Santa Baby...

It's been over a month since my last post and that simply will not do! I'm not one for excuses but being a poor student has meant that there have been very few fashion or beauty purchases as of late. BUT a girl can dream and that's exactly what this post is about; dreaming, more specifically, dreaming about Christmas jumpers. From the tacky to the tasteful to the downright ridiculous, I love them all!

With December 25th just ten sleeps away there's still plenty of time to nab yourself a festive knit whatever your tastes. Here are some of my personal favourites;

L-R Boohoo, New Look, ASOS, Topshop, River Island

1. My all time favourite Christmas jumper! The berry red makes this one a little less tacky, but let's face it, any jumper with a huge slogan is gonna be tack-tastic. Who cares, it's Christmas! You can get this one for a bargain £15 from Boohoo.com.

2. This ones a little less garish but equally adorable, for those of you who don't need any help getting into the Christmas spirit and just wanna show your excitement! A little more than the previous knit at £27.99.

3. I love love love this jumper from ASOS, it's so cute and the traditional print is a lot more understated which, by my estimations, means you can definitely get away with wearing this right up till February! Making the £35 price tag all the more worth it.

4. Now I personally really like Topshop's Christmas jumper offering; The oversized holly motif would put even Ebenezer Scrooge in the holiday spirit! This one comes in at £50.

5. As far as the tacky jumpers go, this one is my number one. It's got everything: red and green, Christmas trees, a cute 'Under the Mistletoe' Slogan and an element of fairisle print! You can still order on in time for Christmas from River Island for £35.

The great thing about Christmas jumpers is that even the most fashion forward of us will embrace the ugly, the tacky and the bloody amazing, comfy, cozy knits to celebrate the holiday season! Team with a pair of jeans, killer boots and you're good to go :)

Until next time ;) xoxo 

Urban Indian Canteen: Tamatanga (Where else?!)

I've been a neglectful blogger it's shameful, if my blog were a child social services would have taken her away by now! I'm afraid third year is kicking my little behind and it's only the first term... Scary stuff. But enough about that, I've been meaning to write this blog post for weeks and weeks! I recently made not one, but two trips to the fabulous (yes it's that good) Tamatanga in Nottingham.

I come from an Indian family that know food. So it takes a lot for Indian cooking to rival my mums, which is why I often avoid Indian restaurants but I'd heard nothing but good things about this place so we ventured in...

Firstly, there's a warm and really inviting atmosphere in this place that makes you think it'd be far more expensive than it is. Our first trip was being paid for on expenses so we didn't hold back (free food always tastes the best). We had onion bhajis to start which were delicious and what made them even better was they were gluten free! They were accompanied by a yoghurt and mint dip (I think! Whatever it was it was to die for). 

My boyfriend got the malai lamb chops- this looked pretty awesome even to me and I don't eat meat! He described it as the best lamb he'd ever tasted and it kept him quite for a good ten minutes so I can only assume that it was scrummy. The menu sums it up beautifully, tender lamb shops marinated  overnight with ginger, garlic and freshly ground cloves, with a mint and coriander chutney.

I went the whole hog and decided on the vegetarian thali, so I had four dishes, naan and poppadums not to mention salad and another onion bhaji! Embarrassingly the couple at the table next to us were sharing this between them... This was great as I got to try a bit of everything- the naans are so fluffy and tasty and the curries were really tasty. They give you a choice of one curry and then give you a selection of three others. I went with the paneer makhni which was accompanied with daal makhni, bombay aloo and bhindi do piaza. All of these looked so good I didn't really know where to start! 

All in all a very good first trip! The second time round I went for one of the curry bowls, I chose the paneer makhni again because it was so good first time! The garlic naan was delicious both crispy and light :)

If all of that wasn't good enough if you go along before 5 you can get a curry bowl (with naan or rice) and a drink for £6.95! So if you're ever in Nottingham definitely take a break from shopping and head over to Tamatanga.

:) xoxo

Birthdays Are Natures Way Of Telling You To Eat More Cake

I don't really need any excuse to make a cake but the boyfriends birthday proved to be the perfect opportunity to try out a recipe my good friend Hannah sent me for a flour-less, yes you read that correctly, a flour-less chocolate cake.

Having recently found himself to be intolerant to gluten my lovely boyfriend is still adjusting to his new diet, so the best thing I can do is try to make some delicious treats to make up for it ;)

So lo and behold my very first attempt at a flour-less cake;

It's no where near perfect, I used a rather large tin which made the cake really thin and its a teeeeeeny bit over cooked. Despite this I'm pretty chuffed with this as my first go purely because it still tastes pretty damn good! 

I'd also like to bring this lemon and blueberry baked cheesecake to your attention, also gluten free, made by my boyfriends mum. With a dash of cream it was the bees knees, really moreish and just delish.

You can find a recipe the chocolate cake pretty much anywhere, I like to go with the BBC as their recipes are clear, simple and easy to follow. Must go, it is the day of rest and we have lots of wine to drink and cake to eat!

What's your favourite gluten free dessert recipe?

Lusting After... Skirts

I'm a strange one, I usually covet more dresses and skirts during autumn and winter than I ever do in summer and this season New Look are doing it for me! I've spotted so many skirts that really just belong in my wardrobe so I thought I'd share a few of my favourites with you (Mainly to make up for being such a bad blogger!) 

1., 2., 3., 4., 5.

Really quick post today as I feel like all I've done this evening is sit in front of my laptop! I WILL be blogging much more soon :) xoxo

She (Occasionally!) Cooks; Veggy Chilli

I've been a vegetarian my entire life and it's never something that I've considered changing about myself. Like most vegetarians I have struggled to get a sufficient amount of protein in my diet (there's only so many nuts a girl can eat!) but then along came Quorn! I know I don't have a frame of reference but I think it tastes pretty damn good, so I thought I would share one of my favourite meals with you all; chilli. I love anything and everything Mexican and chilli makes for a really hearty winter warmer and it's great on a student budget too! 

So here's what I use for this yummy meal;

Olive Oil, Rice, Ouorn Mince, Pointed red pepper, 1/2 Tin of Mixed Bean Salad, Chopped Tomatoes, 1 green chillie, Crushed Chillies, 1/2 red onion, 1 Clove of garlic and generous handful of coriander.

I will admit that I am the worst at cooking rice. But this Asda white rice came out surprisingly good! I just took a handful (roughly enough for one person) added a tiny bit of oil and salt to the boiling water and let it gently simmer while I cooked the chilli. 

The great thing about Quorn is that you can cook it from frozen, so I threw in a dash of oil to a hot frying pan and cooked the mince on a low heat. I then added the chopped onion, green chilli and garlic (I always crush garlic to get more flavour) and let that cook through. I then chucked in about half a tin of chopped tomatoes and sliced red pepper followed by the beans. Slowly let that simmer and thicken slightly before adding salt and pepper to taste and some crushed chillies for extra heat. Keep tasting it so you don't end up blowing your heads off!

Finish off with a good amount of coriander and let all the flavours combine for about five minutes before serving with rice and lots of cheese!

Et viola! A really filling and satisfying dinner, maybe not one to have just before donning that new body con leather skirt... But hey that's what Spanx are for!

I'm back to living away from home so I'll be experimenting a lot more with food and blogging all of my successes and some of my mishaps (I'm sure they'll be a few!)

:) xoxo

High Street Wish List

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

I've been a very bad blogger this last couple of weeks but I' all settled in my lovely new uni flat now so I shall be posting lots more. Plus I'm back in Nottingham which usually means going shopping all the time! All of that aside, here are my favourite high street pieces for A/W 2013;

1. It was love at first sight, as soon as the student 20% River Island event starts I will be straight in there for these little ankle boots! I find ankle boots can be a bit awkward on me but these sit a little lower which it perfect for me because I hate boots that make my ankles look chunky! And the gold capped toes are just bootiful.

2. I gasped a little when I saw this little skirt. Enough said.

3.Tartan? Check. Fur Collar? Check. Boxy boyfriend fit? Check. I was unaware that such sheer perfection could exist in a coat plus it looks like it'd be so cosy warm for the winter months. Miss Selfridge have done well here!

4.Even more tartan but hey, can't have enough tartan can you? 

5. I am obsessed with leather look anything at the moment and I think these quilted shorts have that added bit of texture, definitely on the 'To Buy!' list. 

6. Its a quilted sweatshirt with a tapestry accent, basically A/W in a jumper.

"The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy."

Well said Yves Saint-Laurent, well said. 

I love the routine of putting my make up on in the mornings and I'm also very very nosy and love reading other blog posts about everyday make up so I thought I'd share my make up bag with you all...

So this is what I put on my face to make me just that little bit more presentable to the world;

Mac Face and Body Foundation, Benefit Erase Paste, Benefit Pore-fessional, Rimmel Exaggerate Eye Liner, Bourjois 16h Liner Pinceau, No7 Eyebrow pencil, Mac Magnetic Attraction Mineralize Eye Shadow (used as a blush), Mac Goldmine Frost, HD Brows Brow Beater aaaaaand Benefit They're Real! Mascara. 

The foundation and blusher brushes I use are from Body Shop and the eyeshadow brush is NARS. 

Wow, sounds like a lot when I list it!My make up bag is from Topshop and I love it, fits so much but isn't too bulky. 

The two things I could not and would not live without are the Mac Face and Body foundation and the Mac Magnetic Attraction Mineralize Eye Shadow that I use as a blusher. The foundation is almost like a tinted moisturiser and gives a really nice natural dewy finish. At just £27 for 120ml its the best value Mac foundation, this is my second bottle and my first lasted me almost a year of using it everyday! It's great if you only need a light coverage and works perfectly alongside a good concealer. 

The eyeshadow/blusher hybrid is the love of my make up life. The make up artist at the Mac store in Westfield was amaaazing, so amazing that I ended up spending about £60, but that's another story... He swept it across my cheeks and then that was it! It leaves a really nice shimmer on my cheeks which subtle and natural looking, big thumbs up from me :)

 I sadly dropped it in the bathroom last week which it why its crumbled slightly AND they've discontinued it so I'm on the hunt for a new one. 

What's in your make up bag?

:) xoxo