CookingZone with Brenda

Total ..................... ₦800
Lets Assume you have salt and Bullion Cube, Palm oil at home your budget keep reducing.

Even ₦500 can give you a good pot of Okra Soup.

Who said we can't eat be broke and still enjoy a good meal?

#Grubsmagazine #ICOOKUEAT

LIKE OUR PAGE ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/GrubsMagazine
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @obendo @grubsmagazine
ON INSTAGRAM: @grubsmagazine
FOLLOW US ON G+ google.com/+brendanjemanze
VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.grubsmagazine.com

• Large pot with boiling water
• Large bowl with ice water or placed underneath running cold water
• Towels to dry vegetables
• zip lock freezer bags or other suitable freezer containers

Preparation:
As a general rule, use at least a gallon of water to each pound of vegetable, preheated to boiling point in a covered pot.

When you plunge your vegetables into the boiling water, start timing when the water returns to a boil.

Cool quickly to stop the cooking process.

Veggies that are not cooled quickly are over blanched and show a loss of color, taste, texture and nutrients.

Plunge your blanched vegetables immediately into cold water, ice water, or cold running water.

Towel dry and package at once in freezer bags or suitable containers.

Blanching Other Vegetable Time it takes

Artichokes
Select small artichokes or artichoke hearts. Cut off the top of the bud and trim the thorny end down to a cone. Wash and blanch for 8 minutes.

Asparagus
Wash, cut and blanch for 4 minutes.

Beans
Wash, snip ends, cut and blanch for 3 minutes.

Broccoli
Rinse, peel and trim. Blanch in boiling water for 2-4 minutes. (If there is a chance that the tiny green cabbage worm has invaded the buds, soak in cold salt water for 10 -15 minutes. Rinse well and pick over. Rinse, peel, trim and blanch.)

Brussels Sprouts
Pick only green buds. Rinse and trim, cutting off outer leaves. Blanch in boiling water for 4 minutes.

Cabbage
Trim off outer leaves. Shred for tight packing of cut into wedges. Blanch shredded cabbage for 1 1/2 minutes. Blanch wedges in boiling water for 3 minutes.

Carrots
Trim, wash, peel and blanch in boiling water for 2 – 3 minutes. (smaller pieces, 2 minutes; larger pieces, 3 minutes)

Cauliflower
Wash and break into florets. Peel and split stems. Blanch in boiling water for 3 minutes. (If there is a chance that the tiny green cabbage worm has invaded the buds, soak in cold salt water for 10 -15 minutes. Rinse well and pick over. Rinse, peel, trim and blanch.)

Corn
Pick ears as soon as they ripen. Natural sugars in corn turn to starch quickly after ripening, so good timing is critical. To blanch whole ears of corn, blanch 3 at a time in boiling water for 6 – 8 minutes. Cool and pack separately, or pack together enough for one meal. Ears can be wrapped in freezer paper, a double layer of aluminum foil, or in plastic freezer bags. If you are freezing cut corn, blanch with kernels on the cob first. Follow above blanching directions. Then cool and remove the kernels from the cob with a sharp knife or corn cutter.

Greens
Clean leaves and blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes. Cool and chop, if dersired, before freezing.

Leeks
Leeks do not need to be blanched. Just slice and freeze!

Okra
Wash and cut off stems. Blanch in boiling water for 2 – 3 minutes.

Onions
Onions do not need to be blanched. Just peel, slice and freeze!

Peas
For podded peas, pick when seeds become plump and pods are rounded. Shell but do not wash. Freeze the same day they are harvested, as sugar is rapidly lost at room temperature. Discard immature and tough peas. Sugar or snow peas can be harvested any time before the pods fill out. Blanch both types of peas in boiling water for 2 minutes.

Peppers
Peppers do not need to be blanched. Just clean, slice and freeze!

Tomatoes
Tomatoes do not need to be blanched. Freeze whole tomatoes on baking sheets and, when frozen, store them in plastic bags. The skins will peel off when they are defrosted!


Photo credit:http://www.shelands.com/

Do you know any Cake Designer?

Nigeria Info Partners with Grubs Magazine to bring you THE BEST FESTIVE CAKE DESIGN.

All you have to do is email us a picture of the best festive cake you’ve have ever designed and you stand a chance to win

• Pasta Maker
• Baking tools
• And also join Zoe live on THE WOMAN SHOW on Nigeria Info.
• And more surprises

Email your pictures to brenda@grubsmagazine.com

A panel of 5 will select best designs that will go live on the website where voting will start.

Follow us on Instagram and twitter for more updates.

@grubsmagazine

@zoechinaka

Entry closes on the 28 December 2015

Voting starts 29 December 2015

Winner will be announced on the 4th of January 2016

For more info visit www.grubsmagazine.com

Note: Please share your image alone and only your image if found out you will be disqualified.

#Grubsmagazine #bestcakedesign

LIKE OUR PAGE ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/GrubsMagazine
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @obendo @grubsmagazine
ON INSTAGRAM: @grubsmagazine
FOLLOW US ON G+ google.com/+brendanjemanze
VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.grubsmagazine.com

Ingredient:

7 medium size Irish Potatoes
2 medium size fresh tomatoes
2 medium size fresh pepper
1 tsp Mustard Oil
1 medium size red onion
A little salt
1 bouillon cube
2 chicken frankfurters

Bring your newborns, infants, toddlers, kids (0-10 years) nieces, nephews, cousins and neighbours for an amazing Saturday Xmas party and festive treats in Santa's cabin. Lots of exciting activities -festive face painting, edible treat hunts, Kodak moments with Father Christmas and of course free gifts for every child!!!
Call 08055050555 to let Santa know you are coming.
Venue: Auntie Gigi's, 46 Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Beside H-Medix Pharmacy, Wuse 2
Santa's token: just N2,500

DONT MISS OUT. IT'S A CHRISTMAS PARTY EVERYONE IN YOUR FAMILY WILL SURELY ENJOY!!! PLEASE REBROADCAST

SIDES (Any Two options)

Sausages
Eggs- How do you like them?
Bacon
Baked Beans

DRINKS – N500
Lemonade
Coconut Mojito
White Gummy Bear
Shirley temple / Dirty Shirley
Sea Breeze
Smoothie Bar – Strawberry, Apple, Pineapple, Watermelon, Sour sop, Pear
Water

AUNTIE GIGI'S SUMMER edition of BAKE N FUN 2015 Series was really a special day;

Kids from 4-7 prepared Glazed Donuts and the Older kids from age 8 - 13 prepared pizza using different toppings of their choice ranging from pepperoni, chicken, green bell pepper, sausages, mushroom, onions, pineapple and off course cheese.

Exciting day for the Kids as they went from the kitchen to the play ground; where they had varieties of board games to choose from; (scrabble, word puzzle and monopoly) to Grass bowling, they moved the activity to sac hop race and then back to word spell quiz and they finally ended the day with "so you think you can dance" my favourite.

Oh! Yes Your Kids, Nephews and Nieces did miss a whole lot.
There is only one place in Abuja you can find this type of Fun; why not visit Auntie Gigi's @ 46 Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja or call us on 07033179029/ 08178168722 to request for the menu and place your order.

Watch out for Auntie Gigi's Lagos Coming your way soon.

More Picture...... visit http://www.grubsmagazine.com/auntie-gigis-summer-bake-n-fun-camp/ 

BEST TIMES TO DRINK WATER
Start with 8 to 16 ounces half an hour before breakfast
A couple of hours after breakfast drink another 8 to 16 ounces of water.
Then 30 mins before your evening meal drink your next glass.
Finally 2 hours after dinner, have another 8 ounces and another before bed time unless you have hiatal hernia, an enlarged prostate or frequent urination during the night in those cases do not drink anything else after dinner.
Whichever meal is your largest meal of the day try drinking 16 to 24 ounces 30 mins before that meal as it would help you manage how much you would eat.

http://www.grubsmagazine.com/benefit-of-drinking-water/

I won't be surprise if people start blowing whistle on some of these restaurant.

Now let's talk about the importers in Balogun market what are they selling to us. A reliable source even mentioned that most imported can food had already expired and all they had to do was to change the date on the can and some of us don't get to check expiration date on what we purchase.

Nigeria have become the dumping ground for expired product because we have greedy people who only think about the now and not the later.

We stay in our glass houses to criticise the buka woman or the aboki selling food on the street calling them dirty while you seat back at your favorite restaurant eating the same food poison.

How often do you imagine what goes on in the kitchen of that favorite restaurant of yours? Oh! Ye OCD's

But Chocolat Royal Croissant and Ice cream sorry Poiscream make sense!!!

Maybe I can sue them; hmmm story for the gods in Olamide's voice.

My cousin sued Aunty Ajobi aka Drumstick in Abuja for food poison over a year ago they are still dragging the matter in court. Maybe when someone wins a case like this in court cwith compensation cheque and the news goes viral these restaurants and eatery will seat up.

A maybe answer to my number 5 question would be that the NAFDAC Official who got hold of the information then decided to have a private meeting with the owners and they concealed the information and now that NAFDAC Official has either retired or has been transfered to another unit or the new CHANGE in government got to him and the case file decided to appear.

With everything have heard so far I don't think I can trust any imported product especially can foods; the trend goes from importer importing expiry products or about to expire product and custom clears the products and the importer remove the original expiry date changing it to a new date and they supply to supermarket/retailers and we the consumers come in and buy them.

Hmmm this one don pass naija get thick skin matter oh!

Fact:

Nothing you eat in Nigeria that is imported is safe and we wonder why the sudden increase in cancer, kidney and liver diseases are common.

This is not a case of Poverty or survival; everyone wants to stay alive so if the awareness is there, they would avoid these poison.

We do urge NAFDAC to look into not just Chocolat Royal but other restaurants, eateries, supermarket, importers in balogun market and cold rooms.

They need to help us stay healthy by clearing these toxics out of our country and custom should pay more attention to what they clear into the country and we need to find a way to stay healthy until NAFDAC and other Regulatory bodies can control it. And food blogger should lend their voice #saynotofoodpoison.

For more detailed insight on the shutting down of Chocolat Royal pls visit city reporters

Below is a screen shot of my conversation with @tundeleye on twitter this morning; if you visit his timeline you would read what others have to say about the shutting down.

Broccoli
Yellow, Red and Green bell pepper
Sweet corn
Mushroom
Peas

PREPARATION:
1. Wash and Cut (Julienne) your ingredient into small sizes and and fry with little spice to make it sweet and give it nice aroma set aside.
2. Fry the chicken and set aside.
3. Put little water in a pot to boil depending on the amount of noodles you want to prepare, when the water starts boiling put your noodles in.
4. Add a little drop of oil, add the season.
5. I like my noodles been dry without no water in it; when its almost soft, add in fried ingredients and stir properly.
6. Wait for about 20 seconds, veggies have to be crunchy and not soft.
7. Serve with fried chicken.

PS: My noodles get ready within 2mins aside the cutting of the ingredients.
#shareyournoodlesrecipe #100NoodlesRecipe #Grubsmagazine

LIKE OUR PAGE ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/GrubsMagazine
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @obendo @grubsmagazine
ON INSTAGRAM: @grubsmagazine
FOLLOW US ON G+ google.com/+brendanjemanze
VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.grubsmagazine.com

INGREDIENTS:

Noodles

Veg Oil

Diced Carrot

Diced Cabbage

Diced Cucumber

Diced Tomatoes

Diced Fresh Pepper

Diced Onions

Noodles Spice

PREPARATION:

2. Add your noodles and cook for 2 min 

3. Drain it and set aside,

4. Before now your vegetables would have been readily diced.
5. Place non stick pot on your burner again add 2tsp of your healthy oil for a 1 minutes

6. Add your onions,vegetables and spice stir for a while say 2 min you don't need it done but crunchy, 7. Add noodle and stir for 90seconds and your Funmis special noodle is ready. 

I love to dress it with either diced boiled egg or fried scrambled eggs.

LIKE OUR PAGE ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/GrubsMagazine
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @obendo @grubsmagazine
ON INSTAGRAM: @grubsmagazine
FOLLOW US ON G+ google.com/+brendanjemanze
VISIT OUR BLOG: www.grubsmagazine.com

Diced Green bell pepper

Diced Carrots

Diced Onion(bulb or spring) 

Diced Fresh red pepper
Shrimps
Diced Hot dog
Diced Gizzard
Vegetable oil
Seasonings ( optional) you can use the added seasoning or your choice of seasoning.

PREPARATION:
1. Boil 2cups of water, add the noodles. 

2. Allow to boil for 3minutes. 

3. Remove and drain the water, pour in cold water and wash off the starch.
4. Put a little vegetable oil in d pot and stir in the fresh ingredients, add Seasonings and fry.

5. Add the boiled Gizzard,shrimps  and the noodles with a 3/4cup of water. 

6. Cover and allow to cook for a few minutes.

7. Turn off heat and serve. 

PS: You can garnish with boiled, fried chicken or grilled fish. 

#shareyournoodlesrecipe #100NoodlesRecipe #Grubsmagazine

LIKE OUR PAGE ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/GrubsMagazine
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @obendo @grubsmagazine
ON INSTAGRAM: @grubsmagazine
FOLLOW US ON G+ google.com/+brendanjemanze
VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.grubsmagazine.com

LIKE OUR PAGE ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/GrubsMagazine
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @obendo @grubsmagazine
ON INSTAGRAM: @grubsmagazine
FOLLOW US ON G+ google.com/+brendanjemanze
VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.grubsmagazine.com

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @obendo @grubsmagazine

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.grubsmagazine.com