JOYCE DASER ADAMS. (Tomato Jos)

Every week, we have an array of beautiful exceptional women that we like to celebrate. This week is no exception, as we celebrate the beautiful Joyce Daser Adams. Engr Joyce is an automobile mechanical engineer and also an entrepreneur. She has a foundation, where young girls are trained on the best and advanced way of being a mechanic. She seeks to

change the narrative, that women cannot succeed as automoblie mechanics and the impression that only men can be great in it.

Joyce is married with three beautiful girls, and she loves her family. On being able to cope with career and family, she said it hasn't been easy, but she has a supporting husband who makes it easy. She likes to cook. Even though it is not her hobby, she derives satisfaction from feeding her family. She said she has always been a home girl. Been the first daughter, she has always cooked and learnt first hand from her mother.

On a funny experience she has had from food, she said; "Hahahaha.... Okay, one time I had guest over for dinner, I had bragged so much about the food I was going to serve them. It was a coconut rice recipe I saw online. I should have done a trial before that day but I didn't. I guess I was over confindent or carried away, it didn't turn out well and after keeping them for long I ended up taking them out."

Joyce prefers to cook at home, rather than eat out. She said home cooked meals are the best.

Joyce has a favorite meal, and would love to share the recipe.

It's a traditional recipe from my home town in Plateau State. I modified it a little although the original recipe is great too.

RECIPE
Acha or Local Rice
Beef/Chicken stripes or shredded
Salt
Seasoning cubes
Veg. Oil
Carrot
Green beans
Green bell pepper
Red bell pepper
Yellow bell pepper
Tomatoes
Scotch bonnets
Onions.

METHOD
1. Cook the rice as you would your regular white rice or if it's the acha, cook it using steaming method.  Set aside
2. All the veggies should be cut in Julien stripes except the onions which will be chopped.
3. Heat oil in a pan and fry the onions, add the beef or chicken or goat meat and stir till it browns.
4. Remove from oil and set aside. Pour in the veggies and stir fry, seasoning it to taste.
5. Add the meat and stir till well combined.
6. Taste and correct seasoning.
7. Serve with  Acha or white rice garnished with chopped Parsley.

This great woman, who can create magic in the kitchen, yet still change the world, is our TOMATO JOS.  She deserves to be celebrated, and we are proud to celebrate her.

You can find her on Instagram
@autoladyjoyce
@autoladyinspire.               
                                                                                                                             Written by Mary-Jane.

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COFFEE IN YOUR POCKET

How would you feel like to have coffee in your pocket? To have access to coffee every time you want it? And not just any kind of coffee, but the specialty Arabica coffee. Affordable, easy to brew and readily available?
How would all these make you feel?

What's in it for you?

Nice! Everyone likes these questions:
What do I gain?
Why do I need it?
Is it truly necessary?
What's in it for me?
Man is naturally self-centered. It takes a lot of consciousness to think outside of himself and his needs. Man wants to satisfy his desire. So anytime he has to choose between choices, his first instinct is geared towards what's in it for him. This is not bad in itself. It's just the way it is.

Additionally, it is good for one to look out for himself. In the process of trying to be selfless, we end up forgetting ourselves. So whenever you catch yourself asking this question of "what's in it for me", do not berate yourself. Do something for you. And when you catch yourself asking what's in it for me, as regards Oavalze coffee, let us answer you comfortably.

• Specialty Arabica coffee
• Energy on the go
• Alternative excitement
• Alertness.

And much more......

Why is this different?

Here is why this is different:
Most coffee in the market is not specialty coffee. They are instant coffee alright. But they rob you off the pleasure of real coffee. Coffee commands your whole senses. First your eyes sees the black rich color, next your nose smells the strong soothing smell, and when you taste it, your taste buds come alive with the exceptional bitter unique taste. Once the bitter taste lasts on your tongue, there is a zing that your skin feels as you come alive. Instant coffee with its poor quality coffee cannot do that for you.

We understand! Sometimes you do not have the time to brew, or a coffee shop is far from you, yet you need coffee. And not just any kind of coffee, real coffee.

Welcome to the revolution. Coffee in your pocket. Easy to brew, specialty coffee, affordable and accessible. Just dip in a cup of hot water and watch your senses come alive.

Written by Mary Jane.

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A LITTLE TOUCH OF GREEN.

When you live in a country like Nigeria, the last thing on your mind is vegetable. Not because of the lack of availability, but because of the lack of funds. Vegetables are considered a luxury, especially when there's limited fund and the belly just wants to be full. After all, vegetables are not filling.

Our meals in this part of the world, are mostly staple. From garri, to tuwo, to yam to the popular rice. Starchy meals that make up more than 60% of our meals. Even when it comes to protein, we prefer meat (beef) to eggs, beans and fish, which are considered healthier sources of protein.

Before urbanisation invaded our communal and small satisfactory way of living in Nigeria, our parents ate fruits and vegetables. Not like it was a deliberate effort to balance every meal, but it was an innate tendency to eat fruits and vegetables which were easily accessible

One would have thought that, with education and health enlightenment, we would be deliberate about balancing our every meal by always including our greens. But like every good thing, urbanisation came with its bad side.

The fast paced life, the competitive life, the hustle and the bustle of everyday, has greatly affected our eating lifestyle. Most people are not concerned about eating green. The era of gardens and planting a little vegetable here, and a little vegetable there has been wiped off.

Not only do we not have time to own gardens these days, we have also lost the patience to wait for our vegetables and fruits to ripen naturally. We pluck them prematurely, and force them to maturity, with chemicals that are eventually dangerous to the health.

Therefore, when we remember to eat our vegetables, we are not quite certain if we are eating all the complete nutrients that nature allotes to them, as a reward for the patience to completely mature, or we are eating just some of the nutrients that was given by nature, before they were raped of the remaining nutrients because of our impatience.

Still, a meal is not ready, never complete without a little touch of green here, and a little touch of green there. For nature itself is green, and she wants to live inside of us. After all, weren't we made to co-habitate?           
         
                                                                                                                            Written by Mary Jane.

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COOKING WITH YOUR SENSES

In this age of technology, where they are so many things like video games, movies, phones and easy access to emails from work, the temptation to continue work at home is very tempting. Aside that, there is also the demands from family and friends wanting our attention in the middle of cooking.

Never has cooking being a challenge. The tendency to forget that one  has something on fire is more, because of numerous distractions that comes with living in this day and time.

This could translate to food getting burnt, vegetables  loosing their nutrients because they are over cooked, oil getting to hot on fire and basically loosing a lot of gas.

One of the many arts of cooking, is cooking with your senses. The ability to cook with not just the eyes, but with the ears, tongue and mind.

Interestingly, as you practice cooking more often, your mind and senses begin to master the sounds of food. It is also the same way you look at the color of something you fry, and just know when it is cooked by merely looking at the color.

And when someone asks you how you know it is cooked, your reply is often "you just know"
Therefore, if you consciously listen to the sounds around you when you are cooking, you will soon be able to tell ; when the water is boiling, when the water is drying up, the sound for a perfectly sautéd vegetable, the sound of a well fried fish e.t
.c.

It is an art that may not be taught, but it can be surely learned. With conscious effort and a deliberate decision to awaken your senses when it is time to cook.

                                                                                                                             Written by Mary Jane.

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FORCING YOUR CHILDREN TO EAT

Often times, when our children are weaned, or when they clock six months,a mother is usually excited. It is that time of their lives when they are introduced to different kinds of meals. It is also that time of our lives as mothers, when we want to take a break. We become excited about the idea of them getting full on foods that we introduce to them, and spending less time on our nipples.

At six months, some children are already growing teeth, and would nibble on our nipple to test our reactions or maybe scratch their gums. Who knows?.
I'm usually fascinated at how hurt and upset they feel when they are flicked for nibbling on the nipples and would forget very fast, and nibble again.

When they are half a year, they begin to learn to sit, attempt to crawl and stay away from our weary arms a bit longer. The joy, the joy of not holding them all the time, and having a little spare time here and there, to do other things. And not having them get in the way with love!

The joy of this extra free time, gets to us, that we want to force them to eat other meals. We begin to try grains like

Corn (akamu)
Guinea corn (kunu)
Tom brown (a mixture of grains and groundnut)
Acha
And other available cereals.

These are easy grains to prepare, we get frustrated and start closing their nose, grabbing their hands, and forcing food down their throats. We begin to unconsciously make them prisoners of food.

As much as we enjoy this little freedom, the best thing yo give your child at this time is little smashes of fruits like

Avocado
Watermelon
Bananas
A little of things that you eat. Smashed of course.
And if they happen to like cereals, then go all out for it.

After all at six months, you are not weaning the child completely. You are a only taking a break from exclusive breast feeding. W.H.O (world health organization) advice's to breast feed till the child is at least 2.

So six months is not the best time to force them to eat. It is the time to observe them and understand what they like and what they don't like. And if your child is picky at 6months, don't worry. Just feed them what they appreciate for now.

As they keep eating the preferred food, it will ignite their curiosity to want more, or they will get tired of a particular meal and want more.

                                                                                                                   Written by Mary Jane.

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THE PERFECT THICKENER

Have you ever tried preparing banga soup, but it ended up not coming out as thick as you want?

Do you also know that tomatoes paste can be a healthy alternative for smelly thickeners?

Things you'll need

1cup Ovalz tomatoes paste
3 cups palm kernel
Salt
5 balls of pepper (small size)
1 large stock fish
1kg of meat( beef, chicken or mutton.)
1 cup of crayfish
3 seasoning cubes
1 round portioned locust beans (optional)
Basil leaves
Pumpkin leaves (optional)
2 big sized kpomo (thoroughly soaked skin)

Process:
1. Boil your palm kernel until very soft. Put it in a pressure cooker to save time.
2. When it is cooked, put it into a blender or mortar,  whichever is available.  Grind until the coverings are out of the seeds
3. If it's in a blender, pour in two cups of water and blend.
4. Blend until you begin to see the oil come out.
5. If it's in a mortar, pound with out water, until the coverings are out of the seeds, then pour it in to a bowl and squeeze with 2 cups of water, until all the oil is out..
6. Then set it aside and allow to settle before you start
7. Boil your meat and crayfish and stock fish in 1 and 1/2 cup of water. Season with salt,

pepper and seasoning cubes.
8. Allow it to cook until tender, and then pour it out into a bowl.
9. Preserve the stock from the meat, that always adds a sweet flavor to the soup.
10. Now use your hands and fetch the already rising oil from your settled washed palm kernel and put it into your soup pot.

11. Then sieve the remaining liquid, to put away the seeds and the chaff. 

12. Turn the extra liquid, a cup of tomatoes paste and your stock with all the meats, stock fish and crayfish already cooked. 

13. You'd notice that your soup is already slightly thick. 

14. Put it back on fire and add seasoning cubes, pepper and salt to taste.

15. Add already sliced basil leaves 

16. Let it boil until well thickened as you desire. 

16. Add already sliced pumpkin leaves,  allow to steam for few minutes... 

Soup is ready.  Can be eaten with rice, yam, or any staple food. Enjoy. 

                            Written by Mary Jane. 

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MEAT BALL TOMATOES SAUCE, THE RECIPE.

Apart from stew, there are other things that you can use tomatoes paste for. And one of them is meat balls tomatoes sauce. For spaghetti or for rice.

Things you will need

1. 1pack of spaghetti
2. 200g of Ovalz tomatoes paste
3. Two seasoning cubes
4.  3 teaspoon of Ovalz pepper dem
5. Salt
6. Water
7. 250g of minced meat
8. Mashed garlic
9. Mashed ginger
10. Basil
11. Green peppers (optional)
12. Onions

Step by step process
1. Boil your minced meat with the garlic, ginger, salt and pepper. Meat is minced already, so just a little amount of water is required.

2. When meat is Properly cooked, bring it down and put in a separate bowl.

3. Then put a dry pot on fire and allow it to get hot... Then pour 3/4 cups of oil in it and allow to get hot. When hot, pour in your tomatoes paste, and your pepper dem peppers and already diced onions and stir.

4. Then pour in the already cooked meat, basil, and green peppers. Put in the seasoning cubes and salt to taste.

5. Put in the pack of spaghetti and allow to boil for 15minutes.

6. Serve with salads, vegetables and fruits.

           ENJOY!!!
                                                                written by Mary Jane .

   

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