Tortilla Fruit & Vegetable Pizza

Yes, I said fruit, vegetable on a pizza. Since I gave up all meat except seafood for Lent I've been trying to come up with meals that I regularly enjoy but that are hearty and healthy at the same time.

You will need:

• corn/wheat round tortillas
• tomato paste /low fat spaghetti sauce
• oregano flakes
• honey
• pineapples (fresh ones are best but tin ones in water NOT syrup are fine)
• tomatoes
• green peppers
• low fat cheese
• onions
• dried cranberries (un-sugared)
• (optional - lime juice/pepper)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven and lay with foil or flour/ spray a cookie sheet with pam
2. Mix the tomato paste with a teaspoon of honey and a pinch or two of oregano flakes and spoon onto the tortilla and spread around evenly
3. Chop all the onion, green pepper,tomatoes, and pineapples and sprinkle over the flat tortilla. Add the cranberries
4. Grate the cheese on top  of the tortilla and toppings then add a few dashes of lime juice or pepper if you like
5. Place in oven on foil or cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes
6. Turn off oven and EAT!

You can add spinach or another light veggie or fruit but remember the tortilla is thin and you don't want it to break. Hope you enjoyed this quick post!

Till later,

*Jane

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Review: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Lip Balm Stain

As I've said before I hopped on the lip colour train really late and ever since then I've been riding it pretty fast. I've tried the lip butters, the lip stains and when I heard about the lip balm stain I just had to try it for myself.

Fast forward a couple months later I spotted the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Lip Balm Stain at the beauty counter at Chesterfield Pharmacy and I decided to give it to a go. I got the shade Smitten in 030 which is, no surprise, a berry shade. 

First Impression
The first thing that I noticed was the scent. It smelled like winterfresh bubblegum which was pretty surprising. For me this meant that it would probably sting. I haven't had too much fun with cosmetics that have menthol or some sort of similar substance. Let's just say I pretty much burned myself. Thankfully, the smell was just that and there was no tingly feeling at all. 

Application
The stick is pretty much like a big crayon so you feel less than glamorous applying it. In fact, be prepared to get a few odd looks if you're applying it in public. That said, the application is smooth and the colour goes on evenly without dragging. The tip is quite big though so if you have smaller lips then you may want to make sure you are applying in front of a mirror. 

Wear
 This balm definitely lives up to its name and even if you apply several different layers it's still quite moisturizing. The moisturizing feeling lasts for maybe 3 hours without a touch up and the colour doesn't fade if you're not eating and/or drinking. It reminded me of a lip balm alright with that slightly slick feeling. It doesn't melt off in the sun so you won't find yourself wiping around your lip line no matter how sweltering it is. My lips didn't get tight or crack or dry out while wearing it making me a happy camper. 

Look
This isn't a glamorous product- you should be able to tell by the packaging. It's meant to be functional, practical and quick, and true to form it is all of these things. The colour is semi-sheer and can be worn as a wash of colour, a daytime lip colour or a practical office lip colour. If you want something that screams glamour and sexy or siren, this isn't your product - this is for a look that is more soft, feminine and pretty. It looks velvety more than satin-y but it definitely ins't a matte finish.

Kiss-Test/ Transfer
This wasn't super-messy but I did notice that if I sipped something within ten minutes of application then it transferred pretty heavily. If I waited however, the transfer was light or not at all. It didn't come off when I was changing clothes either. The lip balm stain transfers with moisture so a kiss on the lips meant transfer but a kiss on the cheek didn't. I would skip the blot and powder test though. If you want the stain to stick and stay all day then apply a lipliner in a similar shade, blot, then apply the lip balm stain. This should pretty much set you for at least 6 hours.

Conclusion
Overall, I would give this product a 7.5 out of 10
The packaging is a bit un-sexy and the crayon tip means that you can't really apply over another colour without running the two colours into each other. The colour isn't opaque which can be a problem for girls with more pigmented lips like most black women but again, if you are looking for semi sheer or sheer colour this is it. Nevertheless, it lasts, it's pretty and true to colour, it's moisturizing and it smells great. The cost is anywhere between $800 and $1200 depending on where you buy it. 

What do you think of the Revlon Lip Balm Stain? Have any questions for me? Leave me a comment below and let me know.

Till later,
**Jane

(all photos my own)

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What I'm Eating to Lose Weight

So, I'm pretty much at the heaviest I've ever been in my life and the most uncomfortable. I cringe at pictures I see of myself and long for the day that my thighs don't try to fight each other as I walk and I don't feel so self-conscious about my arms. So, after moaning and groaning for a couple months (read, one year) I decided that I needed to get the situation under control pronto.

I apologize in advance for the length of this post but while I'm being honest I should just put it all out there right? I was exercising at least twice a week and though I would sweat up a storm I wasn't seeing the inches drop like I did when I was high school. Back then, if I wanted to drop five pounds I'd have banana chips and soda for lunch and that was that. Yes, I know uber un-healthy. And yes, my digestive system is still paying for that. What I'm saying though is that it was easy. Now, its H A R D!!! 

Admitting that it wasn't going to be easy and gearing myself up for it was the first step. The next step was deciding to eat healthier. Now I LOVVVVE food. I grew up watching my mother make food that would make people moan in ecstasy as they ate it and I made sure to pick up a few of her tricks in the kitchen so I knew that any diet that would require me to eat tasteless food and cardboard would not work AT ALL. (Am I over-using caps here? Nah...). So after doing extensive research on the web (read: an hour or two of reading weight-loss stories), I came up with something that thankfully made me lose seven pounds in a month with very little exercise. So here it is:

1. Always eat breakfast - I wake up super late so this is always a struggle so I shop for really quick things. What I've been having lately is - a smoothie (yes i know, blender work but if i blend it the night before and put plastic wrap over it its easy to grab and go in the morning. I blend it same time I'm making dinner so I'm already in the kitchen.)  I use the fruit smoothie frozen mix they sell at Pricesmart becaue you just add water); OR special K cereal and 1% milk; OR two hard boiled eggs with a fruit and a piece of toast; OR a loaded granola bar with a fruit and some tea. Basically you need to get protein (like oats, eggs, fish, other meat, peas or grains) and some fruit/fibre in your system.
2. For lunch, skip one of the sides. For example, if something comes with rice & veg. Skip the rice and eat the veg, if it comes with fries, skip the fries. Leave off cheese and other additions like mayonnaise. Every now and then have just a salad. I don't recommend eating just a salad for lunch because if you are going to the gym after work you will have zero energy unless you carry a power-up snack to have before your work out. What really works well is if you have a soup and a salad or a soup and half a sandwich or a half sandwich and a salad or any combo thereof.
3. For dinner, pick a small plate like a breakfast plate to eat on (not a teacup saucer guys lol). Don't let the big plate get you! You'll have the urge to fill it up. Sometimes I will actually measure the portions - no more than one cup carbs like rice or potato, then protein the size of my hand and veggies to fill up the rest of the plate. I try to skip the carb every other day. But on the weekends me likey carbs. On especially tempting days I will put the veggies on first (no croutons) then the remaining space gets filled so that I'm not bad.
4. Snacks - I will snack in between each meal. My snack of choice is some peanuts I put in a ziplock bag and shake up with some raisins, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and something else I cant remember. Or, I will have a low calorie granola bar or a fruit.  This month I am trying a sunflower seed spread with some zero fat crackers. (It's a cross between solomon gundy and hummus).
5. Redemption - every now and then I will over eat. The other day when I had four slices of pizza and four wings in the space of two hours, I felt really bad. SO the next day I did some exercise and had a slimfast shake and a fruit for dinner.
6. Treats - I treat myself every weekend but with lower calorie options - dark chocolate in the small packaging,  or the super tiny one scoop haagen daz ice cream...yeh or those zero calorie fruit chews that are addicting. IN the SMALL package. 
7. Liquids - I drink green tea that I stir with honey or just plain water at night before I go to sleep. Otherwise it's me and my big bottle of water. Occasionally, I will tip some lemon juice into it to change the flavour. But, water is the way to go.
8. Vitamins - take the ones geared for women but not anything that says 'active' because it will make you hungry and ravenous like a whoa. Evening primrose oil is a great supplement that seems to suppress my appetite so I take it along with my multi vitamin.

Here are some more general tips 

• Download 'Fat Secret Calorie Counter" from BB App World and use it. It tells you how much calories you are consuming, how much you are burning even from things like sitting down and shows you a chart of how much calories you need to burn at the gym doing exercise to make sure you drop lbs that week
• If you're hungry - wait. Ask yourself, when was the last time you ate. If it was less than four hours ago then wait for 20 minutes and do something else. If your tummy is still telling you that you're hungry then decide if its time for a meal or for a snack and go ahead and eat but do it slowly. 
• When eating, when you've finished half of your food stop and ask your tummy if i'ts full. Drink some water and if you still feel empty then continue. The idea isn't to feel full. The idea is to feel like something is in your stomach. You can't trust your body, it's out to trick you!
• When you go out to eat ask for an extra plate. They will give you one of those small plates more than likely. Share your food and eat from that. Have them box up the rest of your food and carry it home to have it for your next meal
• If you are going to drink, go for low calorie options. Apparently the more transparent the liquid the less the calories. I don't know how true this is but I hear you cant go wrong with a glass of wine or a vodka tonic. 
• print a picture of yourself when you liked your body and tape it to your fridge. Serious. It will stop you from going back for seconds when you should just hold your corner and drink water.
• Do a mini challenge - this month I am going to try to get to 100 pushups. I currently can only do two lol. It may be situps for you or crunches or lunges.
• Pick a part of your body you like or you like working out and exercise it as often as you can
• If your partners are health conscious then that's great if they aren't then you need to not fall into their habits. My husband in not health conscious so my rule is don't have what he's having. EVER lol
• Eat and listen to music rather than eat and watch tv. You will see yourself eating the food and your brain will register that your body is being fed and it will shut off its 'feed me' signal quicker.
• Buy 100 calorie popcorn and eat the whole bag when you feel like binge-ing. It will satisfy the craving and fill you up
• Don't keep things you know you can't stay away from in your fridge.

I hope this helps someone out there who is struggling with their weight and what to do without going all extremist. If you guys have questions or any other tricks, leave a comment and let me know. 

Till later,

*Jane

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Contemplating - Printed Pants

It's Monday, and I prefer to distract myself from mourning the loss of sleeping in with fashion. Lately, I've been contemplating printed pants and how to wear them so they look flattering but not too out there. Below are a few styles I am into:

Contemplating - Printed Pants by janekoysen-1 featuring skinny leg jeans

I am not quite ready yet to mix prints by wearing a different print on bottom than on top because the print extends to cover my whole leg, I feel that the eye doesn't get a break. So, I chose to opt for solid, plain tops that offer an interesting contrast to the colours of the print.

What do you think? Would you wear printed pants?

Leave me a comment and let me know.
Till later,
*Jane

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