Power Foods Cookbook...By Kimberly Parker

Dear Reader,

This cookbook was made to inform you about the power of food and how it affects our body. Every food out there has a power. These powers affect our bodies in positive or negative ways. I call fruits and vegetables power foods because they fuel our bodies the right way and provide the balance we need. I call unhealthy foods powerless foods because they take power away from us (our health) and they give no health benefits. A balanced diet is very important because our diet is what fuels the body. If the body is not balanced, health problems come about like diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure etc, and we get sick. The cure is in our food. If we eat right and feed our bodies what they need to function, we can be powerful people.

I hope this cookbook can make some people more aware of what they should eat and I hope it informs people about how crucial it is to have a balanced diet. 

Process Paper

For my senior capstone, I created a health food cookbook. This is not just a regular old cookbook, it is an instructional resource that I would like people to refer back to in order to remind themselves that a healthy diet is a key component to a hardy life. I chose to do this project because I found myself eating unhealthy and I see so many people eat unhealthy everyday. These people have no idea what some of these foods are doing to their bodies, and up until I did my research, I had no idea how foods effected my body. I wanted to make a cookbook to inform people that healthy foods didn’t all have to be nasty or bland. Eating healthy is not only beneficial for the body, it’s tasty and it makes the body run better, you can feel the difference. I put a note to the reader on the second page of my book, explaining to them why this book is so important for people to read if they are interested in learning the truth about food. Most food that people eat is out of bags, cans, boxes, and it is all processed and empty foods for the body, I like to call it powerless foods. I am well aware of the fact that people enjoy eating food, and that’s why they eat so much fattening food, to satisfy their cravings. But, over time, cravings can cause the body to become over weight and unhealthy. That’s why I have come up with healthy alternatives people can eat to sanctify their cravings, while eating healthy and fueling up the body with the right ingredients. 

I had to make sure that my capstone addressed all five of the SLA core values, inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, and reflection. My project began with inquiry. I knew I wanted to do something with spreading awareness about healthy eating. I just didn’t know how I wanted to present my work. I asked myself a lot of questions about what I wanted to show in my capstone and how I wanted to show it. That’s where my research came in. I research different ways people have published their knowledge about healthy eating. I figured out that I wanted to construct and informative cookbook. I already had many of my own personal favorite recipes, but I also researched some more. I also had to research why certain foods are good or bad for the body. I collaborated with both of my mentors and kept them updated with everything I was doing. I especially collaborated with my grandmother a lot because we made all of the recipes together. I also collaborated with all of the people who were willing to try my recipes. My final collaboration with people with this capstone would be anyone who was to use and read my cookbook. I chose to present all of my work in book form. I have it as a PDF and as an actual hard copy document. I also have a few of my recipes on my health food blog I created on google. I can reflect on this project because I can take what I learned during this experience for the rest of my life. I now have more knowledge about food than I ever have before. This is very useful because I can now educate other people like my family and friends. 

There were many steps I took to complete this capstone. I first had to come up with the idea of a cookbook. Then I had to gather up all of my recipes and find more to make them my own by tweaking them. Then the fun part came in, I got to cook, make and eat all of these foods. I did extensive research about all of the power foods that were in each recipe. This is where all of my learning took place. Once I was done cooking and researching, I put all of my pictures, recipes, and information together to make my cookbook. 

I didn’t really bump into any major obstacles to complete my capstone. Whatever dishes I wanted to make, my grandmother and I made them, then I wrote about them. I used many resources to complete my capstone. I used some internet resources to learn about health benefits of the power foods. I used many healthy food resources to make my recipes. I also looked at some books and cookbooks to see what other people have done with it in the past. I am most proud of my information in my cookbook in this capstone. I spent many hours conducting intensive research in order to get all of my facts straight. I feel like if people actually take the time to read this book, it would be able to help many people, that is why I am so proud. I personally have learned so much from this process and I am so eager to share it with the public. I learned that the food that we eat has everything to do with how our body shapes, adapts, and functions. If I could do this whole capstone all over again, I would honestly do nothing differently. I am throughly satisfied with the way my cookbook turned out. SLA is a better place because I was a student here because I feel like as a student, I have a lot of useful information available to share with SLA. I showed this through the cookbook because unhealthy eating is a huge problem, even within the SLA community. If students and faculty took some time out to read this book, they would not only get awesome recipes, but wise advice about eating. They will also find out a lot about what they didn’t know about foods they probably eat everyday.