Healthy Eating in Nairobi: Whats on my plate?

Greek Salad My way! Life is as complicated as you make it. When I pack my bags and move to a different country Italian food for me doesn't stop there. I try my very best to adjust with local ingredients and still enjoy my Italian style recipes. My Kenyan style greek salad: Lettuce, Olives (Thank God they are everywhere in the shops in Nairobi), onions in Kenya plenty, cucumber locally cultivated and yes the famous Feta cheese you find imitation made locally so I go for it. All in a bowl, some Olive oil (must confess - this is the only ingredient I cannot do without the Italian one. Now if you go to Chandarana supermarket if not finished Italian Olive Oil is on great offer. And I have bought a few bottles. And yes I give cooking lessons for those who wish to cook something different. Leave me a message on this blog to organise or just find me on twitter @marym a.k.a Happy Housewife. I'll also leave you with this Channel to watch when you have a second! http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9wfeIHQLPq6lUpimk0ZYCQ?feature=plcp

Mediterranean Diet: Fish, chicken, lots of vegetables, olive oil and fruits

Tracking

This policy is valid from 03 October 2007 This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements. The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question. This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest. To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

Beef Pa-naeng (beef in dry Red curry)

My holiday in Thailand in the year 2002, was full of surprises and new adventures. I had just got married the year earlier and it was fun travelling far away after I had left my mother country just a year earlier.
Little did I know that a year later we would move to Thailand for my husbands work and live there for the following 2 years.

Ingredients:
250g Coconut Milk
160g Pa-naeng or red curry paste (I use one spoonful- as thai food is usually hot make sure you dose this according level of support of hot chilli)
650g Beef tenderloin, thinly sliced
35g Fish sauce
30g brown sugar
30g finely crushed peanut or chunky peanut butter
6g Kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
20g red chilli peppers, thinly sliced lengthwise (I use capsicum as it is meant for garnish)

-Mix the coconut milk with the red curry paste in a sauce pan. Heat the mixture and stir until it forms bubbles.
-Lower the heat and continue stirring the mixture until the red oil surfaces.
-Add sliced beef in the hot curry mixture . Raise the heat, add fish sauce and sugar. When beef is almost done , add crushed peanuts. Lower the heat and cook the beef until it is done and the sauce becomes thick.
-At this point, more fish sauce and sugar can be added if needed. The regular taste trend of this dish is the balance between saltiness and sweetness.
-Garnish the curry with the thinly sliced red chilli peppers (I use here capsicum)and kaffir lime leaves.
Serve with steamed rice.
Note: Thai meals are served not in courses but various dishes at the same time all with steamed rice.

Eating Healthy food in times of recession

Brocolli and Cauliflower

Healthy benefit of Brocolli and Cauliflower: High in Antioxidants and they contain phytochemicals (phytonutrients)which act as Anti-Cancer.Also rich in Vit.C, fiber and calcium.

From the cruciferae family like kale (sukumawiki) How to cook it: There are easy to complex recipes on how to prepare this. My easiest is frying on the pan with garlic and butter or oil. 2-3 servings a week is acceptable but if you go an extra mile for 4-5 servings a week the better for you and your family. Another way of cooking cauliflower that i love is the lasagne way. Ingredients:cauliflower, butter, flour, milk,emmental cheese, parmesan,salt,pepper, double cream or cooking cream. 1)you divide the florets and cook them for 15minutes in boiling salty water. When cooked you drain away the water. 2) Prepare Bechamel sauce see my earlier recipe for how to make bechamel sauce

Mix the bechamel with grated parmesan and emmental. 3) Butter an oven proof dish pour in the cauliflower and cover with the sauce cook in the oven at 220°C until turns golden brown.

Serve your healthy nice and tasty cauliflowers and toast to a healthy family!

Mediterranean Diet: Fish, chicken, lots of vegetables, olive oil and fruits

Italian recipes pizza, tiramisu, cakes

Pizza forever:

Pizza Forever! Holy Pizza!


Home made Tiramisu the way I like it, try it and your friends will never have enough:

Lift your soul!


Birthday cake that says it all:

Happy birthday in style!


and of course other delicious discoveries not only on your birthday

Enjoy! Spread the word!

check them out.

Tiramisu the Kenyan Way

Yesterday was my birhtday. I wanted to prepare something special for myself.

The making of Tiramisu - Mascarpone cream, finger biscuits, Chandaria maccoffee, eggs and strawberries.

Strawberry or Italian original?

Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday to me in Nairobi. Off to the market. You have no idea what is going to cook in my kitchen tonight. Keep visiting this blog for some Scorpion birthday mixes. And thanks to all friends who visited my blog on this special day. Welcome, grab this drink and feel at home. look around and see what you might be interested in cooking this coming weekend. I'm in the kitchen preparing ideas for christmas

The making of Lasagne: Behind the scenes

The making of the Lasagne: Episode 1
Characters: Flour, eggs, pots, water
Besciamel sauce: Milk, butter
meat sauce: Minced meat, carrot, onion, red wine (optional), tomatoe puree.
Lasagne, originated from Italy like some of the worlds most celebrated delicacies like pizza. Lasagne is sheets of flat pasta filled with beef sauce (ragu) and besciamel sauce. The making of Lasagne is easy but needs patience because of different steps. The making of the dough The rolling into thin sheets

Boiling the sheets Lasagne Composition: Sheets of Lasagne are alternated with meat sauce and besciamel

Cooking in the oven.

Healthy eating in Nairobi: Children's healthy birthday cake

Healthy Kids Birthday cake vs. beautiful sugarly cake

Sometimes as parents when we prepare our kids birthday parties we forget to think healthy, we just go for the cheaper option of picking just any cake from the store just because it is the shape of a car, doll or whatever. What scares me a lot is that Kilo of icing sugar coating that is on it. But, now, not anymore: - We choose to give our kids beautiful homemade cakes with lots of healthy love - Just know if we love healthy food and bites our kids will too - Fizzy drinks for our under 10's...no no no This is what I made last night for a friend whose daughter turns 5 today! Happy Birthday my little girl! With love from Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See also Keeping healthy in Kenya and loving the food

Going Fruity in Nairobi

Yesterday My best friend's son had a birthday and I prepared something to bring with me. Happy to share with you here what we had. A lot of Nyama choma and of course lots of chapatis plus we loved the fruity cake too..for kids birthday what a better way to transmit healthy way of eating

Pizza Forever

Pizza step by step

I have been making Pizza at home for friends and family like for years now. I have been tempted to start a small business 'pizza kiosk' somewhere in a big city for a living. It is an idea that I have been putting off for some time now but with the passing of time I think now I need the courage to do it.

For someone who has been having the same idea as me for a Pizza delivery business the time is ripe for you to decide like I have, pick up the phone call delivery van at Car Transport Service, rentals, suppliers for various products and launch into business.

Otherwise, you will keep cooking for you and friends and never have a chance to make a coin while the world out there is looking for people who can open up and cook healthy foods for them.

Pizza making: Easy simple healthy pizza recipe

:

for 500g of flour I use 25g cube of fresh yeast I mix first the yeast with some warm water, olive oil, and salt then the flour. Make the dough. Leave it to rest for atleast 2 hours covered with a kitchen cloth as shown above.
Then after 2 hours when you are ready to make your pizza, work the dough well, divide it into parts as shown.





Roll each ball to fit your pizza pan, I don't have any special pizza pan so I use the pan that comes with the oven.
Then garnish your rolled pizza with tomatoe, cheese, and ready to put in the oven, will stay approximately around 7 minutes make sure while you are kneading the dough you put on the oven to allow it to get enough hot.
Enjoy your pizza!




If you need any help leave me a comment and I will come to your rescue...

Eating simple in Kenya and Keeping healthy

I haven't been able to post for some time. Big reason being that reality is: Not easy here in Nairobi, shilling has dropped and in order to do a good shopping you have to get to the deepest of your pocket, gloom and misery to Kenyan consumers... Since I came here many consumer prices have almost doubled meaning what I spent on my shopping the first months I arrived in Nairobi Im now spending almost double...no wonder ...I woke up this morning dreaming I was keeping a small rented vegetable garden outside the city. There is this lady in my dream giving me a small garden, size of a table @ksh.2000, things are this bad..

But all in all the best way to help your small salary cope is to aim at the market (many farmers markets) in different areas. I must confess that I go to 4 different markets for various products. I have increased vegetable consumption in my daily meals and reduced the sugar. Meat I will go to the city market though they have weighing scales that have been tampered with because every time I buy meat or fish there and come home put it on my kitchen scale its never the weight they declared..God help consumers in Kenya...
Im even thinking of hiring a cameraman, carry my scale and test them in direct TV wouldn't that be fun?

ANyway, stay home moms here is something you can try:
fish from the city market, coated with breadcrumbs, oil and garlic accompanied by Aubergines and tomatoes all baked in the oven.

It is easy to use breadcrumbs also in other vegetables like courgettes as they are called here. Go to markets like Kawangware or Kangemi you will buy fresh ones for ksh.20. Tomatoes you will find 3 or 4 for ksh.20 depending on sizes.
Courgettes (low calory veg, source of folate, source of potassium and good B-Complex vitamin sources) don't ask me more you understand its good food for family.
Tomatoes on other hand (Tomato is King of the kitchen - It contains Lycopene an antioxidant that can fight cancer cells, Vit. K, Natural Antiseptic etc)
Ps. A daily dose of tomato juice keeps you healthy...



Egg frittata with minced spinach and cheese (cottage cheese)