Awesome Oatmeal Pancake Recipe

So.....I made oatmeal pancakes for the first time today (and I also tried them for the first time) and they tasted really, REALLY good! You see, ever since I was a kid, I have pretty much hated oatmeal and, well, I tried some oatmeal again a few days ago and I still hated it. Fortunately, I made a very, very little bowl of it so I didn't feel too bad about tossing it in the bin after having less than a teaspoon of it. So, yeah, I was slightly sceptical about trying oatmeal pancakes, but I still gave it a shot (using a little bowl to make the batter so I don't waste tonnes of food if I don't like it).
After making my batter, without following a recipe, I made one oatmeal pancake, tasted it, and then I like totally scoffed it down. Like I don't scoff anything down like that apart from fruits. And I scoffed it down using my fingers. And I don't scoff anything down using my fingers apart from ripe persimmons. So, yeah, it was that good.
Anyways, here's my recipe!

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Ingredients
8 tbsp Oatmeal (I used Simple.... Porridge Oatmeal (Not quite sure where it was bought))
1.5 tbsp Plain Flour
Milk
Hot water
Sugar
Salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sunflower Oil

Preparation

• In a bowl, pour out your oatmeal then add about 4 tablespoons of almost-boiling water to it and mix it up thoroughly to soften the oatmeal (add a little more water if desired).
• Add the flour to the oatmeal in the bowl following by a splash of milk and combine the ingredients using a fork, adding more milk (and a pinch of oatmeal once or twice during the process (no hot water added to soften this addition)) and mixing till you have reached your desired consistency (which shouldn't be too light or as light as the mixture for regular pancakes).
• Add about a tablespoon of sugar to your mixture followed by 1/5 of a teaspoon of salt and 1/2 a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil. Mix the ingredients in thoroughly.
• In a hot pan, pour in no more than a teaspoon of sunflower oil (I used less than this because my pan was already hot from making regular pancakes), move the pan around to spread out the oil and then pour in your desired amount of oatmeal (I don't really like my pancakes thick like most oatmeal pancakes are so, I don't add that much "batter" at a time to my pan) moving the pan around to get it to your desired shape.
• Within seconds, the side of the mixture touching the pan will be brown/golden and that means that it's time to flip the pancakes! Please use a spatula thingy (very kitchen-y, technical term, aye?) and don't try to flip these pancakes by just giving the pan a jolt or whatever and please be patient. The new side facing the pan will not get as brown before the pancakes are done.

Bon appétit!

(I hope this tastes as good as the pancakes I made because I pretty much eyeballed the ingredients when I made it and I'm hoping that the measurements I think my eyeballing was equivalent to are right)

Curry Noodles

This is not my recipe, but one that looks totally delicious and I really want to try it!
It is 100% raw and 100% vegan, but I'm sure it's bound to taste better than cooked food and I think it's just going to be like an amazing 'party in your mouth.'
This recipe was made by Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram who is popularly known as "FullyRaw Kristina" and well....it was from finding her online that I learnt about the raw vegan lifestyle, decided to detox by going raw vegan and changed my lifestyle (still vegetarian, but I eat 4-6 times a day with 1-3 of the meals being raw vegan and 3 being cooked (vegan or vegetarian)). She is such an awesome and happy person!

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"Here's what she says about this recipe:
If you like curry, you will LOVE this FullyRaw Curry Noodle recipe! It’s fresh in flavor, savor, richness, and nutrition! This delicious dish is so flavor-filled that it will have your tastebuds bursting with flavour!"

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Ingredients:
3-5 large zucchinis (we call them courgettes here in England)
3-4 small navel oranges
1-2 cups of orange/red cherry tomatoes
2 Tbps to half a cup of raw, unhulled sesame seeds
Fresh herbs of basil, sage, and rosemary
1 Tbps of tumeric
1 Tbps of curry powder
A pinch of cumin


Directions:

Spiralise your or Julienne peel your zucchinis to make the noodles.

Next, blend the rest of the ingredients together in a high speed blender (e.g a Vitamix) until completely smooth and creamy.

Pour the "sauce" the noodles and mix well. 

Bon appétit! :)

Raw Courgette/Zucchini Dish

Picture gotten from EricadHouse

Hey!

I know it's been forever since I last put up a recipe on here. So sorry. :(
The recipe I am putting up today is a raw vegan one. Raw vegan. Random, right? Well....I'm on a 14 days raw vegan detox and for 6 days now, I've been eating as a raw vegan. I've learnt a couple of things since I started this detox and come up with the most delicious meals. Here's one of them that I've had twice in the past 3 or so days now.

Ingredients
1 courgette (known as 'zucchini' in the States)
1 medium sized tomato
1/3 of a red/purple onion
1/3 of a yellow bell pepper

Method

• Using a peeler (one similar to a Julienne Peeler), shred up a courgette making sure not to shred up or put the seeds/the core in the bowl you are shredding into. You may choose to peel the skin off of the courgette first, but I've only done that once and I actually kinda like the skin on for this dish.
• Add some water to the bowl containing the courgettes (enough to cover the courgettes) and leave the courgettes in for about 20-30 seconds before draining out the water thoroughly.
• Dice up the tomato and mix it in with the courgettes
• Dice up the onion and bell pepper and mix it in with the courgettes too.
• Leave the courgette dish to sit and "marinate" for a minute or two (maybe 3) and then eat it. It tastes amazing.

Bon appétit! :)

My Latest Pasta Dish

I made that!! :)

So....I tried something a little different with my pasta cooking today and it turned out pretty good! Here's my recipe:

Ingredients
Authentic Italian Fusilli Pasta :)
1 Beefsteak Tomato
1 and 1/2 medium-sized onions
2 garlic cloves
Salt
Black Pepper
Mixed Herbs
A hot pepper
Paprika
Sunflower Oil
Olive Oil
3 well-beaten eggs


Method

• Roughly chop your beefsteak tomato, onions and garlic cloves, place them in a glass bowl (with all the liquid that comes out of the tomato, sprinkle with 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt, a dash of black pepper, mixed herbs, paprika and olive oil. Seal the bowl with cling film/plastic wrap and leave at a maximum of 2.5 feet away from a window for 2-4 hours (the longer, the better).
• In a pot, pour in about 6-7 handfuls of pasta followed by boiling water and a pinch of salt. Turn the heat on to max and leave the pasta to cook for about 10 minutes (or as long as the instructions on the pack of pasta says).
• Towards when the pasta is done, get a pan, heat up about 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil and then add in your raw mixture (from the glass bowl), as it cooks, stir occasionally ensuring that nothing burns or forms brown edges. Add a little more salt and some of your choice of hot pepper to taste.
• When the pasta's done, turn down the heat on the pan and drain out the water in the pot of pasta.
• Next, add your pasta to the contents of the pan mixing and stirring and let the pasta and veggies cook together. Turn up the heat under the pan.
• Beat about three eggs till they are nice and fluffy then make a well in the middle of the pan and pour your eggs in. Stir, mix and turn the contents of the pan to make sure nearly all, or all of the pasta gets some egg on it. You can add more salt and pepper to taste if you think you need more.
• Keep stirring until the egg is no longer raw before turning off the heat.

Best eaten immediately after being cooked.

Bon appétit! :)

Did someone say, "pasta salad?" :)

picture gotten from BubbleWS

So, yesterday, I didn't feel like having a proper lunch so, I decided to make a pasta salad that I'll eat (and then decided to eat the pasta salad as my dinner).
Okay! So, this was the first pasta salad I had ever made and it ended up being the best that I had ever tasted. Half of the ingredients in it were raw and the other half were cooked which made it quite healthy. Here's my recipe:

Ingredient
Umm.....fusilli pasta (GOTTA HAVE THAT FUSILLI! :) )
2 eggs
1/2 of a plantain
4-5 cherry tomatoes
1/3 of a small onion
2/3 of one garlic clove
Salt
Pepper (I used some black pepper and a dash of hot peppers)
Paprika
Olive Oil

Method

• Place two eggs in a pot of boiling water and leave them to boil for 30 minutes before turning off the heat and swapping the water in the pot for cold water (carry on with the other steps while the eggs are boiling).
• Slice a plantain horizontally to make 2 equal-ish halves. Store one of them. With the second half, slice it vertically to make two near equal halves. Slice each of this halves vertically once again to leave you with 4 "sticks" of plantain. Next, horizontally cut the sticks into about 1x1cm-ish (at least) cubes and pour them into a deep fryer for a couple of minutes (till they're nearly chocolate-brown)
• Pour about 2-3 handfuls of fusilli pasta into a pot of boiling water, spice up the water with some salt, paprika and your choice of peppers, place it on the hob and cook that pasta for no more than 10 minutes (or whatever your pasta's cooking instructions say).
• On a chopping board, roughly chop/dice the onions and garlic. Slice each tomato open horizontally to make two equal halves then slice each half horizontally and vertically. Place everything in a glass bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, stir and mix them up well. Cover the bowl with some cling film/plastic wrap and leave it at a maximum of two and a half feet away from a window.
• Once the eggs are done, cut them up just like you did with the tomatoes and pour them into your raw bowl.
• Once the pasta's done, drain it and pour it into the bowl of raw goodies.
• Once the plantain's done, drain out the excess oil on it and pour it into the bowl of rawness.
• Next, give everything a good stir and mix.
• Cover up the bowl again, but only partially and leave it by the window for a few minutes just for it to cool down a bit.
• Cover the bowl up fully and pop it in your fridge.

Now, I know that pasta salads can last for about 3-4 days, but I advice that they are eaten up the day they are made not just for health reasons, but because most of the nutrients in the raw ingredients at the time of making the salad will still be intact.

Bon appétit! :)

Easy Meal

Hey,

So, I've discovered a meal that can be made if you have loads of work to do. You could be cleaning up the house, or working on mini dissertation-like thing (like I've been doing) or whatever keeps you busy or stressed out and still be able to cook and eat something really good when you have the time to finally get some food into your system.

Ingredients
ASDA Mediterranean Vegetables with Cherry Tomatoes (should be available at walk mart)
3/4 of an onion
2-3 garlic cloves
Salt
Hot, ground peppers
Black pepper
Paprika
Sunflower/Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Rice
Water


Method

• Preheat your oven to about 200C.
• In an oven tray with relatively high sides, drizzle a bit of oil then pour in the contents a frozen bag of ASDA Mediterranean Vegetables with Cherry Tomatoes.
• Dice the onion or cut it up irregularly, cut each garlic clove into tiny pieces and pour both into the tray.
• Next,  season the contents of the tray with salt, a sprinkle of black pepper and paprika and some hot, ground pepper.
• Drizzle some more oil over everything, turn and stir them to ensure the spices are near-evenly spread.
• Add a bit of water to the tray and then place it in your over for an hour, but it's best to put it in for a half hour, stir it then put it in for another half hour.
• Wash or rinse some rice until the water runs clear then pour it into a rice cooker with an ample amount of water.
• Season....the water....with some salt, put the lid down on the cooker and turn it on.
• After an hour of what's in the oven being there, if you're not ready to eat yet, just turn off the oven leaving the tray in there.
• When the rice is done cooking, leave the rice cooker on warm if you're not ready to eat.
• When you are eventually ready to eat, get a nice bowl, plate or dish, pour some rice into it and then place the contents of the tray over the rice. You can mix it up while you're eating.

Bon appétit! :)

Spicy Rice

This recipe is practically the same as my amazing fusilli recipe. If you haven't read that recipe yet, read it before you read this one, okay? :)



Ingredients
Long grain rice
1 Shallot
4-5 tablespoons of Dolmio ("spicy") pasta sauce (depending on how much pasta you're making)
African Yellow Pepper/Cameroon Pepper/Any really hot pepper you can get your hands on
Salt
1 Egg
Sunflower Oil


Method

• Pour as much rice as need into a pot, boil some water, pour it over the rice, turn the heat under the pot to max. and cook the rice for about 10 minutes (or until it's done)
• While the rice is cooking, cut up (could be in a regular or irregular shape) one shallot
• In a frying pan, pour in about a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of sunflower oil and before it gets hot, pour in the cut up shallots and a dash of salt (this will not only get the shallots cooked, but also infuse the oil with the taste of the shallots).
• When the shallots have softened (and before they start browning), pour in the few table spoons of Dolmio sauce, stir everything in the pan together well.
• Add as much of the hot pepper you can get your hands on to the contents of the pan (I love my food spicy so I add A LOT)
• Fry everything for about 30 seconds stirring continuously
• Pour the rice into the frying pan.
• Stir and turn over the contents of the pan till the colour of every rice grain has changed to at least a faint one of that of the pasta sauce and let the everything cook a little (you can add a little more oil here if you think it's needed)
• I would usually add some more pepper here, but you don't have to.
• Next, crack and egg and beat it in a cup or bowl, pour it into the frying pan and stir and turn over the contents of the frying pan to coat the rice with the egg.
• Let everything sit in the pan stirring occasionally until the egg is not visibly raw anymore before turning off the heat.
• Get a bowl, dish some rice into it.
• Get more bowls, be nice and share your rice with friends. Who knows? They might start paying  for you to make it every day.

The Amazing Fusilli

I have this crazy, new obsession with Fusilli. We were "introduced" when I went to Tesco, stood in the pasta section and couldn't decide if I wanted my beloved organic spaghetti or some other form of pasta and then a friend said, "get this one," and handed a pack of fusilli over to me.

Fusilli cooks to perfection in exactly 5 minutes. Like 5 minutes on the dot! Isn't that amazing! Especially for a college student!

Here's how I enjoy my lovely, lovely Fusilli

Ingredients
Fusilli pasta (of course)
1 Shallot
2-3 tablespoons of Dolmio ("spicy") pasta sauce (depending on how much pasta you're making)
African Yellow Pepper/Cameroon Pepper/Any really hot pepper you can get your hands on
Salt
1 Egg
Sunflower Oil


Method

• Pour as much fusilli as need into a pot, boil some water, pour over the fusilli, turn the heat under the hob to max. and cook the pasta for exactly 5 minutes (set a timer if you have to)
• While the pasta's cooking, cut up (could be in a regular or irregular shape) one shallot
• In a frying pan, pour in about a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of sunflower oil and before it gets hot, pour in the cut up shallots and a dash of salt (this will not only get the shallots cooked, but also infuse the oil with the taste of the shallots).
• When the shallots have softened (and before they start browning), pour in the few table spoons of Dolmio sauce, stir everything in the pan together well.
• Add as much of the hot pepper you can get your hands on to the contents of the pan (I love my food spicy so I add A LOT)
• Fry everything for about 30 seconds stirring continuously
• Drain out 99% of the water in the pot the pasta was in and pour the pasta into the frying pan.
• Stir and turn over the contents of the pan till the colour of every fusilli has changed to at least a faint one of that of the pasta sauce and let the everything cook a little (you can add a little more oil here if you think it's needed)
• I would usually add some more pepper here, but you don't have to.
• Next, crack and egg and beat it in a cup or bowl, pour it into the frying pan and stir and turn over the contents of the frying pan to coat the fusilli with the egg.
• Let everything sit in the pan stirring occasionally until the egg is not visibly raw anymore before turning off the heat.
• Get a bowl, dish some pasta into it.
• Eat then get up, make some more of this and eat it up again.

College Pasta

I do not own this picture

So.... I know I haven't uploaded anything on here in a while. Anyways, what I'm about to post is a pasta recipe. I call it 'College Pasta' because I'm a college student, while school's in session, I live in school (it's hours away from home) and when I need to cook something quickly, I make pasta and it tastes good!
So, this is basically a quick and easy recipe. Here are the ingredients:


Ingredients

Organic Italian Spaghetti (or any pasta of your choice)
Water
Dolmio Tomato Sauce (Spicy)
Shallots
Spinach (optional)
Salt
Nigerian Pepper (courtesy of my mum ;))*
Olive Oil or Sunflower Oil

*Wanna get your hands on some Nigerian Pepper? You can find it in some Indian shacks or Indian Supermarkets in England


Method

• Put some pasta into a pot or pan
• Boil some water and pour it over the pasta, salt the water and turn the heat up to max. 
• While the pasta is cooking
• In a pan, heat up a few sprays of extra virgin olive oil or about a teaspoon-tablespoon of sunflower oil.
• One the oil is hot, stir in the shallots, salt them and let them cook till their colour starts to change.
• If you choose to cook with spinach, cut it irregularly, stir it into the onions and let it wilt a bit
• Stir in he tomato sauce and cook until it starts to reduce.
• Season with salt and African pepper and stir well.
• In small bits, add the pasta to the pan tossing or stirring after each portion added.
• Cook for about a minute seasoning a little more.
• Add about a tablespoon of the Dolmio tomato sauce, stir, turn off the heat
• Serve

Yum!! :)