Meal Upgrade: Bread and Eggs

Hello friends, How are you all doing? I am great :D

Now lets talk about breakfast. And specifically the all time classic; Bread and Eggs! I don't know about you but I find the basic omelette with tomatoes and peppers quite boring. So at every installment, I try to switch things up a bit.

So without further ado, Bread and eggs: my way.

For the Bread, I toasted them same way I did Here and cut them in half into triangles.

And now for the eggs; You'll need the following ingredients 

Ingredients:

• 3 Large Eggs (Cant have an omelette without eggs now can we? :D)
• One Small white Onion sliced
• Celery: About two sticks sliced
• I medium carrot, peeled and cut into half inch cubes
• About a quarter of a stick of Leeks, thinly sliced
• One Sausage, diced
• One Clove of Garlic finely chopped
• I Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• I Teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
• Salt and Pepper to Taste 

Cooking Instructions

Start with a nonstick pan on medium heat. (also turn on your oven as you will be needing it shortly) Add your vegetable oil and when hot, add the sausages and allow to brown for a few minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper for some flavor. Once browned, remove the sausages and set aside. Add the sliced onions to the pan and allow to soften, add the rest of the vegetables leaving the garlic for last. Stir continuously and season. Remove from the pan.

Reduce the heat to the lowest and pour your beaten eggs into the pan and top with your vegetables and sausages making sure to spread evenly. Optional: Top with about a table spoon of chopped parsley.

Pop into the preheated oven at medium heat for about 5 minutes and you've got yourself an omelette.

I like to cut min up into pizza style wedges. This recipe serves two and the serving in the picture is actually half of the prepared omelette.

Give this a try, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Until next time, remain blessed.

Love, Preye

The Christmas Meal

Hi All,

I just realized I never got around to posting what we had for Christmas...so here goes.

Asian Glazed Roast Pork. Garnished with chopped Parsley

Roasted Irish Potatoes with Mint and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Roast Fish Fillet...With Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Parsley and Butter. Yum!!!

Ice Cubes made out of freshly juiced pineapples and lemons

Cocktail: Pineapple, Pineapple Punch and Red Grapes

Ready to Serve

 

Seafood Gratin: Fish, Shrimps, Carrots, Spring Onions, Dark Soy, Garlic, Heavy Cream...etc.

Apple and Cucumber Salad dressed with freshly squeezed lemon juice, chopped mint,  salt and black pepper

Roasted Honey Glazed Chicken

Beef Sauce: Minced Beef, Bacon, Chipolatas, Capsicum, Dark soy, etc

Beet root and Feta Salad. Dressed with Pineapple chutney, Balsamic Vinegar and Mayonnaise

And Garnished with parsley and toasted peanuts

Oh and there was some cous cous (Far Left) for some added starch.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I guess this will be one of my longest posts :D.

After the chaos of Christmas cooking I decided to lay low on New Years and didn't entertain any guests. I also did minimal cooking...only roasted a chicken. I should have a picture or two somewhere...will update when I locate em.

Until next time, God bless you.

Love, Preye.

What I Ate: Dirty Rice and Beetroot Sauce

Hello People,

I had never had wild rice and had been itching to give it a try for quite a while. So when I saw a shelve full of different varieties of rice at one of my old hunts (Onime's Food Basket), I quickly grabbed some and started planning a rustic meal; and some weeks later I finally cooked up the meal.

One thing I didn't know before I started cooking was that wild rice takes a long, looonngg time to cook.

The pack specified cooking the rice for about 50 minutes but I ended up cooking for the better part of two and a half hours. Although to be fair some part of that time was spent preparing  ingredients and making the sauce.

Anyways, back the the meal.

For the rice I used:

Brown Rice and Wild Rice Mix, about 3 Cups
Chipolata Sausages...6pieces
Streaky Bacon...4 strips
Shrimps...about half kg
Unsalted Butter
Dark Soy Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce
Onion
Garlic
Seasoning and Spices
Juice of one orange

I started off with the rice, using the packet instructions and left it to cook.

Then chopped up the sausages, bacon, onions and garlic.

I browned the sausages and bacon in the butter to get some caramelized flavor. Next I took out the sausages and bacon, and added the chopped onions and sauteed them for a bit. Threw in the sausages and bacon again, added the shrimps and the rest of the ingredients and seasonings and finished off with the juice of one orange.

When the rice was almost cooked, I mixed in the rest of the cooked ingredients and allowed it simmer for about 10 minutes to infuse the flavors and the dirty rice was ready.

For the sauce I chopped up some carrots, onions and beetroots and sauteed them in some butter then added some chicken stock, seasonings and some chopped mint. Finished it off with some heavy cream and the sauce was ready.

For the chicken, I had some boiled chicken in the freezer so I just browned them a little bit in some olive oil in keeping with the rustic theme of the meal and voila, the meal was ready!

Though this meal took a long time to make, the taste was totally worth it. I got five stars from my numero uno taste tester :D

I'll definitely be adding this to my list of staples and you should give this a try.

Until next time, God bless you.

Love, Preye.

What I Ate: Watermelon Hearts

Hi Everyone,

A couple of weeks back I saw a picture of some watermelon hearts on a friends profile so next time we were having watermelons, I dug out my cookie cutters and proceeded to make a fun presentation of watermelons :D

 

 I started out with this.

Then played around a bit

Decided to garnish with some chopped mint.

And then for the man who inspires me (DH), a special edible message :D

I think the watermelons tasted better with all the love in the air ;)

Until next time, God bless and complements of the season.


Love, Preye.

A Healthy Breakfast

Yeah, I am on a roll today. I am in a waiting room (have been for the past few hours) so I am basically killing time. Good thing I came with my laptop :)

A couple of days back I packed DH's lunch (He always takes fruits for lunch) and had some left over fruits, so I decided I'd have that for breakfast since it was my "work-free" day.

And this was what I came up with.

Here's a list of the fruits I used.

Red Grape Fruit
Orange
Pineapple
Strawberries
Cherries
A sprig of Parsley to Garnish

Right after I was done setting down my meal, my doorbell rang. I had a guest! I ended up serving this to him and had to make do with the left-overs from the left-overs. lol.

And since it was pretty small, I decided to amp up the fruits with some fresh yogurt. And this is what I ended up with.

Same fruits but without the cherries and parsley. I added some chopped mint. and Sweetened the yogurt with a teaspoon of castor sugar.

Everything worked out great in the land of left-overs after-all and I had a healthy and tasty breakfast that fine morning.

Until next time, God bless you.

Love,

Preye. 

Meatloaf Sandwich: Late Night Mystery Meal Turned Breakfast

Remember in my last post I mentioned having to stay awake till midnight because I was cooking a mystery meal? Well the mystery has been unearthed and you can stop wondering :D.

I made a meat loaf! I am not quite sure where I got the recipe but it was on food network so I'm thinking Barefoot Contessa or Tyler's Ultimate.

I made some modifications to the recipe and after waiting for an hour for the oven to do its magic, my delicious meatloaf was created.

Here's an abridged recipe if you'd care to recreate it.

Ingredients:

About 1.5kg of Minced Meat/Ground  Beef

Five slices of bread cubed (I cut off the crusts)

2 Eggs

Half Cup chopped Parsley

2 large cloves of garlic, Minced

1 Tablespoon Unsalted butter

One Large Onion Chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

Curry powder

I started by sweating the chopped onions in the butter, and seasoned it with Cameroon Pepper, a pinch of salt and about half a teaspoon of curry powder.

Next I took a mixing bowl, and added all the ingredients (including the onions), washed my hands and proceeded to mix everything together by hand. I added some red pepper flakes as well.

Next I greased a loaf pan (I generally use a zero cholesterol Oil spray as I hate getting my hands oily) and then pressed in the mixture and flattened the top neatly.

Popped it into a preheated oven at 350 degrees for one hour and the meat loaf was ready.

This is the part where you expect to see pictures right? Well unfortunately, by the time I was done, I was too tired to think about taking pictures. But fear not, the meat loaf made an appearance in breakfast the next morning (Which was kinda the original plan anyways).

So here you go! My delicious meatloaf sandwich. :D 

 For the meatloaf sandwich, I took some bread, cut off the crusts and then spread homemade mix on two slices of bread (Mixture of 2tbsp Mayonnaise, 1tbsp ketchup, salt and lemon pepper). Next I sliced some tomatoes and washed and dried some flat-leaf parsley. Ad started layering the ingredients in this order: 3-4 Parsley leafs, a slice of the meatloaf, 2-3 slices of tomatoes and then topped with the other slice of bread.

Next I wrapped each sandwich with kitchen foil (Shiny side facing in) and placed them in a non stick pan on low heat. And since I didn't have a heavy pot on hand, I half filled a pot with water and placed this on the sandwich to serve as my sandwich press) after about a minute or two I flipped the sandwiches and heated the other sides. Took them off the heat, unwrapped them and Voila, my delicious sandwiches were ready.

And did I mention they were delicious. I had mine with Twinnings Raspberry Tea. Yummy yum yum. You should definitely give this a try.

Until next time, God Bless you.

Love,

Preye

More Asoebi Dresses

Its past 10pm and here I am trying to stay awake by typing up a post because once again, I've decided to cook on a whim.

I got home from work today tired and sore from the pile-up of stress from last week and immediately went into the kitchen and brought out two packs of minced meat to thaw. You see, I had stumbled on an old recipe in my diary while at work and was set on cooking it tonight...so here I am, with one hour to burn while the mystery food cooks in the oven; and I figured the best way to spend the time was to "attempt" to catch up on my pile-up of posts :D (Yeah Right).

Last week I worked on two Asoebi Outfits for two lovely ladies. The challenge was to elevate the fabric which had the feel of an unfortunate lovechild between a sack and a lace fabric :D and I had my work cut out for me.

For dress one I settled on a simple pencil dress and used the scalloped selvages for the hems.

I also accented the waist with cut-outs from a fabric which was provided as part of the Asoebi collection, and used matching buttons on the sleeves.

The client liked the dress but had one complaint; the length...she would have preferred it shorter. There really was no quick fix for this because of the scalloped hemline so she had to make do.

For dress two; which was a slightly different color (more of a honey toned shade) of fabric, I chose to combine it with a sequined fabric to create a zig-zaggy look.

And for the sleeves, I decided to stick with the zig zag theme and made an X with the scalloped edge of the fabric.

Unfortunately the client didn't like the choice of sleeves, so I plan to redo them.

I worked on these dresses till the last minute and actually had to do some needle work on the road. I was so relieved to finally finish them (and a lil dissapointed I didnt meet and exceed the clients expectations...Next time will def be better)

Off to check on my food. I've got just four minutes left on my timer.

Until next time, be Thankful

Love,
Preye

Dinner Snack: Herb Butter Crostini with Radishes and Cherries

Last Saturday was my grocery shopping day and DH and I spent the entire day going from one part of town to another. From Everyday to Park and Shop and then "The Fruit Market" which I had heard about but hadn't found time to visit.

I had such a lovely time (Hubby...not so much :D) and bought tons of groceries that got me really excited.

At Everyday I got fresh radishes and Rosemary; and also got the usual stuff I like to get there (Chicken, toiletries etc).
At park and shop I bought some new dishware, fresh yogurt, Parsley, Chipolata Sausages (My favorite), bacon , french bread, butter, etc.

And then the exciting part: The Fruit Market! How come I've been in Port Harcourt for Six years and never heard of it until recently? I was so excited to "discover"  this market and we got loads of fresh fruits and vegetables. We got native oranges (better tasting than the ones our Hausa brothers sell on the streets), Red Grape Fruits, Cucumber, Carrots, Green Peas, beetroots, Mint, Basil, Cherries, Strawberries, local plums, bananas...and the list goes on and on.

By the time we were done with shopping (and a brief stopover at Gifty's Daughter to replenish my make-up purse), it was about 4pm. We got home dead tired and hungry and I couldn't even begin to contemplate cooking anything major, so I decided to utilize the fresh produce we'd just bought.

I saw this recipe on Food Network (Barefoot Contessa) a couple of days prior and filed it in my brain for future reference. Turned out I didn't need to wait too long to bring it to life.

This is a Herb Butter Crostini served with Radishes and Cherries.

This meal came together really quickly . I started by cutting my French Bread in about one inch strips (cut on the bias) and then popped them in the oven for about 7 minutes to get them crunchy. While the bread was in the oven, I worked on the herb butter. What you need is basically about a stick of unsalted butter (Room temperature), whatever fresh herbs you have on hand (I used Mint, Parsley, Basil and and a tiny bit of Rosemary), the juice of half a lemon, salt and black pepper. I chopped the herbs finely and mixed in with the butter, lemon juice and a pinch of salt and black pepper and that was it!

I allowed the crostini's to cool a bit, spread the butter on them, placed them on a platter with the washed radishes and cherries and finished off with a sprinkling of salt on the radishes and Voila! Dinner was served.

Quick and tasty...just the way I like it :D.

Until next time, God bless you.

Love,

Preye

And Dinner is Served!

Hello People,

Its been one busy week (or two?) for me. Yeah I know...my weeks are always busy but these past two were at an all time high. I had loads of sewing to do and was also appointed as part of an electoral committee for a professional organisation. So I was combining work, out of office meetings, sewing and of course the "constants" like traffic, "no light" (power outage) and inefficient shop attendants (story for another day); its been an interesting period.

Did I mention this past week was our Thanksgiving week in church! "HALAL" Week. Basically one week of awesome praise and thanks to God for His goodness in our lives...and I sure do have a lot to be thankful for...Well I danced my heart out (and my leg into a sprain lol) and had an awesome week of praise and thanksgiving.

Ah yes, back to the post. For dinner today, (which started out as lunch actually), I decided on Braised Chicken with boiled ripe plantains and a cool cucumber salad to cleanse the palate afterwards.

Here's a list of the ingredients and cooking instructions

Ingredients: Braised Chicken
Chicken Laps (Or any cut you prefer - 2kg)
Fresh Tomatoes - Chopped ( about 1kg)
Onion (1 Large Bulb)
Cameroon Pepper - Ground (1 Tablespoon)
Herbs - I used Fresh Rosemary, Basil, Mint and Parsley
Ginger
Salt and stock cube
Spices (of your choice)
Olive Oil
Dark Soy Sauce
Lemon Juice
Ketchup (Optional)

Directions
Rinse the chicken and drain/dry off water; Heat about a quarter cup of olive oil in a pot and brown the chicken in it to get the caramelized flavor.
Once the chicken has browned on both sides, add your chopped tomatoes, onions, grated ginger, seasonings and spices. Tie the herbs with a clean cotton rope (this makes it easier to pull them out later) and add to the pot. Add just enough water to cover the chicken and bring to the boil; put on the lid, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 40 mins.
Take off the lid, add the juice of half a lemon, about 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce and a squirt or two of ketchup (I actually added the ketchup to mask the rosemary which I was a bit heavy handed with :P).
Simmer and reduce until you have a thick sauce and take off the heat. Fish out your bouquet of herbs and dispose.

For the plantain I basically cut each piece in three parts and boiled them until a fork slid in smoothly without any resistance. I then drained out the liquid and salted.

And now for the salad.

Ingredients: Cucumber Salad
1 large cucumber
2 Large Tomatoes
1 small Onion
A sprig of mint leaves
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
Salt and Black Pepper to taste.

Instructions:
Cut and remove the seeds from the cucumber; slice (about half an inch thick), sprinkle with salt and place in a colander to drain excess liquid (about 30 minutes should do)

Chop tomatoes, onions and mint leaves. Combine all ingredients and mix well. refrigerate and serve cool.

Dinner was delicious and filling (Is it just me or is boiled plantain more filling than fried plantain? - same quantity).

I've got quite a bit of catching up to do (a long line up of posts) and I'm actually typing this up while getting my hair braided (yayy for multitasking :D)

So until next time, "BeThankful"

Love,

Preye