Food Project- Ethan Reese and Jamie Murphy

Reese family chicken noodle soup recipe - 

1 whole onion sliced 

3 stalks of celery chopped

3/4 cups of carrots chopped

1 pound of Boneless skinless trimmed Chicken Thigh sliced

10 cups of water poured

2 large russet potatoes halved

2 Table Spoons of parsley poured

1/2 bag of Pennsylvania Dutch yolk free home style ribbon noodles poured

1/2 tea spoon of salt poured

1 teaspoon of pepper. poured

1 table spoon of oil

2 tons of love 

1 ton of caring

: Directions

Lightly brown chicken thighs in vegetable oil... Add two stalks of celery and one onion quartered. Cover with water. Let simmer for one hour. Remove from heat. Place a strainer into a large pot and place cheesecloth in the bottom of the strainer. Pour contents of pot into the stainer. Remove chicken. Break chicken into small pieces- remove as much fat as possible. In a clean pot, add a small amount of oil ( just enough to coat the bottom of the pot) add 3 stalks of chopped celery, one chopped onion, and carrots.  Place a fresh piece of cheesecloth into a strainer and strain the broth again back into the pot to cover the simmering vegetables. Add the chicken, potatoes, additional water. When boiling- add noodles and parsley and cook for 7 min. Salt and pepper to taste

Analysis:

In this meal only about 10% is made up of processed food. The only ingredient that is not a whole food would be the noodles. The majority of the meal is made up of vegetables. This has all of the main necessities for nutrition since it contains protein (chicken), vegetables, and starches (potatoes/noodles). If you ate nothing but this soup everyday you would probably be fine. All of the ingredients in this recipe came from this country and no farther.  The veggies were not all organic, meaning that they were grown with fertilizers and pesticides. Although this doesn't really matter, and takes nothing awake from the meals nutrition value. This isn't an expensive meal to make, the highest priced ingredient would be the chicken. Ideally the majority of the ingredients could come from home by growing your own vegetables, although noodles are very hard to make from scratch and a chicken would be a lot to handle… Which is why we have convenient grocery stores to provide things like this. 

Reflections: 

Ethan: My role in the larger food system is to balance the ecosystem by making sure to eat the things that reside lower in the food chain. As a human I am at the top of the food chain and my responsibility is to hunt and eat.  The biggest problems with our food system is that we over consume proteins and starches which leads to a unhealthy and unbalanced diet that causes diseases of the body due to dietary unhealthiness. We need to switch to eating more natural and energy efficient food such as vegetables and fruits.  I could cut sodas, sugars, caffeine, fast food, and other heavily processed and unhealthy food.  The impact of these changes would probably make my heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys healthier. I am not willing to make these changes. 

Jamie: Throughout this unit, I've learned a lot about different foods and their effects on our bodies. There were many things that I thought I already knew, but found out a lot more. From reading articles and watching videos such as Food Inc. and Super Size Me, I've found out more information than I had before this class. I think that one of the biggest problems with our food system is lack of knowledge and care. If more people cared about the foods they're putting in their bodies then we wouldn't have such high rates of obesity. I agree that our environment does have an effect on the food choice we make, but they are still "our choices". This was proven in a study with cafeteria food in a hospital. They regard their foods, and people made healthier food choices. So I think the problem lies within people themselves and how they choose to eat. Some changes that I could personally make would be to, cut down on snacks. Most of the snacks I eat are probably high in sugar. Although I typically eat healthy foods and well balanced meals, I know I also take in a lot of sugars as well. I would be willing to make some changes, I just don't really see that happening.