CHOCOLATE GLORIOUS CHOCOLATE😁😁😁

It looks like rain again this Thursday morning in Lagos and I couldn't be happier or more at peace💃💃💃

Have I mentioned that I just love the rains? It's just an amazing miraculous work of The Most High. Utterly amazing😁😁😁

Moving on, so I have a sweet tooth and that's been my greatest challenge upon making the switch to a healthier lifestyle but alas with Facebook and twitter and the internet one comes across healthy alternatives for the sweetest cravings. Some hit the spot and some fall flat but with twicking and experimentation one comes up with a recipe that works and makes you not wallow in guilt and self pity at the calories 😁

I bring to you "our yummy chocolate cake"

I've been baking this cake for quite a while now and I didn't make up the recipe sad to say but I give kudos to Hershey's for their amazing chocolate recipe book.

I know you're thinking Hershey's? No way hozay! That can't be healthy abi? Well once I swop the original ingredients for healthier options we get a chocolate cake that is filled with absolutely finger licking goodness😁💃💃💃💃

1/2 a cup of light brown sugar

11/2 cups of natural raw honey( these 2 items could be substituted for 2 cups of raw honey)

1/2 a cup of white flour

11/4 cups of wheat flour(these 2 items could also be substituted for 13/4cups of wheat flour)

11/2 teaspoons each of baking powder and bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon of salt 

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/2 a teaspoon of ground yellow pepper( I usually use 1 teaspoon if paprika but mine looked dodgy hence the substitute)

2 eggs

1/2 a cup of olive oil or coconut oil

1 cup of skimmed milk 0.3% fat( couldn't find almond milk)

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence( need to make my own extract really)

1 cup of boiling water

On a whim I added the juice of 1 whole lemon

I had my nephew and his friend help with the mixing and tasting and they both did a pretty great job😁😁. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of that process.

Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients and whisk for about 2 minutes making sure there are no lumps. Add the vanilla essence( use extract it's a whole lot better) and lastly the boiling hot water which thins out the consistency of the batter.

Put in a pre heated 350F/180C/ gas mark4 oven for 30-35minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. I generally under bake by just a few minutes so the cake retains it's moistness and is kindly fudgy inside.

This quantity makes roughly about 2 dozen cupcakes. I made 12 cupcakes and a loaf.

Now doesn't that just want to make you go bake?

You can also use coconut oil instead of olive oil, it works quite well. I have also used all honey before and it was absolutely delish. 

Let me know what you think when you try it out😁😁😁

BREAD OOOOO BREAD

Olla peeps, 

Trust you're all fantastic😁. So who doesn't love bread? I am unashamedly a bread lover even with my change to eating healthier it's been a huge battle to leave it out of my food🙈. But alas from the day we started the 7 day challenge I have stayed off bread until yesterday when I had 1 slice with homemade peanut butter and unsalted butter. Oooooooh did it feel good. Now as I have lost some weight I felt I needed the reward( uh huh make myself feel good abi and be justifying the bread eating; mega eye rolling) 

So this morning I had my veggie wheat pasta mix with was yummy and then at 11am I started dreaming of bread and I'm like oh boy this is not good at allllllllll🙈. Now whenever I have a craving I try and resist and sometimes succeed for up to a week and then I'm like ok give in but donut sensibly😁😁😁💃

So how do you eat bread healthy? There are many options; you can bake your own bread with the variety of healthier flours out there(bread making is still the one thing I haven't gotten around to doing cause the process just seems sooooo long and this is coming from someone who's mum used to bake bread! Shameful! 😁)

 

You can also eat something healthy with the bread; home made peanut butter, a salad, boneless chicken breasts grilled or pan fried, lean cuts of meat if you're a meat lover, eggs boiled, poached or fried with vegetables, the options are endless.

I made a salad with rocket, lettuce, spring onions, carrots, cabbage, parsley, basil, almonds, goji berries, toasted sesame seeds and today I also made a dressing which had half a tablespoon each of fresh orange juice, sesame oil, coconut oil, black pepper to taste, pink Himalayan salt, ground dried yellow pepper and honey. 

Might not do bread again in a while but this sure hit the spot😁😁😁💃💃💃

Enjoy a blessings filled week ahead.

NEW FRONTIERS😁😁😁😁

Olla people,

Trust you're all fantastic😁💃💃 I am now. Funny how food takes away some of ones anger. Yes anger, woke up this morning quite miffed and the best way to avoid a major blast off is to do housework and cook. By the time I'm done I can assure you all anger has evaporated.

Also had a few friends coming for lunch so it all worked out and what other excuse do I need to do a new post 😁😁😁

So I started off with a smoothie this morning and this is my first without milk and hubby gave it a thumbs up 💃💃💃. I was juicing some oranges, apples, pears, pineapples and ginger and I thought why not try a smoothie💬? So I whipped out my blender(still saving up for a Vitamix) and in went some juiced orange, a couple pears cut, some pineapple, a handful each of groundnuts and almonds,bananas and  grated some nutmeg over it and whizzed until smooth. It was soooooooo good I thought why haven't I done this before. So that was breakfast.

For lunch as I mentioned earlier I had friends coming over for lunch and I thought why make them something they can make themselves 😜. We seem a bit timid on the food scale in Nigeria and most of us are quite wary of new tastes. I had gone to the vegetable market earlier in the day and they had bak choi, basil, spinach, rocket and so much more I was in veggie heaven honestly😄😄

So I made a variation of my ugwu chicken. I love prepping food, all the washing, draining, storing away, chopping it just builds me up for the tasting and eating😁😁😁

I started with cutting the boneless chicken breasts in strips, chopped up onions, garlic, ginger and yellow scotch bonnets. I lightly oiled a huge wok with coconut oil just to coat it and put it on to heat up until the wok started smoking. I put in the chicken and cooked until just done then added the garlic, onions, ginger and peppers covered the wok for about 2minutes. Next in was fresh basil leaves roughly chopped, a few dashes of light and dark soy sauces, about a table spoon of sesame oil, spring onions, juice of half an orange, carrots, 2 teaspoons of honey stirred it all up and then topped with bak choi, covered to simmer for 2-3minutes and lastly added roughly cut fresh parsley, sea salt and steak chop seasoning stirred, turned off the heat and lunch was half done. While this was going on I had also soaked some quinoa in cold water for 15minutes, rinsed thoroughly and cooked. Also I had washed and cut up potatoes and steamed in a bamboo steamer.

Lastly salad was lettuce, spring onions, carrots, raisins, almonds, basil, parsley, pink Himalayan salt and some freshly ground black pepper.

Did I say lunch was widely accepted( at least no one said otherwise to my face) I thoroughly enjoyed it😁😁😁

EDIKAINKONG BEING THE BASE😁

Olla peeps,

Trust you're doing great? Looking forward to the holidays I get to see my nephew almost everyday, you can't understand how much joy that brings to my heart 😁

So I haven't posted anything in a bit mainly because I have kinda sorta fallen off the wagon( happens to the best of us) had 4 cupcakes the other morning🙈🙈🙈. 

Here's what keeps me going though the fact that I know that I know that I know that I know that eating healthy does me and my body sooooo much good. I have lost some weight and I'm quite happy I can feel it💃💃💃💃

So today for breakfast I had brown rice vermicelli noodles with my soup of the century Edikainkong and it was absolutely yummilicious 😁😁😁😁💃💃💃💃.

All you have to do with the noodles is soak them for 5minutes in room temperature water and drain for another 5minutes and add whatever takes your fancy to make it a complete meal. 

As I had edikainkong on hand all I had to do was heat it up in a small pot on the stove(trying to wean myself off the microwave) and add the drained vermicelli noodles to it. Stir and it's ready, wasn't that easy?😁😁😁😁 and my Favourite part all done in about 10minutes and oh boy was it delicious.

Let me know what you think when you try it out. Enjoy a blessings filled weekend😘😘😘