Thank God for the sun!

By Shola Oladipo, Food for Purpose CEO 

Hello readers – blessings and peace to you.

I love the summer months. It’s not just the ice-cream, barbeques, or even the beautiful flowers – it’s that unique summer vibe that comes with sunshine!  There is definitely something about the sun…. The sun, which is actually a star, and is about 93 million miles in distance from the earth – has several health benefits. Apart from its crucial role in Vitamin D production via our skin, sunlight is responsible for feeling great, (and for some of us - looking great) , and a positive boost to mental health. Enjoy the sun, and remember to use sun protection cream even if you have dark skin!

 Featured this Month

• CEO says - Switching Seasons

• News

• Recipe of the Month - How to boil an egg / Shakshuka

• A-Z of Soul Food - B for Banku

• National Walking Month

• Special Guest Contributor - Gabrielle Julal, FFP Community Dietitian

• Miss Tea's Blog

 Food for Purpose News

• Healthy African cooking in Thamesmead 

  We recently delivered cooking sessions in Thamesmead, the aim of the sessions was to demonstrate how traditional African dishes can be cooked healthily, provide, and adapt recipes for healthier cooking, provide advice and resource for cooking on a budget. 

  We were able to demonstrate healthier cooking methods involving using less oil, less salt and addition of more vegetables does not affect the authenticity of our traditional dishes. The feedback received were very positive with participants very keen to know how they can adapt many of the traditional recipes to make their cooking and eating much healthier thereby improving their overall health.

• HCI is now in Lambeth – we are delighted to be working with the Lambeth Neighbourhood Wellbeing Delivery Alliance (NWDA)  and community stakeholders in Herne Hill to roll out the HCI in Black Majority churches. 

  Interested? Contact admin@foodforpurpose.org

• We are running Up!Up! cooking sessions  in June. Up!Up! is a new weight management programme for Black African and Caribbean adults in Lewisham. It’s brilliant and it is free to attend!  Interested in joining see the promo video link

• National days/ weeks in June 

  • Men's Health Week - June 13-19th, 2022 https://www.menshealthforum.org.uk/mhw 

  • Diabetes Week - June 13-19th, 2022 https://www.diabetes.org.uk/diabetes-week

  • Nutrition and Hydration week - June 14-20th, 2022 https://nutritionandhydrationweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/nutrition-and-hydration-week-poster-2022.pdf

  • BNF Healthy Eating week - June 13-17th, 2022 https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthy-eating-week/

 How do you boil an egg?

By Mottie Akapo, FFP Governance Lead

This is a simple yet important question! For a while, my hard-boiled eggs were sometimes hard and sometimes not-so-hard – the yolk wasn’t always ‘yolking’.  Personally, I do not like my eggs runny at all, so on the occasion that the egg turned out not completely boiled, I would find myself placing the egg back into the pan of hot water and boiling for a few more minutes. If you have ever attempted this, you will know that this is a bit of a messy process; the egg is partially or fully out of its shell and spreading or breaking into the pan. Yuk! No cooking prizes for this technique.  

I am a capable cook, so how is it that I found boiling a simple egg, not always so simple?  Well, here was my process (which really wasn’t a process): I half-filled a small saucepan with cold water. Egg placed in and popped onto the stove to boil for about 7 to 10 minutes.  The egg was taken out of the pan, and cold water poured into the pan to cool it down.  Sometimes I would leave the egg in the water for about 2 to 3 minutes, other times it would be just until it was cool enough to begin to crack it open.  Hence either way, sometimes I had a beautiful result, other times, the egg white would break or I would have to re-boil the egg. 

So a few months ago, I decided to ‘google it’ and I discovered a simple 3 step (and fail-safe) technique:

• Place an egg in a saucepan half filled with cold water

• Boil egg for 10 minutes

• Leave to stand in the same water for 10 minutes

Now isn’t that something?  I am proud to confirm that I now achieve perfect results at all times.  So, how do you boil yours?

Shakshuka

Alternative name: (Spicy style poached eggs)

Recipe description: Vegetarian dish of eggs poached in a spicy sauce of tomatoes, with

vegetables. A quick easy traditional favourite from Africa / Middle East – great for lunch or light evening meal.

Serves: 4 adult portions

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Calories per portion: 417kcal / 1,751.4kJ

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

• 100g yellow onion, finely chopped

• 120g red bell pepper, finely chopped

• 120g yellow bell pepper finely chopped

• 6 cloves chopped garlic 

• 250g aubergine chopped

• 800g tinned chopped tomatoes

• 2 tablespoons tomato puree

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin

• 400g chickpeas tinned – drained

• 1  teaspoon salt - 

• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 200g chopped spinach

• 6 medium sized eggs 

• 15g chopped fresh coriander for garnish – optional 

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Add the onion, bell peppers and garlic cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, about 3 minutes.

2. Stir in the aubergine and cook for about 5 minutes until golden-brown, Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, cumin, cayenne, and stir. Bring to boil and lower heat, cook about 10 minutes. until mixture thickens.

3. Stir in chickpeas, cover and cook for further 5-8 minutes on medium heat.

4. Stir in chopped spinach and lower heat.

5. Create 6 wells in the mixture and crack one egg into each well. Cover the pan, cook for about 6-8 minutes on low, until egg whites set. For firmer egg yolk cook for 8-12 minutes. 

Garnish with chopped coriander.

Serve with wholemeal pitta bread or wholegrain crusty bread and side salad

Tips:

• Tip 1: Use spray oil in place of vegetable oil – this lowers fat content

• Tip 2:  Add your favourite vegetables - mushrooms, courgettes or green beans work well

• Tip 3: Adjust pepper to suit your taste

 A-Z of Soul Food

This feature will educate your mind, and titillate your taste buds as we tour the alphabet according to African and Caribbean foods. We will focus on the amazingly diverse range of foods grown in our beautiful countries – with emphasis on fruit and vegetables.

We’re continuing on with B  for Banku

Banku is a starchy carbohydrate which apparently originates from the Ewe people in Ghana’s Volta Region and is one of the staple foods of a Ghanaian's main meals. In Southern Ghana, Ga, Ga-Adangme and Ewe speakers consume it the most. Ewe speakers living in Togo and even parts of Benin also enjoy variations of banku.

Banku is a delicious staple made from fermented corn dough and cassava dough which are mixed together into a soft dough like consistency and eaten with light soup,  okro stew or pepper sauce with fish. It is part of the ‘swallow’ category of African foods.

It is rich in carbohydrate and low in fat, it can be enjoyed in modest portions as part of a healthy diet.

We are celebrating our foods…..watch out for next month featuring the letter ‘C’

 National Walking Month

By Precious Oladipo, FFP Director & Fitness Lead

The month of May was National Walking Month, and the Food For Purpose team took part in a fundraiser to raise money for Ukrainian refugees.

The aim was to walk the distance in miles from London to Kyiv, which meant we were looking at walking 1430 miles in 31 days. We received support from our volunteers and friends, and the Unique Women and Hands of Hope Foundation.

Together, we have walked a whopping 1557 miles and over 3 million steps! We have made it to Kyiv, and we all need to give our feet a soak in some warm water. Thank you to everyone who took part and to those who donated.

Our GoFundMe page is still live, so please give where you can, we are hoping to raise at least £1 for each mile we have walked.

https://gofund.me/a520efea

We could not have done this fundraising initiative with our wonderful friends at Unique Women and the Hands of Hope Foundation

Sincere thanks to them and everyone who walked, sponsored and supported!

 Special Guest Contributor

Gabrielle Julal, FFP Community Dietitian

Blessings readers!

My name is Gabrielle Julal, Community Nutritionist at Food for Purpose. It has been my pleasure to support Food for Purpose in the rollout of the Healthy Church Initiative in Bedfordshire and London for the past 3 months. Growing up in Jamaica, my love for nutrition started as a teenager when my health began to suffer from poor eating habits and chronic stress. I struggled to figure out what the right foods to eat were and what it meant to have a balanced diet, and these questions led me to pursue a career in nutrition. The more I learned, the greater the passion I developed to one day serve my community and help others realise the simplicity and privilege of living a healthy, balanced life. Before moving to London, I was given the opportunity to serve various church groups through healthy lifestyle presentations, and to see the launch of the ‘Jamaica Moves’ healthy lifestyle initiative in churches across the country.

I have always found church leaders and members welcoming to learning more about improving their health through their diet and lifestyle, as long as this information is shared in a way that is practical and relatable to them!

I believe that our faith should be the guiding force in every area of our lives - including our health and wellbeing, as a way of honouring God with our bodies and ensuring that we are fit for service wherever He may lead us. Through my experience working with churches in Jamaica, I have learned to appreciate the important role the church plays in health and wellbeing. The church plays a vital role in the spiritual health of its congregation, and as soon as we begin to see our physical health as a reflection of our total wellbeing, the sooner churches can help champion the cause and help tackle the chronic disease crisis worldwide!

 Miss Tea's Blog

Goody Bag

Hello again! It's only me, here to bring you a mixed bag of I don't even know what to call these, but it matters less what they're named and more that they're useful!

With that said here’s this month's collection😊