Being a Plus Size Girl in Egypt

Misconception Vs. Reality

Being an overweight female in any part of the world isn’t a walk in the park, but in Egypt, things are taken to a new extreme.

1. You are used to be catcalled “batta” (Arabic for duck!), “bakabozza” (a degrading term for an overweight woman started by a certain movie as a joke) and “helwa bas tekhina” (beautiful but fat) as terms of street endearment, and further into the animal kingdom as the harassment worsens. Hint: Moo!
2. You can save yourself the misery and forget about having a walk, a jog, or, God forbid, a run on the street. If you’re not bothered by the looks, the stares, the stopping and pointing, the whispers or the catcalls, you will eventually call it a day with your first physical harassment and promise yourself to start saving for a treadmill.
3. Getting on any means of public transport with a lot of doubts, regrets and worries. If it’s a crowded bus and you have to stand, well, let’s just say that by the time you reach your destination, an average of 30 people will have brushed against you, by accident, of course, because look at you! You’re too much of a person. Literally, the extra fleshy pieces on your body is considered by the general population to be unimportant, indestructible, and you are already bothering everyone else taking up more space than you need. If you’re lucky enough to find a seat next to someone, you’ll have to squeeze yourself up, and yes, any body part that is squeezable, to avert the inevitable knee or shoulder lean from the person next to you, while he sits with his legs open wide as if he has a severe case of skin irritation down there.
4. Walking up or down a flight of stairs making sure you let any guy behind you get past you, because you know better than this “ladies first” thing. Yikes!
5. Shopping for clothes. Again, this is a struggle for all overweight women all around the world, but only in Egypt can an overweight saleswoman look down upon you, scrutinize your body from head to toe, then look you in the eye and say, “We don’t have this in your size,” with emphasis on “your”. If you manage to find garments that actually fit, you’ll find that they’re either in the wrong color or cost quarter your paycheck.
6. Getting hungry on the street on your way back from work or school? You’d better wait till you go home, because a fat woman eating on the street is equally regarded as a fat woman in bikini; obscene. I mean, you’re fat, you can’t be eating like normal people. Go have some lettuce or something! Eww!
7. Being automatically referred to as “madaaam”, you know, as in “Mrs.” Why? Simple; because only married women have an excuse to be fat. It is known. (Game of Thrones style)
8. Getting constantly reminded of your abhorring state of body by your mother’s friends or friends of the family in general, who allow themselves to pry into your life and claim that they know everything going on with you, and within you. They usually never miss to stress on the importance of losing weight saying the inevitable “3ayzin nefra7 beeki b2a”, which translates to, “We would like you to get married because you being fat and single is such a burden on everyone else.”
9. Every physical ailment is blamed on your weight. You go to an ophthalmologist for an eye test, suddenly he is discussing your weight. When did that become acceptable? You are only allowed to address my weight if it is affecting my health with regards do your specialization, because last time I checked, we were not a couple of best friends having a chat over a cup of coffee. Don't get me wrong, sometimes being overweight does affect health, but it's not by any means an excuse for doctors of all specialties to take the easy way out and blame the weight for each and every physical ailment.
10. Last but not least, if people here do accept your weight, you are expected to be curvy in all the right places. "You are chubby? Well at least you're a buxom with great boobs. Oh wait, you are not? Poor thing, you have a great sense of humor, though.*awkward smile* " Great, thank you for making me more self-conscious now than before. I must have missed curvaceous molding day.

Women come in all sizes, and each one is entitled complete freedom over her own body. Next time someone bothers you, shove your fabulous shapely fingers up their, well, throat.

P.S. The above article was first published in The AlexandErian Magazine in 2015. I added a couple of points to the original.
http://www.thealexanderian.com/being-a-plus-size-girl-in-egypt/

Fast and Easy Wholewheat Pizza Crepes

Hello everyone,

If you are a crepe lover who is trying to stay healthy or lose weight, I feel your struggle, fellow foodies. Today's recipe is just for you, and hits the spot face on.

The filling is completely customizable. This time I settled on pizza topping, but you can put whatever you feel like or have at hand.
These are really quick and pretty much foolproof, so they're perfect for breakfast, and for those days you have no time to cook. My kiddo loved them, so they're super kid-friendly as well. 

Fast and Easy Wholewheat Pizza Crepes

For the crepes you'll need:

• 2 eggs
• A dash of salt, pepper
• 1 1/4 cups skimmed milk
• 1 1/2 cups wholewheat flour (or 1 cup wholewheat and 1/2 cup refined flour)
• 1 tsp honey

Filling:

•  Olives, chopped
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• 1 large bell pepper, sliced
• low-fat feta /shredded mozzarella/cheddar cheese (or a mix of all)

Instructions:

1. In the mixer, add eggs, salt, pepper, and mix well.
2. Add milk and honey, continue mixing.
3. Gradually add flour on a low speed. Don't over-mix.
4. Brush your griddle/pan with a little sunflower/canola or olive oil and put it on medium heat. Once hot, ladle your crepe mix in the middle and swirl it around to cover the whole pan. Leave for 10 to 30 seconds or until the crepe sets.
5. Flip the crepe when it turns golden to cook the other side. While the other side is cooking, add your filling. Start with a little cheese all over, then layer your vegetables and anything else you would like to add on one half of the crepe. Finish off with more cheese, then fold the crepe in half, unfilled side up. Press on it with your spatula to seal it.
6. Once the cheese starts to melt, flip your closed crepe on the other side so the cheese on that side melts as well and seals the filling in. Now fold your crepe once more to form a triangle.
7. Your crepe is ready.

Bonus tip: Wrap your crepes in foil to keep any drippings to a minimum. Thank me later :)

P.S. Please excuse the very unprofessional photo, but I was wrestling a toddler to keep her off the dish for 5 seconds while I was taking it. Yikes!

Enjoy!

Love,

Sarah

xoxoxo

Eggless Wholewheat Pancakes

Happy weekend, everyone!
So for today's breakfast, I decided to try taking eggs out of my pancakes, just for the sake of cutting down the cholestrol and calorie intake a little, (and maybe eat that egg seperately, just saying). The result was better than I imagined.
This is a very easy recipe, simple enough to follow without looking back at your phone/ipad/tablet to double-check its ingredients/procedures every 2 minutes. They're super fluffy and just sweet enough for them not to be too sweet nor too non-sweet, if you know what I mean.

Here it goes.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup wholewheat flour
2. 1 Tbs sugar substitute
3. 1 Tbs baking powder
4. 1 cup skimmed milk
5. 1 Tbs oil
6. 3 Tbs water
7. 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Procedures:

● Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon) in a small bowl.
● Whisk wet ingredients together, then add them to the dry ones and use a spatula to mix everything well.
● Scarcely oil (or use cooking spray on) a non-stick pan, and use a 1/4 measuring cup to unify the size of your pancakies.
● Flip your pancake when bubbles start forming on the surface.
● Yields about 5-6 small pancakes.
● Serve with fruit, yogurt, applesauce, or melted dark chocolate for a healthy breakfast, snack or dessert.

Please leave me a note if you try it.

xoxoxo

Healthy Red Velvet Wholewheat Pancakes

The weekend is the perfect excuse to have pancakes for breakfast. They are a little celebratory and essy to make, so what's not to like? 
I wanted to add a little twist to this weekend's pancakes, so I thought of adding some red food colouring for a sexy effect. Heck, it did work!
This recipe is a staple in my house, and I like to play around with it every now and then. You can get really creative with its add-ons and decorations.

As usual, excuse the crappy photo.
I sprinkled some strawberry chocolate chips on top, just for the sake of the pic, and Lily ate them as soon as the flash went off!


This recipe yields 4 - 5 small pancakes. You can, of course, double the ingredients to get double the number of pancakes.

Here's what you'll need:

- 1 cup wholewheat flour

- 2 tsp sweetener/honey

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon  (or more)

- 1 egg

- 1 cup milk

- 1 tbs apple cider vinegar

- 2 tbs oil (coconut is lovely here)

- 1/4 red food colouring (or until you get a vibrant red-coloured batter)

- Optional: Raisins/fruit pieces/nuts

Procedures:

1-In a small bowl, combine milk and vinegar, set aside until milk curdles.

2- In another bowl, combine flour, sweetener, baking powder and soda and cinnamon.

3- In a small bowl, whisk the egg, vanilla, oil and curdled milk until well-incorporated.

4- Gradually pour the liquid mix onto the dry mix while whisking slowly.

5- Add your food colouring in small amounts and whisk after every addition until you reach that red velvet colour. Don't over-mix or the pancakes would be tough. The batter should be a little lumpy and bubbly.

6- You can now add whatever you'd like, i.e. raisins/fruit/nuts/dark chocolate chips

7- Lightly brush a nonstick pan/griddle with coconut oil. Heat it over medium heat.

8- Ladle the batter and pour into the pan. I like to keep my pancakes small and even by using a 1/3 measuring cup as a ladle. 

9- They are ready to be flipped oncy tiny bubbles form on the surface.

10- Makes about 4-5 pancakes.

Cheat Dessert: Zebra Cake

Hello lovelies,

Well, it's been a while since I last posted something on the blog. I've been bad! Work and housework combined are not really my cuppa tea. Anyway, I chose something fun, though not very "fit", as a comeback; Zebra Cake. There's nothing special about it except that it has a zebra pattern all through, which makes it pretty self-decorated. It's very impressive and looks like a ton of work. It is kind of a hassle, but very basic and needs absolutely zero skills. I assure you it would be a lovely crowd-pleaser and you'll be asked to do it on birthdays.
I first saw Lorraine Pascale do it, and was blown away. It took me a long time to pluck up the courage and do it, but it was definitely worth it. If you're on a healthy lifestyle like me, it would be a nice monthly or fortnightly treat , if you've got a lot of people around to finish it for you. I repeat, do NOT have your cake and eat it too, by yourself!


I used sugar substitute instead of sugar, but you can definitely use regular sugar. I use IsoSweet, which is an Egyptian fructose aspartame-free sugar substitute. It has two kinds; one for drinks and cold desserts, and another for baking. I used the baking kind here. You can definitely use any equivalent of choice, just make sure it's aspartame-free.
I also used unsweetened cocoa in the recipe, but you're free to use the sweetened kind if you wish, or just increase some sugar.

You'll need:

-2 cups sifted flour
-3 heaping tbs cocoa powder (I used raw unsweetened cocoa)
-1 cup sugar substitute/sugar
-4 eggs
-1/2 cup oil (I used heated coconut oil)
-1/2 cup milk (skimmed)
-1 vanilla sachet (1 tsp vanilla extract)
-1 baking powder sachet (15-16 g)
-1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Using an electric mixer or food processor, beat the eggs with the sugar until sugar is almost dissolved completely.
-Add oil, and continue beating.
- Add milk and salt and continue beating until frothy and pale yellow.
- Take 3 tbs off the four and set aside. Now your 2 cups flour are minus 3 tablespoons.
- Start adding the flour gradually and mixing till all is incorporated in the batter with no visible white streaks.
- Add the baking powder last and mix in using a wooden spoon or a spatula, not the mixer/food processor.
- Now divide the batter into 2 equal parts in two separate bowls. On one half, add the 3 tablespoons of cocoa and mix in with a spatula till well-incorporated in batter.
- On the "white" half, add in the 3 tbs of flour that you set aside. Mix in with a spatula.
- Your cake batters are ready.
- Prepare a 20-cm baking pan by lightly brushing with coconut oil/cooking spray/margarine then lightly sprinkling flour to coat it all, and finally getting rid of excess flour.
- In the center of the pan, carefully add 2 spoonfuls of white batter, then in the center of the white spoonfuls, add 2 spoonfuls of brown batter.
- Keep alternating between the white and the brown batters, 2 spoonfuls of each a time in the center of its previous "blob" till the batter is all done.
- Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Leave to cool completely before cutting.

My camera was dead, so I only took this terrible pic with my phone. Sorry! I promise it looked much better than this.

Valentine's Day Breakfast

Hi again everyone,

I hope you had the most romantic Valentine's Day ever, even if it was just a nice moment with a loved one, family, or friends.

If you haven't seen my last post, I put up this menu that I so bravely said I'd do on Val's, but I ended up skipping a couple of items due to running out of time.

Here's what I actually did:

Breakfast:

- Eggs in heart baskets

A cliche, but such a cute one! Super easy and looks like you've  done a little magic to put it together.

First of all, you'll need to separate the egg yolks and whites. I did two at a time, so I used 4 bowls to separate 2 eggs to make sure no accidents happen.

I used whole-grain toast for this one, but you're free to use whichever bread you fancy.
(Very) lightly butter 2 slices, and put over medium heat in a non-stick skillet. Once golden brown, take both slices off the skillet, butter the uncooked side of each, then use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut a heart out of each. Put both back in skillet with the cut-out hearts, cooked side up. You're now ready to add the eggs.

The key to getting picture-perfect results is to add a little bit of whites first, wait for a few second for it to harden, then add the egg yolk. You can add your seasoning at this point. I used salt, pepper and oregano.
Cover the skillet to help eggs set faster.  Serve immediately.

- Mini heart-shaped sandwiches with pink cheese frosting.

I basically used a heart-shaped cookie cutter, one size smaller than the one used above, to cut hearts out of whole-grain toast, and made light cheddar and salami sandwiches.

To decorate them,I used a plastic icing pipe/syringe (more fool-proof than piping bags) to draw a heart on each sandwich using my pink cheese frosting (light feta cheese mixed with beetroot powder) and a star tip for the icing pipe.


- I-Love-you Breakfast Parfait

 This was the easiest and most beautiful little breakfast dessert.

All you need is:
- 6 strawberries
- 2 low-fat vanilla (or regular yogurt)
- 2 low-fat strawberry yogurt
- 4 light digestive biscuits

1. Chop 5 strawberries, and slice the 6th for garnish.
2. Crumble the biscuits into larger crumbs. Set 2 dashes aside for garnish.
3. Your'e now ready to assemble your parfaits. Start by adding a layer of chopped strawberries, followed by vanilla yogurt, then more strawberries, followed by biscuits, and the last layer would be the strawberry yogurt.
4. Garnish with strawberry slices and biscuit crumbs. Cinnamon would be a nice addition too.
5. To make heart-shaped strawberry slices, cut a tiny triangle off the top of the strawberry, then slice it as you would normally slice a strawberry. Voila!

You'll need To finish it off, I wrote "I Love You xoxoxo" using a permanent marker on the glass for a personalized touch.

Valentine's Day Special

It's been almost a month since I last posted, and it makes me feel horrible. So much has happened since then; my sister's birthday, getting a job as a 5th grade teacher at a reputable school and finally, Lily catching the Rubella virus (German Measles). Talk about busy!

So anyway, I decided to take a break from all the tension (and my terrible flu) and blog about my culinary plans for Valentine's.
As always, I raided Pinterest, Facebook and the whole wide web for ideas and recipes, healthy ones.
I reached the conclusion that, you know what, I don't have to be super healthy on that day. I mean, if I won't splurge on Val's, when would I? (except for my birthday, and any other family birthday, of course!)

Here are my preliminary plans that can change by tomorrow:

Breakfast:

- Eggs in heart baskets
- Mini heart-shaped sandwiches with pink cheese frosting.
- I Love You Breakfast Parfaits

Lunch (This is our main meal of the day, similar to dinner in the US) :

- Tomato Soup
- Lettuce and croutons salad
- Chicken Cordon Bleu
- Penne Green Patitsio

Dessert:

- Pink Velvet Cinnamon Rolls

Dinner: (That's our evening/night meal, similar to supper in the US)

- Mini Pizza Hearts

Recipes to follow. :)