Foodie: Carrot & Red lentil with a side of Roasted Asparagus Dippers

If there is one lunch i make more than any other its probably this: Carrot and red lentil soup.

It's easy, its filling, you can batch make it for the week or freeze it and above all, it's really tasty.

I've experimented with this over the past year and in all honesty it comes out slightly different each time, mostly because i do the measurements by eye, but i think it also makes a difference as to how sweet your carrots are. Different batches, slight difference, but all round yummy just the same.

My reasoning for the asparagus dippers was simple. Being wheat intolerant means no bread for dipping, which sucked. 

Yes there are many wheat free breads now on the market but I don't eat bread a great deal anyway so there's often not any in the house. 

But sometimes having a little dipper of some persuasion is satisfying. 

Cue the lovely roasted asparagus. 

So i've bigged it up enough, time for you to see just how easy this is.

what you will need:

For the soup

1kg of fresh carrots

250grams of dried red split lentils

1 white onion

1 litre of just vegetable stock or hot water, depending on your preference.

A small sprig of chives

Salt & Pepper

A handful of asparagus with the woody ends removed

Olive Oil

For the Soup

* Peel and chop your carrots in to rounds, place in a large saucepan 

* Peel and chop your onion in to small pieces and place in your saucepan

*Pour in your dried red lentils

*Add in your stock/hot water

*Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer for about half an hour or until your carrots are soft.

** Note**

Don't season at this point. Adding salt to dried lentils before they are cooked hardens them making for a not so pleasant soupy experience.

*Once cooked, remove from the heat. With a hand blender (I just use this cheap and cheerful one from Tesco and it works great) blend until everything has combined and is smooth. 

*Season with rock salt and freshly black pepper and blend again.

*Chop your chives and either stir through or add to garnish.

For the Asparagus Dippers

I usually start this in the last 10 minutes of my soup cooking.

*Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

* Pour a glug of olive oil evenly across a baking tray and season with salt pepper  some garlic powder is also nice if you have it) and return to the oven for 5 minutes

* Once your oil is heated up bring your tray out and add your asparagus on to the hot tray. This will allow them to crisp up some what and making excellent dippers.. Season the asparagus and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

Dish up & Serve!

It's that easy! I've broken it in to a few steps, but really it's just chop everything, throw it in a big pan add your stock and leave to cook! 

This makes the perfect autumn lunch. It's super heathy and vegan.

Plus all my kids love it, which as any parent knows, getting veggies in to your children is always deserving of an air fist pump!

Do try it, and let me know what you think!

Happy Cooking!

Weekend Style Essentials: The Perfect Shirt & Trench (& #Passion4Fashion Linkup)

Happy almost weekend Friends!

Having worked for many years in retail and now not, I can't tell you how much I appreciate weekends. Those 2 days to be free from the school run/ pack lunches/ errands and general must do things. Don't get me wrong it isn't chore free, i am an adult and a mum full time so its never completely restful, but it is nice to go at a somewhat slower pace.

The other thing i love about weekends is dressing in comfy casual clothes. 

I have a couple of Autumn weekend essentials that I love to wear. Thye are effortless but make me feel and hopefully look, pulled together, when really not much effort was taken. Thats the best look wouldn't you agree? Effortless yet still together.

My First Essential:

The Trench Coat.

Instant outfit maker. 

A trench coat just makes you look  and feel like a boss without even trying hard. 

They really are the perfect light weight for this time of year and go with pretty much any outfit: Over a dress, skirt and blouse, knitwear or jeans and a shirt, you're instantly sorted.

Its a winner all round , all year round for me, but particularity great for Autumnal weekends.

Mine is thanks to Ocean Credit Cards who asked me to pick out a piece for Autumn.. I Instantly knew a trench was just the thing and that I will get a tremendous amount of wear from it.

If you're looking for the perfect Trench I am currently loving this one by BB Dakota(7th row)

And the one I'm wearing from H&M

My Second Essential is:

A shirt that makes you feel Fantastic (with a capital F).

Yep.. This shirt is just slouchy, yet chic all at the same time. 

Gant aim to be the ultimate shirt maker so you expect a good shirt right? Well they do not disappoint. Having practised the art of fine shirt making  I think it's fair to say they've mastered it.

This is the ex-boyfirend polka dot and I just love, love, love it. It's slouchy but not sloppy, it sits beautifully close without being restrictive and has the right amount of oversized to still look good without looking like you're actually wearing your ex boyfriends shirt. What I mean is that it doesn't add inches on a women's frame, which I think you'll agree is something no lady wants. I find with some oversized garments they add pounds where there shouldn't be. 

This has just that perfect cut that we all crave.

I've written about my love for shirts many a time, but this one is now up there as a favourite. I like the idea of layering a white tshirt underneath and leaving it draped open with some boyfriend jeans. Or with some faux leather trousers and black boots.. Yep its shirt love!

My bonus essential?

Your very own furry baby.. Yep, couldn't be without this one. 

Jeans: Topshop

Trench coat: Thanks to Ocean Credit Card

Loafers: Thanks to Lotus Shoes

Gant Ex Boyfriend Shirt: Thanks to Gant

What are you Weekend Style Essentials?

An InLinkz Link-up

Capsule Must Have: The Shirt Dress

So with thoughts fully in Autumn Capsule zone  I wanted to do things differently this time, instead of the (not so) Grand Unveiling, this time I'm going to focus each week on one particular thing that's in my capsule.

This week it's a style very close to my heart:

SHIRT DRESSES

Oh how I love shirt dresses. Is there anyone that doesn't? They suit so many shapes and sizes, can be dressed up or down and come in a vast array of colours and patterns. 

What's not to love?

My obsession with shirt dresses is simple. 

I like being comfy. I don't like overly tight constricting clothing, it just doesn't sit right with my day to day lifestyle (i.e. sat at my laptop on my lonesome typing away to you dear reader ;). Plus not to sound like a broken record, but any item that is in my #Capsulewardrobe has to work really hard for me. And as i mentioned above, with lots of shirt dresses you can dress them up or down.

Here are some of the shirt dresses from previous capsules.. D'you know what's good? I still love each of these shirt dresses, and two of them are actually in my latest Autumn capsule.

Shall we take a look at some great shirt dresses on the market right now, perfect for an autumn purchase.

First up  Shirt Dresses from House of Fraser

Some absolute beauties here, I was literally spoiled for choice and spent a little too much time picking dresses out. These 5 above and below are my absolute favourites.
All of the above are  your slightly more dressy options, pair with heels or heeled boots and you've got an evening look. Also smart enough for office wear. Pair with some flat loafers and a trench and you have instant weekend wears.. I am absolutely smitten with the white and black polka dot.. isn't it pretty!

Below we have your more day-to day casual dresses. Comfy, classic, never goes out of fashion. The levi's black denim is such a great staple. Its made me think that would be perfect in my capsule.. a piece that could be worn again and again (I'm picturing it with tan boots now and white sneakers come spring!)

Shopbop next bringing us some casual offerings!

 Left: Madewell

Centre: Rails 

Right: Sundry

Picture a cosy weekend in, with a snuggly cardigan on and a lovely checked/plaid dress, al a above.. There's something so endearing about a checked casual dress that symbolises the perfect weekend outfit. My favourite (and one of my favourite brands) is the Madewell dress in buffalo check, red and black: pair with more black, grey or tan.. that is cosy casual done right!

Marks & Spencer are on their A game this season. I have found so many great items in general, and they offer a few shirt dress options too

Left
Centre
Right 

I've picked out smarter options here and all are belted. Perfect for nipping in the waist or creating more accentuated silhouette. The centre is just screaming DVF wrap dress and would like great as office wear or evening wear, the geometric print keeping it modern. I am in love with the boho vibes of the left dress, with tan boots and a fringed bag its a great autumn piece. 

And for the minimalists, the right is perfect. Clean classic and easy to wear.

So you've heard me wax lyrical about Shirt dresses a lot over the years, but tell me, do you love them like i do? And do you own any that you love to wear?

The Flexi Autumn Capsule & How I Make It Work For Me

I love autumnal dressing: layers, knitwear and boots, lovely coats and hopefully not too much rain (ha, who am I kidding.. But I live in hope) And with my love of capsule wardrobes I am a little bit excited to be putting together my Autumn Capsule.

Some of these pieces have actually transferred on from summer, and I have no doubt will continue in to winter too.. These are Key items i've spoken about(here) like denim and cardigans for example.

I love that there are items transcend seasons and just work well regardless. Those pieces are a trusty testament to the #30Wears pledge i blogged about in late summer, which I am of course conscientious about moving forward.

Each time i've gone to put something in to my capsule I have asked myself..

• Can it be remixed multiple ways?
• Will it work hard towards #30Wears ?
• Will i still like it after a few wears?
• Will it wear/wash well?
• What does your day to day lifestyle require? If it isn't ball-gowns and tiaras then remember that with your capsule (there's no point me including lots of fancy pants stuff as i pretty much sit at a desk on my own all day)

These are the basic but key questions I ask myself with each fresh season.

Now rather than the capsule being a hard and fast rule, I am working towards a flexi capsule.

I've said this before, but if something isn't working for you, don't get hung up on it: sell it, donate it, replace it and move on. This is not an endurance test or designed to make your life miserable, but to ease everyday dressing and to stop obsessive compulsive shopping (for me anyway).

I mentioned on Instagram that I hadn't bought anything new for my Autumn capsule as yet, I've tried to utilise as much of what I have as possible, there are a few holes though, that I am now looking to plug, so there are a few pieces on my shopping list.

But there's no point rushing out and shopping for them and spending £$£ now when I'm looking at the long game here. In my experience knee-jerk purchases never usually work out well.

Plus, and this is reality here folks, I simply can't afford to go out and drop hundreds of pounds on new items just to complete my capsule wardrobe.

My life isn't set up that way, I have the kids needs, house needs and then way down the list are my needs and I'm totally ok with that. 

For the few things I do need, I will shop a piece or so a month along the way (and when I sell pieces to fund new items on my Instagram Sale account.. have you checked it out yet? I'm selling all sorts of great stuff, like Topshop, Hush, Rebecca Minkoff, Radley, Levi's etc..)

At present I am sat at about 37 Items and that gives me room for manoeuvre of a few things.

This capsule isn't inclusive of accessories, outerwear or footwear. Its just better for me that way.

Both my outerwear and footwear will be reduced down over the next few weeks as I sell on items to new homes, or give to charity. But I'm giving myself  free-reign over those things and just concentrating my main capsule on the main innards so to speak. 

The actual clothing items for outfits.

So at the moment my capsule is looking like this:

AUTUMN CAPSULE

7 dresses (1 smart, 6 causal day dresses)

3 Skirts

6 Jeans 

1 Faux Leather Trousers

6 Casual Tops

6 Shirts/ Blouses

5 Sweaters

3 Cardigans

I want to add in:

A pair of grey jeans

A checked shirt

A blush sweater

A black longline cardigan

And that's it.. from now until December!

Instead of doing a big showcase of what's in my capsule (as you've seen most of it before as they are pre-existing items) I will do some spotlight posts over the months on the items that are in the capsule! Shaking it up a bit, and more fun for me to share that way.
And if it things flex in or out I shall of course keep you posted!

In all honesty I have found for me to be completely satisfied 45 items seems to be my 'Happy number'. So looking at the list above it seems small. But I shall run with it and be flexible!

So with a slow fashion stance and a happy heart I am ready to start!

Anyone tempted to try a (Flexi) Autumn capsule wardrobe?