My favourite weight loss hack

Helloooooooooooooo

 

I know some of you have been dying to read another post from Ndudu tales... We're baaaackk!! I've been dying too...

 

I hate to disappoint anyone who was waiting for another recipe from the first Bake Off... kaaa* worry (don't worry), I got you covered. It'll come soon.

 

Now on to this post! My favourite weight loss hack...

 

Now you can take it from me. I have struggled with weight gain from when hit puberty to date. I have a slow metabolic rate so a little food goes a very long way. I stopped playing and running and just being a very active child because, well, we all grew up and we didn't feel like it anymore. I love my food. I love that I love my food and can love myself for loving my food. However, I love rich tasty and most often unhealthy food so that doesn't help much with active weight loss either. I can say no most times, but sometimes the 'leniency' does get out of hand. I don't exercise as much as I should, like most people, but with the above, I am constantly a weight gain 'surprise' about to happen. So do trust me, my battle with weight gain won't be going anywhere.

 

Another thing I learnt soon after puberty was the constant pressure to lose weight. Sometimes it was me, because honestly some clothes just look nice when I'm slimmer. Plus it's easier to adjust a dress too big than one too small... lol... I learnt that more when I started to sew. I became very aware that the diseases that often killed my maternal and paternal family were all weight related, or aggravated by unhealthy weight: hypertension, diabetes, etc. I had family members and friends who would constantly remind me that I needed to lose weight even if I couldn't be bothered. And yes, being curvaceous adds to the fatty look if you aren't fully aware of that yourself. So the pressure has come in all shapes and sizes (I just really enjoyed my own pun) and so has my figure. I have lost and gained so many times I have stopped counting.

 

I could go on and on about truly understanding and accepting that I needed to lose weight and decoupling it from enjoying being me no matter my weight, body fat, or metabolic rate but this post is not about that. So I am glad to move on to why we're here.... my favourite weight loss hack

 

It's water. Yes, water. No fizzy water, no flavoured water... plain water...

 

 

And not just water, but water at periodic times coupled with food portions that have been halved in size. I lieth to you not! It works like magic.

 

It requires discipline, like everything new, but you would see the wonders in weeks if you are really up to the task.

 

The best weight loss combo is a healthy diet and a sound exercise routine that works for you. For me, who loves my sweet things and tends to fall and rise on diet for different reasons, I realized this really came through for me anytime I fell short in the healthy diet or exercise. It also did real wonders with the diet-exercise combo!

 

The plan

Set an alarm!

Yes, you are not that weird if you are that determined. See my most recent alarm set below or on my Instagram post

An alarm works. It works because well, you're reminded and two, you only need to finish one new full glass with after each bell. Whether you will gulp it down like me or sip it all before the next alarm is really up to you. I love an hour and a half after each meal, a glass with each meal and preferably a glass 30mins before each meal. Luckily for me, my alarm often clocks 30mins before my set meal times so it's convenient.

 

Drink at various temperatures

I learnt quickly that drinking one glass of water frequently through the day was very very very boring. So what I do now is I drink it at different temperatures throughout the day.

 

In the morning, it's often chilled water with a steamy hot breakfast I often need to gulp down fast. In between it's lukewarm and warm water. At lunch and supper, especially if I am home, I love to have my water hot just because it relieves indigestion more easily.

So whatever your temperature, make it suitable for you. Just mix and match till it's no longer a drudging process for you. Temperature can make a significant difference... turn up the heat or just chill 😎 Either way, this emoji will still apply to your water 'fun'... lolllllzzz

 

Drink water whilst cooking

In our bid to taste our food, we may end up overeating our food before it's finally cooked. Water is a good way to avoid the chef nibbles that make us gain unnecessary weight.

I mentioned this in my Surf cakes post under #HEALTH HACK - Don't consume too many calories in the process... Have a glass f water with you whilst cooking and keep drinking till you're done.

 

Drink a glass at a time

You know, in our get-it-all-done-at-once world, we will be tempted to drink a gallon for the day and forget about it. Unfortunately, I've tried and it isn't as effective as a glass every hour or so. I did mention the glass in the previous points but I really feel the need to re-emphasize this. This is because drinking a lot of water at once can be discouraging if you aren't used to it.

 So if you really want to drink a lot of water eventually, please start with a glass, or even half a glass every 1-2 hours, and do stick to this time frame. If your intervals are less than an hour it can get tiring and if too far apart, well not as effective. After a while as your body gets used to it, you can go up and before you know it, your ambitious self (if you are that ambitious) can do three glasses at a go.

 

Don't kill your water journey prematurely, start small, and increase the quantity per regular drink. You may just be glad I told you this.

 

The other benefits aside weight loss

I must confess, I am getting tired of typing so much, and want to conclude soon. So what I am going to do is try and list a few from the top of my head and then encourage you to find out more on Google. Here's my Google search link on benefits of water. You may adapt it to get more and more specific. It's interesting when you know why you're doing something than just what you're doing. So all the best with your search and enjoy my list below 😁

• You're more hydrated so your skin and body systems just work, and look, better.
• You're less hungry when you reduce your meal size since hunger pangs are number one enemy to keeping that up.
• Since you're less hungry you can more rationally make choices on what you want to eat and not just what your body craves.
• Did I say a more hydrated you... yhup, I'll say it again, you're a more hydrated you with this hack.
• If you have indigestion or any tummy issues, water is a good way to curb the symptoms.
• You are less prone to headache and cold symptoms. Water helps flush the stuff that cause these out of your body as you use the washroom a lot more.

 

A word of caution

Drinking more water more regularly would make you use the bathroom/washroom/little girls'/boys' room a lot more. Be prepared for that.

 

And do monitor it since knowing the pattern of your bladder and water intake will come in handy on days you cannot use the washroom as much as you are free to on the average. Say you need to be more active at an event or you just don't have access to a washroom, stuff like that.

 

I, for instance, have a two hour lag so I know that if I have a major event at 6pm that will last for hours and I can't be getting up every hour or so to use the washroom, I put a halt to my drinking spree before or by 4pm. It's useful to know. It helps me, I hope it does too.

 

 

 

Finally!!!!! We're done with this post. Congratulations for getting to the very end. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, or learnt anything new, please share this with others 😊

And do remember to let us know at Ndudu tales what you think of this post, or if you tried any of our hacks here. From us here at Ndudu tales, we hope to see you soon, and have a wonderful water-ful experience.

 Footnote
*kaaa worry is an English-Ga combo which means don't worry. Ga is one of the many Ghanaian languages

And the Surf cakes were...

Hello everyone,

 

A wonderful Friday to us all, or a wonderful any-day-it-is-today-for-you... lol

 

So I'm beginning to type out how we made all those tasty treats from the first Bake off with Chizzie and Doro. Since this is the first of this 'series', I assure you it will be long because most of my baking hacks will be found here. I'll only reference this post in future ones so I don't need to talk as much then. So do relax, read slowly or in bits at a time and enjoy...

 

Today, I'm going to reveal what the surf cakes were actually meant to be had it not been for our fan that circulated the heat, and 'created' our surf cakes... lol...

 

 

So our surf cakes, plain, Milo-d and raisin-ed, were actually (suspense-creating drumroll) cupcakes!!!! From my all time favourite cup cake recipe at Food.com. Awesome taste and texture and easy to follow and make, this recipe is now my go to standard cake recipe. I'm yet to try any other... this just brings out what I, Ofosua, want in a cake. Do try it sometime and tell me what you like about it...

 

Now on to my hacks for this recipe...

 

 

Sugar

The recipe says 3/4 cup of sugar. Since I don't like extremely-sugary-tasting food, I used 1/2 cup. I believe it maintained the rich sweet taste without making me feel I was chewing on cake-textured sugar... lol

 

Milk

My next hack is the milk. I used powdered milk and water, and not fresh milk, or even evaporated milk. Can you guess why? It's because powdered milk allows you to cheat on milk content and flavour without compromising the fluid content of the cake batter.... so cool!! I could literally add a full cup of powdered milk and 3/4 of water and still not noticeably upset the fluid balance in the batter. I end up with creamier cake... and trust me, with this recipe, creamier is just to live for! (Not die for, cos you won't be alive to eat it it if you die for it 😂😂😂)

 

Salt

Another hack is the amount of salt I used. Though this recipe said 1/2 teaspoon, I used 1 levelled teaspoon. Why? Well, with a little more salt you could enhance your sweet taste as you reduce your sugar content. Awesome hack for me, but be cautious, over doing the sugar-salt balance is a true juggling act for any 'new' recipe. If you mess it up, please forgive yourself and try again till you're just good at it 😁 and that recipe is conquered! May I hear an Amen?? Lol

 

Butter vs Margarine

My next hack is using Stork baking margarine instead of butter. Stork baking margarine makes a lot of sense if unsalted butter is expensive where you live. It works like butter and has never disappointed me in this area of butter-alternative. Proper margarine will make your cakes and other bakies more dense and maybe tougher. Proper margarines do have their place in the Circle of Baking Life, but if you're a light and fluffy cake lover like me, do butter or Stork baking margarine.

 

Vanilla Essence vs Mixed Spices

This hack came about because I did not have vanilla essence the first time I tried this recipe a few weeks ago... but I had Robertsons Mixed Spices!! This Google link may tell you more about my all time favourite Robertsons bottle. It's good for ehhhverything... soup, stews, and cakes!! It's magic to my meals. A few shakes does wonders, bringing out flavour that was hidden in food. I digress... back to this hack for this recipe. So instead of vanilla essence, I added 4 shakes of Robertsons mixed spices through the perforated opening. Like essence, you just need a little to do an great job. Too much would overwhelm the other flavours in the cake.

 

Hand mixers vs Folding in

Another hack is, I used a hand mixer, which is shown in the second photo in this post. Quick, efficient and fun if you like seeing how it twirls patterns out of each stage of the batter. BUT BUT BUT do not use the hand mixer at the last stage when adding the flour. Please don't. It will toughen the cake and make it a cookie. Don't believe me? See what's below, same recipe, but I got delicious cookies:

Don't be deceived by its nice look. This pretty flop was intended to have texture that looked like this:



However, it missed that look, and had a rich cookie look instead. Like short cake, just softer... still incredibly delicious, but a true disappointment if you wanted the fluffy cup cake texture.

 

SO INSTEAD, fold the flour and other remaining ingredients at this stage into the cake mix. This means stir in the flour, a little at a time, in one direction with your spoon/palette moving in a circular fashion from the bottom of the mixing bowl to the top of the batter. If you do not move it in one direction till all the flour is folded in, you'll get lumps that would need more stirring to get rid of. The point of folding in is to reduce the stirring as much as possible, and maintain a light fluffy texture when cooked. So avoid lumps, and enjoy folding in... it's a sure sign that the end is near 😉😌😋😎

 

Make it more interesting...

My last-but-one hack with this recipe was to make different cakes from the same batter. Just throw in something as you fill your making moulds!! At the first Bake off, we used Milo for the large rectangular cake and dropped some raisins in the heart shaped mould... For my tasty cake-turned-cookie disaster, I used Kellog's Fruit Granola and Pick n Pay Bran Flakes... just throw something in... you'll never know what will become of it. And remember... if it 'fails', please forgive yourself and try again another day. You won't regret you did....

 

#HEALTH HACK - Don't consume too many calories in the process...

There's the temptation to taste every thing at every single stage because it makes us feel good or invokes childhood memories, if your parent or guardian baked. My hack? Have a full glass of water with you at all times. Each time you feel like tasting the batter, or anything else, just take a sip and remember to top it up. It's great for rehydration from all the heat by the oven and keeps your mouth shut from all those sweet licks and dips. Plus topping it up helps you not to forget to refill an empty glass... lol... A glass of water IS your friend whilst baking. Coming from one who easily puts on weight, trust me, it's so worth it.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading this lengthy post... You've done a yeoman's job reading it all. I'm now tired from writing it all too at this point and can celebrate its finals words.... and get myself some breakfast 😄 I'm hungry... 😜

 

I hope you enjoyed my hacks and they are useful to your baking experience... and make you feel like a baking celebrity when you get all those compliments!!!

 

 

For the day you bake again (or for the first time), we, at Ndudu tales, wish you a Happy Baking Experience!

 

 

 

If you enjoyed reading this post at Ndudu tales or simply learnt something new, please share it with others. And do let us know what you think in the comments below. Thank you.

The Bake Off!!

Hello oooo...

I did promise Vanessa on my Instagram post that I would type this out 'soon'. But I honestly didn't assume soon would have been this late... lol... so here we are today 😄, better late than never...

So some friends and I agreed to have a bake off!! It was fun!! It was tiring! Mehn, you should have seen us making excuses on who should make the filling or who should make the cut outs or who should whip the batter or make the dough... who should be the student and who should be the teacher who doesn't get involved too much so the student can learn properly... loolll... My goodness it was fun! And tiring, I can't underestimate that...

So with the help of Google and all those lovely links, the confidence Chizzie and Doro, and Dexter placed in me as the 'teacher' for the day and the awesome teamwork from 4 and a half individuals and our families, tada-aaaaa!!! Presenting (Drum roll) the works of our hands from about 3kgs of flour, almost 12 hours of baking bonding, babysitting and so much more!!

The shot from the top is blurred, true, but made a good 'header' in the Layout app because of how I took the shot.

You can see our initial set up, middle left, which includes, but is not limited to, our tools and ingredients.

Next to this shot is the final display of what was left at the end of the bake off, taken at a different angle from our 'header'.

What follows (middle right) is our first set of cakes... lol... which I like to call surf cakes because they all came out slightly slanted because we left the fan on in the oven to improve heat circulation. It really did improve it, but it also gave us this unexpected slant... lol... It's pretty interesting when we all get to learn something new in a bake off. So now, I know how to make surf cakes... lol... and by clicking here you would also know what else went into the making of these surf cakes #allsmiles 

(Disclaimer: if you Google surf cakes and do not find this, please know I made it up because of the way they looked and people like surfing in my current location).

The shots at the bottom are all close ups of what was left at the end of the Bake Off. Yes, we did munch some of it along the way and children do love a snack or two during Bake Offs so please bear with us. lolol... Luckily, however, everything we baked is featured here 😊

Our Sweets

So in the bottom left picture, we have brownie cakes, and then brownie buns by the Milo-d surf cake. Below that we have our famous apple pie! There's a story to that which will go with the Apple pie post later on. By the apple pie we have the heart shaped surf cake that was baked with raisins... mmmm... delicious!! In the same green plate we have the last surviving apple tart... lol... and some oversized funny looking chinchins that were made from mixing the remaining apple pie dough and filling. Above that in the bluish bowl, we have the plain surf cakes... I love these surf cakes... watch out for the post and know what it really was supposed to be... #giggling

Our Savouries

On to the next picture, we will skip the green and bluish bowls and show you the quiche we made. These quiche are minced beef quiche. The only difference between the two is that ones at the back were baked in larger baking moulds.

The last picture in the 'matrix' features minced beef pie on the cooking foil. My goodness!!! That pie was so heavy, I really should have weighed it if I had taken my scale!! Aside the surrounding crust, we just have minced beef and some veggies in there. I will talk about them too in a subsequent post.

The heart shaped beauties are also quiche, just that it was baked with only its base being made of dough. The rest is pure quiche filling and I love the way its shape is maintained and I have less crust-carbs to deal with... lol... If you look carefully, you would notice with the heart shaped quiche, some look really yellow. Well, the yellow ones are chicken fillet quiche. The darker ones are minced beef quiche like the others in the previous picture. The disparity in both kinds of quiche tickle me because I remember being taught as a child that 'yellow' in Twi (a Ghanaian language) is akokɔ sradeɛ which literally means chicken fat. It's just interesting for me, but honestly, those chicken fillets looked absolutely fatless. Hmmmm... makes me wonder...

The last set of bakies are our chicken pies. I am told they are Cornish pies because of the fold, yet to verify but so cool... really cool... these are our Chicken Cornish pies. Yum!

Now, having typed out all that, it dawns on me how much we baked that day! Eeessshhh... no wonder my energy was gone gone. This is such a long post!!

So congrats to Chizzie and Doro, we pulled off this forever planned bake off!! And yes, you were awesome 'students', when we are rich and famous we can say this was our first bake off for the record. It was just a very beautiful experience for me, guys, thank you... Dex & Chizzie, thanks for having us over, you were wonderful hosts...  God bless...

Thanks for reading this post at Ndudu tales. If you liked it, please share with others. And remember to tell us what you think of it.



Intro to The Sweet Tooth

Everything Chocolate, everything sweet
Everything fruity, everything cream
Cold, hot, warm or room temp treats
The things that had Mama insist I brush my teeth!!
Childhood memories of happy festivities
Adult indulgences of tasty pleasantries
The Sweet Tooth activated
The Sweet Tooth just tasted
Drinks, meals, snacks, desserts, and ad hoc munchies
The Sweet Tooth remembered to tell its sweet stories

Intro to Savoury-ish

You know, nothing beats a wonderful stir fry on noodle-feeling day. And how about that good old soup with lots of chicken that gets you dreaming on a cold day? Hot pizza or refreshing wraps when those meetings seemed to never end? Not all things sweet tickle our fancy all the time... and that's why savoury-ish has us all covered on our soup, stew, curry, grilled, fried, baked, noodle, rice, yam, potato, cassava, boiled days that are not sweet but surely a taste from heaven...

Enjoy the savoury-ish tales with us... now what am I having for my next lunch again?? 

Intro to Health Hacks

Here we share the 'healthier' options we've discovered or learnt along life's way, knowing we all need those everyday greater goodness that will balance our 'occasional' diet sins... lol... please don't tell any dietician I know I said this... shhhhh... (my eyes glancing to the left and right)... shhhhh... (I just winked at you... lol)

Intro to Eat Outs

Yes, we love to cook... but not all the time 😛... So join us on our trips to the scrumptious world outside our cooking spaces because once in a while don't you just want to have (or not have) something someone else has tried? Lol

Intro to Bake me

Baking can be fun, a hassle, a necessary evil, or simply an enjoyable aromatic experience. Whatever it is for you, let's share ours with you... our baking hacks, the links that made us stars in the eyes of our friends, family and customers, and of course, the failures we sure don't want you to repeat!

Welcome to our delicious baking world. Welcome to Bake me!!

Intro to Drink Up!!!

We love to have tasty drinks. Not just one that simply helps while away our time or refreshes our thirst. That is functional and necessary for most... but we truly love the ones that have a conversation with our tastebuds, that remind us of a lovely place, that increases the smiles in a situation. This is experential... yeah, we love these kind of drinks...

The Granadilla Collins and a jist of why we're here

Hi everyone!!

So Vanessa and I really really love food and about a year ago we decided to create a blog for it. I mean, it would have been kinda lazy to do it on our own so welcome to our partnership  :D !! We thought aside it being fun to proclaim to the world what we were cooking and tasting and discussing and taking shots of, we also did feel it could just be easier for many others, if we shared our tips and tricks, our bumps and dips, and our views on our foodie life. I mean we would keep learning, and so would our readers, maybe even you today :) Obviously, we won't survive without you guys (no matter how cliché that sounds) so do leave your comments, let us know what you think and give us your suggestions on what you want to see here at Ndudu tales. It'd be encouraging to hear from you.

For those who may not know what ndudu is (I must confess I did not know till we started creating a name for this blog), ndudu is food in Ewe, one of the languages in Ghana. Why we chose it? Sounded more interesting to us at the time than chitchatchop or aduane... so yeah, this is us. Or rather me saying who we are :P

I'm Ofosua and for our first post I decided to talk about cocktails...

I am an absolute sucker for cockatils, and because I do not drink at all, I do virgins. So anytime I go to a restaurant that serves cocktails, I ask for the barman's/mixologist's best cocktail! I can get disappointed by that at times, but honestly, many many times I am simply BBBBBBlowwwnn away.

And talking about blown away, please let me tell you my ultimate favourite cocktail so far!

It is called the Granadilla Collins and I had it at Barrio, Gateway in Durban. Here's my Google search link to the restaurant: Ofosua's Google Search for Barrio Restaurant and the Google Maps link to it just in case you are in Durban one day and want to try it: Google Maps to Barrio. Also here's a link to my original Instagram post of this photo: Ofosua's Instagram - the Granadilla Collins at Barrio

Now, my killer punches for cocktails are a fruity zang, and layers!! And oh my did this Grandilla Collins nail it! From the bottom was real, and I mean real, pomegranate pulp, seeds and all! The next layer, I honestly cannot remember what flavor it was but it was definitely some freshly squeezed juice, that I surely recall. The following layer you see in the photo above was another very interesting part for me aside the pomegranate pulp that had caught me by complete surprise. It was sweet soda water, or probably unsweetened. It was chilled and just something I did not know before. The pinkish last layer initially I thought was from some strawberry cordial, but later on I figured it was from those berries infusing their own juice into the soda water. Topped with a sliced lemon and served with a long dark straw, this cocktail was a true sight to behold for me. A delight to my eyes and my taste buds, the Granadilla Collins at Barrio Restaurant at Gateway is just awesome.

A bit on the ambience of Barrio itself, well it really was one of the first restaurants I had been to in Durban so the level of detail did awe me. I think after being here a while, I noticed it was more of a culture here than something one particular restaurant or office or home did. Even in that, the soft colours of the room and that worn by waiters, the mirrors, the paintings, the aquarium, et al do remind you that you are in a Mediterranean place. And I was definitely pleased with the service.

So please, do pass by Barrio at Gateway when in Umhlanga and ask of my current favourite cocktail, the Granadilla Collins, if ever in Durban. And if you ever have the chance to do so like I did, don't forget to tell me what you think. I hope you love it!!



Added later:
So my friends had the Collins at Barrio, and they requested I add some tips to this post. Please drink the Collins by taking a sip from each layer throughout the drink, if you're anything like me on layered drinks... lol... Or, do remember to mix the layers lest you are left with soda water and ice at some point. It is an enjoyable drink, but not doing this can upset the experience. And they are absolutely right! Thank you, Sine and Kerusha!!!
 

From left to right: Sine, me and Kerusha at Barrio

 

 

 

Thanks for reading our first post at Ndudu tales. If you liked it, please share with others. And remember to tell us what you think of it.