Saiprojects

Happy Weekend guys, hope you've had a good week?

As foodies, I know we all have that important kitchen item we cannot do without in our kitchens (food or non food).

Well mine is red onions; I absolutely cannot watch myself run out of red onions in my kitchen. If I run out, the corner shop is less than 2 minutes walk from me so I quickly run and get some.

And if they have no red and I have to settle for white onions, I always feel like my cooking will not taste as good. I've got special love for red onions as it gives a particular flavour to food.

I've always loved red onions since my teens, its kind of like an obsession lol.


Anyways, you guys know I love my pictures, so here is what a red onion looks like just incase you didn't know.




Let me know what you cannot do without in your kitchen...!

See you in my next blog :-)

Happy Thursday Foodies, hope everyone's had a great week so far?? Don't worry the weekend is upon us, only a few hours more and you can settle for that beautiful glass of wine you've been longing for.

Talking about wine, have you ever thought about how good or bad what you eat are? There are some foods that are actually so good for us but at the same time bad for our teeth.

Prevention is the best medicine for your smile, it is better & cheaper to always avoid cavities and stains in your teeth by brushing, flossing and also eating right. The food we eat plays an important role to our health and has a big impact on our teeth. You'll be surprised to see that some things that are classed as "healthy" can be bad for our teeth.

Here's a list of foods bad for your teeth:-

Citrus Fruits and Juices



These are good for you, very rich in Vitamin C & other nutrients but bad for you teeth. Especially Grapefruit & lemon as their highly acidic and can erode your tooth enamel over time. Continue to drink your juices but brush and floss as recommended.

Chewy candy


Now I love love love these especially when I go into supermarkets. Now I'm not a sweetie person but I love the chewy candy, it just has that soft chewiness and sweetness to it lol. OK research shows that the stickier the candy, the worse it is for your teeth. This allows bacteria in our mouths to feast leisurely on the deposited sugar. "Bacteria burns sugar to make acid, which dissolves the protective layer of tooth enamel and causes cavities"- (source:-messina health)


Pickles



Pickles have a sour and salty taste; acid (typically provided by vinegar) is what gives Pickles its taste and also what makes them a potential hazard to tooth enamel. Eating Pickles more than once a day increases the odds of wear of your tooth by 85%.

Fizzy drinks




The worst offenders; not only do they contain an extremely high level of sugar, drinking too many fizzy drinks can breed cavities. Acids found in carbonated soft drinks appear to harm our teeth even more than the sugar. Diet or sugar free fizzy drinks also contain citric and phosphoric acid which can erode your enamel if consumed in large doses.

Tip:- If you cannot do without drinking fizzy, it is best to consume it during a meal rather than sipping it throughout the day as the food will help neutralise the acid and the time of exposure to the acid is much shorter. (source- health.com)

Wine




Red wine contains substances known as chromogens that produce tooth discolouring pigments. The tannins in red wine tend to dry out the moth and male teeth sticky, worsening stains. Not only red wine is bad for your teeth, white wine also contains erosive acid allowing stains from other foods or drinks to penetrate more deeply.
Here's a rule:- "Anything that gets a white cloth stained when spilled is bad for your teeth"

Coffee




Those stubborn brown stains that accumulate on the inside of a coffee mug gives you an idea of how drinking coffee can stain your teeth overtime. Teeth with heavy coffee stains tend to be sticky and apt to attract food particles and bacteria.

Sticky Foods



These are your mouth's worst nightmare. When it comes to picking healthy snacks, people tend to put dried fruits at the top of their list. However these sticky fruits can damage your teeth as they tend to stay on the teeth longer than other types of food. If you love your dried fruits, make sure after eating them you rinse your mouth with water after eating and also brush and floss carefully.

Ice



I'm sure you're probably thinking, ice is made up of water and water is good for you and doesn't contain any sugar or additives etc. You'd be surprised that chewing on hard substances like ice can leave your teeth vulnerable to a dental emergency and damaged enamel.
Advice:- Break the habit and enjoy water in its liquid form

Have a good week :-)

Hey Foodies welcome back to my blog; so its a nice sunny day in London today and all that can get me through the day is a pot of some nice flavoured ice-cream.

Now I'm not that much of an ice-cream fan but I feel like indulging myself, why not right lol.
And If there's one thing that I never run out of in my freezer; its definately Ice-cream. I buy it not just for myself but for guests most especially kids.

Check out my current favourite Ice-cream flavours below:-




Strawberry:- My number one favourite is Strawberry ice-cream topped with some nice strawberry falvour (berry on berry lol); sounds weird but I love it & trust me it tastes nice :-)



Vanilla:- I love vanilla ice-cream topped with some toffee topping yummmm


Chocolate:- I'm not much of a chocy fan; but you can never go wrong with some nice chocolate ice-cream.

When I was younger, I used to look forward to the Ice-cream van turn up in front of Stoke Newington park where my dad (bless his soul) would be standing with his agbada lol (Nigerian attire) waiting for me and my nieces and nephews so he can buy us whatever ice-cream we wanted; awww I miss those youngish days :-(. My favourite then was screwball, I super duper loved it... I think I loved it because of the bubble gum that is included at the bottom of the ice-cream & because my dad never allowed us to eat chewing gum..!!!!



My younger days Fav (screwball)


I also heard France has the best Ice-creams, how true is that???? I can't wait to visit again as the last time I went was when I was really young so I can't remember a thing




source:-corrural.com

Lets know what you favourite Ice-cream flavours are

Hey Foodies, welcome back.. 

So to my horror this morning, I got a text message from one of my uncles with the picture attachment below.



source:- East end Life (Tower hamlets council)


My heart jumped as I walked into my kitchen, open my cupboard and found I had the palm oil in  my cupboard. The good thing is I haven't used it, I have another brand I've used but this particular one hadn't been opened.




Just incase you do not know what Palm oil is, its  is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis.

Palm oil is naturally reddish in color because of a high beta-carotene content. It is not to be confused with palm kernel oil derived from the kernel of the same fruit, or coconut oil derived from the kernel of the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera). The differences are in color (raw palm kernel oil lacks carotenoids and is not red), and in saturated fat content: Palm mesocarp oil is 41% saturated, while Palm Kernel oil and Coconut oil are 81% and 86% saturated respectively. (source wikipedia)



Now this article is from the local Tower Hamlets East End life Newspaper and basically this oil is contaminated. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned that the Zomi oil contains an illegal harmful dye Sudan IV that reacts with DNA causing cancer.

As Africans we do not only eat palm oil, we also use palm oil to treat bodily odours and diseases.
When a child is born, Palm oil is used to wash out all the dirt on the newborns body to avoid future body odour. This is our tradition that has been on for years and years and will continue for years to come.

Palm oil is meant to be a natural substance that does not contain any preservatives, coloring or any chemicals at all.

Please pass this message on to your loved ones who eat Palm oil and most especially the stores selling them, if you do have this palm oil at home, please get rid of them immediately.

Thanks for reading :-)

Hey Foodies, have you ever wondered what the most important meal of the day is?

Breakfast, lunch or dinner???

Well I myself am more of a brunch person especially now that I'm on leave, I get to skip breakfast and by the time I know it, its 12pm and I find myself still making a bowl of cereal for myself just to quench that hunger.

During a busy morning, it is very easy to let breakfast fall low in your list of priorities, but taking just a few minutes to have something to eat can really make a difference to your day.

If you are busy working and you haven't got time to eat before leaving the house, there are lots of on- the- go breakfast ideas that can be eaten whilst you're on your way to work

Try the below breakfast ideas

Veggie Fritata:- recipe available here http://saiprojectscooking.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/vegetable-fritata-italian.html



cereal bars:- there are a bunch of bars available in supermarkets at really affordable prices



Smoothies



Fruits such as banana, grapes, strawberries, plums

Boiled eggs

Porridge

Toast
source:-athletics.carleton.ca


Breakfast provides many benefits to our health and well-being  

Eating breakfast also provides our body and brain with fuel after an overnight fast- which is where its name originates "breaking the fast". Without breakfast you are effectively running on empty just like trying to start a car with no petrol or diesel.

Nutritionists have also advised that breakfast should be consumed within 2 hours of waking and a healthy breakfast should provide calories in the range of 20-35% of our guideline daily allowance (GDA)

Research also shows that people who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight and more likely to be within their ideal weight range compared with breakfast skippers like me lol :-(
If you skip breakfast, you are more likely to reach for high sugar and fatty snacks mid morning which is something I currently struggle with :-(

After reading this short post, I hope I have convinced you that....

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so stop skipping your breakkie :-)

Welcome back foodies, I now have a column on Bella Naija's BN Cuisine-

Bella Naija is one of Africa's biggest entertainment blogs.




Check out the video to my Isapa Soup with Pounded yam on my youtube page here:-

Hey Foodies, Happy August.. OMG this year has flown by so quickly its unreal; August is a very special month to me as its my birthday month, jeez i'm getting old looool..

The suns out yipeeeee; all I have on my mind now is getting few ingredients together, some nice cold soft drinks, and invite a few friends and family over to mine for a mini BBQ.. If you know me very well, I love having people round mine so I can cook for them and make them feel very at home :-)

OK I'm sure wherever you are summer time is usually the busiest times for you in terms of going out, meeting  friends and family, attending parties, bbq's etc..

If you are thinking of hosting people this August and you're unsure of what to serve them or stuck on great BBQ recipes, don't worry I've just put a list of things together to give you a helping hand.

First of all what's your budget, you want to be able to satisfy everyone that turns up to your BBQ, do not under & over spend, and make sure drinks are in abundance as some people tend to just drink rather than eat. And if the weather is really warm, people get dehydrated so make sure there are alot of drinks as this don't go to waste.


 Secondly think numbers numbers numbers; as this is very important, you don't want to invite 10 people and 50 people show up; remember for BBQ's you need alot of charcoal and if you run out & the shops are closed; you'll just end up doing them in the oven and trust me they don't taste the same. Also if you invite 50 people and 10 show up, hmmm that's not good as your chicken and frozen stuff go to waste and do not taste the same again if you re-freeze.

Thirdly make sure you check with the weather man; I know its not always 100% accurate but its better to have an idea of what the weather will be like than to take the risk. Especially if you live in the UK, we have a history of the most unpredictable weather in the world its ridiculous.





OK lets get back to recipes recipes recipes- right don't just throw a few boring burgers or sausages on the barbeque, think marinade as this can transform even the cheapest burgers.



BBQ burger

• To make 4 large beef burgers, mince or chop 1lb lean rump or top rump. Add 1 level tbsp celery salt, 1 level tbsp dried oregano and 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper.

• Mix well, then form into 4 evenly sized patties, about ¾in thick – use a round biscuit cutter to shape them, if you have one.

• Light the barbecue and wait until the embers turn white. Place the burgers on the barbecue and cook for about 4 minutes on each side.

• Split the baguette (or ciabatta rolls) and toast the cut side lightly. Spread with mayonnaise on one side and add sliced cornichons (baby gherkins). Lay a couple of romaine (or cos) lettuce leaves over the mayonnaise, then tomato, burger, ketchup and finally, the second slice of bread

Tandoori style chicken-