With autumn in full swing and winter on its way I wanted to post a recipe that was slightly warming and "different" to a pumpkin pie or a cookie in the shape of ghost...maybe next year haha!

These BBQ "ribs" will warm your tummy when it's cold outside but of course will also be perfect on the BBQ in the summer.

For this recipe I have used 1 of 6 Jack Daniels sauces, 5 of the 6 are vegan!

It was really tough to choose what one to use for this recipe, you can obviously use any of them but I went with the Full Flavour Smokey.

All of their sauces and our glaze are made with real Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey which you can really taste, I'm not the biggest BBQ sauce fan let alone whiskey fan but the sauces were super yummy!

Anyway let’s get on to the recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup of vital wheat gluten (seitan)
2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
3⁄4 cup of water
2 tablespoons of peanut nut butter
1 teaspoon of liquid smoke
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 cup of Jack Daniels barbecue sauce

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 200°C and lightly grease a baking dish with oil.

Mix the wheat gluten, paprika, yeast, onion powder and garlic powder together.

Mix the water with the peanut butter, liquid smoke, and soy sauce and add it to the wheat gluten, paprika, yeast, onion powder and garlic powder.

Give it a good mix for a couple of minutes.

Put the dough into the baking dish and flatten it so that it evenly fills the pan and then put it in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

 *free sample but opinions are my own

Cup of tea, Sunday, blogging and listening to some noisy music... heaven...

I have so much I want to write about at the moment that I've just done the opposite for 2 weeks and not posted... Time really does fly, it's hard to stay on top of everything.

Last week obviously I was at work in the day but in the evenings I have been going to fitness classes again as I really hurt my foot running the Bristol Half and ugh I need to do something! I'll go mad otherwise!

Anyway today's post is another rant about how much I love Botanicals! This product is something a little different though.

If you haven't read any of my previous posts about these guys, Botanicals are a natural, vegan, cruelty free brand that are all about plant based products and basically providing ethical products, if you'd like to find out more follow the link below:

www.botanicals.co.uk

"A gentle exfoliating cleanser with organic oatmeal and crushed rosehip kernel, to brighten dull and congested skin and restore moisture balance. This product is concentrated (does not contain water) so only a small amount is needed. Which also makes it great value for money as a little goes a long way."

I have been using this stuff for the past 2 weeks, I wanted to make sure I'd used it to death before writing about it.

I'm going to start by saying I personally don't find it much of an exfoliator, not what I would define as one anyway, to me an exfoliator rips your face apart with massive bits of sand and sugar! However I do feel some bitty bits when using it so I guess it's what you look for in an exforliator.

I used this stuff after make up removing, soaping and brutal exfoliation haha! So for me this stuff took the final bits of make up off my face and majorly moisturised it, it's an amazing mascara melter!

And I've been using quite a bit, I mean come on! This is a pampering product so I'm going to break the rules, ignore the instructions and indulge by smearing loads of it on my face haha!

To remove it I've been just dabbing a hot flannel (love that word) and then letting it dry itself, it leaves you all moisturised and in my case ready for bed!

Also I have to mention even though it goes without saying when it comes to Botanicals, this stuff smells so good, I've been using the chamomile and marigold one!!

Here's the link if you want to find out more about the product:

www.botanicals.co.uk/natural-facial-polish-chamomile-mandarin

 *free sample but opinions are my own

Check me out trying to be creative with my post photo haha!... not that great is it but I wanted something appropriate and I can't ever bring myself to use stock photos...

Anyway this post is going to be a little different to my usual reviews and recipes, I want to tell you my top 5 apps I have on my phone that help me with living a vegan lifestyle... 

Some are the boring usuals that we probably have and use but I'm not going to list loads of random apps just to make this more vegan orientated... lets be realistic here and only use the good stuff! There are a couple that are different and especially useful!

So I'll start in reverse order and save the "bests" for last :)

5 - Twitter

Like I said, there will be some boring ones haha! But the reason Twitter is in my list is because it's a great way to socialise with other vegans and interact with vegan lifestyle bloggers.

There are also hashtag hours, for example #veganhour is a great way to meet other vegans as well as brands who also get involved and sometimes do giveaways... I've won once before wooohoo!

4 - Instagram

Kind of the same as twitter with the fact you can socialise with other vegans and bloggers but I like to use it for food inspiration.

I also follow the likes of Peta so I do like to tag my non vegan friends in some gruesome pictures of the reality of the meat and dairy industry...

3 - Pinterest

Pinterest again is good for inspiration but more importantly it has a lot of recipes, whenever I am struggling with what to have to eat I also refer to Pinterest for a recipe.

You can store all of your faves and "to makes" in there own folder.

2 - Happy Cow

Now for the more interesting apps, Happy cow is literally the only app I think I've ever paid for, it's only £3.99 but still, I never buy apps...

Happy cow is used to find places to eat that have vegan options, you can add places yourself and leave reviews and photos. It's great if you're away and have no idea where you can eat out.

Or if you're like me you can use it in your hometown you've lived all your life because you're useless haha!

1 - Spoon Guru

Quite possibly the best find ever, and it's free!

I discovered this app after reading about it in VeganLife Mag.

The app itself is basically a bar code scanner, you chose your diet preference and then scan away. It from what I've seen works on all branded products but not yet on all supermarket own branded products.

I use it all the time because I seriously can't remember all the E numbers and weird chemicals I can't eat.

So this has been my top 5 apps for vegans, I hope you found this somewhat useful and if there are any apps you guys swear by I would love to know all about them!!