just pics...

Decided to put up a post of just pictures...things we've made over the years. The idea is to get you guys motivated enough to try out one of the dishes, especially those with the recipes on the blog. So, here we go!!!

meat pies... www.lifeandcookingit.com/search/label/meat%20pie

birthday cupcakes

Geli's jollof spaghetti...http://www.lifeandcookingit.com/2013/04/gelis-jollof-spaghetti.html

Iced tea...http://www.lifeandcookingit.com/2013/02/iced-tea.html

Carrot muffins...http://www.lifeandcookingit.com/2012/11/carrot-muffins.html

Peanut butter n choc chip cookies...http://www.lifeandcookingit.com/2012/12/peanut-butter-n-choc-cookies.html

Guinness braised beef stew with mashed potatoes...http://www.lifeandcookingit.com/2013/01/guinness-braised-beef-stew.html

Akara, aka Koose, aka fried bean cakes?

more cupcakes!

ok, so this is obviously not a dish...lol...moving on!

Geli's Pine-Mango smoothie...http://www.lifeandcookingit.com/2013/02/gelis-pine-mango-smoothie.html

Peanut butter pork chops served with bacon n cheese potato rounds

chocolate cake...http://www.lifeandcookingit.com/2013/04/a-chocolate-cake.html

Fried rice

well, that's it for now...(bet you want more huh??? lol) 

Later guys!!!

a smoothie for breakfast?

hey guys! how's everyone doing? as most of you are aware, i've been on a smoothie craze for a while now...trying different fruits, discovering new recipes, making stuff up...and i must say, it's been sooooo much fun!

I have some recipe apps on my phone and I stumbled upon this recipe sometime last week, and because I was in such a hurry to go see my patients (yes, i was playing with my phone on the ward, sue me! lol)...anyway as I was saying, I was in such a hurry and just scribbled down the ingredients on a prescription sheet and put the phone away. Now, unfortunately, I can't find where I found the recipe...and I don't know who to give credit to! I can't even remember which of the apps I was using at the time!

Well, if you happen to come across this (the person who came up with the recipe), I'm sorry for not giving you credit, it really is an awesome recipe, and thanks for sharing!
I think this is really awesome because you can actually have this as a quick breakfast! You'll soon see why.

You will need

• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup oats
• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• Ice-cubes

Directions

Well, it's kinda just one direction! lol. Put all ingredients into a blender, blend away!

Serve chilled.

Look how smooth it looks!!! lol

I find this recipe to be pretty 'packed', and that's why i think it's pretty cool for a quick breakfast...bananas, oats, milk...definitely very breakfast-ey if u ask me! Plus you can always make it the night before and keep in the fridge...and it takes barely minutes to prepare. So go ahead and try it! Don't forget to keep us posted on how it goes! Enjoy!!! (I've gotten mine all ready for tomorrow!)

Spiced Butterscotch Cookies

I am beginning to develop a deep love for baking, why? because it's quick, easy and it always turns out good somehow ;). This is the fourth time I am baking in a long while; Nutella pound cake, Monster peanut butter M&M cookies, Cheddar inside-out Empanadas and the latest Spiced Butterscotch Cookies.

Today I am sharing my Spiced Butterscotch Cookies adventure with you. Why not the others? Well presentation-wise, my Nutella pound cake did not turn out the way I wanted, the peanut butter m&m cookies were very crumbly...but they did taste greeeat!!! One of my colleagues at work was like the cake was sinful! I didn't know until I had some the following day and then I regretted not making more. Empanadas will be coming up soon, and the others will show up when I perfect the recipes.

Before I made these Butterscotch cookies I was torn between, espresso chocolate chip shortbread cookies, the butterscotch cookies and plain peanut butter cookies. So I needed a second opinion from my trusted sweet tooth, and butterscotch won! My first experience with 'homemade' butterscotch blew me away so a second chance at it was just great.

Yes, I said homemade butterscotch and it's simple. You see there is no butterscotch in this recipe. Butter when melted smells like butter but when it is browned it smells like butterscotch add brown sugar and vanilla and it will taste like butterscotch, you just have to be careful not to burn it else it will taste and smell like burnt butterscotch! I made cookies in October last year, back in school (link) and that was when I discovered this. In this recipe you get the butterscotch smell and taste because there is 1/4 cup more butter (making 3/4 cup) as opposed to the usual 1/2 cup for non butterscotch cookies and I baked the cookies a bit longer (10 min instead of the usual 8 min). Also these cookies are crispy because of it's thinness and the extra 2 min in the oven (cookies are usually chewy).
Mehn this feels like a chemistry experiment...and I do love chemistry so you can imagine my excitement when I am able to understand and apply it with food.

Ok so you gat the basics so now lets start baking. Oh, and one more thing, when you get to the part of the recipe where you add dry to wet ingredients, please switch from the hand mixer and use your hands. The dough gets a much better consistency than with the mixer but if you insist on not getting your hands dirty then by all means continue with the hand mixer but reduce the speed to low (1).
FYI nothing beats hardcore, dirty, playful cooking. I cook like a kid :D.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (170g) butter at room temp.
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla (I used more)
1 3/4 cup flour (use a spoon to scoop the flour into the measuring cup DON'T use the measuring cup to scoop the flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp Allspice, and/or 2 of salt

Directions:

preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius 350 Fahrenheit

1. Mix dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, Allspice and salt together in a separate bowl until combined, set aside.

2. Beat the butter until creamy, 2 minutes. Add the sugar, beat for 2 more minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined. Stir in dry ingredients into the butter mixture until smooth and well combined.

3. On a greased cookie sheet or one lined with parchment paper take small rounded teaspoons of the dough and place them two inches apart (Please use teaspoon measure for this part). Dip a fork in flour and use that to squish down the cookies, dip fork in flour for each cookie.

4. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes (I turned off the heat and let mine stay in the oven for another 2 min).

Let cool on wire racks. NB: when you take out the cookies they will feel soft but they harden when they cool so don't panic and over bake it else it will burn and turn to stone.

Abra-kadabra-alakazam..... Tadaaaaaa!!!!!! Cookies for all to enjoy. Give this a try and let us know how it turns out. Have fun. These warm cookies go amazingly well with milk. Just dip it half way into the milk, bite, chew SLOOOOWLY savoring the moment before washing it down with more milk :D!

Feel free to comment below :)!

A Chocolate Cake...

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and for me a yummy birthday cake is a very very integral part of the special day. This year, had this particular urge to bake my own cake...and that's exactly what i did. Found this recipe online for chocolate cake that's so easy to make, and really really yummy too.

You will need

• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups sugar (the recipe called for white sugar, but i used soft brown sugar and it came out ok)
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Note: This recipe makes 3 9-inch round cakes, so you may decide to tweak the recipe and maybe half the quantities for a smaller cake. I made a sandwich cake, so basically after baking the separate cakes, i placed one on top of the other, with frosting as the filling.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius ( Gas mark 4). Grease the baking tin and set aside.

2. Pour boiling water over cocoa powder, mix until smooth and set aside to cool.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

4. Next cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing completely in-between. Stir in the vanilla essence.

5. Now add the flour mixture and cocoa mixture in bits, alternately, mixing in as you add.

6. If u have 3 separate tins, then spread batter between tins, otherwise you would have to bake one cake at a time.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. To check if cooked, a skewer put in cake should come out clean.

8. Allow to cool completely before frosting- you can choose whichever flavour of frosting you prefer and prepare from scratch or cheat like me and buy ready-to-spread frosting from the supermarkets.

Enjoy your cake!!! Here's what happened to my slice 2 seconds later...

Geli's Jollof Spaghetti

Ok, i know i promised this recipe a long long time ago...sorry for the delay guys, and the really long time lapse since our last post. Apparently, being a 1st year Doctor and blogging don't go well...but i'll work on that soon! How's everyone doing?
So spaghetti is something i love very very much...it's kinda the only kind of pasta i can have, well i guess noodles too, but i prefer spaghetti. Macaroni, Linguine, Fettucine....and all the rest are just not for me. I coined the name Jollof Spaghetti because it's kinda like Jollof rice, but just with spaghetti...and i've been calling it that since i was a little girl...lol
So let's get right to it then, shall we...

You will need

Spaghetti (1 500g pack) I kinda prefer the capellini variant, but again, that's up to you
6 medium sized tomatoes
6 small red peppers (scotch bonnets) Again, i love pepper, so please feel free to reduce, or even increase the quantity.
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Vegetable/Olive oil, 4 tablespoons
1 medium sized onion
1 bouillon cube ( i like Maggi Chicken)
2 cups meat broth (whichever meat you decide to use, either beef, pork, chicken, should have been cooked beforehand, and the broth saved.)
2 cups water
Salt to taste
Sausages, preferably pork, cut into little chunks
1 lb beef/pork/chicken (already cooked), cut into chunks

Directions

1. Blend tomatoes, pepper, and onion. Keep aside.
2. In a large saucepan, heat up oil till hot. Then add blended tomato mixture and the tomato paste, and fry till it's reduced by about half...for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Next, add the 2 cups of meat broth, and the 2 cups of water. Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.
Note: If you do not have any meat broth, you can add 4 cups of water, and then a little extra of the bouillon cube.
4. Add the bouillon cube, and some salt to taste.
5. Next, add the spaghetti to the mixture. The fluid level should be just above the spaghetti, but you should still be able to see the spaghetti. Swirl it around a bit to prevent clumps.
Note: It's better to add less water and gradually increase if needed, than adding a lot of water and then ending up with very mushy spaghetti. Like with cooking in general, less is always better, because it's always easier to add more.
6. Add the chopped up sausages and meat, cover the saucepan, and allow to simmer for about 10-15 minutes, on medium heat.
7. Mix with a wooden spoon, taste to see if spaghetti too hard/soft.
If still hard, u can add some more liquid, ad cook on a low heat till soft. If u add more water, remember to check to see if extra seasoning is needed.
If the spaghetti is soft, but there is still a lot of liquid in the pan, u can turn up the heat so the liquid evaporates quickly, and the spaghetti does not become mushy.
8. By this time, spaghetti should be cooked. Mix altogether.

Serve with a topping of grated Parmesan cheese (optional).

Note: There are so many ways of tweaking this, you could use corned beef, tinned fish, whatever, so far as you get the basic recipe down, anything else is possible.

Enjoy!!!

Geli's Pine-Mango Smoothie

Hey guys...
So yesterday, I got this craving for a smoothie and as much as I tried, I just could not shake the feeling. So I hopped into the car, went out to buy some fruits, yoghurt, milk...and well, you can imagine how it ended!



You will need (makes about 5 glasses)

1/2 a pineapple (a big pineapple that is...and it has to be sweet!), cut into chunks
1 big mango, cut into chunks

3 tablespoons of natural yoghurt
1/4 cup milk
1/2-1 teaspoon sugar (optional)...just in case the fruits are a bit sour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
Ice-cubes


Directions

• Put all the ingredients into a blender and pulse/blend till all combined. The ice-cubes help with the thickness, so you can use your discretion as to how many to use. I used about 6 cubes.

• Serve chilled + ice. ENJOY!!!

Last Supper!

Whew! Since Monday that I arrived in Kumasi I haven't really had any good rest. The week was long and exhausting, from buying of stuff in preparation for my Oath Swearing to packing of my personal effects back to Accra (home).

My Big Day (Oath Swearing) was great :D. After all the exhaustion I definitely needed to have a binge so I and two of my fellow fresh Doctors and two good non-doctor friends decided to have a last supper. We set off not knowing where to go so we allowed the wind to carry us then I remembered a cool place near the Stadium in the same compound as Ababio Express. This restaurant is called Aboude! Great place, Their chicken reminds me of another good restaurant in Accra (Papaye) and a great friend who loves meat the same I do.

This was my second time going there. The first time I had half chicken with chips. Really good chicken, really good, well spiced. One of my non-doctor friends ordered this:

Half Chicken with Chips

Half Chicken with Chips

Since I always like to try new things I ordered a cheese burger on this second visit to the place. Unfortunately there were no buns for the cheese burger I guess cause it was late. So the owner (very funny dude) suggested he would wrap it in pita bread with some chips, two of my friends had a 'Crispy Sandwich' also wrapped in pita bread.

Crispy Sandwich (wrapped)

We 'downed' the sandwiches and food with an amazing orange juice. It was really chilled and we even went for a second round of juice. They also have this tangerine and orange mix, mehn it's pure bliss had that my first time there.

Pita wrapped cheese burger with juice

So that's Aboude for you. Obviously this post will be of use to those who find themselves in Kumasi, otherwise you just have to drool over your keyboard looking at the photos. So do check it out and let us know what you think of the place.