Jessica Maiorano and Goldie Robins

Food Item:

Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

What you will need:

All the ingredients

1 Big sized pot

1 Medium sized pot

1 Big Bowl

Directions:

1. Gather all the ingredients and have them out. 

2. Boil two pots of water. One big pot for the pasta and one medium pot for the broccoli. 

3. When the big pot comes to a boil put the pasta in and continue to stir occasionally.

4. When the medium pot comes to a boil put the broccoli in and continue to stir occasionally.

5. While the water is boiling cut the tomatoes, cheese and roasted peppers into bite sized pieces. 

6. When all the ingredients are cut put them into a big bowl. 

7. Chop up the whole red onion and a little bit of garlic and add them to the bowl. 

8. Once all the ingredients are cooked and cut stir them all together into the bowl.

9. Add oil and vinegar salt and pepper to the mix. The amount is up to you. 

10. Then enjoy! :)

Analysis: 

The ingredients in the pasta salad were all bought from the grocery store. All of the items were technically processed, yet still healthy. All the vegetables we bought, which meant they were processed because of everything they went through to get to the store, but it is still healthy. The cheese and pasta although not bad for you were processed. There are a lot of carbohydrates in pasta, which is okay on occasion but not excessively. Eating pasta everyday is not healthy or good for you. The pasta salad itself would not be healthy eating everyday because of the excessive amount of pasta and ingredients like olive oil. Yet, some of the ingredients that are in the pasta salad are okay. Broccoli, depending on how it is made on how it is prepared is fine eating everyday. Though roasted peppers, grape tomatoes, onions, and cheese are really tasty and okay to eat in moderation, these are items that should not be consumed on a daily basis. Cheese is very high in calories, so it would not be a good modification to one’s diet. All of the food was was made and processed in the United States. None of the products are made out side of the country, which means that none of the food was imported. None of our food items were grown organically. Because all of the food is processed there are fuels that take part in the getting to the store, which tends to make it not environmentally friendly. Buying all the products came to a total of $20.00. With serving about 10 people, makes the cost per person about $2.00. This is a lot cheaper then fast food and it happens to be a lot healthier. (Still can’t eat it everyday) No items were grown ourselves, all were purchased at the store. So although it is not that environmentally friendly or healthy it still better than most foods.  

Reflection: During this unit I learned a lot about the different meats and how they were made. I did not know how the chicken were fed or how they were taken care of on the farms. I am a vegetarian but if ate meat I think that I would have stopped after we watched the Food Inc movie. I think my role in the food system is important because I am one of the few people who are not eating any of the meat that was processed by these careless owners. More and more people are trying to eat healthier and becoming a vegetarian is a start. What I see the biggest issue that the food system is currently facing is the lack of money. In the videos and articles that we watched they fed the chickens and other animals corn because it is cheap. Also they gave them hormones because they will grow faster and they can sell more then they would without the hormones. Overall this was a unit that a lot of people were interested in. I had to chance to see how my traditional diet was different from others in the class and to see how our food is really made.