How To…Be Beautiful and Studious

How to… Be Beautiful and Studious

 

It’s THAT time in term where you spend all your waking hours either in the library or tired after being in the library. You become increasingly worn down, and start caring less and less what you look like in the morning. Washing clothes is becoming more infrequent, it’s a good day if you moisturise once, and your mascara is worryingly gloopy but it’s so close to the end of term you don’t want to buy a new one. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ve become a quite laid-back about showering too. As your fairy godmother I have taken it upon myself to give you some tips about how to look beautiful with extremely little effort.

1. Paint your nails whilst typing.

Beautiful – Paint a clear bottom coat of nail varnish, preferably one that nourishes your nails, and then a layer of colour. Type for an hour. Paint a second coat and a shiny top coat on. Pale nails, barely there but immaculately manicured, is very Spring/Summer 2013. Voila, you’re on trend and no one will notice when it chips.

Studious – You’re not allowed to leave your computer until your nails are dry. Challenge yourself to not watch an episode of Mr Selfridge, and redraft the essay you’ve written but haven’t edited yet. See, the beauty world and academic world aren’t two stratospheres apart after all.

 

2. Treat yourself to a trip to thebeauty salon.

Beautiful– Getting your eyelashes tinted gives your eyes va-va-voom, without putting mascara on every day which can weaken your lashes. It gives your beauty regime a break without compromising on looks.

Studious – If you’ve been cooped in your house for the last three days, treat yourself to a spontaneous trip to town for a bite to eat and a treat. Whilst you’re there, head to a beauty salon or department store and get your eyelashes tinted. It’s the same price as mascara, but you won’t have to apply mascara each morning for the rest of term. Time savvy.

3. Shiny hair. It’s a hair salon fact that your lifestyle directly impacts your hair. Is your hair getting greasier as term rolls on? Were you really good with your diet in January, but now new years resolution is a long-forgotten and distant memory as your chocolate treats are becoming hourly rather than daily? Then start eating healthier…

Beautiful – By consistently upping your intake of vitamins, especially H or B7 and can be found in egg yolk and peanuts, you ensure that your body will stay healthy throughout term. Eating avocadoes and oily fish such as mackerel and salmon also puts some gloss in your locks.

Studious – When your body is eating the right food and having a right balance of nutrients your brain will work harder and longer. We trick ourselves into thinking that malteasers are a better snack than raisins and nut and seed mixes, but we both know that we’re deluding ourselves.

 

4. Dress any outfit up.

Beautiful and bookish –. Sling a blazer over any comfortable clothing, excluding sports gear, and it will immediately look studious. It may be habit to wear an old hoodie to the library, but wearing a blazer gives your relaxed outfit structure without sacrificing comfort. And when you look like a student, the work ethic will just fall into place.

“Every little helps”

By Emily-Rose Rolfe

Pictures by Emily

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Exepose interviews the inspirational Anna Atkins, founder of LemonSqueezy.eu, about the motivation behind her cooking and her website.

Image from Lemon Squeezy Image Bank.

Anna set up Lemon Squeezy after leaving her job in the city, wanting to share the secrets of her “unfussy but fabulous” style of cooking. A native of Puglia, Anna says “As an Italian, good food is a key part of everyday life: this means using quality ingredients and keeping the cooking simple to fit around all the other demands competing on my time. Lemon Squeezy is a new website for people with busy lives who care about what they eat. It enables people to make quality food on any budget or cooking skills, supported by expert advice on how to make food work for you to ensure that you feel, look and perform at your best.”

If this sounds perfect for a student such as yourself, that’s because Anna’s own daughters- both recent graduates- helped inspire her to launch a website that went beyond simple recipe sharing. From store cupboard staples to an “A-Z of Terms and Techniques” (which includes everything from a definition of what boiling water is, to how to debeard a mussel), LemonSqueezy.eu is a one-stop website for cooking inspiration. I for one have been saved and inspired by this website on many occasion- who knew broccoli and spaghetti could taste so good together?!

When it comes to winter, Anna says  “To me winter is all about comforting food, that is good for your body and soul.  Steaming soups, satisfying stews, creamy mashes and baking.  There is no better way to spend rainy Sunday afternoon than filling your kitchen with the aroma of a cake or a batch of biscuits baking in the oven.”

Here are some of Anna’s top tips, for cooking…

• Never shop for food when you are starving, that’s the quickest way to overestimate the amount of food you actually need hence wasting food and money!
• Plan you weekly meals taking into account when you are actually going to be around to eat.
• Get into the habit of making a meal planner and shopping list, that way you will know exactly what you are going to eat each day and it will be less likely to fall into the takeaway trap, always a very seductive option at the end of a long day at uni and the prospect of an empty fridge staring at you at home.
• Have a few storecupboard staples handy at all time, so you are never more than 15 minutes away from a good meal, even when you have had no time or money to shop for food.  Take a look at our Essential Storecupboard for inspiration.

And for creating a business…

• Choose something you are really passionate about; that will see you through the highs and lows of setting up a business. Be clear about what your ambitions are for the business and put the right model in place that will support growth.
• Coming from a big corporate environment, the biggest challenge for me has been learning to work without the huge support network and resources that a large multinational provides. Setting up my own business was tougher than I ever imagined – and it takes the meaning of multi-tasking to a completely new level! There never seem to be enough hours in the day but, at the same time, it is hugely rewarding.

(Source for business tips: Anna’s interview with thegoodwebguide.co.uk, October 2012)

We asked Anna to recommend some ‘Winter Warmer’ recipes from Lemon Squeezy for Exepose readers to try, and she suggested we “Make more use of pulses.  They are cheap, nutritious and extremely versatile. They are fantastic in salads, hearty soups, warming stews, and are a great source of protein and fibre.  Our Moroccan butternut squash and chickpeas stew, winter minestrone and pasta e fagioli are all quick, easy, cheap and nutritious winter warmers.”

See below for Anna’s Roasted root vegetable and sausage try bake, and visit lemonsqueezy.eu for more “unfussy and fabulous” recipes and cooking ideas!

Roasted root vegetable and sausage tray bake.

A crowd-pleasing one-pot for cold days

Image from LemonSqueezy.eu

Ingredients:

8 free range Cumberland pork sausages

2 sweet potatoes

450g carrots

3 parsnips

2 tbsp wholegrain mustard

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp olive oil

Sea salt

Method:

1.Preheat the oven to 200C

2. Peel the sweet potatoes, parsnips and carrots and cut into large chunks. Rinse under running water.

Mix the mustard, olive oil, honey and sea salt to form a paste.

Put the vegetable in a roasting tray, combine with the paste and bake for 25 mins, stirring halfway through cooking.

Turn the temperature down to 180C and place the sausages over the vegetables, cooking for a further 20-25 minutes and stirring occasionally. By Megan Train.