Blog Move

Hey dearies! This is to officially let you know that our blog has moved. This is to ensure that we give you the best that we can. You can find us at www.geemayreesdiary.wordpress.com . Kindly subscribe and follow us there. Cheers to a greater year ahead on wordpress!!!

Essentials for Pratical Living: Personal Budgeting

Hello ladies and Fellas!!! How are we preparing to rock the weekend?

I know it has been a while. I have not had time to do so many things lately because of the pressure of work and preparations for my sister's wedding (gbedu coming up shortly!). These days I feel used up body, soul and spirit, and most times by the time I return home I am too exhausted to do anything productive. Anyway, let us shift the attention away from me to the topic of the day - Personal Budgeting.

Personal budgeting is important because it helps you know how much exactly you earn and how or on what exactly you are spending your earnings. Recently I have found a need to have a proper budget because I needed to save for a big project ahead and what I had was not nearly enough to cover half of the cost. My younger sister recommended a formula which she got from the book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker. It is called 'The Jar System'.

The key to managing your finances properly is to assign percentage of your earnings to various categories of your needs. Here is my sister's formula which can be tweaked to meet personal requirements.

FFA  -   10%

Financial Freedom Account: Wealth building account you use for investing to generate passive income.

LTSS -   10%

LONG term Saving for Spending: Used for large purchase like car and vacation. Also used for emergency fund.

EDUC -   10%

Education: For personal development

NEC  -   50%

Necessity: Everyday expenses like groceries, rent, gas e.t.c.

PLAY -   10%

Play: Used for fun. Anything you enjoy spending your money on. It does not matter what it is.

GIVE -   10%

Give: Charity and Tithe. In my opinion, it is this 10% that makes the other 90% worth it so endeavour to pay your tithe (Malachi).

So here is the formula. You can tweak it to suit yourself. For example you can decide to make FFA 15% and reduce LTSS to 5% if you are not intending on making any big purchase/spending in the nearest future. Like my other kid sister does (www.lapassionvoutee.blogspot.com) you could save on NEC and then add the difference to PLAY.

For those of us in diaspora a cool budgeting application is Mint (www.mint.com). This application connects your bank account and credit card and it automatically help you categorize how you spend and show you where you are overspending. Cool stuff yeah?

When I did my budgeting using this method I realised that I spent alot of my earning purchasing fabrics and cooking* - PLAY hence this ate into my NEC causing problems. This is indeed a dilemma for me because how does one desist from doing what you are passionate about?

Kindly note that this is by no means a one-size-fits-all solution to personal budgeting. Hope this is helpful.

*Cooking here goes beyond just cooking to satisfy one's hunger. It includes aloooooootttt of 'experimental cooking'.

Three Ways to Prepare Chicken: Sautéed Chicken Breast

Chicken can be prepared in several ways. I will be discussing three ways Chicken can be prepared beginning with Sautéed Chicken Breast. 

Sautéing is a cooking technique similar to stir-frying. While stir-frying is of Chinese origin, sautéing can be traced to the French. Like stir frying it involves cooking over high heat. However stir-frying is usually done in a wok and the sauce is made in the wok with the ingredients still in the pan, whereas in sautéing, the ingredients are taken out before the sauce is made.

So let us go into the 'koko'.

Ingredients

0.73g Chicken Breast

For Marinade:

Seasoning Cube

Salt

Garlic

1 1/2 cups of water

Soy Sauce

For Sautéing:

3 Tablespoon Sherry Wine

1/2 Cup Chicken Broth

2 Tablespoon Cornflour

2 Teaspoon Butter

1 Tablespoon Oil

Instruction

1. Combine all ingredients for marinade in a bowl. Cover with cling film and marinade overnight.

2. Separate marinade liquid and pat chicken breast dry with paper towel.

Tip: To reduce the size of chicken breast you can hit with a meat mallet or rolling pin.

3. Turn on the gas to low heat. In a pan add butter and oil. Increase heat and when hot add chicken breast. 

4. Cook on both sides for 5 minutes each (this will depend on how thick the chicken breast is).

Tip: To check if the meat is cooked poke with a knife and if juice runs clear then it is cooked.

5. In a bowl, mix chicken broth and cornflour to make slurry. Set aside.

6. When cooked remove chicken breast and set aside. Reduce the heat to medium then introduce the Sherry wine. Allow to cook for about a minute or two then add slurry. 

Tip: When mixture is ready it should have darkened to a mid-brown tone. 

7. When the mixture is ready, re-introduce chicken breast. Ensure it is coated in the mixture. Reduce heat to low. Allow to simmer for two (2) more minutes and voila your chicken is ready to be munched! 

Sautéed Chicken Breast can be served with rice, pasta or even fries! I prepared this for a friend's birthday partaaaay and it got a 'thumbs up'.

My Style: Green-Blue Combo

Wearing multiple solid colours in an outfit, popularly called colour blocking, has been the order of the day. While some ladies have learnt the art of colour blocking, sadly other are still yet to, constantly blinding my eyes with their mismatched rainbow hues. The art of colour blocking does not involve only mixing and matching colours but goes beyond that. Providing tips on how to rock the colour block trend is not the focus of this post, however, numerous online resources are available to that effect. Here, I show how one can rock a blue and green combination without 'rioting'. 

1. Newlook Gold Triple Row Chunky Chaun Necklace

2. Dorothy Perkins Green Bardot Dress

3. River Island Faceted Stone Loop Stud

4. Ray Ban Aviator Sunglasses

5. Zara Cluth with Metal Corners

5. Zara Sandals with Metallic Ankle strap

7. Newlook Gold and Green Aztec Print Bangles

This combination will be perfect for any occasion preferably a wedding. The colour combination is eye-catching and will surely be a show stopper. All the accessories are either fully gold or have a touch of gold adding an extra pop to the outfit. The metal corners on the clutch and the metallic ankle of the shoes work well together. Also, the  height of the heel goes well with the length of the dress; the dress is a short length and if combined with higher heels may send distasteful messages. More, the height of the heel is comfortable enough to party all-day-long ensuring that the wearing can get her boogie down. To crown it up, the Ray Ban glasses gives the outfit the vivavoom!* It adds that 'baddest guy ever liveth' touch while the Aztec bracelet gives the look a feel of Africa. I will surely rock this look anytime and any day. What about you? 

* Please do not wear the sunglasses indoors (like some bush Nigerians) in the name of 'guy' and claim I mentioned it gives your outfit the vivavoom. From the name 'sunglasses' it is apparent it is meant to shade the sun.

Valentine Came Early

The last few days have been very hectic for me and unfortunately I have not been able to say hello to you all. I am sorry dearies. I really missed you all!

My sister is getting hitched in a few months and I have been tagging along side her from one end of town to the other as she does her wedding shopping. Despite all the 'waka', what has added shine to my week is the fact that I got an early 'valentine gift' from my sister and my dear cousin. I am sure you cannot wait to see what they got me. Well, errrm, these items may be of no consequence to you however they mean the world to me!!!

So, I got some long awaited spices from my sister and some ankara accessories from my cousin (Accessories by Jenny). 

I am really excited about my species because right now my fingers are itching. I really feel like delving into preparing loads of dishes. My first stop will surely be Peri-Peri Chicken (Nando Style). 

As for my accessories (aka Olele-disco...lol) I have already begun to rock them real time. This is just to say a very big thank you to my sister, Charee and to my cousin 'Accessories by Jenny'. I appreciate you ladies big time!!!!! 

Family and Sibling Wahala

For the benefit of our non-Nigerian readers, 'Wahala' is a common Nigerian slang which was adopted from Hausa language meaning 'problem' or 'trouble'. Now to the gist.

I am a product of Rev./Dr./Engr. (You can pick one or all. That's totally up to you!) M. D and Evang. M.E. Oisamoje's Union. Also in this with me are nine others. I know what you must be thinking after doing the maths. "Ten children from a single mother, what?!!!" In our defense we have a set of twins...lol. Growing up was eventful; sometimes fun and at other times frustrating. Each of my siblings had/have their own wahala but the focus of this write-up is directed at my most eldest sister and how her fashion sense and stunning beauty has been a source of wahala  for yours sincerely. I am certain you are wondering how. Let me explain.

My sister is downright fashionable! As a kid I used to look up to her and she was my number one critic when it came to dressing and as such had to step up my game. I can attribute my not so bad fashion sense to her. My sister is a doctor (medical doctor not native doctor...hehehe)(that is her day job) and a businesswoman who deals in the sales of clothes, shoes and accessories at night (see free advertisement). A direct product of being engaged in the latter is the fact that she has to sell her product by being a live mannequin. Hence she selects a few of her products and when she puts them on people immediately reserve their take. In addition, it forces the young men at her place of work to wish she was theirs but of course since they know she is very much married, they pester her for a hook-up with any of her younger sisters. That is where I come in (sadly). I am the only unmarried/un-hooked sister she has within reach and inevitably I become the victim.

I know my sister very well. She does not like being pestered and is quick to give my number to these guys with or without my consent. In addition, I think she is very keen on marrying me off just so she can plan a wedding. With the excessive hype my she so willing offers them (the pests...lmao) they almost always sound excited when they call. Unfortunately, I am almost always not excited but forced to act it.

Please what can I do? 

Option A: Run far away

Option B: Forbid her from making such introductions(like that will work)

Option C: Get my legal counsel to write her (who will be certainly glad to in order to improve her CV) to refrain from such infringement on my human rights.  

Option D: Dis-sister her (This seems like the only lasting solution to the problem).

Advise please!!!!

Necessity and the Birth of a Nameless Dish

They say necessity is the mother of invention.  Ancient Egyptian civilisation was preserved by the need to develop a means to combat the increasing desertification that was encroaching on their territory and the destruction that came with the overflooding of the Nile as a result of the annual rainfall in the southern part of Africa and thus the need to develop irrigation canals, food management system and best practices to ensure its maintenance which guaranteed their sustenance in an increasingly arid land. Hence, although people have asserted that "Egypt is a gift of the Nile" because it is believed that she owes her sustenance to the river Nile, to the contrary, it’s not just a gift of the Nile but also a creation of man. Without human intervention the contribution of the Nile would have been worthless.

The summary of the above is basically that our environment - household, nation etc - defines us. Life throws challenges at us daily and it’s our reaction (action or inaction) to this that determines what we get out of life. 

(Having said that…) I was faced with a peculiar situation the past Sunday. I got back from church and was extremely hungry. I headed immediately for the kitchen, scampered around for what to munch on or cook quickly but to my amazement and to the detest of my rumbling stomach found none. What to do? 'Huzzled' around for some ingredients to make something original (or at least some dish I have never made before). I was able to get some carrots, green pepper, red pepper (ata rodo), minced meat, red wine, onions, garlic, brownie, freshly ground black pepper corn, seasoning cube (to taste), salt (to taste) and flour. The product of it was an excellent experimental sauce.

I do not have exact measurements for this recipe because I was too hungry to measure. However I was gracious enough to take pictures despite my hunger (I think I deserve an ovation for that). Hopefully you can tell the quantity of ingredient from the photos.

Direction

1. Turn the minced meat into a bowl and soak in wine for 10 minutes to absorb. When the time is up, use a strainer to extract wine. Set aside.

2. Peel carrots and julienne.  Slice every other ingredients.

3. In a pan, put half a cooking spoon of oil and turn on heat to medium. Stir in the garlic and onions and allow to cook for about one minute. Caution: Stir continuously as these ingredients can get quickly burnt.

4. Now, add green pepper, red pepper and carrots. Increase heat to high (regulate continuously to prevent burning). Cook until almost done. 

Tips: You will notice that the colour of the vegetables will become pale that is how you will know it’s ready.

5. When ready, set aside in a bowl and keep warm.

6. Extract wine from minced meat using a strainer. Add 2 tablespoons cornflour (mine was exhausted, used all purpose flour) into the extracted wine and stir to make a slurry. Set aside.

  

7. In a pan, add a little oil as required.  Introduce the minced meat and stir. 

When cooked reintroduce vegetables.  Add seasoning cube and salt to taste. Also add freshly ground peppercorn and one teaspoon Oregano. Let it cook until satisfied then make a well in the pan and add slurry. It will thicken up almost immediately. Stir all ingredients together.  Wait another one or two minutes before adding one tablespoon brownie to give it a richer colour.

And viola! Your sauce s ready. You can serve with rice as I did or pasta.

Caveat: The dish tasted wonderful, however, it could be that the hunger amplified the taste. So, do not have overly high expectations ;).  And like every experiment, there may be side effects (not as bad as the scientific ones though); I noticed that in less than an hour after eating I was hungry again. I guess it was the effect of the wine (afterall they say it aids digestion). So if you are looking to eat once a day 'don't do this at home'! Lol.

If you decide to try this dish please do let me know how it turned out for you. Are you aware of any sauce prepared exactly the same way? If not, I think I can claim 'cooking property rights'. What do you think this dish should be named? In short let us play a game. Who does not like games?!!! The person with the most befitting name stands a chance to win N1,000 airtime . This is open to contestants in Nigeria only, however that should not stop others from outside Nigeria from commenting. So get commenting people!!!!

Dreams Do Come True

Every little girl has a dream. When I was much younger, like every other girl, I spent a reasonable amount of my time fantasizing about my future. A particular recurring fantasy was one in which I saw myself being served full English breakfast in bed by a handsome young man who I would like to think was ‘the hubby’. *I know what you are thinking, nor be spirit husband jor! Hehehehe*  As I grew older, reality struck. I got to realise that most Nigerian guys can't cook! While the handful that can find their way around the kitchen will rather leave the woman to play the traditional role of cook while they stay on the receiving end. With this realisation, I decided to tuck this fantasy away.   

Recently I came in contact with three awesome young men who made me think that maybe what I thought was mere fantasy could become an attainable dream. Two of these three men are colleagues at work. Yesterday I visited their office (unfortunately for me they share the same office...lol) and they went all chit-chatty about 'this dish' and 'that dish' and 'this utensil' and that 'food processor'. Initially it was like music to my ears but a few minutes down the road things 'wierded up'**. I began to think to myself if guys became great cooks how then can we (the feminine folks) gain access to their hearts? as claimed by the popular saying that "A man's stomach is the key to his heart".

Well, the up side of this 'revolution' is that it has allowed me to dream again. Peradventure someday this dream will to pass. What do you think? Should I toss this dream/fantasy down the drain? Or should I feel free to dream again?

** Exercising my poetic license

Inches Dilemma

I believe that two persons can wear exactly same clothing and look absolutely different. The question then will be what sets them apart? Asides their hair-do and make-up, their accessories makes a world of difference. A lady’s accessory adds that extra touch or what we may call ‘the Midas touch’ to her look. One piece of accessory I absolutely love is heels.

One rule of the thumb for me when choosing my shoes is ‘comfortability’. I don’t just buy a shoe because it looks pretty but because it is comfortable. For sure, its look is the point of attraction but what determines if I am going to keep it is how comfortable it is. I ask myself a few questions to determine how practical it will be to purchase them. Can I walk in them without tripping? Does it hurt my feet? And, of course, my ability to respond positively to the first question is determined by the height of the heels. Hence of recent I have decided to just stick with lower inched heels.

The problem however is what to do when you get an absolutely gorgeous 5.5 inches heel as a gift? Hmnnn. Do you tell the giver to keep his/her gift? Or do you accept it and keep it in the wardrobe to rot? Or maybe keep it on your shoe rack and enjoy the sight of it every now and then? Give it out? Or better still, do you wear it at your peril? Well, as for me I took the last option and let's just say 'thank God I am alive to write the story'. :D Here’s the tale.

Awwww. Ain't this the cutest shoes ever?!!

My eldest brother got me this shoe, and as mentioned before although I would rather stick with the type of heels I am used to, I decided to give it a try. I was going to show it off in church the next Sunday and did exactly just that (I am not vain jor :p). I paired this divine item with a blazer, a skirt and a chunky neck piece and earring (Sorry. I did not take pictures. It won't happen again). Oh, and for my hair-do I rocked my spiky low cut ;) Luckily enough I made it through the service without dislocating my ankles and was already basking in my premature glory. But, alas!, in the parking lot, about a stone throw from my vehicle I almost tripped and fell…lol. In that split second I pictured myself on the hospital bed with my legs strapped up with plaster of Paris (P.O.P) from this incident. Afterwards I wondered to myself what my explanation would have been for being hospitalised if this incident ended me up in there.

Q. What happened to you?  

R. I dislocated my ankle.

Q. What happened/how?

R. I fell.

Q. From?

R. *Smiles sheepishly* because there is no way on earth I am gonna say 'I fell from my heels'! No way! 

So back to the gist. Although I tripped, the God that I serve who is ever faithful and will not allow His daughter to fall and face public disgrace (lmao) caused me to stumble towards the car and I held on for my life, or should I say, for my legs. The ‘tripping’ was the okay part of the story. When I tripped, someone in a shrilled voice blurted out ‘Iye O!”**. It was only moments later that my brains registered that the sound came from my mouth. How disgraceful! *covers face* I am sure the guy next to me would have thought ‘See this razz Benin girl that borrowed her sister’s shoe’ or at least something equally distasteful.

Lesson Learnt: 1. Give other ladies a slack when they wear heels they can’t walk in. 2. Never wear shoes that you cannot walk in.

This brings me to the question, Why do ladies wear heels they cannot walk in and will probably exchange for the spare flat footwear they hide in their gigantic bags that can conveniently house a bag of rice (lol)? Please share you thoughts.

** ‘Iye’ means mother in Bini and when paired with ‘O’ at the tail end it is used as an exclamation. Not a very refined one commonly used by locals.

30 Things to Do in 365 Days

Hey darlings. Happy New Year! I hope we had a swell celebration? Mine was good; different from the usual sleeping and boredom...lol. Did you make new year's resolutions? 

A New Year's Resolution is a pledge or promise to improve; to change old habits, taken by a person usually at the start of a new year. Resolution making is an ancient tradition that can be traced as far back as the period of the Babylonians and the Romans.

Among Nigerians, the tradition of making New Year's Resolutions have become increasingly popular. An accompanying trend is the lack of drive to complete these goals/pledges because most times this Nigerian brand of resolutions are founded on regrets; regrets as a result of goals unaccomplished in the previous year. Don't get me wrong, this is not to say that reviewing the past and making amends accordingly is not a worthwhile task, however, it bare time wasting when this is beclouded by self-pity. Consequently, as the year unfolds they are quick to abandon these goals prematurely because they were made on the spur of the moment and there was not drive to accomplish it in the first place.

People think new year's resolution making and goal setting are synonymous, but I think not! Before you guys eat me raw (lol) let me explain. New year's resolutions, or at least the Nigerian brand of it, can be taken to mean goals that the makers do not intend to fulfill; that are made to satisfy the emotion at the moment; they are not documented; practical measures are not put on ground  to ensure completion; measures are not put in place to check progress, only at the end of the year will the maker when flooded with emotions from the year's ending becoming remorseful and he/she say 'I will do this', 'I will not do that' or 'I will do more or less of this' in the coming year to free his/her conscience. Goal setting is much more 'hands-on'. It is everything resolution making is not. It involves building a system that works, reviewing and making changes where necessary. Refer to my post here for guidelines on setting S.M.A.R.T.T.E.R goals. 

In my short years of teaching, I have learnt that one way to show that one will do what he/she has promised/pledged to do is to "publicize one's commitment". By publicizing your commitment it shows that you are willing to take action where necessary and that you are not bluffing. In this light, I have decided to publicize some things I would like to do this year. I will not call them 'goals', and yet still I cannot say this is a pointless exercise because they were drawn up from my 2014 goals (at least most of them). They are:

1. Go to the gym at least once a week.
2. Learn how to use Adobe Photoshop (properly).
3. Buy four (4) books along the lines of my passion (Fashion, photography and cookery/bakery).
4. Attend a fashion design course.
5. Make and keep a new friend.
6. Travel to one (1) place I have never been before (local or international).
7. Fix a mini-savings target for the first 08 month of 2014 and reach it.
8. Learn a sport...I’m thinking badminton.
9. Wear red outfit for 3 days consecutively. Crazy! I know. Done! This was easier than I thought. The lack of power to press my clothes compelled me to.
10. Take a picture with a celebrity. 
11. Learn to make 5 new cocktail drinks.
12. Improve my baking skills from beginner to intermediate.
13. Read six books in the year.
14. Volunteer at a charity event.
15. Go swimming at least three (3) times in the year. Shhhh, I do not know how to swim.
16. Go natural. Yay! Team natural things! Done! Cut my hair yesterday (07.Jan.2013) and I am left with a large chunk of natural hair. Lefts see how far I can go with this 'team natural' -ish.
17. Take a picture on the beach. This is a big task because Benin City is land-locked.
18. Have a photo diary of myself for 30 days consecutively.
19. Treat four (4) persons to good home cooked meal.
20. Make conversation with a total stranger.
21. Wear green on independence day celebration. On a normal say I won't be caught doing that.
22. Visit the spa for pampering.
23. Give a gift to someone that cannot repay me just to make his/her day. Gave a student an earring I really liked and she was really excited.
24. Blog at least once a week.
25. Learn and perfect ten (10) new dishes.
26. Complete the Bible in a year. Have always began this task in subsequent years but never made it to the end. This is the year! I hope my new approach works.
27. Significantly improve my make up skills.
28. Show practical love to my students. 
29. Make the reunion trip to Turkey. 
30. Increase the follower-ship of my blog to 100 by the end of the year.