We've Moved!

We've recently set up a new blog space!  Please visit us at  http://saltandpuffa.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your continued support, please comment on our new space and let us know what you think!!!

Dance Mob TOMORROW!

Get ready for the Dance Mob!!  Meet tomorrow (Thursday, May 31st) at LOVE Park!

If you need to learn the moves check out this video....

Even if you don't want to dance, we'd love you to come and watch!   Hope to see you there!

For more information contact Tiffany Spraggins.

Low in Calories and High in Nutrients?!

Having good blood pressure is very important now and when you get older because your body needs healthy organs.  The only way you can have healthy and clean organs is by eating good food that is rich in vitamins and minerals that your body needs day by day.  For example dark leafy greens are low calories but high in good things like fiber, iron and vitamins A, C, E and K! By eating more low calorie high nutrient foods you can keep your organs working efficiently!

So, instead of reaching for chips and other types of junk food as snacks, try something fresh that will satisfy your appetite and feed your body with what it needs.  Try making fresh kale chips with nothing but kale, a little olive oil and a touch of salt!  With just a little baking these crispy treats will curb your craving for chips!

Remember eating healthy not only a good choice for today, but also smart choice as time goes by and you grow older.

Let us know, what kind of nutrient rich foods do you like and choose for snacks?? 

The Scary Story of Junk Food

Junk food isn't just a tasty snack...

Junk food is food of little or no nutritional value that is high in fat, sugar, and calories.  In addition, consumption of junk food has the ability to alter brain activity in a manner similar to illegal drugs like cocaine or heroin, meaning it can be just as addictive.  Junk food does not contain nutrients that are beneficial to the human body. In most cases, these foods are filled with harmful carbohydrates, fats and cholesterol that do not provide any useful energy. As a result, somebody consuming junk food has reduced level of essential nutrients thereby causing weakness in the body.  This is why the addictive nature of these foods is even more problematic.

Junk foods have been identified as a major cause of heart diseases including myocardial infraction, cardiac arrest and atherosclerosis.  This is due to the fact that junk food contains excessive amount of low-density lipoproteins and cholesterol that get deposited on the inner linings of blood vessels.

Overall junk food is very bad to your body and should not be eaten frequently.

Tell us how you make healthy substitutions for junk food during snack or meal time!

Thoughts on Healthy Eating

Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather it’s about feeling great, having more energy, stabilizing your mood, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible– all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you. You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a tasty, healthy diet.

For instance, you must moderate the quantities of food you eat on the daily basis. Try to add colorful fruits and vegetables to your meals, eat more healthy carbs and more grains, avoid unhealthy fats such as snacks, cookies and candies and enjoy the healthy fats such as fish, nuts and avocados. Finally, add protein like milk or beans to help you feel full and try to reduce the amount of added salt and sugar that you consume. 

What do you do to make sure you eat healthy??

School Food Recipe Contest Celebration

With support from Sodexo, the PUFFA Youth hosted their open house “Hunger Awareness” School Food Recipe Contest event for their Global Youth Service Day project during their SALT and PUFFA gathering on April 26th, 2012. Youth formulated recipes based on the “chop box” concept (aka food baskets). The contest was created by youth with the intention to generate creative attention among peers around improving school food.

Youth created a School Food Jeopardy game, to help inform and engage their peers on the constraints that the School District of Philadelphia is faced with regarding serving portions that correlate to nutrition and cost requirements for serving school meals.

Youth from South Philly won the grand prize (Nuts to You gift cards) for their chickpea burgers recipe made for just under a $1.14. All youth were declared winners and took home blue ribbons. PUFFA Youth will share their finalist recipes with the School District’s Food Services Division as a service to these dedicated people and the children they feed.

In late March, the PUFFA Youth hosted their monthly SALT & PUFFA gathering in West Philadelphia. A total of 51 youth participated in break dancing and school food recipe tasting. Next they are hosting an open house "Hunger Awareness" School Food Recipe Contest event for their Global Youth Service Day project. Stay tuned for more exciting news from our PUFFA youth.

Check out the video of the youth giving a break dancing demonstration.

For more information, please contact Tiffany Spraggins at tspraggins@theenterprisecentercdc.org / 215-895-4095.

An Interview with Angela Glover Blackwell

Angela Blackwell is an amazing civil advocate, and happens to be a woman of color. Check out her interview with Bill Moyers on the American Dream.

Delicious Treat Without the Guilt!

Everyone loves dessert, but no one likes the weight gain that comes along with it. A lot of people don’t even eat dessert, but I’m going to tell you a way to eat dessert without the weight gain.  All you have to do is it make it yourself!

Ingredients
Mango
Lime

Preparation

1. Position rack in upper third of oven and preheat broiler. Line a broiler pan with foil.
2. Arrange mango slices in a single layer in the prepared pan. Broil until browned in spots, 8 to 10 minutes. Squeeze lime wedges over the broiled mango and serve.

Tips for Cutting a Mango

1. Slice both ends off the mango, revealing the long, slender seed inside. Set the fruit upright on a work surface and remove the skin with a sharp knife.
2. With the seed perpendicular to you, slice the fruit from both sides of the seed, yielding two large pieces.
3. Turn the seed parallel to you and slice the two smaller pieces of fruit from each side.
4. Cut the fruit into the desired shape.

Nutrition Information
Per serving: 69 calories; 0 g fat ( 0 g sat , 0 g mono ); 0 mg cholesterol; 18 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 1 g protein; 2 g fiber; 2 mg sodium; 167 mg potassium

Give this a try or let us know about your own ideas for healthy dessert!!

Help Restore Parks and Recreation Funding!

Parks and Recreation has been chronically underfunded for decades. The current proposed budget flat lines it. We need to invest more – not less – into our Parks and Recreation. The Parks Alliance and dozens of allied organizations are calling on City Council and the Mayor to restore $8 million to the Department of Parks and Recreation’s budget for FY 2013.  This will take us back to what was promised for FY 2009 but never delivered.

Philadelphia Parks Alliance is calling on the Mayor and City Council restore $8 million in promised funding to Parks and Recreation in Philadelphia.  Can you come and help support the Parks Alliance?

City Council Budget Hearing
On Dept. of Parks and Recreation
TUESDAY, APRIL 17th
10am – Noon
City Hall, Room 400

In addtion, the Philadelphia Parks Alliance is joining forces with organizations across Pennsylvania to halt the massive cuts to parks and recreation in the proposed state budget.

 

Let your voice be heard! Sign this petition with your name, zip code, and email!

The Governor has proposed  to totally eliminate all parks, conservation, and recreation funding from Pennsylvania’s Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation fund. Keystone is the only dedicated state fund that provides a guaranteed allocation to community recreation, park and conservation projects. From 1994-2011 Philadelphia benefited from over $21 million in Keystone grant funds including funding for recreation centers, parks, trails, neighborhood parks, conservation plans, and playgrounds. If passed by the State House and Senate, this will be the biggest cut to conservation funding ever proposed in Pennsylvania. For more information visit http://conservationadvocate.org/keystone-fund/.

Together we can STOP THE CUTS!

Help reach 5,000 signatures in a single day!

You should try something new!

There is a story of about a kid name James.  One day, after school he was very hungry, but he barely had any money. On his walk home, there was always a cart with a man selling fruit, the fruit that this man was selling weren’t familiar to James   Even though he was very hungry, James wasn’t in the mood for fruit that day.  He thought about passing the store to get some chips but then he thought, "I ate McDonald’s yesterday for lunch and, I had pizza for dinner.”  He realized it isn’t a good idea to keep eating unhealthy! So he went to the store, but instead of chips, he bought a bottle of milk, and then he walked to the cart and he bought one piece fruit that he has never tried or seen before , this fruit was the papaya. When he got home he made a smoothie and he realized that the papaya not only had a delicious taste but was also very rich in nutrients.

It's important to always try new things, especially when it comes to food.  Chances are you may like it and fruits and vegetables are certainly good for you!

Now that it's spring there are a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables in season.  Things like artichokes, arugula, leeks, fava beans and papayas are all great during the spring. Try a new fruit or vegetable today and tell us about it!

Up Coming SALT & PUFFA Events!!

APRIL GATHERING **SCHOOL FOOD CONTEST CELEBRATION**
WHEN: Thursday, April 26, 2012 from 5pm to 7:30 pm
WHERE: CARING PEOPLE ALLIANCE
    2407. S. Broad Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19148
(Snyder stops of Broad St Line. Walk 3 blocks south. Center is on the east side of St.)

ACTIVITIES: PUFFA Youth are hosting an open house “Hunger Awareness” School Food Recipe Contest event for their Global Youth Service Day project. Youth formulated recipes based on the “chop box” concept. There will be a grand prize and youth will take home blue ribbons. 

For more information on PUFFA, please contact tspraggins@theenterprisecentercdc.org or by phone 215-895-4095.


MAY GATHERING **DANCE MOB FOR FITNESS AWARENESS**
WHEN: Thursday, May 31, 2012 from 5pm to 7:30 pm
WHERE: Love Park (JFK Plaza) Center City Philadelphia
   1599 John F. Kennedy Boulevard
                Philadelphia, PA 19102

ACTIVITIES: PUFFA Youth will perform their choreographed piece to a timeless James Brown music selection. The performance will culminate as the core signature event to celebrate the end of the school year.

For more information on PUFFA, please contact tspraggins@theenterprisecentercdc.org or by phone 215-895-4095.

School Food Recipe Contest

On Thursday, March 29th the SALT & PUFFA Gathering was another major success. There were a grand total of 51 youth participants. The School Food Contest was a big hit!

In the kitchen, the PUFFA Youth Junior Chefs and PUFFA Nutrition Educator created a plentiful taste testing experience using brown rice, black beans, and romaine lettuce wrapped in a wheat tortilla served with a tomato and corn salsa and collards on the side. These recipes where submitted by the core PUFFA Youth using the 4-6 “chop boxes” distributed at the School Food Recipe Contest launch in February. Youth were challegened to formulate recipes from the chop boxes ingredients that totaled $5.00. The recipes were designed to feed a family of four.

In the social space, the SEPC break dancers were energetic, upbeat and positive. They captivated their peer’s attention through the initial work up session and demonstration. Under David Seng and Chan’s direction, the break dancers worked side by side with their peers to teach them the dance steps to the timeless James Brown selection “Get Up Offa that Thang”. 

We want to give UNI, Dollarboyz, SEPC Break dancers, Executive Incubator, Youth Leadership Council, and Leaders 4 Success a shout out for coming out to partipate and make this event a wonderful success!

The youth pitched in and took the lead on taking pictures and the videotaping the gathering experience so stay tuned!

PUFFA Youth Step Up and Speak Out on Vacant Land Use!

Stephenney Ariyakham from our Youth Leadership Council testified as a community member at this rally this past Tuesday about taking back our vacant land!  Stephenney identified herself proudly as a member of the Southeast Philadelphia Collaborative Youth Leadership Council and Philadelphia Urban Food and Fitness Alliance. She shared her story of how she has worked on the South Philly Teen Orchard and the transformation this space has undergone.

She also talked about how she grew up with her parents growing plants and vegetation because that is how they fed themselves before they came to the U.S. She then went on to explain how beneficial vacant lots are to the community. She talked further about PUFFA and that she learned how the produce is not always the freshest because it travels so far and that it would be better if the produce came from the nearby area. Check out this video of her testimony!

Way to go Stephenney!

Rising Sons at Andrew Jackson Elementary

Check out this video with  Cameron Taylor, a PUFFA Youth working with Rising Sons at Andrew Jackson Elementary!  Way to go!!

 

For more information on Rising Sons check out their website http://www.risingsons.org/

Easy Ways Of Exercising In The Comfort Of Your Home!

Some people think that the only way that you can get a good exercise is by just going to the gym and even buying expensive equipment. But there 10 ways that you can exercise in the comfort of your home without spending any money. 

1)      Walking - If the weather is nice, it’s good to get outside and enjoy the scenery around you while you exercise.

2)      Jumping Jacks - These are always fun they are also great cardio exercises, and good for warming up, too.

3)      Pushups – These are good for building up your body muscles.

4)      Leg Lifts - These are great for building up strength and muscles in your legs.

5)      Crunches-The best exercise for building up and strengthening abdominal muscles

6)      Jogging-Jogging is a great exercise for your heart. You can jog in place at home while watching TV or listening to music. The only equipment you will require is a good pair of shoes.

7)      Squats – They are wonderful exercises for your legs. You can even just try these by sitting and standing up again from a regular chair.

8)      Light Weight Lifting – No, you don’t need to go out and buy expensive weights for this! Just use whatever you can find in your house. Start out with something lighter, such as a can of peas, and work yourself up to heavier items. You can use milk jugs, laundry detergent bottles or even water jugs.

9)      Dancing – Dancing is a wonderful exercise, which is great for your heart.

10)  Step Exercises – Using the steps in your home, you can do repetitions which will tone your leg muscles.

These are 10 easy priceless ways to exercise in the comfort of your home without worrying about going to the gym.  

Give some of these a try this week, inside or outside in the sunshine, let us know how you did in the comments!

Beautiful Day? Great Time to Grill Up a Healthy Dinner!

This beautiful weather that we've been having gives you a great opportunity to not only be active outside but to also take advantage of using grilling as a healthy way to cook a great meal!  Try this PUFFA Youth recipe for a sweet and spicy alternative to your average burger.

PUFFA Youth Sweet and Spicy Tofu Alternative

This recipe for Sweet and Spicy Barbecue Tofu has a bit of sugar and orange juice for sweetness, but gets a spicy kick from chili powder and red pepper. Tofu is very healthy, low fat and easy to grill. It works wonders for a vegetarian barbecue and next to vegan options.

Ingredients:

1 pound extra firm tofu, well pressed and sliced into ¾ inch rectangles

¾ cup barbecue sauce

¾ cup brown sugar

1 tsp chili powdered

½  tsp red pepper flakes

¾ cup orange juice

Dash of salt and pepper for taste

Directions:

1. Whisk together the barbecue sauce, sugar, chili powder, pepper and orange juice over medium low heat until well combined, about 3 minutes.

2.  Place the barbecue sauce mixture in a wide flat dish, and place the tofu in the sauce, coating both sides well. Allow to marinate for at least 2 hours.

3.  Grill for 4 or 5 minutes on each side, brushing with additional sauce.

4.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper just before serving.

If you try this, leave us some comments and let us know how it went, or take some pictures and post them on our Facebook Page!

We want to know about your healthy choices :)

Rooted in Community 2012 Winter Leadership Institute

On the behalf of the Philadelphia Urban Food and Fitness Alliance (PUFFA) and The Enterprise Center CDC, last month Tiffany Spraggins attended the 1st Annual Rooted in Community Winter Leadership Institute in Tucson, Arizona. Tiffany led two workshops on “What do youth want?” and “Social Media and Arts,” focusing on perspectives and priorities of youth in the larger food justice movement.

For more information, please contact Tiffany Spraggins at  tspraggins@theenterprisecentercdc.org /215-895-4095.

PUFFA Youth Cooking up Change

In late February, the PUFFA Youth hosted their monthly SALT & PUFFA gathering in South Philly. Youth engaged in a Wii Fitness Challenge—an activity designed for youth to pair up in teams and count their dance steps using a pedometer, while actively participating in the Michael Jackson Experience virtual dance game. West Philly youth won the challenge and took home the grand prize (Nuts to You gift cards).  In addition, the PUFFA youth launched their very own School Food Recipe Contest, as their contribution to Global Youth Service Day in April.

For more information on PUFFA, please contact Tiffany Spraggins at  tspraggins@theenterprisecentercdc.org or by phone 215-895-4095.

Healthy Alternatives

 

Good food is one of life's great pleasures. And for most, meals are at the heart of family life and celebrations. Would you like to make satisfying and healthy meals that help protect your family from heart disease and other health problems? Well here are some healthy recipes for foods that you can celebrate with. 

Instead of salted mixed nuts or candied pecans, serve spiced toasted almonds.

By replacing salt, oil and butter with cayenne pepper and thyme, you trim added fat. This recipe for spiced toasted almonds also delivers cancer-fighting vitamin E, as well as magnesium and fiber.

Instead of fruitcake, serve angel food cake topped with fresh berries.

Fruitcake is loaded with calories from fat. But angel food cake is generally fat-free. Topping it with fresh berries provides fruitcake’s one nutritional perk--he fruit--without the butter. Plus, the fiber, vitamin C and elegiac acid in the compote’s berries may help prevent cancer.

Instead of melted cheese dip, serve chunky cranberry dip.

Melted cheese dip packs on the fat and calories. Get more seasonal flavor and less fat in this lower-calorie Chunky cranberry dip. Added bonus: The fiber in the cranberries helps fight cancer.