food – Third Culture Wife.

Rescuing day old bread

April 7, 2019 Third Culture Wife

So you bought a baguette 🥖 or some fancy Italian bread 🍞 , you didn’t eat it or eat the whole thing and now it’s dry, hard or stale.

That’s exactly what happened and I tried watching a couple YouTube videos to find out how I could restore it and make it edible again but all the recipes/ solutions involved an oven. Now if you’ve read any of my posts, you know that I don’t use my oven at the moment so I try to find recipes that don’t require one.

This is a very easy recipe that doesn’t involve you baking the bread 🍞 🥖.

What you’ll need:-

~ Bread of your choice

~ dried or minced garlic

~ butter or olive oil.

~ herbs 🌿 (optional)

The YouTube videos suggest you soak the bread in cold water then bake it in the oven for a few minutes. I tried soaking it then putting it in the pan but it only ended up soggy, so here’s how I did it.

Slice the bread 🥖 and put some butter or olive oil in the pan. You can also try buttering up the bread if you prefer.

Have your stove on low to medium heat and spread/ sprinkle your garlic powder or minced garlic into the pan and sliced bread. Place bread onto pan and when browned flip over before that side burns and then flip to the other side.

Repeat for all other slices. Serve with any sides and spreads if your choice. Bon appetite 😋.

budget meals, Musings

My Homemade Cranberry Sauce.

November 21, 2018 Third Culture Wife

Delicious homemade cranberry sauce.

Yo! This is my first time making and tasting cranberry sauce and can I say it is so delicious 😋.

I made mine more tart than sweet though and it was a good move on my part (self high give 🤚🏾) 😂.

This will be my first thanksgiving as it’s not a holiday we celebrate in Nigeria and so I am trying new things and going into the holiday with an open mind. I started preparations a day ahead to give me time to experiment and decide on recipes I ca afford to try lol.

But anyway this recipe is so easy, quick and affordable to make #mealsonabudget 😎. If I can do it so can you.

Ingredients :-

1 bag of fresh cranberries

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1 Tbsp of white sugar

1 lemon 🍋 (squeezed)

1 tsp of lemon zest

2 green apples

1 cup of cranberry grape juice

Make it :-

Rinse the fresh cranberries, pour that in the pot along with the sugars and the juice. Zest your lemon 🍋 and squeeze in the juice without the seeds.

Stir everything together and cook on low heat for about 30mins.

Mine took that long because I had it in really low heat.

Keep an eye on it when it starts to thicken and ensure it doesn’t start to burn.

Be careful when tasting the sauce because it will be scalding hot at this point.

When most of the cranberries pop and look a bit mashed you can then it off and serve it with your pastry 🥮 of choice when it cools down.

Enjoy 😉.

meals on a budget., Musings

Potato soup

November 18, 2018 Third Culture Wife

It’s soup season.

What are your go to soup recipes?

budget meals, Musings

Sweet potatoes Stir Fry with Veggies.

November 15, 2018 Third Culture Wife

Fiber and Veggies who can resist and on a budget?

Everything in this plate can be achieved for $5!or less.

Okay how many of you don’t eat sweet potatoes 🍠? Raise your hand 🖐

Well I am here to tell you that if it’s not for health reasons, then you should rethink your decision and include this power vegetable into your meals here in out 💪🏾.

Sweet potatoes are high in fibre and contain a good array of vitamins and minerals including iron, calcium, selenium. They are a great source of B vitamins and vitamin C. One of the key nutritional benefits of sweet potato is that they’re high in an antioxidant known as beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A once consumed.

This recipe is pretty easy, quick and direct.

What you’ll need :-

~ Sweet potatoes 🍠 1 medium size for single serving and you can keep adding to fit your requirements.

~ I large onion or 2 halves of two different kinds like I did (red and sweet onion)

~ scallions / green onions ( I used 2)

~ 1 medium sized green pepper

~ cauliflower

~ peas

~ a handful of green beans

~ seasoning of choice

~ I added mint leaves 🍁

~ chicken cuts

~ beef cuts

~ beef and chicken stock (home made )

~ garlic fresh and crushed

~ Ginger powder

And anything else you want. I was tempted to add broccoli 🥦 to the mix but my pan was getting full lol.

What to do….

~~~~ Peel and chop up the sweet potatoes (rinse first) and keep this aside.

~ chop up all your veggies (after cleaning them of course)

~ cut your beef and chicken to desirable size.

~ Add veggies to pan with little oil and fry / caramelize the onions, add meat the mix and let cook.

~ When cooked add your veggies and when they start to soften

~ add in your sweet potatoes because it doesn’t take much to cook them.

~ don’t forget to season it 😉

You can make this totally vegan 🌱 by eliminating the meats

Serve as desired and Bon appetite 😋

budget meals, cooking / meals, Musings

Pan Seared Tilapia with potato salad for less than $2

November 12, 2018 Third Culture Wife

I love working with left overs and making it fresh and new.

This whole meal was done on a budget because it has become my passion to make beautiful, healthy and delicious meals on a budget and with basic kitchen appliances as not all of us have access to food processors, ovens, ranges, mixers, instant pots etc.

>> the bag of tilapia had about 9-10 cuts of tilapia in it. It’s a 2Ib bag and it cost less than $6.

>> the whole bag of potatoes 🥔 was about $3 dollars

>> the green peppers were 85 cents each.

>> green onions were 98 cents for the bag.

>> the box of cherry 🍒 tomatoes was about $2.33

This whole plate per serving is less than $2.

Ingredients:-

~~~Tilapia fish

~ 1 cut of tilapia fish

~ crushed chips / bread crumbs

~ 1 egg 🥚

~ seasoning of choice ( celery salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, ginger etc)

== cut tilapia into fillets, roll in beaten egg 🥚 and crushed seasoned chips. Place on greased hot pan till sufficiently cooked.

~~~ potato 🥔 Salad

~left over boiled potatoes (2 cups)

~ Crushed garlic (2 garlic not cloves)

~ 1 small green pepper

~ I spring onion

~ half of a medium white onions

~ half of a medium red onions

~ 6 cherry 🍒 tomatoes

==For my potato 🥔 salad 🥗 , I had left over per-boiled potatoes I was going to make chips with. I defrosted that and while that was happening, I stir fried some red onions, white onions and spring onions. I threw in some green pepper and cherry 🍒 tomatoes and let that fry together once done I added my potatoes in till it all came together.

~~~ for the fresh veggies,

~ cut 1 medium tomatoes 🍅

~ a little green pepper

~ a little spring onions.

== sprinkle this on your plate before serving for some added freshness.

I served it with the fish and it was delicious 😋.

Bon appetite.

Let me know how you cook healthy meals for your family on a budget.