Lustlist | Keeping time

I am consistently late. I'm not very consistent in many, many ways but it's always fairly guaranteed I won't make it somewhere on time.

Hey, I need something in my life that's constant; lateness is that thing.

It's not something I'm proud of, and it's not like I don't want to change. I do. I really do. I just...can't. I've tried, hard, but I just underestimate how long everything and anything will take me. Except for interviews and any kind of course/talk, where I purposefully overestimate EVERYTHING to ensure I'm at least 25 minutes early.

I feel it may be time to get a watch.

Even if it doesn't help (and I am fairly sceptical about this), they're pretty darn attractive. There are some seriously cute styles out there at the moment. I wasn't sure what I was looking for when I first went hunting, but I think it's pretty clear I didn't end up going for plastic, neon, metal or chunky.

I guess I've found my watch style.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

How cute are these?!?! Prices range from £15-£240 so there's definitely something for everybody. Personally I think my choice would between 3 and 4. £240 or £20... Hmm, tough decision.

Which is your favourite?

What arm candy are you sporting at the moment?

Recipe | Winter-spiced Nuts

I needed a recipe for Mother's Day which was vegan and fairly simple. I found this recipe for some 'Party Nuts' over at Food Coma (you can now find Emma at A Beautiful Mess, my favourite little virtual place in the world right now) and they fit the bill perfectly. I used sunflower spread instead of butter and plenty of sugar and cinnamon - delish!

Winter-spiced Nuts

Nuts - I went for roughly a cup each of Almonds, Pecans and Walnuts

(Roughly) 4 tablespoons melted sunflower spread (can use butter)

Brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Sprinkle of ground nutmeg

Pinch of salt

1. Toast nuts in a dry pan, making sure to keep them moving to prevent them from burning.

This should be done over a medium heat for about 5 mins. I started on the lowest heat and it took for fricking ever. Thank goodness I'd decided to use walnut pieces as the pecans and almonds were pretty difficult to work out if they were toasting or not!

2. Melt sunflower spread (/butter).

3. Mix brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. I had used a full mini tupperware of each of the nuts, and used about 1/2 this tub of sugar.

4. When toasted, take nuts off heat and add melted sunflower spread. Be careful! I forgot the pan had JUST BEEN TOUCHING FIRE and the butter bubbled and spat a LOT. Stir thoroughly when it's calmed down.

5. Add sugar/cinnamon/nutmeg mixture, making sure to mix well.

6. Sprinkle a tiny amount of salt (not entirely necessary if you don't want to).

I found this little glass jar in a cookery shop nearby and it's perfect for storing these little nuts, and to give away as a present!

And there were even a few nuts left over which couldn't fit in the jar... Oh no...

These are SUPER yummy. I put a lot of cinnamon in my recipe so they are really festive and tasty. The only thing stopping me calling these Festive Nuts was that I didn't want to only be able to eat them in during the festive period!

Recipe | Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

I have become obsessed with recipes on blogs.

Obsessed.

There are two birthdays at work this week and I wanted to make some chocolaty treats as presents, so naturally I turned to the big-netty-webness on a hunt for something suitably simple but yummy.

Having whiled away hours over at A Beautiful Mess, I discovered Emma's Food Coma where I stumbled onto this recipe for homemade peanut butter cups.

How could I possibly resist anything that involved mini cupcake holders?!

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Makes 24 mini cups
400g dark chocolate - I used Bourneville

Oil

Peanut butter (I'd say you only need about 1/4 of a tub)

Icing sugar*

Butter*

Brown sugar*

1. Melt 200g chocolate with a tablespoon of oil. I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between until it was all melty and awesome.

2. Put a teaspoon-ish of chocolate in each mini cupcake holder.

3. Tap the tray gently on the work surface to evenly distribute the chocolate. Put in the fridge, making sure the tray is balanced until the chocolate has set.

Here's where everything gets a bit tricky. The original recipe said to melt peanut butter, butter, sugar and slowly add icing sugar until you have a thick, creamy batter, at which point you need to roll it into small balls.

Roll.

Batter.

Roll.

This did not work. Obviously. To be honest I think you'd be fine just using peanut butter alone, although perhaps some added icing sugar would help to thicken it? Unsurprisingly, this next step was...messy.

4. I used my two forefingers to gently blob the peanut butter mixture into the cases, careful to make sure there was space all the way around for the top layer of chocolate. This started to harden pretty quickly on the cold chocolate and I slightly flattened the blobs with a knife so that they sat lower than the top of the cases.

5. Melt the rest of the chocolate with the oil and fill the cases. Tap to evenly distribute. Add more where necessary to ensure flat surfaces before popping back in the fridge to set again.

I found these super cute individual cupcake boxes in Asda, and they were perfect for these little beauts!  With some tissue paper, these boxes held 8 cups.

When I was at uni my housemate was a keen baker. I, on the other hand, was a fiend when it came to the butter icing. In my eyes it was the perfect coupling. I would eat and eat and eat. I'd be sat there, still dipping my spoon into the bowl long after the rest of my housemates had thrown in the towel. Basically, I don't know if you've ever put icing sugar in peanut butter but it turns out you end up with peanut-y butter icing. See that empty mug? Yeah, that happened.

I was wary that I hadn't added enough oil to the chocolate to really...do anything. I don't think I added more than a teaspoon (the original recipe called for a tablespoon) but it stopped the chocolate from hardening properly so these were easy to bite into. You could definitely add more if you wanted them even gooier but I thought it was a decent amount.

* Personally I'm also not convinced you need the extra sugar and butter to make the filling. I thiiiink you could get away with just using peanut butter, which would also make this slightly less messy! I will report back after my next batch...!

And what about any leftovers?

All I have to say is:

Mmmmmm.

Recipe | Roasted Veg & Hummus Tart

Quickly rising to the top ranks of my list of favourite lazy foods is ready-rolled puff pastry. Have you seen this stuff?! You just put it in the oven and it's like you're Jamie Oliver. Sort of.

I thought it was high time I mixed some of my favourite things - roasted Mediterranean veg, hummus and pastry - for a quick and easy hummus tart. Not being a fan of goats cheese (it tastes like licking a goat) or feta (only slightly less like licking a goat) I'm a bit screwed normally when it comes to vegetarian tarts - this is the perfect alternative!

Roasted Veg & Hummus Tart

Recipe is as thorough as ever-
Ready-rolled puff pastry for 1 (I used 1/3 of the packet)
Enough hummus to spread (again I used 1/3 of a tub)
Drizzle of olive oil
A selection of your favourite veggies! I used:
1/2 red bell pepper (capsicum)
1/2 courgette
2 spring onions
3 mushrooms

Optional:
Balsamic glaze

1. Preheat the oven to around 200°c (I like to roast veggies like this high & fast because I'm a greedy, impatient so-and-so)

2. Chop your veg and drizzle a small amount of olive oil over, mix.

The hummus will get a bit melt-y in the oven so we don't want too much extra moisture. The olive oil is just to help the veg along a bit in their roasting.

3. Roll out puff pastry sheet on an oven tray

4. Lightly score a rectangle to separate inside & crust.

5. Spread a dollop of hummus inside the rectangle

6. Add vegetables!

This looked like a LOT and was piled high but all of the vegetables shrink down in the oven so make sure you pile on more than you think you need.

7. Pop in the oven!

I cooked mine for about 17 minutes until it looked like this -

8. Plate up! I fancied a bit of balsamic glaze with this (it is un-believeeeeable and I use it whenever I can) but I wasn't convinced it would go with the hummus so I did a bit of fancy hand-wiggling-work for decoration and dipping. 

Turns out, balsalmic glaze and hummus is HEAVENLY. This would have been immense drizzled over the tart.

The hummus melted slightly and was creamy but tangy. It was the perfect partner for fresh & juicy roasted vegetables and the sweet yet sharp balsamic glaze just brought the whole thing together. So simple, but so delicious. It was light but filling, a perfect weekend lunch dish!

I used Sainsbury's own puff pastry - it didn't seem to have anything non-vegan on the ingredients list (although it also didn't say it was vegan...) but according to the jus-rol website, their puff sheets are definitely vegan - yum yum yum!

What are your favourite easy lunch recipes?

Recipe | easy peasy lemon squeezy pasta!

I'm lazy. In case you hadn't already picked up on this, I'm fairly certain you will have by the end of this post, especially after I ramble on about the wonders of ready-chopped garlic.

I'm not the most wonderful chef in the world. In fact, most of the time I wouldn't even call what I do in the kitchen 'cooking', although I suppose it's closer to this than it is to anything else... I tend to throw a mixture of vegetables into a pan/oven, cook pasta/quinoa/rice/couscous, add beans/pulses, sprinkle in spices/herbs and mix (- delete where necessary, it's a fairly foolproof system I assure you). Cooking complete. Here's a little recipe I threw together for some summer-y inspired pasta. Enjoy!

Siddalee's simple summery pasta!

Makes 1 serving

Pasta for one (I suggest spaghetti, linguine or the like)

1 courgette

1 salad onion (or 3 spring onions)

handful of cherry tomatoes

olive oil

1 teaspoon garlic (or 1 clove)

lemon juice
(can you tell this is my own slap-dash recipe?!)

1. Chop onion, half cherry tomatoes, 'ribbon' courgette with a peeler (or a mandolin if you're fancy).

These salad onions are a lifesaver for me. I never need a whole white or red onion and these rarely make my eyes water. I usually buy spring onions (often labelled as salad onions) but occasionally the supermarket will have the bigger salad onion variant and these are the perfect size for meals for one!

2. Put pasta on to boil, cook as per instructions.

3. About 3/4 mins before pasta is ready, sauté the garlic and onions in a pan.

I ADORE this stuff. I always find when I buy cloves of garlic they go a bit dry before I've used them all up and it's just so messy and a lot of hassle. Pre-chopped garlic can be a bit vinegary and you definitely need to be aware of this during cooking but it smells AMAZING and is such a handy alternative.

4. When the onions soften and begin to golden, add the courgette ribbons. These are so thin they need minimal cooking.

5. Squeeze in lemon juice, taste and add more as necessary (I found the first time I made this I didn't add nearly enough lemon juice to counteract the vinegary-garlicy-ness - you can be fairly liberal with this).

Something else I LOVE. Lemons are a hassle yo. Who needs the bother of buying a whole lemon when you want a little squirt of it on a pancake or in a tomato sauce. Jif all the way my friends.

6. Add halved cherry tomatoes.

7. Drain pasta and add to frying pan. Mix everything together on a low heat for 30 seconds/1 minute max.

And serve!

This is very, very minimal. I'm fairly simple with my meals. I rarely have fancy ingredients in the cupboards and basically never buy cheese. Liberal shavings of parmesan would be amazing in this. Pine nuts would also give you some much needed protein. Personally, I was feeling a carb day. I bought the pasta in France and it is FAT, and not in a rude-boy way. I stuffed my face with this.

Super simple, and made of ingredients I always have in my kitchen. 

What are your go-to meals?

Lustlist | valentine's day ideas - treating yourself

It's hard to miss the fact that Valentine's Day is nearly upon us. You may have a valentine, you may not, but personally I'd suggest using the whole shebang as a wonderful excuse to treat yourself. Flowers and romantic meals are nice, but no-one knows what you want better than, well, little ol' you!

Here are a couple of my picks; go on, treat yourself...

Aesop

Parsley Seed Cleansing Mask

£27

Bloggers everywhere are loving this clay-based mask; it's full of anti-oxidants and cleanses and revives skin to leave it feeling smooth and refreshed. Why not have a pamper-night, curl up in bed with a good magazine (or catch up on blogs!) and give your skin some much needed TLC.

Charbonnel et Walker

Pink Marc de Champagne Truffles

£11.95

Charbonnel et Walker make the most amazing (and delicious) chocolates. Even if you don't fancy forking out £11.95 (at least) for some yummy treats, their shop is worth a look as everything is just so beautiful! Their adorable pink marc de champagne truffles are almost too beautiful to eat. Almost. 

Jemima Lumbley Jewellery

Personalised Handmade Silver Name Necklace

£69

A little bling à la Carrie Bradshaw. Who needs their own Mr. Big when you can have your own Carrie necklace?!

Elle Macpherson Intimates

Hula Dancer contour bra

£36

Hula Dancer brazilian brief

£23

Wearing nice underwear shouldn't be resigned to dates and Clinton Card holidays - buy yourself some nice underwear that makes you feel happy and confident. Elle Macpherson Intimates is a stunning range with something to suit everyone. One of the best things you can do is pop in to your nearest lingerie department and get yourself properly measured - it's amazing how much it can change the comfort and look of your underwear when you're wearing the right size!

Topshop

Space Dye Drape Dress

£38

I've always avoided bodycon dresses; I've never been super confident and the last thing I wanted was to highlight all the things I didn't like about myself. Recently, however, I bought a bodycon midi-dress from Topshop with long sleeves and I finally wore it this weekend and I absolutely love it, even if I do feel sliiiightly lumpy in it! I think long sleeves on a bodycon style dress are flattering and balance the fitted body; this wrap-style dress from Topshop will be even more flattering for those who are a bit self-conscious about their tum!

Minna's room

'Today has been cancelled' pillowcase

£21

This needs no explanation. Buy it. Display it. Most importantly, listen to it.

The Wedding of my Dreams (vom)

Organic Shaped Glass Vase

£18

These vases are so cute! You can pay an extra £3.50 to ensure you get a 'bottle-shaped' vase but I think these organic ones are much more unique and look adorable alone or in a group displaying little stems and single flowers from the garden.

I've never been a massive fan of v-day, and no-one I've spoken to recently seems that enamored with this most amorous of days either; whether you're in a relationship or single, a valentines-lover or -hater, I'd do what you want to do with who you want to do it with. Just like any other day of the year really. Personally, I'll be chowing down on some sushi in celebration of my friend's birthday. Sounds pretty perfect to me!

What are your plans for the 14th? And what will you be treating yourself with?