The diary game // How I cooked to appreciate my colleagues after my illness@signatory // #club5050// 10 payout to @steemwomensclub

Hello beautiful women of steemwomensclub. It is good to be back. Illness is such a terrible thing to experience. So I am back to steem stronger and ready for fun. Going back to the office after a while seems to make me feel like I have missed a lot of people and a lot of things and so to show my colleagues that I really appreciate their support and well wishes, I decided to arrange something small for them. I call it my ‘local macaroni recipe’.

So yesterday being Sunday, I took a walk down to the market, yes, there is a market close to where I leave. I just love being in a neighborhood where I can get anything I want with little or no stress. I figured I had little money with me so I had to think of something nice but less expensive that I can cook. I remembered that I have a pack of macaroni at home.

This is the beauty of buying things in bulk and storing them even if you may not need them at that particular time.
I decided to buy some meat, garlic and ginger, fresh tomatoes, green beans, carrots and some ripe plantain. I already had groundnut oil, tomato paste, pepper and other spices I may need at home.
When I got home, all I had to do was wash and steam the meat in preparation for the next day. I couldn’t cook the food that Sunday evening because I do not have a refrigerator and I needed the food fresh.

Today being Monday, I had to wake up by 5a.m so I can finish up on time before heading off to the office. First of all, I washed and scrapped the carrot and then chopped into tiny bits. Then I washed the green beans, the onions, the tomatoes and choped them all into tiny bits. I would have added green pepper, but there was no money for that. I also had to re-steam my meat again because I like it so soft, and I set it aside.

I removed the meat from the pot and then used the meat pot and some water from the meat to cook the macaroni. I added a lot more water to the pot and then poured in the macaroni and let it cook until it softens. I made sure that the water was much because I was going to sieve it after it is done. While this was ongoing, I chopped my plantain into bits and set aside. I usually like them in circles.

Macaroni doesn’t take much time to soften. Once I noticed that it has soften, I removed it from the fire and sieved the water. I left the macaroni in the pot and covered up. Then I put my pan on the fire, added some groundnut oil, then added the chopped tomato and onions. I let it simmer a little and added the tomato paste, added my spices (I used one maggi and Onga), added my dry pepper, garlic, ginger and salt and stir. Some persons would prefer to use fresh pepper but I don’t really care much for peppers. At this point, I added my meat and stir. Lastly, I added the carrot and green beans and gave it a good stir. You don’t want these vegetables over cooked so don’t let it stay in the fire for long at all.
Finally, I poured in my macaroni that has been sitting in the pot quietly and mixed everything up. At this point, it is good to give it a good stir otherwise, the whole paste will not mix properly. it is just a matter of seconds and my macaroni was ready.

I set aside and on another frying pan, added some groundnut oil and fried my plantain.
The beauty of macaroni is that it can be cooked however you fancy.

Since I don’t have a lot of take-away packs in my house, I used the ones big enough to accommodate what I have. I packed them in and went to take my shower, got ready to go to the office and off I went.

Getting to the office, they were all happy to see me as I was happy to see them. I gave them the pack and I was surprised they all devoured the food without even asking questions. That is what even made it worthwhile.
It is true what they say: There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving. There I was thinking it is too small but they appreciated it.
It is good to be back to steem. Thank you for devoting the time to go through my diary.
kindly find my introductory post https://steemit.com/hive-172186/@signatory/my-introduction-post-to-steemit-mentorship-by-cryptokannon

This is my power up for the last 30 days to join club5050

Special appreciation to:
@steemwomensclub
@svm038
@ngoenyi
@event-horizon
@saracampero