Vegan cruelty free cosmetics review: Brija Cosmetics

I know this is a food blog but being a vegan, there are other areas of my life that I have to watch out for animal products. It's impossible to avoid absolutely everything because animal by-products are used a lot in so many things. It's easier to go with what you can control. Cosmetics and beauty products are some of those things. I recently threw out a lot of my drugstore and name brand cosmetics because of the amount of really bad ingredients and animal products that were used to make them. I have been checking out indie cosmetic companies that use minerals to make their products. Brija Cosmetics is one of them. It is run by a lovely gal named Brianna who is a whiz at creating absolutely gorgeous eyeshadow, blush and lip colors that are inspired by fandoms and tv shows/films. I have purchased from Brija twice so far and I am very happy with my animal free and cruelty free options.

Counter-clockwise: Inheritance blush (Downton Abbey), Good Vibes only eyeshadow (free gift with purchase), Adhesive eye wax (used on your lids to make eyeshadow colors pop and stay on longer), Shouldn't Have Said That eyeshadow (Harry Potter/Hagrid), Are They Made from Real Girl Scouts eyeshadow (Wednesday Addams), Transfiguration eyeshadow (Harry Potter/Professor McGonnagall). The two baggies in the middle are samples of ESPN Highlight (highlight powder) and Page 394 eyeshadow (Harry Potter/Professor Snape).

 Beautiful colors and fun to play with. Inheritance blush is a magenta purple blush with orange and red undertones. Transfiguration eyeshadow is a taupey grey with shimmer. Shouldn't Have Said That is a brown mossy green shimmer. Are They Made From Real Girls Scouts?  is a beautiful purpley brown with lots of shimmer.

Swatched on my arm: L to R: Good Vibes Only (pale pink shimmer with a light violet duochrome), Transfiguration (shimmery taupe), Shouldn't Have Said That (greenish brown) Are They Made From Real Girl Scouts? (Purply brown shimmer).

Love the packaging and artwork.

 

Swatches L to R: Zelena, Mulled Wine, Tired of the Same Old Thing, The Boy Who Lived. Brija Cosmetics

A few foods I ate recently...

Gardein mandarin chicken with asian coleslaw, rice and broccoli.

Another junk food cake made with Duncan Hines white cake mix, coconut cream flavored jello pudding mix and cashew milk. Served with Coco Whip.

Pizza made with Trader Joe's dough and vegan mozzarella cheese plus some cheddar Follow Your Heart sprinkled in there. Was delicious!

Bowie Pie & Crack Cookies (with recipes).

Last weekend was glorious. It was David Bowie's birthday weekend. We celebrated by listening to his albums, watched Ziggy Stardust the film and on Sunday January 10th, the new album BLACKSTAR was delivered to my doorstep. Little did I know the same night I was listening to this beautifully dark and complex album, David Bowie would die. I woke up the next morning with no knowledge as I was offline all night and had gone straight to bed. My husband came to me while I was getting ready for work: "Did you hear about Bowie?" I was confused: "No, what about him?" "He died. Last night." I was in disbelief. I stopped putting on my makeup and ran to my room to grab my phone to confirm it for myself. Sure enough, it was true. I looked at my husband with tears streaming down my face. "Oh my god."

"In our madness we burnt one hundred days. Time takes time to pass. And I still hold some ashes to me. An Occasional Dream..."

It was a very emotional week for me. One of our brightest stars is gone. It feels like an end of an era. I'm a big music fan and I am an artist/musician myself so it was a lot to accept. These artists give us so much to hope for, to believe in. Their deaths are more profound somehow. My husband said: "That's life." I know this but how very sad and tragic. Here we were celebrating his life, excited about his new music, his new direction. In the next second, we were mourning his death. He's gone forever. I think of all my other idols. They too will be gone one day. It's just that we are never ready for them to go.

So this weekend, I'm thinking of David and playing his music and spending time with myself. David's favorite dish is Shepherd's Pie so I thought it would be a good dish to make today. And I needed to have some sugar too so I baked some cookies which are called "Crack Cookies". I got the idea from my friend Hope who gave me the recipe that I adapted to make it vegan. They are basically chocolate chip cookies with added oats, coconut and shaved chocolate. What's not to love?

On to the food.

"Bowie Pie". A lentil, vegetable pie with tomato base and a fluffy and crisp mashed potato topping.

Bowie Lentil Pie

1 cup brown lentils
3 TB olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced (or you can sub celery)
1 container of cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 can stewed tomatoes
1/2 to 3/4 cup veggie broth
splash of white wine
3 TB tomato paste
1 TB HP Sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tsp dried herbs (I used a poultry herb blend)
2 TB tamari or Braggs
For Mashed potato:
7-8 peeled potatoes boiled until tender
1/2 cup soymilk
2 TB margarine

Preheat oven at 350F.

Cook lentils in a pot of water until tender. Drain and set aside. Boil potatoes for the mash. Heat olive oil in a different pot and saute onions, garlic, carrot, pepper, celery until semi-tender. Add mushrooms and saute for a while to sweat them out. Add the cooked lentils, stewed tomatoes, 1/2 cup broth, wine, tomato paste, HP sauce, salt, pepper, herbs and tamari. Cook on medium to allow all vegetables to cook through and reduce liquid a bit. If it dries out, add a little more broth. Total simmer time should be around 10-15 minutes or so. Longer is fine. Keep it on simmer. Mash the potatoes with soymilk and margarine. Season with salt.
Prepare a baking dish sprayed with oil. Pour the lentil filling into the dish and top with the mashed potatoes. Use a fork to drag lines across the top of the potatoes. This will make the topping crisp up in the oven. Bake for 1 hour at 350F.

Turntable is in full force today.

I adapted my friend Hope's "Crack" cookie recipe by using the "Toll House" recipe from last week as a guide and making little tweaks. They came out really good! They are slightly crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside with yummy things inside!

"Crack" Cookies, Vegan Style

In a small bowl stir together:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups quick oatmeal

In a larger bowl cream together:
1/2 cup margarine (Earth Balance), softened
1/2 cup shortening, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla

Then add 1/2 cup of unsweetened apple sauce and stir.

Add in the flour mixture little by little and stir as you go to incorporate all ingredients.
Add 12 oz. chocolate chips
Add 1 cup shredded coconut
Add 1/4 of a bar of grated chocolate (I used 70% dark). Grate the chocolate right into the bowl. (EDIT: USE A FULL BAR OF CHOCOLATE! IT WILL TASTE BETTER!)
Stir together all ingredients and drop by the Tablespoon onto parchment papered cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 F or until golden brown. Remove cookie sheet from oven and slap it down on the counter. This will flatten cookie a bit. Let stand for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling rack.

Vegan Toll House!

Made an old classic last night. I am always looking for a good vegan chocolate chip cookie and there are many good ones out there but I couldn't resist to try this one. The recipe is here. My husband absolutely loved the original Toll House so I asked him his opinion. He said they were the best vegan cookies I've made so far. Not bad! I think they taste great, especially out of the oven. Next time though, I may cut down the salt to half the amount. You must try these.

Lentil Stew & Mash.

Lovely lovely lentil stew. This happens to be Ina Garten's lentil and sausage soup, veganized and instead of sausages I used cut up pieces of Field Roast. It's a really good recipe. You must try it. I was originally going to accompany it with colcannon but I realized while boiling up the potatoes that my kale had gone bad. So I ended up throwing some spinach in the mashed potato along with the soymilk, margarine and green onions. Delicious!

Some Sandwiches.

Leftover Field Roast slices fried with BBQ sauce in a sandwich with coleslaw and hot sauce.

Salad with pickled onions, sweet gherkins, olives.

Grilled cheese using Follow Your Heart cheddar and Tofurky Italian Deli slices.

New Years Eve dinner.

I bought a small 1 lb. Field Roast for my main. I think I like Tofurky Roasts better. Field Roast taste too similar to the sausages. I do like the sausages though.

My attempt at Delia Smith Yorkshire puds! I need to work on them more as far as the look. They need to rise and puff more. I think it was either the kind of pan (muffin) or the fat wasn't heated hot enough. Next time I'll make it right! But the taste was divine. They are really good.

My plate. Served with mash, gravy and green beans.

Festive wine with dinner.

Saw a recipe online for pudding brownies which looked more like a cake so I tried it out with these ingredients. You only need 2 cups of non dairy milk which you whisk with the pudding mix until smooth. Then you add the cake mix to it and stir it up until smooth and bake for 30 minutes in a 350 F oven.

Et voila! Worked a treat. It was nice and tender. I wish the chocolate chips would have melted more.

So so so good! I was so surprised how well it turned out. It is like eating pudding flavored cake. So tender and spongy. Served with Coco Whip of course!