The BEST Green Juice recipe

Green juices have become increasingly popular over the past year, as people have started to realise that it is much easier to drink a salad than eat it! Personally, I have found that the recipes I’ve used in the past either taste TOO green (pure kale juice really isn’t my thing…) or involve too many ingredients and steps that make the whole process very time-consuming.

I’ve definitely been having too many ‘cheat’ days recently, (filled with a whole large dominos pizza, an Indian takeaway and plenty of chocolate), and therefore have been trying to drink plenty of smoothies to balance it out, because drinking a smoothie alongside a whole pizza makes it healthy, right?? I began experimenting with some greens I found in the fridge and in the process I believe I have made the BEST green smoothie ever (… or at least out of the ones I’ve tried!).

The recipe is super simple and consists of only a handful of baby spinach, a handful of kale, a pear, a couple of tablespoons of chopped pineapple and a slice of lemon (make sure you cut off the skin and pith)! Unlike many other recipes that involve needing a juicer, which are super expensive and a pain to wash, this juice (or smoothie?) can be made in a simple blender! The one I use is super inexpensive and can be bought here. Just simply throw all of the ingredients into the blender with some ice cubes and water and blend until smooth!

The benefits of the ingredients in this juice are endless; kale and spinach are both absolutely packed with nutrients, pineapple and pears are a rich source of antioxidants (and add a sweetness, which is definitely necessary!) and the lemon helps boost the immune system, as well as adding a great flavour!

I really hope you enjoyed this post and if you try out this recipe, please let me know what you think either in a comment down below or tweet it to me! Thanks for reading!

Poppy x

Paris 2014

This past July I, along with five friends, embarked on my first ever holiday away from my parents to Paris! It was the most amazing 3 days (I think maybe of my life ever?) spent with good food, good company and in the most beautiful city. We spent absolutely ages planning, and as the organisation obsessed person that I am, I wrote everything down from our group discussions, to what I packed and just about everything that we did on the trip too (any excuse to buy a new notebook, am I right?).

I spent so long looking at blogs when we were planning our trip; desperate to find someone who had gone on a similar one to the one we were planning, with advice on where to stay, what to eat and where was worth going in our short space of time.  I had no luck, and in the end we all got our information from various places, which obviously took a lot longer.

So I thought I’d write detailed posts about each of the 3 days we spent in Paris as a way to help anybody who’s in a similar situation to me last year. Not only this, but I would love to have everything about my trip written down all in one place so I can look back at it in the future, and if there’s ever a time when I’m back in Paris (I really hope so!) I can see all the places I loved last time!

You can view my Paris Day 1 post here and you can expect days 2 and 3 posts coming up very shortly in the future!

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope these posts will be helpful to anyone planning a little getaway to Paris or just fun to read for anyone that’s interested in my visit! Leave a comment down below of your favourite place that you’ve visited or your dream place to visit in the future!

Poppy x 

"Acai" bowl recipe!

Before I start I want to be very clear that this isn’t technically an ‘acai bowl’ as it contains absolutely no acai…

Acai is a grape-like berry from Central and South America, which is considered a “superfood” due to its high concentration of antioxidants and other health benefits. This berry has to be freeze dried within 24 hours of it being harvested in order to keep its nutritional values, which along with the fact that only 10% of the berry is actually edible (it has a very large stone!) makes it a VERY expensive product to buy!

So this leads me on to my recipe! I would consider this a ‘smoothie bowl’ more than anything else, but with many of the same health benefits of an actual acai bowl as well as the same pretty aesthetic, it’s a great alternative for a fraction of the cost!

The actual smoothie consists of just a handful of frozen raspberries, a banana and a dash of water in order to get the correct consistency. Raspberries have many similar health benefits to acai berries as they are filled with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Bananas are filled with potassium, which lowers blood pressure, as well as providing a variety other vitamins to help with overall health. I just put these into my blender (you can find the one I used here) with a small amount of water so it blends together well! A spoonful of Greek yoghurt could also be added here if you prefer a creamier consistency and want some added protein!

If you want you could stop here, add a little extra water for a thinner consistency, and have a delicious smoothie but I’m going to show you what I topped mine with! This part is really up to what you like and what you have lying around the house, so the things I used were: goji berries, almonds, desiccated coconut, blueberries, chia seeds and granola. All of these items have various benefits so I’ll really quickly run through them!

Goji berries: considered a “superfood”, packed with antioxidants as well as being fat free and full of fibre.

Almonds: full of good fats that help lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Desiccated coconut (although photographed with coconut chips): contains fibre and iron, and also adds a great flavour!

Blueberries: another fruit filled with antioxidants, as well as containing tons of Vitamin C.

Chia seeds: extremely nutritious- filled with antioxidants, fibre, protein, high in omega 3 fatty acids and much more!

Granola: ideally this would be homemade granola as shop-bought usually contains a ton of added sugar but I’ve yet to accomplish homemade so I just used what I had to hand! This makes the bowl more filling for breakfast and also has some more health benefits from the nuts and seeds that it contains.

So that’s the complete “acai” bowl recipe! A delicious ‘smoothie bowl’, great for breakfast or as an afternoon snack and filled with countless health benefits!

I hope you all enjoyed, if you try out this recipe please send me a photo on twitter or instagram (@poppyonpaper) and feel free to leave comments with your favourite healthy breakfast ideas or any thoughts for future blog post ideas down below!

Poppy x

New year, new me?

As my first ever blog post, and as it is the beginning of 2015, I thought I’d write about a few of my new years resolutions for this year!  

Just like every other person who makes new years resolutions, this year my primary goal is to live a healthier lifestyle! Currently 50% of my diet consists of cheese, and although I’d love to say that’s an exaggeration, I pretty much can (and will) put cheese on just about everything… So along with a few other diet changes, I mainly want to reduce the amount of cheese I eat, which I know sounds kind of stupid but I’m really hoping it’ll help my overall health! I also want to drink more water as currently I often can go an entire day without drinking any liquid whatsoever. So far this week I’ve been drinking much more water and I can already see a difference in my skin, which is encouraging!

My next resolution is another common one but it is to procrastinate less! I feel like this is really important this year for me as not only will I be doing my A-level exams in June but I also will be starting university in September! At the moment I spend all of my free time watching YouTube videos and pretty much nothing else so I want to start to be more productive whether that be doing more school work at home or just posting consistently on here!

Finally, my last resolution is to get a job! This coming summer, me and 6 friends are planning a month InterRailing trip throughout Europe and I really want to (and need to!) save some money for it. Also on top of this I’ll obviously be starting university after the summer and I think saving up as much money as I can will be really useful!

Thanks for reading my first ever blog post! If you want to know a little more about me feel free to read that here and if you have any suggestions for future blog posts please leave them in a comment down below!

Poppy x