Mulokia

Having lived in the Middle East for 20 years I have a love for Middle -Eastern food. Most people think of the food of that area as purely Lebanese food like koubi, tabouli, shawerma, stuffed vine-leaves, kousa but there are variations in every country of the region.
One of our favourite dishes is mulokia, a staple of Jordanian and Egyptian cuisine. It's made from the leaves of the mulokia plant (jew's mallow in English). I remember sitting on cushions on the floor with other women spending all morning stripping leaves and laying them out to dry in the sun, ready to be packed away to use in the winter.

Photo courtesy of Pinakbet. This is what fresh Molokhia looks like and this is what I would like to be able to buy, but I've not found it anywhere in England. So I have to use the dried version which I found in Taj supermarket in Brighton.
Anyway here is my finished dish.

Here's the recipe if you want to make it yourself.
Fry 1 chopped large onion til slightly browned. Add 1 chopped large tomato, cook for 2 minutes. Add 1/2 bag of mulokia leaves, chopped. Add 1 pint hot water, 2 oxo cubes and 1 whole garlic finely chopped. Bring to the boil then turn to a low heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve over rice.
Most people serve this with chicken either cooked in the mulokia or roasted, but we like it without.

Wednesday's Words of Weightloss Wisdom

So true, so very true. I am my own worst enemy.

Recipes with Heinz

I have entered a recipe competition on the All Recipes website. The competition is sponsored by Heinz soups, so your recipe has to feature Heinz soup, obviously, as a 'secret ingredient'.
I have used their new soup in a tube called Squeeze & Stir. It's a cup-a-soup but in a tube. It's a puree rather than a powder and makes a mugful of soup when diluted with hot water and stirred. There are 4 flavours to choose from - tomato, tomato and basil, vegetable and minestrone.
This is what I have made using the tomato and basil flavour. I'm sure if you had seen the photo before the mention of soup you'd never have thought that soup was an ingredient.

Wednesday's Words of Weightloss Wisdom

Via http://skinnywillbeworthit-deactivated.tumblr.com/post/3421357258

Hyper Japan 2011

On Sunday I had a great day out at the Hyper Japan Show at Olympia 2 in London. It was a fabulous event full of shopping, eating and shows (3 of my favourite things).
The food stalls were really busy, and they needed a lot more space. As expected there was Sushi on offer from Yutaka, Sushi Plus and So Restaurant, but also lots of other great foods like Ramen Bento, Minamoto Kitchoan and Manpukutei. As a dutiful show goer I had to try them to report to you that everything was yummy but my favourites were the fried chicken skewers, the green tea brownie and the prawn bento.
The bazaar had lots of stalls selling cutesy Kawaii style goodies and lolita dresses , but there were also stalls with Japanese films, Manga, T-shirts (bought 2) and if you fancied your portrait in Manga style then there were 4 artists scribbling away feverishly to get through a massive queue of people.
The 2 shows I watched were the Cosplay and Kawaii costume contests. The attention to detail and effort people had put into their costumes was amazing and the Final Fantasy weapons were brilliant.
Will definately be going next year.

Felicity's handmade hair accessories http://www.now-voyager.co.uk/

Samples of the award winning sushi.

                                                                   Mmmmmmm macarons           

Fabulous Final Fantasy cosplay

                                                          Final Fantasy Cosplay group

                                                               Have a go at making sushi

                                                          Kawaii contestant.

Feta and Beetoot

I have got loads of beetroot and didn't really know what to do with it. Well here is a great simple to make and tasty recipe.

Cook and dice the beetroot and place in serving dish.
Add cubed or crumbled feta cheese.
Top with some toasted pine nuts.

I used Apetina feta cubes. I put lots of pine nuts because I love them. You don't have to put that many if you don't want.

Can be served warm or cold.

Wednesday's Words of Weightloss Wisdom

from trainingforhealth.tumblr.com