I found out something very surprising over the weekend – my late paternal grandmother was a certified cook for a children’s daycare center and at Calvary Hospital. Everyone always said I was very much like her, but this confirms it. As I sit here writing this piece, I feel closer to her as I touch her wedding ring hanging on my necklace.

Candita was her name and her arroz con pollo was the best in the South Bronx. I always knew her as an amazing home cook, and to find out she cooked professionally was quite remarkable – especially because it was in a forum that focused on children and the sick.

Sundays began with church and ended at her apartment with a sabroso family feast, which included my Aunt Lucy, Uncle Chuck, and cousins Vicky and Chris. When we walked in, she would greet us with our little bottles of Malta and then rush back to the kitchen to continue her preparation. We knew something wonderful was ahead. Pastelillos de carne, maduros, arroz con gandules, pollo asado, pasteles, arroz con dulce de coco, where she even used real coconut. Traditional Puerto Rican dishes she brought over from our Isla de Encanto. She made everything from scratch. Her seasoning was exceptional.

In my teens, we grew close when I was the one who would hang back and escort her because she needed a shoulder to lean on. She was in her seventies by then. We never spoke much, but I always knew she was so grateful.

Grandma had three heart attacks. Two in her fifties and one in her sixties. She suffered from arthritis and diabetes. She weighed close to 200 pounds and had stomach ulcers due to stress.

Candita started her career later in life, when she was in her fifties, after my grandfather died. He was 53 when his heart attack struck. Victor Manuel came over from Ponce, Puerto Rico and had a barber shop in Harlem on 116^th Street and Madison Avenue.

In his profession, he stood on his feet the whole day, which lead to his peripheral vascular disease. But the way he and my grandmother ate didn’t help. They’re diet consisted of cooking with lard and everything was fried. It was high in carbohydrates and fats.

Victor Manuel died of a pulmonary embolism on a December night in 1972. After climbing a mountain of stairs from the street to his building, he went to bed and never woke up. He was her heart and she lost it.

It’s amazing how far we’ve come in society.   Although my grandmother worked in a hospital, she never equated what she put in her own mouth to her own health. Even though she had a certification in cooking, cultural tradition dominated.

If we look at the roots of the Puerto Rican diet, cooking with lard came from our Spanish ancestors, and it is what killed so many of our relatives. Olive oil became too expensive to import to the Caribbean, so lard became its replacement, which could be produced locally. Plus, because of all the sugar production on the island, our grandparents grew up eating way too much sugar.

When I walk through the streets of New York and see the amount of Latinos who have amputated feet and legs due to type 2 diabetes, my heart breaks at how the structural influences of colonialism continue to affect our dietary patterns. This is what drives me to find healthy alternatives to our traditional Latino cooking.

But we do have traditions to be proud of – like rice and beans. A Taíno and African cultural contribution, it’s the perfect couple, like my grandparents. Once we remove the lard, it’s a great dietary source for vegetable protein. In the right proportion, of beans to rice, this meal has the potential to decrease the risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. Beans are categorized as a low-glycemic-index food that makes a person feel full, so they eat less.

But it’s the proportion that we need to focus on, less rice and more beans. Beans are a superfood!They’re full of fiber, potassium, folate, iron, manganese and magnesium, and they are cholesterol- and fat-free. They’re good for your heart, which brings us to today’s recipe.

Arroz Integral con Habichuelas Guizadas  (Brown Rice and Beans)

Makes 4 servings

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Habichuelas (Beans)

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon sofrito

1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 Tablespoon tomato sauce

1 (15.5 oz) can red kidney beans

1 cup water

1 pound calabaza, cut into inch-long squares

Begin with putting oil into a 2 to 3-quart pot. Add sofrito and tomato sauce. Mix and simmer in a low flame. Add beans, water, and calabaza. Mix again. Increase flame to moderate-high flame and cover pot. When it comes to a boil, add cilantro, mix and reduce the flame to medium-low and simmer. Pot should remain covered. Let it cook for another 15 minutes, until calabaza is cooked tenderly.

Arroz Integral (Brown Rice)

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cups brown rice

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

3 cups water

In 5-quart pot, heat up olive oil in a medium-low flame. Add rice and mix, coating rice evenly with oil. Let simmer for a minute. Add broth and water, and mix. Increase to medium-high flame. Once it starts to boil, lower to medium-flame and cover. Cook for 30 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Reduce flame to low flame. Let it cook for another 10 minutes. Mix rice and cook for another 5 minutes.

Buen provecho!

Special thanks to my mother and Aunt Lucy for their contribution to this piece.

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