COVID-19 LOCKDOWN 2

Hi everyone

Still on the COVID-19 LOCKDOWN!!!!

As at yesterday, as much as one quarter of the whole world is on Lockdown. Only persons that offer essential services (like Health workers) or sell basic necessities like food, water and medications are allowed to go to work. Initially, death was mostly amongst the elderly and those with medical conditions. Regrettably, mortality has been recorded among young persons who had no medical illnesses.

Please remember to ‘STAY SAFE’!!

Today we will continue in getting healthy within the period.
The second step is HEALTHY DIET

We discussed the issues of diet in the 1st week of September 2019.
Components include:
Fresh food: meat, fish, yams ETC
Non processed Foods
Plant oils instead of animal oils
Drink water
Reduce salt intake
Eat more fresh foods and vegetables ETC

It is common knowledge that a good number of us have been far too busy to cook healthy meals. This is because of our extremely busy schedules. Hence we either eat fast foods or eat cooked food in restaurants or have a help cook our meals. Some of us even buy pots of food cooked.
The lockdown has given us the opportunity to cook healthy meals once again.I mean good old home African cooking. We have the time within this period. It is also a wonderful time to teach our children some of these lost skills.

Remember those cooking skills we picked from our mothers and grandmothers as follows:
Peeling egusi (melon seeds): some children have never seen egusi seeds before
Plucking Okazi and cutting from the scratch: usually buy it cut from the market
Washing bitter vegetables like Bitterleaf, Atama or Editan (very tough)
Pounding pepper and tomatoes (with mortar and pestle) or grinding with grind stone: Blenders are much faster and smoother or we grind in the market
Washing beans for moi moi and akara
Preparing Abacha (wet and dry) from cassava
Cutting periwinkles (Yes ooo, there is an art to it)
Preparing banga/ofe akwu
Roasting and cooking over fire (fire wood or charcoal)
Preparing our wonderful African dishes
ETC ETC

Looks like I am taking you back to the dark ages: May be, may be NOT!!

Please let us not throw away everything African. The developed world is doing everything to retrace their steps. Yours truly once stayed at a hotel while attending a conference in Berlin. The selling point of the hotel was that it started in 1892 and the hotelier used her grandmother and great grandmother’s recipes. Believe you me that was the only thing that made the hotel tick. They displayed their antique crockery, cooking utensils, cookers and all to prove their antiquity: I tell you. I also learnt of an upscale restaurant in France whose selling point is ‘Cooking with Firewood’.

Refresh and refurnish these skills and teach your children same. Your diet will be much healthier. Again, doing these together will foster skills acquisition, togetherness, growth and in fact gratification. You may be surprised how much your children will enjoy the experience. In addition, they may need them some day.

Thanks for reading!!