Who would have ever imagined a bean sauce being a treasured dish in one of the array of cultures in Uganda?
Firinda is a special dish with its roots in the far west specifically in the Batooro and Banyoro culture. This dish was served to special guests in a home and is a dish that cannot be missed on their wedding ceremonies. Because of it’s rather tedious procedure of preparation that includes soaking beans overnight, this dish was and still is one that is prepared rarely and highly anticipated by everyone. It was a dish that was always served with millet bread (kalo) which was a staple food in these culture. Lately this has changed and this sauce is accompanied by different foods like matooke and potatoes although for special occassions like weddings, the staple food (millet bread) is maintained.
The beauty about this dish is that it does not involve frying therefore it is one of the healthiest foods one can consume. This sauce is also very good for weaning infants (introducing solid foods) and also for children who are malnourished too. It can also be used for recuperating patients as well as a post surgery dish. Did I mention that it is very inexpensive too yet it will leave your taste buds yearning for more?
Below I take you through the steps of preparing this dish.
Step 1; Remove the testa of beans that have been soaked over night remaining which sparkly white beans
Step 2; In clean water boil the beans until soft. Add salt, onions, garlic and garden eggs (entula) as the beans are about to get ready.
Step 3; Remove the beans from fire and drain the water. ( do not pour the water away, save for later) Remove the garden beans (entula) and keep them aside. Mash the beans until you get a smooth paste. You can also use a blender or food processor if you have one.
Step 4; Pour the mashed beans back to the pan and return on very low heat. Add some of the water we removed from the beans if the paste is too thick. Add the garden beans (entula) back too and bring to a slow boil for a few minutes. Add cow’s ghee or butter (optional) to increase the nutrition value of the beans and to enhance the taste too.Step 5; Once satisfied with the outcome, served in a dish and eat with a preferred accompaniment.
This is a dish worth trying out. Do not be discouraged by the first step. The results are amazing. Share with us your experience.
After a while, I get to write this on this unusual Holy Saturday. I say unusual because unlike before, we are bound in our homes with no opportunity of having to participate in the activities of the Easter Triduum as we would because of the global pandemic (COVID19) ravaging all places in the world.
Holy Saturday is a day of anticipation, as we know Christ will be resurrected the next day. It is a day of solemn anticipation and of hushed and prayerful waiting at the tomb of Christ. We are certain of His resurrection but we dare not shout the joyous Alleluia until the Church has rekindled the Light of the World at the Easter vigil service. So we wait throughout this day. The sorrow of Good Friday is replaced by quiet hope, but still we are reserved. There is as yet no time for parties and secular visiting and gaiety. This is the day before the greatest feast of the whole Church year belongs to Christ.
As we are in this wait, it is a time of solitude, a time when everything seems to have taken a turn for the worst but the hope of Easter the next day keeps us going. It shines from a far like a shooting star.
Lately I have been reading a very beautiful book called Celebration of Discipline by Richard J Foster. This book talks about the disciplines of spiritual life. He gives a practical guide on how a christian ought to live and one of the disciplines I want to briefly talk about is the The Discipline of Solitude which I believe resonates very well with day.
He starts off this discipline with a quote from Teresa of Avila; “Settle yourself in solitude and you will come upon Him in yourself.” What a powerful way to glide into something as interesting as solitude. Foster says, Jesus calls us from loneliness to solitude. As humans we are afraid of being left alone, whether you realise it or not. Our fear of being alone drives us to noise and crowds. We keep up a constant stream of words even if they are inane. His examples make me run in guilt. He says, we buy radios that strap to our wrists or fit over our ears so that, if no one else is around, at least we are not condemned to silence.
Luckily Foster comes right in time to allay my fears and give hope. He says, loneliness or clatter are not our only alternatives. We can cultivate an inner solitude and silence that sets us free from loneliness and fear. Loneliness is inner emptiness where as solitude is inner fulfillment. Solitude is more a state of mind and heart than it is a place. There is a solitude of the heart that can be maintained at all times. Crowds, or the lack of them, have little to do with this inward attentiveness
Without silence there is no solitude. Though silence sometimes involves the absence of speech, it always involves the act of listening. Simply to refrain from talking, without a heart listening to God, is not silence. Like I said before, Foster has a way of bringing the point home using simple examples. Now listen to this! “A day filled with noise and voices can be a day of silence, if the noises become for us the echo of the presence of God, if the voices are, for us, messages and solicitations of God. When we speak of ourselves and are filled with ourselves, we leave silence behind. When we repeat the intimate words of God that he has left within us, our silence remains intact.
As he comes to the end of this discipline, he gives us practical things or call them steps to effectively live out this discipline and I am happy to share these with you.
Steps into Solitude
Take advantage of the “little solitudes” that fill your day.
Consider the solitude of those early morning moments in bed before the family awakens. Think of the solitude of a morning cup of coffee before beginning the work of the day. There is the solitude of bumper-to-bumper traffic. There can be little moments of rest and refreshment when we turn a corner and see a flower or a tree. Instead of vocal prayer before a meal consider inviting everyone to join into a few moments of gathered silence. These tiny snatches of time are often lost to us. What a pity! They can and should be redeemed. They are times for inner quiet, for reorienting our lives like a compass needle. They are little moments that help us to be genuinely present where we are.
Find or develop a “quiet place” designed for silence and solitude.
Homes are being built constantly. Why not insist that a little inner sanctuary be put into the plans, a small place where any family member could go to be alone and silent? Those who live in an apartment could be creative and find other ways to allow for solitude. He gives an example of a one family that has a special chair; whenever anyone sits in it he or she is saying, “Please don’t bother me, I want to be alone.” Let’s find places outside the home: a spot in a park, a church sanctuary that is kept unlocked, even a storage closet somewhere.
Try to live one entire day without words at all
Foster concludes these steps with this challenge. He says, do it not as a law, but as an experiment. Note your feelings of helplessness and excessive dependence upon words to communicate.Try to find new ways to relate to others that are not dependent upon words. Enjoy, savor the day. Learn from it. Four times a year withdraw for three to four hours for the purpose of reorienting your life goals. This can easily be done in one evening. Stay late at your office or do it at home or find a quiet corner in a public library. Reevaluate your goals and objectives in life. What do you want to have accomplished one year from now? Ten years from now?
As we remain prayerfully waiting at the tomb of Christ, this is a golden chance for us to try out this discipline of solitude.
On the streets of man I will walk Look out for faithful men, lowly of hearts to be my disciples With them I will teach, heal and perform miracles Dine & sleep with them shall I Yet from them will I be denied &betrayed But you need not weep for me child.
For 30 silver pieces I will be dragged off the plains of Gethsemane Before Pilate & Herod shall be paraded and accused falsely To appease the crowd, Pilate will have me scourged Chunks of flesh will rip off my body as specks of thorns sip through my brain Still you need not weep for me child
A heavy cross will be thrown on my sore back As the soldiers whip my tired bones The sounds of the spiked weep will run through your ears as the heavy sound of my countless falls will burst through your chest. You need not weep for me child because there will I be paying the guilt of your sun, every one of them, every hatred, every sickness, every pain; there on the rugged cross will I be paying them. Know I have loved and you need not to weep for me.
But……..
If you must weep, truly must Weep then for your selves & your children For injustice &hatred, violence &lustful thoughts, addiction, shame. Look to the cross and let it all go because a time will come when you will say to mountains ‘fall upon us’ & to the hills cover us! Because on the cross all the debts will be paid. This is the end of the curse, the demise of the serpent. This is it. It is FINISHED.
For a long time I have had a great desire to have granola as a part of breakfast given my limited options of food I have. Much of the options that surround me are wheat products. Me and wheat products for some reason have a parallel relationship. No I am not allergic to wheat if you are wondering but I find myself having a strong dislike for wheat products. When I tried to find granola in the different supermarkets, it’s price was one I could not consistently keep up with. I decided I would prepare it myself although many of the recipes I found required me to bake something I was not up for. Thanks to quarantine I was finally able to prepare granola and my excitement was through the roof.
Granola is a breakfast food and snack consisting of rolled oats, nuts, honey or other sweeteners such as brown sugar, and sometimes puffed rice, that is usually baked until it is crisp, toasted and golden brown. During the baking process, the mixture is stirred to maintain a loose breakfast cereal consistency. My recipe does not require you to bake so even one without an oven can enjoy this recipe. Granola contains calories, fat, sodium, fiber, carbohydrates, protein and sugar all in one product.
My freshly made granola
Health Benefits of granola
Granola can provide a quick and convenient source of carbohydrate. Many hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts like to carry granola to fuel their activity when they have a long day of exercise.
Granola can also provide a boost of protein if you include nuts, like ground nuts or almonds.
The fiber from whole grain rolled oats in granola can help you to feel full for a longer period of time.
Granola can also provide a significant number of calories from the added dried fruit or added sugar.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 cups Whole grain (rolled) oats
1 tbsp honey
1/2 cup groundnuts (or any other nut of your choice)
1/2 cup raisins (or any other dried fruit)
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
2 tsp of coconut oil (or olive oil)
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp brown sugar ( I used regular sugar)
Pinch of salt
Sheet of paper to spread the oats on
Procedure
Heat up a large pan and add the oil
Put the 2 cups of oats in. Make sure the oats are evenly coated with the oil. Cook his on medium to medium low heat until they are golden brown. This should take 8 – 10 minutes. Stir often to avoid them from burning. When they are ready you should definitely smell them.
Pour the oats onto a sheet of paper or baking sheet spreading them and leave them aside.
In the same pan on low to medium heat, add the butter, sugar and honey. Melt it and when it starts to bubble, add the oats.
To the mixture add the nuts and raisins and stir and make sure they are coated with the melted sugar and butter.
Add the vanilla, cinnamon and salt then keep stirring
Taste this after 5 minutes and the oats and nuts should taste toasted and a little crispy, not chewy. If they taste chewy, cook for a few minutes until they are a little crispy.
Cool the granola on you sheet of paper, separating the lumps there might be.
Store in an air tight container.
Store Granola in an air tight container
I love the wonderful toasted flavor of granola. Kids love it and you may want to explore with them. This is perfect breakfast option for all the members of your family. It is a great snack by itself, on top of yogurt, on top of fruits or as a cereal with milk.
Try out this recipe and share with me your experience.
Are you the kind of parent who is the high control freak? You will decide when and how much your child eats, the force feeder, the stick is not far away during meal time. Are you the type who leaves the child to feed themselves. The parent who believes that the child will eat if hungry and he or she stops eating, it means they have had enough to eat even if very little food was consumed. Or are you the type of feeder who feeds in response to the child’s cues or signals using encouragement and praise?
Responsive care refers to the behaviors and practices of the parents and family that provide the stimulation and emotional support as well as food and health care necessary for the child’s healthy growth and development. Infants are dependent on a caregiver to provide all their food. With age, the infant gradually develops the skills for relatively independent in eating as a young child such as picking up pieces of food and moving it to the mouth, choosing foods, and using feeding utensils. Similar to many other skills that the young child develops, responsive care practices related to eating can help, or hinder, the development of these skills and behaviors. While feeding a child, they might show they are ready for another bite by opening their mouth, leaning forward, or gazing at you. It is important to note that the pace of feeding should be driven by the child and not the feeder.
Responsive feeding is the reciprocal relationship that involves:
The child giving cues or signs or signals for hunger or fullness;
The parent noticing the child’s cues, the accurate interpretation of that sign, and responding to the sign in an appropriate way;
The child perceiving there is a response to his/her cue and that this response is predictable.
Non-responsive feeding may include a parent controlling the feeding and deciding when and how much is eaten, or a parent ignoring the child’s cues and limited interaction. Both types of non-responsive feeding can result in stressful mealtimes and overall family relationship difficulty.
Another form of non-responsive parenting may occur when child cues are misinterpreted and food is seen as the solution. Have you seen mothers who say, the breast is the solution to every cry for the baby. Once the child begins to cry, without even thinking about it, the latch them onto the breast. This parent thinks the infant is not getting enough breast milk because the infant is crying soon after a feed. Some will give a tired toddler in the late afternoon who wants a cuddle and a rest some sweet biscuits and tell them to go off and play until it is family dinner time. Infants or young children need assistance that is appropriate to their age and development needs to support adequate nutrition.
Non-responsive feeding practices where the parent controls the feeding may result in overeating if, for example, children learn to eat when they are not hungry or that they should always continue eating until the bowl is empty. Eating until the bowl is empty at every meal may be beyond satiety and may be over-fullness. Finishing all the food in the bowl at every meal may mean that the parent does not respond to the child’s signs that he/she has had enough to eat. The baby or child learns to ignore the inborn mechanism for satiety and a new level is set where eating to over-fullness becomes the expected feeling. This exposes the child to over eating and may gain weight rapidly there by increasing the risk of lifelong obesity.
Steps to Responsive Feeding
Pay attention to the infant’s or child’s communication
Respond warmly and promptly
Feed the right food for the infant’s or child’s age and stage
Let the infant or child stop when they are full
Focus on being affectionate and nurturing
Benefits of Responsive Feeding
Responsive feeding helps to keep your levels of breast milk high and consistent, which naturally decreases any chances of painful feedings or blocked ducts. Oddly enough, the more milk your baby eats, the more milk you will produce—it’s part of the beautiful circle of life.
Babies who are fed using responsive feeding establish much better eating habits that carry into adulthood. When a strict schedule is implemented, babies are often fed past the point of fullness, which carries into toddler, teen, and adult eating habits which are using detrimental to their health.
I cannot begin to exhaust the bond that is created between you and the child. Unknown to you, mealtimes are an important learning environment where socialisation and language development takes place the most.
In conclusion responsive feeding only means that the parent observes, interprets accurately and responds appropriately to the signs or signals that the baby or young child gives. It is time to uncover the baby’s face as you feed them, pay extra attention to your toddler as they feed and enjoy the benefits of responsive feeding.
