Indian spiced mini scones (diary-free)

yummy and spicy mini scones

As promised, here it the second mini yum yum I made for the women last Saturday. My sister made these on her birthday, they looked soo yummy that I ate some of it and thoroughly enjoyed them. My stomach on the other hand told me off after that so I asked her for the recipe so I can make one I can eat without a grumpy tummy to contend with. She directed me to here: http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/indian-flavoured-scones-with-onion-chutney.

I’ve changed the original recipe from above to make it dairy-free. Also a little note to say that I put these in the freezer after step 6 below because I wanted it to be fresh for the women in morning. I just popped in the oven on the day and added 10 more minutes to the baking time and it was superb. So just incase you want have it fresh for whoever you’re making them for or for yourself, know you can do the same and it’ll still taste delish!

Creamy Quinoa in juicy Apricots

Are you ready for another ‘easy? peasy? go!’ recipe? Here it is guys. On the Friday before we flew to England, I saw these juicy beauties at the early morning market. The guy at the stall enticed me with a taste after which I just grabbed a ‘baquette’ and skipped home ever so merrily. I didn’t know what to do with them at first but one sure thing was that I wanted their natural beauty to shine through so I decided not to cook them in any way but just keep it fresh, simple and of course tasty. So I dreamt about this combination and when I finished making them, I was glad the man-boy at the stall introduced me to these juicy cuties.

Spiced couscous cake

I read this on one of my cookbooks that said something about a couscous loaf (I’ll dig it out and post the name here when I get back home to Paris) and that was where my inspiration came from. And for lunch yesterday, I was in a Cajun kinda mood so this was the flow  helped with the mighty Tesco spices by my side. You can just set this on the centre table for a light lunch with friends and some salad or even for a picnic.

Caramelised red onion Almous

I am going away to England to stay with my sister who is pregnant and has a ten month old lovely boy at home. I will be helping her so she can have some chill time-out while I spend time with Gigi, my nephew.

So I wanted to make something for the man to have at home as a quick snack and eat whenever he wanted. There is still loads of the Studded banana cake left in the house but I wanted to make something else. And I thought, caramelised onions? chickpeas? Almonds? Yes please!!! I love love loved this one. The first time I made it, I used white onions but it didn’t have that strong onion flavour that I liked. So I substituted it with the stronger flavoured sister, red onions and used 2 instead of one. It came out really nice and nutty because of the roasted nuts. Go ahead, give it a go and you’ll see. 

Tomato Spaghetti mama

I met these voluptuous ladies yesterday at the market and I knew I had to have them. I went home and started thinking of what to make with them. One thing for sure in my heart was that I wanted to keep them as they were and show off their curves and beauty. So here is what I made for dinner last night. I loved the ‘aliveness’ of it all the fresh and clean taste of the raw tomatoes with the basil spaghetti leaving a strong hint of nutmeg on the finish. But if you don’t like raw tomatoes my dears, please do look away now because it’s about to get juicy :-). Bonjour Bonjour and tomato love to you all.

Lentil ‘n’ Quinoa burgers with saucy Peppercorns

 

Lentil and Quinoa burgers with saucy peppercorns sauce and our small Parisian kitchen in the background, where the flow happens 🙂

Hello everyone, I want to start by saying thank you so much to all those who are following my blog, or have left a comment, or have just come to have a peak and say hello. It makes me feel all mushy and happy inside to be sharing my heart with you all. Merci beaucoup!

Cinnamon Potato porridge

I had some potatoes I had bought from the farmers market since last week and they started to grow babies and stuff so I thought, “Aijay, now is the time, use it or lose it”. So I thought to make something influenced from my childhood in Nigeria. The original dish has lots of sassy Nigerian-spices, dried fish and a hot chilli kick to it. It is called Yam Porridge. Well seeing as I don’t have any yam or any of the very flavourful Nigerian spices at hand, I decided to try and make something similar.

Almond Quinoa

The quinoa beauty

Quinoa was on my mind yesterday so I made this beauty up for lunch. No fussin’ n fightin’. Just plain easy with a lot of yummy in my tummy.

SAS on a plate

SAS- Spinach Asparagus and Soba noodles

For the Chinese experience, mademoiselle?. “I’ll have Chinese mushrooms and soy sauce, thank you”. And for the Thai? mmmmmm “Coconut milk and chilli please, merci beaucoup”. For one of those nights when you want the heat of Thai food with a chinese twist and this one did it for me. Plus the fact that I have fallen head over heels in love with Chinese mushrooms had everything to do with this. Cook it and you’ll feel what I mean.

Sunshine Courgette

Sunshine bébé

Hey guys, remember my Fruit, Veggie or What? post. Well, I finally got down to it and made something with these beauties. I wanted to make something that celebrated their beauty and made them shine on the plate so I thought to keep them just as they are then add bits and bobs to it. I just loved looking at the plate after I made them. It made me really happy and I hope it’ll do the same for you too. And another plus, it takes quickie to a whole new level. You’ll be eating it in 20 mins.

‘Shmokey’ humus

Another quickie that rests yummily in thine stomach after it leaves a little bit of heat at the back of your throat, nicely offset by the subtle sweetness of agave. This is how I do it.

Veggie coco risotto à la vanille

Not much to say with this, let the coconut do the talking on your taste buds.

Almond sauce with African sass :-)

The sassy sauce

This one is a quickie yummy treat and the best thing about it is that you can slather it on almost anything and it’ll make ’em taste yumm-yumm. You’ll need to roast some of the veggies which might take a bit ‘o’ time but believe me it is well worth it because the taste it gives to the sauce is second to none. All the roasting can be done in your frying pan if you don’t want the hassle of turning on your oven. I actually prefer it this way as the tomatoes get a slight burnt colour that translates into a ‘smokey-bbq-ewy’ taste. Go on, give it a go.

Date and Cashew quinoa balls

I had the inspiration to make these from the fab Vegangela where the original recipe called for peanut butter. I thought it was really good with peanut butter but decided to make it differently as I am biased towards cashew nuts. So I made these with the simplest ingredients and they were great without needing to add any extra sugar. The cashew purée is already sweet on its own and coupled with the dates makes it a real dessert treat for those sweet teeth.

Veggie couscous with a surprise

I woke up today thinking cous-cous! Cous-cooooooous! Luckily I had some in the cupboard so I decided I was gonna have that for dinner today. I knew I wanted to make it interesting and fresh and fun but didn’t know how. I started anyway and thanks to the universe some fresh and funky ideas started to flow and here they are my dears.

Sticky ‘shrooms’ and tomato brochette

Hey guys, this one is another quickie that I cooked up two sleeps ago. There isn’t any long story with this except that I had mushrooms and tomatoes in the fridge that I bought 2 days earlier. It was dinner time and we wanted something light, fresh, quick and easy and this was just perfect for the occasion (takes about 20 mins to be ready). I remember Ben’s comment after having this was, “ahhhh, I feel so fresh”. Well that says it all. We did have some pan-roasted Asparagus on the side to go with this which made the whole thing into more of a meal than a snack.

This can be served as a starter or part of a light dinner. Use fresh tomatoes if you can, as they’ll give you that “alive” taste and do I need to go on about the benefits of eating these cancer-fighting babies? Don’t think so. Enjoy my dears. The sun is out in Paris today and on my face too 🙂 :D.