Constipation vs Hemorroids

Hello darlings, I hope you are all well. I am better now. You will appreciate why I was not at the end of this post. I came home from work and Izzy was having her afternoon siesta. I looked over into her crib, she was sleeping so peacefully. I waltzed into my room, threw my bag on the bed my body right along with it. When my daughter woke up I had to change her, I love that little girl but boy oh boy did that poo smell. Lol. Anyhuuu I was gonna do what I had to do so I set to it. I broke out the diaper, changing mat, wipes, the barrier cream and the toy for distraction. Nappy change takes longer since my baby learnt she can move by herself. I picked her up and lay her on the mat and loosened the flap thingy mijigs. Wiped her and she let out a cry so loud my heart sank. I did an examination and saw what looked like a small tag, just hanging there. I was FREAKING out big time. I continued to change her and when I finished it was oooooon! I was all over google and on the phone to granma. My heart was in pain but Izzy was now happily running around, playing and calling out mimiiiiii..(mommy). So anyway I decided I was taking her to the Doctors tomorrow, and I was going to watch that thing like a hawk. However by late afternoon I was on my phone asking my friend to take to the Doctors. Thank you Olly, I owe you one! True to my mothers words the Doctors first question was is this your fist? I looked him dead in the eye and said yes to let him know I wasnt embarrassed I came. He said no wonder. It's nothing serious it will go. I'm sure he could read my I don't believe that demeanor and he prescribed a gel for me to apply on it. It was en external hemorrhoid. We got home and she had her bath, dinner, a song, and story. When she slept I was back on google trying to understand what hemorrhoids were. My baby had STRAINED her Rectal muscles doing a number two. Take it easy this does soon link into my blog. I realized after doing the reading that it is something to do with her diet. Possibly not enough fiber and more foods that can cause constipation such as yoghurt, bananas, carrots. So I've decided to go out tomorrow and get foods high in fiber to correct this problem by making a few changes to her diet. Hemorrhoids are painful, that is my I am sharing my experience because a problem shared is a problem solved. Want to incorporate food in her diet that will soften her stool, so she doesn't strain and hurt herself. Sometimes you will see blood in the toilet for children who can use the loo. It's nothing major but you can correct it by changing your the little ones diet. Sometimes we think we are doing thing right when something happens as if to say woman your best is not good enough!! Foods to include to avoid constipation are sweet potatoes, apples, homemade vegetable soup, prune juice, bran cereal, pumpkin, beans, green leafy vegetables, soy milk because it is less constipating than cow milk. Make sure they drink plenty of fluids as well. This is why we as mothers should pay CLOSE attention to our little ones. They are not anaPhiris kids, they are our sons and daughters. Doctor was right because when I was dressing her after her bath, it was gooooooone! But now I'm prepared, I'm hemorrhoids smart, Boooooooom! * blowsongun* I wish you peace, love and good eats!

Flavour- full baby

Good morning darlings, what a beautiful day is is today. So I got to thinking how can mothers avoid raising fussy eaters?? My baby has one of the healthiest appetites I have come across, well maybe the only healthy appetite next to mine, I love love love my food it's amazing how I stay tiny. Raising Izzy, I bought your baby and toddler magazine from the day I found out I was with child until a few months ago. This magazine has taught me a lot especially where feeding is concerned. I want to share some of the insight I got. The first thing to remember is that our babies are people too, they feel, they cry, they laugh and smile and get frustrated just like we do. Feeding time should be a joyful time, a time when we bond with our little one, but for some, it is frowned upon, wonder why?? Maybe baby is BORED, maybe the food is not appetizing, it is bland and tasteless, no wonder the little being refuses to take another spoon of that mess,yes I said mess. You won't eat bland and/or tasteless food why should your baby? Raising children requires time and patience love and a lot more, a lot more that nannies will probably not go that extra mile for. You want something done properly? DIY! That old saying applies to feeding and preparing meals for our children. Izzy is asleep but when she wakes up there is a fresh beaker of sweet pea squash and some homemade bread fingers waiting for her, as long as she does not wakes too close to lunch time. We have to do some of these things ourselves and being tired from work I'd just not a good enough excuse. Make the time, everyday to prepare the food you want your baby to eat, nsima ndi ndiwo, ndi Phala just won't cut it. For the squash I diluted two parts orange squash in the water from the boiled peas that I used for my vege patties. Why?? Because all the nutrients from the peas are in that water. So I let it cool and used it now, yes it tastes good. Remember to always taste what you want your baby to eat or drink chances are if you hate it they will too. I toasted a slice of brown bread and spread stork and sprinkled it with a lit bit of cinnamon, then cut it into fingers, let it cool and put it in her container. There you have it a simple, healthy mid morning snack. You let your nanny take over you will lose control over what your child is isn't fed, and don't want that do we. You can prepare the fingers the night before work and store in an airtight container so the crunch is not lost. This snack is suitable from 7 months onwards. More later my darling. I wish you peace,love and good eats!!!!

Something vegetarian

Good evening darlings, I just finished having my dinner and my my was it delicious. It is safe to say I out did myself on those there vege patties. I've thought about making them since my trip to the market but I just couldn't get my thoughts around what I wanted to use, so I brushed it off until I was ready to COOK! What better day to do this than Sunday, when I have my place all to myself. Ok maybe not all to my self but you get the idea, maid is off so I'm the lady of the house on all levels, cooking, cleaning, bathing and feeding Izzy, the whole nine yards. Any way as soon as Izzy was down for her morning nap I shot off into the kitchen but not before switching my Telly to DSTV audio. I like my beats when I cook. I was in my zone. I made it up as I went along grabbing 1 carrot,1 potato, 1 white onion,1 red bell pepper,1 tablespoon garlic, 1 green pepper, 1/2 cup boiled peas,1/2 cup green olives, chopped, :these add that salty bite to the dish, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1 table spoon sweet paprika, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 eggs, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour(i used whole wheat for the nutty flavor and as a variant to bread crumbs), 1 slice toast(crumbled). Finely chop the onion, red and green pepper as well as the olives and set aside. In a separate bowl grate the carrot and set aside, mash the cooked peas and set aside. Then working fast, peel wash and grate the potato. Heat some vegetable oil in a sauté pan, and add all the vegetables and sauté until tender. Create a bit of steam in the pan by adding a few drops of water. Don't add too much, remember these are patties. Remove from heat and put into a bowl.Add the flour, bread crumbs and egg and mix well. Put some flour in your palms so the mix doesn't stick. Form into patties and then refrigerate for 30-35 minutes so that they set and do not fall apart when you fry them. Shallow fry your patties and serve with knorr creamy garlic gravy over a bed of white rice. With patties your world is your oyster you can use whatever vegetables you like. I even added beans to mine although I wasn't too keen on them, the did work well. This is a perfectly nutrious patty that can be served as part of a wholesome meal or on it's own as a snack, just whip up a quick dip of mayonnaise and ketchup. You could even put this on a roll with onion and tomato rings and cheese and voila!!!, a vege burger. My daughter enjoyed this very much, to the last bite! I wish you peace, love and good eats!!!

Baby love breakfast

Good morning darlings, what a beautiful Sunday it is in Malawi. Birds chirping, sun is shining I am alive and well. What more can I ask for. A friend of mine was kind enough to add me to a group on FB called for moms and dads with little babies. I quite like being on this group becaue even though I do not post on it much I enjoy knowing that I am not the only mommy who feels she might be getting it wrong sometimes,that there are many like me enjoying their journey in parenthood-ville. This post is dedicated to moms who are not sure about what to feed their baby after the introduction to solids. I have one tip, IMAGINATION!!!! Think outside the box. In fact think as though there is no box. To get you started let me tackle breakfast. This is the most important meal of the day. It gives us the fuel we need to face the day head on. While babies don't do much they too have an active life full of exploration, so it is vital that they have a very nutritious breakfast. From the day Isabella, my daughter was introduced to solids, she has had Likuni Phala as her main porridge of choice. This is because it is not only cheap, but it is choka block full of vitamins and essential nutrients. Now to feed a child just plain Likuni phala would after sometime become boring and the child will refuse to eat, the keyword is imagination here. So cook it as instructed and add either peanut butter, stork, chopped soft fruit such as banana, avocado, peaches, the list is endless. Because I do not give my baby sugar, for me the sugar comes from the fruit, but that is a personal choice up to you as a mother. But it is highly recommended that babies are not given sugar. To give her a break from Likuni I let her have natural yoghurt with chopped fruit for breakfast. Another cereal that I always have for my little one is Purity baby cereal and I prepare it as instructed but go the extra mile by adding chopped fruit for texture so that she practices and develops her chewing skills. Alright I must go now because the little madam is reaching for the iPad making it rather difficult to type. I wish you peace, love and good eats!!!!

Light meal

Hello, I sure hope you all had a wonder day of R&R, I sure did. As the time fast approached dinner I started thinking about what I was going to make, like I told you before I do not take kindly to eating the same food twice. I'm in my room talking to a few mates of mine on BBM and I'm about to go to the kitchen to hook up my dinner. It's nothing too hectic, just a simple egg fried rice in two kinds of soy sauce with a side of cool cucumber salad. Here are the recipes for both. 2cups cold rice, 2eggs lightly beaten, ground black pepper, light, and thick soy sauce. Fry the eggs and scramble. Set aside when done. Add a bit more oil and fry the cold rice, this is just to heat it up. Be sure to use cold rice because it's the secret to good fried rice. If the rice is hot it will stick together and be one pile of mess, you do not want that. You want food thats screaming eat me, you know you want to. When the rice is heated through add the eggs and then two table spoons each of the light and thick soy sauces. These add layers of flavor and salt so do not add more salt unless you want salty food you can't mouth. For the cucumber salad I'm using english cucumbers, these are the thin, long ones and they are devine in salads. Wash and slice them as thinly as you can, slice half a red onion, I hate uncooked onions so I'm going to tweak it a bit by frying the onions. Then toss these together and add a dessertspoon full of vinegar, toss together and sprinkle with salad sprinkle and then add some mayonnaise. Toss together and refridgerate. Serve when very chilled for that burst of freshness. If you have no vinegar you can use lemon juice to substitute the acidity. And voila that's my dinner tonight my darlings. I wish you peace, love and good eats!!

My rainy adventure

What a day what a day. I realized last night that I was out of fresh market produce, my fridges salad crispers were almost empty. So I called my friend Marica and asked her to accompany me to the market. When I do my shopping I buy all my greens from the market,I find that they have everything that is in the supermarket but it's so much cheaper and fresher, I just love cooking with fresh ingredients. Limbe market is a very big market and it stocks a wide variety of produce, from vegetables to aromatics such as sweet paprika which I got some of. The aroma and rich color of it was just to die for, and did you know they have sweet paint as well. If you have had colored meat or malambe that's the stuff they use. It was pouring as we did our shopping but we were not going to let the rain deter us, we were two women on a mission!!! We went from one end of the market to ther other,picking up this and that, interested in knowing what I bought? Just you wait coz tonight I'm cooking up a storm and I'm going to tell you just how my experiment goes. Ladies don't be too saddidyto go to the market it's a fulfilling experience each time because I get a chance to interact with the tomato lady, the paprika guy, the carrier bag boy, who all enrich my life in one way or the other! What I bought sweet paprika Fresh red bell pepper Sweet potatoes(not for tea but I'm doing a bakes sweet potato salad) Malambe Green beans Red onion Juicy red tomatoes Potatoes Red kidney beans Fresh ground nuts(it's that time of year and I'm love them) Extra ripe bananas for cornmeal fritters(zitumbuwa) Ground nut flour Dried mfutso wa chitambe local is lekker!!!!! English cucumber(long and very green) this is beautiful in salads and sandwiches So you see I shopped up a storm and I'm set for good eats!!

Chicken fillet and avocado sammich

There is nothing that bores me more than eating the same food every day. ok so maybe there is, that thing that people type that kikikiki, my Malawian friends know exactly what I am talking about anyway back to what I was saying, yes the same food all the time. It is monotonous so much so that I decided that every day I will cook something new. Last week for lunch I made what I called a beast of a sammich so here is the recipe. It does need patience though. I am never too strict with the quantities. I tend to eyeball it depending on how many people i am feeding. If feeding five thousand do increase the ingredients, you are not Jesus! You will need Chicken fillet Onion Garlic and herb mix Olive oil or vegetable oil( I like olive oil because it adds flavor but vegetable oil is equally good) Cucumber rings White or red onion strips Mayonnaise Marmalade Light soy sauce, about one tbsp(tablespoon) Few pinches salt to bring out the juices of the fillet as it cooks Avocado strips Method Cut the fillet into thin strips Add about a teaspoon of the garlic and herb mix(if you don't have this use fresh garlic and mixed herbs) add the soy sauce and mix with a wooden spatula Add a little bit of salt Let this marinade at room temperature for up to two hours so that the spices infuse nicely into your meat While you wait chop the onion into strips and fry it in a little bit of oil on low heat for 20 minutes. Here we are trying to caramelize the onions so that we bring out the sweetness of the onion. If you cook on high heat it will burn and taste crap! Once the onion wilts a bit sprinkle with some brown sugar to start the caramelization process. Create a bit of steam in the pan by adding a little bit of water. Once done set aside. Before you fry the fillet add just a bit of oil to it and stir to prevent it catching in the pan Heat some oil and add your fillet. Cook for no more than 10 minutes, stirring only twice. Cover the pan to lock it moisture which also aids the cooking process. When it is done transfer it into a bowl and let cool. Add as much mayonnaise as you want and mix. For the marmalade mayo sandwich spread simply add two teaspoons marmalade to your mayonnaise and spread on your baguette instead of regular margarine Now you can build the sammich Spread mayo on both sides of baguette or bread Layer on the cucumber Then top with avocado, sprinkle bit of salt to Then top with the chicken fillet filling Lastly top with your caramelized onion Note: if you over coom chicken fillet it drys up and tastes rubbery so don't be tempted to over cook it. Sit back break your your drink and maybe a side dish of fries and enjoy Grab a coke, sit down and devour that beast!!!!!!!!

First things first

This is my first blog so excuse me if I'm somewhat clueless as to the goigs on here. How do the buttons work, what to to click to do certain things or what not to click. How do I put a picture and such other things I decided to start a blog about food because with time I have accumulated a lot of recipes and have been asked by many family and friends to share these recipes. I needed a fun and exciting way of doing this so I decided to blog! Take this journey with me as we explore various cuisine both local and international but using ingredients that are almost always in ones kitchen. Whether you are cooking for one, entertaining or simply wanting to experimentmwith a few bits and bobs, IzzyCooking will definitely do it with you!