Feeling Souper

I have been ill in bed for a day or so this week and generally feeling pretty rubbish. Whether it is the time of year or a low immune system or both I don't know. There are generally several things that help me feel better when i am feeling poorly though.

1) My bed. I do love sleeping anyway, but when I feel ill, being wrapped up in a nice warm squashy duvet with only my (slightly bizarre) thoughts for company helps me feel better. The sofa just doesn't compare, and I cannot be doing with dragging duvets downstairs and onto sofas. That just doesn't work for me somehow.

2) A hot bubble bath. I remember when I still lived at home (I still class Mum and Dads house as 'at home') and was ill and wanted a bath, I remember Mum always told me to make sure I didn't lock the bathroom door. I think she had visions of me passing out. Even now when I am ill and about to climb in the bath I make sure the door is ajar, remembering her words. Not that there was anyone at home to scrape me up off the bathroom floor mid-week...

3) Marmite on toast. Works every time. Although I must have been really poorly this week as I just couldn't be bothered to make it. Oh dear. Instead I survived on Innocent Smoothie and handfuls of granola breakfast cereal.

4) Magazines. These are generally in the bed with me, scattered across the floor next to the bed or stacked up in a pile. Or a combination of all three. When I am ill I just cannot be bothered with reading novels or 'proper books' as my concentration span just isn't up to it.

5) Freshly washed hair. I wonder if I am the only person on earth who feels like complete s**t and still washes her hair in the morning. Possibly. I have mad hair in the mornings and knowing it looks mad just depresses me and makes me feel even poorlier. I don't bother drying/ straightening it or any of that malarkey, but it being freshly washed helps me feel better.

6) Clean bedding. Obviously I wasn't up to washing the bedlinen as well as my hair, but maybe I had a premonition of being ill, as I washed it all the day before I was ill. Clever eh?

7) This Morning. I am not ashamed to say that a bit of light entertainment makes me chuckle ever so slightly when I am laid up in bed. Phil and Fern are just the tonic for ill beings in my opinion....but I don't intend to advertise the fact too much!

8) Soup. Unfortunately I really wasn't up to making soup but did make up for it a couple of days later and made my roasted vegetable soup extraordinaire!! Dad dug up the most enormous parsnip from the allotment that I have ever seen. Here is a picture of it next to tesco organic parsnip. Pah!! Pathetic specimen!

So for the roasted vegetable soup I chopped up the parsnip, 2 sweet potatoes, a big red chilli, 2 red onions and half a butternut squash into chunks and then throw them in some olive oil and put them on a tray in the oven for about 20-30 minutes until they started to crisp up...

Then discard the chilli and scrape the vegetables into a casserole dish, covering them with boiling water from the kettle. Bring to the boil and add a couple of large spoonfuls of red lentils. Leave to simmer for about 20 minutes and then liquidise. Yum. The soup has got a bit of a kick to it from the chilli, so if you aren't a spicy person then leave the chilli out! I also added a handful of leeks to this recipe just before I added the lentils because I had one from the allotment.

It really is healthy stuff, and the recipe is well worth a try with whatever vegetables you may have.