Easy Oven-Baked Carrot + Courgette Risotto w/ Lemon + Chilli Recipe

If my messages are anything to go by it would seem risotto is hot property right now. And if you're anything like me, most of your main meals include some form of heat, so this recipes is one that that I have adapted and tweaked over time to give me just the right zing-to-heat ratio I need. It's a super easy dish, made even easier (and much quicker) by the oven-baked method. 

Heat isn't everyone's bag, so I'm only using those chilli flakes as a garnish:

Easy Oven-Baked Carrot + Courgette Risotto w/ Lemon + Chilli

Prep time: 10 minutes - Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

(makes 4 big portions)

Olive oil
2/3 cloves of garlic
250g risotto rice
750ml veg stock (2 cubes is best if you can)
2 decent sized carrots
1 courgette (leeks also works nicely + adds extra sweetness)
1/2 white onion (don’t worry if you haven’t got any, no biggy it’s not essential)
1 lemon
Parmesan cheese
Yogurt / water on hand just incase

A big pan which is suitable for your oven (if you don’t have an oven-proof pan you’ll have to make it the old fashioned slow way on the hob; pouring in the stock gradually and stirring until all liquid is absorbed.

For the Garnish

1/2 zest of lemon
Chilli flakes (Hot sauce is a great alternative, especially Cholula)
Fresh basil
Parmesan cheese

Method

- Pre-hear your oven to 200c /180 fan

- Heat some oil in your pan. Combine grated carrot, grated courgette and finely chopped onion in a nice big pan + gently fry on medium heat for 6 minutes

- Add finely chopped garlic to your pan and stir for a minute

- When everything looks nice and soft add your risotto rice and veg stock to your pan, season with salt and pepper if that’s your bag and increase your heat for 2 minutes

- Pop the lid on your pan and place covered in the middle shelf of the oven for 10 minutes

- After 10 minutes remove from the oven + give it a big stir. Place back in the oven for a further 10 minutes uncovered (add extra time if it’s not the stock isn’t looking quite absorbed yet, likewise if it’s too absorbed we can fix that)

- After the further 10/15 mins take remove from the oven carefully - grate 1/2 zest of lemon, 1/2 juice of lemon + as much Parmesan as you fancy. If it’s looking too thick whack in a dollop of any kind of yogurt or water and give it a big stir. Place lid on for a few mins.

- Serve with a load of Parmesan, the rest of your zest of lemon, chilli flakes + basil. Squeeze the other 1/2 lemon juice on top if you need extra zing

PS it’s ace cold the next day, blob extra yogurt on top if its a little dry or make into arancini balls

Enjoy! Mat

@mat_buckets

Our Money Journey | How We Afforded Our First House

In partnership with The Nottingham Building Society

I can hardly believe that we are approaching our third year as homeowners. I couldn't even imagine past the first month, but here we are! That's three challenging but extremely rewarding years of memories pumped right into our 3-bed semi-detached house in a small working-class town in Lancashire. I realised that I haven't actually shared loads about "where we're at", the classic life updates have been few and far between - that's been an organic reaction to how we create and consume content on social media platforms. Instagam is indeed that, instant content - so while I may be concentrating my day-to-day more on IG it's still mega rewarding to bash out a few hundred words every now and again on my blog.

So much has changed in our house in (nearly) three years. There's a heck of a lot to be proud of; we redecorated our lounge, bedroom and downstairs bathroom, converted the wrecked garage into a functioning utility and the biggest achievement of all, we totally transformed our overgrown, tired back garden into a space that we are unbelievably happy with. Still a work-in-progress though.

Next on our list is to renovate our open-plan living room / kitchen / dining room area - but that all comes with time. We're just planning and saving for the right moment.

How we Afforded our First House 

I'd like to start this piece by explaining our circumstances. We decided to buy a house in a small town instead of moving to one of the bigger cities in the UK. This enabled us to afford the type of property we just wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise. Hollie works full time as a university lecturer, and I work full time as a freelancer creative in the fashion and lifestyle industry. 

There's somewhat murky grounds with how much (and generally just "how") freelancers in the creative industry earn, and how they afford to live their lifestyle. It's not a subject widely discussed. If we skip back to the time me + Hollie were applying for our mortgage, it quickly became clear just how unknown my job role was to people outside of the same industry. The conversations we had with our mortgage broker + several banks would make for interesting listening...but we did get accepted! A somewhat milestone achievement at the time, for what is now commonly known as "an influencer".

We put a good sized deposit down on our first house (around 15%), one that I'd had in a savings account - similar to The Nottingham's 18-39 Lifetime ISA - since I was 18-years-old at art collage, then moved in shortly after. We had very little furniture and appliances, but we made it work. Being scrupulous with money is a quality that has been past down to me from my grandad, who was my main father figure when growing up. I didn't realise it at the time, but a lot of his mannerisms and personality traits rubbed off on me, and as boring as it sounds I now consider my attentiveness with saving and budgeting to be one of my strong points.

Bedroom Interior Update

With all the constant DIY going on in our house it's refreshing to be able to walk into a room without seeing tool lurking around every corner. In fact, our bedroom has been 100% tooltime free for a good month now. We keep saying "it's not quite finished yet", but then is anywhere actually ever complete? To be fair though, we're not actually plan to do much more to this space, other than restore the original 1930s floorboards and add a few more personal touches.

There's a few things I didn't manage to photograph this time, like our new mirror, and cabinet at the end of our bed, as well as Hollie's side table. But then, it probably doesn't harm to hold a few things back, after all it is our bedroom.  I'm sure you'll catch a further of a glimpse on my Instagram Stories, have you been watching?

Above: Our beautiful new JWDA concrete table lamps by Menu kindly gifted to us by Utility, IKEA cabinet, Matisse illustration in brass picture frame by Habitat, bed by Sofa.com, linen bedding by Zara Home, Rennes sneakers c/o Oliver Cabell, candle + skincare by Le Labo + reads by Kinfolk, Canteen and Popeye.

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A Look Around Our House | My Workspace

It feels like ages since I last did any kind of home / office update, so yesterday morning I took full advantage of the early morning sunshine, and quickly pointed my camera in the direction of some of my favourite details.

My office is where I spend most of my time when I'm working from home, and it's my personal preference to have this space as uplifting and motivating as possible. We turned our tiny box room into my workspace, but it acts more as a place to store some of our favourite possessions and memories that we have picked up on our travels :)

Two of my favourite pieces in here are also two of my most loved possessions: the Dan Marc Writing Desk (worth checking his Instagram account for updates) + the Anglepoise x Paul Smith Type 75 lamp. My personal relationship with British designer Dan Marc (we've been friends for around three years, but within the first few months we spent 10 days travelling around Japan) has cemented my love for this locally designed + produced work of art. The Type 75 Desk Lamp was a very thoughtful gifted from Hollie + my in-laws, for my 30th birthday - it one combines my love for playful colour + progressive design.

Point your eyes towards our shelves and you'll find some of my favourite beer label designs, mementos from holidays + work trips, characters that remind us both of our childhood (I value the journey from childhood to adulthood extremely important) + other bits and bobs that we think look nice together.

Then there's the other corner of the room that doesn't get any camera time, and that's because it's an absolute mess! Let's just call it a work in progress. I hope you've enjoyed this little look around my current workspace set-up.

Also in my office space:

Postcards by my friends Haarkon + It's Nice That

Chair + Shelving by HAY

Skateboard by Penny Skateboards

Toolbox by Vitra via Utility

Magazine Rack by Rockett St George

Stone Cold Steve Austin! 

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A Look Around Our House, One Year On | IKEA x HAY

How much have things changed in a year of being first-time homeowners?

I can hardy believe that we have been homeowners for nearly one year now. We moved into our neighbourhood on the 1st December 2016, and at the time I really couldn't even imagine what life would be like three months down the line. Being self-employed I was more worried about being able to pay the bills, than what colour we should paint our front room...

Anyone who has been in a similar position to us will know that the concept of turning a house into a "home" can be a very slow process. It took us months of DIY (with a lot of help from my new father-in-law), endless phone calls to contractors, and sensible spending to be in a place where we could start to think about how we wanted each room to look. One year on and we've only tackled a couple of rooms, but this anniversary was timed perfectly with the release of IKEA + HAY's debut YPPERLIG collection, so it felt like the perfect opportunity for us to do a proper house update. 

Take a look at how we styled the new YPPERLIG collection in our home.

 Injection moulded plastic YPPERLIG chairs

 Beech bench with Green Vase + Tealight Holder

First up is the open plan living room and dining area. This bright space lends itself to being one of the more modern spaces in our house, with large white walls, pale woods and dark floorboards throughout. We spend a lot of time in here, and if we have guests drop by this is where we usually end up – the fridge is stocked with beer and the coffee is always on – so, along with building a new shelving system, this is where you'll find a good portion of our IKEA + HAY picks.

The greens and off whites of the YPPERLIG collection compliment our existing antique and modern furniture, along with the exposed brickwork - making the dining room one of my favourite spaces in the house!

 The Nest of Tables is working a treat in our open-plan living room

A Fresh Routine in a New Neighbourhood

 Wearing - Jaeger x Lou Dalton Bomber Jacket | NN07 Jumper | Dickies Chinos | Cap c/o Percival | Form&Thread Socks | Converse Sneakers | Universal Works Tote Bag | Timex Watch

Over the past five years I've become accustomed to long, tiring travel days. This isn't me moaning – it's the lifestyle I have chosen. I've previously spoken about making the decision to stay in the North of England, rather than moving to London to pursue a career in the creative industry, and even though it has restricted my opportunities – inevitably missing out on stuff because I'm not constantly on "the scene" – I've put every effort in to making things work.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you need a pretty high level of commitment to your passions, and a decent grasp on time management (those never-ending to-do lists...) to make things happen for yourself. My routine far from perfect, and I do have organisational issues, but I'm getting there.

Our house is a five minute walk to the gym, seven minutes walk to the local shops and a stone's throw away from a lovely park. There's nowhere you can't get to in our town within a 20 minute car ride, but since last Summer decided to try a new mode of transport for those shorter deals – cue the 30+ guy trying to look cool on a Penny Board.

Moving to new neighbourhood has given my a fresh perspective

 on my daily routine. A new structure

is what I needed.

In fact, this is actually my second skateboard by Penny, so after a bit of basic Tony Hawk training I've found myself using it frequently if I'm needing to pick up a few bits from the shops. But I'm not going to lie, I had to practice for a few months at the darker end the day before I had the confidence to rip up the mean streets of our new neighbourhood.

Share Scandinavia by Juniqe

And confidence is something that is definitely tested in the world of self-employment; extreme highs, exciting projects + big smiles can easily be followed by sheer disappointment, self-doubt + contracts falling through. It's something you become accustom to, but it never really gets any easier, does it?

Those moments I find myself training at the gym, wandering to the shops, or just sitting down with a coffee and a new magazine are the point where I'm recharging and freeing my mind from the uncertainty of what might happen next. It ain't perfect, but then, what is?

Have you switched up your routine recently, or sticking to a tried-and-tested method?

This post is in partnership with Penny Skateboards. Thank you for taking the time to support the brands + businesses that make this blog happen.

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A Look Around Our New House, Part One

Our homeware + furniture is a mixture of old + new; bar stools + chair by IKEA, coffee mugs by Lane + Slow Brew Club, copper coffee set via Not-Another-Bill + cushions by COSxHAY. The living space + kitchen has been renovated into one large room, with an exposed wall at one end (could be a great area for a dining room table) and an open space which overlooks the garden at the other.

Read on more below!

The antique Drop Leaf table was a gift from Hollie's parents + we inherited the wooden sewing machine table (used as a record player stand) from an elderly neighbour. 
 

adidas Track Pants + Stan Smiths c/o Scotts

We bought a house! We've been in our new place for a couple of weeks, and while we're starting to put our own stamp on the place, it oddly still feels a little bit like we're on holiday. It's a weird feeling but I guess it's because we just don't have that much of our own stuff in there yet. 

It's been a stressful experience - filled with many late nights and super early morning (why do IKEA insist on delivering at 7am on a Sunday!?) sure, but in terms of the buying the process it wasn't too crazy. The whole mortgage situation with me working as a full time freelance was a tricky situation, but I'll leave that for another post! 

The past two weeks have been filled with early morning DIY routines, builders tramping through the house on a daily basis, and getting on first-name-terms with the dogs in our new neighbourhood. All fuelled by endless pours.

So, let's take a nose around!

 The Christmas tree was up before the bed was in...

Leather key wrap by Campbell Cole

 Most things in our living room are borrowed, including the IKEA sofa + tables

Between us we both have quite a lot of antiques, oddments and collectables so we decided to by a display cabinet. Hollie choose this bright yellow and glass one! Most of the antiques - like the ceramic dog collection - has been passed down through the family.

I'm sure with my collection of Bearbricks, wrestling figures, vintage toy cars + Americana bits it will be full in no time.

  

The bedroom literally has nothing in it other than a bed frame and mattress at the moment. Due to the lack of blinds / curtains we've improvised by tacking up A4 paper to the windows. It look us a while to decide on a bed frame, torn between wooden and metal, but in the end we bought this copper frame by MADE.

The mattress was very kindly gifted to us by British brand SleepBear. We've been using their King Size mattress since we moved it - it was my first time sleeping on memory foam - but it's totally changed my sleeping habits, for the better. As we've haven't been using it for very long I feel I need to give it another couple of weeks before I can do full review, but so far so good!

The "SleepBear" name piqued by curiosity too; the brand is an official supporter of Polar Bears International, with a percentage of the proceeds going directly towards the conservation of these beautiful animals. SleepBear's mattress range starts at £399.

The bathroom and office are both a work-in-progress, so there's not much to see as yet. But up to now my Dan Marc Study Desk + Anglepoise x Paul Smith lamp are working great together! Leather accessories c/o Bellroy and morning routines with Aesop skincare.

And that's your lot for now. We've still got a few rooms to cover - mainly the spare room, bathroom, office, garage and the garden - but I'm going to leave that for Part Two. The office is going to be something I want to concentrate on, as I plan to spend a lot of time in there, so I might even find a way to document that separately.

So what do you think so far? I'd love to hear your thoughts and if you have an interior design recommendations or favourite interior blogs / websites!

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