• 2 cups of Flour
• 1 cup Cocoa Powder
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder 
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda 
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt 
• 2 Eggs
• 1-1/2 cup Milk
• 1/2 cup Oil
• 1 teaspoon Chocolate and/or Vanilla Flavour

1. Start by preheating your oven or your pot if you don't have oven (I talked about various ways you can bake without oven here). Then grease your baking pan with some oil, dust with flour and set aside. 
2. In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda, salt) and mix well with a whisk
3. In another bowl, preferably larger, add all the wet ingredients; the eggs, milk, oil, flavour(s) and mix well.
4. Now, pour in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix well till there are no lumps
5. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. 
6. The cake is done when a skewer, toothpick or fork inserted in the centre comes out clean. 
7. Bring it out and leave to cool down completely before you frost or serve as it is or with icecream.

• 1-1/2 cups Macaroni (any shape is fine) 
• 1 cup of diced  carrots
• 1 cup of diced cucumber
• 1 hard tomato
• 1/2 large onions 
• 2 hardboiled eggs

• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 
• 1 tablespoon of condensed milk
• 2 teaspoon red chilli pepper

1. Place the macaroni in a pot, add some salt and cook till tender but not too soft (a minute past al dente) 
2. While it is cooking, wash the carrots, cucumber, onions and tomato, dice and set aside. Remove the centre of the tomato before dicing to avoid adding water to the salad.
3. When the macaroni is done, sieve out the water and rinse in cold water (to remove the starch). 
4. In a large bowl, assemble the cooked macaroni, the diced carrots, cucumber, onions and tomato. 
5. Add the mayonnaise, condensed milk and pepper, mix well to combine. You can adjust the dressing to your taste. 
6. Lastly, dice the hardboiled eggs and place on top, this is to prevent it from being crumbled while you're mixing in the salad dressing. 
7. You can serve immediately or pop in the fridge for an hour or so to chill (the best in my opinion). Enjoy!! 😋

My Nigerian Christmas Menu Ideas

Christmas is upon us and that means family, fun and great food!

CHRISTMAS MAIN AND SIDE DISHES

Peppersoup: Depending on your preference, you can go with Catfish, goat, chicken or assorted meat peppersoup. This one serves as the appetizer for the main meal.

All the Rice dishes: Is Christmas even complete without rice? And as versatile as it is, there are so many options to choose from, is it the jollof rice, fried rice , coconut rice, what about white rice, with the different stews and sauces it can be eaten with? My favourites are the Fish Stew, Chicken Stew, Cabbage and Beef Stew, Ofada Sauce, Chicken Curry Sauce, Palmnut Stew (Ofe Akwụ)

Make some Stewed Vegetables, this can be served with boiled yam, potatoes or plantain and will be perfect for breakfast, breakfast and even dinner. The vegetables you can used include spinach, green amaranth, fluted pumpkin leaf (Ugu) etc. Proteins can be egg, fish, shredded chicken.

Grilled fish served with some fried plantain/potato and coleslaw

Plantain Frittata: another perfect breakfast idea.

Soup, Soup, Soup: This one is for people like my dad that will always prefer better fufu and soup to rice talmabout, "I am not a bird that eats rice everytime". 

• Egusi, Afang, or Efo Riro with Pounded Yam, 
• Bitterleaf or Ọha soup with Fufu, 
• Banga Soup and Starch, 
• Amala with Ewedu etc.

Crispy Fried Chicken: Get the recipe here

SNACKS AND BAKES FOR CHRISTMAS

Carrot Cake: It's the winter season and what better to cozy up in the cold weather than with a plate of some carrot cake filled with all the warm spices and cup of tea. Get the recipe here

Some Chocolate Puffpuff won't be a bad idea, I mean your kids/loved ones/guest will be wowed when you present them with this instead of the usual puffpuff

Chinchin!: What's Christmas without it, what will we now be giving our guests to munch on as we gist and sip drinks? I also have the perfect video recipe right here.

Bake some Cornbread

Instead of the regular plantain chips, why not make Tostones? 

Oh and don't forget to make some salad, there are lotsss of options, from the basic coleslaw, Nigerian salad, Macaroni Salad , potato salad, fruit salad etc. Do you know you can also make your own Mayonnaise at home? 

• 2 unripe plantains
• Oil for frying
• Salt for taste
• A deep pot or frying pan

• Peel plantain and cut into 1-inch slices
• Heat oil in a large deep pot or frying pan over medium-high heat; add plantain slices in an even layer and fry on both sides until golden brown, about 3 1/2 minutes per side. 
• Transfer plantain slices to a chopping board; flatten each one by placing a small plate or cup on top and pressing down.
• Reheat oil in the deep pot over medium heat; fry the plantain slices for 1 minute on each side. 
• Season to taste with salt and serve immediately.

• 1 sizeable Mackarel Fish 
• 1 medium bowl of fresh Tomatoes 
• A handful of scotchbonnet pepper
• 1 sachet Tomato Paste 
• Vegetable/groundnut oil
• 2 medium Onions 
• Ginger and garlic
• Seasoning cubes 
• 3 tablespoons of ground Crayfish 
• Salt

Procedure for Making The Nigerian Fish stew 

• Wash the fish properly, making sure you remove the gills, fins and other debris. If using fresh fish, wash the slimes with lemon/lime or salt. 
• Marinate the fish for 30 minutes with half a bulb of onions, seasoning cubes, salt, ginger and garlic paste or powder. 
• Then deep fry/grill the fish depending on your choice. I usually steam the fish with a little water for 2 minutes before frying it. 

• Blend the tomatoes and peppers with the remaining half bulb of onions and thumb-size of fresh ginger. 
• Pour this in a pot and boil it for 10 to 20 minutes till the water is almost dried up. 

• In a saucepan, heat up some oil, add the remaining chopped onions and some chopped garlic and fry for some seconds. 
• Add the tomato paste and fry this for 3 minutes
• Then you pour in the boiled tomatoes, add your spices and one seasoning cube, cover the pot and leave to cook for 20 minutes, you know it's done when the stew starts sticking to the bottom of the pot, the tomato no longer has a sour taste, and you can see oil floating on top. 
• Stir in the crayfish into the stew and cook for further 2 minutes to allow it's flavour to be released and infused into the stew. 
• Add some water (and the fish stock if you have any) to reduce the thicknwss of the stew, add in your grilled/fried fish, taste for seasoning and salt, and leave to simmer for about 10 minutes before you turn off the heat. 

• 1/2 cup of white oats
• 1 cup of water
• 3 tablespoons of milk powder 
• Sweetener (sugar, honey, date syrup etc.) to taste. 

Procedure:

1. Place the water in a pot. You can substitute with equal volume of whole milk or 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk. 
2. Add the oats and stir
3. Cover and cook for 5 minutes on a medium heat stirring occasionally to avoid burning. 
4. Add a little more water if the consistency is too thick for your liking and especially if you'll be adding milk powder. 
5. Bring down from heat and pour in a plate. Add the milk powder and your choice of sweetener to taste, mix properly and serve.

Microwave:

Add-ins/Toppings:

• For flavours and spice: ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla
• Fruits either chopped up or as a puree: banana, apple, mango, grapes, berries. 
• Nuts and seeds: almonds, peanuts, cashew nuts, chia seeds etc.  

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• In a clean pot, heat up the oil, add the remaining onions and the blended pepper and fry till the onions become translucent. 
• Add the water leaf and cover the pot for 3 minutes to allow it wilt down. 
• Pour in the meat and stock, add the ground crayfish,the Okazi leaves, stir, add some cayenne pepper if you want it more spicy, taste for seasoning and adjust the salt. 
• Cover the pot and cook for 10 minutes and turn of the heat. 
• Serve with your choice of swallow; cassava fufu, eba, pounded yam etc. 

Enjoyed my afang soup recipe? Why don’t you check out my other soup recipe: Groundnut Soup (Nigerian Version). 

Don't forget to leave me a comment below and tag me @onceuponafoodlover or use the hashtag #onceuponafoodlover on Facebook and Instagram with pictures of your recreation. I would live to see! 

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HAPPY COOKING! 

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