Rice (8-10 serving):

You Will Need:

3 cups of rice

3 tablespoons of olive oil

6 cups of water

2 teaspoons of salt

What To Do:

1. Place water in a kettle and put the fire on high until it boils

2. Start with 3 cups of rice

3. Wash the rice then put in pot (no water yet)

4. Take 3 tablespoons of olive oil and place it into the rice

5. Mix that up on low 

6. When water is at a boil, pour 6 cups of water into the rice

7. Add salt and stir

8. Place lid on it and put fire on high

9. When it comes to a boil turn it down low

10. Keep it on low with cover

11. In about 20 minutes check on rice and stir again

12. It should be ready to serve

13. If not let it sit for a couple more minutes and check it again until it is ready

Beans (8-10 serving): 

*90 calories in each Bean can

*20 calories in each tomato sauce can

You Will Need:

3 16oz cans of red Goya Beans

1 can of tomato sauce

adobo seasoning

From personal Garden

Half cup of diced green bell peppers

Half teaspoon of diced Habenero pepper

One tablespoon of ripe diced jalepeno's

Oregano leaves

Basil leaves

What to do:

1. Lightly Cover Pan with Olive oil (thin layer)

2. Heat oil on low until heated

3. Crush 1/2 clove of Garlic, and chop up 1/2 Onion,

4. Place all peppers, garlic, and onion into the olive oil. And stir

5. Sauté vegetables in oil (DO NOT BURN)

6. Add teaspoon of salt to the pan

7. Add 8 oz of the tomato sauce

8. After stirring for a bit add another 8 oz of tomato sauce

9. Add the 3 cans of red beans

10. Stir thoroughly 

11. Then add a quarter cup of water

12. Add a pinch of adobo seasoning

13. Stir again then place lid on beans

14. Put fire on low

15. When beans are tender it is done

Plantains (8-10 serving):

*40 calories in a bottle of olive oil (will be less because you will not use a whole bottle of olive oil)

You Will Need:

4 cups of water

2 cloves of garlic (peeled and crushed)

2 tablespoons of salt

some vegetable oil

a pan

a bowl big enough to soak plantains in

What To Do (Step By Step):

1. Take three green plantains and peel them (if you prefer sweet plantains then you have to get 3 yellow plantains)

2. After you peel them place them in a bowl full of 4 cups of water

3. Add the salt and garlic to the water

4. Let plantains soak for 15 minutes

5. When done drain them well

6. Take the oil and cover the bottom of the pan at least an half of inch thick

7. Place plantains in pan and fry, flipping over when needed

for at least 7 minutes or until crispy and done

8. Place paper towel on plate 

9. Take the plantains that are done and put them on the plate

10. Take a paper towel and place over plantains 

11. Hit the paper toweled covered plantains with palm to flatten them

dip them in the salt water and take out IMMEDIATELY

11. place on plate and enjoy

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Analysis 

During this project, Anna and I had to make a dish that was not only healthy, but we had to make a dish with natural foods. Our goal was to prove that food can be healthy and taste good. Anna and I made Plantains, Rice, and Beans with freshly grown peppers. Our dish was more natural than organic, because we had freshly grown peppers, and unprocessed beans. The only thing we used that was organic was the tomato paste hat we mixed in with the beans and peppers. Rice, beans, and plantains are kinds of food that depending on how you make them is how much fat and or calories will be in it. We tried to make them with little processed ingredients as we could. But depending on how someone makes these that is how healthy it will be for you. If they add a lot of fatty ingredients to each then eating it every day would not be good. But if you use a lot of natural ingredients and stuff that you have grown from the garden and such then eating this everyday wouldn't be to much of a problem. Especially if you are spanish, rice and beans and sometimes plantains are eaten everyday so they find a lot of ways to make them better so it doesn't make them sick or too fat. So it all depends on what you add. We read the labels and packaging to see where our foods came from, and we learned the rice was grown in Japan, the beans we're grown in texas, and the plantains were originated in Southern Asia. The food that traveled the furthest was the beans from Southern Asia in the Bangladesh area, which was 8260 Miles away. The second longest was Japan at 6762 miles for the imported rice. The processing of these foods are fresh grown, picked, and sent out. None of them are organic, or have any added chemicals except for the tomato paste which was made from organically grown tomatoes. In a regular restaurant setting, the meal we made would cost roughly between $4.99 - $7.99. Compared to fast food, our dish is actually healthy, because it has no added transfat, it wasn't made in grease or a fryer, and it didn't have any unnatural ingredients. The companies that make money from our dish are the Goya Co. (Making the Plantains, and the beans), and Canilla rice, (which gets their rice from 4 different countries, but most commonly, latin america). When growing rice, they usually plow it to collect it and fertilize it and ship it out to factories so they can bag and distribute to the large grocers who produce and send it out. Next, Beans are grown from seeds, and are harvested, picked out of their pods, and packaged to be sent to the grocers who sell them. Plantains are grown exactly like yellow bananas. They are grown on large tree's or tree-like plants, and picked off to be sent to factories in their cells, grown in groups of 5-6 bananas, which are labeled and sent to supermarkets and grocery stores. Chefs and domestic cooks make or use original recipes that involve some of these products which helps make a lot of mixtures and blends form these basic foods. When it comes to a lot of the ingredients it is better to grow them yourself then buy them because you don't have to worry about any of the pesticides and such. But when you are growing stuff yourself you have to know how like you have to make a lot of the crop depending on what you want since weather, and animals effect how many of the crops actually last until you pick them. So for tomatoes and peppers, which were two ingredients we used, I believe these are better and easy to just grow yourself. Now when it comes to plantains I think they have to be in a certain environment so unless you have some top notch garden shizzle going on than that would most likely be better just to buy.

FRUITS: WE WANT YOU TOO

In this Unit, I've learned things from the food industry to the health issues behind it. We've watched documentaries, read about different health diseases, and learned about how the food we eat everyday is processed. The parts that impacted me the most was the documentary section about how they kill and harvest the animals to prepare them to be cleaned and sent out in packages. I never knew how it was done, I just knew it happened. Another thing I found interesting was how much politics were involved, and how many people we're lobbying against all the animal cruelty, and the production of processed foods. A part that left me skeptical was the corn production, and how they kind of forced the animals to become accustomed to certain foods, that made them grow more rapidly and bigger than they were supposed to be. In the end of all this, I think it's caused me to be more aware of what I eat and how much food intake I eat, because not everything thats advertised is good for you