THIS RECIPE WILL MAKE YOU LOVE GREEN BELL PEPPER

When it comes to food, Tee and i have similar taste (except italian, can u believe this guy?), it was very surprising in the beginning, guess we are a perfect match huh? Spinach is the favorite green for both us, and we avoid eating bell peppers. But i know its super healthy and i wanted to find a recipe that will match our palate. I got this recipe from one of my friends(thanks, Pri!) and we both have been in love with it ever since.

Green Bell Pepper Rice Pilaf (Serves 2)

Ingredients

Green Bell Pepper - 3 

Dried Red Chilies - 3 (you can add more or less to make it hot or mild)

Bengal gram/Channa dal - 2 tablespoons

Peppercorns - 5-6

Cooking oil - 3 tablespoons

Salt - add to your taste

1 cup of white rice (cooked and ready to serve)

DVF STYLING EVENT @ BELLEVUE SQUARE STORE

Yesterday i went to a DVF & ELLE Magazine styling party for the DVF's pre-fall collection. The DVF store at bellevue square mall is one of the first stores in the Pacific north west. I love the DVF's tagline "Feel like a women, wear a dress", totally! She is famous for her iconic wrap dresses, and there was a lot of them to try on at the store. There were some chic clutches and sunglasses too. I was there with few friends, we had fun at the photo booth that was setup.

The iconic wrap dresses.

Loved that gold glittery clutch, perfect for night outs, and parties.

Do you own one of her wrap dresses? xo, Hems

FIRST DAY OF SUMMER : HIGH-LOW TOP + MAXI SKIRT

Hat - Target (similar), Sunglass - Fastrack (similar), Top - from Singapore (similar), Skirt - AND (similar)

So u have looked at the exotic backdrop, now go ahead and check out my outfit. It was the first day of the summer last saturday, and the weather was, oh so perfect. I opted for a breezy high-low top and a long skirt for our island getaway (follow on Instagram). This top is one of my favorites, love the heart prints, the high-low style, bought this on my Singapore trip last year. I picked up the skirt at AND (Indian fashion brand) on my recent rip to India few months ago and i have been wearing this everywhere ever since. How are you dressing up for this season? Do u have a high-low top, how do you style it? xo, Hems

P.S - Details on the location of this shoot is coming soon! Be the first person to know by following AGT on Facebook /  twitter / bloglovin.

TRAVEL DIARIES VOL. 2 : GRAND CANYON

Today i am back with my travel diaries. Remember when i told you guys in my vegas travel diary that our visit to the Grand Canyon deserves a separate post and here it is.

First off, we saw Hoover Dam which is on the way to the canyon.

  

Pine apple print shirt(similar) & Hat (similar)- Target, Sunglass - From the Univ Dist Street Fair 

There are two popular spots when it comes to visiting the Grand Canyon, South Rim and West Rim. We went to both rims. First was west rim, to get to that, you drive about 2 hrs or even more (road work was going on, so the drive was pretty bad) from the highway to a pitstop where you buy tickets($70 each) to go see the rim in a bus (no cars allowed beyond that pitstop), this rim has a man made horseshoe shaped skywalk bridge. The view was good, but the skywalk bridge was not that fancy. You can very well skip this place when you plan, cause south rim has better view and lotsa viewpoints.

We got back and stayed at a motel in Seligman, a town on historic route 66. I have mentioned in detail about our stay in this trip earlier. Next morning, the motel staff/owner guided us to a Lilo's cafe close by for breakfast. We loved that place. Food was really good.

T-shirt - American Eagle Outfitters, Cap - Borrowed from Tee (similar)

Then we headed to South Rim, or the Grand Canyon National Park. South rim was magnificent. You get to go to the very edge of the rim (you should be very very careful though), take a peak down, see the colorado river making its way through the canyon, wonderful sight. I am always amazed by natural wonders and i feel so privileged to have seen this place. Simply standing there for a minute in all its vastness and serenity makes you feel so many things.

Talk about living on the edge ;)

On our way back we spent some time on the historic route 66. Route 66 is popularly known as the mother road or main street of America. It was one of the first highways built in the country, and towns like Seligman and its people are preserving it.

We didn't see it all, definitely not, and but we saw enough to make us wanting to see more. I bet everyone who's been there would think to themselves while leaving, "I am totally coming back here", i did. xo, Hems

QUICK & EASY STIR FRIED NOODLES WITH VEGGIES

I love noodles, right from my childhood, its one of my all time favorites. I am especially a fan of the Mongolian grill/barbecue buffet where you can choose your choice of noodles, meat, veggies, & sauce and they are all cooked on a large iron griddle, yum. I can never get enough of it. I wanted to try something similar by myself. If you are following @agoldentulip on Instagram you would know that i tried stir fried noodles few weeks ago and loved it. Its a quick and simple recipe.

Stir Fried Noodles With Veggies (Serves 2-3)

Ingredients
Dried noodles - 3 bricks
Chopped Vegetables - 1 Trader Joe's Asian Stir Fry Vegetable Pack (you can use veggies of your choice)
Stir Fry Sauce - 5 tablespoon
Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 3 tablespoon
Salt - 1/3 tablespoon
Water - 5 cups

Cooking the dried noodles
Add 5 cups of water to a sauce pan and bring to boil. Add salt. Break each noodle brick into 2-3 blocks and add to the boiling salted water. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Let it sit for 2 minutes, and then drain the excess water. Keep the noodles aside.

Stir Fry
1. Place wok on medium heat, add olive oil and the vegetables once wok is hot. 2. Sauté for a minute. 3. Add 3 tablespoon of stir fry sauce. 4. Mix well and sauté for 3-5 minutes or until the veggies are cooked.

5. Add the noodles and mix it well with the cooked veggies. 6. Add the remaining 2 tablespoon of stir fry sauce if you want a little more flavor to your dish. Mix and cook for 3 minutes. You can skip this step if you don't want more flavor. 7. Serve hot in a bowl. 

I am happy to have found a quick and easy recipe that's gonna be a go-to for my Mongolian barbecue cravings. xo, Hems

TRAVEL DIARIES : LAS VEGAS

When our vegas trip was confirmed, Tee kept saying that Vegas is 24X7 active, amazing nightlife, and that I will be awestruck by all the casino themes and architecture. He has been there twice already. So naturally i had my imaginations built from his words and all the movies we watch. But once i was there, it was clear that nobody can ever imagine what they were gonna experience. Vegas is a different world, you have to see it for yourself.

In this trip, we slept very less, but boy did we have fun with that extra time. As I have mentioned earlier about how we planned our trip, now i am gonna share with you all how we enjoyed our trip. We landed in Vegas on a thursday night. We started roaming the strip soon after checking in. We went to Paris and The Cosmopolitan casinos. Each casino is true to its name, in terms of architecture, interiors, everything.

The next morning we ordered in breakfast and headed out to Bellagio.

After that, we went to Stratosphere casino to do the SkyJump, jumping from 855' above the ground. I was so excited to do it(u can tell from the pictures), and totally loved it.

After that exciting jump we were off to sight see the red rock canyon (25 miles from the vegas strip) and spring mountain ranch state park.

We got back, dressed up, and went clubbing that night at The Bank in Bellagio to celebrate our anniversary. It was total fun, there was quite a crowd, and we all danced non stop.

Next day we started to Grand canyon (that deserves a whole separate post, coming soon). We got back to Vegas the next day evening, checked in at Paris and went roaming around the strip till 2am that night. We watched the music fountain in front of the Bellagio and went to The Venetian, spent a lot of time there, and it has become my favorite. The buildings, the artwork, the gondola rides, everything was breathtaking, i couldn't believe that it wasn't the actual Venice.

Next day was our last day there and we decided not to rush things, and see whatever we could leisurely, and we covered a lot in a slow pace. Crepes(yum!!!) in the morning, visited Luxor (Egyptian themed casino), then Caesar Palace(u need a separate trip to see that one), some good lunch, played some roulette, did some shopping(no one can stop me!), took a gondola ride, back in Paris for some pizza & dessert and called it a night. We had an early morning flight the next day.

an

Vegas is a must visit just for the one of a kind experience if not for anything else. The welcome sign board couldn't have said it better. Vegas is truly fabulous. And we decided that we gotta visit again, this trip just wasn't enough.

Hope you all enjoyed this post. Please excuse if you face any delay in the loading of the pics. I had to include them all to do justice to the place. xo, Hems.