Reading Challenges - Bout of Books 14 and Beat the Heat Readathon

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So, as I mentioned in this post, I haven't been reading anywhere near enough books lately. I make the excuse that I'm busy but by doing these reading challenges I hope that I will have to make time to read. This makes reading sound like a chore, which it certainly isn't in my eyes, but sometimes I get lazy and need a little motivation to read something other than Take a Break magazine (my guilty pleasure). I'll post my goals for each challenge closer to the time but here are the basic rules and details on how you can sign up.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

• The Beat the Heat Readathon runs from August 24th at 12:00 AM to September 6th at 11:59 PM. What does this readathon entail, you ask? Well, read as much or as little as you want – the main point is to READ! You set your own goal, and for three weeks you read as many books as you can/want to reach your goal!
• There will be mini-challenges throughout the Readathon for participants, along with a grand prize giveaway at the end!
• Sign up here at Novel Heartbeat or over at Phantasmic Reads. You may join whenever you like, but to be eligible for our grand prize giveaway, you must sign up by August 28th.
• To join, all you have to do is make a sign-up post – even if it’s just a “Let’s do this!” thing – and add your post URL to the linky below! You can put your goals and progress (will be required for the final giveaway) in your sign-up post, or you can make it separate. Totally up to you! (You are welcome to use the template we provide in the kick-off post as well.)
• In order to enter for the grand prize, you must have a post to keep track of your progress so we can see that you participated.
• Follow along on Twitter and share your progress with the hashtag #BtHReadathon!

Let me know if you're participating in either of these challenges, I'd love to see your goals and progress!

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Super Veggie Soup

I KNOW it's Summer (well, apparently so!) but this is one of my favourite quick and easy lunch recipes for Slimming World on the go during any season. I often take pasta salad or some variation on that but it involves making it the night before so if I've been really busy or just a bit lazy then I just grab a portion of soup from the freezer and my healthy extra B of bread and I'm ready to go. Also, when I have this for lunch I seem to have really good weight losses! It's really filling and keeps me going all afternoon but it only has vegetables in it, brilliant.

I usually just chuck in anything I've got in the fridge so feel free to add whatever you want but I thought I'd write a rough 'recipe' for anyone who wants a bit of inspiration! 

Ingredients

• Butternut Squash
• Sweet Potatoes
• Carrots
• Red Onions
• Garlic Cloves
• Stock Cubes (I would usually use vegetable stock cubes but I only had chicken today!)
• Fry Light (Or oil if not doing Slimming World)
• 1 tsp Curry Powder (Optional)
• Salt and Pepper

I haven't put quantities as you can pretty much do as you please. I also like to add celery, red pepper, courgette, parsnips, basically anything that can be boiled like hell then blended into yummyness.

 Peel and dice the red onion, add it to a large saucepan and fry in Fry Light for a few minutes. Add some minced garlic and the curry powder and fry for a further minute. Then peel and roughly chop the butternut squash, carrots and sweet potato into cubes, it doesn't really matter what they look like as it's all going to be blended in the end anyhow.

Add the rest of the veggies to the pan and cover them with water then add the stock cubes. Put the lid on and boil until all of the veg is tender (it takes roughly an hour) then leave to cool a little. Trust me you do not want to be blending molten soup, unless you want little splash burns all up your arms. Blend with a stick blender until smooth and season with salt and pepper to taste. Then eat it! Or leave to cool completely and divide into portions for the freezer. Easy peasy!

Let me know if you've got any recipes you think I'd like or if you try this recipe yourself!

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I Haven't Blogged In Ten Months!

So, as the title suggests, I haven't blogged in such a long time. I think the main reason for this is, ever since leaving London I didn't know which direction this blog would take. I don't do exciting 'London' things any more, I don't have so much time to read or crochet any more because I'm spending time with my family and socialising. I didn't really know what to write about. I was also working very little hours leaving me with not many pennies so it felt like I was living a half life, going to work, coming home and that's about it.

I'm so much happier in life right now. I've got a new job, I started about four months ago and I absolutely love it. Having more hours and more of a routine has helped me get my life back into reality and I'm able to do more and save for exciting things. I've also lost 3 stone in the last eighteen weeks with Slimming World and I'd like to write a little bit about this.

So I think that's what this blog's going to be for a while, a little lifestyle, a little craft, a little reading, a little dieting, lots of bits and bobs!

I hope you'll stick with me,

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