Baobab Fruit Flour

One of the most majestic trees in Africa is the baobab tree, mlambe in my native language, Chichewa. 

Coincidentally, the hospital where I was born is called Mlambe Hospital. 

The fruit from the baobab tree looks like this:

My Aunt came back from Malawi a few weeks ago and bought me a kilo of baobab fruit flour. When I was a kid, we used to eat the fruit and chew on the seed. It was delicious. During my last trip back home, I was introduced to baobab popsicles and I fell in love!  I heard it's the next big thing in cooking and also in beauty products. I'm going to have a great time experimenting.

Lentil Curry

Being vegan isn't so bad after all! Link here

Roast Potatoes

Hockey Game!

I Can't believe that I've been in Canada for 9 years and I've never been to a hockey game! Thanks to Jade, I got a free ticket to watch the Vancouver Giants take on the Medicine Hat Tigers at the Pacific Coliseum. The Giants won 3-2. Great game!

Vegetarian Jamaican Bean Stew

Since I'm on a 3-week vegan diet, I'm on the look-out for more vegetarian and bean recipes. This was delicious and lasted so long! Recipe here

Stir-fried Mushroom and Bok Choy

Russian Christmas Party

Thank you Tatiana and Pavel for inviting me to your Russian Christmas party:) Everything was delicious and I had a great time!

Christmas Dinner

Christmas dinner at my parent's house

                                          Delicious salmon!

                                         Turkey

                                           Christmas Salad

                                          Profiteroles made by my sister

A Christmas tradition at our house: English Trifle

Chicken Mushroom Marsala

Almond Roca

 Part Two of my Christmas gifts; almond roca!

First, I  toasted some slivered almonds

Then I melted some butter and sugar together:

I then cooked the mixture until it reached the hard-crack stage 

 Then I spread the almonds on a cookie sheet, poured the toffee mixture on top and sprinkled some chocolate chips on top and waited for a couple of minutes to let it melt

Then I swirled the chocolate around with a spoon

Waited for it to cool and then broke it into pieces

Finally, they were packed into small bags

Verdict: very popular among my friends! I will never buy store-bought almond roca again!

Whipped Shea Coconut Butter

Time to make Christmas presents! This time I made whipped shea coconut butter by melting together some oils and beating the mixture with an electric whisk.

I added (from left to right)

Almond oil , aloe vera gel, grapeseed oil, vitamin E, Coconut oil, essential oils, Shea butter courtesy of my friend, Gifty (Thanks Gifty!).

After cooling it in the freezer for a while, it looked like this:

And then I cooled it again:

Finally, I packed it into cute decorative jars:

Verdict? Great, natural skin moisturizer!