Healthy Raspberry, Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins!

Raspberry, chocolate and banana muffins

This is a recipe I created for http://celeryandcupcakes.com/2014/04/07/healthy-baking-competition-for-all-you-baking-enthusiasts-out-there/ and I'm actually really pleased with them! 

They still taste delicious  but you can feel slightly better about them due to there reduced sugar, reduced fat and addition of raspberries, banana, wholemeal flour and even dark chocolate has been proven to have health benefits. If you want, you can add a handful of nuts, orange zest, shredded coconut - the choice is endless!

Makes 12 muffins or 14 squares as I baked mine in these tins.

175g/6oz margarine

170g/4oz caster sugar

1tbsp honey

2 medium ripe bananas

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

250g/9oz flour (1/2 whole wheat ½ plain flour)

1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

1 egg white

75g/4oz raspberries

50g/2oz dark chocolate chips/chunks

Preheat oven to gas mark 3/160 deg C/fan 150 deg C/325 deg F.

1. Place the margarine, sugar and honey in a saucepan over low heat stirring to melt. Leave to cool. Mash banana.

2. Sift the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and stir in about 1/3 to the melted margarine and sugar with a wooden spoon.

3. Whisk the eggs and white together until paler and foamy. Add ½ the beaten eggs.

4. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture.

5. Add the rest of the beaten eggs, along with the mashed bananas, orange juice, zest and chocolate.

6. Fold in the last 1/3 of flour, followed by the raspberries.

7. Scoop into greased muffin tin and bake until well risen and a skewer comes out clean of the muffin. Approximately 20 minutes.

Love Vic x

A Day With The Big Sis!

Hey guys, hope you've been enjoying the Sun today! I am so excited to really get into Spring, one of my favourite seasons.

So recently a lot of teachers in the UK went on strike meaning my school and my sisters collage had the day off. I'm not going to lie, it's lovely knowing you only have to work two days, then you get a day off, then you only go back for another two! 

This post will be mainly pictures because I haven't really got that much to say about the day, other then it was lovely!

We went into Blot to buy our younger sister a few rubbers for Easter.

Cheeky changing room selfie ;). I bought this top for £12 from Dorothy Perkins and absolutely love it, I can't wait to wear it as I think it's perfect for Spring. Lilac with white flower and a few diamantes - how very pretty 'ey!

After a few more shops we finished the day with a muffin (as it should always be) for lunch in BBs muffin. I had a skinny raspberry from their new 'skinny muffins' range with a chocolate milkshake. Where as Holly had ...

A big old Sticky Toffee Muffin! I felt quite proud that I stuck with my skinny raspberry, however, I will admit that they're Stick Toffee Muffin is the best I have ever had. And I mean it, the best muffin I have EVER had. So who can really blame her?!

The city was packed with students and although the weather a bit dreary at the start, the Sun soon came out walking back from the bus stop home. I really do love these days.

Love Vic x

Where Else To Find Me!

Now I'm not going to lie; this is a fairly lame post (I hope a used the semi colon right there). But never the less, I thought I'd write it!

Instagram - vicsvortex

Twitter - VicsVortex

Pinterest - VicsVortex

Bloglovin - VicsVortex

As I still do 99% of my posts on my iPod I haven't quite figured how to put this information at the bottom of each post yet, but hey ho - I'll learn eventually.

Have a fab Friday! 

Love Vic x

Jamies Italian Norwich Review!

During the half term me and my dearest friend Ellie went up to Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant as we are both massive fans of Jamies and were desperate to go, after much anticipation: here's what I thought!

When we arrived (after a bit of carfuffle over where to enter embarrassingly!) we had to wait a few minutes at the desk thing without anyone there and were then seated. I had booked for two but for some reason they had it down for 4. 

I also didn't quite release how many seats they had! Their upstairs seating was really big as well so luckily we got seated with no problems anyway.

Our waitress was lovely and I had my Gold Card out on the table so she immediately popped that in her little machine thing and told us what the offer for that month was. For those who don't know if you go on the Jamies website you can sign up for this card and regular emails telling you what the latest deals are etc and I would definitely recommend getting one.

I orderd elderflower cordial and Ellie got pomergranate.

Because I had a Gold Card we both got a free appetiser (is that what it's called?!). Ellie got a meatball in a little sauce on a piece of bread (from what I can remember so don't quote me on it) and I got, being a vegetarian, a tomato nicely spiced salsa with olives and a poppadom. I have to say, even though I hate olives and the dip did taste slightly of them, I still loved it! 

Next we ordered an Italian Bread selection to share which again I adored. It was so big as well! Especially for just £3.65 which works out about £1.83 each! It was packed full of breadsticks, sour dough, focassia and all other gorgeous breads with a little oil and balsamic vinegar as well. The only annoying thing was that it is really hard to actually get to the vinegar before using up a lot of the oils because it all sinks to the bottom :(.

For mains I ordered the smaller £5.95   dish purely because it was cheaper but considering the free appetiser and how much fabulous bread you get you honestly wouldn't want anymore. Ellie ordered crab linguine which personally I really can't speak about because I obviously didn't eat any but visually it looked nice.

Mine didn't quite come out as expected to be honest, I thought it would be more of a pasta bake oozing with mozeralla with a crispy bread crumbed topping. It tasted nice don't get me wrong although the cheese did have a slightly barbeque like flavour and the tomato sauce didn't quite have the zing I expected to be honest but it was still definitely worth the money!

As a side we shared some polenta chips as I've heard they are kind of his signature thing and they weren't quite what I expected! I would probably re-name them crispy polenta cubes or something like that. They were also lovely and I love the creamy Parmesan against the crispy outer layer, however, next time I would definitely try the other two chips on the menu (funky chips and posh chips).

Now for dessert they had a lovely selection including tiramisu, pavlova, brownies etc all of which at £4.95 and sounded so fabulous I was struggling to decide. The waitress then told us that they had a new dish, a quin if you will of miniature desserts. Being notoriously bad at making decisions, I HAD to go for this one. I loved the way everything was presented slightly differently, it looked amazing. Now I don't like coffee so the tiramisu tasted a bit to much of, well, coffee for me! I also found quite wet but for coffee lovers (like Ellie) I'm sure it was great. The profiteroles was also filled with a slightly coffee flavoured cream but I still ate it all up! The flavours of the pavlova was so good although if I was being really picky I'd say that there was slightly to much cream and less meringue.

Undoubtedly my favourite 2 were the crumble and brownie. The crumble is a firm favourite in my house hold and I have to say, this was up there with my Dad's. I love the slightly spiced warm pair with the oaty topping and cool icecream. Mm mm mmmm! Now I love anything chocolate so this really couldn't fail but it was so fudgey and decadent. Just truly delicious!

Overall I can't wait to go back and if you decide to go I would highly recommend a) get a gold card which also gets you £10 of if you spend £30+ and use it within 28 day b) try the Italian Bread selection and c) try the chocolate brownie or crumble if chocolates not your thing.

A fairly long post I know but have a great Sunday,

Love Vic x

My Everyday Makeup Routine!

Hey guys, so sorry I haven't posted in a while but I'm been very busying ( believe me, it's been playing on my mind that I haven't posted for a while!) But now I have the blogger app so hopefully it will be at least every week! So, onto the post.

Firstly I put the Collection Lasting perfection concealer in shade 1 under my eyes, around my nose, on any spots and just any areas with general redness. I blend that in with either my middle finger or an eyeshadow brush from Superdrug.

I then take my Rimmel Match Perfectoon concealer in shade 030 Classic Beige under where I've put my Collection concealer under my eyes and blend. I do this as I feel the 1st concealer is hard to blend and doesn't really match my skin colour.

Next, I curl my eyelashes and apply the Maybelling The Falsies flared on my lashes. The trick with this mascara is less is more, too much and it goes clumpy but if you know when to stop I really do love it.

Just to finish off I set it with the Rimmel Stay Matte powder in shade 005 however, I think this shade is to dark for me so I would recommend just going for transparent.

So as you can see - well read - it's a very simple makeup that takes about 20 minutes tops. Oh, and watch this space for more in depth reviews of these individual products.

Hope your having a great start to the weekend,

Love Vic x 

Burts Bees 'Nourishing Lip Balm with Mango Butter' Review'!

I love lip balms. I mean I LOVE lip balms. So much in fact, that when I came home a couple of weekends ago my sister even complained about the collection we seem to be building! However, I quickly reassured her that this one would be completely worth the £4 I spent, and oh how right I was.

I had seen the Burts Bees brand floating around on the internet for a bit so was delighted when I found them in Jarrolds. I’m pretty sure the staff there thought I was slightly mental for standing at the tiny shelf for15 minutes to decide from about 6 options. On the Jarrolds website it says they have Lip Shimmers (£6), Tinted Lip Balms (£6), Replenishing Pomegranate Lip Balm,  Beeswax Lip Balm Tube, Ultra Conditioning Lip Balm, Honey Lip Balm Tube and the one I chose, the Honey Lip Balm tube - although I don't think they had all of the out when I was there. The last 5 all cost £4.

The balm smells delicious, a lovely mango smell but not that to sickly sweet or overpowering if you see what I mean! It’s slightly oily, but just the right formula so it still feels smooth.  I don’t have particularly chapped lips but they do get quite dry during Winter. After regularly putting this on throughout the day I could already notice the difference!

I was disappointed when I found at that they actually retailed for £3.69 on the Burts Bees website so I’m confident that you could find it at I cheaper price somewhere else if £4 is a little steep for a small lip balm. Especially as the packaging was anything particularly gorgeous, a simple yellow tube with ALOT of writing on and BURTS BEES clearly on it in red.

Image from Google

Overall I love love love this lip balm and have been wearing it every day since I bought it! If you can find it, I would definitely grab it while you can!

Vic x 

2014 New Years Resolution!

I hope you had a fabulous Christmas and celebrated New Year with a bang as I did! And by that, I mean going over my parents friends for a roast dinner, watching Mamma Mia, and then coming back home for Gary Barlow's Big Ben Bash (crazy, I know!)

Although I find them difficult to keep, I love making New Years resolutions and 2014 is no different, so I though perhaps by putting them out to the world on here I might keep them better! Finger crossed anyway.

1. Learn Italian

The past year or so I have read so many books and seen so many films set in Italy that I have quite fell in love with the country - so much that I have decided to live there when I'm older! And with my DuoLingo app I figured, why not give it a shot! 

2. Diet

Although I do think I'm to young to diet. I don't think there's anything wrong with tweaking what you eat (as long as it's healthy) a bit!  I am going to try and get at least one portion of:

Oats

Green Tea

Sugar free Cranberry Juice

Brown Rice

Quinoa

Whole-meal Couscous

Lentils and 

Beans a week.

I'm hoping this will make up for my over eating of chocolate throughout the Christmas season. Well, and a fair way into January as well if I'm being honest!

Good luck to everyone's New Years resolutions if you have made one and I hope every single person reading this has a great 2014!

Vic x