Recipe for a Delicious — and Healthy — Life
As Dr. Jitana Benton-Lee grew into her role as a medical researcher, it didn’t take long for her to reach back deep into her childhood and start thinking about healthy local food and her roots in Logan County, Kentucky, leading her to her grandmother’s kitchen near Russellville.
Her memories easily morphed into Sowful Blessings, a company she created to make and distribute dried spices, seasoning mixes and herbal blends — interpretations of complex and abundant variations, shaped by memory, taste and place. She offers more than a dozen flavor combinations from her backyard garden and urban farm on the edge of Lexington.
Jitana is an associate professor in Northern Kentucky University’s Doctor of Nursing Practice and Master of Science in Nursing programs. Her research project on the benefits of tasty flavors to a healthy diet and weight control received a coveted Robert Wood Johnson grant last year. The funding will support her project focused on improving health care perceptions and initiatives for rural minorities in Kentucky. Throughout the three-year program, she will develop inclusive health care promotion and practices to educate communities on the health risk factors they face, such as diabetes and heart disease.
“I’ve always love cooking for my family and friends,” she says. “The way I see it, preparing and eating good food is a recipe for a delicious life. At one time, when I was younger, I realized I needed to seriously diet to lose weight, and that’s when I really began to see that locally sourced food is a staple to healthy eating.”
It was a new appreciation for something she learned long ago. “It has been easy to go back to my familial roots of gardening, foraging and homesteading,” she says. “What we don’t grow here, we raise with family back home in Logan County, often bartering or trading with neighboring gardeners.”
“ My philosophy is that the food we eat is linked to both health and happiness. My heart is as much in my kitchen as it is in my career.”
Jitana acknowledges she has always been a resourceful pinch-of-this-and-pinch-of-that cook, taking her grandmother’s traditional homespun values and translating them into sensible healthy seasonings that make even the most ordinary vegetables sing. The herbs she uses are picked fresh and then tenderly dried to perfection.
She firmly believes having a kitchen full of superior ingredients gives one the inspiration and means to create gourmet-tasting meals at home quickly, simply and easily. Her Sowful Blessings line, available online at SowfulBlessings. com, provides an affordable option for home cooks interested in creating bold-flavored, nutritious meals for their family and friends.
She admits to being frugal. “Make that very frugal,” she says. “I want five-star gourmet food taste without the five-star gourmet food prices. My vision is to be fancy on a budget by preparing food at home with quality ingredients, to make delicious food from the humblest of ingredients into memorable meals. To me, that means knowing how my herbs and spices are raised and where they come from, and how to mix them with salty, sweet, umami tastes for maximum flavor.”
There’s implicit frugality in preparing food at home, but it’s not just cost that Jitana is picky about. There’s the deliciousness of concocting homemade food seasoned with high-quality blends of handmade herb and spice combinations. With her intuitive knack for combining just the right herbs to transform simple seasonings into something special, Sowful Blessings products are a healthy way to keep one’s pantry well-stocked.
“I truly believe and preach that the most memorable food experiences are to taste seasonal blessings from the earth with family and friends,” she says.
“My goal with Sowful Blessings is to show cooks how quick and easy it is to create meals with bold depth of flavor without fussy recipes. I want my customers most of all to understand the relationship between health and the food we eat and that healthy food can taste delicious.”
Jitana has given her spice and herb mixtures storybook names and packaging that mirror the memories that have shaped her life. Guidance from the Kentucky Proud program has helped her develop an easy online ordering system with speedy delivery. Recipe cards are available free for the asking with every order.
