Ali - Food for life: delicious & healthy comfort food from my table to yours!

St. Martins Press
New York

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To Curtis Jr. and Sydney: You are my inspiration to use the power of food to stay at my best for you!

Dad, you are an angel and I know you are comfortable at home in heaven, eating a warm slice of my sweet potato pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. This book is for you!

Boxing was my first love, but before I ever got into the ring, I was cooking! And today I am just as competitive in the kitchen as I was as a professional boxer. Okay, I take that back, but only because nobody has ever tried to knock my head off in the kitchen! Still, Ive always wanted my food to be impressiveso good that people would talk about my meals long after they were over. And to this day, I have a passion for throwing down in the kitchen. Thats why I jumped at the opportunity to compete on Food Networks hit show Chopped and walked away as the winner twice! Ive cooked with Rachael Ray, Emeril, and Paula Deen and on The Chew. Ive even cooked some of my famous Oven-Fried Chicken for Steve Harvey on his daytime talk show. And I wrote this book to share with you my favorite recipes, dishes inspired by my love for creating nutritious, winning meals.

When we were growing up, my parents led a healthy lifestyleboth exercised regularly and neither smoked cigarettes or drank alcohol. Even though they were often on the go, they made sure my sister and I ate fresh, home-cooked meals. Now, that might sound like my parents prepared the meals, but we actually had a cook! And when my parents separated, I had to separate from those meals. I was always an independent person, and so at the early age of nine, I decided to get in the kitchen and teach myself how to cook. My first recipes were as simple as spaghetti and scrambled eggs, but by trial and error, over time I expanded my repertoire to include more complex dishes such as seafood gumbo and stewed chicken and gravy, which to this day are favorites among my friends and family. I remember having a good appetite as a kid. To be honest, I was borderline greedy for food. I was that kid who would go over to their friends houses and raid their refrigerators and pantries looking for something good to eat. Im not quite sure why I was always on the hunt for food, but needless to say, I liked to eat!

Many people assume that my success in boxing was automatically passed on to me from my dad. Actually, the truth is, I didnt learn how to harvest those boxing genes and build on the healthy fitness and eating habits my parents instilled in me until I was eighteen and became a boxer myself.

As I got serious about the sport, I set out to learn how the food I ate affected my performance. You see, as a boxer, I had to weigh in before each fight. So I needed to pay close attention to my food intake. But to make it as an elite athlete, I knew I had to take it to the next level. The meals I ate needed to help me become stronger and quicker and enable me to think more clearly. Once I learned the impact nutrition had on my performance, I became unstoppable! I didnt eat oatmeal, eggs, and green smoothies because I loved the taste (though I did what I could to make them tasty!) but rather so I could fuel my body. The food I ate allowed me to get the most out of my training and set me apart from the competition. It helped me make my mark in the ring: I became a four-time undefeated world champion boxer with twenty-four winstwenty-one of them knockoutsand zero losses.

For close to a decade I fought professionally by choice. But nowadays, each of us has to fight just to get a good, honest meal to the table. It isnt as simple as it was in the past, because food isnt as nutritious as it used to be. Produce is sprayed with chemicals that pollute our bodies. The same food that was grown a couple of generations ago doesnt contain the same nutrition. Food manufacturers are putting health claims on junk food, and most of us are confused by all the misleading information out there on how we should be eating.

God put perfect foods on this planet to give our bodies everything we need to be healthy and to heal ourselves when we get sick. But ever since we started tampering with our food, what we consume has been making us sick. Much of what we are eating is more food-like than food. Consuming toxic ingredients, processed foods, and genetically modified grains and produce is not moving us in the right direction. We are going downhill fast, and our health is suffering. Major diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer, are on the rise, and we have the highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy rates of all the developed nations. More than a third of American adults are obeseand that jumps to 50 percent of African Americans and more than 40 percent of Latinos.

When I became a mother, armed with these statistics, I set out with a simple plan: I would feed my family nourishing and wholesome yet delicious meals. My kids would grow up with an appreciation for real food and have every opportunity to be strong and succeed in life, and my husband and I would have the energy to make that vision a daily reality. Ive never been one to hop on to food fads, trendy diets, or any one rigid way of eating. There are so many ways to approach the food we put on our plates, from veganism and vegetarianism to Paleo, low-carb, and elimination diets. Theres so much information out there, and it seems to change all the timewho can sort through it all? But there is one thing we all can agree on: we should be eating as much unprocessed, whole food as possible. Nobody will argue that adding more fresh veggies to your diet isnt good for you. So even though I live a busy life with multiple businesses to manage, I have made a promise to myself: to make home-cooked meals for my family a reality and a priority.

After my last fight, I took some time to meditate on how I could continue to share my love for living a healthy lifestyle. My dad cared deeply about making a difference in the world, and he taught me to always try to do the right thing for the right reason and to treat everyone with kindness, love, and respect. In my motivational speaking around the country and internationally, I tell people that we all have what it takes inside to become champions in our lives. I encourage people to work harder and smarter if they want to reach their goals. But its difficult to focus on success when youre feeling run-down, stressed out, depressed, overwhelmed, and devoid of energy! Its hard enough just to get by and finish the day. We arent meant to live our lives that way. We should be full of energy and vitality and facing life with a winning attitude. So I decided to bring my passion for fighting into the kitchen, and thats how