For the second year in a row, Chef Blue (Will Lewis) is catering the soul food luncheon at Upstate's Black History Month opening ceremony, held the first Wednesday in February in the campus activities building. The free, open-to-the-public lunch includes oven-fried chicken, collard greens, mashed potatoes with cauliflower and hoppin' john with quinoa.

Quinoa?  That's right. Chef Blue's on a mission to create tasty soul food that's good for your health. His efforts require baby steps, he explains, because "people won't eat the food if they don't think it will taste good."

Recipes take testing, and people take convincing...until they try his delicious food. Some of Chef Blue's get-healthy suggestions: add butternut squash to macaroni and cheese, and cauliflower to mashed potatoes. Most importantly, use herbs and spices --instead of animal fat -- to add flavor to your food.

Read more about Chef Blue and try some of his recipes:

Hoppin' John recipe

macaroni and cheese recipe

collard green recipe

blackeyed peas recipe

chicken recipe