Savisto 3 in 1 Hand Blender - Making humous!

 

The lovely people at Savisto contacted me and asked me if I'd like to review a product of theirs. As a new vegan and someone who is really getting into making my own food and trying new recipes I opted for the 3 in 1 hand blender (here). The hand blender comes with 3 attachments, a hand blender (obviously!), an electric whisk head and a 500ml food processor, it also comes with an 800ml beaker which you can use with the blender and/or the whisk. It comes in a swanky matte red colour and when I first opened it I was pretty impressed with the quality and the look of it, its a lot bigger and sturdier than I thought it would be. On the top of the hand blender unit is a dial which allows you to choose your speed setting (1-5) and on the front are 2 buttons, one for power and one labelled 'turbo' which gives a little extra boost of power.

So, I am going to be doing a little mini series where I (try to) use each setting of the hand blender to make something tasty. In this post I am going to be using the food processor setting to make my own hummus, which honestly is something I've always wanted to do!

So firstly, the ingredients. You will need:

1x 400g tin of chickpeas (or as I did, 2x 210g)

2 tbsp / 30ml Lemon Juice

2 tsp / 10ml Tahini

1 tsp / 5ml Chopped Garlic

1/4 tsp / 1.2ml Chilli powder (or cumin, your choice!)

4 tbsp / 60ml water

Method:

Super easy, chuck everything into a food processor and whizz it for as long as you fancy! I did mine for about 30 seconds, opened it up and tried it and decided it needed some more water and then did it for about 30 seconds more. Et voila!

I think it turned out pretty good. The food processor is so easy to use, you just literally throw everything in and its done in a minute or so. There were no lumps or anything in my hummus so the blades are clearly very sharp. The attachments are all very easy to clean, I let them soak in some warm soapy water and then gave them a wash afterwards and they are good as new.

So far I really like this handy little device and I'm super excited to try more recipes out! In the next post I will be using the whisk attachment and attempting to make vegan meringues so please keep an eye out for that!

Thank you all for reading, let me know what you think!

My top tips for going Vegan!

If you follow me on either Instagram or Twitter you may know that I have recently gone Vegan. I decided to take this step for many reasons. One, of course, being the mistreatment of animals in the meat and dairy industry and the other being for the health benefits. There's a tonne of research out there that proves eating a plant based vegan diet can help reduce effects of fatigue, cholesterol, many degenerative diseases (including vascular heart disease, diabetes and even cancer!) and can all around improve your general health and well being.

However, with all that being said, switching to a plant based vegan diet 'cold turkey', if you like, can be extremely difficult. I have recently hit the 3 week mark and have therefore decided to share with you my top tips and things that I generally found very helpful right at the beginning.  

1) Educate yourself: There are some really great documentaries out there which can really open your eyes. I recommend; Earthlings, Forks over knives and Cowspiracy (both of which can be found on Netflix). Youtube is also a great place to find information on all sorts of things, a couple of really good channels to follow are That Vegan Couple and Erin Janus. You are more likely to stick with it if you have a driving force.

2) Find alternatives: If you're anything like me, cutting out milk, chocolate and cheese altogether is just not an option so finding alternatives to the things you love is super important. There are so many options out there for vegans but you have to find the ones that are right for you. Personally, I love almond milk, Violife soya cheese and pure soya spread, all of which can be found in Asda, Tesco etc.

3) Find a good recipe book/blog/channel: Switching to a Vegan diet is extremely hard if you have no idea what you can eat. Most days I just eat 'normal food' e.g. spaghetti bolognese with vegan mince & vegan cheese - really simple and tasty! But I do like to experiment with proper vegan recipes with loads of grains and veg in. When I first switched to Vegan I was recommended a book called Thug Kitchen which is all about eating proper food!

4) Take snacks everywhere!: There is nothing worse than being stuck in public with nothing to eat. Especially as a Vegan there is a very limited selection of what you can buy regarding convenience food. Fruit pot anyone? Find your favourite Vegan snacks and stock up like crazy. I also recommend investing in some small Tupperware so you can take nuts, crisp and fruit with you for your day. 

Check out this list of accidentally Vegan snacks!

5) Don't judge other people: Not everyone wants to be Vegan and that's okay. Pushing your views on other people is not okay. Let people do whatever they want and you do you!

6) Don't beat yourself up for messing up: It happens, you pick things up that you think are vegan when they're not or you get drunk and accidentally eat a slice of pizza. It's not the end of the world, you're doing your best and that's all that matters. That being said, if you're cheating regularly then you should re-think whether this is actually for you!

I hope these tips help if you're a newbie vegan or are considering swapping your diet. Let me know if you have any top tips of your own!

Thanks for reading!

Blackpool Zoo Visit

Since Saturday was scheduled to be such a lovely day my friend and I decided we'd do something fun and visit Blackpool Zoo. Neither of us had been before so we were both quite excited (we're 21, honest!), we'd had a bit of a read up on it and found they had a little farm where you could stroke the animals and a Lemur walk where they ran free around you.

The Zoo was super easy to find (we traveled by car) there were road signs on most streets once you get into Blackpool and there was road markings guiding you into the correct lane for the Zoo. Once we arrived we found a parking spot very quickly despite it being the Easter Holidays and the Zoo being very busy. The only downside was that the car park was pay and display, although it was reasonably priced (£2.50 for the whole day) there was nowhere to get change and we had to buy something from the shop in order to get coins for the machine.

The Zoo was really reasonably priced, £16.50 for an Adult and £12.00 for a child over 3 but they also have family deals. Also, if you order online the day before you go you can save 10%.

The Zoo itself was very clean and the staff were lovely. The Animals looked happy and had lots of space. The enclosures were lovely to look at, the sea lion one was my faveourite with a water fall in it, and you could see the animals really well whether they were inside or out.

Penguins

Miniature Zebu at the Farm

There were a number of animals which where free roaming, which I think is amazing! There were squirrel monkeys in the Amazonia which were jumping around in trees above your head. There were free roaming Wallabies and Kangaroos in the Wallaby Walkabout (although they kept their distance from us). And then there were, my favourites, the Ring-tailed Lemurs in Lemur woods. They were jumping on the fence and climbing on people, I managed to stroke a couple of them which was so cool!

Ring-tailed Lemurs

Ring-tailed Lemurs

When you pay to go in you get a list with all of the scheduled talks on there, there was all different things like Bird of Paradise show, Sea Lion show, Big Cat feeding & Creepy Crawlies. So if you have children there's loads of things to do. There's also a soft play area called the 'Play Barn' where young children can go and a few playgrounds dotted around the Zoo. There's also a miniature train which takes you between the Farm Barn and the Entrance/Exit for only £1.

There is a large cafe in the centre of the zoo which sold quite a range of food. There was a fast food stand which sold things like burgers, pizzas and hot dogs. And then there was a 'healthier' stand which sold things like quiche, jacket potatoes and soup. There was also lots of kids options including snack bags with sandwiches, a drink and a few snacks in. The cafe was overpriced but I fully expected that, most Zoo's are! We didn't actually eat in the cafe because there was a long wait for jacket potatoes so we decided to just drive to Blackpool promenade and grab something there instead. For those of you wanting to take a packed lunch/picnic there are lots of picnic tables dotted around (most of them sheltered) and some you can even see the animals while you're having lunch!

We spent about 5 hours there all together (and only left because it got cold) but we could definitely have spent longer there. If you have children it would definitely be a full day things as there's so much to see and do. Overall we had a really great day and definitely would go back again!

Thanks for reading, if you go/have been to Blackpool Zoo let me know what your favourite part was!