Tuna Wrap

This is a quick and easy breakfast idea.  It’s also a make ahead meal.  All you need to do is: make the tuna and refrigerate, wrap with tortillas and heat as you go. It’s as easy as that. If you are a busy person, trying to eat healthy or trying to stay away from cereal this is definitely for you. Feel free to add as much vegetable as you want. I personally prefer to have more of tuna in mine.

Ingredients

• Tortilla wraps
• 1 can of tuna (preferably John West)
• 1 carrot diced
• 1 green pepper diced
• Butter or vegetable oil 
• A pinch of salt

Let’s wrap up!

Preheat your oven at 180 degree Celsius

Heat up a pan in medium heat, add oil or butter. Once the oil is hot, add the vegetables and cook for about 2 minutes. Be careful not to let it burn and don’t cook for long as it will still be heated in the oven. Add the tuna and salt and stir. Allow it to cook through for about a minute and half then set aside.

Place tortilla or flat bread on a flat plate or tray. Spoon out the tuna mix towards the end but a bit close to the middle of the flat bread. Wrap the smaller end of the bread just over the tuna like you are trying to get under it. Then wrap the second end over the first and roll till the end.

Place in a baking tray and heat in the oven for 15 minutes. Cut into two as shown in the picture.

Enjoy

My take on trendy diets

So today is one of those days I just wish to rant. As a food lover, I can’t help but notice different diet trends all over the internet like vegan, ketogenic, fad diet, food replacements etc.  I understand that people do this for various reasons such as health conditions, perceived cruelty to animals or weight loss. What I don’t understand is why people criticize those who eat meat. Some Christians site the bible verse Gen1:29 as God’s original plan for Christians to be pure vegetarians.

However, in Genesis 9 vs 3 God said “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green herb have I given you all things”. We can see that God has given us total dominion to eat both meat and herbs. In the Old Testament, there was a distinction between clean and unclean animals and the Israelites were permitted to eat clean animals and were forbidden from the unclean ones. In the New Testament, these rules were done away with through a vision in Acts 10 vs 15b “what God has cleansed, that call not thou common”.  In Romans 14:14 Paul expands “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean to him it is unclean.”  This verse I believe is simply what it is. If you call something unclean, then it will be unclean to you. I strongly believe that food and drinks do not defile or make one unclean. In Matthew 15:11 “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of a man that defileth a man” Paul said in Corinthians 10:27 eat what is set before you, asking no questions for conscience sake.

Here are my thoughts.

Some Christians believe that it is cruel to kill animals for food but I personally believe it is part of the natural food cycle. Animals feed on other animals too and even humans when they get the opportunity. God made us in his own image and likeness and have given us the dominion over all animals and herbs. I choose to be thankful and eat all things in moderation as I am free in my conscience to do so. If one is not strong enough to eat meat then so be it but please don’t judge others.

Some diet like ketogenic diet calls for total avoidance of carbohydrate. I believe that all the classes of food have their own health benefit. I would strongly advise that people seek professional attention in order to ensure that they are getting the right nutrition their body needs.

I believe that everything should be done in moderation Phil 4:5; 1cor 14:40. I believe people should eat food in the right proportions. I like to have both vegetables, protein (i.e. meat or fish), a little bit of carbs and some fruits and yes I like to indulge sometimes. In all things there should just be decency and moderation. Exercise is also very important. God hates laziness Proverbs 24: 32-33 I like to think of poverty as a deficiency. If you sit around sleeping and folding your arms without the right amount of exercise you should expect to have both poverty of the mind and health.

example of what your plate should look like

That being said, I ask for God’s grace on us all as we run this heavenly race so that we may not fall short.

Yours truly

Sautéed veg roll

Growing up in Nigeria, every kid loved the idea of having snacks at parties or just as a treat. You could have the local ones on the street or the posh ones from Mr biggs and Tantalizers. Just thinking about their meat pie makes me salivate. The street ones were mainly buns, egg rolls and fish roll. Those were the days I would run home from school to eat my mum’s homemade ones or my mum would get me to do my chores quickly by promising me snacks in the end.  I still can’t get over those days and today I will be sharing with you guys a fish roll inspired recipe.

I used to enjoy the fried fish roll back in the day but being all grown up now I don’t exactly enjoy eating fried stuff anymore. Also, I used some vegetables as well as tuna to make this snack. So what we have is sautéed vegetables wrapped in soft dough and baked to perfection.

add enough water just to hold the dough together like this

I used cabbage, carrot and onions and it tastes delicious. Feel free to leave out the onions if you don’t like onions but I personally think that onions always add a unique flavour to food.

What you’ll need

1. 2 ½ cups of flour plus extra for dusting
2. One can of tuna
3. 1 egg
4. A pinch of salt
5. 2 table spoons of sugar
6. 2 table spoons of butter
7. 1 cup of water
8. 1 table spoon of oil
9. Onions
10. Cabbage
11. Carrots

How to make it

• Prepare the vegetables.  Clean and slice the vegetables thinly.
• Make the though. Combine the dry ingredients. Mix in the butter till you get a smooth crumb texture. Start by mixing in little drops of water till it comes together as dough. Knead the dough till it’s smooth and soft.
• Make the vegetables. Start by heating the oil till it’s hot. Add the onions and fry till it softens. Add carrots and cabbage until it’s cooked but not overly cooked. Then add the tuna. season with salt and about a tsp and half of oyster sauce.

• Divide the dough into small balls around the size of a golf ball. Use your rolling pin to flatten the dough. Fill one end of the dough with the vegetable mix and roll the dough neatly. Bind the dough with egg.
• Cover the dough in egg wash. Use a fork to pierce a little on the surface. Bake for 30 minutes or until well cooked.

yum!!

No fuss flatbread

This bread is absolutely gorgeous, it's made with just four ingredients and lots of kneading (easy if you have a dough attachment on your mixer).  Flatbreads are usually very versatile. Add some chicken or tuna with salad to it and make it a wrap, make it into quesadillas, enjoy with curries like butter chicken or as a starter with infused garlic oil brushed over it. Anyhow it’s always a quick fix and the bread can be made ahead and frozen. Most recipes I have found overtime either has yeast or yoghurt or milk or all of them combined.

Until a friend Ilyes, whipped up this wonderful flatbread for one of our barbeque hangouts.  It was quick considering there was no yeast and really good. I was privileged to learn his mum’s recipe and I am here to share with you wonderful people today.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of flour plus extra for dusting
• Half cup of water
• 3 tbsp. of oil
• 1 tsp salt

How to make

combine wet and dry ingredtients

• Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
• Make hole in the flour. Pour in the liquid ingredients and mix.
• Transfer to a flour dusted work surface and knead properly. Dust down with a little bit of flour if your hands or surface gets sticky. Keep working the dough for about 10 minutes allow resting for about 3-5 minutes and working it again till you get fine elastic dough.

elastic dough

• Divide the dough into smaller balls and roll on a flat surface. Place a non-stick pan over medium heat. Place the bread over hot pan and allow the heat to work its magic. Flip over when one side is brown and cook the other side

enjoy with a side of salad and chicken

Simple Ice Cream Recipe

I love ice cream so much. It’s one of my favourite desserts and I also enjoy it with pancakes, waffles, carrot sticks, coffee and just about anything I choose to enjoy with. I just can’t say no to a good ice cream with cookies in it (call me a foodie). I really love Ben and Jerry’s and the other good ones but they can be quite pricey and I feel fulfilled when I am able to say “hey, I made this from scratch”.

Today I’ll be sharing one of my favourite ice cream recipe. It’s really easy and cheap to make. It’s a really good way to impress your friends or guests. All you need to do is make the ice cream base with 2 ingredients; whipping cream and condensed milk and after that go crazy. Add your desired mix and freeze of course.

Whip cream till stiff peak forms and mix with condense milk

smash up some Oreo cookie mix and add to the ice cream base

add strawberry sauce to make strawberry ice cream

I helped myself to extra strawberry sauce and slices

2 Ingredient Ice Cream Base

• 600 ml double whipping cream
• 378 gram condense milk (1 can)
• 
  

Method

• Whisk the whipping cream till it gets to stiff peak
• Mix whipping cream with the condense milk
• Add your favourite topping/mix and freeze.

Beef gravy

Beef gravy served with rice, cucumber and plantain

Hello and welcome, today I would like to share with you all my version of beef gravy. You can have it by itself or with rice, potato, spaghetti and the list goes on. It’s one way to use up vegetables, you can freeze it and it’s very easy to make. It takes three basic steps i.e. Cook meat, stir fry vegetable and combine the meat and the vegetable. This recipe is very flexible. You can use chicken or turkey with just about any vegetable you have around you.

Ingredients

•          Cabbage
•          Carrots
•          Bell pepper
•          Spring onions
•          Onions
•          Chilli pepper
•          Garlic
•          Beef
•          Gravy granules
•          Beef stock or bouillon cubes
•          Vegetable oil

Chopped vegetables

Directions

•   Prepare the ingredients. Chop all the vegetables and cut the beef to bite sizes.
•  Season and cook the beef with salt, pepper, beef cubes and some onions. Cook thoroughly till its soft. Add some water to help the cooking process.
•  In a saucepan, pour about 3 tablespoons of oil. Fry onions until is golden brown then add the carrots, peppers and cabbages respectively. Allowing them to cook just enough but not overcook. Add the beef and beef stock to the vegetable and simmer for few minutes allowing the flavours to combine. At the stage, add and adjust salt and pepper.
• Add some gravy granules for that extra gravy taste and thickness. You can also use a combination of corn flour and water for extra thickness.

Combining stirfry with beef 

Enjoy!!!

Flat sheet banana cake with chocolate topping

Banana cake or loaf is one way to stop waste and use up your overly ripe bananas if you don’t freeze it on time. Banana is sweet so it’s hard to go wrong. I used alcohol in this recipe to give it and extra zing.  This recipe made a big enough batch to share with my neighbours and I definitely got the “mmmm”  and “so good” response because they all loved it.

Ingredients

Banana cake

·         2 ½ cups of self-rising flour

·         ¾ cup brown sugar (packed)

·         ½ cup white sugar

·         1tsp mix spice

·         1 tsp baking powder

·         3 eggs

·         ½ cup buttermilk (or ½ cup of milk with lemon or vinegar)

·         1 ½ vanilla extract

·         1 cup butter (melted and brought to room temperature

·         2 tbsp. rum (optional)

·         7 small or 4 big overly ripe bananas

·         2 pinches of salt

Chocolate topping

·         200g milk chocolate (good quality)

·         2 tbsp. rum (optional)

·         1 tsp. vanilla extract

·         1 tbsp. butter

·         1 tsp. water

How to cake it!

v  In a bowl, Sift the flour and whisk all the other dry ingredients together. In another bowl, mix the liquid ingredients except the rum.

v  Using a fork or hand mixer, mash up the bananas. Add the wet and dry ingredients together in turns starting and ending with wet ingredients. Add the rum lastly.

v  Bake in a flat lasagne dish for about 30mins or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

v  To make the chocolate topping, place a heat proof dish over boiling water. Put all the chocolate topping ingredients and stir till all the ingredients come together. You’ll notice it has a nice shinny glaze.

v  Once the banana cake and chocolate glaze has cooled, spread the chocolate over the cake. Enjoy

I flipped the cake over before I covered it. Gives a  smoother surface

Enjoy

Enjoy a slice outside

Big Breakfast Baguette

If you are feeling brave enough you can try out this sandwich. It is the combination of some the breakfasts I love. It's got caramelised onions, baked beans, sausages, eggs and the list goes on. I got the inspiration to make this sandwich from combining onion sausage baguette and the English breakfast baguette. The result was amazing.

I will put up a post on how I made the caramelised onion sauce I used for this baguette. It made a huge difference. This recipe is really flexible, you can use a different kind of bread if you like, you can also take out some of the ingredients if it's too much. I couldn't eat all of mine at once but I enjoyed every bit.

Ingredients:

• Baguette
• Baked beans
• 2 eggs 
• Mushrooms
• 1 sausage
• Caramelised onions
• Bacon

Directions:

Clean and cut the mushrooms in slices. Place the mushrooms, sausage and bacon on a baking sheet and bake according to instruction or you can fry alternatively. Fry the eggs to your preference.

Cut the baguette into two, try to scrape out bits of the bread to give room for the fillings. Fill in the baguette starting with the onion sauce, then the bacon strips and sausage, baked beans, eggs and mushroom. Heat in the oven for about 7 mins. Enjoy!

Note;

You may need to cut the fillings in strips to get it to fit into the baguette.

Coconut White Fish Sauce

Hey everyone, before spring comes bursting in i would like to share one of my favourite comforting meals (not that i particularly care about seasons, i eat anything when i want)  my coconut white fish sauce. There are different ways to make fish sauce but i particularly like this one because of its rich creamy coconut flavour. This recipe is one of the ways you can enjoy the goodness of  fish. you can enjoy it alone or with some mashed potato and green peas for a more balanced meal. I made this recipe with some cod fish i had stored in my freezer some weeks ago and it is great with frozen fish.

I also added some oyster sauce personally think that oyster sauce has a way of adding unique flavour to food without being overbearing.

It's warm, creamy and has the goodness of white fish.

Ingredients

• 1 can of coconut milk 
• oyster sauce
• salt
• black pepper
• 1 chilli pepper
• chilli powder
• spring onion
• white fish fillet
• Cumin
• 1 large onions chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• half a lemon
• fish seasoning (optional)
• mixed seasoning

Let's make it!!!

First prepare the ingredients. cut the fish to smaller pieces. prepare your seasoning* in a little bowl and mix a teaspoon of cornflour with a teaspoon of water.

In a pot or pan,pour in a tablespoon of oil. add the chopped onions and fry till it's light brown. add in the garlic. Toss in the whitefish fillet and lemon. Give it a good stir and let it cook for about 8 minutes. Add the seasonings and a table spoon of oyster sauce.

Pour the coconut milk, add the spring onions and chilli pepper. and allow to simmer for about 10-15 minutes. then add the cornflour and water mixture for extra thickness (optional).

Enjoy with mashed potato and peas.

I hope you like this recipe. Please comment and follow for more. Thank you
Note:For seasonings, add about a teaspoon of cumin, some sprinkle black pepper a tablespoon of chilli pepper (or suya pepper).
Feel free to adjust the seasoning ratio to suit your taste buds