Food | Meat Free Monday #2 {Jamie Oliver's Chunky Squash and Chickpea Soup}

Hands up, who doesn't love Jamie Oliver?

His flavour combinations are simply the best. Fresh, interesting and delicious!

His Instagram provides a lot of daily inspiration and every Monday he posts a Meat Free Monday Recipe. This week I decided to re-create it. Seeing as now we have a (mostly) fully functioning kitchen and all.

So here's his Chunky Squash and Chickpea Soup.

I have a little disclaimer to make before we get started. I was in a bit of a rush when I was making this so couldn't be bothered to do the toasted seeds bit of his recipe - I'm sure if you could though it would be worth the effort.

First up, preheat your oven and roast your Butternut Squash with the Cumin and Chilli.

Whilst that's working it's magic in the oven you need to prep your onion, celery, garlic and parsley stalks.

I also chopped up my lemon zest, mint and parsley leaves and mixed with the reserved red onion for the little fresh and tasty flourish you add at the end.

When your squash is done, you need to heat a splash of olive oil in a large saucepan and add your veggies.

Let them soften for a few minutes before adding your roasted squash, and then let it all sweat for a few minutes before adding your stock.

The recipe says to bring to the boil and let simmer for 15 minutes but I was hungry so I just bought it to the boil and added the chickpea's!

Did I mention patience is not my forte? Especially when I'm hungry!

Anyway I let that all simmer for a bit, before transferring half my soup to the blender for a whizz. Jamie uses a hand-held but I have no idea where mine is so made do.

I ladled it into a big bowl and added my little herby pop of goodness.

Yum!! This soup is amazing - rich and warming and yet fresh and zingy all at the same time.

A little side-note on this recipe, or any recipe really.

A lot of times I make ingredient "substitutes" e.g. I don't go out and buy every last ingredient because when it comes to Jamie's recipes that can get pretty expensive. If I have something with a similar flavour in the cupboard I will use that.

For example, this recipe calls for cumin seeds and a dried red chilli to roast the squash. I didn't have either, so I used ground cumin and chilli flakes instead. And I also didn't have the harissa paste or the seeds to hand so I decided to leave them out entirely - the soup was still delicious.

When it comes to recipes I love the inspiration, but tweaking and making them your own is half the fun too.

Happy Monday everyone! x

Life | Fighting Fit

The last few days I have been fighting what is affectionately known in the UK as the "Common Cold". Uggghhh, there's nothing like not being able to breathe, feeling like you may cough up a lung at any second or your head may explode from sheer sinus pressure to make a girl feel particularly, blah. Actually make that blllaaaeeeuuuuggghhhhhhhhh.

However much you may feel like burying yourself on the sofa and making your final requests to your nearest and dearest there's no better time to properly look after yourself in the hopes of a quick recovery.

Here's a quick disclaimer. I am not a medical professional, nor do I have any formal nutritional training or background. This is just stuff that I do when I feel like crap and it seems to help so I'd thought I'd share.

I'm not really a conventional (or unconventional) drugs kind of girl. There's something about cold and flu medicine that hurts my tummy, and I find it just heavily masks the problem but doesn't actually fix it.

If you're under-the-weather but able to get to a supermarket I would buy the items below. Failing that you can always text a little list to your BFF, boyfriend, Mum etc.

1. Soup. You need to eat well whilst you're poorly but the chances of cooking yourself a meal are slim- to-none. Fresh soup that you can just heat-up is a dream.

2. Honey and fresh lemon. Hot Toddy's are guaranteed to help pep you up. Just boil the kettle and in a cup add lemon juice and honey to taste. Sometimes I add fresh ginger, and sometimes I add brandy/whisky if I'm having one before bed.

3. Herbal Tea.  I try to steer clear of caffeine most of the time anyway, it just doesn't agree with me. However, when your immune system is busy fighting those cold bugs it doesn't need the additional "stress" of caffeine. So stock-up on herbal tea's in place of regular tea and coffee. There's lots of really palatable green tea around these days, and as a bonus it's choc-full on anti-oxidants to help get those bugs out of your system.

4. Innocent Veg Pots. Along the same lines of soup, you're not going to be cooking up a storm anytime soon but need to keep your diet nutrient-rich. These are great as a quick dinner option.

5. Multi-vitamins. A good quality multi-vit should be a regular occurrence in everyones day but if you don't normally take one now is as good a time as any to start. I take Every Woman by New Chapter, it's the bomb.

6. Vitamin C and Zinc. Rather than drinking loads of fruit juices and smoothies you can up your Vit-C in take with one of these effervescent tablets in a glass of water. Fruit juice is good for you in moderation but similar to any type of sugar it can cause an imbalance in your blood glucose levels. This means that your blood sugar levels will spike and crash (you'll feel "better" for an hour and then terrible again). Drinking a boat load of OJ is not going to help this situation.

7. Instant Hand Sanitiser. Obviously not something you eat! But if you're busy coughing and blowing your nose it's nice to sanitise those hands before touching common items like the remote control, kettle etc. Way quicker than washing your hands.

8. Bread. I don't have any wheat/gluten intolerance's but try to keep my bread intake minimal on the regular. A wholewheat/seeded loaf is really helpful though when you're not well. You can dip it in your soup, eggs, or toast and top with mashed avocado/banana as a quick and easy snack.

9. Satsumas/Clementines.

10. Eggs. For boiling, dippy eggs and soldiers are so comforting, or scrambling on toast.

11. Blueberries and Cashew Nuts. For snacking, along with the satsumas. If you have a handful of nuts when you eat fruit it slows down the absorption of fructose preventing those blood sugar-spikes I talked about above.

12. Ripe and Ready Avocado's. For mashing on toast. And just because they are my favourite super-food. 

What do you mean no drugs at all?! You have to do what you need to do. For me, they're a last resort. I do regular steam sessions when I'm ill to help unblock my nose and clear my sinuses. You can keep them super-natural by adding fresh Thyme or Rosemary to a bowl of hot (not boiling) water and then inhaling the vapours by breathing in the steam under a towel. Or if you don't have any of those to hand I find a few drops of Olbas Oil or Tea-Tree oil in the water really helpful. Just a little note on this one - if you steam whilst wearing mascara you will emerge looking like a Panda. I'm not saying don't do it but you know, it's an interesting look. I also rub Vicks VapoRub on my chest and feet (and put on socks afterwards) to aid nighttime breathing/coughing.

Possibly the MOST important thing you can do for yourself isn't in this picture above.

WATER.....drink it like it's your job, Your body needs fluids anyway to get rid of toxins, cold bugs included.

Sleep and rest is really important too. I know the world doesn't stop for a cold but if you can stay home, do. I'm really lucky with my job. I work in hospitals and no-one wants to see a big old mess of coughing and sneezing in that environment so it's understood that I can work from home when I'm ill (where I'm likely to get better quickly and not spread my cold).

Other things that help? Sofa, blanket, magazines, chick-flick, zzzzzz.

What are your tips when you're ill? Sharing's caring!