts, high fibre, no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and it states 'ingredients you can see and pronounce'. It's made up of almonds, peanuts, walnuts, sea salt, honey and chocolate.


Sadly I was disappointed when I tried it, there seemed to be no salt apart from one part which was super salty and slightly off putting, the nuts were really difficult to get through and the chocolate was pretty much non existent. I found it really difficult to finish it (which is surprising for me haha).

I think it cost me around £2 which honestly I wouldn't pay again, in fact I don't think I'd buy one of these on offer. I'm sorry to those of you that absolutely love them, honestly it's the first free from thing I've tried that I don't like- I'll go back to the shop soon and find something else new to try. I'm really enjoying trying things I never even considered before!

#FreeFromSwag Mini Haul

Looks like we have both been busy buying foodie goodies today! Hehe!

I dropped by Sainsbury's on the way home today, because they have the biggest and best range of free from products in my area. I wasn't disappointed!



Beloved Date Nectar

I have no idea why it's called date nectar, but this is 100% pure date syrup. I've been using Biona brand date syrup as a honey substitute and was excited to see a different brand available.



Choc Shot Orange and Choc Shot Coconut

I've had the original Choc Shot for a while - I like it because it's a really versatile product. You can make milkshakes, hot chocolate, use it as a topping, in baking and cooking, all kinds! They are vegan too, and gluten-free, and now you can get them in orange flavour and coconut flavour! They just need to bring a mint one out and my life is complete.



Nature's Store Hazelnut and Cocoa Spread

Fake vegan Nutella?? Yes please! I'll definitely try it, anyway! Still waiting for the right one...



Deliciously Free From Choc n' Orange Bar

They had these in regular "milk" choc and crispy varieties, just like the Tesco ones, so I thought I'd just get the chocolate orange one and see if that was any good. I don't recognise this packaging, so I'm guessing they are quite new, or recently revamped.



Deliciously Free From 4 Chocolate Brownies

I had one of these as a snack earlier at work. I swear blind, if I gave you one you would have no idea it was free from! Sooooo chocolatey, fudgey and delicious, with a slightly crispy top. Exactly what a brownie should be! It's going to be hard work to not eat all of these in one go....

Monday - we're coming for you!

Get out there and own it! <3

#MondayMotivation

Mini Drink Haul

Whilst I was out today I popped into Jack Fulton's- a Farmfood's-esque shop that often has good deals on random food products!

One for the fridges had a selection of different things that I decided to try. Provamel Rice-Coconut Milk (60p a carton), Aplro Fusion Soya with Apple and Kiwi (2 for £1) and Foco 110% Coconut Water with Pink Guava (2 for £1).

Alpro Fusion- strange but delicious! It tasted a bit like some obscure candy you would buy abroad but it's definitely something I'd buy again. The first taste as a bit off-putting but it tasted nice in the end.

Having tried and hated Rice milk a long time ago I thought the Provamel would be gross, but I was mistaken. It was ok, I wouldn't rush out to buy it but it's drinkable.

The Foco Coconut water with Pink Guava though is the winner here! It smells a little bit like bathwater but it tastes delicious AND it's super refreshing!

Pure Soya Spread is also delicious- totally gluten and dairy free. The Flora ProActiv Semi Skimmed Milk is for my Mum who suffers with a heart condition and as it's supposed to actively fight high cholesterol, thought she'd give it a go. 

Lunch Time - Crumpets

When I was eating gluten, I really loved big, squidgy crumpets with oodles of butter and usually Nutella, sometimes Marmite of Philidelphia though. My diet is somewhat different now, and all of the free from crumpets that I have ever tried have been Nasty! Yes, Nasty with a capital N!

When shopping, we came across Genius crumpets which looked somewhat different to any of the ones we had seen before. They were actually a bit squidgy instead of foamy or rubbery. Into the trolley they went, and I scoffed them the next day. Yum! They're not quite a crumpet, but by Joe they're as close as you'll get in free from foods!

Today I had two Genius crumpets with Creamy Sheese in original flavour, and oodles of Pure Sunflower Spread. Absolutely delectable, with no horrible after effects, and super satisfying! Creamy Sheese spread is a wonderful alternative to cream cheese (Philidelphia). You can even cook with it, and use it to make creamy sauces! Worth keeping in the house for sure!


This with a side of my favourite daily shake (I skipped breakfast because I didn't feel well) and I'm good for my afternoon of teaching. I visited Sainsbury's on the way home today, and picked up a whole bunch of #FreeFromSwag. Watch out for the post later!

Horsey Review: The Pure Feed Company

When you think of a Clydesdale crossed with a Cob, you don't tend to think of that horse being a 'poor doer'. However I have always struggled to get weight on her and get her into decent condition. We've gone through periods where she's looked absolutely awful weight wise and no matter what feeds I tried I never managed to build her up.

I had been keeping her out all year round for the last few years with ad-lib hay but I'd never really had anywhere with decent grazing. When I went to places such as Your Horse Live and Horse of the Year Show and spoke to the various feed companies they always told me to feed more hay which is difficult when you have a herd of horses all living out eating the same bales. I moved to a yard about 6 months ago that required me to keep her in overnight throughout winter which gave her time to eat her fill of hay.

The yard provided it's own high quality haylage and hay, this, mixed with decent grazing really helped put weight on and she was looking better than she'd looked in a very long time.

A couple of months ago, I noticed Cleo's feet had started developing a series of superficial cracks on the surface, I spoke to Sadie (my horse feed guru) who suggested a diet change in order to help repair her feet. One feed she suggested to me was Pure Fibre Balance. A balancer and chaff mix, as well as linseed and salt. I went to my local Countrywide store who are a stockist for Pure feeds and, despite them attempting to persuade me to buy TopSpec instead, I picked up the Fibre Balance and Pure's own Linseed.

A few weeks into feeding this and her condition had improved immensely. She was shiny and muscular and felt much nicer to ride, a lot more forwards and eager to work- it was like the Cleo I'd fallen in love with all those years ago!

She's currently getting one round scoop of the Fibre Balance a day with one cup of linseed, as well as being out on grass 24/7 but coming in for a few hours a week and having top quality hay. 

I am definitely sticking with Pure feeds for the foreseeable future! They're gorgeous quality (that awful picture does it no justice whatsoever) and Cleo LOVES it!

The Pure Feed Company: https://www.facebook.com/ThePureFeedCompany/?fref=ts

Countrywide: https://www.countrywidefarmers.co.uk

28 Day Water & Workout Challenge

My wonderful friend Suzanne from Health, Horses and Happiness is currently running a 28-day challenge which I am excited to be part of! Here is what Suzanne has to say about it:

"My challenge is the "28 day water & workout challenge" and it's completely free to join ... But you must be willing to workout every single day (even if it's just for 10 minutes) and drink at least 2 litres of water! 

The aim is to get people to make small changes to their daily routine. I've chosen a selection of short workouts that can be carried out at home (the longest is 30 minutes). They range from stamina boosting hiit workouts to low impact whole body toning workouts! Challengers can mix and match the workouts over the 28 days!!"

I'll be giving up my beloved squash for a month, and dedicating myself to short exercise videos each day. Suzanne has been fabulously helpful and found us some suggested videos on YouTube to get us started, and I'm sure as the weeks pass we will be finding more videos to try. I'm looking forwards to it!

Health, Horses and Happiness do a range of high-quality nutritional supplements, and I have ordered Power Boost, which is a cocoa based supplement that can be made up into a drink (ideal for adding to my daily shakes and smoothies). It is designed to give a boost of energy, aid recovery, and support weight loss whilst being chocolatey! It should be here this week, so I can let you all know how it is!

If you would like to join in with this great challenge, please contact Suzanne via Health, Horses and Happiness on Facebook by clicking below.

Beauty Tips #1

I asked the lovely gals in the Pin-Up Perfect VIP Lounge to share their beauty tips (and of course I shared one of mine!). I thought it would be nice to share them on the blog, too!

Thank you, Hannah and Jade!

My tip:

Hannah's tip:

Jade's tip:

Food Review - Alpro Hazelnut Milk

I'm a bit of a nut freak, and I also happen to be dairy-free. Can you imagine how excited I was when commercially made nut milk started hitting the supermarket shelves?! SUPER DUPER EXCITE! That's how much. My favourite nuts are peanuts, hazelnuts, and cashews.

Hazelnut milk was first shown to me by my sister because both of us grew up loving Nutella. She drinks coffee, and assures me that it is a delicious alternative creamer for coffee - think hazelnut latte. I tried it in tea and didn't really like it much. It didn't seem to add much to the drink at all.

I tried drinking it on its own - pretty plain, to be honest. I had about half a carton left and wondered what to do with it, so I stuck it in my daily shake (see here for recipe). That was a success! Added a delicious nutty quality to my chocolatey healthy shake!

I tend not to buy the Alpro Hazelnut as much as I buy other milk (I'm particularly fond of Coconut Dream and Rude Health Coconut) but I do buy the odd one here and there to add a bit of variety to my morning smoothies!

Food Review - Alpro Cashew Milk

Two words sum this drink up for me:

CREAMY DELICIOUSNESS

It's thick, creamy, luxurious and just wonderful. I think I'm in love. It is fabulous in tea, on cereal, in smoothies, milkshakes, and hot chocolate, and it is actually pretty amazing ice cold in a glass. A 1 litre carton cost £1.80, which is the same as their other fresh nut milks cost. This is a little expensive, but boy is it worth it!

I have long loved cashews, and I've waited for so long for cashew milk to be on the market over here (it's been available in the US for ages). The Provamel was quite disappointing, but fortunately this one smashed it out of the park and made up for it!

Recipe - My Favourite Smoothie

It's more of a milkshake than a smoothie, and really more of a guide than a recipe, but this is what I reach for when I need some sustenance of some description. It's light but filling, and extremely nutritious. Dairy and gluten free, but the best part is how flexible it is!



Ingredients:

1 Super ripe banana
1 tbsp Cocoa
1 tbsp Smooth peanut butter
1 tbsp Date syrup
Nut milk
Spinach

How to:

1) Chuck everything in the blender.
2) Blend.
3) Drink.
4) Thank me for enlightening you.

I tend to put the banana, cocoa, and peanut butter in first, then you can see how much room there is for fresh spinach and put that in next. Then you add the milk to top it up, which is why I don't put an exact quantity. I tend to add the sweetener last because bananas are different shades of sweet.

• For a super cool and creamy twist, try using a frozen banana instead of fresh.
• For a nutrient boost, use raw cacao powder. It is less processed and contains way more good stuff.
• Try chucking in some chia seeds for added filling power, hydration, and a whopping omega oil hit.
• If you don't have any date syrup (you should immediately find some and buy it. It's totally awesome) then you could easily use honey as a sweetener. Manuka honey would add another bunch of goodness.
• Experiment with different types of milk. I like cashew, coconut, rice, hazelnut, and my all time favourite, coconut rice milk (Coconut Dream or Rude Health for the win). Of course, if you aren't dairy free you could use regular dairy milk or any of the many other milk alternatives available!
• Nut butters also come in many varieties. My all time favourite is peanut butter (Meridian smooth!!!), but you can get coconut butter, hazelnut butter, cashew butter, and probably a whole bunch more. Smooth ones blend better, but chunky is fine if you don't mind tiddly bits of nut in your shake (personally, I don't!).
• No, you cannot taste the spinach whatsoever. Yes, you can use a different green if you want, but I like spinach because you can't tell it's there. Sneaky veg level-up! Give it a really good blend to make sure there are no "bits".
• A little dash of vanilla extract is a luxurious but totally delicious addition, and so is peppermint or orange extract!

Bargain Alert! £1.50 Coconut Oil in Tesco

We go through quite a lot of coconut oil at home. Mostly used for cooking, but sometimes on my skin, and sometimes added to smoothies and other drinks. It's a fantastic product (see Beth's article) and worth keeping in stock at all times.

I was delighted to find KTC brand 100% pure coconut oil on special offer in Tesco. It was on display with all of the lovely looking food they have for Eid, and only £1.50 for a 500ml jar. The jar is plastic, which I like because heavy glass jars are a bit tricky on bad days for me!



I bought three jars, which should keep us going for a little while!

Horsey Review: Amidale Ears

Ears, Fly Veils, Fly Hats, Ear Bonnets... whatever you call them!

Amidale offer a reasonably priced but high quality selection of ears available in various different colours and styles. I have a large amount of ear nets, including makes such as Horse Wear, HKM, Le Mieux, Eskadron and Tottie, but the Amidale ones (of which I have about 4 or 5 now) are easily my favourite. Their full sized ears fit my Clydesdale X perfectly (who is in a full sized bridle), the stretchy material used on the actual ears fits nicely to my mare's ears, rather than making her look like a donkey with floppy ear syndrome.

I have the plain ones with no crystals or beads, in Navy, Grey, Yellow, Royal Blue, Green and Orange, which are usually around £4 each on Ebay.

Bonus! The royal blue ears matched my Le Mieux Benneton Blue set almost perfectly!

Amidale Industries: http://www.amidalesports.co.uk

I purchased mine from this company on Ebay- Nazdale Traders: http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/nazdale-sports?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754

Hat Hair? Don't Care!

   
The British Horse Society has released a social media campaign, called #HatHairDon'tCare in order to highlight the importance of wearing a helmet when riding your horse. BHS: Hat Hair? Don't Care!

I have owned my horse for 6 years and trust her with my life, we don't do anything too dangerous and have, so far, never had any serious accidents. However, I will not ride her without a helmet. No matter how much you trust your horse, they are an animal, they are unpredictable. They can also stumble and trip (or even fall over in Sadie's case!) or be in an accident involving another person/horse/vehicle.

I have to admit that I've got on my horse before with no helmet for the odd photo, once I was sitting bareback out side my field on her for a photography project, now she is one of the safest and sanest horses you could find but for some reason a particular cyclist spooked her and we ended up cantering down the lane. I was lucky that I managed to sit it and eventually get her under control but I could have easily slid off and caused myself some serious damage.

As someone who is very anxious about the way they look, and has self confidence issues, I understand that people want to avoid things that make them look 'bad'. But honestly, a bit of a sweaty head is better than being dead! I'm also guilty of not wearing a helmet when handling a horse on the ground, unless I'm expecting something to go wrong (i.e. when I was lunging my youngster and he was being a complete tool!), I also don't wear a body protector, often handle my horse in inappropriate footwear and rarely wear gloves- safety equipment seems to be more of a second thought that anything else.

#HatHairDontCare

At the end of the day, it's your choice whether you decide to wear a helmet or not when riding your horse. When you're making that decision just think about the people who you may be influencing, or who may have to pick up the pieces (literally and metaphorically) if something goes wrong!

Food Review - Alpro On

A super duper thick, super duper creamy, protein-packed soya yoghurt with a fruit compote at the bottom. What's not to like?!

What I really like about these is that they don't have that strange aftertaste that you get from other soya yoghurts, they are just the right amount of sweet without being over the top, and they are really filling. I got these in Tesco, and they were £0.85 each. A little on the expensive side, but perfect for when I'm not feeling so well but need to get something down me.

This one is mango flavour, my absolute favourite fruit of all time, and of course my favourite of the three available flavours. I wasn't so keen on the seeds found in the passionfruit flavour, but would still buy them!

Food Review - Vego Bars

This is the mother of all chocolate bars. No, really! It may be vegan, but it certainly doesn't taste like it. In fact, it tastes like you are eating a solid bar of Nutella (aka the food of life) with whole hazelnuts inside. The bar in the picture is the MINI size bar. Look at my hand for scale, my hands are XL in gloves btw, and just check out the generosity of this mega treat.

Dairy free, gluten free, veggie, vegan, I don't care who or what you are - you simply must try a Vego bar!

Mine are purchased at the best farm shop on the planet. Smiths Farm Shop, and as you can see, these bars are £2.05 each. Expensive, but worth every penny!

Smiths Farm Shop

Food Review - Tesco Free From Choc Bars

These might not be the nicest safe chocolate in the world, but they do hit the spot and are only 40p each. I love the Choc 'n' Crispie bar the most, it's just like a Nestle Crunch, but without any gluten, wheat, or milk!

They are available at most Tesco's, and come in choc (like milk chocolate), choc 'n' crispie, or white. I am not too keen on white chocolate, so haven't tried that one, but the other two definitely get the thumbs up for a cheap and easy chocolate injection!

The Coconut Craze?

Being relatively new to the coconut game, I was quite skeptical about all the magical properties people claimed the humble coconut held. Ever since I was a child I hated the taste of coconut (anyone who had a Bounty as their chocolate bar of choice was nuts in my opinion...).

A few weeks ago though, I bought my first jar of coconut oil. Not for myself but for my dogs, I had heard that feeding a small amount of coconut oil a day had various health benefits for them, including healthier skin, a healthier coat and aiding their digestion.

Happy, healthy whippets!

As I had found coconut oil to be rather expensive, I avoided buying it until I came across Aldi's own brand 'Coco Loco' Which I believe is around £3 a jar?  The dogs absolutely loved it, I am currently feeding about half a teaspoon each a day melted into their food with hot water.

I was cooking chicken one evening and was feeling adventurous, so I decided to cook it using coconut oil. It smelled like suncream- which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it tasted delicious! I was expecting an over-powering taste of coconut but it just tasted good, like really TASTY chicken. Sadly for me, coconut oil is not really allowed on Slimming World (which I am currently following) so it will have to be a treat for me, but the dogs can carry on having it.


Now I was more open to the whole idea of the coconut, I bought myself a carton of coconut water, in particular the Naked 100% Coconut Water, expecting to hate it.... Of course I didn't, it's so refreshing and delicious! Once again quite expensive and also not really allowed on Slimming World! So another treat for me!

I know there are still many more coconut products for me to try, and I'm actually looking forwards to it!

Food Review - Provamel Cashew Milk (Unsweetened)

I love cashews, and I love cashew milk (having made the homemade stuff a few times), and I know that in America you can buy cashew milk in cartons already, but not over here! You wouldn't believe how excited I was when I saw people talking about Alpro bringing out a fresh cashew milk, nor how disappointed I was when I couldn't find any!

Holland & Barrett to the rescue again! I popped in there to get some snacks, and low and behold, there was a teeny weeny carton of Provamel Cashew on the shelf. I bought it, despite being a whopping £1.79 for 500ml, and took it home to try.

I was quite disappointed initially, it doesn't really have much of a flavour to it at all. However, it is creamy and was good in a cup of tea, and definitely yummy with cereal .Drinking it by itself wasn't so great - too plain! I would buy this again if I couldn't find another safe nut milk to buy, but I wouldn't buy it out of choice.

Provamel Unsweetened Cashew Milk

Taste - 5/10
Price - 3/10

Put To The Test: Younique Touch Mineral Liquid Foundation

Put To The Test: Younique Touch Mineral Liquid Foundation

I have been looking for a better foundation for a while now. I stopped wearing make up when I got very ill in late 2015, but for the last couple of months, I have been wearing make up once more! I love it, I missed it, but now I'm in a much better place and have the energy and inclination to do it properly. 

The last foundation I bought was Boots No7 Beautifully Matte Foundation in Calico. The colour was ok, but I didn't like the feel of it at all, and found that by about 2pm it had started to separate and get quite patchy. It was very heavy on my face - you could really feel that you were wearing foundation. However, my sister loves it! So we did a little trade - she gave me the No7 Airbrush Away foundation (also in Calico) for my bottle of Beautifully Matte. 

I definitely liked the Airbrush Away more, but if you wanted to up the coverage it didn't quite cut it. I always found that by lunch time it had disappeared from my nose and chin, but it was definitely more comfortable than the Beautifully Matte.

The lovely Gee, a Facebook friend, very kindly sent me some samples of her Younique products to try. I will be honest, I was skeptical to start with! These products seem to get the hard sell all the time, all over social media. That really puts me off, but Gee sent me three samples; Touch Mineral Liquid Foundation, Glorious Face and Eye Primer, and BB Flawless Complexion Enhancer. 

Here's the look that I did with the primer and liquid foundation.

I love the foundation - I tried it with and without the primer, and it goes on easily if you have primer or not on. It sets quickly, blends well, and the coverage is nice and variable. The best part is that the shade Scarlet is a perfect match for me! That literally never happens! I'm so freaking pale, it's nigh on impossible to find a perfect match that suits my sensitive skin. 

Needless to say, I will be placing an order for some of the foundation. There is a deal on a kit at the moment, so you get the brush free when you buy foundation, concealer and primer. It's £79.00 which is way more than I would usually spend on beauty products, but a little goes a long way, and this should last me quite a while! 

List of products used for this look:

• Younique Glorious Face and Eye Primer
• Urban Decay Potion Eye Primer
• Younique Touch Mineral Liquid Foundation in Scarlet
• Smashbox High Definition Concealer in Fair
• Benefit Hoola Bronzing Powder
• Benefit High Beam Highlighter
• Soap & Glory Love At First Blush 
• Elf High Definition Loose Powder
• Benefit Gimme Brow in Medium/Deep
• Benefit They're Real Mascara in Jet Black
• Barry M Bold Black Waterproof Eyeliner
• Stila Trust in Love Palette Eyeshadows in Nude Shimmer, Metallic Bronze, Snowflake and Black Pearl

Links

Boots No7 Airbrush Away Foundation

Boots No7 Beautifully Matte Foundation

Gee's Be.YOU.tiful You