Try Pumpkin Soup this Halloween!

I'm so na?ve! I met up with the girls at the Phoenix today as we thought we'd buy some witches outfits for Halloween.

However, it turns out that trying to buy witches outfits a few days before Halloween is a little like trying to buy batteries the day before a hurricane.

We did find a few stray hats, but they pushed our hair up into cone-shapes and lacerated our foreheads ? not a good look when Dracula or some other villain has stolen your hat and you spend the rest of the night without it.

Nevertheless, after 55 minutes of painful deliberation (including a good five minutes debating going as inflatable pumpkins) we emerged happily and having accidentally shop-lifted some glow-in-the-dark hairspray.

Not quite sure how it got into our bags, but it could have happened when we got caught in a scuffle between two mums fighting over a broomstick.

Now we weren't happy about the hairspray (oops! we'll return it tomorrow...), instead just a little relieved that we'd found a solution.

Having abandoned the Halloween theme totally, we decided we'd be Charlie's Angels, in assassins outfits, wearing batman glasses and a lot of glitter.

Definitely not what we planned, but Laura wanted sexy hair, Eve wanted a gun, I wanted glitter and the batman glasses were so brilliant that we had to fit them in somehow.

Of course afterwards I was in a fully fledged Halloween frenzy, so I stopped to buy a huge pumpkin and a carving kit on the way home.

A multipurpose purchase as I also needed to check this recipe and measure up the quantities. Because instead of just throwing away the inside of your pumpkin, of course I'm going to suggest that you make pumpkin soup!

This recipe is really delicious, more so because pumpkin is currently in season, so it's particularly good to cook with at this time of year ? maximising both the flavour and nutrient content. Pumpkin is naturally rich in beta-carotene, folic acid, vitamin E and calcium. It is also lower in carbs than potato, yet provides you with enough energy to keep you going through the day.

One quick tip: it's generally best to eat meals and snacks that combine carbohydrates and protein together, as the protein helps to slow the release of the glucose from the carbohydrate.

A slow release of glucose is ideal as it results in a steady, gentle energy supply, rather than a quick burst that's followed by a big dip (snooze time.)

Therefore, you may like to add some protein to your soup ? diced chicken, tofu or even a tablespoon of hummus all work really well in this recipe.