August 14, 2013

Roasty Toasty Milkshake

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Ever since we had our first toasted marshmallow milkshake in Las Vegas, we were HOOKED. No one tends to like whizzing them up on this side of the world though for some reason? Favouring the salted caramels, and the classic chocolates instead. Our local favourite cafe does a beautiful Peanut Butter and Chocolate one that is always ordered by Hubster Lee. After making this, what I like to call, Roasty Toasty milkshake, I'm going to ask the cafe chef to see if they would like to employ the toasted marshmallow method into their future menus :)

A Roasty Toasty in this household is essentially a Roasted Strawberry and Toasted Marshmallow milkshake.
Do you remember this 'Pops of Pink' post? I got the idea to roast strawberries from seeing the roasted strawberry icecream inspo that I found for that post from Pinterest. Weirdly, strawberries are cheap in the supermarkets here and its not even spring yet. Not complaining I swear!... it gives a perfect opportunity to try roasting strawberries. Holy moly, its like instant strawberry pie filling, and elevates the normal toasted marshmallow milkshake taste to another level.


The recipe is pretty loosely based on how many strawberries you want to roast, so play around with the proportions to your taste! Also, if you like a pretty thick milkshake like I do, you could probably do without, so play with this quantity depending on how liquid you like your drinks :)

Roasty Toasty 

- A Roasted Strawberry & Toasted Milkshake Recipe -

Ingredients
  • 1-2 punnets Strawberries, tops hulled off
  • 1 tablespoon White Sugar + extra for sprinkling
  • 1-1.5 tablespoon Water
  • 0.5-1 teaspoon good Vanilla Extract (or a good blob like I did)
  • 0.5-1 teaspoon Balsamic Glaze (or a good blob like I did) 
  • Vanilla icecream / Choc Chip Vanilla icecream
  • 5-7 Toasted Fluffy marshmallows and a couple more for garnish (or to snack!)
  • 30-40ml milk (or a few dashes like I did)
  • 2 Tablespoons plain or vanilla yoghurt

Steps
Roasted strawberries
  1. Preheat your oven to bake, 180 degrees celcius
  2. Combine and whisk the sugar, water, vanilla extract and balsamic in a small dish.
  3. Place your hulled strawberries in an oven dish, 'pointy' bits facing up, and drizzle the balsamic vanillery sauce over these strawberries. Sprinkle a bit of white sugar on top and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes
  4. Take the strawberries out of the oven to cool down a bit. The sauce should have reduced to a syrupy liquid by the time it is fully cooled
You can make the roasted strawberries ahead of time and have them in a jar in the fridge to keep for about a week or so!
Roasty Toasty milkshake
This was for 2x 500ml glassful as in the pictures above. You can happily half this recipe and serve for 2 happy peeps!
  1. Toast your marshmallows either by skewering them on a kebab stick and waving over a gas stove flame, torching with a creme brulee gas torch, or by laying it out on an oven tray under the grill for a couple of minutes, until it is as toasty as you like your marshmallows to be!
  2. Place in your blender: 6-7 scoops of icecream, 5 roasted strawberries, 2 Tablespoons yoghurt, 2 dashes of milk (roughly 30-40ml), couple teaspoons of the strawberry syrup from your roasted strawberry dish, and 5-7 toasted marshmallows. 
  3. Whiz this up, taste mid-way to see if you like the taste. If it is too sweet, add more yoghurt, if it's not sweet enough add more strawberry syrup or toasted marshmallow, if its too creamy, add a bit more milk.
  4. Pour the mixture into your fave glasses, garnish with some toasted marshmallows, fresh strawberries, a few drizzles of strawberry sauce and another scoop of icecream if you dare....and enjoy!


I didn't have vanilla icecream on hand, but the closest I had was vanilla choc chip, and that was totally yummy. If you wanted, you could crumble some graham crackers or digestive biscuits to give this milkshake a bit of a s'mores taste!

Happy milkshakin'!

p.s. if you want to keep up-to-date with when new M.L.P posts are blogged, then please Follow M.L.P Along on BlogLovin' ! Bloglovin' is also an app, so you can see my blog posts on the fly on your mobile or tablet if you like!
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August 13, 2013

White & Brights

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^Neon Violet Top by J Crew (on sale!)
^White Aztec pattern denim by Zara (on sale!..also loving these and these)
^Lace up heels by Wittner (on sale here!)
^Tote by Zara (seen here too)

I know what you're thinking.... PANTS!!!... WHITE PANTS!!! I would never in a million years have thought I could wear them. The lifespan of anything white in my wardrobe is normally very minimal, and so if I do own any white item of clothing, I choose my timing of wearing it very carefully. Not only is a stain a pain to get out of white clothing, but quite often, white coloured clothing can lose its bright whiteness over time and lean towards a cream. But this past Sunday, the sun was bright, the temperature was warm, and I was feeling in quite the chirpy bright colour mood. These Zara pants were on sale while we were in Tokyo, but see the links above for other white denim that are similar too!


As I've said before, I'm leaning towards more comfort clothing these days and absolutely love the worn-in feeling of vintagey tees. A lovely friend of mine helped me snap up a couple of these vintage tee beauties overseas, and although there aren't many colours left. They've come out with some nice stripey looking ones here.

Oh yes, and you may have seen on my Instagram that I've lopped off my locks FOR REAL this time (remember this faux attempt here?). After being chicken to do so for along time, I braved it and then proceeded to get a shock of how much was chopped off (see here!). But I've already grown used to the lightness, and aside from the extra need to take more time to style it in the morning (stubborn straight asian hair!!), I love how my hair is feeling quite smooth and looking shiny! I've definitely lost some head weight there!


Yes I marched right on, because it was brunch time after these photos were taken :)
We can all breathe now because after brunch with Hubster Lee, I can report that there was not a scuff, splotch of sauce, or crumb that landed on these pants :)
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August 12, 2013

Let's hear it for the boys! - Boys in Blue

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Everyone loves a classic black tux or suit, but these days, anything goes for boys in the fashion department. And when it comes to the big day, dressing up in unconventional colours is even better. Here's some inspiration for the big day for the fullas, just one colour that suits most, if not every, international complexion and hair colour.
Let's hear it for the boys in blue!

1.  Photographed by Jodie Chapman via Rock My Wedding
2. via LuvRumCake
3. via Rock My Wedding
4. via Bonobos
5.  Photographed by Velvetine Photography via Style Me Pretty
6. via Once Wed
7.  Photography by Matt Parry via Rock My Wedding (definitely check this wedding out!)

8. via Rock My Wedding (how hilarious is this pic? love it!)
9. Photographed by Jose Villa (absolutely GORGEOUS wedding right there)
10. via Style Me Pretty
11. Photographed by Eddie Judd via Rock My Wedding
12. Photographed by Maria de Faci via Rock My Wedding (these dudes are waaay too cute, the wedding looked so fun!)

I hope this is inspirational to any boys out there that are stuck on wanting to come up with unique ideas whilst wanting to stay with the classic suit :)

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August 08, 2013

A Quick Peanutty Soba Noodle Meal

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I'm a noodley girl through and through. If given a choice between rice or noodles for dinner in my Asian household, the fave choice is always noodles. Soupy, saucey, dry, hot, cold, egg, flat, whatever, I love noodles of all varieties. Last weekend whilst waiting for Hubster Lee to come home, I made a quick peanutty soba noodle lunch to accompany some leftover fish we had to heat up to eat.



You can eat this entirely on its own and vary up the toppings...perhaps a bit of fried tofu or thinly sliced carrot? Add a bit of meat with some leftover shredded roast chicken? Shredded roast duck? Thinly sliced egg omelette? The options are endless!
For the sauce, you only need a dessert spoon and a bowl (or jug) and a few household ingredients. As you can tell I'm still living on a Japanese food high, hence my reach out for noodles of the Soba variety. The brand I used however was a Korean brand and you can find good Soba noodles in the international aisle of the supermarket or just your local Asian supermarket. I haven't tried this with Almond butter or other 'healthier' nut butters yet, but I'm sure this will work just as well with those.






Super cheap, and super quick meal to whip up. Seriously!
Here's the recipe:


A Quick Peanutty Soba Noodle recipe


Ingredients
  • 1.5 Dessert spoon Organic 100% Crunchy Peanut Butter (no salt, no sugar, nothing but 100% peanuts)
  • 1 Dessert spoon Light Soy Sauce
  • 4-5 drops of Sesame Oil
  • 4-5+ Tablespoons of Boiled Water
  • 1.5 bunch of Soba Noodles
  • 1 stalk of Green Onion (also called shallot), finely sliced
  • 1/2 deseeded Red Chilli, finely sliced
  • 1/2 Cucumber, finely sliced (I just used the mandolin on 'julienne' setting)
  • Toasted Sesame Seeds / Japanese Goma mix for sprinkling
  • Serves 2 peeps for lunch or 1 very hungry individual for dinner


Steps
  1. Fill a small saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Once the water is bubbling away, place your 1.5 bunch of Soba noodles and let this bubble away for 4 minutes
  2. Once 4 minutes is up, drain the noodles in a sieve and rinse quickly with cold water (to stop the noodles from cooking), place your noodles in a bowl and set aside (ensure your noodles aren't stone cold as you want slight warmth for the sauce to adhere and toss well through the noodles...slightly warm is fine!)
  3. For the sauce, in a jug or bowl, whisk together your Peanut Butter, Light Soy, Sesame oil and boiled water. Depending on how thick your Peanut Butter is, continue to add more boiled water so that your mixture becomes a nice salad dressing type of consistency
  4. Pour the peanutty sauce over your bowl of Soba and using tongs, toss the sauce through.
  5. Place the peanutty noodles on a large plate and top with the cucumber, chilli, green onion and then sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds / Japanese Goma mix on top.

I used to love chilli SO MUCH as a teenager but over the years, my taste buds have gotten a lot wussier and therefore my tolerance is kinda average. So having the cucumber on top of the chilli is a great mix of cool against the heat. Note, this plate of noodles is served cold, so it's perfect for the warmer months. But it's pretty versatile in that you can eat the noodles warm as well.

Enjoy :)

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August 05, 2013

Boyfriend and Stripes

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I never thought I'd jump on the 'Boyfriend' jeans bandwagon, especially since my bottom half is more of the bootilicious variety compared to my top half. I actually dislike jeans shopping with a passion. Trying on so many pairs that either fit on the waist, but are too tight on the calves or vice versa, baggy on the bum, too long, too short, makes me look stumpy, gapes at the back and the list goes on! However I took a punch and got a pleasant surprise with this pair of 'Boyfriend' capris that I picked up in Gap Tokyo.

'Boyfriend' jeans aren't for everyone, and I know they look super duper cool on tall skinny long legged girls, but what I'm loving the most is the comfort factor, and the ability to dress them up or down with flats or heels. This is just a simple outfit put together with a stripe jersey knit, a red lip with no other accessories except for a couple of different shoes. If your top half is a different size to your bottom half, play it up with stripes! Horizontal stripes give the illusion of width and since my bottom half is larger than my top, pulling a stripe top was the easy way to play with proportions.



Sunglasses: Tru Trussardi (seen here and here as well)
Red Lippie: CanMake in Sweet Cherry 03
Stripe Knit: Zara (on sale!)
Boyfriend Capris: Gap Japan
Flats: Witchery (love these too)
Heels: Tony Bianco (love these too)

The crotch isn't too 'dropped' on this pair, and except for the fact that I keep putting my foot through the rips when I put them on (I'm almost always in a rush!), I think they fit like a glove. It's my first time venturing into the ripped variety too! Maybe I should have bought a second pair as a backup because I'm currently living in these!
With a base outfit like this, you can totally jazz it up further with more accessories and layers! With a statement bejewelled necklace, or a sleek leather jacket, or a trench coat and bright coloured clutch, have your hair up, hair curled, and the list goes on :)

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