This Global Kitchen | Day 24: North Africa
Hi all!! My name is Ashley and I live in North Africa with my husband and 4 kids (ages 1 to 8). We've lived here 5 years this month! We love where we live, so close to the desert and the sea!
I really actually love my kitchen!! This is our third home since we've lived here and the kitchen here is a VAST improvement over the first places we lived (think no counter space at all... so chopping veggies on the table). I spend lot of time in the kitchen, and have learned so much about cooking from scratch since the day we arrived here. I seriously don't know what we ate those first few months! I'm not a gourmet cook for sure, but I've grown so much in being able to cook good, (mostly) healthy food from the ingredients we can find here! Now, our kitchen is a place not only for cooking for our family, but also preparing meals for local families who join us for dinner. My kids love to help, and while sometimes I struggle with that because I just want to get things done efficiently, I also try to find times where they can help me. So, here is my kitchen!
My favorite part is allll the counter space! Usually I have a little one year old sitting up there while I cook because he's the baby and he's spoiled rotten and never wants to leave my arms! And that window over my sink is dreamy most of the time because I can look out onto our little patio and open it to try to get a breeze when the kitchen is sweltering in the summer, but in the fall it’s also where all the flies come in! If only there was a hidden camera so you could see me constantly squirming and swatting flies off of myself while I cook!
There is no dishwasher, but aside from that I feel like this kitchen is full of everything I need! Many things I use here on a daily basis, I didn't even know what they were 6 years ago! (Little side note - I do love a straight and clean kitchen, but I took these pictures right after my house helper came one day. So, it definitely is rarely this clean!)
This is the sink, dish drying, and pantry area. Wait, you don't see the pantry?? Oh… me neither! Although my kitchen is amazing and I'm super blessed, if I could change one thing it would be to have a closet pantry! Right now, most of our food is stored in those two cabinets to the left of the sink! Also, if you look closely here you can see a small spigot to the left of the normal sink spigot. That is our water filter. I can't say how thankful I am to have this installed in our house! It takes up most of the cabinet under the sink, but it is so worth it! The first year we were here we had to buy bottled water and it was a lot to haul from the grocery store with no car and 2 littles!
This is our well decorated fridge, and deep freezer, and then storage of some appliances and my husband’s protein powder. My family brought over the crockpot and ice cream maker when we had been here just over a year, and that crockpot is a game changer! I use it all the time! I love to keep my kids’ artwork on the fridge, and it is covering both of the sides of the fridge. We use our deep freezer to store frozen meals (I'm not great at preparing ahead but I definitely fill it before Ramadan starts). We also stock up on strawberries and blueberries, and now sweet potatoes when they are in season and fill the freezer with them.
Thanks for taking a peek into my kitchen!
My Must Haves For My Expat Kitchen:
Three must have things for me in my kitchen are my Ninja blender, my slow cooker, and my transformer (which makes those other two things work!). All of these came from American and they were WELL worth the weight in our bags! I use my slow cooker at least 2-3 times a week during the winter! It allows me to prep everything in the morning when some of my kids are in school and then have a hot delicious meal waiting for us when dinner time arrives. My Ninja blender is my go to for smoothies and even for things like pureeing cooked pumpkin to make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, or mashing bananas for banana bread... and my favorite, for making a Frappuccino for me on hot mornings!! This is very important for us who live in the world of no Starbucks! And then the transformer - it weighs like 20 pounds, but it makes all these gadgets work here!
My Favorite Expat friendly Recipe:
Crockpot Chicken Chili + Cornbread
by Ashley | TakingRoute.net
This is our favorite thing to eat in the fall and winter! I hope you enjoy it too!
- 2 cans of diced tomatoes (drained)
- 1 can of tomato sauce (8 ounces)
- 1 pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 cups of chicken broth (or 2 cups of water and a chicken bullion cube)
- ½ cup of yellow onion, diced
- 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 can of corn or 1 package of frozen corn
- 1 can of black beans or red beans or kidney beans (whatever you can find!)
- 1 jalepeno (if you can’t find it, any spicy pepper will work… or you can leave it out)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 4 ounces of cream cheese
Add all ingredients except the cream cheese to a 4 quart or larger slow cooker. Give everything a big stir. Cook on low for 6-7 hours, or high for 3 hours. Remove the chicken and shred it. Return the chicken to the slow cooker and add the cream cheese. Stir until cream cheese has melted. Serve with cornbread or cheese!
Cornbread:
- ¾ cup flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 ¼ cups cornmeal (I use a corn flour that we have here… it is pretty fine and not coarse)
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup oil (vegetable oil works fine)
- 3 Tablespoons butter (45 grams), melted
- 1 ¼ cups milk
Dump everything into a large bowl and stir with a whisk until well blended. Pour into a well greased pan (I use a 9 inch circle pan, but you can use a 9x13 pan, but it will cook faster). Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.
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