Why do I travel?

Hello again,


I know I have not blogged in a long while and the reason for that is, I took a break for about 18 days and went travelling off to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Mumbai and Goa. I love taking long vacations. Last summer I backpacked my way across Tamil Nadu - from Hosur to Kanyakymari  and from Coimbatore to Chennai.


The other day I sat jobless-ly and thought about why I enjoy travelling so much. And please don't think I am the kind that goes to a posh resort and spend all my time by the pool or in their spa (even thought that's a great way to relax.) I am the kind that travels like how a nomad wanders. I barely plan my next destination and more often then not take a bus or a train without thinking much about the destination. The joy I incur when the unplanned destination turns out to have great weather, amazing people, excellent food is some thing that will stay with me forever.


That thought and experience right there is why I am inspired to travel so much. In an ideal world I would be travelling all over the world (not necessarily in luxury) every single day of my existence and exploring the planet through my eyes and not through a travel show in a lifestyle channel.


There are some people who travel only to the beaches and then there are others who travel only to the hill stations. And then there is another kind of travelers - the ones who only travel to a place of pilgrimage. I on the other hand am neither of above mentioned kind and yet I belong to all the above kind. I am a wanderer trapped in a city chick. When I first started travelling I went exclusively to hill stations so I could trek and explore the forest, raft through the rivers and camp out. Till date I find trekking very meditative and find the exercise very restful even thought I am actually working my thighs and calves out ( the next day's soreness in my legs stand as proof in elaborate detail.)




The first time I travelled to a place that was not green or surrounded by forests and rivers was to Goa a couple of years ago for my best friends bachelorette party. There too I managed to find a trekking trail to Tamdi Surla and enjoyed the waterfall. But what surprised me the most was that a walk on the sandy beaches and the beautiful sunsets were just as peace evoking as any of my trekking experiences. This feeling was unexpected and surprised me so much that I started to re-think my travel dream for the next five years. This is the reason why I recently went back to Goa again and explored South Goa extensively. I completely gave up on the crowded tourist traps and headed to remote beaches that only a handful of localities were aware of. That opened a new world where I drove through winding roads shaded by coconut trees, ate more quintessentially Goan food, walked on the best most peaceful beaches and caught some of the more spectacular sunsets.


The Goa experience the first time inspired me to go backpacking across Tamil Nadu - and I don't mean the beaches or the coast (although the beach at Kanyakumari was fun.) This time I took the scorching sun inland over the dreaded summer. I started my journey at our country's end in Kanyakumari and travelled north and encountered the best kind of waterfalls. It made me wonder how a state that is so hot and muggy can still have numerous waterfalls (between Namakkal and Coyambattore) of such grace and beauty. This vacation thought me to be more confident and patience and I could finally learn to let go and still be ok when not everything went my way and I was going the way everything else pulled and pushed me. I felt like a piece of wood lost in a beach. Nothing went the way I planned but I learned to accept everything that came my way and by the end of that vacation I was probably more flexible than play dough (I know I am probably kidding myself.)


Now that I had experienced woods, waterfalls, sun and surf it only made sense to go to a sandier desert. So my next destination was the state of Rajasthan. Rajasthan being a state that was once ruled entirely by the kinds is a state like no other. The forts still look formidable, the palaces still look so rich that some still have gold plated ceilings and ruby and emerald encrusted marble floor. The ornate architecture is mind boggling considering the lack of technology and almost every archway and statue was hand made. The attention to detail in the palaces of Rajasthan is like no other. Even the food and the snacks of the state are made with rich ghee and even a commoner eats like royalty. And then there is the desert itself. The only way to travel in the desert is to catch a camel back ride. If you have never ridden a camel then you are in for a startling shock as the camel sways back and forth very violently every time it stands up and sits down but the ride is not too different from horse riding. Camels are very gentle creatures and as they give you a ride they mind their business gurgling the water from their water pouch. If I thought the desert sand will be just as similar to the beaches of Goa then I was absolutely wrong. The desert sand is so fine you can hardly hold it in your hands for a little more than a five seconds. It was super exhilarating to climb over my first sand dune (again unlike what I had seen on TV these were huge and you could easily get lost behind one) and the I got to see the India-Pakistan border. It was here that it struck me so profoundly that I was an Indian and was very proud to be one.


So here I stand thinking why I travel. Is it the wanderer in me or is it the need to be adventurous? Do I travel to escape from the monotony of my life or do I travel to add more color to make my life more vibrant? do I travel for the love of woods or is it that sand? Is it the desire to do something new everyday or just to kill time?


The answer could be a mixture of all but I couldn't tell you that for sure. As long as I am moving from one place to another, learning new cultures and languages, tasting new and exotic food, trekking over a new mountain, walking along a new beach, experiencing a new means of transport I am just very happy. And to me happiness is reason enough to travel the way I do and live on the go.


I would love to hear why you travel too. Please let me know your thoughts in the box below.


We can also be friends on Instagram @sriranjani_n
We can be friends on twitter @Iamsriranjani


If you are interested then you can watch me travel and experience everything I mentioned above on my Youtube channel www.youtube.com/sriranjanin



 

YouTube addiction

If you are an extremely outgoing person and have all the people skills you may never really understand my point view. This blog post is for people like me - introverts, internet addicts and even though we have a lot of work on hand we prefer doing it another time because we would much rather watch a family vlog.

Yes, that's me. Its not that I don't have friend, I do. And its not that I am not a fun person because I love travelling and am very adventurous. But if I were to choose between staying in my room watching YouTube videos and go meet exciting people outside then I would take the first option.

I don't quiet remember the first YouTube video I ever saw but I am sure it was something related to food. I also remember watching a lot of videos of WahChef. The host Sanjay is an exceptionally great chef but he is also hilarious. One of my fondest memories of me and my sister is us watching his entire playlist irrespective of weather we are cooking his recipes or not and laughing heartily at his yummy noises - no offence. This is so way back that YouTube still had the 5 star rating system.

Slowly from all of the cookery videos we broadened our circle of interest and from time to time when we had an event or family gathering to attend to we watched simple hairstyles tutorials and natural makeup tutorials. Although we watched beauty videos very rarely - owing to the fact that my sister and I are total tomboys - whenever we watched one video we would always watch the suggested videos on the side and even though we had settled on a hairstyle we would manage to watch videos for about three to four hours and would only realize we had done so when our mother returned from work and screamed at us for not even getting started on homework.

Well, such is the power of YouTube. Weather you have subscribed to a bunch of channels or you are simply surfing through from channel to channel, the world of videos sucks you in and keeps you mesmerized until you are brought to reality by a violent external force. If you are thinking this is already intense then this is only the beginning of the things to come.

I am sure we have all spent hours on YouTube watching videos and surfing for things that we were not even interested. But there comes a time in every Google account holder's life when he/she will stumble upon one YouTuber whom they find so entertaining that they end up subscribing. The First YouTuber I ever subscribed to was Superwoman. She is a Canadian resident Indian who makes videos that are so funny that you will fall off your chair or drop your laptop laughing. Now I wish it had stopped there but alas, the internet had other plans for me!
All YouTubers at one point of the other collaborate with other YouTubers and make videos together to increase their audience. Hence, I subscribed to Tyler Okley, Zoey Sugg, Troy Sevan, Bethany Mota, Tanya Burr, Alfie Dayze, Caspar Lee, Louis Cole, Thatcher Joe and Marcus Butler. I know its a long list of YouTubers but that's how they get you - they make fun videos together on both YouTubers' channels and ask you to check them both out and subscribe to both. And once you have subscribed there is no turning back. You are so smitten by their charm that you are hooked and watch their videos as and when they publish. But this isn't bad.... it is still only one healthy addiction.


But before you realize, you are following them on Instagram, Snapchat, Blogger and Twitter. When you have reached this level of commitment to a YouTuber there is no way out of the maze. Your parents may be chocking next to you and you would be busy liking your favorite YouTubers' tweets and Instagram pictures. When I was in this stage I got all my friends to subscribe to my favorite YouTubers and whenever I met them I would discuss the latest videos of the YouTubers like how most people discuss TV series. Yet, if there was a major blackout or if your internet server was down you would still survive.


You know you are truly terminal when you are so inspired by your favorite YouTubers that you want to become a YouTuber yourself. Yes me... the introvert! It is not like now that I blog and make videos for YouTube that I have suddenly become an extrovert but now I do love people virtually and I am surprised at how easy it is to make friends on social media. It is like opening a new chapter in my life!


It is because of YouTube that I now have friends all across the world. Also because I am a big stalker I now know their first names, their silly quirks, their interests and oddly enough they are just as interested about me! Now there is just no going back. Throughout the day, I am now replying to comments on my videos, watching my friends make videos on their channels and also watch people who inspire me. I spend nearly twelve hours a day on YouTube and love every minute of it. If there is a power breakdown or if my internet is low, I just pick my camera up and make a video. If I don't find anything interesting to watch then I sit and edit my videos and upload them on my channel. If I am stressed then instead of turning to comfort food like I used to before I now have a set of videos I watch to comfort me. Such is my love and addiction to YouTube and I don't think there is a rehab facility for that.


As I finish this post I am so excited to announce that at this moment my channel hit 200 subscribers and I am ecstatic. Now, this introvert only wants to make more videos, wants to be more inspired and make a lot of new friends! So if you do have the time then please check out my YouTube channel and subscribe. I make videos on beauty, food and DIY projects.


Looking forward to becoming friends with you guys on YouTube. My channel link is:
www.youtube.com/sriranjanin


Love,
Ranju

Christmas fruit cupcake

Easiest Christmas cupcakes ever!

I remember the first time I ever made a fruitcake for Christmas. I started it in the second week of November (I chopped all the dry fruits and let them steep in the alcohol for fifteen days) and baked it in the first week of December and I continued to cure it with alcohol twice a week until the day of Christmas.

Then came the Domestic Goddess Nigella Lawson herself with a super cheats recipe and I must tell you that, that was the cake I made for the past few years as it eliminated all the weeks of steeping and maturing the cake with alcohol. Now this meant I could bake this cake in the second week of December and get away with it without the fuss and the palaver of long elaborate steps and procedures.

Ah! But then I accidently stumbled upon this recipe on pintrest the other day and it claimed to do a lot more with so few ingredients and much lesser time. I got extremely intrigued and after much trial and error devised my own recipe that works every single time like a charm.

Looks so pretty! Makes great Christmas presents too

Now, this cake batter can be either baked into a traditional Christmas cake in a seven inch cake mold  or (if you are pressed for time and patience) into cupcakes. All you need to do to make this cake look pretty is some festive cupcake paper cases and a snowy dusting of icing sugar on top.

Don't forget the snowy icing sugar dusting!

This recipe calls for a kilogram bag of mixed and chopped dried fruits but if you can't find them then you can make your own by chopping and mixing some dried prunes, apricots, dates, cranberries, currants, sultanas, figs, raisins, blueberries, cherries and any other dried fruit you can find.

Also the stronger the espresso you use to make this coffee the better it tastes and the best I can find is the dark Italian roast espresso powder from Starbucks. If you wanted to incorporate booze element into your cake then instead of using two cups of espresso you can use a cup or espresso and a cup of rum or brandy.

Lastly, if you loved my cupcake paper cases and wondered where I bought mine from, I bought mine from Nilgiry's. My paper cases have stars and bells and holly berries and I think by using a festive paper case you are halfway through gift wrapping it if you decide to give these away as gifts - just place them in a transparent plastic bag and tie the open end with a gold ribbon.

Yes, these do make excellent Christmas gifts. If you are a vegetarian or vegan or non-alcoholic or diabetic or have friends who are vegetarians or vegans or non-alcoholics or diabetics then these make great Christmas gifts to give away or to have yourself for Christmas tea.

Finally, if you think you don't want to make this cake into cupcakes and want it to look traditional then you can pour the batter into greased and lined seven inch cake mold and bake in the pre-heated oven at 160C for about 40 minutes or till a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Using a festive cupcake paper case makes it look extra special

Ingredients:
1 Kg mixed, chopped, dry fruits
2 cups (500ml) strong espresso
2 cups (250g) self-rising flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 bar (100g) dark chocolate
2 tablespoon icing sugar (optional)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven at 160C and prepare the cupcake molds by placing the cupcake paper cases in each of them and set aside.
2. Place a heavy-bottom pan on low heat and tumble in the dry fruits and the espresso.
3. Stir till the mixture begins to smoke and take it off the heat. Stir once in a while so the dried fruits absorb some of the liquid and the mixture looks sludgy. Set aside to cool for a bit.
4. Add in the ground cinnamon and the self-rising flour and stir to incorporate and make a smooth batter. If you feel your cake batter is too thick, then add in a splash more of the espresso or milk and stir. 
5. Finally add in the chopped chocolate and stir to combine.
6. Spoon in the cake batter in to the cupcake cases almost to the top and bake in the middle rack for 20 minutes or till a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
7. Set aside till the cakes come to room temperature and just before serving, dust it with icing sugar for a festive indulgence.

A thing of beauty does for Christmas tea time.

If  you want to watch me bake the cupcakes then you can watch them on my YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQQyoEkIE3o

We can also be friends on Instagram @sriranjani_n

and also on twitter @Iamsriranjani

Make sure to tweet me the images of your Christmas cakes because I would love to look at them and drool.

Hot chocolate mix, White hot chocolate mix and spiced Darjeeling tea mix.

Ok the other day I had pulled to out my duvet in the middle of the night to stop my fingers and toes from freezing over. Bangalore is currently in a weather spell where it is cloudy and rainy because of the cyclones from Chennai and also chilly and cold as it is turning winter.

The city is slowly coming into itself. - Starbucks have brought out their Christmas seasonal drinks, Brigade road is getting its seasonal fairy lights and the malls are setting up their giant Christmas trees. Even though Christmas is nearly 5 weeks away I can't help feeling super excited for it.

I guess it is the cold that gets me in the good mood. I have always come across people complaining if it gets cloudy and rainy but I thrive in this weather. I am found pulling out my favourite sweatshirts, Christmas jumpers, my reindeer socks and my numerous scarves.

But I am also found with one other thing. Its always a large mug-full of my favourite warming, soothing, hot cuppa.

Hot chocolate

There can be nothing better than a cup of hot chocolate when you feel like your fingers have gone numb. And if you are the person who finds rain and cold irksome and depressing then the chocolate will help your mood. 

I agree you can buy perfectly good hot cocoa mix in the supermarkets today but my hot chocolate mix is pretty phenomenal and greatly festive. Considering it is the festival season I think it is ok to indulge too.

Ingredients:

Unsweetened cocoa powder

Sugar

70% Dark chocolate

Vanilla custard/ pudding mix

Mini marshmallows

Procedure:

Into a glass jar of your choice, add the cocoa powder till about a fifth of the jar is filled. Now add the sugar and Vanilla custard mix powder in the same quantity as the cocoa powder. Now break the dark chocolate into tiny pieces or cut it into shards and add till yet another fifth of the jar is covered. Finally add the marshmallows till the very top and seal with the lid.

To make the hot chocolate:

To serve one person, add about two tablespoons of the hot chocolate mixture into a pan (set aside the marshmallows for later) and add a small splash of milk at room temperature. Stir with a fork till there are no lumps and add about a cup full of milk. Set this on a low flame and stir till the chocolate has dissolved and the liquid is smoking and thickened.

Pour this into a mug of your choice and tumble in the marshmallows. If you are in the mood for it then add a swirl of whipped cream, more marshmallows and a sprinkling of chocolate chips on top.

White hot chocolate 

If you love dark hot chocolate or if you feel like you have had enough to last you a lifetime (which happens to me after I have had a large mug everyday for a week) then this is a delicious alternative. This pale, creamy white hot chocolate is nothing short of magnificence and equally delicious and flavourful as the dark hot chocolate above.

This too is just as simple and easy to make as the above recipe but with a small alteration in the ingredients.

Ingredients:

Sugar

Vanilla custard/ pudding mix

White chocolate

Mini marshmallows

Procedure:

Into a glass jar of your choice add a fourth of each of the above ingredients. Break the chocolate into tiny pieces or shards and seal with the lid.

To make the white hot chocolate:

To serve one person, add about two tablespoons of the white hot chocolate mixture into a pan (set aside the marshmallows for later) and add a small splash of milk at room temperature. Stir with a fork till there are no lumps and add about a cup full of milk. Set this on a low flame and stir till the chocolate has dissolved and the liquid is smoking and thickened.

Pour this into a mug of your choice and tumble in the marshmallows. If you are in the mood for it then add a swirl of whipped cream, more marshmallows and a fresh grating of nutmeg on top.

Spiced Darjeeling tea mix

If you are a tea addict like most of us Indians are, then you will be so glad this came into your life. It is spicy and so warming that it is almost like mulled wine. If you do want a splash of alcohol then you can add a generous slosh of rum into this drink and in the above ones as well to keep you going. I absolutely love this and this makes waking up in the morning so much easier.

Ingredients:

Darjeeling tea leaves (or chai leaves)

Sugar

4 tablespoons black pepper

4 tablespoons cumin seeds

1 long dried lemon grass

1 dried ginger root

6 green cardamom pods

1 stick of cinnamon

Procedure:

Into a glass jar of your choice add the tea leaves till a third of the jar is filled and add the sugar till another third of the jar is filled. Now add in the black peppercorns, the cumin seeds and the green cardamom pods. Break the cinnamon stick, dried lemon grass and dried ginger root into tiny pieces and add on top. Seal with the lid to store.

To make the spiced Darjeeling tea

To serve one person, add about two tablespoons of the tea mixture into a pan and add a small splash of water. Place this on medium flame and let it come to a boil. Now add a cup of milk, stir with a fork and simmer for about a minute or two till the milk has taken on the color and flavour of the tea and the spices. Strain the tea and pour it into a mug of your choice. 

If you are in the mood for it then add a swirl of whipped cream for a bit of an indulgence.

That being said you can watch me make these on YouTube and while you are at it subscribe to my channel and give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxFkjJVDG9w

If you try this you can take pictures and tag me in Instagram @sriranjani_n

We can also be friends on twitter @Iamsriranjani

Let me know in the comments if you try this and how you liked it because I am so curious.

October favorites

October has swiftly passed and it is now November! So for this blog post I thought I will talk about a few of the beauty products that I have used joyfully throughout last month and favored a lot over other products. But before I begin I want to apologia to you guys because I couldn't post this any sooner And I will tell you why in my next post.

Firstly I want to talk about this Original source shower gel.

Oh my god...! the fragrance of this product is beyond words to me. It reminds me of the lavender plant that I grew a couple of years ago. The fragrance is exactly so and makes me want to believe what is written on the bottle - "157 relaxing lavender flowers are packed." I just drizzle a bit of this product on my loofah to lather up and it does not make my skin dry. So considering how cold it is getting these days this is my essential shower product now.

This next product is amazing. It is the Body Shop's Vitamin E cream exfoliator

This product is in my favourite color baby pink and the exfoliating granules are so fine that frankly no matter what force and vigour you use it on your face your skin is safe. also this exfoliator is so moisturising that it is definitely my winter pick for the month.

The second product I have been enjoying throughout October is this tube of L'Oreal True Match BB Cream.

To begin with I am not a person who likes to put on a lot of makeup everyday. I like to keep it simple because I think I will loose my mind if I have to keep stressing about my make-up and touching it up everyday. Since we are finally able to get hold of BB creams in India now I must have tried many many varieties and found most of them super disappointing. Finally I found this in Health and Glow and boy I am so glad to have stumbled upon it. This product is definitely is not cakey and comes with SPF 30 so this product is a win-win for me.

The third product that I have been using above all others is my Playboy perfume.

Now I am not a person with playboy fetish or even the kind that dresses sexy and want to come across sultry and I am definitely not looking for a perfume that does that for me. But this perfume was on sale in the website I bought it from and it smells so great. Everytime I wear it my friends are always complimenting me and always asking what perfume I am wearing. There are a few varieties available in this range but mine is in the fragrance Play it lovely and it truly is lovely.

The next produce is my TIGI Bed Head Foxy Curls Hi Def Curls Spray.

This product is my absolute favorite for curly hair. This product and only this product seems to manage my frizzy curly mane. I have written a full review on this product in my previous post and if you want to read more about it you can definitely check that out here.

My last and definitely not the least pick is the Cotton Flower scented candle from Living Essence.

I want to tell you first of all that I have never seen of even sniffed cotton flower so I don't really know if the scent of this candle truly matches that of the cotton flower but I do know that this candle has the most unique and the most pleasant floral smell. I lit it throughout Diwali to keep the gunpowder smell off the crackers off my room and it worked. Also this candle burns so slow that it truly lasts for such a long time. And also look at the airtight bottle it comes in; so pretty...! I bought mine from Central and I highly recommend that you give it a sniff at the very least if not buy it next time you are there.

Let me know if you enjoyed the post and also comment below and let me know what you have been enjoying throughout this month because I want to go buy them and use them too.

I also happen to have a YouTube channel and you can click below if you want to check that out

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHciM8wE8UYy0tTiRWI9bTA

Also, we can be friends on Instagram @sriranjani_n 

You can also follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/AtRanjus 

TIGI Bed Head Foxy Curls Hi-Def Curl Spray Review

If you are a girl with curly, frizz prone, dry hair then the TIGI Bed Head Foxy Curls Hi-Def curl spray is God sent for you.

The best hairspray for curly hair

I bought this from purplle.com (no... neither purplle.com nor TIGI are paying me for writing this review. Although, If anybody from purplle.com or TIGI is reading this then feel free to pay me.)

Packaging and appearance:
The product comes in a leak-proof plastic container with a spritzer attachment and hence I find it travel friendly. Also the bottle is such a pretty purple as you can see in the image above.

Product description behind the bottle:
Upgrade your curls to HD! Get highly defined frizz-free, separated curls. Spray in wet hair and style or in dry hair to touch up your curls. (This product definitely delivers what it says. It does make my hair frizz-free and also keeps it from tangling. And as promised this product does not make my curls clumpy and really does make my curls look bouncy and beautiful.)

Ingredients:
Water, Alcohol Denat (SD alcohol 40-B), Polyacrylate-22, Methacryloyl Ethyl Betane/Acrylates Copolymer, Parfum (fragrance), Quaternium-52, Methyl Gluceth-20, Polysorbate 20, Oleth-20, Isopropyl C12-15-Pareth-9 Carboxylate, Tetrasodium Edta, Panthenol, Citral, Citronellol, Geraniol, Limonene, Linalool. (Wow... did not understand a word there even though I typed it for 15min now).

Price: Rs. 915 (as sold by purplle.com)

Quantity : 200ml/ 6.76fl. oz.

Before I give you a detailed explanation of how good this product feels on my hair let me first tell you about my hair. I have frizz prone curly hair myself and before this product came into my life I have faced some serious ridicule from friends and family about how bushy my mane was. If you ever had hair like this then you have probably experienced too that managing and maintaining any proper hairstyle is next to impossible. While all of my friends had beautiful shiny hair I used to feel like I constantly had bad-hair days throughout the year every year. (Ah....! I only just realized - this is probably why I keep blocking out most of my teenage memories.) But those days are behind me now.

When I first decided to buy this product I thought it was a bit pricy but I had chopped off all of the chemically straightened hair and was desperately looking for something to bring my hair back to health which could also tame my hair so I shelled the money out. Well, do I regret or still think it is pricy...? Absolutely not! I have been using this product since 3 months now and I wash my hair at least twice a week and you can see from the picture above how much is used up. The thing about this product is that a little goes a long way. I have mid length hair and just 4 spritz is all it takes. Even though on the bottle they say you can use it on both wet and dry hair I have only ever used it on wet hair. I spritz it on towel dry hair and work my fingers through to disperse the product throughout the length of my hair. Finally I scrunch my hair a bit to enhance my curls and I let my hair dry naturally and the curls into soft, light, silky, shiny curls.

And unlike most hair sprays this does not spray like a deodorant but spritzes small quantities like an expensive perfume which is perfect because you will not get it on your face or run the danger of spraying a bit too much. And speaking of perfume this product smells sweet (actually a bit too sweet) like Skittles (omg... if you haven't eaten skittles ever then please go buy it here as it is the best thing ever....!) I am personally not a fan of sweet scents but since I use only small amount of this product I find it is not too overwhelming.

There are a few other thing I want to mention about this product - firstly, the spray does not make my hair sticky or greasy, secondly, it does not weigh my hair down and make it feel like it is made of wires, thirdly, my curly are now shiny and healthier looking than they ever looked in my entire life.

Also if you are not a person with curly hair and want to curl your hair to make it more lively then this product is fantastic. My sister who has fairly straight hair tried this on her hair and tried to curl the lower half of her hair and she absolutely loved it. It gives a good hold on your curls and if you have long hair and sometimes feel that your curls are getting limp because of the weight of the hair then this is perfect for you as it keeps your curls lively, perky and bouncy.

So overall this product gets double thumbs up from me and I highly recommend that you buy it if you have curly hair looking to curl your hair.

Also if you want to check out my curls in action you can go through my Youtube channel and subscribe https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHciM8wE8UYy0tTiRWI9bTA/feed

Please share this review with any curly haired sister you might know so they can have great hair days too.

Finally guys this is my first product review and I hope you find it useful, If there is anything that I have forgotten to mention about then please ask for it in the comments section below
and I will definitely answer them all.

3 healthy snacks

I am a person who cannot hold with strict diets. In fact the very day I put myself into a diet I break it - absolutely no self-restraint at all. I must have tried just about all the different kinds of diet plans out there in an attempt to lose weight or stay healthy and I am sure I have failed to keep up with them all.

Now the only way I can eat healthy is by eating junk food in moderation and also I have managed to convert healthy fruits and vegetables into delicious snacks so that way I am not being over indulgent and I feel like I am eating almost right. 

Having said that, these days I find myself so busy that I hardly have time to hit the kitchen perky. So I tend to opt for food that can me made within moments and also the ingredients for which are almost always there in my pantry.

Yum yum

Cinnamon dusted apples

So without wasting much time I am going to talk about snack number 1 - I don't think you can ever come across an easier snack. It has two ingredients and takes less than two minutes to put together. Yeah... thats right!

There is nothing quite like crisp apples

Ingredients:

1 unwaxed apple

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Chop the apple into quarters and chop each quarter into three wedges. Cut the core out and tumble the pieces onto a plate.
2. Sprinkle over the ground cinnamon and toss to mix.

I like to eat this when I am catching the re-run of Big Boss in the evening but you can eat it anytime you crave for something crispy (apples can be crispy when they are fresh) or if you want to jazz up boring fruits. 

Apple and cinnamon... Best Friends Forever!

Also you can replace the apples with ripe bananas or pears or peeled and chopped pineapples.

Toasted and flavored nuts

Nut are good for you. I always have a small packet of almonds in my bag to munch on to satisfy hunger pangs when I am on the go. Also the oil in the nuts is good for your skin, it is great for you hair and I find this particularly useful now that winter is kicking in and every part of your body needs hydration.

Flavored nuts=healthy snacks

Ingredients:

2 cups mixed nuts (I use equal quantities of cashew nuts, almonds, peanuts, walnuts and pistachios) 

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon muscovado sugar

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon dried mango powder

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Method:

1. Into a pan set over medium-low flame tumble in the nuts and dry roast them till they are just beginning to take on color. 
2. Now add in the rest of the ingredients and stir till the sugar and the butter have melted and each and every nut is coated evenly.
3. Take this off the heat and tumble into bowl.

Let this cool for a bit and you are ready to enjoy straight away or store in airtight containers. I used to take this to work to snack in the bus on my way back home.

What more can you ask for when the end result is sweet, spicy, tangy and salty?

Strawberry and chocolate popcorn

The smell of popcorn being made in your neighbors house is enough to make you crave for them. As a snack these are very easy and quick to make and also so healthy for you. But when they come in strawberry and chocolate flavor you have no excuse at all really.

Clever popcorn; fulfils your chocolate craving along with any craving you might have for salty crispy morsels

Ingredients:

4 tablespoon sunflower oil

1 teaspoon salt

A handful of popcorn  kernels

1 bar good white chocolate

1 bar good dark chocolate

1 teaspoon strawberry jello mix

Method:

1. Into a high-sided, heavy-bottom pan set over medium-low flame add in the oil, the salt and the popcorn kernels. Cover with a lid making sure there is a small steam escape and let the kernels pop. When the popping has almost subsided you know you are done. Take this off the heat and uncover.
2. Meanwhile, break the dark chocolate into a bowl and melt either in your microwave oven or on double boiler. Give the same treatment to the white chocolates as well.
3. Add the strawberry jello mix into the melted white chocolate and stir to dissolve. Pour this over the popcorn. Pour over too the melted dark chocolate and stir so that the pale white of the popcorn is speckled with the pink and brown of the chocolates.

A mountain of popcorn

Pour this into individual bowls and enjoy movie hour at home.

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Now, you can also watch me make these snacks on my YouTube channel

http://youtu.be/x7zXGSmQ7ws

Also, when you make these snacks take pictures and tag me on instagram @sriranjani_n because I would love to watch you do them.

You can also follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/AtRanjus