Happy National Lasagna Day

Hey Foodies, welcome back to my blog...

So today 29th July 2015 is National Lasagna day & I hope you are celebrating wherever you are??

Lasagna is an Italian dish that consists of wide flat pasta with layers of sauces and cheese.
And Just in case you didn't know; the word Lasagna is referred to the pot to which the food was cooked rather than the food itself.. (cc National calendar day).

How do you like your Lasagna??? I like mine extremely beefy (hmmm yum lol) There are different types of recipes online for the perfect Lasagna; however I have put one together for my readers in case you are celebrating National Lasagna day today.. See below:-

Lean beef
red onions
clove of garlic
salt to taste
ground black pepper
dried parsley flakes
oregano
basil
chopped tomatoes
tomato paste
cottage or ricotta cheese
eggs
parsley
parmesan cheese
mozzarella cheese
lasagna noodles

Now I haven't got pictures of the lasgna I made the other day as I was too hungry to even bother take pictures. However these are a few pictures I found online of tasty looking Lasagna's.














Happy eating, let me know how you get on & give me a shout if you want me to record a video on Lasagna.

A Night with the SaladMaster Team

Welcome back Foodies, so I had the opportunity of working with a company called Saladmaster. They are based in all parts of the world (Asia, Africa, America, Europe); they are a health and nutrition company that helps you enjoy a healthier lifestyle by eliminating fats, oil and grease in your diet. They approached me and even made my family a 3 course meal. (How shamazing lol)

For starter we made a Sweet Salad containing cucumbers, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, apple (yes apple lol) lemon zest. What a combo right???? Its the best salad I have ever tasted,trust me and they also didn't add any cream or mayo and it tastes fantastico lol. I almost doubted if I wasn't a part of the cooking team :-)

For main they fried some chicken in one of their skillets without using any oils, water, salt, seasonings or any sort.. We also cooked some rice, potatoes, sweetcorn, peas and veggies to go with our main.

And finally my favorite of the 3 courses is the cake that we had for dessert, they baked the Chocolate cake on my hob (yes hob) and not in the oven (unbelievable).. If you don't believe, I suggest its best you watch the video below lol... The cake was layered with sliced apples, chocolate cake mix, carrots, courgettes, cucumber, radish, cabbage, celery.. It sounds gross but trust me it tasted super duper amazing, its unreal..

And guess what, I recorded a cooking video with the team below or you can use link https://youtu.be/bPohF0qHJv4:-

Pictures below, sorry about the quality I had to get the printscreen from my Youtube vidoe...enjoy..xxx

Now tell me we don't live in a world full of wonders lol; I know right????

They can be found at - http://www.saladmaster.co.uk

How does Food impact Health?

Hey Foodies welcome back to my blog; hope you're all having a great week so far and hope July has been good to you?

A lot has been going on in my world in this month of July from adjusting to motherhood, changed sleep routines, having friends and family around, keeping a controlled diet, breastfeeding, the list goes on. So I thought it will be nice to share with you what I have been up to :-)

OK If you've only just stumbled on my blog for the first time ever, (I hope you are here to stay) I just wanna wish you a very warm welcome, thank you for dropping by so please grab yourself some cookies and a nice drink as we enjoy reading this together. ( Please don' forget to subscribe, share and like my blog as well as my youtube page www.youtube.com/saioladeji)

So I was having this discussion with my baby's health visitor Stacey the other day on what we eat and the impact it has on our bodies & I decided to write this note and share with you my readers..

How food plays a major role and help with stress, heart attack and other illnesses; the food we eat gives our bodies the "information" and materials they need to function properly. If we don't get the right information, our metabolic processes suffer and our health declines. If we get too much food, or food that gives our bodies the wrong instructions, we can become overweight, undernourished, and at risk for the development of diseases and conditions, such as arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease.

In short, what we eat is central to our health. (http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/)

source:-www.dietnutritionadvisor.com

What does Food do in our bodies:-
The nutrients in food enable the cells in our bodies to perform their necessary functions. This quote from a popular textbook describes how the nutrients in food are essential for our physical functioning.

"Nutrients are the nourishing substances in food that are essential for the growth, development and maintenance of body functions. Essential meaning that if a nutrient is not present, aspects of function and therefore human health decline."- Perspectives in Nutrition, Wardlow and Insel

In other words, nutrients give our bodies instructions about how to function.



source:-www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com

Why should I care:-

The nutrients in food give our bodies the information and materials they need to function properly. But our daily diets may not always be providing all the information our bodies need.

Lets take a look at our celebrities and people in the public eye that are foodies themselves but do not actually pile on the weight as they are either eating very healthily or working out constantly.

A typical example is one of the worlds most popular families The Kardashians; and if you're like me and you watch their reality TV show "Keeping up with the Kardashians"; you'll notice that in every single episode they are either dining at a restaurant or ordering take out.

Now take a good look at what they eat; they don't seem to eat the odd burger, pizza or junk food that most people consume, they are either eating leaves lol and when I say leaves I mean lettuce, cucumber, salad and anything healthy and also drinking water or ice tea.

source:- www.glamour.com


This is really common with most celebrities that I tend to follow on social media; I notice that even though they have all been stigmatized to having Botox, liposuction and alterations done, these people do actually look after themselves.

To be frank you don't actually need to work out crazily or as the saying "Go hard or Go home" to maintain a healthy lifestyle or stay in perfect shape; as long as you watch your food intake, you should be fine. Eating greens, fruits lean meat, lean fish etc can be quiet boring to eat on a daily basis for the rest of ones life; you can have the odd treat of a dessert, cake, etc as long as you don't consume it on a daily basis.

Alcohol and binge drinking also plays a major role in our health; what may seem like just a drink or two most evenings can do a lot of harm to your body, inside and out. You might notice that you’re building up a bit of a spare tyre, if you drink alcohol regularly. That’s because there can be a lot of calories in alcohol. Or perhaps your mood can be a bit low in the mornings. Maybe your skin’s not as clear as it was. And we all know how drinking too much can lead to decreased sexual performance, especially for men.

According to the NHS (National Health Service), excessive consumption of Alcohol is very likely serious illnesses such as cancer of the throat, stroke, breast cancer in women, heart disease, high blood pressure, reduced fertility, liver disease & pancreatitis.



Lets come back to the UK and take a look at the celebrities that appear on the "Graham Norton show"
if you watch the show on a Friday night at 10.30 pm GMT, you will notice that not many of these celebrities don't drink fizzy drinks and pop, they all drink water when they are offered by the show host Graham. Pic below**

source:-www.jonkenna.wordpress.com

Now as a society we are facing significant health problems & many researchers now believe that these problems are partly related to our diet. While they used to believe that diseases-such as type II diabetes, obesity, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers were caused by a single gene mutation, they are now generally attributing these conditions to a network of biological dysfunction. And the food we eat is an important factor in that dysfunction, in part because our diets lack the necessary balance of nutrients (Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 2004).

To prevent the onset of these diseases, we need to know how multiple nutrients in a diet interact and affect the human body's functions, according to the Nutrition Society, Europe's largest nutritional organization. Hence why it is really important you include fruits and vegetables in your diet and also make sure that we are working out constantly.

By the way check out the First lady of the USA below at age 51; she looks absolutely amazing. I wanna look like her at her age lol :-)

She maintains a healthy diet by working out 5 times a week (Lord I need to get on that routine), she also revealed all the ways she makes sure her family eats healthily - from making time for sit-down dinners all together to requiring her daughters to finish their vegetables.

And when it comes to dessert, 16-year-old Malia and 13-year-old Sasha have been trained to only have them on weekends. 

She also says that desserts are a weakness she has had to learn to refuse.

'The president isn't a big sweets eater. But I love it,' she told the (Daily mail), adding: 'But I’m always watching my weight, so that’s the first thing I pass on.

And while she may be in charge of championing healthy eating with her national initiative even the First Lady hasn't always had the best approach to food.

source:- Daily mail UK

How to Boil Assorted Meat

Hello Foodies, welcome back to my blog; I hope you're having a fab weekend so far?

I've had alot people such as my nieces and friends ask me how I boil my meat as its really tasty.. This is one of the things I learnt how to do when I started living on my own as a teenager. Its so easy you just have to get it once and you'll be a pro at it and I haven't actually seen anyone write a blog on this so I decided to take bull by the horn and publish mine :-)

Sorry foodies no picture, please visit my YouTube page here:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB-4SqomlWE where you can see a video method on this

Ingredients:-

3 x stock cubes
2 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoon of dried thyme or fresh thyme (whichever you prefer)
1 tablespoon of all purpose seasoning
2 red onions & 2 white onions blended with some water

Method:-

I have decided to boil all this assorted meat together but you can boil separately if you want to.

Clean all the meat with luke warm water thoroughly and place in your pot, add the stock cubes, all purpose seasoning, thyme and salt and stir.

Now add the onion mix and stir to the bottom. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, place on your cooker on medium to high heat and cook for 1 hour by constantly checking every 20 minutes to avoid burning. (No need to add water as the meat brings out its own juice)

Check to see if you're happy with the softness of the beef, tripe and oxtail.. At this point it should be completely done and ready. Leave the cowfoot on fire for a further 3 minutes as this takes longer to be done.

Once all done, place in an oven tray and place in the grill for 20 minutes by checking each side every 10 minutes to avoid burning..

Voila its all done..


Thanks for reading, let me know how you get on.. Stay tuned to more videos.. O'toodles :-)

A New Chapter

Hi Foodies, I've got some fantastic news to share with you all. I gave birth to a baby girl on 2nd June @ 00:53 am, I call her Olivia.

Firstly i'll like to give a huge thumbs up to all mothers out there, we are doing an amazing job. I have decided to let you know a bit more about me by documenting my pregnancy journey for all First time mums; mums to be, or any one out there interested to know what this pregnancy journey entails.

All the information is on my Youtube page here:-

This is a whole new chapter in my life and I am super duper excited to be a mummy and raise my little girl.

Thank you all for your support and don't forget to like, share and subscribe to more cooking and lifestyle videos.