Chlobo's Closet Food: Italian Noodle Pots

At the moment there is quite a little bit of an obsession over these fantastic noodle pots. Great for a snack or for lunch and they are healthy for you too! There is so much to love about these, not only are they full of goodness but they are really quick and easy to prepare and fantastic to take to work. The useful part of making these tasty noodle pots, is that a lot of the ingredients are using left overs from your previous meals. Plus in a mason jar, they also look pretty fancy as well.

So let's get started....

What you will need:

1/2 a courgette to spiralize into noodles

Left over pasta sauce

4 tbsp quinoa (super rich in amino acids)

Basil leaves 

1 small garlic clove minced

1 tbsp of finely diced onion

1/4 tsp oregano 

Pinch of cayenne 

Tbsp of parmesan

Pinch of salt and pepper for seasoning

Heatproof jam jar or mason jar with lid

Method:

Firstly spiralize your courgette into noodles. You can put them straight into your jar or quickly boil them partially, depending on your preferences.

Heat your pasta sauce through and add with the other ingredients to your jar and keep refrigerated until morning.

When you are ready to enjoy your delicious luncheon, top with boiled water and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes. Allow a  1 inch of a gap with the water in the jar.

Stir, cover and let to sit for five more minutes before adding your basil leaves for additional flavour.

Voila, you are now able to enjoy your delectable, Italian quinoa noodle pot, without any guilt and no trouble caused making it. You can add other ingredients to compliment this, for example fresh olives or sun dried tomatoes.

I am now thinking of what other lovely noodle pots to can conjure up to get excited for lunch again.

Chlobo's Closet Cotswold Life: The Halfway House

We are still reminiscing of our delicious weekend supper at one of our local public houses; The Halfway House.

Tucked away in the delightful, picture prefect village of Kineton, The Halfway House is a beautiful,  country classic eatery and place to visit for a drink.

We were welcomed with its charming, cosy essence as always, with its tasteful warming décor. The Christmas decorations definitely topped off the ambience, with glistening decorations adorning the tree, pretty lights around the fire place and subtle glows of candles, it would have been rude not to enjoy all of this quality scenery without a glass of prosecco or two.

The seasonal menu has plenty to offer for all tastes and requirements, accompanied with their large specials menu. Spoilt for choice I eventually decided to throw the diet out of the window and opt for a baked Camembert starter to share, followed by one of their favourite dishes, which is the burger.

The baked Camembert was delicious and came with tasty, textured bread. The Camembert was garnished with garlic, which was a really beautiful contrast with the cheese. I will now be bearing that in mind for when I shall bake my own at home. The dish was very beautifully presented and kept to the country chic theme.

For mains came the ever so glorious burger. Thinking of it now, makes my mouth water it was that good! The gorgeously, melt in the mouth beef burger, with salad and smoked bacconaise sauce was divine!! It was possibly the nicest burger I have had in a very long time and didn't scrimp on size. The burger also came with a side of delicious thrice cooked chips, presented in a tremendously cute paper cone, snugly inside a small pottery watering can. There was not one thing I could have possibly faulted on this dish. 

I wish I could only tell you about the tempting desserts but very sadly I was passed full up. All in all a marvellous place with full marks all around. Beautiful ambience and interior, friendly staff and above all delightful food and drinks. We cannot wait to come back to eat some more!!

For further information on The Halfway House please see link below.

http://www.thehalfwayhousekineton.co.uk/index.asp

Chlobo's Closet Fashion: Autumn Picks

Autumn, a favourite time of year for me. The change of the seasons that bring warm, glowing colours of reds, golds and browns. The darker evenings in which to snuggle up with a good book and of course the fashion! Change of seasons brings Autumn/Winter fashions that we saw months ago at a warmer time, with graceful, gliding models, wearing the latest sweaters and cosy accessories. I love going into a cooler period, as I am addicted to woolly jumpers and anything that looks/feels like it could hug me. I get terribly excited that I can rotate my wardrobe and visualise all the things that have been packed away for six months, to make room in my closet. By the way that is a good tip, if you want to make storage space and get good wear out of all of your items. So to celebrate Autumn, I thought I would share with you some of my favourite outfits I have conjured up thus far.

The 70s Mod

On a sunny, crisp autumnal day it was difficult to decide on which clothes to put on to keep me warm/cool. It is definitely a season to embrace layers for those in between temperatures. I am really loving some of the upcoming brand, ForverModo's clothes and have done quite a shopping haul with them of late. One of my favourite items is the long polo neck/turtle-neck ribbed long top. I also purchased this in an amazing vibrant yellow for the summer (the insects seemed to definitely love it too). This top is perfect for dressing up and down and I really love the colour. I am really embracing quite a neutral pallet at the moment, I just feel that more things work together that way and I can enjoy longer use out of all of my things. 

I teamed this up with some very aged American Apparel, leather look leggings and my slightly new H&M chunky block heels. I am always a big hippy at heart and love a 70's feel to any outfit. Therefore I threw on one of my big floppy fedora hats, along with some super oversized Gucci sunnies. Less seems definitely more with this choice and I adore this look, it was chic and comfy.    

Top £17.99 Forver Modo

Leggings American Apparel

Heels H&M

Sunglasses Gucci

Fedora Hat H&M

The French Mime Bohemian

I adore a quality polo neck/turtle-neck top. They are incredibly transitional and can be teamed with so many garments, from skirts/shorts to jeans or trousers. They can look super chic and stylish and they are perfect for work, casual or night wear. I hold a large collection of these for the Autumn/Winter period, in lots of bold colours and patterns. For this look, I opted for a classic black and white stripe, which is retro and very classic. 

This was paired with a black long button down skirt. The skirt is a huge favourite of mine, as I had it tailored made when I was travelling in Vietnam at the beginning of the year. I found this skirt on American Apparel whilst away and really wanted it but for £80.00, I thought that was pretty costly, considering I wasn't at home to enjoy it. I was desperate to get something made though, as I heard that the tailors in Vietnam are tremendously talented. Hoi An in Vietnam is the hub for tailor made clothing and you are spoilt for choice on where to go. Having found a brilliant one close to where I was staying, I discussed what options I had, to which they informed me that I could bring in an image of what I wanted and they would replicate it. So viola, here is my American Apparel skirt, made with the correct dimensions and fabrics. It's beautifully fitted and the material is very comfortable. Plus the pockets are a cute addition and quite useful. I am lucky I thought of having this made, as they sadly no longer stock this item.

I finished the look off with a couple of simple accessories; opaque tights, bowler hat and Vivienne Westwood heels. Some may say tights are a fashion faux par, but I really could not care. I would much rather be comfortable and warm. There is nothing more unattractive than a woman who is shivering and looking deathly cold. My very old bowler hat is from Topshop years ago, a small university purchase to extend my ever growing hat collection. I like to customise so I always pop in a queen of hearts playing card into the rim of the hat. Virtually my whole outfit is from the high street, mixed with a hint of designer. 

Bowler Hat Topshop

Turtle-neck top Primark

Skirt Custom Made

Heels Vivienne Westwood

Khaki crops

For a weekend away in Kent, we were particularly lucky with the weather. It was not cold and enjoyed probably the last of the warm sunshine rays for a while. For a Saturday evening I chose to wear my new purchase from Boohoo. I don't often shop with them any more and I don't know why. I just feel it isn't always so personal to me and think I am going to go out and see everyone else in the same thing. Anyway the cute two piece ensemble, with a very cute price caught my eye. 

I loved the khaki green, it seemed to suit the autumnal palette I seem to be currently embracing and I have to admit that the trousers are just the best thing about the whole ensemble and the top is just a bonus. They fit like a glove and make your bum look amazing! Also they are just the right length for me. I can't stand when you buy long flared trousers and pop some heels on to make your trousers look like they have shrunk. This is a good all rounder as the top and trousers make brilliant separates, which you can wear with lots of other things in your wardrobe. 

All in all a great buy, not quite sure if I am going to cope wearing this out in Winter but those trousers are good to go with a lot of tops.

Two piece set Boohoo £18.99

Thanks for reading, hope we have inspired some of your autumnal outfits before we go into Winter. Please leave any feedback, questions or requests in the comments box. 

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