Highlight of my menu for the week👉Take a look

One of the most important decisions we make each day and each week is to decide what to eat. Yes, we can't avoid making this decision if truly we want to remain healthy. Though several factors come into play when it comes to our choice of food. Factors like

• Where we live: yes, where we live can determine what we eat because culture can not be downplayed. Certain foods are acceptable in some locations and therefore are made available to them there. Those who live in the western world may fine it difficult to access certain foods than those in other parts of the world

• Our financial status: most times what we want to eat is not what we eat because we can't afford them. We therefore settle for what we can afford

• Our health condition : certain health challenges limit what we can eat. For instance, one who is diabetic can't go for foods that will affect his health negatively. An ulcer patient too will be selective of what he or she eats.

• The people around us: in a family where they don't like certain foods and we are there, we will surely eat what is presented to us.

• Busy schedule: some persons have everything they need to eat but their schedule won't give them the time to prepare, to even go out to buy it or even seat down to eat it.

In fact, life is not balanced at all!
These factors I have listed above are not all, there may still be other factors.

I tried my best this past week to be able to eat the food available to me. Though I was affected by the place I live, the financial situation and the people around me. But just take a look at some of the foods I was able to eat within the week, just 3 of them

I love pawpaw a lot and would like to eat it often, however, I don't stay where I can be able to grow it at the moment but this one was given to me by my mother in-law when I visited them within the week. I just changed my city of residence and so, I no longer live where I grew pawpaw. But I still visit there some times, so anytime I am able to see a ripped one there, I can still take it but I haven't been able to meet one. I truly enjoyed this pawpaw but my kids don't like pawpaw that much.

Within the week, I also ate garri and soup. This is usually considered to be very important in a family this side of the world such that if in a day you haven't eaten swallow, some people will tell you that they haven't eaten anything no matter what they might have eaten and so, it becomes very important that there is soup at home at any point in time. I prepared soup within the week amd the above picture is one of the times I ate it. At this point, the soup is almost finished and there is no meat or fish in there but I had to eat anyways. This one was due to lack of finance if not, I ought to have added more protein to it. But I enjoyed it regardless.
The soup is ogbono soup.

You can't believe the above food. It is white rice and beans porridge. Yes, my kids don't like beans at all when it is cooked porridge but they can afford to eat it this way. We prepared the beans and ate it but when it was remaining a little, we boiled white rice and enjoyed it with.

This was what was available at that moment and so we had no other options than to eat it.

Another food that I ate within the week is this food in the picture above. This is banga stew and white rice. Everyone in my family and around me in my current city of residence enjoys this stew. Every Sunday, people over here enjoys rice no matter how it is prepared. And shop owners when displaying ingredients for rice also displays banga it is rampant here and so since I love it a lot even before now, I have been craving for it. Coming back to this my current city of residence has made me to be preparing this stew often.

Let me tell you the ingredients I used for this banga stew and the process though there is no picture for it.

• Banga or Palm fruits

• Stockfish

• Ogiri okpei

• Traditional nutmeg

• Crayfish

• Ginger and garlic

• Pepper

• Banga stew spice

• Seasoning cubes

• Salt

• Scent leaf

First, I boiled the banga to cook it properly and make it soft, then I extracted the juice using a little amount of water that will make the juice thick but not too thick. The reason is because the banga will act as also a thickner for the stew.

Then I cooked my stockfish with a little amount of water that will be enough to soften it. I added it to the banga juice in the pot, added every other ingredients at once and placed the pot on fire to cook properly. After it was ready, I added scent leaf as the last thing. Very yummy 😋 and delicious!

I ate banana within the week too, boiled yam and source, soya bean flour that I prepared by myself with garri, I drank soya bean tea with fried ripped plantain and potatoes and other chewables in-between meals. I am grateful to the Almighty for providing these meals for me and my family. What about you? @nsijoro @nice20 @lhorgic

All pictures are mine