My Mom's One Pot Beans Casserole

One Pot Beans Casserole

I was tempted to put off writing today because I am so tired from cooking. However, the recipe for today is in honor of my mom, whose birthday is today. It is a recipe for One Pot Beans Casserole, an adaptation of the way my mom made beans while I was growing up in Lagos. When I was child, I actually hated beans. I made myself so sick that my mom gave up and I did not have to eat beans. This

is quite funny to me now because beans is one food that I adore and I try to work into my diet often.

Orange Chipotle Chicken Part Deux

Orange Chipotle Chicken on Noodles

Today was one of those days when all I dreamt about at work was food. I knew exactly what I wanted for dinner. There is this recipe on my old blog for Orange-Chipotle Wings that I absolutely was craving. The fortunate thing about this recipe is that it is well suited for cooking frozen chicken breast since I had not planned this meal earlier. I pretty much followed the recipe because I was cooking about a pound of chicken breast. The only different is that my cooking time was doubled because the chicken was frozen.

Nigerian Hibiscus Tea

Cold-brewed Hibiscus Tea with Ginger Slices

One of the things that I know for sure is that living outside of Nigeria has made me more Nigerian. I get to appreciate the cultural heritage more because I have access to more information more. I get to appreciate the food more because I miss the distinctively Nigerian way of cooking and eating foods. I also get to discover random things escaped my consciousness while I lived in Nigeria.

A couple of months back, I was on Instagram when I saw this post on Nigerian tiger prawns. It was the first time I ever knew that seafood from Nigeria is a thing. I grew up in Lagos and one of the perks of all that water is that I have pretty much been eating fish my whole life. When I was a child, if I ever got sick or my sister got sick, my mum would make us fresh fish soup. This was considered a delicacy because it used mostly catfish that would be freshly killed. The sad part of this is that I most likely would not have the appetite to enjoy the fish.

Spiced Potatoes with Sautéed Kale and Peas

Packed Lunch of Spiced Potatoes and Sautéed Kale with English Peas 

I am a creature of habit. Every Friday, after I am off the clock, I go around the grocery store where I work and complete my food shop for the next week. Over the week, mostly on Sundays, I make and pack my meals. So I will make 5 packed lunches for work. I will make 2 servings smoothies for breakfast and set up dinner if I have the energy. This past weekend, I had the idea of making a sweet potato/yam dish for lunch. Sweet potato is something that I have an affinity for. My sister and I believe that it runs in the blood because our father's ancestral home, Oyan in Nigeria, is known for sweet potatoes.

During my service year in Nigeria, one of the meals that I really loved making was sweet potatoes with vegetables. I would buy a vegetable known as ugu and make it into a soup with smoked fish, tomatoes, peppers and onions to be served with boiled sweet potatoes. I particularly like this meal because the green leaves of ugu would be slightly crunchy after cooking so it would balance the soft and mushy texture of the sweet potatoes. When I was shopping on Friday, I noticed that the sweet potatoes/yam did not look like it was in season so I decided to switch it up for red potatoes.

Basic Tomato Sauce

One of the things that has formed the basis of my cooking for many years is tomatoes. It is the Yoruba girl in me. Tomato represents obe (stew) that is a staple of Yoruba cuisine. I am constantly experimenting with the best way to capture the flavor of the tomato.

As I become more exposed to other foods outside of Yoruba cuisine, I have become more comfortable playing around with the concept of the stew. The normal base of a Yoruba tomato stew/sauce consists of tomato, onions and red peppers all blended together. I have become okay with making my stew with just tomatoes and onions.

NYTimes' The Hidden Dangers of Rice

A bowl of white long grain rice with Ayamashe Sauce

Last Friday as is my habit, I did my grocery shopping before I left work. I decided I wanted something low key so I settled on veggie fried rice. I would have put up pictures and recipes but my camera had a melt down this weekend so I have no pictures. Anyway, after cooking the rice on Saturday so get ready for Sunday cooking, I read this article on the hidden dangers of rice on NYTimes this weekend. I am sharing it because I found it really interesting.

The whole idea that rice could be a hidden danger is something that scares me. I am not going to over-react and say that rice is banned from my diet. Rice has been a central part of my food journey so far. I grew up eating rice. As a child, when we had the weekly food schedule, rice was served on Wednesdays and on Sundays. On birthdays, a pot of jollof rice with 2 fried whole chickens and a crate of bottles soda was the standard. For big holidays like the Eid-el-Fitr and Eid-el-Kabir, we had caterers come in and cook big pots of rice, including jollof rice and the Nigerian version of fried rice. Rice has always represented happy memories to me.

So after reading the article, I thought about and still made my pre-planned fried rice for lunch this week.