The other day, I was searching the Internet in hopes of finding the right drink recipe to share with you. I wanted something non-alcoholic, relatively easy and something that would translate well into a dairy-free one in case you, who are reading this now, happen to be vegan or otherwise dairy-free. I came across articles describing Japan's Halloween frappuccinos their local Starbucks' are serving. You can find them here and here. They sounded challenging but not impossible, so I created my own copycat recipes of them. Mind you, I haven't tasted the real things so I don't have exact measurements, but I think with a little tweaking and having a real one to compare these to, I could make the recipe perfect. 

Since it's been a hot minute I've tried making Starbucks drinks at home, I figured I should do it now and maybe blog the experience in case anyone out there wants to try this out too. In Finland the weather has been super hot so I was not in the mood for hot drinks - or even coffee - today, and therefore decided to recreate a strawberry frappuccino. In a dairy-free way, in case my plant-based and vegan friends want to make some too.

   

Hey lovelies! How are you today? ♥ I can't believe it's weekend again since it feels like the week has gone so, so fast. But I'm really happy to have a couple of days to sleep in and rest so that I can get rid of this darn flu soon. Today, I've had time to create two new Halloween looks and I can't wait to show them to you all. I'm a couple of posts short of having all ten Halloween looks either posted or as a draft so I'm honestly super happy abut the October content this year.

In case you're not a Halloween person though, I have another more normal post for you:

Hello lovelies! How are you today? ♥ As promised, we will now get back to the regular topics in the posts, starting with these drinks so many people have been raving about this summer. Yes the Starbucks rainbow drinks. I found easy recipes for making these at home via Popsugar, and decided to try if they actually work. They do. Below, you can see how they turned out.

Hey lovelies!

How are you today? ♥




Red Berries Tea Lemonade
2 servings

2 tea bags
16 oz (4,7 dl) water
4 oz (1,2dl) lemonade
2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla




Have you tried this recipe at home? Or have you tried making other Starbucks style drinks yourself? Let me know in the comments!

Hello my lovelies!

How are you all? ♥

I'm finally finding some time to sit down and write something that isn't for school. Seriously, I have been so swamped with everything these past few weeks it feels unreal. And it shows no ending... Can't wait for the Christmas break!

Still some weeks to go before that, though.

Anyway, since I thought some of you might need some fun new stuff to try out, I wanted to share a little treat recipe that I've been loving lately.



I know the trend of bubble tea is already pretty old and everything, but as I do come behind on these things... Well, you get the thrill. As most of you may know, bubble tea originally comes from Taiwan. It may, or may not contain tapioca pearls (also known as boba), and it can be made into various fruit flavors. It can also be made into milk tea.

My version is somewhere in the middle of those two I guess.

For one serving, you'll need:

1 cup of boiling water
1 bag of your (favorite) tea
some milk (dairy, almond, coconut... that's up to you)
cooked tapioca pearls
sweetener/sugar (optional)

Start off with making some tea. Now, if you want to make this into ice tea, you can make the tea as early as the day before. Just store it well. I like mine warm or lukewarm, but I've understood that it's amazing as ice tea too. I used raspberry tea, as that is one of my all time favorites.




You can start building the drink by putting some tapioca pearls on the bottom of a big glass. Now, what I can tell you about prepping the tapioca is that if you do it from scratch, you need time - we're talking about 2 hours here - but there is a shortcut. You can use fast cooking tapioca that cooks in five minutes. It's not as good of a quality as regular one, but at least for me, it does the job well. I know it's more unhealthy, as it has more than just tapioca in it, but... #yolo

Just make sure the tapioca is warm, as the consistency is the best like that.



Add the tea, and possible sweetener over the tapioca.



And then add your milk, whether you use dairy one or vegan one. Stir with a big straw (and I mean a big one, as the pearls have to fit through).



Now your tea is ready to be enjoyed!

Have you tried this before? What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments below!

Now, I'm going to get ready to bed, as tomorrow it's again time for a long day with school work, and I need all my energy. But I'll talk to you again soon.

Have a fabulous day ♥

Hello my darlings!

How are you all? ♥

I've been so freaking busy today with the full apartment cleanup, homework and math class. Like seriously, this stuff never ends! But even with all this craziness, I sometimes take a minute and just have a nice beverage or such. Like this one, that I'm about to show you. I got this recipe from my mom, and it was pretty good!



Spicy Hot Chocolate

2 servings:
4dl (1 3/4 cups) milk
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon real vanilla
½ teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon coconut flakes
pinch of salt and chili powder

Pour milk into a blender together with other ingredients and mix well, using the maximum power. Warm up and pour into cups

...or you can do like I did, which was putting it all into a pan and whisking well together. I definitely need to buy a working blender...




And, if you, like me, don't care too much about few extra calories, you can top it off with whipped cream. Though, you may not even need that. This isn't particularly sweet - at least mine wasn't - so if you like the sweet kind more, I suggest adding something to make it more so.

But I do recommend trying this out, especially during these cold months were facing now. At least here in Finland.

Do you have any fun cold day treats I could try out? Let me know in the comments below!

Now, I'm gonna go watch some TV for a while and then get some sleep, as tomorrow, I have so, so many things to do! But talk to you soon!

Have a lovely day, and thank you for being an awesome reader ♥

Hey lovelies!

Who else is excited because it's weekend? ♥ I know I am. On Sunday, two big deadlines are finally over and done with, so it's less stress for me for a little while. That feels pretty amazing. I'm also pretty hyped about Halloween, and I'm going to do some fun preparations during this weekend. More about them soon on the blog.

For the Halloween party purposes, I tested out this neat little recipe I found on Home Is Where The Boat Is.



How cool is orange hot chocolate? I think it's pretty awesome. Although, I don't know how I feel about calling this hot chocolate since it doesn't have any brown chocolate in it. It was nice, nevertheless. You know how I am with foods. Gotta try everything, as long as it is gluten free.

And this is pretty perfect for Halloween as well. Just add a marshmallow on top and you're good to go.



I couldn't resist taking some candlelight shots of the drink. They remind me of autumn and Halloween, so it felt perfect.



If you happen try this out too, let me know what you think about it. In my opinion, it is pretty clever and perfectly color-coordinated for this time of the year. And it was such a nice sweet treat for the stressful time I'm having. (Though I totally should work out instead of eating when it comes to dealing with stress, hehe!)

What are your Halloween treats (traditionally, or this year)? Let me know in the comments below!

Now, this girl is off to bed so that I have enough energy to do all the things I've planned for tomorrow. Talk to you soon!

Have a lovely day ♥

Heya lovelies!

How are you all today? ♥

I've been having nice but challenging start for the school week, so today I treated myself to a nice little drink. This post is my entry for Lover.ly Autumn Cocktail Challenge, and even though I say so myself, it came out pretty nicely. Lover.ly is a wedding planning website, which offers lots of inspiration if you, like me, are a pride to be and want to get ideas for your wedding. As far as I have explored the site, there is lots of pretty pictures and everything you might need for your wedding planning. Check out their planning site to see for yourself!

But, without further ado, here you can check out the cocktail:



This one is a sort of a modification from Martini Rocks Rosso, and I call it Orange Autumn. I could imagine this would be a nice one to enjoy with a friend, or you could also toast with it in a party or so.

You'll need:

Martini Rosso
Orange juice
(orange flavored) sparkling water
Ice
Orange
Redcurrants



Fill the glass with ice.



Add in 1 part Martini Rosso (I used 4 cl, because I had a big glass). Then, add 2 parts (8 cl) orange juice.



Slice the orange, and add some to the drink. Also, add redcurrants to give some color.



Then, top it with sparkling water, and add decorations if desired.

And you're ready to enjoy your cocktail!

You can experiment quite a lot with this, I guess if you like the taste of Martini, you can always make this with more that. And, if you don't drink alcohol, try replacing the Martini with cranberry juice or some other not too sweet juice. If you try this, one way or another, please let me know how it went!

Have a lovely day you all ♥

Hello loves!

How are you? ♥

Today has been a fantastic day despite yesterday's devastating news, we got lots of things done and I'm getting my drive finally back. I planned how I'm going to do our balcony for the summer the coming week, figured out some ways to make our place more neat, and also wrote down many outfit ideas. And as the weather is being amazing, tomorrow will definitely include running in the morning and some sunbathing in the afternoon before work.

And I will probably use a little bit of caffeine to help me out there. I don't drink my coffee black as I don't like it like that, so I usually drink tea, but lately I've been so excited with all these flavoured coffee drinks, which I create with this set:



Monin Flavoured Coffee Set. My mom bought me this about two months ago and I've been obsessed with it ever since. It includes five different flavours of syrups, and they can be used for like infinite number of drinks, I suppose.



The package itself comes with few instructions, so if you don't know how to start, you can seek help from there. Don't think you can make that pretty drinks at home? Well see my creation and think again. ;)



Hazelrock

30 ml Monin Hazelnut syrup
120 ml milk
1 coffee (50 ml), cold!

Fill a tall glass with ice cubes (I used wine glass, as it's the best I have).
Add Monin syrup and milk.
Gently pour cold coffee over mix until it forms layers.
Serve.

Sounds easy, right? Also, you can use any syrup here, depending what flavors you prefer.



And in the end, you should have something like this in hand. I usually mix it all up before drinking, as the syrup is in the bottom and all the coffee on the top. But before mixing, it has these beautiful layers. I totally love how this tastes, and could drink this so, so often. I also don't use as much syrup as the recipe, but rather like half of it or little less. It's a bit more healthier and not overly sweet.

If you'd like more recipe posts, let me know so in the comments! Also, if you have nice coffee recipes, hint them to me so I can try them out ♥

Now, time for some TV and videogames before sleep, and tomorrow I need to start the day early with a workout and all. Hopefully I have time to post for you tomorrow, but if I don't, it's because I'm spending time outside in the sun.

Have a lovely day!

Hi there lovelies!

How are you today? ♥

The New Year's Eve is creeping closer, and if you still don't know what kind of party to throw - or what to serve drinkwise, I'm here to help you out.

Last weekend, our friend J was visiting and boys and I had decided that we would go on and try out a bunch of different drinks. So in a way, we had our own cocktail party. Minus the fancy outfits. That gave me an idea to photograph the drinks we tried, and to share the recipes with you in case you wanna try them out. Unfortunately I don't really have non-alcoholic options in this post, but I promise I will share that kind of recipes here as well when I find good ones. ;)

Note: Always remember to drink responsibly, don't drink and drive, don't drink when you're a minor, and all the other stuff you lot probably know already. I'm sorry if this post offends anyone by any measure because I mention drinks here and all, that's not my intention at all. I just want to share something me and my friends liked for the holiday season.

So here are some cocktails totally approved by me and the boys, all of them are reasonably easy to make, though on couple of ones we kind of took our own route as we didn't have the exact items available - and I don't own a shaker so some drinks have ice even if they aren't supposed to, but don't mind that. The ones marked with an asterisk (*) are claimed to be classic cocktails (therefore, one can count them as common knowledge, right?).



Christmas Cocktail*

1 serving
1 sugar cube
drop of brandy
dollop of cold cranberry juice
cold champagne
(few raspberries on top)

1. Place the sugar cube on the bottom of a chilled champagne glass.
2. Add brandy and let soak. Then add the cranberry juice.
3. Right before serving, pour in the champagne and add one or two raspberries as a decoration.



Peardrops

1 serving
2 cl (0,7 oz) pear schnapps
cold pear cider
slice of pear or cherry

1. Pour the schnapps into a cold champagne glass and add slowly the pear cider.
2. Decorate with the cherry.



Blue Lagoon

1 serving
2 cl (0,7 oz) blue curaçao
2 cl (0,7 oz) vodka
drop of fresh lemon juice
Sprite

1. Take a high ball glass or a cocktail glass, and pour in first the curaçao and then the vodka.
2. Add in the lemon juice and then as much Sprite as you wish.



Daisy*

1 serving
6 cl (2 oz) gin
2 cl (0,7 oz) lemon juice
1 tablespoon grenadine
1 teaspoon sugar syrup
crushed ice cubes
soda
orange slice for decoration

1. Pour gin, lemon juice, grenadine and sugar syrup on the ice cubes and shake well until the mixture is cold.
2. Filter into a chilled highball glass, and pour over soda.
3. Mix up carefully and decorate with an orange slice.



Singapore Sling*

1 serving
4 cl (1,4 oz) gin
2 cl (0,7 oz) cherry liqueur
2 cl (0,7 oz) lemon juice
1 teaspoon grenadine
crushed ice cubes
soda
lime skin and cocktail cherries

1. Mix up gin, cherry liqueur, lemon juice and grenadine with ice, until the mixture is cold.
2. Fill a cold highball glass to halfway with crushed ice, and filter the cocktail into the glass.
3. Pour in soda and decorate with lime skin and cocktail cherries.



Screwdriver*

1 servings
crushed ice cubes
4 cl (1,4 oz) vodka
orange juice
orange slice

1. Fill a cold glass with the crushed ice.
2. Pour the vodka over the ice and over that the orange juice.
3. Mix well and decorate with an orange slice.



Long Island Iced Tea*

1 serving
4 cl (1,4 oz) vodka
2 cl (0,7 oz) gin
2 cl (0,7 oz) clear tequila
2 cl (0,7 oz) white rum
1 cl (0,3 oz) white mint liqueur
4 cl (1,4 oz) lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar syrup
crushed ice cubes
coke
wedge of lime or lemon

1. Shake vodka, gin, tequila, rum, mint liqueur, lemon juice and sugar syrup with ice, until the mixture is cold.
2. Filter into a highball glass full of ice, and pour in some coke.
3. Decorate with a wedge of lime or lemon.

So here you have some nice cocktail ideas for any occasion, and each of these are great for the NYE party as well. You can only choose to serve one or two, or if you are gathering with a smaller group you can do a sophisticated cocktail tasting if you want to. This post clearly targeted for my audience over 18 years old, but if you are younger than that, or don't drink alcohol for any reason, don't worry, I have things in store for you too. ;) I'll be posting another NYE themed post tomorrow morning, so stay tuned for that! ♥

What are you guys going to do on NYE? ♥

Now, I'm going to watch a movie with my man, but I try to finish my next post right after that!

Have a fabulous start for your week!

Blog ya later,

xoxo

Johanna