MVSKOKE RESERVATION – The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Department of Health has partnered with Junebug Catering owner Jenn Snow (Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska) to host a slow-cooker cooking series. This series is about eating traditional foods in a healthier way through her cooking techniques. This series can help replace unhealthy foods with healthier, traditional alternatives. She will be doing these series in April, May, and June.
In the class, everyone will learn easy slow cooker meals using traditional ingredients, budget-friendly recipes for families, cooking techniques that support diabetes prevention, and tips for reducing processed foods and added sugars.
When Snow explained how the foods used to be made, she said, “I get choked up about it, because I really think that we’re meant to eat our traditional foods and we can improve our health. We’re not meant to have diabetes, and we’re not meant to have heart disease; those things were taken away with colonization. I mean, if we could just bring those things back, I think that our Nation, all of our Nations will be so much healthier.”
As for the slow-cooking series, this is her second set. “We did one last summer where we talked about cooking, and how our traditional foods are very healthy, and trying to get people to eat more of what we traditionally would have eaten before colonization, so that’s a lot of what my catering company does,” Snow said.
Snow explained that she is super passionate about pre-colonized foods because she feels that many people’s connotation is just Indian Tacos.
“That’s the only thing that they know about, Native cuisine. I try to go around and teach people about what our actual cuisine would have been. So we have a series, the first set of classes is the slow cooker classes, and so this is with the Diabetes Education Program. These are just healthy swap classes. One of the recipes is like pot roast, but instead of potatoes, I use radishes to reduce the amount of carbs,” Snow said.
Snow spoke about how she has made crockpot chicken and taught the class how to cook traditional meats such as bison, deer, and salmon. Then, in another class, she spoke about fast food, so she’s done turkey burgers and wraps. However, she knows that it isn’t Indigenous, but she is trying to get people to make healthier swaps in their meal preparations as well.
Some of the benefits that Snow named off are that her cooking techniques with the meals are just reducing fat, reducing carbs, and reducing fried foods.
“We’re making healthier meat choices like our traditional meat choices; turkey, bison, salmon, deer, those are all super healthy. Lean meats where now it’s more commonplace to use like beef and pork which are more fatty types of meats. Native people, we didn’t traditionally eat those types of meats. I just really believe that we could eradicate things like diabetes and heart disease if we went back to what we traditionally ate before colonization,” Snow said.
What Snow enjoys most is getting out into the community, meeting people, and talking to them. She taught a cooking class in Okmulgee, and she had them try radishes from the slow cooker. Snow explained that the radishes were cooked like potatoes. Snow had the citizens sample the radishes before she started the class. They all didn’t know that the radish was used and assumed it was potatoes.
“Potatoes aren’t Indigenous to here; the radishes are. That’s something that we would have eaten, and for them to be able to eat a radish, and think it’s a potato, then you know you’re not missing anything out of your pot roast. You think you’re still having like meat and potatoes, but the carb exchange is huge,” Snow said.
Snow did a comparison: a person can get 30 or 40 carbs in a medium-sized potato, but a whole bag of radishes is about 6 carbs. She wants to let the citizens know and teach them that there are different healthy recipes with similar flavors.
Snow is very grateful to be able to help the citizens make healthier food choices. She says it is the best feeling in the world, and Snow never imagined she could help the citizens in this way. Especially by bringing back traditional foodways and also improving their health.
“Just to be able to bring back some of our traditional foods, our wild rice, and teach people how to cook venison properly to where it’s not tough, you can use it as a replacement for beef,” Snow said.
Snow said they are not only trying to teach healthy exchanges but also recipes for using the fresh produce distributed by the Diabetes Education Programs. In the fall, she will teach traditional meat classes, including venison, bison, salmon, and turkey, as part of another series.
Here is the list of each class that will be held. There will be one class at 11 am, followed by another at 1 pm. However, you will need to call the Indian Health Diabetes or Wellness Clinic to register, since some rooms have a capacity.
“Fast” food
Okemah- April 9
Coweta- April 28
Okmulgee- April 30
Pasta Replacement meals- Spaghetti Squash, Zucchini noodles, Sugar free Sauces
Okemah- May 4
Okmulgee- May 5
Eufaula- May 18
Coweta- May 26
Lighter Meals- Wild Rice Salad, Traditional foods, Sweet potato nachos
Eufaula- June 10
Coweta- June 11
Okmulgee- June 24
Okemah- June 25
Addresses to each location named above:
Coweta-
Koweta Indian Health Center
Diabetes kitchen classroom
31870 OK-51
Coweta, OK 74429
Okmulgee Indian Health Center
Octagon classroom
1313 E. 20th Street
Okmulgee, OK 74447
Okemah- Creek Nation Hospital
Wellness Center
1800 E. Coplin St.
Okemah, OK 74859
Eufaula Indian Health Center
Wellness Center
500 Eunice Burns Rd.
Eufaula, OK 74432
