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Ways of cooking

How often we make our meals or food can be a determining factor if our family and friends will enjoy it or not. It can be boring when certain foods are cooked in same manner everytime. Most times I try out new things and add fun to it whenever I can. From food to drinks, I sure tell you, it can be different, colourful, healthy and fun. I will make out a list on ways of cooking and allow you compare your cooking to see if your weekly menu is becoming if not boring.

• Boiling: This is cooking in boiling water or cooking by immersion in water. Foods like potatoes, yams, pasta, rice, beef, boiled eggs,etc. This form of cooking is the most commonly used. However, I like to boil vegetables also like carrots, cabbage, peas to make them tender to eat especially for my kids whom i love to incorporate veggies in their daily meal.
• Frying: This is cooking by immersion in hot deep fat or oil. This is most people's favourite cos people like eating fried potatoes chips, nuggets, chicken etc. Some people consider fried foods as unhealthy but i always disagree with most of these recent tv programmes that classify foods as good and bad foods. I believe that no food is bad, what is bad is the individual choices we make. To eat just french fries, bags of chips and other plastic foods everyday and having no control is the bad choice and not to pin any food as bad food.
• Baking: Simply, it's cooking in confined heat in an oven . Foods like pies, cakes, bread are good examples of baked foods. Potatoes can also be baked in the oven. This I often cook with chicken or beef in a casserole with the potatoes peeled and quatered. Meats cooked in the oven are not called baked but roasted.
• Roasting: This is cooking before an open fire. This method is rarely used in small households. Some refer to it as roasting while others call it barbecue. It's usually conducted in an open space which allows the smoke to escape freely.
• Stewing: Is cooking slowly in a small amount of water at a low heat until food is very tender. Stewing meats like beef, chicken breast, lamb cut in bits gives me the best taste the meat could ever offer. With it's method of slow cooking, the meat has the time to tenderize, letting out its juices and being very palatable. I would share my recipes in my coming articles.
• Grilling/Broiling: This is cooking over or under direct heat; over glowing coals or under a gas flame using your grilling pan. Grilling can also be done in an oven. Most manufacturers provide a grilling rack in many conventional ovens. Beef, turkey steaks are excellent grill foods. They are quick, easy as well as tasty. Grill pans are like frying pans but flatter with lines in the bottom. These give my steaks beautiful golden stripes and make them irresistable.

Other methods of cooking coming up in the next article. Stay around.
Ate ja.

Driven to (2)

Once, a man came into her life and she was quite excited about him. He was from the neighbouring town and thought she was beauitful. She liked him too and tried as much as she could to make the relationship work. At the beginning, the village was aghast that a man was actually interested in Agama and had plans of marrying her. But on seeing how committed the man was, the people actually gave in to the man marrying Agama. Some people went to the Ekwu's village and tried talking to his family to dissuade him from marrying Agama but all to no avail. He was bent on taking Agama as his wife and no one would actually stop that. She opened up to him when he came asking her hand in marriage and warned him to back off from any future embarrasments. She cared less if he stayed or left because she was already used to all of them leaving after listening to all the gossips in the town. Ugara on the other hand heard about the bustle in town and was angry at first. He thought of how a man could seek Agama's hand in marriage knowing fully well she was not capable of making babies like other normal women do. Ugara was infuriated when his fellow worker informed him and he stayed the whole day thinking about it. On getting home that day, he didn't even touch his dinner and Ezigbo on seeing this, thought she had done something wrong and went in to plead with thim to eat his food. He only said he wanted to be left alone and this continued for days. He actually was jealous not because he still loved her but because somebody else valued what he abandoned and people might make fun of him later.

Nkasi

She saw her father very moody for several days and wondered what it was they had done again. That particular week, she and her mother had vowed to make everything right to avoid any problems at home and so when Nkasi saw a very moody man come in and leave the house, she went into hiding not allowing herself be seen by her father. She was turning into a young woman and would go the stream with her female friends to either fetch some water or firewood. Her good friend Enyinne was leaving the community to attend the polythecnic in Enugu state. A family friend had promised to send her to school to further her education and Enyinne was very excited. Nkasi was also happy for her friend and wished she was in her shoes. The day Enyinne left was the beginning of her big dream. She needed to get out of town and quiclkly. Tired of the life she lived, she came home to inform her mother of Enyinne's trip to the city when she saw her mother very downcast. She was really worried and asked if everything was alright. Her mother quickly told her of her father's ailment that bothered her greatly coupled with the fact of him not speaking with anyone or wanting to go to the community clinic for a checkup. Nkasi wanted to reach out to her father, but his constant fist and rage even drew them farther apart. She only tried to cheer her mother up and went ahead with her normal chores at home while keeping her dream alive. She knew that sooner or later, she would also be in Enugu with Enyinne and they would do things together like they used to.
Taking an evening stroll with her other friends in the communtiy one evening, she heard of Agama's upcoming marriage and was astonished. She'd met Agama once or twice and was convinced she was a very nice woman who treated everyone with respect though she got none from most people. Nkasi was not surprised Agama asked for a divorce because her father was a very difficult man to live with and often times she wondered how life would be without her father; if her mother would be a happier person without him. Though she was glad about the news she got, she also wondered why her father had been so sad lately, getting ill and not wanting to go to for a treatment.
To be continued...
Ate ja!

Shopping

Driven to

NKASI

Like every other girl, she had her dreams. Though life was tough and unfair, she was determined to make a pass and get to a better one. Her father died after falling ill with an unknown ailment for a short period of time. A real short period. She didn't believe that the cause of the illness was unknown because her father never wanted to visit the hospital in their little community for fear of being talked about and her mother couldn't persuade further. Coupled with the fact that they were poor, it made it all easier for her father not to visit the community clinic. There came a time some medical students were in their community, giving free medical health care, but Nkasi wondered why her father would not use the opportunity. She didn't care really if her father wanted to go the clinic or not, afterall he didn't regard her and she also on the other hand, didn't care either. Being the only child and a girl, she was more of her mother's friend and was always scared of her father's rage either at her or her mother. He was easily angered and this made Nkasi cower at his presence. She remembered her father always blaming her mother that she wasn't fertile enough even after paying her father heavily a huge sum for a bride price.

Being married to his former wife, they couldn't bear children and it was big tussle everyday; arguments and constant fights. Ugara and his first wife Agama were young lovers and couldn't stay a day apart without each other. Agama then lived with her uncle and his family and despite her uncle's warnings that Ugara was no good for her, she kept on seeing him. All sighs of disapproval from people in the community and her uncle fell on deaf ears. They both spent time together and always met either at the village stream or during firewood fetching and their fondness grew even more and more. Agama's uncle threatened to stop paying her tuition if she continued seeing Ugara and for a short while she pretended to stop because she was interested in finishing her education. After a week or two, she dropped every promise made and started staying out late with him again. Her uncle got very mad and sent Agama back to her parents who came pleading and asking him to forgive that it was all youthful exuberence. Uncle Goddy only accepted to take her back if she would face her studies and then get married to Ugara after schooling. This she quickly agreed to and returned to her uncle's house. As usual she kept up till Ugara started accusing her of not loving him again. He always wrote her love notes and dropped it under the coconut tree infront of her uncle's house. When she tried to explain to him, he accused her even more and so she decided to prove him wrong. Jumping over the fence became like breathing the air as she would sneek out at night, climb over the low fence and jump over to stay with him. She cut herself a few times but was always consoled by Ugara who told her that true love always came with obstacles. The scales fell from Agama's eyes when she got pregnant while at school. She couldn't let her uncle see this and so something had to be done fast. Once she informed Ugara, he said it wasn't a problem and told her to conceal things till he made a few contacts.

Agama knew all was not well with her but kept pulling through. The so called doctor was not a good one. She just knew it that something just wasn't right. Days passed into months and months into years and 2 years later, she was through with her schooling and passed out. Meanwhile, Ugara was the first man who came knocking and seeking her hand in marriage. Uncle Goddy didn't hesitate at all because it had always been so planned and so Agama and Ugara got married. The following few years into the the marriage, it didn't seem all fun again when Ugara started making Agama unhappy with the constant pestering of not bearing him any children. She had a gut feeling she might not be able to but kept it to herself knowing she stood the chance of being sent packing if Ugara got to know the truth. The fights and arguments continued till the seventh year into the marriage when Agama couldn't stand the pain and injustice being dished to her by Ugara. She spilled out the truth not caring again and was ready to move out and on. She had more peace without Ugara and decided to spend the rest of her life resolute. Ugara acted surprised though deep inside he wasn't and knew they stood a chance of being barren while being married. He felt guilty but always used pride to cover any guilt he felt. She should have been wise enough then and kept the baby but she placed her education above having the baby, he thought. Not quite long after the seperation, Ugara took in Nkasi's mother Ezigbo as wife. People recommended Ezigbo because she had a large family and they believed it was a trend in her family of their daughters bearing both male and female children. The first year into the marriage produced Nkasi and that remained till date. Ezigbo tried so much to conceive more children but all fell furtile. Nkasi remembered all these and saw her father as a frustrated man. She always avoided him and only spoke to him when thanking him after a meal or greeting him in the morning. His anger raved like a wild fire and Ezigbo avoided anything that would get him mad. There was a particular day when Ugara just returned from the farm and on getting home, was told that dinner was almost ready. Being very hungry, he stomped off and started screaming at Ezigbo and his daughter with rolled fists while kicking the boiling food pot and spilling it's content on himself. He got burned and raged even more like an angry bull. Ezigbo after the incident made sure dinner was always ready for him on arrival.

Agama, lived a very quiet life after the seperation from her last husband Ugara. Nothing seemed to go well with her and she was so unhappy. An argument ensued amongst them in their age clan meeting and when Agama tried making a comment, one of the ladies shut her up calling her a barren pig. It was the last straw for Agama. She had had enough of all the insults from villagers and wasn't going to take any more from anyone. Her life was already in distress with her family, friends and community abandoning her when they got to know what had happened in her earlier life. Nothing was a secret anymore and men didn't regard her as anything. She went over to the woman in their group and gave her a resounding slap on the face saying,

"I have taken enough from the communtiy and won't have it again," and with a horror stricken face, the lady fled the meeting in shame while Agama went on "the next time I hear anyone call my name in sheer disgust, then we'll see who is who" while stomping out in anger. From that day, she gained a little more respect from the community and had the people gossiping behind her rather than heaping insults right to her face.

Once, a man came into her life and she was quite excited about him. He was from the neighbouring town and thought she was beauitful. She liked him too and tried as ...

Ate ja.

Saving Money on BILLS!

Paying our monthly bills is not always fun especially when we have a huge one to deal with. This might be the case in utilities like water, gas, electricity where one has pay according to consumption. Fixed bills like mortgage, car loans, cable tv are alot easier where you at least have an idea of what's coming at the end of the month. To help lower you upcoming bills, just try and make a few changes and you'll sure be on your way to a lesser payment.




Electricity: Turn off whatever appliances you may not currently be using like the tv, stereo, light bulbs, pc, etc. During the day, why leave the electric bulb on when the sun is out. Always check if the light bulb of the balcony is turned off during the day because that's the light many people tend to forget after using at night. Switch off the tv of the living room if your busy in the bedroom. Why leave all the tvs blasting when your just in a room and no one else is in use of any of them. The refrigerator or your aquarium(if you've got one) should be the only appliances running always cos they need to. Save up money by doing your laundry at night. Electricity costs less at night so i make use of it by doing my laundry and dishwashing then. Dishwashers and laundry machines are all designed with self timers so you don't have to worry about waking up or forgetting even to put them working. I usually stack up the dishwasher after dinner(cos that's when i have the most plates to wash) and programme it to 'DELAY' some hours and start washing after midnight. When there is a necessity to do a quick laundry during the day, choose your programme and if the clothes are not thickly soiled, you can avoid using temperature. Make use of the sun during summer in drying clothes instead of using the dryer. Normally we tend to pay more electricity bills during winter than in summer but lately, we have to take care not to pay so much during both seasons with the strong summer heat and all. During summer, lower your shutters to always keep the house cool. Put on the AC and programme it to work to a certain time like 30mins-1hr depending on how long you want to keep it running to keep the house cool and once this is achieved, it turns off automatically. Use this same technique during winter and save up on those heaters.






GAS: This is the most particular to me. Moving into my new apartment, i was astonished at a the gas bill that I saw in my mail box. Doing little or nothing, I got a bill of closely 100euros and that really got me thinking of how i used the gas the previous month. I decided to change a few things in my daily living to see how it could help.

• Tap Knob: Most european houses have a central gas heater that functions thrrough the entire house. If the tap knob is in the centre of the 2 signs red and blue, it automatically gives you warm water when you turn on tap and that means the water heater comes on whenever you want to use water. So, i moved my knobs to the blue sign(cold water) so that the heater just doesn't come on everytime except when i really need the hot water. But, if your home uses two seperate knobs for the hot and cold water, then your good.
• Cooking: I started cooking less with my gas cooker and began using the electric oven/microwave to make some meals. Chicken with potatoes, rice with beef, i cooked sometimes in the oven and with my special steaming bowls, was able to steam up vegetables like broccoli, carrots and fish in the microwave. Some people do have the jar rice machine that they can use to cook rice. With all these, the deal is it's possible to cook without the gas and still have a wonderful meal(would probably talk about that in my next topic).
• Bathing: When taking a shower, try not to spend so much time cos the more the shower, the more the hot water except if you're taking a cold shower. This can help save gas and water bills.

After I applied all I listed, the next bill that came was 60euros less!

WATER: This should also be used with care. Like I earlier on mentioned, do not spend too much time in the shower. If you're doing the dishes in the sink, washing your hands, giving your kids a bath, brushing your teeth; always remember what"Barney Says"- never let the water run. Also watch out for your kids going to turn on the tap and leaving it running like my son does. The water counter won't read what you're not using, so take care to pay just what you're sure using.

I believe these tips can go a long way in helping lower your monthly bills and helping save our planet. Do post a comment if this article was helpful.

Ate ja.

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Egg and beans? Make them love them.

Question

Hi Oby,
My daughter does not like to eat egg and beans.I`m quite worried about her growth.what do i do?

I.A

Nigeria

View

Eggs are usually eaten at breakfast and are found as ingredients in many recipes. They are nutrient and energy dense with lots of protein vitamin and fats. Some children also don't like eating eggs but with time, get to like them. For your daughter, you can try cooking the eggs for her in a variety of ways. If you are used to just boiling her eggs, try some other recipes like omelette, scrambled or poached eggs. She might respond to any of them. Also when cooking, children usually don't like seeing all that onions, tomatoes especially in their eggs, so you can cook their eggs without adding any of those.

You can try some of these recipes:

Scrambled eggs

2 eggs

8 tbs of milk

2 sausages

a pinch of salt

Method

Crack eggs into a bowl, add milk and whisk together until frothy. Cut sausages and set aside. In a frying pan, melt butter and when it starts to sizzle, lower heat, pour in egg mixture and sprinkle on your salt. Leave and only scramble eggs when they set by appearing bubbly. Add your sausage and stir gently. When egg is cooked, it will look very fluffy like the image above.

Also try out omelette and poached eggs and see the one she like best. If she likes fish or meat, slice or chop them into the omelette.

Also for the beans, if she likes akara or moi-moi, then it's not a problem because she is eating the beans in order forms. Beans days(tuesdays) were the best in my house while growing up cos we all looked forward to it. My mum cooked her beans in a way, it turned out porridge and very soft. I often wondered why some of my friends at school hated beans till I saw the reason. Most women don't have the 'beans patience' and so don't cook it well thereby leaving it hard and unappealling to eat. The black eyed beans which is a legume is quite tough and has to be cooked for a some time for it to get soft. To soften beans and make it cook less, I advice you put beans in water some 30mins before cooking. Adding some plantain to a bean porridge recipe, gives an amazing result whether cooked in the beans or fried to go along side it. I will share my mother's recipe.

Beans with plantain

Beans

Tomatoes

Pepper

Onions

Maggi cubes

Vegetable oil

Salt

Plantain

Ground crayfish or prawn

Method

Wash and place beans in a saucepan, add water and cook. Let the water cover the beans like twice the quantity of the beans. As this is cooking, make your tomato sauce. Cut your tomatoes, pepper and onions into a blender and blend thoroughly. Chop onions and set aside for the tomato sauce. In a skillet, heat up vegetable oil(low heat) and pour in chopped onions to sizzle. When onion starts crisping up, pour in the blended tomato and stir. When sauce is dried and you can see most of its oil, turn off heat. In the boiling beans, when you notice the skins' all detached from beans or you can feel beans yourself, put in your cut plantain. Cook some 10mins and add your tomato sauce, ground crayfish and stir together. Season with salt and maggi cubes to taste.

You can also fry some plantain to garnish food with. Over here where I do not have easy access to plantain, i substitute with sweet potatoes and my kids enjoy it alot.

So try out and see if it helps. Do give your feedback in the comment box below.

Ate ja.

Icymoments: Stopping breastfeeding

Icymoments: Stopping breastfeeding: "Question Hi Oby, I spoke to u last night.Pls I would like to know steps to take when one wants to stop BF.what can be a substitute for kids ..."

Stopping breastfeeding

Question

Hi Oby,
I spoke to u last night.Pls I would like to know steps to take when one wants to stop BF.what can be a substitute for kids wen they dnt have acess to BM.tnx.
Ug
Nigeria


View
It's always a very tough decision to stop breastfeeding. Tough to stop but tougher to implement. Breastfeeding to me is addictive. With my first son, I breastfed him till 14months. It was so because my doctor was always full of praises both for me and my baby. His growth chart to him was very impressive. He actually encouraged me to keep up till he was 2yrs old unless if I thought otherwise. To stop breastfeeding should be a decision of the mother with the support of her spouse because with his support, he can help and make it easier for the mother. Stopping breastfeeding requires strongwill or you will never stop. Below are a few tips that I believe will help u.

Take it slowly: If you have breastfed your baby all his life and without introducing solids, suddenly stop; it will be very tough both for the mother and her baby. It's easier when your baby eats other foods coupled with the breastfeeding that way, he misses breastfeeding but can at least eat other nice foods you offer him. So take it slowly by introducing solids at 4months(u can find that in my previous articles) and gradually, you'll start eliminating his breastfeeds.

Eliminating feeds: Eliminating feeds is essential because once you start, your baby will start getting used to it. If your baby breastfeeds at night to sleep and feeds in between the night as well, you can start by giving her the breastfeeding to sleep and eliminating the in between feeds. She definitely will not like it but you have to try. You can put some water in her feeding bottle and give her when she wakes up at night to feed. This will help and also make her get used to not getting a feed like she used to. By the time you keep giving her water, she might not even wake up at night because she wouldn't want to bother waking up to a bottled water and you also will get a better sleep! You might also decide to sleep in a seperate room(if you usually sleep with her) for her not to feel you and want to breastfeed.




Don't be too emotional about it: It hurts mothers when their babies cry and hurts even more when they are crying for a feed and you are denying them when you have it all stored up. Sometimes, you may get emotional and start breastfeeding your baby again after denying him some feeds because of his cries and the pain you too might be experiencing from engorgement. Try to be calm and stay firm because the more you feed your baby, the more your breasts get stimulated and produce more milk. I recommend you ask for help when you are stopping to breastfeed your baby because you will need it. If a friend or relative distracts your baby, it will be half the battle for you and you won't need to carry your baby on your breasts so often.

Restrict movement and friction on the breast: With a helper, you can avoid carrying your baby on your breasts which would prevent any contact like her rubbing against you and making your milk come in. Do wear a tight yet comfortable bra for the breasts to stay in place and have less movement.

Pain or Fever: Having pain or even a fever is not new at all when stopping your baby from breastfeeding. It's all accumulated stress because your body is producing milk which your not giving out. When this is the case, you can take a paracetamol and express some milk with your breast pump but don't express too much. Just enough to give you a little relief because pumping alot might make your body produce more milk. Also massage your breasts when taking a bath, it relieves alot.

The milk will naturally be absorbed back into the body and won't produce more. It may take a few days and you'll be all normal again. Your baby will also be used to not being breastfed but don't tempt her too quickly.
I hope this helps and you have pain less stop.
Enjoy.
Ate ja.