Baked chicken with a hint of mint

Hello fellow foodies

It’s been a long long while since I posted a food post. I’ve been shifting around and frankly haven’t gotten much time to cook, or to put it more bluntly experiment in the kitchen.

This is one of easiest and might i add yummiest recipes. Its become a favourite and I’ve already tried it a few times.

Baked chicken with a hint of mint

Preparation time: 15 mins (+ 1hour for marinating)

Serves: 2 

What you need :

Bell peppers 3

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Mint, about a handful

Greek yogurt or hung yogurt

Garlic 

Chicken, boneless, about 300gms
Steps to follow

1. We start by marinating the chicken in a dish with olive oil, salt and pepper. For better marination might I suggest making small incisions and filling them with olive oil, salt and pepper.

2. Chop 2-3 bell peppers log and thin, remove all seeds.

3. Chop a handful of mint leaves and 4/5garlic cloves, blend them well along with a little water. Now add this to the Greek yogurt (about 5 tablespoons) , add salt and keep aside for now.

4. After marinating it for an hour or so, tranfer chicekn into microwave safe dish and add the bell peppers. Spray some olive oil and bake for 5-8 mins (my microwave works on 720 degrees). Take longer if need be, but make sure the chicken is not too dry.

5. Lastly add the minty greek yogurt on top. Garnish with cheese. And voilà! Enjoy a healthy and low fat meal.

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Try this out and let me know how it turned out.

Much love ❤ The Carnelian Cloak 

Best Red Lipstain: a review

Hey guys!

So I’m no one to tell you this but, red lips are the biggest trend and an evergreen one might I add. Any outfit can be turned around with a touch of red on the lips.

And though over the last few years I have tried a few shades of red, including Maybelline, Lakme and Color Bar, I have finally found a favourite.

It’s not a shock that’s it’s MAC Russian Red. Though Ruby Woo has been time and again been quoted as the best Red out there, my judgement favours the Russian Red.

It’s deeper, being MAC it stays super long and in my opinion will suit almost all skin tones.

Here’s my photo review

(Ignore the lil muffin over my shoulder, it was her birthday and she was pretty excited)

I’ve used Maybelline Colossal on my eyes and MAC Russian Red on my lips. And no, there is no foundation or contouring of any sort. 

Most days I like to let my skin breath.

Let me know what you think in the comments below, what would your favourite red be and why? 

Much love ❤ The Carnelian Cloak 

Boho Casuals

Hey readers!

I recently took a trip down memory lane. Walking the same old halls and visiting the old classrooms. Something so nostalgic about it. 

Here’s my OOTD from the day. I’m in love with all the latest trends- sneakers, capes and tan bags. 

My style seems to be edging more and more towards minimalism nowadays. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below. 

Much love ❤ The Carnelian Cloak 

PS- sorry for the disappearing act, many more posts coming up real soon.

Travelling to the land of color : Rajasthan Diaries

Hey readers!

I’ve been MIA for a while now, and for good reason too. I’ve been busy turning 23, taking my first trip of the year and studying.

For everyone who doesn’t know, Rajasthan is the most colourful, hottest and richest in terms of history state of India. And it also happens to be my former childhood hometown.

But having travelled as a tourist before, this time I visited as a traveller. Road trip. Local food. Bright dupattas and attire. That’s my Rajasthan trip in a nutshell.

So here are my must dos, in no particular order :

1. Chuck the restaurants for the local sweet shops. Must try foods include mirchi wada, kachori, lassi and laal maas. And don’t make the grave mistake of wearing skinny jeans for any of these trips to the sweet shop.

2. Shopping in the narrow lanes of old towns. Thanks to an old friend who knows the city of Jodhpur inside out, we went hunting for beautiful items deep inside old city territory.

3. Taking the road less traveled by and detours. Having a lot of smaller and beautiful attractions all across the state, you have many options to take detours and cover as many places as you can. Bhangarh fort, known to be the most haunted places in the country. Pushkar, the only Brahma temple in the country. Sam, endless sand dunes next to Jaisalmer. These are just a few.

4. Indulge in the culture. Beautiful music is a staple in Rajasthan, be it the ravanahatha or sarangi, you’ll find tons of folk music to indulge in.

5. Soak in the history. Being the land of kings and queens, search for those stories in every nook and corner, and believe me, you shall find them.

That’s all for now. I was honestly very busy enjoying the scenes to capture much of it on my phone, but here’s a glimpse into my three day getaway.

Hope each of you take this trip soon. There’s so much more to do, I’m hoping the next one will be richer

.
Love ❤ The Carnelian Cloak

Banana protein smoothie : all natural goodness

Hi guys

Kick-started my weekend with this delicious banana smoothie which high on protein, very filling and you don’t need any extra protein shakes for it.

Banana protein smoothie with dry fruits

Serves : 1

What you’ll need :
One full banana
Walnuts :3/4
Figs :4/5
Milk
Honey

Steps to follow

1. Blend in banana and milk till it completely blended in

2. Add crushed walnut and figs and blend again.

That simple and you’re done.

Hope you enjoy this simple yet amazing breakfast.

Much love ❤The Carnelian Cloak

Pepper Chicken Drumsticks : Quick and Healthy Microwave recipe

Hey guys

So this week’s dietary needs will be fulfilled with lots of vegetables and protein. Keeping with that I needed a simple and easy to make chicken recipe. This is for all those who are short on time and need a quick fix for healthy eating. Plus minimal effort. Lazy girl’s perfect diet plan.

So here is my Pepper Chicken Drumsticks recipe.

Serves – 1
Time for preparation – 15mins
Marination time – 2/3 hours

What you need
Chicken drumsticks
Black pepper -powder or crushed
Olive oil
Salt
Parsley – dried
Capsicums
Onion

Steps to follow

1. We start with taking the chicken drumsticks, cleaning them and then making long slits along the head for each.

2. For marination use olive oil with lots of pepper and salt. Mix well with hand and make sure to fill the slits. Enough olive oil to cover each drumstick.

Leave aside for 2 hours for the flavour to sink in.

3. Once done with marination, place drumstick along with chopped onions and capsicums in a microwave safe bowl.

4. I used my microwave for 8 mins on auto roast setting, depending on your oven set the temperature and cook till chicken is tender.

And here is how it turned out

Easy to make. Quick. Healthy.
What else could you ask for?

Leave comments below and let me know how this turns out for you folks. Love to hear from you.

Much love❤ The Carnelian Cloak

Morning Makeup : Fish Tail Eyes done right

Hi all

It’s been a while I haven’t done a beauty post, it seems like a good way to go. Cat eyes have been the biggest trend of last year and even though I adore it, I thought variety is always welcome.

A close cousin of the Cat Eye Look is this Fish Tail Eye Look. It’s easy, neat and I’ve done it in blue to make sure it looks refreshing.

How to :

1. We start with a thin black lining of the inner water line on the upper and lower lid. Make it very fine, this is more of a guide.

2. Next we use a blue eye pencil. Starting from the inside line the upper eye lid, following it up in alignment to you eyebrows.

3. For the lower lid, we reverse the order. Start lining from the outside to the inside, making it thinner as you go.

4. For the lower half of the fish tail reverse the wing eye in the downward direction.

The key is to keep the bottom one shorter and the imitating the long wings of the vintage cat eyes for the upper eye lid.

5. For the face I’ve used a very simple BB cream, nothing fancy since its a day look anyway.

6. Under eye area. Very important: I have huge dark circles and they’re very hard to cover up so the most effective way is to use concealer and if needed use a coral based lip pencil/eye shadow. Take a little on the tip of your fingers and blend in the under eye area. This helps believe me.

7. And finally a simple cherry lip color.

And here’s how it turned out.

The products used were –
Lakme BB cream
Oriflame concealed
Colorbar Sensuous Nude Lip Crayon
Maybelline Colossal Kajal Pencil
Chambor Blue Eye Pencil
Lakme9to5 Lip color : Roseatte Motive

Hope you guys liked the look. Leave your comments to let me know how you liked it.

Much love , The CC

Happy New Year 2016 : Starting the year with a Chocolate Oreo Cake

Hello to all my beautiful readers!!

First off here’s wishing you wonderful people a very Happy New Year. I hope each and every one of you has a great year ahead.

I want to thank you all for being a part of this blog and all the love I’ve gotten in 2015. I really hope to make 2016 bigger and better.

So the first Weekend of the new year has just wizzed past us, and although we’ve all made our “Get Fitter” resolutions, I indulged in this new recipe.

Have a look and maybe earmark it for a cheat day.

Chocolate coffee Oreo cake

Servings : 6

Time to prepare : 15-20 mins

What you will need :
Baking powder
All purpose flour
Sugar
Vegetable oil
Two eggs
Cocoa powder
Drinking chocolate
Coffee
A few Oreo cookies
Vanilla essence

For the crust:
Unsweetened butter
Around 10 Oreo cookies

Steps to follow

1. We start by mixing the dry ingredients. So in a bowl mix half a cup flour, two tablespoons each of drinking chocolate, cocoa and sugar and a teaspoon of baking powder.

2. Add two eggs and three table spoons of vegetable oil. Add a few drops of vanilla essence. Mix well to make a smooth batter.

3. Crush two/three Oreo cookies into chunks and add into the batter.

For the crust

1. Crush oreos into chunks and put then in a blender.

2. Add with this two spoons of melter unsweetened butter.

3. Blend till its a crunchy powder.

Preparing the dish

1. Brush the dish with butter on the bottom and all sides.

2. Empty the blended Oreo crust and press into the sides and bottom evenly and firmly.

3. Pour in the cake mix.

4. Now, just let it bake.
I use my microwave at 720° for 2 mins. Adjust your oven as per the requirements.

Once out of the oven, let it cool and then refrigerate it for 30 mins.

Here is the before shot

And post baking :

Now all that’s left to do is gorge!!

Hope you enjoyed the recipe. I’d love to hear any feedback or all about your experiments in the kitchen.
Write to me @thecarneliancloak@gmail.com

Much love ❤ The CC

Sunday Thousand Island Salad

Hi guys

I know its been a really long break, but with a lot of studying and work to finish I couldn’t get time to do much writing.

The holiday season is just getting started and we will all be putting on some extra weight. So before we start the indulgence, here is an easy recipe to eat light this week.

Thousand Island Cottage Cheese Salad

Time to prepare : 15 mins
Serves : 1

You will need :
Bell pepper 1
Tomato 1 (large)
Cottage cheese grated 200 gms
Rosemary
Thyme
Black pepper
Olive oil
Onion 1 (medium)
Bottled thousand island dressing
Cream 1 teaspoon
Homemade croutons (with one slice of brown bread)

Steps to follow :

1. We start with chopping the bell peppers and onion. Using a saucepan and one teaspoon of olive oil, lightly sauté them on low flame. Add rosemary and thyme to this. Add a pinch of salt and Pepper

2. Next chop the tomatoes in long and fine slices. Make sure to remove the extra pulp, it tends to make the salad too soggy.

3. Once done with sautéed onions and bell peppers, add the grated cottage cheese and mix well.

4. Take one table spoon of thousand island dressing and mix with one teaspoon of cream. If you want low fat content use a lil milk instead. Mix well.

5. Mix tomatoes and sautéed mix of cottage cheese with bell peppers,onions. Add the dressing and toss.

6. Now finally for the homemade croutons. You can fry the brown bread after chopping it to small pieces. But for a non fat alternative I roasted it with little butter and then cut them.

Add these on top of the tossed salad.

And voilà

It’s great for the taste buds, its nutritious and very easy to make.

Hope you all enjoy it.

Much love ❤ The Carnelian Cloak