Saturday 16 February 2013

HEALTHY LIVING/AMATEUR COOKING I



Fruit Journey – I did 36days of eating at least 1 fruit daily in order to make a habit of eating fruits and I’ll put below of all the varieties of fruits I explored and a log of the fruits I have been eating daily.

Orange, Apple, Pear, Avacado, Watermelon, Pineapple, Grape, PawPaw, Banana, Soursop, Tangerine, Lemon, Lime, Grape, Mango, Guava, Cucumber, Coconut, African Cherry (Agbalumo), Tomato, Plum, Nectarine

BENEFITS
Cleaner complexion, easy bowel movement, reduced tummy, fast growth of hair and nails, strength
 Daily Log
Day 1/2 (Tuesday, Jan 14)-Bananas Day 3-Apple, Pear, Grape, Pineapple, watermelon, pawpaw Day 4/5-Watermelon, Pineapple Day 6-PawPaw, Pineapple, watermelon Day 7 (Monday)-Watemelon, Pineapple, PawPaw, tomatoes Day 8-Watemelon, Pineapple, PawPaw, Orange, Grape Day 9-Grapes, Pineapple Day 10-Grapes, Pineapple, Cucumber, Orange Day 11-Banana Day 12-Banana Day 13-Avocado, Banana Day 14 (Monday)-Soursop Day 15-Watermelon Day 16-Cucumber Day 17-Mango, Watermelon Day 18-Watermelon Day 19
Tomatoes Day 20-Watermelon, pawpaw, pineapple Day 21 (Monday)-Watermelon, pawpaw, pineapple Day 22-Apple, Watermelon, pawpaw, pineapple Day 23-Watermelon, pawpaw, pineapple Day 24-Pineapple Day 25-African cherry (agbalumo) Day 26-Apple Day 27 (Monday)-Apple Day 28-Apple, banana, orange Day 29-Orange Day 30-Banana Day 31-Banana Day 32-Banana, Pineapple, Watermelon Day 33-Watermelon, Apple, English pear Day 34 (Monday)-Mango, Pineapple, Watermelon, Apple, English pear Day 35-Pineapple, Watermelon, Apple, English pear Day 36-Mango.

My cooking skills – I consider myself an amateur at cooking, not because I can’t cook or something but because I keep learning daily and one can only learn when you do not consider yourself an expert but keep an open mind. I love cooking, contrary to popular belief. I’m just more motivated to cook when I’m not making the food for just myself.

I started my healthy living lifestyle January 2013 and I have to see it has been a good ride so far!! God has been faithful in helping me keep to my resolution of living healthy. I made the decision to revamp my lifestyle at the beginning of the year but I did not put this into action until Jan 14, 2013. These are the things my healthy living lifestyle entails:
Reading the word daily with my significant other (my bf)
Cooking More and learning more recipes
Eating majorly what I cook 
Eating Fruits Daily
Eating more vegetables and less carbs
Washing my face every night (this may be funny to some, but I’ve actually struggled keeping up with this for many years, hopefully once it becomes a habit, I can elevate it to showering before bed)
Light makeup daily (line my eyes and brows, gloss and powder…I dress like a tomboy too often, so I’m trying to tone that down)
Getting Early to work
Staying in touch with my family members and friends
Keeping a positive attitude
Speaking less (guard what I say) and 
Budget my spending
The areas I will be focusing on here is my Cooking and learning new recipes and Eating fruits daily. I may make reference to the other areas occasionally though. I’m going to label all posts regarding the above ‘Amateur Cooking/Healthy Living’ .It’s been 32 days today since I started and I have to say it has been sheer bliss!! 
Here are some tips to how I have made it this far:
1. Involve God in your plan
2. Involve your Significant other in your plan
3. Make no excuses 
4. Make a food timetable
5. Document your progress
6. Don’t Procrastinate
7. Work with what you have (Tools and foodstuff)
8. Work within your budget
9. Plan ahead
10. Join Cooking groups that upload recipes and pictures (For motivation)
11. It’s OK to make mistakes or not know what you are doing at first
12. Google is your friend (Google a recipe, list the ingredients, buy and follow the recipe)
13. Practice makes perfect
14. Improvise
The above have worked for me greatly. We had a small seminar at work titled ‘Trying something new for 30 days’. We watched one of the talks from TedTalks (You can check it out on www.Ted.com) and this was just after my decision to begin a healthy lifestyle. After the seminar, we were told to list the new things we would like to try and I mentioned my ‘Eating fruits daily’ resolution. I have to confess that saying it out has prodded me even longer to keep to my resolution. We were told it takes about 25 to 30 days to create or make a habit. I’l let you know the outcome of mine when I reach the number of days above and if the things I have been trying have become second nature for me. I love cooking and thank God for my significant other’s appetite and love, he allows me cook and experiment on him with my meals (lol). I’mm going to put below a list of the dishes I have made so far, my inventions, the recipes I have used/my modifications to them and loads of pictures for your viewing and entertainment. Enjoy.
Here is a list of dishes I have made from the Month of January till date:

Soups/Stews/Sauces
1. Ogbono
2. Edikaikong, 
3. Ewedu, 
4. Efo-riro, 
5. Tomato/Pepper/Onion blend Stew (Ayamase)
6. Okro (ila alasepo)
7. Parampara sauce (I invented)
8. Egusi (my baby’s fave)
9. Garden egg sauce
10.Mutton Sauce
11.Yoruba stew

Solids,etc (Accompany the Soups/Sauces/Stew)
1. Amala (Cassava flour)
2. Eba (Garri/Cassava grits)
3. Plantain flour
4. Yam flour  
5. Wheat
6. Semovita

Meat/Seafood/
1. Turkey
2. Goat meat
3. Cow beef
4. Chicken 
5. Shrimp
6. Sausages

Spices  
I have found a new love for nutmeg since one of my friends mentioned that she uses it in cooking and I tried it out.

Others
1. Quaker Oats
2. White Rice
3. Pap (Cornstarch)
4. Jollof Sardine Spaghetti 
5. Yam porridge (Asaro)
6. Yam/plantain/spinach combo porridge,
7. Indomie (noodles) with sausage/corned beef
8. Fried rice
9. Jollof rice
10. Yam
11.Plantain
*Eggs and corned beef with bread (made by the ultimate boo of life-my bf)

I will be putting up the recipes for the above in separate posts so this post does not become way too bulky. Here’s a link to a video that also inspired me to keep an eye on the nutritional content of my meals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmtLCnZe198 .

The aim of my post is to motivate people who have been wanting to jump on the Healthy living lifestyle wagon and have been stalling, to also provide recipes for whoever may be interested in cooking these meals to try them out and experiment and also to keep tab on my progress and make reference to this posts in the future if required. 

Welcome to my kitchen (my bf’s kitchen actually-I prefer to cook at his place than at mine, he's my guinea pig.lol.jk)
Here’s are the major things I have and will be making use of for my cooking:
1. A table gas cooker with only one burner working
2. My beloved apron (from my bf)
3. Small Fridge

Websites/Blogs/Facebook Groups/YouTube Channels, Etc. That I Frequent For Recipes

This is how I google, I type ‘how to make ….’ In the search bar, u can fill the dotted lines with whatever you wanna prepare. I check out like 3-4 of the answers and decide which recipe to go with.There’s so much free resource available to us on the internet!we just need to tap into it
ü  So you think you can cook (FB Page)- https://www.facebook.com/groups/5992014410/?fref=ts
Toodles!XooX