She Wears (She Wishes!)...

I haven't blogged in far too long and my excuse can be that I've been leading a very dull life lately... I'm in my final six months of being a student so hopefully this time next I won't still be living on such a tight budget! One thing that I am actually rather excited about is my upcoming 21st birthday which has lead me to window shop online lusting after all these beautiful things that I can't afford. So I thought I'd share my pain with you all, here are some pieces that have stolen my heart...

1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8.

1. Topshop £60. I am not a bag person, I am a shoe person. I much prefer slipping on a gorgeous new pair of shoes than using a new bag for the first time, so it takes a special bag to make me lust after it. That my friends it this Topshop leather and croc effect suede bag. I love the slouchy look and the fact that it has long and short straps.

2. Topshop £46. I'm a sucker for foral dresses and I love this monochrome version, love the little cut outs at the shoulders. Great for nice little evening out for dinner or drinks.

3. Topshop £40. My housemate and I have been practically salivating over these leather shorts since September. You've probably seen them in store so I won't go into telling you how incredible they are.

4.&7. Olivia Burton £85/ £125. I haven't been a huge fan of this rose gold trend if I'm honest but it was love at first sight when I saw both these watches. The black is sophisticated enough for evening wear but would make a great statement for during the day. And the white is just lovely, simple and elegant. I can't choose between them!

5. Missguided £40. I spotted this jumpsuit on a fellow course mate at a Christmas party and I keep opening it up on my browser and then somehow I resist the urge to just buy it! I just worry that it'd swamp my tiny frame, but the blue is just beautiful and the draping and all the sexy straps makes it a great outfit for nighttime. 

6. Topshop £48. It's been a long time since I left my chunky heels behind in favour or strappy little sandals but these really caught my eye, I love the combination of textures and their simplicity.

8. Topshop £32. I am yet to find a skort that I really really love but this slightly different take on the trend is a winner in my book, the sexy slit is just enough to take this little number from dinner to dance floor.

She Eats Burgers: Carnaby Burger Co.

This Saturday was a day of firsts. My first visit to the IMAX in London (The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug was amazing) and it was also the first time I'd ever eaten at this lovely little burger restaurant near Carnaby Street called Carnaby Burger Co., which is what I really want to talk about. 

As a vegetarian family whenever we go out and fancy some comfort food in the shape of a burger we tend to stuck with one of two options: a sad portobello mushroom or a drier than sawdust bean burger. So it was a very pleasant surprise to see so many interesting vegetarian options on the menu. 

There was the usual vegetarian section of the menu but they also highlighted where a vegetarian substitution could be made. Even better the menu was full of gluten free options so needless to say I'll be taking the boyfriend.

Firstly I want to say how quick the service was, we'd just chowed down on our starter of nachos when our mains arrived.

I decided upon the Quorn Chicken, Mushroom and Swiss burger and fries. To quote the menu it was; a sautéed portobello mushroom, fried onions, melted Emmental cheese with peppercorn sauce (this was seriously delicious).

It goes without saying that we all left with very happy tums! All us vegetarians and meat eaters were satisfied - I distinctly remember my sisters boyfriend describing his burger as 'perfect' and my sister was ready to eat her falafel burger all over again.

The season of stuffing your face has most certainly begun! Have a great Christmas everyone!!! xoxo 

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