Written By: Olivia Haase | Dietetic Intern

The summer is a great time to involve your children in the kitchen. New flavors and textures can give children a way to explore food while expanding their palates and exposing them to new foods and cooking skills. There are a multitude of ways to instill a love for food and foster their creativity. Keep your children busy, engaged, and excited about cooking with these simple and fun food-related activities.

1. Make DIY Popsicles: Homemade popsicles are always a winner. Encourage your kids to come up with their own flavors, using juice, yogurt, and fruit to come up with refreshing combinations. Help them to explore their creativity by mixing and matching flavors. Once the popsicles have set in the freezer, have fun a taste testing all of the popsicles and pick the best flavor!
2. Have an Outdoor Picnic: Set up a picnic blanket in a shady spot in the grass and let your kids pack up a basket of food to enjoy outdoors. Encourage them to choose their favorite fruits, sandwiches, and snacks. Anything goes! Eating outdoors is a great way to connect children with nature and outdoor creative play. This is a great time to instill the value of taking care of nature: don’t forget to clean up your refuse on the out!
3. Create DIY Ice Cubes: An even simpler take on the DIY Ice cubes. Freeze different fruit and juices in ice cube trays with water. Note: this is a great way to increase excitement around drinking water and bonus points for a great way to beat the heat and stay hydrated.
4. Farmers Market Scavenger Hunt: Connect your kids to an array of seasonal vegetables and local goods by visiting your local Farmers Market. Create a scavenger hunt game and have your kids find certain items. Sunflowers, beets, kale, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables are easy and fun to find. This game encourages exposure, visual stimulation, and connection to the local community.  Bonus points to have them pick out one new vegetable each and come up with a creative way to prepare what they picked out.
5. Start a Small Vegetable Garden: Encourage your child’s connection to growing their own food. No formal gardening space or experience required. Take any container, fill it with soil and plant seeds according to the package. Watch the seeds grow while teaching your children how to plant and care for a living thing. Bonus points, harvest vegetables and make a new recipe!
6. DIY Recipe Book: Help your kids write their own recipe books. Encourage them to think of their favorite foods or dishes they have eaten before. Instruct them to find a recipe online and transcribe into one place for safe keeping. They can design the layout, make designs, or write about the time they enjoyed the dish. This can be done by hand or virtually! If virtually, you can print it out and share with friends and family.
7. Tie-Dye with Food Scraps: A favorite eco-and-kid-friendly activity! Use old scraps from food and give old clothes new life! Remember to supervise your kids throughout the tie-dye process. Food scraps that can dye clothes include beets, spinach, onion peels, avocado peels, cabbage, or coffee grounds. See this article for a quick how-to.

Keeping kids engaged and entertained this summer with these activities helps to foster creativity and exploration while exposing children to new foods, flavors, and textures. From connecting to the local community with a Farmers Market Scavenger hunt to DIY Recipe books at home, these low-cost, easy activities will provide for an educational, fun, and engaging summer! The memories and skills they gain from these food activities will last far beyond the summer months. Happy Summer!

Written By: Tania Garcia | Marketing Intern

It is officially Summer and while the first thing many think of is no school, hot weather, and the beach, we should also think about the in-season food! Beginning from June until August right now is the time to enjoy the freshness of certain fruits and vegetables. Eating in-season produce is relatively more inexpensive, easier to find, and -contains more nutrients, providing a richer flavor.  Seasonal fruits and vegetables grow based on their specific requirements of temperature, humidity, and light needed. As stated by Ward’s Supermarket, “Produce that’s not in season undergoes early picking, cooling, and heating that reduces the flavor. Fruits and vegetables in season spend less time from farm to table, so they maintain much of their nutrition and flavor.” With this into mind, let’s acknowledge the summer produce that you can enjoy!  

First, did you know that July is known as the National Berry Month? Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries are all in-season ready to be eaten during the summer months. According to Harvard University, “berries provide potassium, magnesium, vitamins C and K, fiber, and prebiotics-carbohydrates that help promote a healthy gut.” Berries are some of the best sources of antioxidants, dark berries especially can help protect the kidneys. Additionally, according to Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, “On average, people who eat more berries seem to live a little bit longer.” Now, that does not mean that these berries should just be eaten all alone; instead, opt for including them into your meals. My favorite meal to include berries in is breakfast—banana oat pancakes topped with various berries are unbeatable. Luckily for you, Common Threads has a recipe for Banana Oat Pancakes, and not only are they tasty, but easy to make.  

Let’s talk about some vegetables, cauliflower and bell peppers are in season for the summer! Cauliflowers are specifically known to help strengthen your bones, as well as being a great source of fiber. While it may be easy to assume that bell peppers are mainly there for a taste of spice; bell peppers are rich in antioxidants and vitamin C! Consider sautéing them and including them with some chicken for protein or simply stuffing them! Follow the Common Threads recipe on Simply Stuffed Bell Peppers for a delicious meal!  

Many of the fruits and veggies that are in-season often contain vitamin C and antioxidants. According to the Mayo Clinic, vitamin C is a nutrient your body needs to form blood vessels, cartilage, muscle and collagen in bones. On the other hand, antioxidants protect your cells against free radicals, which may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Stay active and healthy through the summer by finding fun ways to incorporate these in-season fruits and vegetables providing the nutrients your body and mind need. To find a list of what’s in season year-round visit the USDA’s Seasonal Produce Guide. 

Written By: Mariana Garza

Water is the most important nutrient for your body. About 70% of our bodies are made up of water, so it’s important to make sure we are staying hydrated throughout the day! Drinking enough water will support your immune system, promote healthy digestion, and provide the hydration you need to stay physically active. On average, you should aim for at least 8 cups of water per day. While this might seem excessive and  impossible to reach, it is possible using some simple steps to reach your hydration goals! Water is undoubtedly the best option for hydrating the right way. Even though it may be tempting to reach for the nearest sports drink, soda or juice, sugar-sweetened beverages can increase our risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Here are five sustainable tips to help you stay healthy and hydrated.

Use a fun or colorful reusable water bottle.

• Use a reusable bottle that you can refill throughout the day. 
• A water bottle in a design or your favorite color might motivate you to drink more often
• Ensure you reach your goal of 8 cups of water a day by filling up your water bottle the night before to have it ready to go  in the morning!

Eat water-dense fruits and vegetables.

• Did you know that some fruits and vegetables are over 70% water–some are even over 90%! Fruits like cantaloupe, strawberries, watermelon, bananas, grapes, oranges, pears, and pineapples all have a high-water content. 
• As for vegetables, go for lettuce, cabbage, celery, spinach, cooked squash, carrots, cooked broccoli, and avocados.

Limit sugary beverages like soda and fruit juice.

• There’s a time and place for every type of drink. Like food, drinks can be categorized into three categories, “Whoa, Slow, and Go.” 
• “Whoa” includes drinks that have limited nutritional value and should be consumed once in a while or during special occasions. Sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, juice, energy drinks, sweetened teas, and whole milk belong in this category. 
• “Slow” includes drinks that you can enjoy but should limit them to at most 2-3 times per week. Some examples include 2% milk, 100% fruit juice, and sports drinks. 
• “Go” includes drinks that you can enjoy every day. Water, 1% or skim milk, and unsweetened teas belong to this category. 
• If you have any doubts, check the nutrition facts label on the back of the product for the amount of added sugar per serving.

Don’t be afraid to change it up!

• Drink choices that can be enjoyed regularly include water, 1% or skim milk, and unsweetened teas.  
• Infuse your water with fruit to enhance it with some natural sweetness and change up the flavor.
• You can customize your infused water to your own fruit preferences! Check out the Infused Water recipe for some ideas!

Make it a fun challenge!

• Get some friends together and compete to see who can reach their goals each day. This is a fun way to help keep you accountable to meet your hydration goals! There are even free apps, like WaterReminder that allow you to track your water. This and other app options are available for iOS and Android. 

Use these tips at school, work or on a hot summer day! It can be a daunting task to increase fluid intake but if you follow these tips, you will be drinking more water in no time!

Sources: Eat Right 

Written By: Michelle Truong

In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in October and National Native American Heritage Month in November, Common Threads invited Jenni Lessard, a Canadian-based chef and the Interim Executive Director of the Indigenous Culinary of Associated Nations, to share about her heritage and to conduct a cooking demo with an Indigenous recipe. Chef Lessard is an entrepreneur, consultant, mother and member of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan, located in Canada.

Chef Jenni chose to prepare bannock, which simply means bread, along with rosehip butter and local berries. While preparing her quick and easy bannock, adapted from her Great Aunt’s recipe, Chef Jenni opened up about her life, inspirations, upbringing and her indigenous culture.  While it wasn’t originally considered an indigenous food, bannock became common to nearly all of North America’s first peoples.  

One reason for the popularity of bannock and its quick adoption as a dietary staple was that it could be made with the rations that were given to tribes after reserves were created. An Indian Reserve is land that was set aside under the Indian Act by the Crown (the government in Canada.) This Act was originally passed in 1876 and authorized the government to regulate and administer the day-to-day lives of registered Indians and reserve communities. Rations often included items like white flour, white sugar, lard, white rice and baking powder– all of which were foods that departed from native lean proteins and vegetables like bison, berries, and plants. 

As Chef Jenni combined flour, wheat flour, brown sugar, oil and water into a sticky dough, we learned that bannock is as versatile as it is tasty. The dough can be made into a loaf, individual smaller flatbreads, pizza crust, and even cinnamon buns. As she kneaded the dough, Chef Jenni reflected on one of her first jobs, which was creating patient menus using indigenous ingredients for a children’s hospital. She recalls using bannock dough to wrap around pizza filling to create “pizza pops” which were eagerly enjoyed by the patients!

While the discussion was often light-hearted, Chef Jenni also shared about some of the dark past that was experienced by Indigenous people. Chef Jenni stopped herself from preparing any foods as she reflected on the sorrowful history of Indigenous people in Canada. One of the many things Chef Jenni shared is that your mood and thoughts while cooking can affect your food. She stressed that the way you cook and how you’re feeling makes a huge difference to your food. This is why she encourages the practice of thinking about things that make you feel happy and peaceful while cooking. 

Common Threads agrees with Chef Jenni that preparing healthy meals and beloved cultural foods is good for the soul! Common Threads is grateful to Chef Jenni for sharing her heritage and her special recipe with us. We hope that in the spirit of celebrating history and food that you enjoy Chef Jenni’s bannock recipe below to prepare as a snack or a part of a feast for your own family! 

Learn more about Chef Jenni by visiting her website https://www.jennilessard.com!

BANNOCK RECIPE

Materials: 1 large bowl, 1 cup measure, liquid measure cup (can use dry measure if necessary), measuring spoons, baking sheet and parchment paper

Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• ½ cup oil or melted lard
• 3 ½ to 4 cups cold water

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. 

Add oil and  then add water gradually, mixing with your hands until all the dry ingredients are incorporated

1. Continue to add the water gradually until the dough is the consistency of a thick biscuit dough. 
2. Turn out the dough onto a floured counter and knead for a few minutes. 
3. Form the dough into a 12 inch by 12-inch circle and bake 30-35 min at 375 F or until golden brown. 

Written by: Allison Bunyan | Emerson Fellow

Did you know that mental health and nutrition are connected? At Common Threads, we acknowledge this fact by focusing our work on nutrition AND overall wellness. We include mental health in our definition of overall wellness and encourage everyone to incorporate mental health into their daily routines. To support you in your wellness journey, we want to share how making nutritious food choices and caring for your mental health are connected. After reading this article, you’ll understand why taking care of your body supports your mind, and vice versa. We hope you will gain some insight into how to better care for your overall well-being. 

Explaining the Connection

One way to care for your mental health is through nutrition. According to Harvard Medical School’s Harvard Health Blog, “what you eat directly affects the structure and function of your brain and, ultimately, your mood.” This connection between mood and food is influenced by the fuel that you put in your body. What you eat may correlate with how you feel, which can impact how you ultimately behave, and what kind of bacteria lives in your gut. The field of study that looks closely at these correlations is called nutritional psychiatry. These professionals support patients in improving their mood and mental health using nutrition.

Dr. Uma Naidoo, a leading voice in nutritional psychiatry, explains that understanding the gut-brain connection is essential to improving mental health through nutrition. She explains the following:

“The human microbiome, also known as the gut environment, is a community of bacteria that is healthy for the body. Food affects this gut environment and, in turn, the function of the brain and mood. When good microbes are introduced into this environment through healthy foods, they are broken down into positive substances that feed the body and brain. However, when unhealthy foods are introduced, they break down into negative substances that overcome the good bacteria and create inflammation in the gut—which, in research, has been shown to be the basis of several mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety.”

To summarize, good bacteria – which you introduce to your gut by eating healthy foods – play an important role in your health. Among other positive effects, it can impact your mood and energy levels. For example, the Harvard Heath explains that about 95% of the serotonin in your body is produced in your gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, the balance of bacteria in your gut influences serotonin production in your body. Disrupting this balance would not be good for your mental or physical health.

Dr. Naidoo suggests incorporating some of the following foods into your diet to enhance your brain and gut health:

• Plants
• Fermented Foods
• Omega 3 Fatty Acids
• Vitamin D
• Spices
• Tea

*Read more about each food here.

Taking care of your mental health involves more than incorporating healthy foods into your diet. This can help, but it is only one aspect of caring for your mental health. She acknowledges that one should seek help when experiencing a decline in mental health and that it can be helpful to pair a healthy diet with therapy or medication. Other ways to care for your mental health include staying physically active, avoiding cigarettes and alcohol, getting sleep, and spending time in nature. Northwestern Medicine, one of Common Thread’s academic research partners, offers the following resources for developing healthy habits for your mental health.

• Supporting Children’s Mental Health
• Make Time for Mental Health
• 12 Articles for a Healthier State of Mind

 Summing it Up

The food that you eat matters. As Dr. Naidoo and Harvard Health explain, caring for your gut health by incorporating healthy food into your diet can also support your mental health. However, nutrition is just one of many aspects to focus on when caring for your mental health. Common Threads recognizes this and understands that there is a connection between mental health, nutrition, and additional factors in achieving overall wellness. We will continue to champion this idea by encouraging healthy habits that contribute to overall wellness.

Additional Reading

But don’t just listen to us. On September 28, 2022 the White House introduced its National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. The Strategy outlines a plan for ending hunger, improving nutrition and physical activity, and reducing diet-related diseases and disparities by 2030. This focus on overall health includes mental health. From the beginning, the Strategy lists poor mental health as a cost of food insecurity and diet-related diseases, citing research articles looking at the associations between diet and mental health & food insecurity and mental health. Pillar 2, which focuses on integrating nutrition and health, includes strategies that integrate mental health, nutrition, and other factors to support overall health. We are excited to see how the Strategy will advance national programs that not only provide access to healthy food, but also promote equitable nutrition education and healthy living resources. Check out the Strategy yourself to learn more about the nation’s focus on hunger, nutrition, and health.

Written by: Allison Bunyan | Emerson Fellow

Fall has finally arrived and Halloween is almost here!  Have you and your family already decorated the house and pick out your costumes? This is the time to start watching spooky films, and more! We have some fun recipes and activities that you and your family can do to get into the Halloween spirit. We’ve provided some suggestions for you that align with our values of positive lifelong nutrition and wellbeing.

It’s Pumpkin Season!

Carving Pumpkins is a staple when it comes to celebrating Halloween. But, don’t let the fun stop there. Turn the classic activity of carving pumpkins into a chance to snack as well! To supplement sugary trick-or-treating goodies, try out some of our healthy pumpkin-themed recipes with the whole family. Pair recipe-making with a family excursion to a local pumpkin patch! You can make picking up pumpkins a day of fun. Snack on these before you head out for trick-or-treating, during a spooky movie marathon, or while you’re decorating the house!

Our Pumpkin Hummus combines chickpeas with pumpkin puree, garlic, tahini, and other delicious ingredients to make the perfect Halloween snack. Just blend your ingredients, add some garnishes on top, and you’re done!

Fun Fact: Due to its orange color, pumpkins contain a powerful antioxidant called beta-carotene that provides us with an abundant source of vitamin A!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds are a versatile food that is easy to make. You can get creative by adding all sorts of sweet or savory spices to make a tasty treat! Pumpkin seeds are also packed full of nutrients like magnesium, zinc, and fiber.

Fun Fact: Pumpkins are actually a fruit! Many people think they’re a vegetable because of their taste, but any produce with seeds are fruit.

Our Pumpkin Pie Bites offer a tasty and healthy substitute for candy. They are a blend of dates, oats, pumpkin pie spice, maple syrup, and pumpkin puree rolled into small, bite-sized balls.

Fun Fact: Pumpkins range in size from less than a pound to over 1,000 pounds. The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1,140 pounds!

Get your fruit ready for Halloween with our Pumpkin Tangerines. Make tangerines look like pumpkins by peeling a tangerine and sticking a celery stalk to the top! It’s an easy way to snack on fruits and veggies at the same time.

Get festive on Halloween morning with our Pumpkin Pie Smoothie recipe. You’ll love this healthy and delicious combo of vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, oats, milk, bananas, and pumpkin puree. It’s one more way to incorporate pumpkins into the Halloween season!

Fun Fact: Pumpkins have more fiber than kale, more potassium than bananas, and are full of heart-healthy magnesium and iron!

Halloween Activity Ideas

Halloween Movie Trivia or Charades

Has your family seen a few classic Halloween movies? If so, you may want to play Halloween Movie Trivia to test everyone’s spooky movie knowledge. Come up with simple or more tricky trivia questions to ask your kids! If you want a more general Halloween theme, try Halloween Charades! You and your kids can come up with fun words and phrases like Dracula, ghost, trick-or-treating, and more.

Halloween Sensory Bin

Put items with different textures, sizes, and shapes into a bin for kids to explore with their hands. Make it a bit spooky by adding toy spiders or anything around the house that might feel gooey or squishy. Add a blindfold for extra anticipation and fun!

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Get your kids moving this month with a treasure hunt! Leave clues around the house and/or in the backyard for your kids to find. Pair each clue with a treat or perhaps have them lead to one big surprise! You can find free printable template options online, or feel free to download our template.

Have a Happy Halloween and we hope you enjoy some of these delicious recipes and spooky activity ideas!

By Lisa Lubin, MS, RDN

The Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods and drinks has been updated to make it easier for you to make informed choices. The Daily Values for many nutrients have been updated based on new nutrition research. So, the % Daily Value, or %DV, may be different on some of your favorite foods and beverages.

%DV shows how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to your overall daily diet. You’ll notice the %DV column doesn’t add up vertically to 100%. Instead, %DV is the percentage of the Daily Value for each nutrient in a serving of the food. The Daily Values are reference amounts (in grams, milligrams, or micrograms) of nutrients to consume or not to exceed each day.

%DV on the label is a handy tool to help you make informed choices about what you eat and drink. You can use it to:

• Check if a food is high or low in an individual nutrient: As a general guide, 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is considered low, and 20% DV or more of a nutrient per serving is considered high.
•  Compare Foods: %DV makes it easy for you to make comparisons. Just make sure the serving sizes of each product are the same. Look at the %DV listed for the different nutrients and more often choose foods that are higher in dietary fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium and lower in saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.
•  Manage Dietary Trade-Offs: You don’t have to give up a favorite food to have a healthy diet. Use %DV to make dietary trade-offs with other foods throughout the day. When a food you like is high in a nutrient you want to get less of—or low in a nutrient you want to get more of—you can balance it with foods that are low (or high) in that nutrient at other times of the day.

But remember, there is no Daily Value assigned to either Trans Fat or Total Sugars, so no %DV appears on the label for these nutrients. Also, a %DV is only listed for protein in specific situations. For these nutrients, use the number of grams to compare and choose products.

Learn more about the Lows and Highs of Percent Daily Value on the New Nutrition Facts Label

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About the Author

Lisa Lubin is a Public Health Educator at FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. She is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and has a Master of Science in Nutrition Science from Drexel University and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Written By: Lucas King, Marketing Intern

Happy New Year! Each year, people all over the world participate in different New Year’s food traditions that are believed to bring them good luck in the coming year. 

Eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is a longtime tradition that is thought to bring good luck. There are many theories surrounding why they are associated with luck. One of these theories is rooted in African-American history, and claims that newly freed slaves ate dishes made with black-eyed peas to celebrate the January 1863 Emancipation, as this was one of the foods made available to the slaves. Celebrate this tradition with our Ham Hocks and Black Eyed Peas recipe. 

Another common New Year’s food tradition is pork. This tradition originates from the behavior of a pig. While chickens and turkeys scratch backwards, a pig buries its snout in the ground, and moves forward. This is meant to symbolize moving ahead into the new year, and improving our lives, rather than focusing on the mistakes of the past. Eating pork on New Year’s Day is a tradition rooted in Germany and Eastern Europe, and brought to the United States.

Collard greens are also believed to bring good luck in the New Year. Their green color symbolizes money and prosperity. According to traditions rooted in the South, greens can be hung by the door to ward off evil spirits that may enter our lives.

Unlike the other traditions discussed so far, lentils are typically eaten on New Year’s Eve, after midnight, in mostly Italian households. The round shape of lentils is meant to symbolize prosperity because of their resemblance to coins. Lentils are often paired with pork, another New Year’s tradition, and sausages.

In Filipino culture, a variety of fruits are used to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Specifically, twelve different fruits are used to symbolize each month of the year. Round fruits are typically the most sought after for this tradition. In Mexico, grapes are used to celebrate this tradition, and in many other cultures, pomegranates are used to symbolize fertility and birth in the coming year. 

Meals that use fish are eaten all around the world to celebrate New Year’s Day, especially in countries closer to water. Specifically, in Scandinavian countries, herring is believed to bring in good fortune. Herring is a heavily traded product, and has brought much prosperity to these countries. Therefore, eating herring on New Year’s Day was a way to hope for good catches in the months to come. Herring’s migrational patterns are very unpredictable, making it very hard to expect a good year for catching herring. 

While New Year’s Day is celebrated differently across cultures around the world, it is one that brings cultures together. Different cultures have different traditions, all rooted in similar ideas of good fortune and prosperity. Celebrate the New Year with some of our recipes!

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Resources: 

• The Real Simple

Written By: Jeneene Connelly

The holidays are rooted in culture and tradition, similar to our values here at Common Threads. It is also a time to gather with family and friends, to make cherished memories, eat delicious traditional foods, and bring in the new year with the best intentions. This holiday season we encourage children and families to make new holiday traditions that celebrate food, culture, and the world around us.

Here are some ways to do so: 

1. Holiday shop at a local farmer’s market. It is easy to get caught up in holiday online shopping or at a mall. But don’t forget about your local farmer’s markets where you can find locally grown produce, made from scratch foods to try, and unique handmade items that make excellent gifts. By shopping local, children and families can help support the community and make a new and exciting holiday tradition.
2. Nod to the past. Holiday recipes tend to be passed down from generation to generation. Putting a spin on a cultural recipe, however, is an easy way to create a new traditional recipe while still keeping original key ingredients! For example, mixing our Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese recipe with the same cheese grandma uses for her traditional Mac & Cheese recipe can create a brand new recipe for the family to try. Creating new recipes while honoring the past traditional recipes can be seen as an exciting venture for you and your family! 
3. Try a different cultural recipe. Trying traditional recipes from other cultures can be an inspiring way to explore and honor diversity with children and families. Here are some Common Threads recipes that honor different cultures during this Holiday season for you and your family to try: 

Kwanzaa

(Dec 26, 2021 – Jan 1, 2022)

Also known as Karamu, includes these foods commonly consumed on the sixth night of Kwanzaa

• Shrimp & Okra Saute: sauteed and seasoned shrimp, okra, tomato, and onion served over brown rice
• Egusi Soup: a flavorful soup made with sirloin beef, vegetables, and seasonings and topped with pumpkin seeds
• Collard greens: a mix of cooked lentils, collard greens, and onions and seasoned to taste

New Years or Chinese New Year

(Jan. 1, 2022/ Lunar New Year, Feb. 1, 2022)

Both feature symbolic ingredients to bring you health and happiness in the new year!

• Lebanese Fattoush Salad: A Mediterranean salad including lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, and toasted bread drizzled with a dressing made from pomegranates, a symbol of good luck.
• Haitian JouMou: Traditional Jou Mou is made with beef marinated in Haitian Epis and pureed Kabocha squash with hearty vegetables like potatoes and carrots with aromatic onions, leeks, and garlic. This traditional soup is consumed in celebration on Jan. 1, honoring Haiti’s revolution and independence. 
• Stir fry: a mix of vegetables, chicken and soba noodles, symbolic of longevity  sautéed in a flavorful sauce. Try our Cauliflower Stir Fry for a vegetarian option as many abstain from eating meat in celebration of Chinese New Year.
• Ham Hocks & Black Eyed Peas: A traditional southern dish made up of stewed pork, vegetables, and black eyed peas has long been recognized as good luck. This dish is usually consumed on January 1, as a symbol of bringing in the new year with good fortune. 

Mixing up holiday traditions this year can be a fun and exciting new way to celebrate and honor the world around us but food will always be our Common Thread! 

Want more Holiday recipe inspiration this December? Make sure to download our holiday cookbook! Happy Holidays! 

Written By: Lucas King | Marketing Intern

Staff from Common Threads and the Chicago History Museum were recently joined by Mariah Gladstone, founder of Indigikitchen, to host a virtual webinar highlighting indigenous cultures and cuisine in honor of National American Indian Heritage Month. Indigikitchen is an online platform which shares recipes and how-to videos with a goal of re-indigenizing our diets. 

Gladstone began her presentation by giving a history of how indigenous food systems have been attacked, forcing indigenous communities onto government subsidized food, or rations. The food provided through these rations ignored indigenous cultural traditions, as they were typically not foods that the Native American population recognized as food. Additionally, rations utilized pre-packaged, pre-proportioned foods, which did not always provide these communities with the nutritional value of fresh meat and produce. 

Today, government subsidized food programs are still present throughout indigenous communities. Gladstone highlights how programs like SNAP and WIC allow participants to select their own foods, but this is still not a perfect solution. 

“With that (government programs) you also need access to a grocery store that has fresh fruits and vegetables,” Gladstone shared. “You need access to the information around the food systems, and you need to know how to cook them. . . So we also have a gap in indigenous knowledge around these food systems. That’s something I set out to remedy.”

Part of Gladstone’s plan to re-indigenize our diets is to understand the foundations of an indigenous food system. This involves understanding how to properly prepare indigenous foods, such as corn. A process called nixtamalization is common in indigenous communities, and differs from European methods of processing corn. This process treats corn with an alkaline solution, which chemically removes the hull of the corn, and adds calcium to it. Doing this makes the corn more digestible, and provides us with greater nutritional value. 

“[Nixtamalization] is the reason that entire civilizations can be built on corn – it was because of this brilliant indigenous chemistry knowledge,” Gladstone shared.

It is also important to recognize the difference between authentic indigenous foods, and supermarket products which only market themselves to be indigenous. Many foods, such as wild rice, have been appropriated from indigenous cultures and sold in supermarkets, but are not processed or prepared in the same manner, causing them to lose their nutritional value.

Gladstone highlighted some of the amazing projects she has been a part of, such as the Growing Health Tea Project, which aims to distribute healthy beverages in the Blackfeet community. Herbal teas are common in Blackfeet cultures, and serve as a healthy beverage option. The Growing Health Tea Project worked to develop a system where native herbs could be grown for commercial use, and be harvested to make herbal teas. This provides indigenous communities with access to these healthy beverages, while also creating business opportunities for community members.

Gladstone also holds a Harvest of the Month program, which highlights different traditional indigenous foods throughout Montana. Harvest of the Month, held in collaboration with the Farm to School programs in Montana, showcases a different agricultural product each month in Montana schools. Gladstone recently collaborated with the Montana Farm to School program to create a curriculum which incorporates bison into the Harvest of the Month program in order to emphasize its cultural significance. 

Many trendy and popular healthy diet options utilize foods that people do not typically have in their household, and tend to come with a high price tag. Gladstone’s work through Indigikitchen emphasizes how to most effectively use the resources we already have access to, rather than these expensive products that may not be available in all communities. Gladstone has also done work on how we can take advantage of foods that are offered through programs like WIC, and re-indigenize these products for a healthier lifestyle. Gladstone shared a simple Peanut Butter Cookies recipe that contains pumpkin seeds as an example of this philosophy.

Gladstone mentions that in order to revitalize, rebuild and reinvigorate indigenous food systems, our efforts, “need to be very intentional, because the work to undo it has been very intentional.” 

Understanding history, and incorporating traditions and wisdom from indigenous communities is essential in re-indigenizing our diets for a healthy lifestyle.