Soul Food Junkie Rehab

 

The Movie "Soul Food Junkie" is being shown this afternoon at the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival. See the trailer and director interview above to learn more about the film, but the title is reflective of the message the film conveys. I have to confess, I love soul food as much as the next person (minus the pork, yuck). I also love sweets, Trader Joe's Mango Lemonade, staying up late on work nights and many more things that are not good to indulge in on a frequent basis, but can be fine when enjoyed on a limited basis. The list of things that I love has changed over the years as I've matured, adapted to healthier approaches to having fun, enjoying life and dealing with stress or loss, changed relationships, experienced life threatening illness, read more and the like. One of many benefits of being open to change is the process of investigating, discovering and embracing new, healthier, satisfying and enjoyable things to love. This is something that we need to do as soul food junkies or western diet junkies (white carbs, meat, sugar, fats, salts). With this in mind, I've posted some links to websites that can help you transition from garbage based soul food to garden based soul food. So get on board, join in and enjoy the ride.

1. PETA Vegetarian Soul Food
2. Pinterest - search vegan soul food
3. Vegan Soul Kitchen
4. The Sweetest Vegan
5. VegNews - search soul food
6. Vegan Crunk - more of lifestyle of a Dirty South Vegan 
7. I Eat Grass
8. By Any Greens Necessary
9. Vegetarian Times - Cajun Food

What are your favorite sources for creating healthy soul food?

 

 

 

 

 

Soul Food Vegan Black Eyed Pea Meatballs

A Profound Hatred of Meat: Chipotle Tomato Soup, Black Eyed Pea Meatballs wit...: Soup again!? Yes! Get into it! Spicy tomato soup with chipotle peppers, garlic, black eyed peas and red onions served with tender meatballs...

Okay, here is one more meatball recipe from the blog, A Profound Hatred of Meat. It features black eyed peas and kale greens! Couldn't pass this one up. With the bounty of kale from my garden pictured below, I must prepare these meatballs this fall.

A New Twist on a New Year's Favorite: Black Eyed Pea Cabbage Rolls

I dutifully purchased some black eyed peas the other day. In most African American households, these are a must eat food for New Years. I haven't been that excited about preparing them, as I was getting pretty bored with some of the traditional recipes. Though I have successfully experimented with black eyed pea salad and fritters, I think I will try out this new recipe I found on one of my favorite vegan blogs, A Profound Hatred of Meant. Check out the blog post here. A Profound Hatred of Meat: Black Eyed Pea Cabbage Rolls: Black Eyed Peas are traditional to eat at the end of the year/beginning of the new year and they happen to be one of my favorite beans so I ...


As a follow-up to this post, read another post on what to do with all of those leftover black eyed peas, here.

Turn Your Restaurant Into an Eco-eatery

Turn Your Restaurant Into an Eco-eatery This is a great story found on Black Enterprise online, about a young black man who is living his green dream. Going green has also helped him to keep overhead expenses low in these tough times. If you are in Maryland, you know have to show some eco-love to this brother.

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Community Supported Agriculture: Cityfresh

This is my first Cityfresh bounty of the season! (Excuse the blurry photo, I can never find my digital camera when I need it, so I always seem to use the Blackberry). All of this tasty fresh grub for $24. Pictured are collards, squash, zucchini, onions, garlic, black raspberries, potatoes, cabbage, beans, basil, beets and parsley! Cityfresh is a unique CSA program that provides access to locally grown food to urban locations throughout two counties near Cleveland, Ohio. Shares of produce can be purchased with WIC, food stamp and other government vouchers and are half-priced for low income individuals, so this share would have been $12.

This Week In The Garden: What's A Rural Looking Man Like You Doing With Collards?

Collard greens that I need to plant. Interesting story here. Checked out the new Burke Lakefront Airport farmer's market this week and stopped at the booth of an older white farmer looking gentlemen. He had on display a small variety of starter plants and harvested vegetables. I was looking for some collard greens, but was highly doubtful that he would have them, much less know what they were. I stared at him for a minute and he asked if he could help me. Spotting what looked to be collard plants, I asked "Do you have any collards?" -surely those weren't collards - "or kale or mustard ?"(Cuz you know, he may not be familiar with collards) Turns out that they were collards and he had about 20 other collard plants in the back! Duh, Gloria! There is a lesson here. Post-racial America? We have a long way to go - on all sides.

Anyway, pictured with the collards are 'mater' plants that I hope will top my delicious cooked greens (assuming I don't fry 'em up in cornmeal first!) Greens and tomatoes are excellent cancer fighters. Okay, so the next time you head for the farmers market - keep an open mind.

Food Inc. - Being Served At A Grocery Store Near You

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? - About the Film Since I started this blog about 18 months ago, I have become increasingly suspicious about my food. This concern stems from several food recalls, a greater awareness of how food is grown and processed and the fact that much of it is sourced from large corporate agri-businesses. Though not always the case, I have found that many large corporations will do whatever it takes to drive profits, even if human lives are at risk. In fact, my businesses courses taught us that our primary goal as managers was to maximize shareholder wealth. We see where that got us (refer to your 401k statement). The good news is that more companies are coming around to the idea that shareholder wealth can be put at risk if the impact of a companies actions to their stakeholders aren't properly considered. Stakeholders include employees, communities and government. Hence the concept of the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) is gaining ground as an appropriate measuring stick for a companies performance. This movie should further open our eyes to the practices of the companies that grow the food that is supposed to sustain us. I would encourage you and your family/friends to watch this, so that we can educate ourselves on what we are consuming and push for these companies to gage their success using measures of quality not quantity.

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Vegetarian Soul Food Recipes

Recipes-Soul Food Spicy Greens, Sweet Potato Soup, BBQ Tofu, Sweet Potato Pie- and the list goes on. There is a selection of cooked foods, raw foods, vegetarian food that kids and teens will actually eat, groups to share with. If you are ready to go deep with vegetarian soul food, you have got to read my post on Bryant Terry's new book. Check it out here. No excuses now!