eggplant and tomato pasta and kale pesto

ingredients:

3/4 lb of penne pasta

1pt cherry tomatoes

1 small eggplant

1 cup of olive oil (in total)

a bunch of kale

1/4 walnuts

3 large cloves of garlic

1/3 cup of parmesan cheese

lemon juice

salt

pepper

Directions

-cut the eggplant and the tomatoes into bite sized pieces

-combine eggplant, tomatoes, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

-roast in oven for 25 minutes flipping periodically

Pesto Sause

-combine the walnuts, garlic, parmesan cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper

-put them in a blender and blend until smooth

-boil the penne pasta accordingly, 

-toss the pesto, the veggies and the pasta in a large bowl

-garnish with more parmesan cheese and chill if you would like. 

Processed:

penne pasta

bag of walnuts

so about 20% of my dish is processed

Health/ nutrition:

the dish would probably have no more than 300 calories all together. Most of the dish contains veggies and protein. There is no sugar content unless the little bit that could be in the tomatoes. There is only a little bit of fat in this dish because of the eggplant. After eating this dish a person will feel energized. I would recommend this dish to someone who just finished working out, or someone who wants to fill up with out all the calories. There are no health issues that could come from this meal, unless you use too much salt or something like that. If a person ate this dish ate this dish everyday, they would have very clean bowels. Otherwise no health issues would arise from eating this 

Environmental:

My eggplants could have come from either Georgia, Florida, California, New Jersey, or New York. However I did purchase my eggplant from the farmers market so it could be local. The kale is from my grandmother which is in West Philadelphia, and so thats not very far. The tomatoes were purchased at the farmers market also so they could also be local. All my veggies were organically grown. My meal maybe could have traveled less than 100 miles to make it to my house. My pasta is processed and so is my walnuts, however I dont think those two items took too much of a toll on the environment. 

Political/Economic:

All together this meal cost me something around $60. The veggies are organic and from a farmers market, so they cost a bit more. However if you buy in bulk everything is a little cheaper. The trip to the fresh grocer for the things like the pasta, the olive oil the walnuts, garlic, cheese, and lemon juice, all cost me about $40. This compared to fast food is 1 to a million. The food is made with hardly any preservatives, and no artificial anything. None of my products are frozen. Farmers and the grocery stores made money from my meal. The farmers who grew my veggies get money from me purchasing from the farmers market, and the grocery store and the people who work there get the rest of the money. Factories for my pasta and my walnuts are used to make my dish. 

Social:

The lemon juice, came from the farmers market also. So the farmer growing it, picking it, dropping it off at the market, me purchasing it, and using it is more sufficient then me having to grow the tree and wait for the fruit to grow. I think time plays the biggest part in this. if I were to make this dish with lemons that i grew myself, I would have to make this dish months later. Instead I could pick some organic lemons up from the market and it would have the same impact. No harsh chemicals in my lemon juice, and no artificial lemon. However If i were to purchase a bottle of lemon juice, that would be harsh to the environment and it would have no nutritional value. The bottle would only contain about 80% real lemon juice where the other 20% would be just chemicals to make it taste better, and to make the shelf life longer. I would rather go to the farmers market.