WHO SAYS VEGGIES ARE'NT FILLING?

Olla peeps,

Trust you and yours are fantastic and you have settled into the now all to familiar grind of the new year😃

So today dinner was inspired by the need to preserve my freshly bought produce as our power generating supply has been rather erratic these last few months.

I have always boasted of the best power supply in Lagos alas! They are now making me almost eat my words but we still have it a lot better than most and for that I am grateful.

Went shopping today and bought some lamb and boneless chicken breast and of course vegetable and bread( I know I know I still can't resist it).

Vegetables included leeks, beetroot, ginger, parsley which I have missed terribly, spinach. Hmmmm thinking if there was anything else. . . 

I already had carrots, garlic, spring onions, lemons and red onions at home . 

You can see the beginnings of a scrumptious meal abi 😃😃😃.

The lamb ended up as Palm oil stew with ground Ede that's a post for another day. On to the chicken dish. 

1 boneless chicken breast 

6 garlic cloves

Half an inch of fresh ginger

Half a red onion

Sea salt

Dry yellow pepper 

Coriander seeds

1Tbsp of coconut oil 

11/2 Tbsps of local raw honey

1 medium sized leek

A small bunch of spring onions 

8 small carrots

A small handful of parsley 

A small bunch of spinach

Half a red onion

Juice of just under half a lemon

In a small food processor I had a bit of left over chopped parsley to which I added a little water, ginger, garlic, red onions, coriander seeds, salt, pepper, honey and coconut oil and blitzed happily away.😃😃😃💃💃💃

I placed the chicken breast in a bowl and cut some slits into it so the marinade would infuse the flesh and poured the marinade over it sealed with cling film and put in the fridge. 

I prepped the vegetables by washing and slicing. This I did just as I put the chicken on to cook.

After a couple hours of marinating in the fridge, I put a frying pan on to hear with some butter( yes I love butter) and placed the chicken in the hot pan with all the marinade and covers with my bamboo steamer cover. After about 10minutes I turned the chicken around for just under 3-4minutes and turned off the burner.

I placed the chicken on a plate to rest and covered it with the bamboo steamer cover.

In the same pan I put in the spinach and cooked till just about wilted added the leeks and onions, stirred for about 2 minutes and added the spring onions, carrots stirred for about 30seconds, added juice of half a lemon turned off the burner added parsley, stirred and viola dinner was ready. 💃💃💃💃

I know I say this all the time( don't understand people who can't eat their own food after cooking it! It truly baffles me) but honestly it was more amazing than I could have imagined. 

Let me know how yours turns out, till I write again and you read again be good no be great to yourself.

HMMMMM, WHAT TO CALL THIS?

Olla peeps,

Have I wished you the best of 2015? If I have good if not the best of 2015 to you and yours full of Gods abundant blessing.

So y'all know by now that I totally loooooove food and I don't necessarily like spending hours in the kitchen when I'm hungry( which is almost always😃😃😃🙈)

Anywho we started a 21 day fast in my church today and for some reason I can't seem to make it till 6pm anymore so here I am breaking at 3 and just thanking God for His unending grace towards me.

As I was starving I thought what to break with? It was a toss up between quinoa and couscous and quinoa won.

Quinoa is a gluten free grain that's quite bland but can be oomphend up in so many ways it's almost unbelievable, cooked under 20 minutes after being properly washed.

It can be eaten on its own if cooked in a Flavoured stock, paired with or without proteins as in chicken, beef etc, made in jollof style(cooked in a pepper sauce), salad with steamed or raw veggies. The list goes on and on.

Today I made a jollof quinoa with the left over smoked fish sauce from my lunch on Saturday, steamed plantains In my trusty bamboo steamer, boiled an egg and garnished with spring onions.

I couldn't wait to dive in and it was yummilicious💃💃💃💃💃💃.

This love for food and sleep are blessings I always thank God for. There is absolutely nothing like being able to eat and eat properly what you want when you want it or being able to adapt what you have at home to meet your cravings. 

To all the lovers of food out there and home chefs I Salute you.

Enjoy a fruitful flourishing week.😘😘

Ps second picture was lunch on Saturday, steamed yams with smoked fish pepper sauce cooked with palm oil and scrambled eggs with onions, garlic and tomatoes garnished with spring onions and half a steamed red onion. 

AH! BREAD! HMMMMMMMM

 Olla peeps, Best of the season to you and yours 😃😃💃💃💃 2014 is almost out the door and in comes 2015. It is all down to Gods abundant Grace and Mercy that we are still here and as my hubby always says Lets make it count! Find your purpose in God and nothing else and everything else will be added unto you! Gbabe!

So I have this on going battle with bread and cake( I'm sure I've mentioned this a zillion times). I think the bread making process is tooo loooooooong so I haven't been tempted to try it out yet. 

So every once in a while I give in and have some bread but I try to pair it with loads of healthy stuff.

Breakfast today was a cheese croissant and a small bagguet with veggies and egg. I was going to make mayonnaise but for some reason I can't comprehend it went south😩.

This was easy. Ingredients were;

Lettuce

Cabbage

Carrots

Spring onions

Hard boiled eggs

Sharp cheddar cheese

Unsalted butter

A few 50%less sugar dried cranberries 

I thinly sliced all ingredients except eggs, spring onions and cranberries with a Mandalay , buttered the sliced breads, piled on all ingredients and voila!

Easy peasy😃😃😃

Have a fantastic new year and remember all you have to do is love like God loves you. That can't be to hard now can it?😃😃😃.

See Ya in 2015.

HAIR AND BODY NUTRITION

Olla beautiful people and the best of the season to you and yours. May we always remember that Jesus is the reason for the season and show that love to our neighbors. 

So this morning I decided a smoothie for hair and body was the best thing to do and so off I went to my kitchen and started preparing my wonderful concoctions😃 

The more mature we get(old means expired urghhh) the harder it seem to get for a lot of us to eat healthier until our bodies give us a jolt and then we start to fret. Don't get me wrong I have a tree budding everyday in my eye so I'm not looking for the speck in yours just saying we all need to make it a lifestyle to eat healthier and pass it on to our children now and not when they are mature.

So on to the Koko of the matter 😃

Body Nutrition smoothie

2 cold bananas 

3/4 of a cold mango

About a 3/4cup of G's Allfresh GREEK yogurt 

2 tablespoons coconut oil 

1 tablespoon Ólaa Naturale raw honey

2 tablespoons ground flaxseed

Grated nutmeg

A dash of cinnamon 

A dash of tumeric 

A dash of ground yellow pepper

About 2 tablespoons of fresh aloe gel

A handful of raw almonds and groundnuts 

A good whiz in the blender and voila! Smoothee done. It was absolutely yummilicious.

Hair Nutrition smoothie tee hee

1 banana 

1/4 of a mango

A few drops of tea tree essential oil

Argan oil

Coconut oil

Fresh aloe gel

Ólaa Naturale Honey

A quick blitz with an immersion blender and hair is beautifully deep conditioning. 

I wet my hair first with cold water, shook off the excess and applied the hair smoothie then wrapped in 3 layers of cling film and a towel. 

I pray to stay focused on good food this season and not go off like I usually do 🙈😃😃.

Let's all go into the New Year with Kingdom focus and remember Jesus is our centre. 

See (write 😃)y'all soon

Smoothies Smoothies Smothies

Olla peeps

Trust you and yours are doing fantastically great😁.

It's amazing how one can be so full of joy with the right focus. Thank God for Jesus in my life. 

#movingon as my sister says 😁. Seems fruits are in abundance this season and they all look so luscious and tempting too! Take it from me that's a good way to be tempted.

So I went for an appointment that didn't hold and ended up buying fruits to take home and of course for me the fastest thing to do with fruits is a smoothie. 

I got bananas, lemons, ginger, apples, pineapples(the mallams or barrow people as natural Nigerian calls them make buying fruits so hassle free with their cleaning and preparation, more than half the work done for me😁😁😁), oranges, mangoes( oh wow are they humungous these mangoes) and cocoyams which you know is not a fruit right? 😜

So in the cup for the immersion blender i i put 100ml GREEK yoghurt( G'S Allfresh yoghurt 08098442633) 2 tablespoons honey( Olaa Naturale 08020924020), 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (Clove limited 08026008553), grated nutmeg, cinnamon, a dash of dry yellow pepper  and a handful of groundnuts.

In goes the immersion blender and voila smoothie is ready. 

I had also done a variation earlier on in the week, pictures will be included with the ingredients I used. 

Enjoy a fruitful weekend😘

SMOOTHIE

2tbsp of coconut oil 

1 tbsp of honey 

Juice of half a lemon

Nutmeg

Cinnamon 

Dry yellow pepper 

3 cold bananas 

Half an avocado

Ground flaxseed 

Handful of groundnuts 

About 4 tbsp of Greek yoghurt 

Had this with a kale salad; 

kale massaged with coconut oil,

Toasted Brazil nuts, 

toasted sesame seeds, 

50%less sugar cranberries

Some smoked catfish

A drizzle of honey

A dash of dry yellow pepper

So posting the picture I see broccoli 🙈.

Bamboo steamed broccoli florets

2 hard boiled eggs

Mushrooms 

4 cloves garlic

Half an inch fresh ginger

Spring onions

Toasted almonds

Pine nuts

A drizzle of honey 

A dash of dry yellow pepper 

The mushrooms, ginger and garlic were sautéed in butter and coconut oil the all the ingredients were tossed together and salad done.

The Juice was 

2 small beets

6 green apples

1 lemon

1/2 an inch of ginger

😁😁😁😁😁😁

I found KALE!!! 💃💃💃💃💃

So I discovered the wonders of Kale in dubai a while back and if one can overdose on something for me it was Kale! I had it with and in anything you can imagine or not😁

Did I say Olla peeps? Forgive my manners. I trust you're all doing splendid 😁. 

Now on with my story, so I went veggie shopping in Victoria Island today and tried not to overdo it but hey! What can I tell you😁

I got Kale, lemons(sour and sweet), broccoli(hubby looooves), beetroot, spring onions, okro, garlic, ginger, strawberries, mushrooms and as I still had change I stopped by my friendly neighbourhood side street fruit guy and got bananas, apples and groundnuts. 

I have decided I will eat everything in moderation ( that's still a battle with the cakes but I have overcome! Hear! Hear!)

So for dinner I decided to make a salad  as I'd had 1 moin moin for breakfast and wheat with okro for lunch. With plenty of water all through the day of course😁

About 10 long leaves of kale

A handful each of walnuts and raw almonds

A small portion of raisins 

8 small mushrooms

An inch of fresh ginger finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic finely chopped

A dash of pink Himalayan salt

A dash of ground dry yellow pepper

A squeeze of fresh lemon juice 

A drizzle of honey

I massaged the kale for a couple minutes on its own then added a bit of  coconut oil and massaged for another couple minutes. 

Toasted the nuts in a hot pan for roughly 2 minutes, tossed with the massaged kale. In the same pan I added a knob of unsalted butter and tossed the ginger, garlic,mushrooms, salt and pepper for about 2 minutes or until mushrooms are done.

Once this was done I added it to the kale and nuts and mixed with a spatula. 

Plated up and added a squeeze or two of lemon juice and a drizzle of honey.

Now how can you not want to try that😁😁😁. 

Enjoy a fruitful sunday y'all😘

Why the silence abi?

So more often than not once I'm quiet it means I'm up to no good😁😁😁 or have fallen off the wagon🙈🙈🙈🙈. Thank God for Jesus if not I no know where I for dey o! Hian! 

Ok #movingon😁

Food glorious food my 2nd or 3rd best Favourite past time depending on how you look at it. I manage to maintain a fairly healthy lifestyle even when I fall of the wagon. In these instances which happen quite a bit I must confess I eat more of my Favourite pleasures cake than I do food and what makes it worse is that I don't make them a myself. 

Today I tell you about 2 chicken based meals. I buy and eat quite a bit of chicken and I love love love love it because it's pretty quick to cook. 

3 pieces boneless chicken breasts

I large red onion

4-6 cloves garlic 

About an inch of fresh ginger

2-3 red scotch bonnets/ata rodo 

Zest of half a lemon

Juice of half a lemon

1-2 tablespoons of honey

Sea salt

I has some boneless chicken breast which I marinaded/marinated in onions, ginger, garlic, red scotch bonnet/ata rodo peppers, lemon zest, lemon juice, honey and sea salt. Left that in the fridge for about 24hrs(i was actually going to cook immediately but time grew wings and flew so I left it till the next day)

I put a pan on the gas and let it heat up until it was smoking then I added a bit of butter and coconut oil, placed my chicken breast which i'd sliced thinly and allowed to sauté in its on juices first on high heat for a couple minutes and then I turned down the heat and poured in all the juices and chopped marinated garnishes and allowed to cook for a further 5-7minutes. I turned them a couple times to allow for even cooking through. Voila first meal ready and I ate this with a few slices of a multi cereal bread I came across. Yum yum yum

5-6 pieces chicken drumsticks 

A large handful of ugwu leaves

1/2-1cup local ofada rice

I large red onion

4-6 cloves of garlic

2-3 red scotch bonnet/ata rodo

About an inch of fresh ginger

Pink Himalayan salt

A splash of water to get the chicken going

My 2nd chicken dish had all of 3 major ingredients and was my fastest way of cooking 😁 one pot😂😂. 

Local ofada rice, fresh UGWU leaves from my mums garden and chicken drumsticks. 

I boiled the drumsticks in their own juices with onions, garlic, ginger, pink Himalayan salt and red scotch bonnet. Once this was almost done, I had washed my rice and washed and chopped my ugwu leaves and I just added water to the pot of almost done chicken, poured in the rice and left to cook for 15minutes after which I added the ugwu stirred with a wooden spoon turned off the gas, covered the pot and 5minutes later lunch was ready.