Help! It's the Twenty-First Century

Confession Time: one thing most people don't know about me is that I am pretty old-school when it comes to technology - I don't even know how to work the family TV!

At 20 years of age, I have a DVD collection of over 150 and am probably the only person you know who doesn't have a Netflix subscription. No, I am not a techno-phobe, but what happens when you're old and grey and you can't keep up with the latest Apple innovation? Or you lose your marbles and can't remember your password? Coming from a very close-knit family, I feel it's extremely important to have something tactile to tell your story or to show your grand-kids when the time comes. Technology has advanced so rapidly recently that many children grow up with a kindle as opposed to an actual book (yes,those things still exist!) and they have 'photos' saved on their phone rather than a genuine photograph you can hold in your hand. This leads to companies like Max Spielman struggling to make a profit which increases the price of having these genuine photographs developed... it is now £8 for less than 30 photos! As a student, and a self-confessed hauler when it comes to photographs, I can't really afford the cost to have my photos developed any more so what do I do?

I recently came across an app (yes, I have an iPhone) that makes life so much easier for the haulers like me: 'Free Prints'. Free Prints allows you to submit photos from your apple device to be printed AND sent to you for a delivery cost of a mere £1.49. What's the catch? You can 'only' print 500 photos a year... that is pretty tricky even for me. The app also allows you to easily crop photos to a size that suits you and alerts you if your photo has been cropped to an extent which might affect the quality of the photographs... You can even upload old photos from your Instagram page (with a filter that makes you look even more fabulous).

Make the memories last forever and get your marbles developed before you lose them. You no longer have the excuse for cost: make sure you have something to show the grand-kids! (...and something to burn when you break-up with your ex lol)

Ciao for now xo

P.S. Sorry Max Spielman

PETA: The Great Vegan Bake Off - Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookie Jars

Peta are running the Great Vegan Bake Off for the third consecutive year and after succeeding in making my own recipe for Orange and Cranberry crinkle cookies (see this month's posts) I decided to try it again to demonstrate my support for the radical animal rights charity! 

As an avid chocolate lover, plain chocolate was the first thing I could think of when pondering vegan foods and after finding Lindt Coconut Excellence on the chocolate aisle, I decided to base my recipe around the little bar of lusciousness. To further emphasise the coconut flavour, I added coconut oil as a substitute for butter - I even made my own flour by putting oats in a food processor my parents received for their wedding 25 years ago (can you believe it still works???)

I chose to make the cookie jars individually as in a rush of excitement I bought (non-oven-proof) glass jars... oops! So to check that the glass wouldn't explode in the heat, I made them one by one. If you want to try them for yourself, the recipe below provides ingredients per jar so if you want to make one for an evening snack you can... or if you want to make 50 for a party you can just multipy the measurements by 50.

Ingredients (to make one jar):
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tbsp. caster sugar
45g ground almonds
85g oats
2 tbsp. coconut oil
40g lindt excellence dark chocolate coconut squares

Method:
1. Mix together the baking powder, caster sugar and ground almonds.

2. Weigh the oats and pour them into a food processor to grind into a flour consistency and add it to the mixture.

3. Stir in the coconut oil to make into a sticky dough and add the chocolate.

4. Put the mixture into oven-proof jars or make into teaspoon size cookies (optional).

5. Bake in the oven at 160 C for 20 minutes. Eat up!