(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Jennifer Moss, your NPR local Morning Edition host with WGVU Public Media.

- And I'm Kylie Ambu, Inclusion Reporter over at WGVU.

- And we are so excited to share with you, MI, M I, American Recipe with local chefs from right here in West Michigan, as part of the bigger PBS Great American Recipe.

- That is right.

Our community is made up of such a diverse network of chefs, making some really amazing dishes, and addressing some real issues when it comes to food equity in our community.

So today we are here in the Spectrum Health Lifestyle Medicine Teaching Kitchen, where we're learning just what goes in to their amazing craft.

- And we have a lot to share.

Here's "MI American Recipe".

(cheerful music) - Ace and Jackie Marasigan both come from the Philippines and are co-owners of Adobo Boy, and hope to open a local food truck under the name.

Ace's love and passion for Filipino cuisine began at a very young age, as he would cook and prepare meals with his late mother.

Ace learned Filipino cooking from recipes passed on verbally by his grandmother, mother, father, and family.

Filipinos enjoy communal gatherings, where Ace observed a lot of incredible people perfecting the taste of traditional foods.

Jackie is also a master of Filipino cuisine.

As a mother and father, they hope to pass on the traditions of Filipino culture to their son.

Ace is also the executive director of the Grand Rapids Asian Pacific Foundation and founder of the Grand Rapids Asian Pacific festival.

He established the festival as a place for his son to celebrate his Asian roots, and now as an event for everyone to gather and learn from one another.

Let's dive into traditional Filipino cuisine with Ace and Jackie Marasigan, on this segment of "MI American Recipe".

(cheerful music) Jackie and Ace Marasigan, what are we making today?

- We are making Filipino adobo.

- It's a unique dish, that's why I chose it to make it today.

It's so easy, just mix all the ingredients.

So the main ingredients are the soy sauce.

So I'm not gonna use a measuring spoon.

- Yup, you're gonna do it like Jackie does in Jackie's kitchen.

- Yeah, this is how I make it, so.

- [Kylie] Lovely.

- So this is the soy sauce, and then I have a cup of vinegar, because it's the main sauce of it.

- So the soy sauce and the vinegar base is what makes it adobo.

The idea is like to preserve the meat.

So you would see some grandmas cook adobo in their like pantry, that's been there for like a month.

- [Kylie] Oh my goodness.

- So that actually lasts that long.

- And it lasts that long?

- Yeah.

- Which is great when it comes to really, like you said, preserving and sustaining.

I know that we live in a go, go, go society.

And so if you can grab out your pantry and eat it, that's what we want.

And Jackie, when you're shopping at the market, how much are you spending?

Is this stuff that is pretty affordable for most families?

- Oh yeah, for $20.

- Wow.

- You can make the adobo, yeah.

- And you said to feed like eight people?

- Yeah, eight, five to eight, yeah.

- Oh, that's perfect.

- For $20.

- So what are we on to next?

- So we are doing the tilapia bake.

(upbeat music) - Perfect, and I see Jackie bringing in some tomatoes.

So you are just quickly bringing those in.

You guys were telling me earlier that you love just sharing, like your culture and things like that.

How does, I guess, that translate to sharing food?

Because food is such a big part of culture, especially in the Asian American community.

- I love that you brought that up, because food is very personal, right?

I mean, everybody has their own take on food.

Those who are privileged to have more, will have a different type of food.

And those who are, you know, like us, we grew up poor, and we learn how to really adapt to what we can use and also create dishes out of the things that were readily available.

As a community, we need to step up and help each other out.

You know, there are some people that need our assistance, but maybe they could taste some different dishes as well, right?

You know, there's so many different cultures.

(cheerful music) When we say Asian Pacific, I mean, we talking about so many different countries, but within those countries, there's so many diversity, right?

Jackie and I both are from different regions of Philippines.

She speaks many, many different dialects.

I speak one.

(Kylie laughing) And you know, she's got family who are in the tribal regions of the Philippines.

You know, I'm fascinated by the way people live in those tribal groups, because they are one of the healthiest people.

Their diet's not been affected by, you know, what's easy and what's not.

- And I see, you said it's still a little frozen.

Is this fresh or frozen fish and will either/or work for a dish like this?

- I prefer fresh, but you know, again, you know, we want this to be affordable.

And for us as a family, it's hard to just buy fresh fish, right?

- Yeah, oh, absolutely.

Especially if you've got, you know, like we said, eight plus people in a family that we're trying serve.

- I'm gonna just put pepper.

- Yeah, so a little bit of salt and pepper.

Just kinda give you a little bit of a taste.

- [Jackie] Perfect.

- [Ace] Put some salt in there, because you know, it really dries out the fish.

Now I'm just gonna crinkle the corners.

- [Kylie] Oh, so this is going right in the steamer.

For some reason, I was thinking that's going in the oven, but you said no ahead of time, we're doing steaming with this.

I love it.

- We want this steamed.

So yeah, we're just gonna.

- So it's a very healthy dish.

You don't need oil to fry it, just steam it and you're good.

- Just put it like that.

- Perfect.

(upbeat music) - Our third dish, is we call it Pinakbet in the Philippines.

So it's kind of like a sauteed vegetables with salted shrimp, shrimp paste there.

It's kinda a little stinky.

(all laughing) - And how do you pronounce this one?

- [Jackie] Bagoong.

- Bagoong, okay.

- Yeah.

- [Ace] It's one of those like condiments that we use in the Filipino cooking, you know, it's something that my grandma loves to use.

- I think it's great to be able to make substitutions, especially, you know, regarding what you have access to, but it's so important to keep the cultural base of it.

- Exactly.

- And we wanna be able to honor, you know, the Filipino community and culture in the food.

- I think as long as we're cooking in the style that we've learned from our, you know, from our ancestors, from our grandparents.

It's honoring that tradition, but yes, it's more about like what's accessible, what's readily available for the community.

People from West Michigan could make their own, like Pinakbet you know?

Yeah, you could buy the Bagoong paste from the Asian stores.

- Well, and you on your own, Ace, I know, you're all over social media in the Grand Rapids community.

And it seems like you're always highlighting different businesses, minority businesses.

It's not always just in the Asian American community.

Why is that important for you?

- You know, it's important for my son to be able to understand that there's a bigger world, not just beyond our community, there's a bigger world in our community.

And it's important for us to be the bridge builders.

And again, you know, like when we were creating the Asian Pacific Festival, in the beginning, it's just celebration of like our culture.

We wanna be able to share it, taking pride in being Asian community.

But now it's like, hey, it's taking pride, but also inviting people to learn about our culture so we can learn more about them as well.

It's a mutual learning, right?

And then the more we do that, I just love like the idea of being able to break down walls and then we could share, we could be maybe cooking together.

You know, like, hey, let me show you the Filipino foods.

- Share recipes.

- Or maybe we could be invited to a cookout.

- Jackie, how does it feel for you just to be able to pass that down to Redd to be able to have all this knowledge of cooking, and know that that's going somewhere else too, to the next generation?

- Yeah, well hopefully Redd will learn Filipino food, you know, but right now we're trying to teach him how to make the adobo, 'cause he loves that food, so yup.

- Well, and your restaurant is Adobo Boy.

So he needs to be an adobo boy.

- That's why we name it Adobo Boy, because of him, you know?

- Oh really?

- Yeah.

- Oh that's awesome.

- Because he always asks his mom like, hey mom, when are you gonna make adobo?

And then it just kinda stuck like, man, you're this adobo boy.

And then like, oh, Adobo Boy.

- And then he called me when he was little, Mom, you're the best adobo cooker.

Oh, okay, thank you, thank you.

- That's the best accolade you could receive, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

(cheerful music) Mix it, yeah.

- Wow.

- I'm gonna claim that I made this dish.

- There you go.

Good job guys.

- Because I did some parts of it now, look at that.

- You're just cooking.

- Yeah, you're cooking now.

- So you're letting me do the final touch, thank you very much.

(laughing) We're just doing a- - Don't ruin the dish- I'm just kidding.

You cannot ruin the dish.

- I know, I'm nervous now.

- Okay, does this look like about enough?

- [Jackie] Yes.

- All right, we're gonna hold it up so you guys can see too.

Here we go.

And am I just sprinkling it over, okay.

- [Jackie] Doing a great job.

- It smells- - Counterclockwise, oh no.

Just kidding, just kidding.

- Please don't do that to me, my friend.

So we've got this beautiful spread.

Tell me about what you've laid out today.

- Today I made the chicken adobo, pinakbet, which is the stir fried vegetable.

- [Ace] And then we get the tilapia wrapped in banana leaves.

- It's falling apart in a beautiful way.

Like that looks so juicy and so flavorful right here.

Well, thank you guys so much for coming in and showing us just a bit about your culture, as well as making this delicious spread of food.

For more recipes like this, be sure to visit them at Adobo Boy.

(upbeat music) Our culinary journey takes place in the Spectrum Health Lifestyle Medicine Teaching Kitchen in the Grand Rapids Downtown Market.

"MI American Recipe's" goal is to showcase healthy cultural food, while also highlighting what organizations and people are doing in our community around food equity.

Let's hear from Elizabeth Suvedi, with Spectrum Health Culinary Medicine on the process for this show.

- My name is Elizabeth Suvedi, Manager for Culinary Medicine at Spectrum Health.

We are in the Lifestyle Medicine Teaching Kitchen.

The Lifestyle Medicine Teaching Kitchen is a really nice collaborative space.

So in any given day, we may have lifestyle medicine certified physicians seeing patients, we may have health coaches visiting with patients, we may have cooking classes happening in the teaching kitchen space behind me.

We may have registered dieticians meeting with patients, talking about their diets and ways to improve their health through food.

Within our lifestyle medicine practice, we have what we call pillars of health.

Those are some of the key components that we know drive people's lifestyle.

And when they do those things really well, they thrive within their own life and their own health.

They add life to their years and years to their life.

And those are the things that we're trying to focus on.

And specifically what we're bringing together today is that focus on the nourish pillar of health, the food component.

We know that food plays a major role in people's health and it can severely negatively impact it or severely impact it in a really positive way.

And that's what we're trying to embrace today within this wonderful collaboration with WGVU through "MI American Recipe".

I think oftentimes people have this notion that they think that healthy eating is expensive and it doesn't taste great.

They think, oh, it's gonna be some bland, boiled brussels sprouts.

And I don't wanna eat that.

As a chef by background, I wanna eat really delicious food.

Every bite has got to be savory and delicious and mouth watering, and it's gotta look great.

But I also know that you can capture all of those components and have it also be really good for your health.

And that's what we're trying to show people today.

And it also can be very inexpensive, when we talk about what does it cost to buy, you know, a pound of meat versus a can of beans or a pound of beans, beans are way less expensive.

You know, vegetables can be less expensive than other options.

And so we really try to show people that you can really eat healthfully, very low budget, and it can be absolutely delicious and something that you are craving and desire and want to eat.

And that's what we wanna show people with the food that we prepare here.

(cheerful music) - A natural chef, Marcelle Suazo was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the United States.

Her specialty is combining the artistic, culinary, and social elements representative of Caribbean people and her Dominican homeland in her cuisine.

Marcelle's cooking style has been shaped by her own immigration experiences, as well as those of her family, friends and neighbors.

These experiences help Marcelle to form a unique blend of cuisine, all her own.

She is a rabid locavore, someone whose diet consists mostly of locally grown or produced food.

She also loves feeding people, and when time allows, she delivers food to the homeless cooked in her own kitchen.

Marcelle is passionate about transforming broken systems.

She empowers real change, and believes that by making delicious food accessible to all we can create the world we want.

She is inspired by her beloved daughters, Maria and Mariella, for whom she is determined to overcome any challenges by pushing for positive transformation of herself and her community.

Marcelle's house is always filled with friends and she brings love, joy and courage to everything she does, including teaching classes at UCOM.

Let's see what Marcelle Suazo and her Dominican background can cook, here on this segment of "MI American Recipe".

(upbeat music) Marcelle Suazo, cooking in the kitchen with you.

So excited to do so today, as we are here for the MI, M I, American Recipe.

Three dishes, I'm so excited about that.

And we've got some broth cooking here.

What are we getting ready to do?

- Sopa boba is a vegetable soup.

We call it boba.

Boba means simple, something, it doesn't have too much to do.

It's just like this.

Vegetable broth.

Then I have the squash, the Dominicana squash, and with the celery and yucca casava.

We just put them to boil and we add everything.

It's not that we have to be waiting for nothing.

You put all your ingredients together.

- [Jennifer] The potatoes.

- [Marcelle] Potatoes too.

- Let us say, you're from the Dominican Republic.

- The Dominican Republic, yeah.

We cook with a lot of garlic, a lot of oregano, a lot of herbs.

- [Jennifer] And you also do a lot of local food.

- I go to a restaurant, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, and I try something and I like it, then I wanna do it.

I wanna do it, but with my flavor.

It's just proving that I can do it better.

(laughing) - I love it.

Food insecurities that are exist in our communities.

You really work to combat that, right?

- Yeah.

- That's one of the things that's in your heart.

- Yes, I volunteer for the food pantry and UCOM.

- That's the United Church Outreach Ministry, right?

- It is sad when I see people, that they don't get access to real food.

When I cook over there, I always try to go and see what do they have?

Because it's depend on donations.

So I cannot just come out with a recipe without knowing what is there.

I want to teach that even though that is from a food pantry, they can still have healthy food with a lot of flavor.

- What else do you do in your own time?

Because you help lot of people.

- I feed the homeless a lot.

For Thanksgiving, I don't cook a meal for us.

I cook a meal for them.

One time I made 62 plates, but I don't do the mashed potato from a envelope.

I do it from scratch.

We prepare turkey.

Dessert is like a complete gourmet meal for the homeless.

- As we let the sopa boba continue to simmer, we're making tipili?

- Tabbouleh, that's the original name.

- [Jennifer] It's another salad.

- It's a salad, bulgur salad.

- So this is one of the recipes that comes from- - Another country.

- Another culture.

- But you have adapted it to your recipe style.

As you look at these ingredients, bulgur, parsley, obviously the onions, tomatoes.

Would you say those are easily and readily available to most people?

I mean, there are some local gardens.

- Even the bulgur, you can find it at UCOM pantry.

- Now I see your cutting style.

You have that chef cutting style, because you have been trained for this.

You went to a good culinary school here in Grand Rapids, GRCC, right?

- GRCC.

I used to work in a restaurant.

It was the Las Palmas restaurant.

There was a guy, a priest, and he would come to the restaurant, and he would say, if the Dominican is here, I want tostone.

If she's not here, I don't want it.

(laughing) Perfect.

- Now we are making avocado salad.

- Ensalada de aguacate.

Avocado itself, doesn't need to be dressed.

But when you having like a meal.

- I don't just give you an avocado and say, here you go.

You're gonna dress it a little bit, so that's what this salad does.

You have avocado, you said, with every meal?

- Yes.

- And you also said you don't go anywhere without an avocado, Because if you think that somebody may not have it, what do you do?

Tell me that again, 'cause that.

- Oh, you bring your avocado to your restaurant because you don't know if the restaurant is gonna have avocado.

So you bring it with you and that's normal.

- In your purse, in your pocket, wherever you put it.

- Wherever, you don't need to hide it.

It's not illegal.

(both laughing) - You're like, bring your avocados.

- Yes.

- Because you didn't do that dish right, I'm gonna have to have avocado with mine.

So you have your own and you just go for it.

- Yup.

- I love that, love that.

Does your youngest daughter like to cook?

- Mm hm.

- How important is it to, you know, establish and to have those recipes handed down from generation to generation and to teach the cooking process to each generation?

- Very important.

Very, very important.

I still call my mom, like when I'm gonna make something, I will call my mom, and I say, ask the family, what is the best recipe for this?

- [Jennifer] Oh, I love that.

- And then they will send me the recipe.

- Everybody chimes in.

- Yes, everybody.

- It's like, they're helping you cook from afar.

- Yes, always.

My trick with this, is I'm gonna have the line ready for when I cut the- - Cut the avocado?

- The avocado, so they don't go bad right away.

Let's hope this is good.

- Yes.

- Oh, that's pretty.

- Beautiful.

- And let's go back to healthy eating.

Avocado, is that healthy fat?

- Oh yes.

This is the best mayonnaise that you can have, - With the avocado?

- With the avocado.

You just need to smash it and that's it.

- [Jennifer] There you go.

- A little bit of salt, a little bit of olive oil, - [Jennifer] Olive oil and there you go.

- And it's healthy.

So I'm gonna put the lime over the avocado right away because it doesn't matter what you do.

If you put the seed in, whatever, it's gonna go dark.

And it's done.

- We've had a great time in the kitchen today, Marcelle.

And so we've got the finished product of all your work.

- Simple but full feeling and affordable and tasteful.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you for trusting me.

(cheerful music) - Odessa Yonkers moved to the 49507 as a teen, and has seen the growth within the community and surrounding areas in her 35 plus years living in Grand Rapids.

After the passing of her father, and witnessing numerous family members suffer from dietary related illness, Odessa began a personal mission to learn about overall wellness.

She's implemented healthy practices into her and her family's lifestyle, and is now educating others on how to do the same in her role at South East Market, and also through Wellness with Odessa, which she started during the pandemic.

Odessa's passion for wellness led her to pursue a certificate in Food, Nutrition, and Health.

When the owners of South East Market reached out to her, she knew this would be a perfect match, as the work they're doing around food and racial justice is something Odessa is passionate about.

Let's find out what goes into a healthy lifestyle through food with Odessa Yonkers in this segment of "MI American Recipe".

(upbeat music) Thank you so much for being here with me today.

Talk with me a bit about what we're making.

- We're going to start with the black eyed pea salad.

It's a really fun, easy salad to make.

- What made you pick these dishes?

Were you just a black eyed peas fan?

- I am, I am a big black eyed peas fan.

I grew up on black eyed peas, I'm from the South.

But also South East Market, the owners, it's like one of their recipes that they have issued for their produce bundle subscription participants.

- Wonderful.

- We're gonna start with our fresh veggies here.

We're just gonna cut.

- We're chopping away.

- Yes.

- [Kylie] And I see lots of colors in this bin right now.

Is this gonna be a really colorful salad?

- Yes, it is.

- I know South East Market has a really big emphasis on food equity, specifically in that area code.

Will you talk with me about just what that means to you personally, being from the area?

- I grew up in the 49507 area, a lot of fresh produce was not available.

I saw a lot of illnesses.

I had a lot of family members who died from diabetes, heart disease.

Just to know that there are people out there that care about food equity in 49507 area means a lot to me.

- Thank you for giving me this job.

I feel like I'm doing a lot, but I'm not doing very much.

- Thank you for helping.

I've always wanted to help people with their diets.

Food is medicine, definitely, and I just want to educate people on eating healthier.

You know, it's not as hard as what people think.

Like, oh, it's super hard to eat healthy, it's expensive.

And it really, it's not.

With South East Market, they're making it affordable, making food accessible to people in the 49507 area.

You can have healthy, you can have affordable food.

That's what we're doing.

- Wonderful.

- And then we're just going to shake it up in this jar here.

- Love it.

Is this where do like a little dance in the kitchen?

There we go.

Love it, love it.

Nutritious and delicious, I'm excited to see the next one.

- And beautiful.

- Yes, absolutely.

- All right, for this next salad, we had to rope in our friend, Ron Fudge, because, well, he helped create the recipe.

Tell me about what we're making today.

- Sure, we are making what's called a pear cabbage salad, right?

And this salad was inspired by the pear, and by Miss Odessa.

So we have this foodie relationship, where she brings over food, and I take a look in the bag, and I say, let's see what we can do with this.

And so we started with a pear, and I just took a taste of it.

And I said, you know, I think this would pair well with a cabbage salad.

- I see what you did there.

Pear, pair well.

- Yes, yes see.

- I see what you did.

- And so with the sweetness of the pair and the bitterness of the cabbage, it's really good with a red wine, so.

- We'll start with the dressing.

- [Kylie] Okay.

- We'll just get that out of the way.

Take the salad here.

- Thank you chef.

- Look at your teamwork go.

- Teamwork makes the dream work.

- We are that, man.

- I feel like I have to say it, 'cause it's just right there, but you make a good pair.

- Oh.

- Oh I like that.

- It was right there.

- Wait till you see us dance.

- Oh man, oh my gosh.

- Do you guys dance in the kitchen often?

- All the time.

- Absolutely.

- Why aren't you busting a move right now?

- Put on the music, let's go.

All right, let's give her a move.

(laughing) - We dance, we make food, great recipes, and just have a good time.

- Love it, we love to see it.

(upbeat music) Who's ready for some appetizers?

- Let's go.

- Let's do it.

- All right, talk to me about what we're making.

- Our next recipe is going to be a mushroom goat cheese toast.

(cheerful music) We're gonna be using ingredients from South East Market.

This is really, really simple to make, and it's really delicious.

Now we are going to add in our mushrooms.

(gentle music) - I wanna know just about the work that you're doing right now with the South East Market.

- I've been with the South East Market for about three months now.

I am the Lead Associate there.

The owner saw that there was a need, there was a lack of access to fresh produce, fresh, healthy foods.

So they saw that need and they wanted to fill the need.

And it's what we are doing.

- Would you consider that area prior to the market coming in as something like a food desert?

- It really was.

Every corner, you have a store, but it's usually filled with alcohol or processed foods.

It was really hard to find fresh foods in that community.

And we are making that change.

One of our programs that we have is called Pay It Forward.

- [Kylie] Yeah.

- And what that is about is when you come into the store, if you wanted to round up your purchase to the nearest dollar, if you wanted to add $5, $10, or whatever you wanted to add, feel free.

I mean, sometimes people come in and they're very generous and we're so appreciative of that.

But what that does is it allows us to offer all of our produce to our customers or to the participants in the 49507 area at cost.

That means there's no upcharge.

There's no up cost.

When people, they learn about it, they've just been so generous.

- So you guys are also offering produce bundles as well.

Can you talk with me about how that works?

I know you brought some here too, which is what we were cooking with.

- Yes, right now we are offering produce bundles to our customers, where you could get curated boxes or curated bins of fresh produce.

If you wanted to come in and you, you know, got your bundle and you wanted to donate to someone in the community, you can do that.

We also just started our EBT bundle program.

And this is going to be so helpful to so many people, EBT participants can come in, get a $20 bundle for $5.

That is what we've really been pushing, and another way that we can help the community to have better access to healthy foods.

(cheerful music) - We've got our salads and our appetizers ready.

We're ready for a summer party.

- Absolutely.

- Great.

- Perfect, well, thank you guys so much for taking time to come in and show us some of these great recipes.

- Thank you for having us, Kylie.

- Absolutely.

For more recipes like this, as well as more fresh and local produce, be sure to check out the South East Market.

(uplifting music) - Cameron Stott is an Anishinaabe chef, born and raised here in Grand Rapids.

He is a proud father of two boys, and is currently enrolled at Grand Valley State University.

He is part of an organization called I Collective, an autonomous group of Indigenous chefs, activists, herbalist, seed, and knowledge keepers.

Indigenous food systems are central to his knowledge of Indigenous cuisine, and how he translates that into modern context, using foraged edibles, wild game and locally grown foods.

Cameron hopes to utilize his knowledge of Indigenous food systems to educate others.

Working with the Kent County Food Policy Council, Cameron has laid foundations in his community to create equitable food access and bring his cultural take on cuisine into his work.

Join us now as we welcome Cameron Stott on this segment of "MI American Recipe".

(upbeat music) I am so excited to be here today with Cameron Stott, we are cooking up some good things in the kitchen.

Tell me what we've got in store today.

- So today I'm gonna be cooking wild rice congee, and blue corn waffles with duck eggs.

- This is Indigenous food.

This is unique to your culture, and you wanna make sure that that kind of legacy continues through your cooking.

- Right.

I spent a long time on my culinary journey, wondering why my culture hasn't been represented in cuisine.

And so I wanted to make sure that my culture was represented properly.

So I did a lot of research, and I joined a bunch of groups that were associated with Indigenous foods, and I started learning, and that's where my journey brought me, is here.

- Wonderful, and so what are we starting with?

- So the first dish that I'm starting with is a wild rice congee.

So the wild rice congee is cooked with stock and it's cooked until it soaks up all that liquid.

And then we're gonna hit it with a bit of grated ginger.

We're gonna hit it with some maple syrup, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and cranberries.

- Well, let's get cooking.

- Alrighty.

Let's take a look at where we're at here.

The wild rest congee is done.

- [Jennifer] So what do we do next?

- It's very simple.

We're just going to add the wild rice to the bowl.

We're gonna take a knob of ginger.

- Okay, I love ginger.

What's our next step?

So we added the ginger.

- So we're gonna do, quick pinch of the sunflower seeds.

- [Jennifer] Sunflower seeds.

- Quick pinch of pumpkin seeds.

I picked these because sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds are indigenous to North America as well.

- And then I just saw, you added some cranberries.

Dried cranberries?

- Dried cranberries, yes.

That was part of the original Native diet, was foraged highbush cranberries.

So I used these dry cranberries as a replacement for that.

We're gonna pour some maple syrup over top.

Maple syrup is also a staple of Native American diet because we used to tap maple trees, you know, thousands of years ago.

I like to keep that tradition alive.

Would you like to try it?

- [Jennifer] I would.

- [Cameron] Yeah, let's try it.

- Let's dig in here.

I wanna make sure I get some of that maple syrup and a cranberry.

Oh my word.

- Isn't that good, right?

- That is so good.

(laughing) Wild rice congee, that is one for the books.

Well, let's talk about the organizations that you worked with.

The baseline is to make sure that there's no food insecurity for anyone.

- I always have a philosophy that food is medicine, isn't medicine, unless it's accessible for all.

And so I take that very seriously, and I take measures in the community to make sure that people have access to food, sustainable, healthy foods.

I experienced food insecurity as a child.

So growing up, I had to be inventive of how I was going to make a decent meal for myself.

And that kind of is what inspired me to be a chef.

But also I held onto that.

I just wanted to have access to those healthy, sustainable foods.

And now that I do, I want to create that access for other people.

- What are you doing with the Kent County Food Policy Council?

So we have sustainable food sources for those in the community who are lacking.

- We just began, so we're in our beginning stages, but we are trying to advance equity within food systems.

It's all about creating that access to the food.

There's so many barriers for sustainable ingredients, and not just price, but like just the knowledge of growing your own food, and knowing where your food comes from, that is power.

- Do you wanna have your own restaurant?

- I did dream of having a restaurant one day, but I think that my main focus is teaching people about sustainable foods and Indigenous food systems.

(gentle music) - The wild rice congee, delicious, wonderful.

And now we're doing a blue corn waffle with what?

- With the duck egg.

- Duck egg.

We're gonna talk about that duck egg in just a minute.

So let's get started.

- The first thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna put our dry ingredients in.

- Okay, what have we got?

- I like to use this Rise flour blend.

It's my favorite gluten free flour.

- When we did the wild rice congee, you mentioned of course that the wild rice is gluten free.

Are you a gluten free fan?

- When we talk about decolonize or indigenizing food, we think of food, pre-colonial.

We were introduced to foods that had a lot of gluten, dairy, and our systems were not adjusted to that, so that when they came over, and introduced those things to our diets, it did not really agree with us.

So part of venturing into pre-colonial cuisine is kind of getting rid of some of those factors like gluten and dairy.

- It was much healthy and sustainable.

People were healthy, they didn't have a lot of disease.

They lived a long time.

- That's very true.

- Yeah.

- What made you do blue corn flour?

Why blue corn waffle?

- We have something called a Three Sisters garden.

Corn, beans, and squash are all called the Three Sisters.

They're codependent on each other.

So you plant the corn first, and you let it grow a little bit.

And then you point your beans, and the beans grow, and they climb up the stalks.

And then you plant your squash on the ends of the mounds, and the squash shades so that other weeds don't grow in.

I chose to use corn flour in general, because that's one of our really important crops to Indigenous people.

- And now we are getting ready for the duck egg.

I have a question.

- What's that?

- Why a duck egg?

- It's part of the land, we didn't really have chickens.

- So you had the ducks.

- So, you know, we supplement that with duck egg for decolonized cuisine.

- Okay, absolutely.

- Yum.

- Here we go.

- Look at that.

Cameron, if anyone wants any more information, they can go to the Kent County Food Policy Council, and their website to find out more.

Thank you for joining us today.

- Thank you so much.

- It's been fun.

(upbeat music) - [Kylie] Let's check back in with Spectrum Health's Elizabeth Suvedi before our next guest, to get a little more insight on creating "MI American Recipe".

- Yeah, I think what's really unique with this partnership is when WGVU approached us about this awesome opportunity, it sounded great, we were really excited.

But one thing we always get a little bit nervous about when people approach us, is, are we gonna just allow them to kind of cook whatever they want, and really have no filter, no criteria.

And if we did that, it wouldn't be the partnership that it is.

The piece that we bring to the table is to showcase how we can review the recipes, look at them together, and talk about, are there any things we could change or do differently, or really mention to them, like let's bring forward those recipes that are very culturally relevant, but also great for the people that are eating them.

And so we had meetings with all of the chefs, who reviewed their recipes, and got a chance to talk through those things.

We also, on the very front end, sent them some kind of guidelines around things to think about, those things would be things like low added sugar, low added salt, not using processed foods.

And those are the things that really tend to really bring people down when we think about the Standard American Diet, which is abbreviated SAD, unfortunately, it really is sad.

And so we wanna make sure that we're bringing not only those cultural pieces of the recipes that influence their culture and how they eat and those celebratory type things, but also doing it in a way that really celebrates their health, and make sure that they're gonna live that long life, and not just get to the point of retirement, and feel like they can't move their body.

They can't do things.

We wanna make sure they can do that and continue to eat those delicious foods.

So you'll see that in a lot of the recipes that are showcased, you'll see things like wild rice.

You'll see things like blue corn, lots of fruits, lots of vegetables, all the, you know, whole grains, all those things that we love here within culinary medicine, embraced within those recipes.

(cheerful music) - A Muskegon native, Amy St. Germain is a teacher who loves to share her knowledge about health and fitness and works as a nutrition educator for the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids.

A mom and marathon runner, she wants to do what she can to inspire people to eat more fruits and veggies, become more food savvy and more adventurous, whether it comes to cooking for one or 21.

She has worked with several urban gardens, and has worked hard to feed people in her area, through community gardens, and the Wise Mobile Farmer's Market, the Veggie Van.

Her passion for healthy living is certainly making an impact in her community.

Come along with us as we find out more about Amy St. Germain and the Grand Rapids YMCA on this segment of "MI American Recipe".

Chef Amy, what do you have to show us today?

(upbeat music) - Well, today I have a seasonal frittata that I will be using some great summer vegetables, but this will be able to be used fall, winter, spring, whatever we have.

- Perfect, let's get started.

I see lots of stuff on the table.

I'm not sure where to begin.

So you're gonna guide me on this one.

- So we'll be using our green onions.

- Wow.

- We also have our zucchini that we'll be using.

- Perfect - Asparagus right now is in season.

I don't know if anybody has been driving along the road up north towards Ludington, but you can see wild asparagus growing all throughout the roadways.

We also have some mushrooms that we'll be using for our frittata.

Very, very simple.

We'll just be sauteing up our vegetables, throwing them in the pan, getting a nice softness to those vegetables.

We'll be cracking our eggs, putting the vegetables in the pan, eggs, cheese, and in the oven it goes.

- When it comes to accessibility, obviously it's not just about the price point.

It can depend on how close you live to the neighborhood grocery store or a market.

You're working really hard to break down some of those barriers with the community gardens and the Veggie Van that you're working with.

Can you talk to me about some of that?

- So we do have several different things that are going on within the Grand Rapids YMCA to really try to bring as many fresh fruits and vegetables into our communities as we possibly can.

We have things like the Farmer's Market Food Navigator, which is also through the Michigan Fitness Foundation, which teaches people how to utilize their fresh fruits and vegetables.

We also have something called the Veggie Van, which is kind of my pride and joy.

It's very close to my heart.

Where we bring fresh fruits and vegetables into places that are considered food deserts, where the access to fruits and vegetables is extremely limited.

We have things like more like corner stores where the fresh fruits and vegetables are extremely expensive.

I actually went into a corner store the other day, just to see how much a banana was, - Oh no.

- And a banana was $1.50.

- Wow.

- So when you are looking at fresh fruits and vegetables, and you have a choice between a bag of chips or a banana, and you're hungry, the likelihood is that you're going to grab that bag of chips.

- Absolutely.

- And so now it's becomes a discussion of how are we going to get more fresh fruits and vegetables to people.

So the Veggie Van does just that.

- Okay, so what have we got next?

- So now we're going to be making one of my favorites, which is a pineapple carrot muffin.

- That sounds amazing.

- This is such a good recipe.

You can make it as a muffin, and just eat it the way it is, with nothing on it.

It's amazing as a breakfast treat.

- Well, I love the idea of mixing vegetables with our sweets 'cause then if I eat like the whole tin, I might not feel quite as bad.

We won't be doing that, but let's jump in.

How do we get started?

- All right, so I have some carrots here.

When I am in the kitchen, my grater is one of my best friends.

I am able to use my grater in so many different ways, in order to even hide some of those vegetables for my kids.

So I'm just going to take off the end, right here.

For this, we're going to be using the larger size hole.

That's going to give us more of that shredding feeling, even grate carrots, sweet potatoes, zucchini into my tacos.

My kids never knew it.

And they got their vegetables in another way.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And when it comes to vegetables, though, you're helping people to grow their own.

You wanna talk with me about the work you're doing in the community garden?

- We are.

So they had just redid the street in front of our office, and they had these beautiful rose gardens that were going in up and down the street.

We went to the city and we said, these are beautiful gardens.

However, it doesn't feed the community.

So can we turn our green space into a community garden instead?

And we have had so much fun.

We've been able to really use it as a teaching tool as we're going through planting things.

I don't know if anybody has ever seen how brussels sprouts grow, but it's pretty amazing.

- I have not.

- To look at.

So really looking at how to teach people how to grow things.

We created seed boxes.

So the kids in the community have made these boxes that inside have levels where we can put seeds in.

The idea is that we put the packets of seeds in, people take them home.

They plant them, they harvest them, and then they take the seeds and bring them back for those seed boxes the following year.

This is one thing that kids can help with as well.

Just to have them measure items.

Once they have some ownership over what's being cooked, and once we create that excitement, that's when we start to see kids changing their lifestyle and going home and saying, hey mom, or hey dad, I made this at school.

I made a blueberry smoothie with spinach and I like spinach now.

So it's really a matter of exposing kids to the different options that are out there.

(cheerful music) So when we fold things in, we're just going simply from the bottom to the top, and we're just mixing it in like that.

- Oh, okay, just a gentle.

- Would you like try?

- Oh, I'd love to try.

- There you go.

- Now I can say that I can fold things into recipes.

- You learned how to fold.

- Cooking by yourself can feel a bit lonely.

And I think it's because so much of our food is used as a sense of community.

You eat with people, you enjoy each other's company, but can food be a great way to connect with yourself if you're doing it alone?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

And especially if you are living in a community, it's a nice way to maybe introduce yourself to a neighbor as well.

I think we need to build that community in a different way.

It used to be where we knew our neighbors.

Now we don't really know our neighbors the way we should.

So maybe that might be a gateway to really you being the catalyst for building up your neighborhood.

- [Kylie] Perfect.

- And you can do it with pineapple carrot muffins.

- Love it.

So we're gonna put this in, and then we are going to, probably send it out into our neighborhoods.

(cheerful music) Okay, so this is our last dish that we're preparing.

What do you got for me?

- So this is a very simple plum salad, but what I like about it is they call it a plum salad, but it really has watermelon, cantaloupe, spinach, which you can use really any sort of spring mix.

And when we talk about the different colors of fruits and vegetables, really the darker you go, the more vitamins and minerals you're going to be getting.

So the difference between an iceberg lettuce and a spinach, you're going to be getting more out of the spinach.

But again, am I going to fault to anyone for saying, oh, you should only eat spinach.

No, if iceberg lettuce is what is available to you, use iceberg lettuce and be happy with it.

Vegetables are vegetables and fruit is fruit.

And so whatever way you can eat them, I'm proud of you.

I'm proud of you.

All right, so now I'm just gonna sprinkle those over.

- Wonderful.

- Right here, we've got our feta cheese.

- Okay, wonderful.

- So we're just going to take some, and we're gonna sprinkle it right over.

The other thing that we have here, is we have a really nice raspberry poppy seed vinegarette that was made.

And we're just gonna drizzle that right on here.

- That sounds amazing, it looks amazing.

So this is the finished product.

It looks like a great summer plate.

- This is a really nice, healthy, delicious, inexpensive way to utilize a lot of things that you already have at home, to keep your body nourished and healthy.

- Absolutely, well, thank you so much, Chef Amy, for teaching us how to make these versatile and accessible foods right at home.

- Thank you so much.

- If you wanna check out great recipes like this, this be sure to head on over and follow Chef Amy over at the Greater Grand Rapids YMCA.

(uplifting music) - So Kylie, "MI American Recipe".

This was an amazing experience, an awesome time, with a lot of local chefs from right here in Grand Rapids that shared, you know, their unique culture, their unique take on recipes, but also addressing a very serious issue that exists for so many, and that is food insecurity.

- That's right.

And people are doing some amazing things in our community.

We're talking produce packages that can be donated to those who might be in more underserved areas.

We talked a lot about food deserts, and also just market prices, and how to find fresh fruits and vegetables when they're in season.

- And using those food items that they find locally, produced in local gardens or wherever, perhaps they may get those resources, and using them in recipes that are colorful, healthy, you know, and really taste good, because we got an opportunity to try a bite and they were delicious.

And they're sharing that knowledge and that wisdom with us.

And so we're taking you on that journey as well, in "MI American Recipe".

So you can see what local chefs are doing, but also what you might be able to do with what you have right in your food pantry.

That was huge for me.

- Absolutely, getting to learn just from the chefs themselves, and be able to practice cultural accuracy when you're recreating dishes like this, and really bringing a sense of appreciation of what makes up our West Michigan melting pot here in Grand Rapids.

- And it's an issue that continues to be addressed and needs to be addressed, and they're doing that through the local resources, and we were happy to be able to share time with them in the kitchen, and learn a few cooking tips ourselves, right?

- Absolutely.

- So that was amazing, and fun as well.

- [Kylie] Yes, I know I'm gonna start trying some of the recipes myself at home.

I'm sure you are too.

- Absolutely.

- Be sure to join us, and thanks so much for watching "MI American Recipe".