TWA Hairspiration

Hi guys,

So, it would seem that recently, a few friends are considering the Big Chop and rocking a TWA (Teeny Weeny Afro) but are not quite certain. Notice I said Big Chop and not 'Going natural'? Well, 1 or 2 are "not sure if they want to do that whole high maintenance of natural hair" but they have been experiencing some hair damage and want to start again even if with perm.

Whatever your choice is, whether it be natural or relaxed hair, do not be scared to take a pair of scissors to that mane and start again.Just be sure to take care of the hair. Short hair does not mean abandonment. You still have to discover a regimen that works for you. A few reasons I can think of for doing this are:

1. A whole new look! Let people be surprised when they see you. You'd relish it. 
2. 'Fresh breeze' can finally touch your scalp. Believe me, that feeling is out of this world. 
3. You can be taking a shower and easily point that shower head straight on your hair. 
4. Clean hair all the time! Relates to 3. 
5. Hair is easier to wash, moisturise, touch etc. at that stage. 
6. Hair care is a breeze.
7. Few to no tangles.
8. You get the chance to finally see how beautiful you can be without a lot of hair. Put that saying about 'the hair being the crowning glory (or is it beauty) of a woman' to the test. You are beautiful beyond hair. 
9. More time to focus on other stuff. 
10. Wash and Gos are your staple.

So, if you still are not convinced as to whether you should rock that TWA, let me tempt you further with these wonderful TWA hairporn photos. *evil laugh* 

*sigh*

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After all of these, I'm so tempted to go back to having a TWA again. So stressless *sigh*. Are you not convince now? No? No???

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I'm done here! 

All other photos are sourced from: www.pinterest.com 

Ciao guys! 

Stay beautiful and Big Chop...maybe! 

Shredded Chicken with Vegetable Stir-Fry Sauce - Let's Do Chinese!

Hullo!

 

This recipe, I have loved for quite a while now. It's easy to make and yummy to eat. Rich in protein and high in vitamins too. It's got Chinese origins.

 

 

This normally is a chicken recipe but for this particular one, I used turkey as I usually love to use those already shredded chicken pieces they sell in Park n Shop or Shoprite or the boneless chicken breasts but didn't have any. But since I wasn't able to go to any of those stores, I didn't want to have to struggle with deboning the regular chicken sold in neighbourhood frozen food stores, I bought turkey instead. Turkey works perfectly for this also. But! Make sure your knife is super sharp for this one. Shredding was such a pain as my knife was already blunting. This was the first time I used turkey for this recipe instead of chicken. I thought the turkey would be softer than frozen chicken. Actually, it was. But because the flesh of turkey is too succulent, a blunt knife will not get the shape you are aiming for.

 

The cabbage in this recipe is optional but I love me some cabbage. It also helps for quantity.

 

2 Chicken breast/ 1 Turkey wing, deboned, split and skinned (or not. I love my poultry skin)

4 tsp cornflour

2 tsp soy sauce

1 egg white, slightly beaten

Seasoning

5 tbsp olive oil

1 big carrot, thinly shredded

1 Green pepper, thinly shredded

2 Tatashe (red bell pepper)

1 cup of cabbage, thinly shredded

1 tsp fresh ginger, thinly shredded or grated

Spring Onion (Scallions) sliced into 1/2 inch length

1 onion

2 garlic cloves, thinly diced

3 tbsp water

 

Slice the chicken/turkey horizontally, paper thin. Believe me, your knife must be sharp. Mine wasn't so I ended up having shreds and dices. Place in a bowl.

 

 

 

Combine half of cornflour, seasoning and half of soy sauce and egg white. Pour over the chicken slivers and let stand for 30minutes.

 

 

 

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in skillet and sauté carrots for 1 minute. Add the green and red pepper and sauté for 1 minute.

 

 

Add cabbage and sauté for 30 seconds.

 

 

Remove vegetables from the pan/wok and set aside. In same pan, heat remaining olive oil and sauté onion, garlic ginger, seasoning and scallion for 30 seconds. With a slotted spoon, remove chicken from soy sauce and add to pan, cooking and stirring until shreds turn white or until it changes colour.

 

 

 

Add the reserved vegetables, and remaining soy sauce. Cook until heated through, then stir in remaining cornflour dissolved in the cold water. Cook briefly until all is covered with glaze or glistening.

 

 

Serve at once over rice.

 

Lol. This is not Ila Asepo o!

You go fear presentation

 

 

Things you should try to do for this recipe:

1. Better you buy the already sliced chicken sliver being sold in big chain supermarkets eg. Park n shop or Shoprite

2. An alternative to 1 is to buy boneless chicken breasts from same stores.

3. Sharpen your knife!!!

4. Basmati rice is best with this. Those our staple imported Thai rice here are just meh!

5. You can substitute the Soy sauce with a Light Soy sauce if you're bothered about sodium. You may need to use more though.

6. For those worried about MSG - I know, I am too most times - substitute the soy sauce with light soy sauce and for the seasoning, use Spice Supreme's Salt Free Seasoning.

7. The Nigerian reader here is wondering if I omitted the salt. No, I didn't. You don't need it. There's even too much soy sauce going on here for you to go adding more sodium.

8. The Chinese food enthusiast is wondering if I omitted the sugar. You can add the sugar if you want. I didn't want.

9. You can use gizzard or beef for this sauce as well.

10. You can use whatever veggies you want. Not leafy veggies though!

 

Ciao now!

 

PS. Notice the new blog look? You like?

ALOE VERA AND BANANA DEEP CONDITIONER

Hi guys,

 

It's been a long much needed 4days break down here in Nigeria and I'm super thankful for the rest. I spent the break at my folk's and I must say that I really have missed my family. Funny how you appreciate your family more when you're not always physically around them.

 

This weekend, I looked at my mum's plants with new eyes. My mum has always been a garden, planting woman for as long as I've known her i.e. all my life. She plants every herb she comes across and every flower she can as long as she can get access to its seedlings and as long as the roots will not affect the foundation of the house and the stem will not weaken the fence. Now, she has really reduced this because over the years, my father did this modern thing everyone does now which is to cement the whole compound. But he left a little portion of sand where my mum still gets to plant a few flowers and herbs and thankfully, our only mango tree still exists there. It's not like before though. I think my mum has also lost a bit of the passion over time as life and work pulled her further away from her plants. Still, she's still got some plants going on.

 

I have never much cared about the plants my mum grows. I just see them as her hobby even though I know everything about taking care of different types of plants. Thanks to living with my mum. This weekend, I looked at the spinach, stinging nettle, 'never-die', bitter leaf, aloe vera with new eyes. I noticed she has now acquired Moringa to the mix.

 

One plant which is still largely dominating my mum's garden is the Aloe Vera. This is one truly useful herb. It cured skin allergies and infections for me and even acts as a moisturiser for the skin. It cures wounds and cools burns. Miracle plant, that one. My mum even used to drink the gel after blending. By now, I'm sure you know my mum's like that. She loves to solve anything with a natural remedy first (not black magic o) before she resorts to modern medicine.

 

 

Well, recently, I complained to my friend, Tolu, about my hair. Tolu is presently studying Naturopathic Medicine and has a first degree in Botany. She's all for everything natural and I fondly call her 'Mamalawo'. She gives me advice on what to keep away from food wise and healthwise. I complained to her some weeks ago when I was battling dryness in my hair and she suggested I do an Aloe Vera Deep Conditioning.

 

Here's what you need:

 

• Aloe Vera - 1 leaf
• Bananas - 2 medium size
• Honey - 2 tbsp.
• Any carrier oil of your choice - 2 tbsp.
• Any essential oil of your choice (optional)

I cut an aloe vera. Ensure you use a knife to remove the aloe from the stalk and not break the leaf as this will just create a waste and a mess.

 

 

no mess to the cutting

 

Use a knife to split the leaf open at the side. You'd see the gel in there.

 

Using a spoon, scoop the gel into a bowl or straight into the blender if you desire.

 

 

Now, blend all the ingredients together.

 

 

Ensure you blend very well so as not to have any lumps or particles left that will cause a nightmare in getting out of your hair. Believe me, I know.

 

 

By the time I finished blending, I saw that I was going to have a watery, messy DC but I didn't mind. Then I thought to add another banana to thicken the mix only to turn around to get the bananas and find that my mum had eaten all 7 bananas up! I couldn't believe it.

 

Me: Mummy, have you eaten all the bananas?!

Mum: Yes

Me: That was 7 bananas!

Mum: No, it was 6!

Me: -________-

 

Smh. Anyways, after I shampooed, I put the blend in my hair and wore a plastic cap and then wrapped my head in a warm towel. I didn't remove it until 3 hours later because I was very distracted. By the time I removed the cap, I had never seen my hair have so much curl definition before since I started this natural hair journey. Amazing. I shampooed and conditioned my hair then did an ACV rinse and then let the hair air-dry for about 45minutes. After which I did the LOC method and then put the hair in mini-twists. I realised my sister had the Emily Millionaire Coconut & Herbs. I used that as my leave-in.

 

 

I have made a combination of all my oils which are: Olive oil, Coconut oil, Grapeseed Oil, Haitian Castor Oil, Pharmacy Castor Oil, Almond Oil and Tea Tree Oil and put them in a bottle. Except for my edges which I will still concentrate my Organic Haitian Castor Oil on, I'd stick to this combination oil now.

 

 

My ends were sealed with my whipped shea butter. I know I said I was not going to use the butter or coconut oil anymore because of dandruff but I really am not bothered about that anymore. Plus the dandruff is gone. I guess the grapeseed oil and tea tree oil were useful afterall. In my next post, I'd show how I came up with my whipped shea butter.

 

I'm thinking of making an aloe vera leave-in conditioner. I've made one before but my major problem with aloe vera is that it does not keep for long. After about a week, it changes colour and produces a questionable odour. I may try storing it in the fridge though and see how that goes.

 

You could try this DC and see how it works for you. It is good as a moisturising DC and very suitable for people with coarse hair (I am finding that I have combination hair {both coarse and fine strands}).

 

Ciao now!

 

Stay beautiful and healthy!

YAMARITA! OR SHALL WE SAY DUN DUN ONIYERI?

Hey people!

Long weekends have to come with some fun stuff, right? Well, on Saturday, my sister was talking about feeling like eating Yamarita and I told her I had recently found the recipe off Dunni's blog and I could prepare it for her. Dunni has got a very fantastic food blog, I tell you.

Now, I'm not really a yam lover. In fact, I'm not a yam lover. I'd rather not eat it unless I'm very hungry and there's nothing else to eat. I haven't even eaten yamarita before. I'm not even sure if I've seen it except on the menu of TFC's eatery. I just hear people gush about it. But I was pretty impressed with the outcome of this yamarita.

Apparently, the native name for yamarita is Dundun Oniyeri but yamarita is a coined name.

Recipe:

Yam - sliced in slim pieces
2 eggs
Maggi seasoning
Salt
Curry
Cayenne pepper
Mixed spice
Flour
Oil for deep frying

I cut the yam, peeled it and sliced it this way:

I then rinsed it severally to get the starch out and until the water was clear. Then I soaked it in Salted water. This was to ensure that the yam was well salted.

I mixed the egg with the maggi, salt, curry, cayenne pepper and mixed spice. After the yam was soaked for about 10 minutes, I dipped it in the egg mixture and then rolled it in flour.

 

 

I then proceeded to deep-fry it. Make sure you deep-fry on low heat for about 7-10 minutes. This is to ensure that the yam gets to cook and the egg does not get burnt. I think I prefer this to boiling the yam first and the yam was well cooked inside.

You can use potatoes with this recipe if you desire.

I didn't do a dipping sauce. I felt I had done more than enough by helping my siblings fry yam. Between you and I, I was just feeling lazy.

I don't like yam but I really did not mind this yamarita at all. Fantastic stuff. Amazing how easy it is too. My family was all over it.

Do try it.

Ciao!

Update:

So, I went on Dunni's blog and saw that she had written another post for yamarita that was slightly different. She boiled the yam before coating it and she coated the yam in egg a second time after dipping in flour. So, since my siblings ate boiled yam and egg on this Sunday morning, I decided to use the yam for this other style of yamarita. Here is the result:

This version is definitely crispier. But my sister says she loves the crispyness of this version but it lacks the dundun taste because the yam was boiled before being coated. So, you can do whichever version you please.

It Really is Just Hair!



^_^

Hi guys,

 

On the night of last Wednesday, I was having a chat with my fellow nache friend, Notey about this whole natural hair experience. She was saying that she was going to get her hair into locs as she was tired of the high maintenance that 'regular' natural hair entails. I couldn't blame her. I understood perfectly. I was even telling her that I had made up my mind to stop buying stuff for my hair. My obsession with volume and length has made me go all out into product junkism and be spending money I could use for other useful things. Later, our conversation switched to leave-in conditioners and I was already telling her that maybe I should buy the leave-in she uses and then thankfully, she stopped me and reminded me that I said I wasn't going to spend anymore on this hair.

 

This got me thinking. I remember when I was making the transition into natural hair and also when I decided to have a BC. I was always singing the Natural Hair mantra: "It's Just Hair!" Interesting how I have lost focus and made hair such a huge part of my life that I'm thinking of it all the time and spending and buying for it all the time. It has even taken over this blog. What for? For length and volume that will only come in due time. It's Distressing Myself season and my hair and I have got to realise that.

 

So yes, truly, I won't be buying anything else I don't need. The jojoba and argan oils can stay on the pharmacy shelves they're on. I have 6 oils here. If the combination of all 6 wont be doing anything special, I doubt Jojoba and argan oil can. I won't be spending my money on any leave-in conditioners either. I'd stick with my beloved Profectiv 3-in-1 strengthener even though the other day, I discovered it contains cones. Or better still, I'd just make a homemade one. Why will I spend unnecessary money buying off-the-shelf products when there is an abundance of  natural products that cost little and that I can easily whip up?

 

I have also learnt that I shouldn't sweat the small stuff. All these obsessions with cones, parabens, sulfates, mineral oils, etc. Life's not that hard. When I had scalp eczema and dandruff, I used good old sulfur-8-mineral-oil-lanolin-petroleum-jelly-filled Damatol and the stuff went without hassles. Now, the Grapeseed Oil and Tea Tree Oil which was supposed to do same and with a natural feel didn't do jack and even made me itch like a dog with fleas! This life na jeje abeg. If I find a product that's free from all those stuff and won't hurt my pocket, all well and good.

 

Now, the only things I'd be spending money on as regards my hair will be to replace the products I already have when they get exhausted and maybe that occasional thing I'm certain will be good for me. I'm not working to feed my hair, biko! I won't stop writing on hair on this blog because I'm still very interested in it. But I'd take my mind off it more and focus on other things that interest me so I can tell about them.

 

Afterall, it's really just hair!

 

Ciao!

Stay beautiful!

Banana Smoothie

Hey people,

 

This was supposed to be a Soursop smoothie recipe but the soursop ended up being unripe. So, since I had some bananas and I wanted a smoothie, I was going to get a smoothie.

 

 

What you need:

 

Bananas - 4 medium sized

Evaporated milk - 3 tbsp. (I was out of coconut milk so this was my alternative)

Ice cubes - 10

Blender

 

Love my ice cube maker

The milk's in there.

 

I broke the bananas into the blender, put in the cubes and the milk and blended. If you're a major sweet tooth, you can add some honey to it. But I never add any sweetener to my smoothies. Fruits are sweet enough.

 

 

Selah!