Color it up!!

 Even a classic white and blue outfit demands color sometimes, especially with all the pretty, bright color flowers around.. which can be easily achieved by accessorizing it right! This time I added a scarf and a bright color bag in the mix!! It really takes the outfit from simple to interesting!! Don't you think so??

What I'm wearing : Top : Fab India (gifted), Jeans : DKNY, Shoes : Kelly and Katie (DSW)

My Accessories : Bag : Van Huesen, Scarf : from India (gifted), Ring: India (gifted), Bracelet : Don't know (gifted)
hmmm.. I get too many gifts.. I am so pampered.. I love it!! :P

Ignore the hair.. I was having a bad hair day!!

How would you style a white top and blue jeans???

Minty Fresh!!

I have been meaning to wear this dress from the moment I got it made.. yes made.. This was an old piece of cloth that my mom had for more than 15 years.. I loved the color the moment I saw it but did not know what to make of it.. Then two years ago before my marriage as I was getting my dresses made for my trousseau I thought of getting it made into a dress! But never got a chance to wear it.. As the weather is just warming up I finally picked it out of my closet and decided to pair it with a Blazer!! I accessorized it minimally. Just to show off the pretty color of the dress!!!

What I'm wearing : Dress : Custom designed and made in India, Blazer : Charlotte Russe
My Accessories : Clutch : gift from MIL, Necklace : Forever21, Watch : Fossil , Shoes : DSW

Did you like the look?? How would you pair this dress.. ??

Reviewing Now: The Counter. Custom Built Burgers

Hubby dear has consented to do a section on my blog "Reviewing Now".. It will include all kinds of restaurants, hang out places, road trip ideas and much more... this being the first one... Hope you guys like it!! Handing it over  to him...



Hi Folks... Some of you might not know, but Mehak and I are both big time foodies... However, our friends say our taste is unique... We are always looking for something unusual...

So we came across this place that looked like it had a modern appeal. The kind of place that is inviting and you can expect good food with a welcoming atmosphere. That was enough to draw us in.

 

So the moment you sit down, you are handed a clip board. The 1st thought that come to my mind was, "are they gonna make us sign a disclaimer before they serve us their food". Well, not the case... The clip board and the pencil is to fill out your burger selections...
Once you select what size burger you want, you pick your protein...They have an amazing vegan option which is great if you looking for something healthier... In addition to that, in my opinion vegan patty is their most yummy one in the selection.... I learned it the hard way when I went for turkey and Mehak got the vegan... My Turkey was great, but Vegan was super awesome....
Anyway, after selecting 4 toppings from a selection of 20+ toppings, a sauce from a selection of another 20+ selections and the type of cheese from 12 type of cheeses... you place your order...
Trust me when I say this, the combinations are endless... In fact it could get a bit overwhelming.... And to help that, they have a standard menu as well....

For us, we like trying new combinations every time we go and has become one of our fav joint..There's another plus.. we can only eat half at a time so the half becomes our next day's lunch!! ;P
 This time we got this....

Parmesan fries.. you have to try them.... 

The thing is... I like Parmesan fries and Mehak likes sweet potato...
 Lucky for us, they serve mix plates and any combination of fries....

My Vegan patty burger with pineapple,  sauteed onions, roasted corn & bean salsa, jalapeno jack cheese
 and basil pesto  sauce

Mehak's Vegan patty, bell pepper, pineapple, olives on a whole wheat bun along with apricot sauce....
Yummy Yummy.... 

 Last but not the least... a great selection of beer to go with these burgers... My fav is the heff....
With newer branches opening every month, you can hope to find one nearby....

So are we missing anything.... Oh! here is the link.... www.thecounterburger.com

What is your favorite burger place.... Love to hear from you....



P.S.: The comments and reviews are solely my own opinions and I have not been paid for or compensated for in anyway for this review.

      

The Color Purple

Purple is the color of good judgement!

Well, I hope I made the right judgement when I paired this outfit on an impulse, I was having cravings for a burger and Hubby decided to take me to my favorite burger joint (wait for the next post.. this one won't take long)..

What I'm wearing : Top :American eagle Pants : Charlotte Russe Blazer : Charlotte Russe
My Accessories : Necklace : Forever21, Watch : Fossil, Wristlet : Coach (Gifted by Yuthika), Shoes : Kelly and Katie (DSW)

Did my Judgement pass???

Next up : Restaurant review from hubby point of view...

Recipe Time: Anyone can cook

Hey guys... I am back... with my 2nd guest post...



Remember me...

"Mr" Ratatouille said "Anyone can cook" and I took it to the heart... actually I do love cooking...
So this weekend we had our friends over... Geetu and Shaveen.... We were watching movies... It was women's day and the girls declared that the men are cooking and they are not going to do anything... We were not allowed to order to go or delivery.... :(

So Shaveen and I put my chef hats on... And came up with this brilliant idea... Lets make Hawaiian burger and pair it with a nice bottle of red...

So we made these vegetarian Hawaiian burger....

Serves 6
Ingredients:
8 Sesame Hamburger buns
1 large potato (peeled and diced into cubes)
1/2 cup diced onions
1 cup kidney beans
1/2 cup bell peppers (cut and diced as fine as you can)
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup diced green beans
6 slices of pineapple rings or 4 pineapple spears
Honey BBQ Sauce
Salt to taste
Seasoning to taste (I used Onion Garlic and Tomato Basil)
Oregano

Preparation:
In a pan sprayed with olive oil, put all the vegetables (potatoes, peppers, carrots, green beans and onion) along with kidney beans on medium flame. Add some salt so the natural water in the vegetables gets extracted. Once you start seeing some water in the pan, turn the flame to low and cover the pan. Keep stirring the vegetables every 5 minutes. After about 20 - 25 minutes of slow cooking the steam will cook all the vegetables and make them really soft. You should be able to mash a potato cube with your spatula without any effort.

Once your vegetables are ready, mash them with your spatula or a masher. Take 2 hamburger buns and shred them (alt: you can use bread crumbs but prefer shredding the buns itself). Mix these crumbs with vegetable mix and add seasoning to taste.
Refrigerate it for 15 minutes which binds the mix. You patty mix is ready.

Create patties with this mix (may I suggest using a slightly wet hand so that they bind together properly) and cook them on a flat pan for a minute or two on both sides.

Serve the patty on the bun, add a slice of pineapple and top it with the honey BBQ sauce.

 

We enjoyed it with a nice red. However you could also pair it with a nice Moscato. We got ours from Napa valley... Remember our Valentines surprise trip (Link)

Me and my friends loved this recipe so give it a shot and I hope you like it :)
Let me know how it goes....

Caught up in Flu!!

Sneezing..

Coughing...

Shivering..

Insomnia...

The past 2 weeks have been all about it!!!

First, hubby got sick.. stuffy nose and sore throat... He did not speak for 2 days.. we would sit in the same room but there was no conversation.. We used to look at each other.. I would ask him something and he just  nodded!!! It was awful.. Just when we thought he's getting well and we would be able to go back to our normal lives... I got sick.. and the cycle started again... There is so much to do and seriously I could see it in front of my eyes but just couldn't do it!! Just hoping to get back to my routine!! 

To all the lovely gals who showered me with all the lovely awards... Thank you so much!! I will definitely answer all your questions... Thank you once again!!!

A Heart to Mend : Book Review

This is my first book review for 2013..

Book Review for February..

Title : A Heart to Mend

Author : Myne Whitman

Published by : Author House

Genre : Romantic

Pages : 250

My Rating  : **** and a half

My Review

Baseline : A Love story!!

Well February is the month of love.. So, I had to give a review of a book with a beautiful love story. Set in Lagos, Nigeria.. This tale is about a girl from a small town.. She is beautiful, intelligent and wants to stand on her feet, help and support her family. Her family went through a difficult time after the death of her father. She is the first one to step out of the house and make a living for herself. Love is not even a thought in her mind.. until she meets the handsome businessman Edward Bestman.. First time in town and Edward gives her a lift to her aunt's place and after dropping her off can't stop thinking about her or I should say falls in love with her.. which he himself is not able to understand!! He has gone through a lot in his life and has a lot of trust issues.. Building up a relationship with Gladys seems to have it's ups and downs especially when the story takes a twist and a turn and Gladys is accused of ruining Edward's business which he started from scratch and has put in his life's work!! 

This is a book you just can't put down.. The author has given such fine details of the business and the financial world as well as the emotional aspect of what goes through the character's mind!! Both the characters have absolutely different personalities but are extremely likeable! Loved reading this simple yet creatively written book by Myne Whitman, it being her debut novel!!

This book was sent to me by a dear friend Vaishnavi.. she has a lovely blog "a one cent life" and one of the most active person on instagram!! She recently got engaged and I wanna extend a heartiest Congratulations to her!!!

Thank you so much for recommending this book to me!!

If you people get a chance go ahead read the book or if you want an ebook version just drop me an email or leave a comment and your email address below and I would be happy to send it to you!!

Weekend Edition XIV : Blessed

Blessed...

Sitting here in my living room I can't help but think how blessed I am to have a husband who care and loves me the way he does... This weekend was truly the most memorable Valentine's Weekend for me.. not that I need a day to express my love or for that matter his love for me.. but what's the harm in celebrating the Day of Love.. right!!!

We had nothing planned for the day.. as we wanted to keep in low and thought we'll cook dinner together and enjoy by watching a movie... I had already bought hubby his Valentine's Day present.. "A recliner" which he wanted to buy from the moment we started buying our furniture for the apartment...

So I just put a big red bow on it on Valentine's Day.. hahaha

I decorated the whole house with Hearts, Bows and Ribbons!!! Made it all myself!! :)

But hubby made the Day special for me by getting me a new coffee maker ( I broke the last one.. if you follow me on instagram you must be knowing about it)..

My Coffee Maker!!!

 he got my laptop fixed , he got champagne and instead of getting cut flowers he got a beautiful planted tulip (Tulips are my favorite) (he knows I get sad when the flowers die..)

Champagne , My favorite Tulips and not to forget the thin mint girl scout cookies which hubby ordered a week ago
cause he knows I love them!!!

 and I was just in awe... I just couldn't help but smile ear to ear and to top it all he suggested we do our workout (which is rare or I should say never happened before) and order in Chinese.. We finally found a perfect chinese delivery place near our place!!

I've already got my treasure!!!

We enjoyed having our yummy dinner and watching movies!! This was not the end but the starting of our Valentine weekend...

The next day he asked me to pack our bags for 2 days as we were going out and on asking he said it was a surprise... Well I do love surprises...

Beautiful windmills on the way...

I just hoped into the car and enjoyed the way.. taking pics of beautiful landscapes, windmills till we reached a sign board that said Napa and I finally asked hubby Are we going to Napa Valley??? For which he shrugged his shoulders and said "may be"!!! and that was all he had to say.. We went for an amazing Winery tour and Wine tasting!! I just loved it..

The Winery where we took our tour....

My Hero!!!

Wine Tasting!!

Wine being stored in Oak Barrels!!

Huge 3 storeyed barrels!

We had lunch in the town of St. Helena at an italian place.. The sandwich was sooooooo yummy!!!

The Italian place!!! Get their Grilled Chicken sandwich...

If you ever visit St. Helena do find this place.. St. Helena is an amazing place.. with beautiful small shops lining the road.. Restaurants with seating on the pavements.. it had that old vintagy feeling to it!!!

I wish I could have spent a little more time there to explore all the beautiful shops!!!

We did not stay there that night.. We headed on to Sunnyvale to visit my sis and her family and we spent two  awesome fun filled days there... I had the most fun time playing with my niece and nephew and chatting away with my sis!! I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the weekend.. although we were planning to go there this weekend but it wasn't sure till the last moment!!

On google tour!! hubby with  nephew!!

My sis and my cute niece!!!

I hope the title for this post is justified..!!

This Weekend was one to remember for sure!!!! Enough about me.. how did you people spend your weekend???
Linking up with The Weekend File

Hi There... M new here....

Hi Everybody...
As Mehak mentioned in her last post... I am the newest member of her blog... You might have seen me in her posts and stuff... I will be writing a few guest posts in her blog... Even though this is a "lifestyle" blog, but my post will be less of "style" and more of "life"... I will share all the crazy stupid stuff I do... :)
I hope I don't damage her viewer base and scare you guys away :)

Okay so a little bit about my self....

Okay this is not me.... But I love this girl like crazy... She made the mistake of marrying me... Hah.... Score!!!

I like doing crazy stuff...

My bike when I was in India... Cant wait to buy one here in US...

My ride... Bought it 6 months ago and have already driven 17k miles... I love driving and Mehak loves to ride....
Works out perfectly for us.... Our last road trip was a cross country from LA to Seattle....
Was awesome....

I love snow... And Mehak hates it... 

Snowboarding... My latest passion... Every week I go to the slopes and come back with a broken something...
But I  just won't quit... :) M a newbie so any advice for me??

My life has to have adventures... Loads of them...

Our last road trip....

M a racing game fan... My new custom xbox controller... gifted by wifey on our Anniversary...

My latest purchase... And it is awesome....

Did I mention ROAD TRIPS.... looooooooads of them...

Somehow I managed to graduate SC.... My wife thinks I am a Geek... NO I AM NOT.... I do love engineering though.... Wouldn't do anything else in my life...

I used to work for Maruti (Suzuki) in India....

Now I work for Mr. Mickey Mouse... YES... I GET TO GO THERE FOR FREE as many times as I want...
Wanna join???? 

 

So that's me... :)

Here is a brief post about me.... 

I will sharing "Restaurant Reviews", Game Reviews, Travel and Destinations and will be happy to help you with whatever queries you have....

Next Post: Best Valentine's Ever...

(Spoiler Alert)

 We are on a Road Trip right now.... SO that means loads of new pics and trip advice... Stay tuned...