Book: The Vegan Soulfood Guide To the Galaxy by Afya Ibomu (Vegetarian Soul Power) (Bonus: Interview From September 2010)

The Vegan Soulfood Guide To the Galaxy
By Afya Ibomu

The Vegan Soulfood Guide To the Galaxy is much more than a cookbook. It’s a fun, fact filled guide to the vegetarian world of grocery shopping, understanding nutrition, meal planning, dining out as a vegan and more! No more bland vegetarian taste; now you have in your hands a complete resource for cooking mouthwatering, inexpensive soulfood recipes made with out white sugar, white flour, white rice, animal or dairy products that satisfy vegans and carnivores alike. Make delicious and nutritious versions of these classic recipes: Sweet Potato Pie- Potato Salad- Tofu Buffalo “Wings”- Corn Bread- Chocolate Chip Cookies- Collard Greens- Candied Yams And More! Also Included: Pimp My Tofu DVD A Free Instructional Cooking DVD with theme song featuring Sticman of Dead Prez

About the Author
Afya Ibomu is a Certified Holistic Health Counselor, AADP, and has been a vegetarian since 1990. She previously owned and operated a vegan catering business in Brooklyn, New York, and served as Erykah Badu’s nutritionist on tour. She is also the author of Get Your Crochet On! Crochet Patter book series and is CEO of Nattral.

Some of the healthy, yet stick-to-your-ribs recipes include:
-Sweet Potato Pie
-Tofu “Buffalo” Wings
-Corn Bread
-Crispy Collard Green Rolls
-Candied Yams
-Hush Pups
-Hood Rich Brownies
-Creole Red Beans and Rice
-Zulu Muffins
-Satisfy My Soul Grits
…and more!

Buy the Guide here.

The next portion of this post is courtesy of: girliegirlarmy

When we heard that the book “The Vegan Soulfood Guide to the Galaxy” by Afya Ibomu had just been released, we knew we had to find out more about this innovative sister and her delectable galaxy! Nothing is more delish than vegan soulfood (get your ass over to Soul Vegetarian, a chain of vegan soulfood spots across the country, if you don’t believe us – STAT! Order the Calebone Steak Dinner – including the mac n cheese and greens – and the Ice Cream!) – you’ll wonder why anyone would ever eat animals when they can eat the most decadent food ever, and get healthy simultaneously.

“The Vegan Soulfood Guide To the Galaxy” is much more than a cookbook; it’s a funny, fact filled guide to the vegetarian world of grocery shopping, understanding nutrition, meal planning, dining out as a vegan and more! Afya dispels the cliche of bland vegetarian taste for good; as she shares her complete resource for cooking mouthwatering, inexpensive soulfood recipes made with out white sugar, white flour, white rice, soy, animal, or dairy products that totally satisfy vegans and carnivores alike. She even includes a Free Instructional Cooking DVD “Pimp my Tofu” with the book! Talk about bang for your buck!

If we told you that you could eat Sweet Potato Pie, Potato Salad, Tofu Buffalo “Wings”, Corn Bread, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Collard Greens, Ice Cream, and Candied Yamand still lose weight and be at your optimum health, would you believe us? Well, you bettah, cuz we don’t lie.

Growing up in a single-parent home in St. Paul, MN, Afya wore a hip brace for the first 2 years of her life. Afya was very sickly, stricken with allergies, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and a host of other ailments. She was shuttled from doctor to doctor and placed on various medications. At 15, her mother found an allergy specialist who told her the foods she was eating might be contributing to her health problems. This information and the hip-hop song “beef” by KRS-ONE motivated her to stop taking her medications, become a vegetarian, and begin her journey to self-healing.

Afya’s love of food came from a rich heritage of Creole, Soulfood, and Midwest cooking. Living in Brooklyn, NY allowed Afya to be around some of the most progressive people in the natural health industry. She soon learned about being a vegan, taking herbs, fasting, and live food. Becoming a vegan, led Afya to start cooking again and she began to make her own recipes.

Afya took a cooking intensive course at the Natural Gourmet Cookery School and started her own catering business called Healthy Soil. She started making gourmet vegan desserts for health food stores around Brooklyn and at international fairs around NYC. Her apple pies became so popular that she was known as the “pie lady.”

Vegan Goddess
Yet another twist in Afya’s life would bring her to holistic healing: Afya’s mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Helping her mother to live a better quality of life through holistic health inspired her to go to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition to become a Certified Holistic Health Counselor. After graduation, She began health counseling, teaching vegan cooking classes, and writing for various magazines, such as; Know Your Health- Minneapolis, MN; Free Magazine -Brooklyn, NY; San Francisco Bayview Newspaper, San Francisco California.

In 2003, Afya was the personal nutritionist for Erykah Badu and her family on the Worldwide Underground Tour. That same year, she also produced, directed, and starred in a collaborative TV show for a local cable station in Brooklyn called Mind, Body, and Soulfood. In 2005, Afya, created a nutrition guide called Vegetarian Sources of Protein (currently sold in health food stores around the country). Afya is also a published author of the crochet pattern book series, Get Your Crochet On!; Hip Hats and Cool Caps and Fly Tops and Funky Flavas. Her crochet books have sold over 18,000 copies and have been featured on HGTV, Good Day Atlanta, and AOL Black Voices, in magazines, Vibe Vixen, Crochet Today, and Adorn.   Clearly, this woman is a perfect example of boundless energy!
Afya has been a veg since 1990 and is currently the CEO of her holistic lifestyle company, Nattral Unlimited, LLC (www.NATTRAL.com). Afya currently lives in Atlanta with her hubby stic.man of the hip hop group dead prez and their 7-year-old vegan son, Itwela. She attends Georgia State University furthering her career in the field of nutrition.

“Two of the most valuable things one can own are his/her vitality and light. Thank you, Afya for being a solider and example for the true wealth of life.” -Erykah Badu

Buffalo Tofu Recipe

Ingredients:
1 15oz block of tofu, frozen and thawed, cut in nugget size pieces

Marinade:
¼ cup peanut butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 cup vegetable both

Oil for frying

Wet batter:
1 cup of spelt flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup of almond milk
1/2 cup of coconut milk
1 tbsp of agave or honey

Dry batter:
2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp granulated garlic
2 tsp sea salt

Hot sauce:
¼ cup of non GMO vegan margarine, melted
2-5 tbsp of hot sauce
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Celery, carrot sticks and ranch dressing

Directions:
1. Mix all marinade ingredients in a bowl then add the tofu. Cover well with marinade and let sit for 1 hr to overnight.
2. While the tofu is marinating, combine the hot sauce ingredients and sit to the side.
3. In a plate, add dry batter ingredients.
4. Fill a frying pan with 2″ of oil. Heat on medium/high heat.
5. Add wet batter ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Batter should be thick and runny.
6. Dip tofu in wet batter, covering all sides, then immediately add to the dry batter.
7. Lightly shake off any excess flour and add tofu to the pan. Cook until brown on both sides then drain on paper towels.
8. After all tofu has been cooked, pour hot sauce over and serve with vegetables.

Enjoy!   Buy the Guide here.

***Bonus***

Interview With fridaygirltv September 10,2010

As an Author, Certified Holistic Health Counselor, Entrepreneur, Freelance Journalist, Crochet Artist, Nutritionist, wife and mother Afya Ibomu has built a dynamic reputation in the past 10 years by consistently delivering on her promise to educate, guide and inspire people to live a healthy, natural, and creative lifestyle. Read below to find out how this Woman 2 Watch builds her Nattral empire…

FG: How did http://www.NATTRAL.com get started? And why did you feel developing the site was important?

AI: I had just finished my first crochet book and I knew I needed a website for people to get in touch with me. I wasn’t sure what I was going to have on the site but I just had to get it up. I knew I wanted a company that incorporated everything that I did (crochet, cooking, products, information). Nattral was my way of life and I wanted to share it with others.

FG: In addition to the starting the Nattral site you have authored two crochet books and a cookbook, how did you know there was a market for this and what makes your books different then those that were previously on the market?

AI: I knew there was a market because as a crochet artist I would go to stores to find books to improve my craft and get ideas. In my search there were no black based crochet books. I also lived in Brooklyn New York at the time. I saw a large movement of fiber arts through the Rasta religion and hip hop. I wanted to share this experience with the world. As far as my cookbook it was really the same thing. The lack of black representation in the health and vegetarian world was a large part of my motivation. Also because I have been a vegetarian for 20 years (vegan for 14), I really wanted to answer all of the questions that I have gotten over the past 20 yrs about being a vegetarian. I also wanted to share my experience and make the process of having a plant based lifestyle easier and make this lifestyle seem approachable and doable to the black and brown communities which are suffering so much from diet/lifestyle choices.

FG: What are some of the popular misconceptions about living a natural/healthy lifestyle?

AI: That it’s boring, we only eat salad and raw veggies (and some do). My goal with Nattral Unlimited and all of our products is to promote how fun, stylish and possible it is to live this way.

FG: If some one is interested in becoming healthier or adapting a vegetarian diet what are some tips you can give that could help them get started?

AI: I have a seven step process detailed in the book, but the first 2 steps are: 1. Take 1 new food out of your diet every 1-2 weeks. Whether it is pork, soda, candy or whatever you are ready for. 2. Add 1-2 new foods in that you have never had before. Sometimes people take everything out and don’t add anything new in. preferably star by adding in vegetables.

FG: You are also a wife and mother, what tips can you give women who are interested in introducing more healthy foods to their families?

AI: Adults should eat healthy themselves and be a good example. Children learn from what we do.

FG: Besides being an author and owner of Nattral.com do you provide any other services?

AI: I have an online magazine that ‘s a mix of health, culture and style. I also conduct healthy living/vegetarian workshops and cooking demos.

FG: How do you balance family life and the work?

AI: I’m still working on that J! Having a supportive husband is very helpful. Even though we both have busy schedules we try not to stress each other about the amount of work we do and schedule in family time.

FG: How many of your business decisions are based on know how vs. your intuition?

AI: 50/50. I take a lot of time planning and thinking but that planning comes from the lifestyle I lead and knowing where my market is and what they may want to know, or purchase.

FG: What do you consider to be some of the major highlights of your career thus far?

AI: Finishing 3 books. Many people talk about doing something but just having finished products in hand is incredible.

FG: What is a spiritual mantra or philosophy that you live by?

AI: Jeet Kune Do, which is Bruce lee’s martial art and philosophy. It basically means “no way as the way”. Don’t be in a box, and always be open to growth.

FG: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

AI: Chose your career by doing something that you would do whether you were paid or not. This helped me to focus on my career path.

FG: What would you tell your younger-self if you knew then what you know now?

AI: Chose your career by doing something that you would do whether you were paid or not. This information would have helped me be way more focused in my late teens/early 20’s

Finish this sentence….

FG: Women should stop complaining about______and start doing____________________

AI: Women should stop complaining about there life (family, career, weight) and start doing what they know will help them take them to the next level (lose weight, go back to school, etc.)

FG: If your life came with a soundtrack, what would be the top three songs (and please indicate the singer or band)

AI: Get Up Stand UP- Bob Marley, Fight the Power- Public Enemy, Beef- KRS-1, You are the Sunshine of my life- Stevie Wonder.

FG: What project(s) do you have coming up?

AI: My husband and I are currently working on a relationship book that’s due out in 2011. I’m currently turning my online magazine into a video magazine and I’m also working on a Seasonal cleansing (detox) book.

For more information on Afya Ibomu check out my site http://www.NATTRAL.com

Buy the Guide here.