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😘😘😘

UGWU INSPIRED STIRFRY

Olla foodies😁

So yesterday I was inspired by one of the ladies on our group challenge to achieve and maintain a healthier lifestyle to make this dish. She had put up a stirfry with Ugwu in it and I was like hmmmmm. . . 

You know how sometimes or rather all the time we just do things the same way and are confined by our minds? Well this was one if them but perhaps Ugwu is a veggie and can be used in different ways aside from in the Edikainkong soup😁😁😁

Reminds me of the song "free your mind and the rest will follow"💃💃💃💃

Aha back to cooking or talking about it tee hee hee

3-4 pieces of boneless chicken breast

3 cloves of garlic

1 whole onion(looooove loooooove loooooove onions)

About half an inch of fresh ginger

1 green pepper

6 leaves of cabbage 

Spring onions

Sesame seeds

Half a teaspoon of turmeric 

A few grinds of Pink Himalayan salt

A few grinds of steak chop grind spice

Fresh mint

Fresh parsley

A table spoon of honey 

A table spoon of sesame seed oil

A smidgen of unsalted butter

Ugwu

I started off with cutting the breasts into strips and placing in a bowl with the salt, steak grind, sesame seeds, turmeric, sesame seed oil and honey. I set that aside while I chopped the onions, garlic, ginger, cabbage, spring onions and green pepper. 

I set an empty pan on the burner on high heat for a few minutes to heat up then added the chicken strips. About 5-7 minutes later I added the butter, onions, garlic, mint and ginger, stirred and covered the pan for just under 5 minutes.

I added the cabbage, green pepper stirred then the ugwu, spring onions and parsley tossed together, left on the heat for about 3 minutes turned off the heat and served.

I must confess I had seconds 😁😁😁. Hubby came home and dusted off what I had thought would be breakfast for me the following morning. Alas!

Consolation it got the hubby approved stamp and that's a great one for me😁😁

Enjoy a blessings filled weekend😘

HOMEMADE THINGYS 😁

Olla peeps, 

Trust you're enjoying the abundant rains as much as I am😁. I just love the rains makes me marvel at the works of my Almighty God.

So I've been on a 7 day habit forming start to a great healthy eating lifestyle with a few ladies on bbm, it's amazing what team effort can achieve😁. 

I will post pictures of the meals I have had so far and break them down individually in the next few posts.

My journey to eating and maintaining a healthier lifestyle started maybe like 6 years ago and I can assure you it was and sometimes still a struggle(I have an incredible sweet tooth). Suffice it to say I have almost won the battle with sugar aside from the odd cravings here and there, I have substituted sugar with honey and even in my baking and found that it works beautifully. Phew enough of the history lesson and on with today's topic.

Hummus was something I always looked at with funny eyes and swore never to eat it until last year in Dubai at a Lebanese restaurant with family and I was urged to not knock it till I tried it. I didn't really need much persuasion as there was lots of hot flat bread to go with it😁. Wow! Was I pleasantly surprised! It was absolutely positively delish. We had 3 bowls between the 3 of us before the main meal and I tell you I could have just eaten nothing else and been a happy camper😁. 

I also came across vegannigerian's blog www.vegannigerain.com and she had a recipe for homemade hummus what a delight.

Chickpeas; 1 cup cooked✅(of course I made mine fresh from scratch😁)

Olive oil; 2 tablespoons✅

Garlic; 2 cloves crushed ✅

Pepper;1/4teaspoon as it was really hot✅

Freshly squeezed lemon juice; half a yellow lemon✅

A dash of salt; a few twists of pink Himalayan salt(plenty effizzi)✅

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor and voila hummus is ready to be eaten. 

Admittedly it doesn't taste exactly like the one I had in Dubai but it was yummy none the less and as I'm off bread this week had it for lunch with some veggies. Quiet filling😁😁😁.

Enjoy a fruitful blessings weekend😘

ONE POT WONDER😁😁😁

You know those days when you're hungry, rather starving! and you almost absolutely positively know you'll be sprawled passed out on the floor if you manage to get through the prepping the ingredients stage? Wellllllllll I go through that quite regularly🙈 but as I loooooove to eat and loooooooove food I found out that popping every single ingredient in the pot at the same time works absolute magic😁😁💃💃💃and more often than none the food is done in about 20 minutes max 25minutes ( doesn't work for beans o! Ehen)

Jollof rice is one thing I still don't cook very well at least compared to the iya alase's ( Women who cook at your home for a few as in local firewood and huge cauldrons and stuff) they get it right all the time and in such huge quantities too!

Anywho so I get home starving like Marvin and alas rice( which I try not to eat too often) is the fastest thing to cook so I wash the rice severally(1 cup) pour some already blended pepper about 4 cooking spoons In with the rice in a pot, add salt to taste, chop 1 onion, 3 cloves if garlic add half that to the pot, about a teaspoon of dried yellow pepper, about a handful of ground dried crawfish, a couple pieces of smoked catfish(love love love), add water to cover and cook for about 20 minutes or until water dries. I tasted for softness, stirred and then added turmeric powder, dried sweet basil and the rest if the chopped onion and garlic with a little more water reduced the heat and steamed for just under 5minutes and voila my one pot wonder was ready. I was patient enough to plate and take a picture😁.

Ps mostly I don't cook with oil and I have found out the food tastes just as great if not better and a lot healthier too. That said when I do cook with oil I hardly ever add more that a couple tablespoons and that would be for a huge pot.

I use mostly cold pressed olive, sesame and coconut oils.

Enjoy😘