Meal of the week 4

Akara (bean cake)

Hi everyone, wishing you all a beautiful Happy Easter !

We're officially at the end of March and this means this will be my last 'meal of the week' , but I have some fun things planned for April so stay posted.

But for my last meal I've decided to share how to make 'Akara' or bean cakes which has similar ingredients to my ' moin moin elewe' dish however this is fried rather than steamed.


Ingredients

• Black eyed beans (peeled)
• 1 onion 
• 1 scotch bonnet
• 1 Maggie and salt to taste
• 1 egg
• Fresh prawns

1. Blend the beans, 1/2 onion and scotch bonnet in a blender adding some water to allow the mixture to blend properly until you have a smooth mix with no lumps (This is very important). 

2. When you have a smooth mix you can add the other 1/2 of the onion finely chopped, 1 egg, the prawns and maggie and salt to taste and mix all together

3. Add some oil to a frying pan and add the mixture in spoon fulls and allow to fry on both sides until cooked for about 10-12mins

4. The Akara is then ready to eat and can be eaten alone with some custard or oghi (made from corn similar to custard)

Enjoy 

p.s make sure you have a good blender with enough power to blend the beans.  

Meal of the Week 3

Jollof Rice 

 Ingredients

• 1tin of plum tomato
• 1 1/2 cups of rice
• 1 paprika
• 1 onion
• 1scotch bonnet
• 1 tomato 
• puree
• Maggie, chicken seasoning, all purpose, curry powder,thyme to taste 

1. Blend the plum tomato, onion,scotch bonnet and paprika together in a blender until

you have a smooth paste 

2. Add the mix to a pot of hot oil and one spoon of puree, and all the above seasoning to taste. Allow to cook for about 15 mins

3. In the mean time you will need to rinse the rice under cold water several times 
just to remove any starch

4. Then add your rice to the tomato sauce and cover and leave to cook for about 10 mins, you may add water as desired if the rice is still hard. Occasionally turn the rice to prevent burning

5. When the rice is almost ready I add slices of one fresh tomato. Cover the pot with foil and allow the rice to steam 


6. Once ready leave to rest for about 5 mins and then serve 

Honey Garlic marinated chicken and plantain to accompany 

Enjoy 

Train track veggie market

I recently came across this video, and I thought it was to good not to share. When it comes to grocery shopping  I'm very much used to heading down to my local market or grocery store but this takes it to another level!!!

 I'll let you see for yourself

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Meal of the Week 2

Week  2 

This week has to be chicken fajitas with vegetables. So after a day at uni I was feeling pretty hungry and this meal not only hit the spot but was ready in minutes

Ingredients 

• 1 Chicken fillet (cut in pieces) 
• Onion
• 1 tomato
• Paprika
• 1 clove of Garlic
• Fajita seasoning mix
• 3 tortilla wraps
• optional (cheese, sour cream)

First of all fry the chicken with the seasoning in a pan with a little oil for about 5 mins. Then add the above ingredients and two tablespoons of water and fry for another 3/5mins

The tortilla wraps can be heated in a frying pan or in the microwave for a few seconds 

To make the wraps here are a few quick easy steps 

   

Place the chicken mix in the center of the  wrap

Fold in the two sides of the fajita 

                                               

 Then fold inwards
the two remaining sides

Ready to eat

         
And for dessert I had this mouthwatering mango

                                                          Enjoy

Meal of the Week 1

For the month of March I've decided to do a 'Meal of the week challenge' to keep me blogging but also to give me the chance to try and jazz up some of my meals and try something new.

As a student, I know it can be quite hard at times to eat well and also dedicate some of the little time we think we have in the kitchen . So I'll aim to show meals that taste good, are affordable and don't leave you in the kitchen too long.


Week 1
   

This week I couldn't choose between Yam and Garden egg (a typical Nigerian dish) and Spaghetti Bolognese, these  are two very different dishes but both are full of flavour and very quick and easy to cook.

Dish 1:

Ingredients 

• Yam
• 6 Garden eggs
• 1 Onion 
• 3 Tomatoes
• Dry Prawns or cray fish 
• Pepper, Maggie and Salt to taste

Yam

First you will need to boil the yam slices in cold water just above the yam with added salt and a pinch of sugar to taste.  The yam  is ready  when your able to push your fork through the center.

Garden egg

Garden egg also known as 'egg plant' or scientifically
 as Solanum melongena

In a separate pot boil the garden egg until they are very soft and able to be mashed using a fork 

Add some oil to a frying pan, and fry the onions and tomato for about 1 min. Then add the prawns, pepper and maggie and fry for another 1 min. Finally add in the mashed garden egg and allow to simmer for about 5 mins.

Yam and Garden egg

Dish 2:

Ingredients :

• A Jar of tomatoe basil pasta sauce
• Spaghetti
• Minced beef
• Mushrooms
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• Pepper
• Maggie to taste

In a pot of boiling water slightly salted add your spaghetti and boil until soft.

Then fry the onions, garlic and minced meat in a little oil shortly followed by the mushrooms adding maggie and pepper to taste. Once done add the pasta sauce and leave to simmer for about 5 mins .

Spaghetti Bolognese 

     Enjoy 

Brussels

In October 2012 I took a short 2 day trip to Belgium’s capital Brussels and I must say I did have high hopes. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting to see but hopefully nothing too far off the likes of Amsterdam. But it was nothing of the sort ... ok there were nice parts but I was more disappointed than filled with high hopes of coming back.

Travel

Being a student which means opting for the cheaper option, I took a coach from Amsterdam all the way to Brussels which was about 2 hours 50 mins.  At first this didn't appear to long as I was excited, so I didn't really mind. But, it was quite long mainly because there was nothing to look at but green land.

The trip on the way to Brussels was much more pleasant than the trip on the way back, in which my friend and I had to literally hustle ourselves into seats that were ‘supposedly not available’ . Anyways we did manage to get a seat and I slept most of the way back.

But hey when you opt for the cheaper option these things are expected...

 

Brussels – First impressions:

My first impressions of Brussels were actually ok, well immediately after stepping off the coach.  We were right in the center  so there were quite a few stores and restaurants in sight. However, after walking around for quite a while I began to notice the lack of money that had been invested into just the general look of the city. The train station was a bit run down, there were loads of empty shops that looked like once upon a time had been up and running, very rundown buildings amongst  established businesses . Basically there were just quite a few things not quite going on in Brussels that I expected since it was the capital of the EU.

 However, this was a minor issue compared to what my friend and I experienced next on our endless search for our hotel.

So having forgot the details of how to get to our hotel, the street name etc at home we began a long quest of trying to locate it with the only thing I remembered being that it was located near to a botanical garden. As we were searching we met about 3/4 little boys who couldn't have been no older than 12 who began shouting from the bridge above us ‘Black, Black, Black’ yes in relation to the colour of our skin but that wasn't enough they began spitting and to finish us off throwing stones. Now as you can imagine at the time we were full of rage, upset but most of all surprised that these young boys at such an early age had developed a character of what I could only describe as racism and hate. At the time we felt victimized, but there was nothing we could do, we let it go, we just thank God for grace. 

Botanical Garden

Botanical Garden   

Hotel

After our endless search, disappointment, victimization, the hotel was AMAZING and to be fair actually made the trip!! Hotel BLOOM: from the outside appears quite ordinary but once you step inside you step into the extraordinary!!! The downstairs bar was of top class and the interior throughout the hotel was of a very high standard. Every floor and room has its own theme and signature style. For the price I was definitely not disappointed. We paid only £131 for two nights (£65.50 each) and I would definitely recommend staying there if you’re looking to visit Brussels.

The beds were comfy, the shower immaculate should I go on ... I actually can’t think of anything to fault the place on. We didn't have breakfast at the hotel so unfortunately I can’t comment on that aspect.

Food

On our first night we went to a restaurant called Brussels grill I had Spare BBQ ribs with chips and salad. The meal was nice, the ribs however were not as bbquie (if that’s a word) as I would have liked but nonetheless still enjoyable with extra sauce. The meal cost only 13.90 so more than enough food for a good price and enjoyable evening.

On our second evening we visited Arcadi a Belgian Brasserie which serves a variety of food. The food there was very nice I had a fillet of salmon with Pasta which tasted really good. However, we did go to the restaurant on a busy night, although we were seated immediately some of the tables are quite small and it can be a bit squashed.

 For desert I had an apple tart with a scoop of ice cream. It wasn't the best I've had could hardly taste any apple.

However, overall great ambiance and friendly staff

Waffles

 Things to do

There are quite a few things to do in Brussels which I didn't cover on this trip. But I did make a trip to the Musical Instrument Museum which was interesting with several different floors. You are provided with headphones so you can look and also listen to the instruments. There is also a lovely restaurant right at the top of the museum with nice food and lovely views. 

Shopping

Shopping was no different to shopping in Amsterdam for me, as I was in all the stores I would usually shop in. Unfortunately I didn't find any quirky boutiques maybe I missed those.