Recipe / Autumnal Butternut Squash soup

Today I decided to change my diet slightly so that I eat healthier. I downloaded an App called Honestly Healthy and they have some amazing recipes separated into groups of breakfast, lunch & dinner, desserts, snacks & treats, drinks & smoothies and cleanse & weight loss. So there is definitely a lot to choose from! I love cooking from scratch, whether its something really simple or a new recipe that I haven't tried before. 

Before I started this recipe I decided that I wanted to take photos and write a blog post about it to share it with you. I found this particular recipe on the Honestly Healthy App and it really was as simple as it says it is! I have never made a homemade soup before and I am really happy with the results :)

Ingredients

• Butternut squash - roughly 350g
• Sunflower oil - 1 tsp
• Vegetable Bouillon powder - 1.5tsp
• Boiling water - 250ml
• Salt - generous pinch
• Cumin - 1/2tsp

I started off by preheating the oven to 175 degrees. I then cut off the ends of the squash and went on to peel it afterwards. Once the squash was all peeled I sliced it into roughly 2cm cubes.

Once the squash was all chopped up, I covered it in sunflower oil and roasted it in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until it was soft. 

Once the squash was nice and soft, I removed the tray from the oven and mixed the rest of the ingredients with the squash in a blender.

I used my Blend Active and it worked fine :)

This recipe is seriously so easy and delicious, if I can do it then anyone can! It is the perfect lunch or dinner when the weather is cold and you need warming up. I'm hoping to be doing more posts like this so watch this space.

What meals do you like to cook in these winter months?

Love Amy x

Why I love Autumn/Winter

My favourite time of the year is back and I can definitely feel it! October has been and gone already and now that November has arrived, the cold wintery weather has definitely made an appearance too. The leaves have turned into gorgeous shades of reds, oranges and purples and look beautiful falling through the sky onto the ground.

This blog post will consist of roughly 5 aspects of Autumn/Winter that I love.

Yesterday was the 5th of November, which is of course Bonfire Night! Or Guy Fawkes night as it is also called. Matthew and I decided we wanted to go watch the fireworks at one of our local parks, which was so good! The entry was free which is also a bonus and they also provided hot dogs and soup which was also free of charge. However we didn't have any of the free food because we had plans to go to Pizza Express afterwards. We met up with my mum and little brother and some friends. It was lovely to see the children's faces when the skies lit up with all different colours :)

Sadly my memory card ran out so I couldn't take any photos of the food we had, but we ordered dough balls to share and then Matthew had a pizza and I had a chicken pasta dish. We even ordered dessert afterwards because we were feeling a bit naughty, I had honeycomb cheesecake and Matthew had a fudge sundae. It was so good!

There is nothing I like more than being inside my house when it is cold and horrible outside; whether I'm snuggled up on the sofa watching films with a hot chocolate, or having a bit of 'me' time in the bath with some Lush or Zoella Beauty products! More on this in another post.

When the weather is nice (well as nice as it can get in these months!) I like to wrap up warm in thick tights, boots, gloves and a scarf and go for a nice walk. There's something about walking through crunchy, berry coloured leaves that make me really happy and all nostalgic :)

Now don't get me wrong, I love and burn candles all year long but now that the winter months are here, I like to burn my seasonal candles and not feel guilty! I used to work in a shop called Hallmark (which sell discounted Yankee Candles) and as an employee I also received an extra 25% off! Before I left to work in a nursery I stocked up on as many candles as Matthew would let me, which will probably last me a lifetime!

I think I have saved the best till last, Christmas is fast approaching and I am so excited! This year will be significantly different and quite strange, considering Matthew and I now have our own house. We have been buying decorations and already have a box full, ready to turn our first home together into a magical wonderland. I cannot wait for December to come around so I can finally put up our tree and all our decorations! 

Christmas is a time for spending time with family and friends, eating too much, spoiling loved ones and just generally being happy.

What do you love about Autumn/Winter?

Love Amy x

Image taken from Pinterest

Day Out in Brighton

Hey guys, I know I promised to write more blogs, but Matt and I have been very busy recently preparing for something very exciting! More on that in another post....

I have only just realised that I haven't written about mine and Matts weekend in Brighton. We were already staying in Sussex for a family members renewal of wedding vows, so we thought we would take a trip into Brighton the day after! 

Here are some of my favourite photo's I took.

Obviously we started off the morning with a big hearty breakfast, it was sooo good! One of the best breakfasts' I have ever had whilst staying in a hotel.

I found so many cute little things in the shops down The Lanes, I wanted to buy everything but I stopped myself after purchasing a few items!

Sadly, my local Superdrug doesn't stock Tanya Burr's lip glosses and nail varnishes, so when I came across this I just could not resist! I actually bought one of each of the products, but annoyingly they had ran out of some of the colours, so I couldn't buy them all :(

We finished of the day with a HUGE ice-cream that was yuuuummmmyyy!

Brighton is now one of my favourite places and I would love to go back again sometime. Hopefully when it is less busy, as I sometimes panic when there is a lot of people around me.. 

So there you are, hope you liked this post :)

Have you been to Brighton?

Love Amy x

My Birthday Weekend in Cornwall

On Sunday the 8^th of June it was my nineteenth birthday and to celebrate, Matt had booked us into a hotel in Cornwall for the weekend. We stayed in a lovely Best Western hotel called The Restormel Lodge in Lostwithiel, Matt had also managed to sort us the luxury executive double room as well!

So Friday morning we left bright and early to arrive in Cornwall just in time for lunch. We started off the weekend with a walk around Padstow as we had already been here before and knew it was a beautiful little seaside town to visit. A couple asked Matt to take a photo of them which was pretty cute, I sneakily captured it too! We walked around the dock and had lunch in a cute little pub called The Shipwright; we had a crab sandwich and chocolate cake to share, yummy!

After stuffing ourselves with food we had a wander around the shops and bought a few treats. I love the shops that are all around Cornwall because they always sell amazing little gifts! The shops in general just look really pretty as well.

We also came across the famous Rick Steins café on our travels around Padstow, who offer a wide variety of fresh, local seafood. The last time we went to Padstow back in September last year, read about that in another blogpost here, we went to Rick Steins fish and chip shop and experienced the tastiest food ever!! It was seriously a good call! Sadly this time we didn’t have the chance to do so again as we had already eaten.

We then headed back to the hotel and went in the heated outdoor swimming pool to cool down; it was nice because we had it all to ourselves. We decided we would stay in that evening and have dinner at the hotel, which was absolutely gorgeous! As we were eating, it started thundering and lightening which was scary but pretty cool to watch out the window.

As the evening turned to night we went back to our hotel room and relaxed on the sofa whilst watching a film. We got an earlyish night knowing that we had a long day planned on the Saturday. More on that in my next blog! 

Here are some of my favourite photos from the day.

I hope you like my photos from day 1 of my little weekend away, day 2 will be up shortly!

Love Amy x

An Evening Stroll up Glastonbury Tor

Hi guys, Matt and I went on a little adventure up Glastonbury Tor to watch the sun go down a few weeks ago. For those of you who don't know what the Tor is, it is a National Trust owned hill with a roofless tower situated at the top. It is one of the most spiritual sites in the country and it's a beautiful place to walk, unwind and relax. However every time I walk up it I almost have an asthma attack! I hope you like my photo's from the evening...

The view once you reach the top is amazing, you can literally see for miles! Matt and I love walking up here on nice evenings, but we are yet to watch the sun rise from the top, as we've heard that is unbelievable too! 

Although some people say where we live is boring, I actually really love it. Going from living in a huge city to a small town in the countryside is quite different, to say the least :-)

Where do you like to go exploring?

Love Amy x