- Just ahead on "American Black Journal," local chef Quiana Rice from "Cooking With Que" is here with advice on how to eat to live, especially during the holidays.

We'll also find out what the Charles H. Wright Museum has planned for Kwanzaa.

So stay where you are.

"American Black Journal" starts right now.

- [Narrator] Across our Masco family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities, and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work, and do business.

Masco, a Michigan company since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 2] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm your host, Stephen Henderson.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, it is something that can be challenging for all of us, especially at this time of year.

There are lots of holiday gatherings with tempting treats, and they just make it really difficult to stick to your health goals.

My first guest is on a real mission to teach people how to eat to live all year round, with a focus on plant-based meals.

I'd like to welcome Chef Quiana Rice, better known as Que, to "American Black Journal."

Great to have you here.

- Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

- Yeah, so first tell me, what is your Achilles' heel during the holiday season?

What's the thing that you know you're not supposed to be eating a lot of, but that you just can't resist?

- Portion control.

- That's for all of us.

I think we're all guilty of that.

Overeating.

- There's so much food everywhere.

So I think that's probably, my god.

- Mine is pie.

And that's not just Christmas, right?

That starts at Thanksgiving and then I just don't stop.

Like I'll have pie at Thanksgiving, and then I'm eating it.

- Every day until Christmas.

- I'm eating it for breakfast a lot of days.

And so, I mean, I think we all have issues.

- It's a thing.

It's a thing.

- Yeah.

- And it's like an ongoing thing.

It's an ongoing thing.

- But your mission, as I said in the open, is to get us to be able to resist more of that.

How do we do it?

- So in real life, I think it's not as complicated as it sounds.

My biggest thing is just making sure people understand, like it's really a choice.

Like, we make choices every single day.

You know, am I gonna get up and go to work?

Am I gonna go to sleep on time?

Food is just another thing.

So I think my biggest thing is just, making sure people pay attention to what they're putting on their fork.

So, you know, Thanksgiving starts the food train, okay?

There's a food train from here until New Year's, and it's just watching that fork.

And I tell people all the time, like, have what you want, but like, understand having it in moderation.

So that's my biggest thing.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

But at your restaurant and in other spaces, I mean, you're also really advocating for better choices in the meals themselves as well, right?

- Across the board.

I tell to pay attention to like a 70/30 rule.

I think no matter what you are, whether you're a vegan, a meat eater, a pescatarian, a pie-etarian, you know what I mean, the goal is 70/30, have 70% fruits and vegetables, and then 30% everything else.

Because if you look at it that way, it makes it easier for you to be able to break that down, no matter what type of plate you look at.

- So when we think about preparing meals and what we put in those meals, I think for a lot of us that the idea of fruits and vegetables seems more difficult than it should be, right?

I mean, a lot of vegetables, you don't have to prepare fruits, you don't have to necessarily prepare.

But when we sit down and think about the meals we're gonna make, I tend to say, "Well, it's too hard to include too much of the vegetables and fruits."

What's a good way, I guess, to think about the way to incorporate more of those without driving ourselves crazy about it?

- Bananas.

Well, honestly, if I were to be perfectly honest, if I tell people all the time, if you just remember 70/30, no matter what, I'm from a household where, even when we were young, there was always a protein and two vegetables.

And I mean, my family's from South Carolina, okay?

And they ate everything from the ruler to the tour, but there was always a main dish and sides.

And the sides were always like some hot veggies and then a salad, because these are folks who grew their own vegetables.

So it's almost the same thing that I do at my table.

So that's the same thing I try to tell my folks in my community, the vegetation is there, it's available for us.

We just have to start using it.

And I think most of the time people think that eating healthy is gonna taste bad.

Like eating healthy doesn't have to taste bad.

It's just making sure you're mindful about what you put on that fork.

Like the fork is the person.

The fork is what determines a lot of our things.

And if we just paid attention to what we put on that, it would change a lot of our outcomes.

- Yeah.

I know at your restaurant, I mean, you're serving things, well, one of the things I really love about it is that you're serving things that we all want to eat all the time, but they aren't the things that we eat all the time, right?

So if I get mac and cheese there, it's healthy mac and cheese.

- It's dairy free.

It's dairy free.

- If I get, you know, sweet potatoes or a sweet potato kind of dish, it's different, but it doesn't taste different.

Like, I wouldn't know that I'm eating healthier.

And I think that's a really, it's a really sophisticated way, I guess, to get people to really open their minds to the idea that we don't have to sacrifice what we like in order to eat healthier.

- It's the biggest thing on our plate is what you get, like, nobody walks around, if you're a meat eater, nobody walks around and says, "Oh my goodness, I want flesh today."

That's not what you walk around and say.

What you say is, "Oh my goodness, I like some fried chicken," Or on my holidays, "I want mac and cheese."

So the only thing I did was take the things that you like and love, and I won't fry it because we don't have any fryers.

I'm like, "There's enough fried foods, so I won't give you any fried foods."

But number two, it's your brain.

Everything is in your mind.

So if I give you something that tastes like it's fried chicken, even though it may be a fried piece of cauliflower, you don't know because it's flavored the way that you want, because that's what you actually have a taste for, the flavor.

So my biggest thing is even creating the mac and cheese, our vegan mac and cheese is because it doesn't taste like, it's a dairy free mac and cheese.

It's still creamy.

There's still noodles.

But I'm just trying not to give, you know, heart issues, high blood pressure, hypertension, you know what I mean?

I just care about you a little bit more.

But again, I think people associate healthy eating with it lacking flavor.

And so my brain just wants to break that thought process.

- Yeah.

So how easy is it for us to do that in our homes?

I mean, you're doing that in a restaurant and you are somebody who's, you know, thought a lot and worked hard to be able to perfect that.

If I'm getting home and have to make food, how easy is it for me to emulate that and, you know, follow those health guidelines and rules, but still make really, really good food?

- What happens is, it starts at the store.

I tell people everything starts by just turning your bottle around.

You're reading the label.

If you just read the label, that is the beginning of like, every benefit that you can find.

If people just turn the labels around and actually read what's inside of it, 'cause most of the time when you read labels, you realize, I can't even pronounce this.

So if I can't pronounce it, my body probably can't break it down.

- Maybe I shouldn't eat it.

Right.

- If I can't pronounce what's inside of this, my body can't break it down, so maybe I should look at something else that's easier for me to break down.

You know, if you go to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, I don't necessarily have to read the labels.

The only thing you have to do is, you know, "Hey, is this organic or is it not?

Where did it come from?"

Because that's what your brain should be looking at.

How long did it take to get from the farm to my fork?

How complicated was this?

- Yeah.

- So everything that happens at your house, you brought those things into your house.

And if you do one, the one thing that you can do is flip it around and read the label.

If you can't pronounce it, your body can't digest it.

And that's why we end up with a lot of the things that we have, because it's things that we've eaten that don't know how to leave our system, so it's just stuck there.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Very simple.

Like, I try to make some very basic for everyone, just so that, like, if you remember it, when you're at the grocery store, oh, let me read this label.

Oh, I should shop the perimeter of the grocery store, because that's where all the fresh things are, your fresh meats, your fresh fruits, your fresh vegetables.

- Yeah, yeah.

So in this stretch, holiday, I mean, there are two things that we're challenged with.

One is we're going to parties and gatherings all the time.

- My god.

- Other people are cooking.

- My god.

- Right?

But then also, lots of us have things that we're hosting.

I'm hosting a Christmas brunch at my house, for instance, this year.

It is about, I mean, those are different choices, right?

When you go to someplace else, what you eat is somewhat dependent on what's there.

But then when you're serving, you get to have more control.

So give us some advice about both situations, how to handle 'em better.

- Well, if I'm going out to eat, if I'm going to eat anywhere, I look at everything.

If I see vegetables overcooked, I don't eat it.

That's the biggest thing in our community.

Honey, we will overcook something.

- Cooking.

- The vegetables have died twice, Jesus.

They don't have no color left.

If the vegetable has nothing left, it was a waste for me to eat.

So there's that, right?

Number two, if I'm out, just look at my plate.

Let me get 70% fruits and vegetables, 30% everything.

Let me eat more of the things that I know my body will be able to digest.

It's not to say you can't have fried chicken, but your whole plate can't be fried chicken, honey.

- Right.

(laughs) - You know what I mean?

So there's that.

And then if we go on the opposite spectrum of you hosting, I think people are in the place where they're okay with trying new and different things.

So when people come to like, something I'm hosting at my house, they absolutely know they're going to get a plethora of things.

- Yeah.

- And they're going to try it.

What's even crazy is, I'm in a family where they're used to like ham, yam, ham hawks, collar greens and everything and everything.

But now, instead of having fried chicken or ham, there's salmon.

And you know what?

It still gets eaten.

Nobody's gonna eat less, because people eat what is there.

So whatever you make available for your guests, they are going to eat and they're going to love it.

And I think sometimes we just get stuck in wanting to do what everybody else said.

We cook like mama them.

And we are not mama them.

- Yeah.

Right, right.

- That's the main thing.

- So as I said, I have a pie addiction that I fight, - Lord.

- This time of year.

What do I do about that?

Is there a better way to eat pie?

Is there a healthier way to eat pie?

- Yeah, I think you just need to pick up a different sweet, 'cause it sounds like you like pies.

- Yes.

- For me, instead of using a bunch of sugar in all the pies, we use natural sugars.

So when we make like a apple pie, our apple pie doesn't have a bunch of sugar.

We use dates.

We cook the dates down.

The dates are still sweet, but that's natural sugar as opposed to a manmade sugar.

So it's just small, small, small things like that.

So for you, I want you to have your pie, but, you know, eat the cake but not the whole cake, okay?

- That's right.

(laughs) - That's the thing.

- That's right.

Moderation.

Moderation.

That's the thing.

- Moderation.

- Moderation.

Moderation.

- Yeah.

All right.

Well, Quiana, it's always great to see you and to talk to you.

And I just love what you're doing at your restaurant.

Happy holidays and thanks for being here on "American Black Journal."

- Happy holidays.

I appreciate you guys.

This is great.

Very great.

- Up next, we're gonna talk about this year's Kwanzaa celebration at the Charles H. Wright Museum.

But first, check out a clip from a 2013 "American Black Journal" episode that focused on healthy soul food.

We're back with Chef Sean Loving and sous chef Patrick Nas in the kitchen.

So what are we making this time?

- All right, so the first dish we're doing is, is normally you have black eyed peas and you're thinking Hoppin' Johns.

- Yes.

- Warm ham hocks and all of that good, warm things.

So what I decided to do was take a healthy approach to the black eyed peas and use some of the same ingredients that we love to cook with.

First, I started with a smoked Turkey, a wing and drumette that you normally get.

- [Stephen] Okay.

- [Sean] Right?

- Okay.

- And cooked that in water with a little bit of fresh thyme and a bay leaf, cooked it until it became nice and fork tender.

- [Stephen] Okay.

- [Sean] And then I took that liquid, and then I cooked two different items.

The legumes being the black eyed peas in that liquid, as well as a grain that some may be familiar with and some may not, which is called quinoa.

- [Stephen] Yes.

- [Sean] And quinoa is a very popular grain as of late, which is very, very high in protein.

So I really, really like using it and intermixing it with the things like black eyed peas.

- What's the approximate, I mean, I've had quinoa, but I'm trying to think of something that it tastes like to give people an idea.

- I think it's a cross between a soft white rice with the nutty flavor profile of brown rice when you finish tasting it.

- [Stephen] Yeah, that's right.

- [Sean] So it's a basic salad, really a festive salad where the smoked turkey is folded into it at the end.

But all of these vegetables in that, that I'm adding to it, red peppers, green peppers, red onions, fresh herbs, I'm utilizing the same herbs that you normally would during the holiday, - [Stephen] Okay.

- [Sean] Thanksgiving time.

So fresh sage and poultry seasoning.

So bringing the flavors in that we know and love.

- [Stephen] Right.

- [Sean] But trying to lighten it up a little bit, great for spring slash summertime.

- The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is presenting a whole week of activities for Kwanzaa, from December 26th through January 1st.

Each day is dedicated to one of the seven principles of the holiday.

The festivities include African drum and dance performances, youth showcases, poetry, and community reflections.

Here to tell us more is the museum's vice president of learning and engagement, Lance Wheeler, along with the manager of community engagement, Yolanda Jack.

Welcome back, both of you, to American Black Journal, and of course, happy holidays.

You know, I feel like every kind of special time or event we have during the year somehow gets captured by the programming at the Wright, whether it's Juneteenth or Kwanzaa or lots of other things.

And I think this is a particularly special time of the year at the museum.

Yolanda, why don't you start by telling us about sort of how the programming for something like this comes together, what you're thinking about, and what you're thinking about from the perspective of those who will experience this holiday at the museum?

- Kwanzaa is a wonderful holiday season.

It is a part of the end of the year, traditional celebration.

So it's an opportunity for people to get together, and it's an opportunity for people to think about togetherness and opportunities to connect.

Whether they are a particular religion or a particular ethnicity, it's an opportunity to think about the African-centered principles and how we got here.

So we think about those things.

We really concentrate on that when we connect to the different programs, to the different partners, to the different activities that we're doing.

We're thinking about the best of us.

We're thinking about what got us here, how we got over, as it were, as the song says.

So just thinking about all of those things, and the year that we've been through as well.

So not only over all of the history over our families, but also just the past 12 months, how we've managed to make it to this day.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, one of the cool things about Kwanzaa, of course, is that it does kind of wrap its arms around a very broad vision of African and African American culture and spirituality and belief.

And of course, those seven principles are things, I don't know, you can't really argue with 'em, right?

Like, who could be against those ideas?

- The Nguzo Saba really just help us guide us through the year, through the days, over the seven days, we get a chance to think about each of the Nguzo Saba, each of the principals of Kwanza, how these principles have managed to maintain humanity, our families, our cities, our states, our buildings, our schools.

Like, there's so many ways that we can think about that individually through the lens of all of the ways that we can interact with each other through the community, whether it's through work or through school or social gatherings.

All of the ways that we can, we all have an opportunity to think about unity and self-determination, how we solve each other's problems and work together, how we build opportunities economically together, what our purposes are, and how we deliver these things creatively and beautify the places that we live in and dwell in, and then how all of these things have begun and end through faith.

The idea, the hope, the dreams of how our people have gotten us here and what we want for the future.

Every one of those seven principles that I just defined there connect to all of us in some aspects, or in many ways, in every aspect of our lives.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Lance, of course, this is kind of core content and programming for the museum and its mission here in Detroit, but also in the region, and I'm thinking increasingly in the state.

I mean, I'm fascinated in fact by the fact that when I go other places in the state now, I hear more from people about the Wright.

People say that they've been there or that they are interested in it.

And so that's becoming much more of a symbol of, you know, African-American culture and celebration to lots of people who are just not even here and closeby.

- I think that it's beauty in that.

I think it's beauty in that.

And that's one of the missions I believe that Dr.

Wright himself set, you know, to share the impact of African American history and contribution to not just Detroit or Michigan, but nationally, internationally.

And then, like I just said a few minutes ago, we've been doing that for 60 years, right?

And so Kwanzaa has been around since 1966, right?

Founded in the Civil Rights Movement, while this museum itself is also created and founded in the Civil Rights Movement.

So they're having conversations with each other without really knowing that, right?

Preserving black history, ensuring that we know who we are, but also what Yolanda just said, that every day principles that we should be living, not just between the 26th and the 1st of January, but every single day.

- Yeah.

- And so, ZM is continuing to do that through our programming, through our history, through our tours, and through our partnerships.

And so we've been doing that once again for 60 years.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it is incredible.

I was at the 60th anniversary gala, and it is amazing to think about all the time that has passed to this museum, has been there and been growing.

And again, investing in the idea of bringing people into those traditions and the understanding of the African American presence, here in Detroit.

When you guys are putting something like this together, how heavily do you think about, I guess, the current context?

Yolanda, you mentioned the year, right?

And that some of what you're doing is trying to reflect or at least acknowledge the year.

This has been a tough year for a lot of folks.

How does that play into how you celebrate Kwanzaa at the museum?

- Absolutely.

It is a forethought of a grounding conversation.

When we think about the days as they go through, just as we live our lives, we are happy to be able to get through whatever issues, whatever problems.

But people, as you have said, have really been dealing with major circumstances, not only across the world, but thinking about what's happening nationally.

And then as we trickle down to the smaller, smaller circles, even within our families, we don't know how people are able to survive the issues.

So our different partners, including the African Liberation Day Committee, the planning committee, the Million Man March committee, thinking about the work that those people have done over the decades, continuing on to the Malcolm X grassroots movement, who will be celebrating on our second day of Kujichagulia, the celebration of that particular Nguzo Saba principle.

And then as we move on, thinking about how a DASI Detroit organization, the people who have learned to celebrate and remember the men and women who did not make it through the days of enslavement while we were being transported from Africa, understanding that those men and women, though they didn't survive, their energies did make it to how they wanted to be, where they want the freedom, the hopes, the dreams.

All of those things still exist.

And then on our last day in the building at the museum, we will be celebrating cooperative economics, of course, thinking about the museum store.

We are so proud to have that store be named for four years, running the best museum store by the Michigan Chronicle.

So that's a wonderful thing, and our marketplace will reflect that.

And then as we move beyond the fourth day into the fifth, sixth, and seventh days of celebration, we will move out of the museum into the Mama Imani Humphrey Hall at the Detroit People's Food Co-op, where we will continue celebrating with our partners, our community partners who will be there at that space, will be the UNIAACL.

It will be the Hood Research Group, and of course the shrine of the Black Madonna, which will be the faith day, the New Year Day, we end the celebration of Kwanzaa and begin the new year on faith as every day, I believe should be a consideration of faith.

We wake up each morning, we believe we will wake up each morning.

So those ideas and opportunities to connect with one another.

We really wanna consider, that's what it is.

And as we turn into 2026, we'll begin thinking about we who believe in freedom, how do we believe in freedom?

Where do we believe in freedom?

These principles in Nguzo Saba fulfill and inform how those activities get done.

They help us understand where we should be thinking, where should we be pointing our attention.

So this, I think, is just a wonderful opportunity to close the year, begin the year, but also live our year every single day.

- Yeah.

Wow.

- Also, we quickly want to add to that.

One of the things, when we are thinking about our program, we're always thinking collectively, who we can work together with.

You know, as Yolanda just mentioned, she mentioned our partners and one of the things that we wanted to do here, particularly with Kwanzaa, is we're not doing this by ourselves.

There have been people in community who've been doing this work for a very long time, just as 60 years, or even longer, or even new, but we wanted to really say, this is a group of us together, uplifting our community and finding ways to do programs together, right?

Here at the building, but also in community.

And so that is always our approach when we're thinking about programs for learning engagement, and at the Wright Museum.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You said it perfectly.

That's I was gonna say was, it's great to hear you guys are taking this out of the museum and to some of the places, some of the other places that value African American culture and wanna lift it up.

So we will look forward to all of these wonderful celebrations of Kwanzaa at the end of the month.

Thanks to both of you for being here with us on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- That's gonna do it for us this week.

You can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org, and you can always connect with us on social media.

Take care, and we'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] Across our Masco family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work, and do business.

Masco, a Michigan company since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 2] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide, to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright music)