When you hear fitfam and food, what comes to your mind is usually salads, fruits or vegetables. But you can be fitfam and eat proper Nigerian food. Traditional meals that will do your body good without detracting from your fitfam lifestyle.

And since we are all about you, here are 5 fitfam recipes that are made by Nigerians, for Nigerians because not every time salads:

Oats and Wholemeal Flour Puffpuff

From Dooney’s Kitchen: Because fitfam doesn’t have to be about salads and tasteless foods that you don’t enjoy. Total calories 703 (using 3 tbs of honey). This can feed 2 people conveniently. Now divide by 2 and you’ve got a very healthy snack right there. 351 calories.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of Oat Flour (158 calories)
• ½ cup of Wheat Flour (187 calories)
• 3 – 4 tbs of honey – depending on your tolerance for sweetness 64 calories per tbs
• 1 packet of fast action yeast (7g – 23 calories)
• ¼ – ½ cup warm water –
• 1 tbs of Sunflower oil (120 calories) for frying in a ‘Masa’ pan

Method

1. To make your own Oat flour, simply blend in a dry mill as you would egusi for example
2. Measure 1 baking standard cup of Oat flour into a bowl
3. Add ½ cup of wholemeal, one packet of yeast and honey
4. Combine with warm water and stir till there are no lumps. Start with ¼ cup of water and add more slowly. A reader’s feedback of this recipe was that you would need less water than the standard puff puff recipe
5. Leave in a warm place to rise.Turned oven on for 3 minutes and turn it off.
6. The batter should be fine after 30 minutes.
7. Choose your preferred method of frying.
8. Flip over when the bottom has browned, and chew airy delicious healthy puff puff.
9. Likewise, you can fry like a crumpet or fry flat in a pan.

Fitfam Akara Waffles

From Dooney’s Kitchen: #fitfam Akara with cherry tomatoes, shallots and flavoured oil drizzle.

Ingredients

• Peeled Beans
• Salt
• Crayfish
• Vegetable Oil
• Chopped Onions
• Chopped Tatashe – red bell pepper
• Fried Pepper sauce for serving – optional

Method

1. Blend the beans to a smooth puree. You can decide to add the onions and tatashe to the beans before blending.
2. The traditional recipe for Akara calls for stirring the bean batter to aerate it, hand mixer to the rescue.
3. Let the engine run at 1 for about 5 minutes, till you see air pockets in the batter.
4. Stir in the crayfish and season with salt
5. Heat up the waffle maker. Spray on oil, or you can dip a kitchen paper towel in oil and rub every usable surface.
6. Pour into the waffle maker.
7. Closing the waffle maker loosely will help the akara cook a little without sticking to the top.
8. Once it is  half cooked, shut the lid tightly to allow the top to cook.
9. A few warning points, you may likely get bits of the top sticking, but leave the device to keep running. As it gets hotter, the bits that have stuck become harder, and comes off the waffle maker cleanly.
10. The best parts are  the golden crispy edges.

Nigerian Fitfam Meatzza

From Dooney’s Kitchen: This is healthier than a standard pizza because there is no carb laden crust. Your body cannot discern between sugras got from carbohydrates and that got from fruit and vegetables. All you need is a frying pan.

Ingredients

• Mince Meat
• Sliced onions
• Cherry Tomatoes – or you sliced tomatoes
• Oatmeal
• Parmesan Cheese – optional
• 1 or 2 eggs
• Red chili – or use ata rodo
• Sliced tatashe and green pepper
• Dry Pepper
• Uziza seeds – ground
• Uziza leaves – you can use efinrin or Basil
• Mozarella cheese – or use local Wara, or use ripe plantain, or break 2 or 3 whole eggs on top
• Curry Powder – optional
• Dried Thyme – optional
• Leftover Stew or Ata din din – you can also use Ewa Aganyin sauce
• Salt
• Seasoning cube

Method

1. Place your mince in a bowl, and add all the spices and seasonings. Whatever you use often to season your meats, will work great here.
2. Personalise this recipe, make it your own.
3. Add the Oatmeal, about 1 – 2 tablespoons, the shaved parmesan cheese, if you are using, and an egg or two. The oatmeal is to bind everything together. Nigella used breadcrumbs but oatmeal is a healthier option. the cheese is just to keep it moist and stay true to the traditional Italian meatball recipe, but you can definitely leave it out.
4. Gently combine all the ingredients until it forms a ball. Emphasis on gently, don’t overwork the mince. if it is not holding up to a ball, either add another egg, or a little more oatmeal.
5. Take out the mince and carefully lay out in a lightly greased pan, until all ares are covered. Again, do this gently.
6. Spread out your stew or sauce unto the mince.
7. Now add your toppings. I used onions, cherry tomatoes, chili, sliced tatashe, green pepper and of course Mozarella.
8. Cover with foil, to keep moist and then place in a preheated oven at 200 degrees centigrade of Gas mark 6 and let it cook for 15 – 20 minutes. You will observe that the mince will shrink, but that is expected. You will also see some of the juices in the pan, but that is fine, you can always drain out at the end.
9. Before serving, top with fresh leaves.
10. Served with a side salad.

Pumpkin Seed ‘Egusi’ style Soup and Efo Igbo

From Dooney’s Kitchen: An alternative to Egusi soup. Looks like it, tastes like it and 285 calories per cup. As opposed to 840 calories with normal egusi seeds.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of Pumpkin seeds
• 1 – 2 cooking spoons of Palm oil
• Ata lilo – fresh pepper mix
• Efo Igbo – eggplant leaves or any green veg
• Assorted Meats
• Smoked fish
• Meat Stock
• Ground Crayfish

Note: This is cooked Exactly as you would Egusi soup. I used the lumpy Egusi style method, but as pumpkin seeds contain less oil, it didn’t form the giant lumps I was expecting, but I would be trying it again

Method

1. Mill the pumpkin seeds to a fine powder.
2. Heat up palm oil in a pot, add chopped onions, fry, add pepper, let that fry a little too, add the assorted meat, beef stock, smoked fish and ground crayfish. Let the pepper stock reduce sufficiently.
3. Take a little out of the pepper stock and mix to form a paste. You can also use blended onions.
4. Using a tablespoon or your fingers, add the pumpkin seed paste in lumps into the stock. Lower the heat and allow it to cook.
5. In a few more minutes, just as it would Egusi soup, the paste would have combined well with the pepper stock. See, I told you the green colour will disappear.
6. Once the soup has thickened as you like it, add the green veg and stir
7. A few more minutes, and that is your soup done

Gwaten Masara

From 1Q Food Platter: Gwaten Masara is a porridge with lots of vegetables , no added oil, cereal carb but in small quantity which meals slow releasing energy.  Gwaten Masara is a porridge eaten originating from Plateau state but it has quickly evolved into a light and healthy meal for healthy food enthusiasts.

Ingredients

• Beef bones (biscuit bone)
• 1/2 cup coarsely Milled Maize (maize grit)
• 1/2 cup Yakwa
• 1 cup Spinach or Aleho
• 1/4 of medium size Cabbage
• 1/4 cup Garden Egg
• Scotch Bonnet Pepper to taste
• 1/2 Spring Onion
• Few sprigs of Basil
• Crushed Groundnut (optional)
• Seasoning Cubes to taste
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Season the beef bones with salt, pepper and onion and steam till soft.
2. Pick wash and shred all the vegetables.
3. Add water, pepper and basil to meat pot, correct seasoning and bring to boil.
4. Add the garden egg  & cabbage and cook for about 2 minutes.
5. Sprinkle on the maize and stir. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes stirring intermittently.
6. Add the yakwa and  spinach and cook for 3 minutes.
7. Lastly add the onion , stir and turn off the heat.
8. Serve hot with sprinkle of coarsely crushed groundnut.

Go forth and be fit. And share this with all your fitfam buddies.