Ribs & Veggies Recipe

BAKED BEEF RIBS

(For Beef Ribs)

• 2 lbs country-style boneless (or bone in if you prefer) beef ribs
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2/3 cup good barbecue sauce
• 1/3 cup plum jam (amount to taste)

1. Place ribs, onion and garlic in crock pot.
2.  
   Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until pork is cooked through and tender (your time may vary with your appliance).
3.  
   Drain ribs and onion from crock pot.
4.  
   Discard any juices from crock pot and return meat and onions to crock pot.
5.  
   Stir together barbecue sauce and jam until blended.
6.  
   Pour over ribs, stirring lightly to coat.
7. Cook on high for 30 minutes or until sauce has thickened and ribs are glazed.

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BAKED PORK RIBS

Ingredients: 

- 2 lbs country-style boneless beef 

- 3 tablespoons of dry rib rub

- 2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce

- 1 tablespoon of pepper

- 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

- 1 tablespoon of organio

- Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Steps:

1. Mix together above ingredients in bowl until in paste form

2. Apply paste form to ribs (go through thoroughly).

3. Apply Olive Oil To Ribs 

4. Begin to bake ribs at 350 to 400 degrees.

5. Repeated apply oil to ribs while cooking in order to keep them moist.

6. Let cook for an hour. 

7. Apply BBQ (If preferred) in the last 10 mins.

8. Take out, let rest & enjoy with BBQ sauce.

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Sauteed Veggies 

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds baby spinach leaves
2 tablespoons good olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped garlic (6 cloves)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Lemon

Steps:

1. In a very large pot heat the olive oil and saute the garlic over medium heat for about 1 minute, but not until it's browned.

2. Add all the spinach, the salt, and pepper to the pot, toss it with the garlic and oil, cover the pot, and cook it for 2 minutes.

3. . Uncover the pot, turn the heat on high, and cook the spinach for another minute, stirring with a wooden spoon, until all the spinach is wilted.

4. Using a slotted spoon, lift the spinach to a serving bowl and top with the butter, a squeeze of lemon, and a sprinkling of sea or kosher salt.
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 ANAYLSIS

Overall, this meal wouldn't be considered the most healthy thing in the world at first glance since ribs aren't particularly healthy. However, it's in the way that they are cooked. By making them in a crock pot and baking them I am taking away some of the unhealthier parts such as the grease and fat that stays on the food from grilling. Also, depending on the rub you use for pork (or beef if you want) it's completely up to you since every ingredient in the rub is completely interchangeable (other than the worcestershire sauce,) it can be sized up to fit any person's diet. While meat isn't always the greatest thing for your body it is an important part of your diet (if you choose to eat meat). Also the main thing people miss with ribs since it's typically a summer grilling food is that you need to eat veggies with it which is what I always do to balance out the meal! You always need to have some green on your plate. So overall i think I would consider this a whole meal or close to it seeing as how you have all of the biggest parts of the food pyramid and what's needed. Meat is good for the body and knowing how to balance it out with veggies makes your diet that much better. Overall, there aren't many if at all preservatives in the rubs (which again, YOU can change to your thing!) so it stays typically healthy. 

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PERSONAL REFLECTION

Looking back on this unit I feel as If I've learned a lot more about myself more than I have about the american diet. While yes, I did learn a lot about the diet and how "food deserts" exist and make it difficult for people to get food. However I've been interested more in the solutions that people have been posting such as the ted talk was giving different solution instead of just listing the problems that we sort of know (or should know) to be true due to the horrible american diet. I would say that my role in the food system would be to just try and make more food instead of buying a bunch of fast foodish stuff. If many people can start to try and give up on fast food or at least ween themselves off it due to the fact it's not healthy companies will begin to go with what the "craze" is and make there food that way. If the "craze" is eating healthy then companies will adapt.

I think that overall the biggest problems with the U.S food system is that it's set up to make us fat. Cheaper foods that take more processing and time to develop cost less money while whole foods you just grow/organic foods cost way more. People aren't willing to pay that extra 20 dollars for organic because they may need it for a bill or something and that's the biggest problem. We are set up for failure. As stated before, I can cook a lot more than I do. That works out well since I've been learning how to cook for college so trying out new recipes at this time to see what's health and good works out perfectly. In all honesty making huge diet changes I'm not particularly fond of but If it helps me in the long run and I see evidence how it will help me I'm willing to try it at least for a month or two.