Boys and Girls Ultimate: State Championships
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Rethinking Pocahontas-by Markia Johnson and Nia Berry
http://rethinkinghistory.weebly.com/index.html
This is a link to our website about the disney tale of "Pocahontas" which in reality is a modified version of the true story of "Matoaka", an indian princess who saved the life of an Euro-American named John Smith. There are may perceptions of Indians but the most famous and usually perceived as accurate version comes from the movie, "Pocahontas" and our website is created to give people a chance to learn about how media has been used as an tool to teach manipulated history. We hope that you learn from this website and use it as an example to further your thinking of history and how it's perceived in media.
Ingredients
2 cups of leeks, sliced
2 cups of carrots, sliced2 cloves of minced garlic
2 cups of green beans
2 cups of diced potatoes
1 cup of corn
4 peeled and seeded tomatoes
2 quarts of vegetable/chicken/chicken substitute stock, whichever you prefer
2-3 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup of Italian parsley
4 teaspoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Recipe
1. Pour olive oil into pot and spread it around, dump theleeks and garlic in. Also add salt. Fry for five minutes, stir occasionally.
2. Add carrots and potatoes. Cook for three minutes, stir occasionally.
3. Add green beans. Cook for five minutes, stir occasionally.
4. Add whichever stock you chose, cook until it boils.
5. Add tomatoes and corn. Simmer for thirty minutes.
6. Add lemon juice and parsley, stir. Add more salt if so desired.
The preparation of vegetable soup is mostly a lot of sitting around, really.Recipe Analysis
The thing about these ingredients is that it's absurdly difficult to actually research these ingredients, and that's where I hit a brick wall. Most of the vegetables used did not come in packaging and were devoid of any labels. The only thing I know is that, save for the tomatoes, they were picked from Wegmans' organic section. Furthermore, it's very difficult to provide the nutritional information of soup, unless you want to analyze how many fractions of a serving of each vegetable on average goes into a serving. That's not really something that's possible.
What I do know is that Wegmans claims its fruits, vegetables, and products in general tend to be grown locally. If it has the Wegmans brand, it's grown (or raised) nearby. It's impossible to verify this, but I have to trust them to some extent. Wegmans brand has two lines of interest: the first of which is "Food You Feel Good About," and the second of which is Organic. Wegmans has a track record of being pretty healthy. That said, the only part of this meal that was processed was the tomatoes. The rest of it was all organic.
Environmentally, I'm counting on the fact that Wegmans is being honest when it says it gets its things locally, but at the same time, I have to wonder if that's not entirely true. There are other Wegmans stores elsewhere, so do all of their products come from local farms, too? I don't doubt that any of this food comes from anywhere besides the United States, though.
The meal was obviously more expensive than fast food: fast food doesn't have eleven ingredients. Each ingredient costed about as much as a fast food meal as it is. Seeing as though these organic foods are Wegmans' own, Wegmans gets the money. The tomatoes are not organic, unfortunately. My family grows its own tomatoes, yes, but that's not very easy to do when it's cold. Never affected me very much since I can't stand the things, but it's always a nice thing to use ingredients you've grown. My family tends to grow its own herbs and spices when possible, too.
Overall, it's pretty healthy seeing as this vegetable soup uses ,well, vegetables. Organic vegetables. Vegetables that are organic. Organic vegetables.
Personal Reflection
I've always been vaguely aware of the things that go into food behind our backs, I just never knew for sure and I barely cared. Can it be said that I care now? Indeed. For now, at least. Hopefully I keep caring and that caring doesn't stop down the line. At least the place I shop at tends to be pretty gosh darn organic. That's awfully convenient since until now I barely paid attention to the stuff that I eat. I barely have to change anything, which feels pretty good. See, the italics mean what I just said is important.
This unit is unique in that it actually affected me on an emotional level. Admittedly, I'm pretty apathetic about a lot of things. Never before has a course or a unit even affected me like this. I can safely say I am scared to eat things now, for the most part. Wegmans is pretty organic so that's great, but it's just everything else is suddenly terrifying. The treatment of animals is nothing new to me. I've seen worse, like actual videos of this horrendous slaughtering. What I'm mostly affected and disgusted by is how these corporations get away with things. Realizing your government is even more corrupt than most people think is not a particularly fantastic thing. This paragraph is, of course, almost entirely based on our two week watching of Food Inc.
That said, there's actually not much I have to change except maybe lock up any number of candies and sweets I have stashed away for when I get bored. Without those, I eat pretty healthy as it is. I didn't even know that most of the things I eat are organic, and I think I like Wegmans that much more now.
A common misconception is that diet soda is "healthy" and perfectly okay because it's diet. Diet soda still contains a number of harmful chemicals, and though it has less calories, it's still about as bad as ordinary soda.
2lbs.- free range chicken thighs
3 -small organic red potatoes
1/2-organic red onion
1-cup of chicken broth
1-sweet Red bell pepper
1-clove of garlic
organic black pepper corns w/ grinder (Black pepper)
bottle of organic extra virgin olive oil
Reynolds Baking Bags
Prepare the chicken by sprinkling it with grinded black peppercorns
Sauteé 1/4 of the onion chopped, half the red pepper(with seeds), & chopped garlic in olive oil.
(while you are waitng you can slice your potatoes thinly.)
Once that in finshed and browned, prepare the skillet with more olive oil to fry the chicken.
You plan on just browning the skin , not frying completely.
Once the skin is browned, you need to prepare your baking bag,put the baking bag inside of the roasting pan, cover the bottom of the bag with potatoes then the slices of the other half of the onion and peppers. Add a layer of chicken to cover the bottom layer. each thigh should be touching a potato.
sprinkle the sauteéd peppers and onions on top of the chicken.
Put chicken broth on top of all the food in the bag using a turkey baster.
tie the bag and cut slits for air holes.
Put in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes. check periodically.
A few words to describe me meal:
The body does not take long to digest chicken. Chicken is not a heavy meat. Peppers onions and garlic and tasty flavors which are rather healthy. If you ate nothing but this meal everyday you might lack calcium in your diet.
All the ingredients were local and organically grown. The chicken was also free range.
During this unit about Food in Science and Society, I have been a lot more open minded when it comes to food. In the Food Inc. movie we saw a lot of animal cruelty when it came to chcikcen and cows. Cows were often swung around by their limbs and no one really "cared" about the animal that was about to be slaughtered. Another thing I found interesteing was the fact that fish were being fed cord in order to "beef them up" so they would be worth more in the market. They did the same to cows, which would cause them to put a hole in the side of the cow in order to essentially extract the waste, and these helps the cow a little because cows with holes in them last longer.
It was interesting in this unit to see everyones opinions with discussions and with their presentation of their portion of the movie.
This unit essentially changed my view on many foods I eat. For example I eat beef a lot less, especially because it takes 7 days for it to digest inside you body. YUCK!
Tuna Macaroni Salad
Ingredients:
4 Brown Organic eggs
2 pouches of Ronzoni Pasta Portions: elbow
½ cup Miracle Whip Mayonnaise (vary to preference)
Lawry’s Season Salt (vary to preference)
Old Bay Seasoning (vary to preference)
2 cans of Chicken of the Sea Solid White: Albacore tuna
Procedure:
1. Boil 2 pouches of pasta in 1 quart of water for 5minutes.
2. Boil 4 brown eggs for 10 minutes.
3. Drain and serve pasta into a large bowl
4. Open, drain and serve 2 cans of tuna into large bowl with pasta
5. Apply about ½ a cup of mayonnaise into bowl and mix contents of the bowl thoroughly.
6. Add a moderate amount (2 teaspoons each) of Lawry’s Seasoning Salt and Old Bay seasoning and mix (continue to taste and add more season as seen fit).
7. Un-shell and dice eggs into bowl and mix one last time.
Analysis:
Based on the ingredients used to make my meal, about 60% of my meal is processed being made of processed tuna fish and mayonnaise.
My entire meal totaled in 315mg cholesterol. 3,230mg sodium, 33g fat, 600mg potassium, 128g carbs, 6g dietary fibers, 6g sugars, 46g protein, and 1,630mg calories. The amount of sodium in my meal could cause serious high blood pressure and other health risks and the amount of calories (1,630mg) in my meal is half of the suggested 2,400-calorie intake for women, so eating everyday would not be healthy. Also be reminded that this is all only in one serving.
All ingredients used in my meal were made and packed in the United States; ranging from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey California. The Chicken of the Sea Tuna Fish traveled the furthest being from San Diego, California. Only my eggs were organically grown.
This meal cost about $15. In comparison to fast food, my meal may be equal in health risk somewhat, but it is not a meal to be eaten regularly. Also my meal is a bit more expensive when buy ingredients as a whole. The USDA regulates these ingredients.
Self Reflection
Being a person who has never once questioned what is on the back, ingredients and nutrient labeling of her everyday boxed processed food, this unit in science and society has changed my view and importance in food in multiple ways. From the identifying of terms and ingredients, the creation and modification of said ingredients and how these process of modified and organic foods has drastically effected America economically and health wise.
The initial assignment of simply reading what the ingredients were on a meal I had recently eaten was only step one of opening my eyes to the food I consume. After a discussion in class about the definition and creditability of certain terms found on the labeling of boxed/canned foods, I learned that terms like “Low-Fat” and “Natural” are not USDA regulated meaning; any thing claimed to be any percent less fat (even if it’s only 1%) than it’s original form can be considered “low fat” without any higher authority confirmation. It was facts that like and many others that alone made me more conscious of the ingredients in our foods.
Step two in discovering the truth behind our food was actually watching the documentary movie, “Food Inc” which had a range of discussion topics. It talked about the treatments of both animals and workers, the process of making food, the cost of food and how it economically effects America, the health causes of genetically modified foods, the political aspects of the food system and overall how as consumers, we have a large role in the food system and are capable of changing it. My group in particular took the chapter, “Shocks to the System” which discussed how an consumers, we are becoming slightly more conscious of the products/produce we purchase and this is partially due to the price inflammation and comparison of organic verses genetically modified. Stores like Wal-Mart have even gone “Green” in order to comply with costumers and appeal to high-class costumers who have begun to notice the difference between organic and genetically modified.
Step 3 was taking what I’ve
learned and applying it into my life by creating a meal that was ideally
healthy and free of genetically modified ingredients (homemade being the main
objective). My choice in meal was
Macaroni Tuna Salad, made with whole organic brown eggs. Along with other
classmates who made healthy meals, I found that eating healthy, some organic
foods was just as delicious and simple to make as the usual fast food, boxed,
and processed food that so many of us are used to.
For this project Maxime Damis and I worked together to bake Biscotti. HERE is the link to our recipe, recipe analysis, and photos of our creation.
Here's my personal reflection of this Unit