Akwu's Delight: Weekends!In mostly every Nigerian home weekends ...

Akwu's Delight: Weekends!

In mostly every Nigerian home weekends ...: Weekends! In mostly every Nigerian home weekends are seen as chore days and most especially days to make either Akara or Moi Moi (Only Nig...

Weekends!

In mostly every Nigerian home weekends are seen as chore days and most especially days to make either Akara or Moi Moi (Only Nigerians will understand this).

The photo was taken from Instagram

Basically, this is my every Saturday routine at home. Initially, I would wash the beans before going to the market and blend, but I discovered that you can wash your beans in the market, I choose this part to make life easy for me so I now wash my beans in the market.

Tell us how is your weekend is going in your household?

2019 has been an eventful year for me I have been missing in action because I am trying to discover myself, my passion, my inner strength. I am on a journey of reviving myself but guess what guys I am back and I hope to serve you in the most possible way.

This blog and hopefully my youtube videos will be about Food, Cakes, lifestyle and general things happening in our society today. It promises to be fun and exciting.

Tip for the weekend, "Always believe in yourself no matter what".

How to make Egusi Soup and Pounded yam

Egusi soup is a popular soup in Nigeria. The egusi is gotten from melon seeds, it can be eaten with any kind of swallow (Eba, Pounded yam, fufu, plantain, wheat, semolina etc).

Ingredients:

Palm oil

Egusi

Crayfish

Dry fish

Fresh tomato
Fresh pepper

Onions

Seasoning

Shaki (Tripe)

Egu Leaves 

Pomo (Cow skin)

and salt to taste. Let's get started, shall we?

Directions

To begin,  wash your shaki, beef and pomo, season (to taste) it and start cooking for about fourty minutes (i like my shaki very soft).
While it is cooking, soak the dry fish for about five minutes, take out the water and debone, wash again and set aside.

optional: you can add stockfish if you want. 

Wash your tomatoes, onions, pepper, and blend. Pour some palm oil in the pot and add the blended tomatoes. Add the meat stock and onions to the egusi and mix well. Add the egusi to the tomato and stir, then add the shaki  to the mixture.
Add crayfish/seasoning (to taste) and stir.
Yes, my yam is on the fire as you can see in the video.
As seen in the video below.

The next stage is to add the stock and stir, look at how beautiful it looks. While the egusi is on the fire I think its time to pound the yam.

It's time to add the ugu leaves as seen in the video below, stir and allow the egusi to cook well for few minutes before bringing down.

The pounded yam is ready!

Dinner is served. Enjoy!

Thank you, Enjoy the rest of your day.

Tips for Healthy Living

Healthy living is very important in our society today, and as such we should try to live a healthy life. I was going through this and I thought I should share. Enjoy!

Eating (diet)

All humans have to eat food for growth and maintenance of a healthy body, but we humans have different requirements as infants, children (kids), teenagers, young adults, adults, and seniors. For example, infants may require feeding every four hours until they gradually age and begin to take in more solid foods. Eventually, they develop into the more normal pattern of eating three times per day as young kids. However, as most parents know, kids, teenagers, and young adults often snack between meals. Snacking is often not limited to these age groups because adults and seniors often do the same.

Tips:

• Eat three meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner); it is important to remember that dinner does not have to be the largest meal.
• The bulk of food consumption should consist of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk products.
• Choose lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts (with emphasis on beans and nuts).
• Choose foods that are low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars; look at the labels because the first listed items on the labels comprise the highest concentrations of ingredients.
• Control portion sizes; eat the smallest portion that can satisfy hunger and then stop eating.
• Snacks are OK in moderation and should consist of items like fruit, whole grains, or nuts to satisfy hunger and not cause excessive weight gain. For more information visit: https://www.medicinenet.com/healthy_living/article.htm

PS: I didn't write this, I saw it and thought it will help you.

Please follow the link and enjoy the rest of the piece. 

The picture was taken from the internet. 

Cakes!

Hello all! did you miss me? i missed you all. Well i have been busy with other projects (cakes) thats why i have been off for a while now, but i hope to be back.

Well i now bake! yes i do, and i will be sharing with you all what i have been up to lately. It has been a beautiful experience trust me.

I will also start writing reviews about restaurants, street food and places to go to when visiting Nigeria. It will really be an amazing experience.

Have some Minion cake anyone?

Have a great day!

Ugbekpulu

Ugbekpulu is a snack from Kogi state 

Ingredients: 

Bambaranut

salt

pepper

vegetable oil

Water

Method of Preparation:

1) Grand dry bambaranut aka (Okpa) into powder form 

2) Mix the powdered bambaranut (Okpa) with water, salt and pepper. (Make sure it is very thick)

3) Then mold it in tiny round shapes

4) Join ten of the tiny round shapes together into two straight line and merge them together.

5) Then fry it with palm oil, until dry.

Once you are done with frying it, it becomes what is known as "Ugbekpulu" popular in Igala land, Kogi state, Nigeria.

PS: I did not make this snack 

Egg fried rice (My version) served with plantain

Ingrediens:

1 cup of Basmati rice
Vegetable oil
1 Fresh Garlic (Chopped)
1/2 Fresh Ginger (Chopped)
1 Egg
1 Onions
Soy Sauce (1 Table spoon)
Dry pepper
1 Plantain
Salt
2 Cubes Maggie

Directions:
Firstly, wash the rice, bring it to boil (for about 20 mins) make sure it is cooked. When the water has almost gone dry bring it down. Then if you have a wok good for you but i used a frying pan. Heat the vegetable oil in the pan, when heated add the fresh garlic, ginger and some onions. Cook for about 15sec then add salt,maggie and pepper, stir then add the rice stir fry for about 2 min (what i did was to use another frying pan for the egg). Heat the vegetable oil in the extra pan, pour the egg into the pan with some onions, then start stirring (like scramble egg). Optional you can use peas, green beans or carrot but i choose not to use then this time. Finally add the egg to the rice and begin to stir, add soy sauce stir and your done.

For the Plantain
Peel the plantain, cut it in what ever shape you want. Heat the vegetable oil in the frying pan, add some salt (little) to the plantain for taste then fry until golden brown. Serve with Egg fried rice my version. Enjoy

Smoothie Just The Way I Like It!

Well we are in 2016 and yes this is my first post this year. Smoothie! Smoothie!! well trying to lose some weight i laid my hands on these beauties below.

Ingredients:

1 garden egg

1/2 apple

1 carrot

1 orange

Optional add 1/2 cup of milk

How to Mix

Wash all the fruits, chop them into tiny bits. Put all in the blender, add a little water and blend. End result below.

Here we have it! Smoothie just the way. Enjoy!

Boiled Yam And Efo Riro

As a Nigerian you can eat Efo Riro with rice or swallow and also yam, today Efo Riro would be eaten  with boiled yam. Well this is my style.

Ingredients: 

1/2 tuber of yam
Spinach
Fresh pepper 2
Fresh Tomato 4 (big ones)
1 Onion
Salt
Spring Onions
Maggie
Palm Oil
CrayFish
Dried Fish

Directions:

Firstly, wash the dried fish with salt, set aside. In a pot add water, while on the stove add your spices and crayfish, pepper, salt and maggie. When the water and spices starts boiling add the fish and allow to cook for 30minutes.
While that is cooking wash the spinach, spring onions, pepper and onions tomatoes, cut them in any shape of your choice. In a dry pot add palm oil don't allow the oil to bleach, add the onions, tomatoes and begin to fry for 20 minutes.
When it is ready add spices, maggie, salt, crayfish stir the mixture. Allow to cook for few minutes add the cooked dried fish, allow to cook for few more minutes then add spring onions and spinach leave for few minutes then take down.

For the boiled yam:

Peal the yam, cut it in any shape of your choice, wash add salt and cook for 40minutes or more. When ready serve hot with Efo Riro and enjoy.

Nigerian Moi Moi With Leaves

The mixture is the same as Moi Moi baked in the oven, the only difference is that this one is cooked with leaves. Accompanied with Garri! Enjoy. [See Post From 5th September 2014].

Vegetable soup/ Efo Riro

Vegetable soup or Efo riro

 This soup is one of my favourite soups it is a healthy option for me as it contains lots of vegetables. why not give it a try today.

Ingredient:

2 (bunch) of spinach
3 tatashe
2 pepper (fresh)
1 onion
2 dried fish
shaki
beef
maggie
salt
palm oil
cray fish

Direction:
Firstly, blend tatashe and fresh pepper, add palm oil on the stove, wait until hot add the mixture. secondly, fry for few minutes add maggie, salt, cray fish. Allow to cook for 15 minutes, while the mixture is cooking wash the spinach well then cut to any size of your choice, drain the water. When the mixture is ready add the beef, shaki and dry fish stir then add the spinach leave for few minutes.  And finally, add onions allow to cook for 2 minutes then take down. Depending on what you want to eat when you prepare it, it can be eaten with pounded yam, Eba, semolina or rice. Enjoy your meal!

Its a new day!

A new season, of greatness.

Enjoy the holidays

Thanks everyone for your support have a lovely christmas celebration.

Grilled Chicken, Saute onions with spinach and rice

Rice can be cooked in different ways, for me "depending on my mood" :)

Ingredients: [serve one person]

2 pieces of chicken

1/2 onion

1 and half cup of rice

pepper

salt

maggie cubes

spices

vegetable oil

spinach (finely chopped) 

Directions:

for the grilled chicken:

for me I prefer to marinate the chicken for few hours, then parboil a little. Then add a little vegetable oil, [ add few spices if need be] depending on your oven, I grill between 100 - 150 degrees. Allow to grill to your desire.

For the rice and saute onions:

1) Wash the spinach, using food processor finely chop them.

2) Slice the onions, mix it up with the spinach, add a little maggie cube for few minutes. Then in a pan add 2 spoons of vegetable oil, when the oil is hot, add onions and spinach. Keep stirring for about 5 minutes and its ready to serve. 

3) Parboil the rice until half ready, then in a pan add vegetable oil [I don't really wait for the oil to be hot at this stage I proceed] add tomatoes, onions, spices, salt, pepper and fry for about 5 minutes depending on how well fried you want it to be.

4) When it is ready add the rice to the mixture, mix the rice and sauce together add a little water and spices if need be. Low the heat to allow the rice to steam from this point. [ depending on how the rice was parboiled, the rice should take about 15 minutes to get ready.

5) When its ready serve hot and enjoy with the saute onions. 

 BON APPETIT

British Breakfast

This breakfast is known as the British breakfast, anyone can add any twist to it.

Ingredients:
2 bacon
2 sausages
1 egg
2 slices of bread (toasted)
1 small baked beans
1/2 onion
pinch of salt
pepper
vegetable oil
1 tomato (optional)
2 mushrooms (optional)

Simple steps.
1) Open the baked beans in a pot, add onions, salt, pepper or maggie (optional) allow to cook for about 5 minutes.
2) Add a little vegetable oil in your frying pan and fry the sausage, bacon and egg separately.
3) Fry the egg how you want it, for me i did not mix the egg, i broke it in a plate and added, salt and pepper and fried it.
4) Toast the bread.
5) Serve in a plate. It could be taken with tea, hot chocolate or any juice of your choice or milk.
enjoy!!!!!

The First Baby shower!! I Ever Organised

We organised a surprise baby shower  for a friend recently, the decorations (made by my friends), food and some snacks were made by me. The mum to be was trilled and excited, I thought I would not be able to pull it off but i did and everyone was excited.

Here are some pictures of the food and some snacks...

 Fried rice and Jollof rice, made by Akumabee's plate

 The meat pie, cup cakes and brownies made by Akumabee's plate

The cake was made by cakes and shakes Manchester.

Everyone danced, we had some fun games like, (advice to the mum to be and wishes for the baby). We had a mum who just gave birth recently, to advice the mum to be on what to expect and so one...
We the friends defiantly learned a thing or two, she had wonderful friends who wanted her to smile. The dress, earring and shoe was a surprise as well.
I hope this will help first time organisers as well. I am not perfect but learning. I watched lots of videos on youtube and read about the whole thing to get ideas and it was helpful.

Edikaikong Soup

Vegetables are good for our health and those in Nigeria do enjoy this a lot, with a range of different traditional soups from various parts of the country. Todays focus would be on edikaikong soup, the two main green leaves in the soup are water leaves and Ugu or Pumpkin leaves as it is widely known, the soup is rich, because it contains vitamins. Different types of meat are used to cook the soup [depending on what type of meat you want to use], this soup is commonly known with the Akwa Ibom people of Nigeria. join me as I take you through this journey...

Ingredients:
water leaves
ugu
beef
dry fish
stock fish
palm oil
maggie
salt
pepper
cry fish

Directions:
Firstly, wash all vegetables very well, then slice them and set them aside. Wash the meat, stock fish, dried fish, place in the pot, spice it up and cook. When the meat is ready add other ingredients.

 Add crayfish, pepper, maggie, and stir. Allow to cook

 When it is well cooked add palm oil and allow to cook for few minutes. make sure that the mixture should not have a lot of water.

 When it is well cooked it should look like the picture above, then add the water leave first, this will enable the water leave to cook well and allow the water in it to come out.

 The picture above is the water leave, i got it frozen here, but the fresh one would be better. Some people use spinach in place of the water leaves.

 The picture above is the Ugu leave or Pumpkin leaves as it is widely known, i also got it frozen.

 The picture above shows the water leave cooking, after which the ugu will be added and allowed to cook until it is ready.

And the soup is ready, you could enjoy this soup with Eba, semovita, fufu, pounded yam. Try this simple steps and enjoy.

Unripe plantain

Unripe plantain is good for everyone especially ladies, it helps with iron in the body. There are different ways to eat it, it could be cooked as porridge, roasted, fired or boiled today i would be frying it. This could be considered a snack or brunch or breakfast option, follow me as i take you through this simple steps.

Ingredients:
1 Unripe plantain
1/2 bell peppers [any colour of your choice]
1 egg
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 onion

Directions:
Take the skin out, was the plantain and slice to any shape of your choice. Place the frying pan on the fire when it is hot salt the plantain and fry until golden brown, take down and set aside. wash the bell peppers, onion wash and slice, then break the egg add the salt and pepper. Add the oil to the frying pan add the sliced onions and bell peppers when it is fried to your desired choice add the egg and stir gently. Take down and add in the plate with the plantain, it could be taken with juice, milk or tea. Try this today and enjoy.

Rice and Cabbage Sauce

Rice is eaten by virtually everyone across the globe. While growing up I used to think that Nigerians love eating rice a lot, but when i started getting exposed to different people from various cultures I realised that rice is eaten by almost everyone.
We normally cook rice in different ways white rice and stew, Jollof rice, fried rice, Tuwon rice and most times this gets boring. I started looking for a different way to eat rice but with a more healthy option. Then I discovered the cabbage sauce that could be eaten with white rice, there is nothing special about it, some may like it others may not but I for one like it a lot.
Join me as i take you through how I prepare it…
You would need:
1 cabbage
2 carrots
1/2 pack of green beans
1/2 cup of peas
1 tomato
1 onion
4 maggie cubs
spices
1 mercurial fish
vegetable oil
curry
salt and pepper.

Directions:
Wash the cabbage and slice it [finely chopped], then wash the green beans, carrot and peas chop the green beans and carrot how you want it [your desired shape] set aside. Slice onion, wash the fish and cut it and spice it[ i used: salt, pepper, ginger, gallic, 1 maggie cube, ground coriander and ground nutmeg].
Allow to marinate for 5 minutes, then put some vegetable oil in the pan or pot [depending on what you want to use] when the oil is hot enough start frying, when it is well fried take out and set aside, using the same oil add the onions and some gallic.
Then add the chopped tomatoes and keep frying, then add the diced carrot, green beans and peas keep stirring allow to cook for 1 minute, add the maggie cubs, salt, pepper, curry and spices, allow to cook for another 5 minutes.
Reduce the heat and add the cabbage, add half cup of water allow to steam and cook for 10minutes this is to allow the cabbage to get soft [depending how you want it]. When it is ready add the fish and serve with the boiled rice and enjoy.

Serve hot and enjoy.