Chinese Inspired Fried Rice

Hey lovelies,

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. My weekend has been great so far and I am really enjoying this perfect spring weather! This post is all about being prudent,I can't even begin to explain how guilty I feel when tossing out food at the end of the week. So here's my question for you, have you ever finished your stew or sauce and you still have some cooked rice leftover? If you answered yes, then this recipe is for you. This happens to me a lot and while sharing my dilemma with one of my Asian friends she gave me this recipe. It is so easy to prepare and yummy, and above all you don't ever have to feel guilty throwing out leftover rice again:)! 

Ingredients

2 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tbsp. garlic (minced)

1 1/2 cups shrimp (peeled and deveined)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

2 1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce

3 cups cooked white rice 

1/2 green bell pepper (diced)

Directions

1. In a frying pan, heat oil on medium heat till hot

2. Add garlic to hot oil and brown (approximately 1-2 minutes)

3. Add shrimp, salt, ground ginger, oyster sauce and sauté for 3-5 minutes or till the shrimp is cooked

4. Stir in rice and allow to cook for 5 minutes

5. Reduce heat to medium-low

6. Stir in green bell pepper and cover

7. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes or till green bell pepper becomes tender

8. Add additional salt to taste

The best thing about the recipe is that you can always use your choice of meat and whatever vegetable you have at home, so here my lovelies is my good deed for the day:). Have a blessed week!

Ajike...Xx

Efo Riro

Hello lovelies,

I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday. Happy Mother's Day to the lovely mums out there,wishing you many more wonderful and fulfilling mothering years ahead! So to today's post, efo-riro is one of my favorite dishes and it is also one thing I can prepare with my eyes closed. After a week of eating sweet potato, pasta, honey chicken, etc. I started craving some proper Nigerian food so I decided to make efo-riro today. As some of you might have noticed this post is a little late and that's because I had some pounded yam along with it and that put me to bed before I could make it to my laptop..lol. In as much as this recipe is very easy to prepare and delicious, only pair it with pounded yam if you have absolutely no plans after afterwards. You have been warned!

Ingredients

3 cups smoked turkey drumsticks

1 yellow small onion (chopped)

1 tbsp. ginger powder

1 tbsp. garlic powder

4 red bell peppers (remove seeds)

1 small red onion

3 small habanero peppers

1 cup palm oil

1/3 cup locust beans (optional)

2 bouillon cubes (knorr)

1/4 tsp. salt

1 lb chopped spinach

Preparation

1. Rinse smoked turkey and cut into small pieces

2. In a medium size pot, combine turkey, yellow onion, ginger, garlic powder, and 6 cups of water

3. Boil on medium-high heat for 20 minutes

4. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F

5. Grease baking pan

6. Remove turkey from broth and discard broth

7. Place turkey on baking pan

8. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes turning once halfway through baking period 

9. Rinse and drain the spinach getting as much water out as possible

10. Rinse and drain locust beans

Directions

1. In a blender, combine red bell pepper, red onions, habanero peppers, 2 tbsp. of water and chop (For ease, blend half the ingredient at a time) 

2. In a medium size pot, add 1/2 cup palm oil heat till its very hot which takes approximately 5 minutes on medium-high heat (cover the pot to avoid smoke and setting off the fire alarm)

3. Add tomato blend to the hot oil

4. Boil for 30-40 minutes or till the tomato blend becomes dry

5. Reduce heat to medium-low

6. Add 1/2 cup palm oil, bouillon cubes, turkey, locust beans, and salt

7. Mix gently but thoroughly and simmer for 5 minutes

8. Add chopped spinach and simmer for another 5 minutes

9. Make some white rice or pounded yam

10. Enjoy!

Have a lovely weekend lovelies!

Ajike...Xx

Cookies and Ice cream

Hello lovelies,

Thank God for letting us see the end of another week. I am so pumped for this weekend, I plan to eat, sleep, rinse and repeat. This is not a recipe post by any means, just thought I'd say a little hello before catching up on my favorite blogs and TV shows. Here's to a great weekend ahead *holding up glass of ice cream*...lol.

Ajike...Xx

Spicy Honey Chicken

Hello lovelies,

I cannot believe it's Sunday already! I had a 6-day work week and I am so exhausted. I barely got to rest today because I had to catch up with family and friends both here and back home, for this reason I am going to keep this post short and sweet *pun intended*...lol. As usual,I had to make something delicious for Sunday lunch to reward myself for being such a good girl during the week so I made some spicy honey chicken, baked sweet potato fries and grilled asparagus. Below is the recipe for the chicken;

Ingredients

4 chicken leg quarters

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp. ground pepper

1 tbsp. crushed red pepper

1 1/2 tsp.salt

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. black pepper

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine honey, olive oil, ground pepper, crushed red pepper, salt, garlic powder, ginger and black pepper and mix

2. Add the chicken to the seasoning mixture
3. Thoroughly coat the chicken with the mixture

4. Cover the bowl and marinate chicken overnight or for at least 1 hour in the fridge

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

6. Grease the baking pan

7. Remove the chicken from the bowl and place on greased baking pan

8. Bake uncovered for 40 to 60 minutes**

** From the 40-minute mark check the chicken every 5 minutes to avoid getting the chicken burnt as honey burns relatively quickly! Have a great week ahead my lovelies.

Ajike...Xx

Nigerian Peppersoup

Hello lovelies,

I trust you are all having a great weekend. I was having a lazy Saturday when I stumbled on the 2nd annual SoupaPalooza contest on Tidy Mom's blog. I already made up my mind during the week that I was going to make some peppersoup when i found out it was going to be a cold weekend, however, deciding to be a part of this contest made it so much more fun. I know this might not be an award-winning entry as there are so many beautiful entries, nonetheless I had so much fun putting it together.

Ingredients

Goat meat (or meat of choice)

6 cups water

3 Bouillon cubes (i used knorr)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. ground pepper (or to taste)

1 small onion (diced)

1/4 cup peppersoup spice

2 tbsp. ground crayfish 

Directions

1. Cut meat into small pieces 

2. In a medium size pot, add meat, water, bouillon cubes and salt

3. Boil over medium heat till the meat is tender (approximately 30 minutes)

4. Add onion, ground pepper, crayfish, and peppersoup spice

5. Add additional salt to taste 

6. Allow to simmer for another 15 minutes

Come join SoupaPalooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeastand Le Creuset. Have a lovely week ahead!


Ajike...Xx

Chocolate-chip Banana Bread

Hello lovelies,

Happy new month! It's really scary how fast the year is going by. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for each new day, however, I have so much coming up in the next few months that I just need time to slow down a little bit. I started an infectious disease rotation at the hospital this week. I am yet to decide how I feel about this one but I know that seeing and hearing about HIV patients is starting to take a toll on me. It is really amazing what this people have to go through, not only are they very ill they are also being touched and probed all day long for one test or another. It gets really depressing at times, so after one of those long days at the hospital I decided to cheer myself up by making a chocolate-chip banana bread and sure enough I felt so much better afterwards. If like me you are having one of those days feel free to try this recipe, I'm sure it would cheer you up too!

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar 

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

4 medium bananas

2 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/4 cup semi-sweet baking chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F 

2. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder,nutmeg, baking soda, salt and stir

3. In another bowl, mash up the banana and then add the eggs and melted butter and stir

4. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir

5. Add the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips and mix 

6. Grease the bottom and sides (half-way up) of a 9x5 inch loaf pan

7. Pour the batter into the loaf pan

8. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean

9. Allow to cool for 10 -15 minutes before removing from the pan to a wire rack

10. Once on the wire rack allow to cool completely

Once again happy new month and wishing you all a lovely month ahead. 

Ajike...Xx