Recipes From a Pantry's Tanzanian Style Mussel Curry

In the past I've made mussels in a fragrant wine sauce but I was inspired by a recipe in Sirocco. However, most of the ingredients were hard to come by and I had just finished my tube of harissa! On the next page there was a recipe for Tumeric Clams and via a search on Pinterest I knew I could find a recipe that combined mussels and tumeric with easier to find ingredients. Luckily, I found Recipes From a Pantry's recipe for Tanzanian Style Mussel Curry which sounded delicious!

Yay or Nay: Yay

This was fast, healthy and most importantly yummy! It tasted like a fragrant and light curry which didn't overwhelm the taste of the mussels. The best part was that the sauce was so saucy that it was brilliant to mop up with bread!

Bowl's Summer Ramen

I spotted cookbook Bowl at my local library and the premise is, pretty much meals in one bowl. Written by Lukas Volger, a veggie expert (as it states in the blurb) it was worth a flip through.

As the Hubby was out fishing for most of the day I wanted something fresh, healthy and most importantly made up of ingredients that he refuses to eat. I was planning to make something else from the book but I figured this would be easy and quick enough to whip up for lunch!

Yay or Nay: Yay

This was light, refreshing and smugly healthy! I didn't have some of the ingredients on the list so I omitted them or replaced them with similar items. Instead of buying 5 ears of fresh corn I subbed with canned corn, of which I used the liquid in the can as part of the broth as I couldn't get the corn milk that you would get from fresh corn. I'm assuming you'd get more corn-like flavour. I didn't add onion (none at home), togarashi, scallions or egg as I didn't think it would take away too much from the flavour profile - though I'd rethink the onion (for sweetness). I didn't have kombu (which I can't get my hands on here) so I subbed with some Korean seaweed/kelp.

Jamie Oliver's Baked Beans

Summer is officially here! The sun is out and everyone is thinking about BBQ-ing/ grilling/ cooking out/ having a braai! The best thing about whacking things on the grill is that you don't have to spend hours slaving over a stove and you can ask the other half to do it for you!! Thinking of a side dish is probably the trickiest thing for me, I usually want something healthy to counteract the unknown meat in hot dogs! In the States, it's all about adding crisps/chips and corn, and baked beans! However, baked beans here are NOT like Heinz Baked Beans of my youth! I knew I had to make my own, and where else could I look but Jamie Oliver! I got the recipe for Baked Beans from his Comfort Food cookbook but I found a similar one online. 

Yay or Nay: Yay

I warn you, this is not a quick throw-everything-in-a-pan kind of dish. It is low and slow, at least at the beginning, and actually at the end too! But it is worth it - I think one bird-'s eye chili was enough as you could definitely taste the heat. Also make sure to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes as I didn't and I definitely felt the tomato pang!