7 Days Of Red Velvet For Valentines Day

We all know next week is Valentines Day right? If not, which rock have you been living under? Haha! Anyway the marketing frenzy has already began with offers, sales, gifts, promotions, competitions and what not. I have none of that! Sigh! But, what I have for you is some delicious food ideas for you to celebrate with your loved one/s. If you're single, like yours truly, you can always kick off your shoes after a long day, pour a glass of wine, then decide which dessert you will start with first. Self love is all the rage nowadays. Share love this Valentines and give yourself love, you deserve it! Any who, enough ramblings for a minute. I needed some inspiration on what to cook this month of love and coming up with 7 recipes has given me the excitement to enter the kitchen. It is truly sad that I only have four red velvet recipies on this blog, fret not that is about to change with these seven new recipes coming soon from 7th February to 14th February, and more later on. Let's have fun this Valentines Day and eat chocolate + wine + red velvet...

Lemon Poppy Seeds Cake On Stove Top

I was craving cake but I don't have an oven, dilemma dilemma. Then I remembered I don't really need an oven if I want to bake. After the mug cake revolution, it was time to stop being conventional and start thinking outside the box. After all, our ancestors used to bake bread before these modern day ovens came to be. So I decided to make a stove top cake. What we call in Kenya "Mawe tatu cake" literally 3 stones cake. I have every step in the photos so you will be able to follow how I did it. Cake basics remain the same, only the baking part changes. I'm so happy how the cake turned out, not only was it moist and crumbly, it was delicious as heck! Now there really is no excuse when it comes to baking! Hope you enjoy this recipe and try out this "Mawe tatu" technique.

Coconut Sesame French Toast

French Toast Tuesday. That's what I'll be doing every week. I don't know but, French toasts are becoming my new favourite breakfast option. You can literally top the french toast with jam, honey, fruit, maple syrup or sugar for a sweet dessert or making savoury with your favourite sauce like ketchup, mustard or chilli sauce. If you want dairy free french toast, you can use orange juice, wine or rose water to soak the bread before frying. I love wholewheat bread because it is not only healthy but dense and will soak up the liquid without breaking apart. I like the French because they eat the toast as a dessert not as breakfast like most of us do, well, they did invent it so they decide how to eat the french toast. 

Buttered Paprika Carrots

Delicious is an understatement when it comes to describing this dish. I am one of those many kids who did not like cooked carrots. Raw carrots I would eat for days without any trouble, I especially loved dipping the raw carrot in salt then munching like a sweet. Cooked carrots on the other hand, was torture eating them. I would try my hardest to eat, but would time when mom was looking away and drop them on the floor, to pick up later when no one was watching. Horrible, I know! But I h.a.t.e.d cooked carrots. I guess it was the way they were cooked so they turned soggy and tasteless and so I could not stand them. Fast forward to gown up me and I realized there are so many ways to cook carrots that made them delicious and not soggy at all! In my cooking adventure I learnt that vegetables need to be cooked for very little time, not only to maintain their crunch but not to loose the awesome nutrients that were in these veggies. Adding spices to carrots also made them that much more delicious as a side dish and even the main dish. Today's recipe was inspired by my need to have something quick, delicious and can be eaten both as a snack and a main meal. Buttered carrots is a lovely way of bringing out the flavour of this vegetable without too much hustle in the kitchen. What are some of the foods that you hated as a child but now enjoy as an adult? Let me know in the comments below, let's share our experiences!