2 cups grain rice (rinsed)
4 to 5 cups of hot water,
3 tablespoons of sofrito
16 ounce can of gandules
1 packet of Sazon with achiote
3 tablespoons of oil
Salt and adobo
Process
1. Add the oil into a big pot and let it heat up.
2. Add the sofrito into the pot and stir it until it starts to bubble up.
3. Add the gandules (beans) into the mixture and add the sazon.
4.Add the salt to give it more taste
5. Add a little bit of adobo to give it more taste.
6. Add water and let it boil
7. Then add the rice and lower the heat to low.
8. DO NOT STIR right away. Wait 10 minutes and stir rice.
9.Sir rice every 10 minutes for 30-40 minutes until the rice is tender.
Analysis: (this part you will be explaining how this meal is healthy, sofrito, guandules sazon and the ingredients basically)
Arroz con gandules is a combination of rice, pigeon peas and pork, cooked in the same pot with Puerto Rican-style sofrito. This is the signature dish of Puerto Rican culture and also has become very popular throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Arroz con gandules is part of Puerto Rico's national dish.
Arroz con gandules is a pretty healthy meal if you look at the ingredients. One of the major components that displays its healthiness is the fact that you have to make it from scratch. Since you are making it entirely from scratch, the excess chemicals that are contained in processed foods isn’t a problem.
Sofrito offers a lot of healthy nutrition for the body because it is a mixture of all natural vegetables blended. These vegetables such as peppers, greens, onions, garlic, etc. contain nutrients that the body need on the daily basis such as Vitamin D, E, and C.
This quarter I feel that my artwork has improved since the first quarter. For example for one of the projects I had to take a photo and use this app called pixlr. It was tricky to use at first but then the finalization of the picture look wonderful! Like I said in the first quarter, anything you make can be art. Art can be powerful to anyone! For this Second quarter I had to make a collage by using pictures from magazines. Then make a fabric drawing by using pencil and charcoal. After that, I had to take a photo and use pixlr. Last but not least, pick a piece of writing and illustrate a passage. I'm happy how my art turned out to be this quarter, so please don't judge. Enjoy checking out my work.
Collage: For this project, I was allowed to make a collage of anything I wanted. I made my collage spell out the word art because why not? Its art class for crying out loud. So what I used in the collage was pictures from home/design magazines. I used those type of pictures from those magazines because most of them had patterns. Basically how I see art, I see a lot of patterns!
Fabric drawing: Now at first I was suppose to draw fabric on top of a stool, but I really wanted to do something else. So I used my sleeve on one of my SLA hoodies as an advantage to do something else. Now this was my first time using charcoal. I feel I did great using it for the first time. My favorite part of the drawing is the hand leading into the sleeve of the arm because to me it looks realistic.
Photo: On this project, I was aloud to take a photo of anything I wanted in the world. After taking that photo I had to use this app called pixlr. I chose to take a picture of food because food is amazing haha. Especially burgers because its my favorite food in the entire world. After experiencing pixlr and clearly showing one burger while the other was blurry, I seriously wanted to jump into that photo. It basically looks delicious!
Illustration: Finally, for this project, I had to pick any piece of writing and illustrate a passage. I picked "The Cat in the Hat" because that was children's book I grew up with when I was little. The book used to make me laugh a lot. On this day I'm not sure why it made me laugh, but I don't care now because its cool to draw something that was from your childhood.
Hope you enjoyed my artwork for quarter #2!
God I hate uniforms. School, sports, work, all of them. No matter what kind they are, they always make you feel like shit. And I’m wearing the worst kind right now; Military. Ugh, I don’t what’s worse, the skin tight under suit riding up your ass or the heaving armor weighing you down, but in the end I always feel so… confined. Anyways right now I’m stuck in vertical line formation between Tomoko and Ares, both half asleep just like me. I think every soldier is right now but I can’t tell because, again, i’m half asleep. We’re all waiting for our commander who thinks making us get up at the crack of dawn and standing in line waiting for him is good for us. And y’know what maybe it is. Maybe it will help us become better soldiers in the long run. Or better people in general. But I don’t care because Getting up in the morning is the worst thing ever.
All the 3 other soldier walk through our line formation and what do ya know it’s Commander Osamu. Or a just some big blobs that decide to walk around. Again i can’t tell because I’M HALF ASLEEP. Commander Osamu walks toward us to check if we’re all in position. Everyone is dead silent, because our Commander is basically godzilla reincarnated. I’m not even kidding he scares the shit out of me.
I see Tomoko falling asleep on my arm, so I nudge her.
“Bean buns… “ She says softly. She’s in the middle of a dream. I’m guessing it’s about bean buns. And food. And eating. Mmm… Bean buns.
Out of no where I feel a hard slap across my head.
“ Private Mizuki, and Tomoko! Wake up!” A male voice says. I open my eyes to find an angry looking Commander Osamu staring at us. Dammit I feel asleep. Both Tomoko and scrambled into position, with our backs straight and our arms behind us locked together. I look around, and see the other soldiers with their red snickering faces. Then I looked at Commander Osamu, who is staring at us with big dead eyes of distrust. When he does this, and he does it a lot, it’s like he’s trying to you figure out. The worst part is I think he does. It’s super creepy.
“Everyone Shut up!” He barks. Everyone then shut up. “How many times do I have to get you people to wake the hell up! I don’t care what excuse you have, I don’t care if it’s hard. Just stay awake and do what you’re told!” He then turns over to use so quickly, we don’t even have time to blink. “I want you two on patrol right now.” He said softly.
“ But, but...Bean Buns sir!” We blurt out. The struggle of hunger is real right now.
“Oh my god, just do it!” He says annoyed.
“Yessir” So Tomoko and I run off to patrol, wearing uncomfortable clothing, half asleep, and dreaming of bean buns.
To be continued...As an artist, I want to show people my feelings and what matters to me a lot. I want them to reflect on their life as well because when people reflect on their life they think more about what is important to life. For art collage I made a rose out of a lot of newspapers because rose represents my grandparents. After my grandpa passed away I realized that they matter to me a lot, and now I’m making sure my grandma is in my life as much as she can. Drawing a fabric was something harder because I never drew a fabric as an assignment.
Photo editing was an assignment I liked because it was fun to take pictures when I was away for winter break. Illustration assignment was a part when I went back to memories when I lived in Poland and watched cartoons with my grandparents that represented friendship.
In the novel entitled “Everyday” written by David Levithan, the author uses specific strategies to keep the readers attention. The main character is not fully introduced, but the reader meets them in every chapter as they go through the different identities. This setup affects how the reader understands the main character because there is never a proper introduction. In Everyday, the narrator who goes by the name of A is in a different body after 12am. Other than finding out that the narrator goes by the name of A and that they’re 16 years old, we never find out any deeper personal traits. Although we never find out personal traits, the reader does get a chance to experience A’s thoughts. Personally, I believe the reasoning behind the reader never having the ability to get to know the protagonist is because it does not know who it is either. This way of writing keeps the reader engaged throughout the book. It makes you keep an eye open and be on your toes to see if you’ll ever find out A’s identity. Is it a male or female? What’s its ethnicity? Where was it born? Is it even human? While we never get to know these things by the end of the novel, David Levithan’s characterization skills allow us to get to know A more and more each and everyday.
Along with the author not fully introducing the main character, he also uses another technique that was very appealing, unique, and interesting. The second technique was that David Levithan chose to make every chapter a different day of the protagonist’s life. This writing style put emphasis on the authors decision of A having to start over everyday living a different life.
As stated before, the author utilizes the technique of making each chapter be a different day of the protagonist's life. Along with this technique, the author has the main character A state things that allows the reader to get a better understanding and interpretation of how he deals with it. “I wake up thinking of yesterday. The joy is in remembering; the pain is in knowing it was yesterday.”, stated by A. To some people, this quote could represent how they know that everyday is a different day and you could have the memories from it, but you’ll never live that day again. Yet to A, it means that and so much more. Regarding the main character’s situation, this quote means that it can think of yesterday as much as it wants, but it will always be a different yesterday. A different yesterday meaning a different lifestyle to live. A will never have a life where it can go and talk with its friends about what it did yesterday because A will always have to focus on the current day and the persons body who it’s in.
When researching outside opinions regarding the novel Everyday, there were many things stated about what people personally favored most about the book. There are reviews all over in many different forms where people have shared their thoughts on the book. Everyday is a book for people of all ages, but its content is mainly targeted for teenagers and young adults. To get a different persons interpretation of the book, I took to a place that is appealing to teenagers and young adults; YouTube. YouTube lead the researcher to hear many thoughts on the book. One that stood out was a 6 minute interview by a teenage girl whose name is Kat. Kat highly enjoyed reading the novel and stated that one of her favorite aspects pertaining to the book was its characterization. She stated “A does not have a body. A does not hair, or eyes, or skin that can be described. Even without a body, I could still feel A’s presence and just thought that A was such a well developed character.” From another point of view, Kat also feels as though A is a great character in the novel. She’s saying that the things that we can physically see are not the things make a well developed person, let alone character. It is the things that are invisible to the eye and as cliche as it may seem, it'll allow you to get to know a person for what’s on the inside rather than outside.
This quarter was fun for me. It was a lot more hands on interactive with nature and I found out that I can actually draw better than I normally do.. This is the part where I say that I’ve grown as an artist or that I see me growing every time I draw when really I actually do. Compared to last quarter where something had to take me at least a certain amount to draw, that takes away from the art of things. When I draw I want to feel free and sometimes the best art doesn’t take the longest. Like the photography since I took the photography class last year and it opened my eyes to something new.. I just came naturally to me so editing was easier it’s whether or not to saturate the picture or take away the saturation and color and make it black and white. I am most proud of the picture for the hanging tree.. The song is deep by itself and it needed a deep picture. Like last quarter I’m proud of my work the more I draw the more I feel like I do grow as an artist, my confidence with my drawings has increased. I’m a looking forward to the last 2 quarters and what they have to hold for me.
This unit has been focused on diet and health. With a larger focus on the Western diet, most of this unit’s purpose was to inform us about how unhealthy America’s diet is, what would make it better, the complications of an unhealthy diet, and how to prevent future health problems. Most Americans, myself included, eat an excessive amount of fatty foods. This leads to such a high level of obesity in the United States. I’m not obese but I could be healthier. When my mom used to make all of my meals I definitely ate healthier and now that I’m becoming more independent, I’ve been making bad decisions. This unit helped me realize how unhealthy my food choices are, it also increased my knowledge on what a healthy diet consists of.
One of the most helpful warmups were the ones that informed us on the definition of organic. I think that when people heard “organic” they just thought of healthy food but didn’t really know what it meant. What we learned that there are different definitions of organic. Relating to food, organic means produced or involving production without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial agents. We also learned that organic foods aren’t always healthy.
Some food changes that I could make to my diet are eating more fruit, drinking more water, adding vegetables, cutting down on sugar and unhealthy fats. This would help my heart and the rest of my body function better. I don’t think I would be able to go “cold turkey” on my old diet. I will have to ween myself off of the unhealthy meals. I’m willing to try to change to a healthy diet but if I’m constantly surrounded by bad foods and it’s all that’s given to me for school lunch, it will be hard to resist. But, it’s a change that I have to make since Spring and baseball are right around the corner.
Food Rules Slide:
***Peter is working with me
Ingredients & Instructions for Enchiladas
Analysis
The ingredient for this dish are mostly processed foods, however the vegetables are fresh and not processed. There is a possibility to make your own tortillas and buy fresh beans from a farmers maker and cook them yourself for somewhat of a ‘healthier’ dish. However, for the sake of this project and our wallets, we decided to go with some of the processed foods, however it’s completely possible to make this dish more ‘whole’.The estimated calorie content of the dish per serving is 404 calories, 22.1g of fat, and 2g of sugar, which isn’t bad for one meal. One serving is one enchilada, and even that can be a little too much for one person (since they’re pretty big in general). You couldn’t eat this everyday because if you did, you would probably have bathroom problems from all the beans and a lot of carbs from the flour tortillas. Most of the food was processed and probably grown with ingredients grown on mass production farms with fertilizers and chemicals and whatnot. The meal cost under $15 which is really goo, especially when feeding an entire family.
Personal Reflection
I’ve learned a lot about how food effects us in different ways, even after we consume it and feel full. I knew about obesity and why food contributes to that disease before coming into the unit, however I wasn’t aware that many of the top ways to die in this country is by food. It boggles my mind that we are more likely to die from the food we eat than under and being in an accident. However, what can we do? It’s difficult to really pinpoint the problem in this since there’s needs to be a systematic change in the way we eat and produce food. But it’d difficult to change a system that’s been working for so long, and that’s so important to millions of Americans.
My personal role in the larger food system is somewhat hard to explain. Yes, I purchase food and consume it on a daily basis, however, I feel like my few dollars don’t make such a huge impact as everyone seems to make it out to be. If I solely stop purchasing unhealthy food, then what will happen ? It’s difficult to just say that I’d be willing to change my food choices since there’s not that many choices in the first place. Only a handful of corporations actually produce the food we eat. And they own so much of it, it’s hard to run away from them effectively.
So honestly, no, I won’t change my food habits. Especially since I don’t have a personal income and even when I go off to college, I’ll be worrying about my studies than what I’m eating. And ‘healthy’ foods are so expensive in the first place, it’s difficult to get them anyway.
Food Slide
This is my food rule. I picked this one because I see too many times on labels that the entire package isn't one serving, but only a couple of pieces of the product are indeed on serving. And most people think that the calorie count on a food product is the total amount of calories for the entire product, even though it's only for one serving.
Instructions on how to make Pasta al Pesto
Ingredients:
- pasta (500 g)
- pesto (5oz)
- salt (pinch)
- water (fill pot & 1 table spoon for pasta bowl)
- parmigiano cheese
Process:
1. Boil pot of water. Put a pinch of salt in the water.
2. Once water is boiling, put pasta in the water for about 8-10. You want the pasta to be a little bit had and not extremely mushy.
3. Once done cooking the pasta, strain the pasta.
4. In a large serving bowl, put your pesto at the bottom and put 1 table spoon of water to make the sauce creamy.
5. Dump the cooked pasta into serving bowl, mix well and add parmigiono cheese.
6. Ready to serve.
Analysis:
Since most people do not make homemade pasta, the pasta used in this meal is almost all processed. Pasta is made of mostly flour, eggs, wheat, in other a lot of gluten. However, the pesto is 100% whole foods if you get it fresh.
In one box of Barilla, there is about 8g of fat, 336 carbs, and 0 sugar. The carbs and fat will cause weight gain but also a lot lipids to fight of viruses. Carbohydrates give your body with a lot of energy that we our bodies need. The process of how we digest pasta is quite simple. As soon as the pasta hits the tongue, the saliva immediately starts to breakdown the carbohydrates so it is easier to go through the stomach. The cell walls and acid then deconstruct the pasta. Eating pasta everyday is not a good idea, it will make you gain way to much weight, and too much gluten isn't good for you.
The pasta was probably made in Italy, but they probably got some of the ingredients from other countries in Asia. Since Barilla is such a large company, the pasta was manufactured commercially.
This is a pretty cheap meal, because pesto costs about 7$, and then box of pasta is 12$. A whole box is about 500 grams, which feeds 4-6 people. So per person it would be out 4$ per person, if there are about 5 people.
Making pasta at home takes a lot time, effort and precisions. I think that just buying a good brand of pasta is a lot more convenient. Especially since it takes so long for the pasta to go bad, so you buy a lot at a time.
Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
1. 1 cup butter, unsalted
2. 1 cup white sugar
3. 2 eggs, lightly beaten
4. 1 Teaspoons baking powder
Analysis
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, in a second bowl, combine and mix well the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir flour into butter mixture 1 cup at a time. Chill dough for 3 to 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut into shapes with cookie cutters or a knife. Brush with milk and sprinkle with colored sugar. Bake on a sheet pan for a parchment lined sheet pan in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size of the cookie. Remove cookies to cool completely.I really enjoyed this unit because I love learning about ways to be more healthy, I’ve been trying to be healthy for a long time, but I just never knew were to start. I remember when we watched the TED talk that was called “Teach every Child About Food”. It was hard to watch because it was heartbreaking to hear about all of the kids that are in public schools, and get the wrong kinds of food, also hearing about the stories about the family member’s of those kids who have died from obesity, I’ve learned that it’s a slow killer. It makes me want to make some kind of change in the way that the children of our world eats, but even if I can’t do that.. I want to at least start from changing the way that I eat first.
Throughout this entire unit, I believe that I’ve learned a lot about the different ways that I can help the person next to me to eat right, and motivating myself to eat right, a lot of the warmups that we went though, warm-ups like the “Organic food” warmup, assignments like that really helped me open my eyes to what’s happening. I also learned that not everything that we think is organic, is really organic. I learned that I would really have to read the labels if I want to know what I’m eating, I can’t just trust the label that’s on the front of the food. It’s amazing to think that there isn’t really many food’s out there that’s truly organic. The food that you can find is really expensive. So you really can’t trust the advertisements that people give out. They should really change the way they portray organic food so that everyone can know what they’re actually eating.
I want to change the way that I am eating, doing this unit has made me a lot more motivated to change my diet, making sure I look at the labels of what I’m eating, before I eat it.. I learned lifelong material and I appreciate it.
Ingredients
2 cups of whole grain pasta
1 cup of mayo
1/2 cup of mustard
4 sticks of celery
1 onion
1 teaspoon of season salt
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 can of tuna in water
Instructions
1. Boil pasta
2. chop up celery and onion
3. open and drain can of tuna
4. mix all ingredients together
Mayo has a very high fat content so you are supposed to use it in moderation. 1 cup of mayo have 916 calories, 78.49 grams of fat, 56.16 grams of carbs and 2.12 grams of protein. I used a higher ratio of pasta to mayo so that it only lightly coated the pasta. Dijon mustard has 198 calories per cup and I only used a half of a cup of dijon mustard so its 99 calories. In a teaspoon of dijon mustard there is 4 calories, 0.19 grams of fat, 0.47 grams of carbs and 0.24 grams of protein. There is 0.17 grams of sugar in dijon mustard and as opposed to yellow mustard it is less in sugar. I used one whole onion and that had 67 calories, 0.13 grams of fat, 16.18 grams of carbs, 1.47 grams of protein. For one stalk of celery it is 6 calories I used 4 so that is 42 calories, 0.28 grams of fat, 4.76 grams of carbs, and 1.12 grams of protein. I used whole grain penne pasta and there was 1600 calories which is a huge amount, pasta is a starch so it has to be eaten in moderation. There were 12 grams of fat, 328 grams of carbs and 56 grams of protein. Pasta has a lot of carbs to it so when you start adding a bunch of other ingredients it lessens the nutritional value. The seasons that I used do not have any calories. The tuna that I used was 220 calories, 5.11 grams of fat, 0 grams of carbs and 40.63 grams of protein. I decided to use tuna because I knew that it was high in protein.
I decided to make this dish because I knew that because I wanted to make pasta an that I shouldn't use to many other ingredients. Also the ingredients that I used I did not use much of so that there was less amount of calories. Altogether my dish has 3,043 calories and there was at least 6-8 servings so that is about 380 calories per serving which is not bad at all. My dish also had a low cost it was around $8 the most expensive item was the whole grain pasta.
Reflection
Overall I enjoyed this unit, a lot of the material that we covered I was some what familiar with. My mom is pre-diabetic and it runs in the family. So two years ago she changed the whole houses eating habitats. All of our breads are whole grain, so is the pasta, we only eat brown rice and there is often not many baked good in the house unless they are homemade. There are so many items that are healthier but you find that they tend to cost more. During this unit when talking about nutrition I think we also needed to talk more about the price of the food. Many times people shop for quantity not quality, many people in america can not afford quality though. We need to form a better food system then we will see a decrease in obesity, heart conditions and diabetes.
Pesto Chicken Florentine
Sieanna Williams & Brian Birkmire
Ingredients
- Olive Oil (2 Tbsp)
- Garlic (2 cloves)
- Chicken breast (boneless/skinless/4 count)
- Fresh Spinach Leaves (2 cups)
- 1/2 White/Yellow onion (chopped)
- 1/2 cup of white wine
- Pepper/Sprinkle of Salt
- 1/4 cup cream
- Basil
- Parmesan cheese
Instructions
1. Boil pot of water, preferably large pot. Boil pasta.
2. While preparing the pasta, cook the chicken. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the raw chicken. Heat some olive oil in pan and brown both sides of the chicken breast. Remove chicken when browned.
3. Add chopped onions and sauté for about 2-3 minutes. While the onions are cooking, slice the chicken in strips. Put aside any pieces already cooked by the browning and the others that aren't cooked to be finished.
4. When the onions begin to brown, add the garlic and sauté for another minute, roughly. Add white wine and and boil until it is half reduced.
5. Add the spinach and undercooked chicken to the pan. Using tongs, turn them over to coat them with the juices in the pan. Continue to cook, turning and stirring often, until the spinach is wilted and the chicken cooked through, about 2 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat and add some black pepper, the pile of cooked chicken pieces and the pesto (basil, olive oil, parmesan cheese sauce). Stir to combine. Drain the pasta put it in a large bowl. Add the cream to the sauté pan and stir well to combine. Add the contents of the pan to the bowl with the pasta and mix well.
ANALYSIS
The beautiful thing about our meal is that it contains 0% of processed food. There are no additives or preservatives and some of our food is even homemade. Brian and I were originally going to buy fettuccine sauce but it had modified enzymes so we opted to make it ourselves with natural ingredients, as well as the pesto. The spinach leaves were not organic but they were organically grown. The only ingredient on the back was spinach.
We carefully read each of the ingredients on the back of the labels of the foods we used, all of them contained less than 10 g of sugar and fat. There is very little to no grease and the only oil used was olive oil (very little) on the chicken which was sauteed thoroughly. Although our dish is very healthy and will not caused any harm to one’s body from eating it once or twice in a row, the pasta is what dominates the dish. Pasta contains lots of starch and too much starch is very harmful to the body, so we strongly suggest to never eat a pasta meal every single day. On the other hand, it has low Glycemic Index which means it does not increase glucose levels rapidly this makes it easier for the body to maintain energy for longer periods of time. Pasta also has folic acid which is crucial for reproduction.
Our meal contains a variety of crucial dietary nutrients. It is a cleansing meal that will not only taste good but make you feel good.
Personal Reflection
Ever since I joined the Girls Ultimate Frisbee team last school year, I’d begun to seriously think about eating more healthily. Not only had I never played frisbee before, but I had very little experience with exercise. I’d just joined the team when both boys and girls had gone to the states championship. For both tournament days, my coach, Ms. Echols, kept me in every single game for several points straight. I had never been so run down in my life and I couldn’t figure out how the rest of the girls had so much energy. When I finally had the chance to break, I looked upon the food parents and coaches brought with them. All that had been there were granola bars, bananas, sandwiches, etc. I didn’t think much of it but went on eating. Almost immediately I noticed a change in myself throughout the tournament. The food wasn’t only delicious, but I felt better on the inside. It was then that I’d seriously begun to consider eating more whole foods.
The issue with my new resolution was that once I left frisbee and once I left my boyfriend’s home there was nothing to go home to but processed, artificially flavored and sugary foods. I live in a home where we only have as much food as we do because we are fortunate enough to receive food stamps. But even so, our food stamp money has been continuously cut despite our lowering income. Because of this, my mom has stopped buying as much fruits, she’s opted for pop tarts instead of oatmeal and often I’m starting to see more and more snacks than usual. I know my mom understands that I want to eat healthily (as well as I’m sure she understands that we should be eating this way), but we have a mutual understanding that we simply cannot afford such foods. What do I think is the biggest problem with our food system? There’s too much consumption. Too many people are buying so much food and I believe that’s what has upped the price on natural foods and set the price low for sugary foods. This way, farmers get what they work for by growing so much food so fast and companies make profit. Either way, it’s human consumption that’s caused these issues. There’s too much food circulating when there really does not need to be. Despite this issue, I will continue to try to eat as healthy as possible. Not just because it tastes a lot better, but because it makes me feel a lot better.
Ingredients:
- Olive Oil (2 Tbsp)
- Garlic (2 cloves)
- Chicken breast (boneless/skinless/4 count)
- Fresh Spinach Leaves (2 cups)
- 1/2 White/Yellow onion (chopped)
- 1/2 cup of white wine
- Pepper/Sprinkle of Salt
- 1/4 cup cream
- Basil
- Parmesan cheese
How to cook:
1. Boil pot of water, preferably large pot. Boil pasta.
2. While preparing the pasta, cook the chicken. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the raw chicken. Heat some olive oil in pan and brown both sides of the chicken breast. Remove chicken when browned.
3. Add chopped onions and sauté for about 2-3 minutes. While the onions are cooking, slice the chicken in strips. Put aside any pieces already cooked by the browning and the others that aren't cooked to be finished.
4. When the onions begin to brown, add the garlic and sauté for another minute, roughly. Add white wine and and boil until it is half reduced.
5. Add the spinach and undercooked chicken to the pan. Using tongs, turn them over to coat them with the juices in the pan. Continue to cook, turning and stirring often, until the spinach is wilted and the chicken cooked through, about 2 minutes.
6. Turn off the heat and add some black pepper, the pile of cooked chicken pieces and the pesto (basil, olive oil, parmesan cheese sauce). Stir to combine. Drain the pasta put it in a large bowl. Add the cream to the sauté pan and stir well to combine. Add the contents of the pan to the bowl with the pasta and mix well.
In our recipe, we have integrated multiple nutritional necessities. We have a healthy balance of protein, vitamins, sugars, carbs, fiber, sodium, etc. With the chicken, this can come from “organically” grown chickens that have the ability to free roam and are fed and raised properly. Depending on where you buy the chicken and which brand you choose. Perdue wouldn’t be the best choice if you want chickens that were raised how nature intended. That’s the main source of protein in the meal.
Basil, a delicious herb that is more than meets the eye. Researchers say that basil, not only good for pesto, but is also good at fighting bacteria, viruses, and chronic diseases. As well as the healthy benefits of basil, olive oil, another key ingredient in pesto is known to help reduce the chances of heart disease. Lastly, in the delicious pesto sauce is everyone’s favorite; garlic. Garlic has been around for centuries and has been used from food to theories of keeping you safe from vampires. Not a bad health benefit, if it were real, but garlic does however reduce blood pressure, fight bacteria, improve cholesterol levels, lots of antioxidants, and detoxifies metals in the body.
Although pasta is known for it’s starches and carbohydrates, it actually has beneficial nutrients. Pasta does have a low GI (Glycemic Index) meaning it doesn’t raise glucose levels quickly. It also has folic acid, a key factor for pregnant women. Last, the carbohydrates that pasta withholds is helpful for athletic people. Most athletes will go on a massive carb intake before a game because the glucose from the carbs is a fuel for the body. The pasta releases the glucose energy slowly allowing the body to maintain energy much longer than something with artificial sugar.
In all, the benefits of eating our meal would be a collected portion of every important dietary intake. Our meal is guaranteed to help you gain and maintain energy while cleansing your body and making you feel healthy.
I learned a lot this unit and I’ve enjoyed every second of it. One of my favorite topics to learn about is nutrition and how it affects the body, mainly because it’s something that is relevant to me everyday. I’ve recently been in the mood to watch “Food Inc.” all over again. Looks like I’ll be watching it later on Netflix.
I think, in relevance to Food Inc, the biggest problem about food in America is that we will do anything we can to produce cheap and unnatural foods to not fill our stomachs but fill our pockets. This goes for just about everything we consume in today’s society. I know that for companies like Perdue, they produce chickens that are genetically modified to grow bigger than the average chicken in nearly half the amount of days. If I remember, it takes about 72 days for a chicken to grow to about it’s fullest potential. The GMO (chickens in this sense) are modified to grow in about 42 days, thus producing more which makes the companies more money. This goes for many other foods as well. Some tomatoes are modified with fish DNA so they will stay fresh longer when refrigerated, that’s disgusting and unnatural. Other crops are modified to grow faster, be immune from pesticides, etc. Another problem with our government is that they make the foods that are nearly 100% natural to be much more expensive then the stuff that harms your body. When you can go through a McDonald’s “drive thru” and get a burger, fries, and a drink for about three bucks, compared to two apples at the same price, most people will pick the “drive thru” meal. Unfortunately, this results in health issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, etc.
In all, I’ve enjoyed learning about diabetes, obesity, and everything else involved with food and the human body. It’s important to know these things because we will carry them the rest of our lives while we teach the next generation the importance.
Caprese Salad
Ingredients:
*Quantity of ingredients varies upon how much you’re making
Mozzarella Cheese (Whole, not shredded)
Tomatoes
Basil leaves
Balsamic Vinegar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper
Preparation:
Slice mozzarella cheese into ¼ inch thick slices
Do step 1 to tomatoes
Place 1 slice of cheese on each tomato slice
Add 1 basil leaf to each tomato / cheese combo
Drizzle olive oil & balsamic vinegar on top of each combo
Sprinkle a pinch of salt and / or pepper on each combo
Analysis:
When made with all fresh, organic ingredients, this dish contains little processed food items. The ingredients that are processed are still healthy, For example, cheese is the main processed ingredient, but it has to be processed in order to kill bad bacteria. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is technically processed because it’s been pressed in a factory, but there’s no additives or chemicals in it. Most salt has iodine added to it which causes it to be labeled as processed, but iodine is an essential dietary mineral that we would get very sick without.
Although this is a healthy dish, if you were to eat nothing it each day you would get very sick. Firstly, you would be lacking many essential food groups such as fruits, meats, and bread. Also, the intake of salt each day could add up and possibly lead to diabetes, but the monounsaturated fats in olive oil are known to prevent the risk of type 2 diabetes.
For this particular dish, I used Cento balsamic vinegar, Sunset tomatoes, Belgioioso mozzarella cheese, Carbonell olive oil and Olive Creek basil. I purchased all of these ingredients at my local Shoprite. The vinegar came from Italy, the tomatoes came from Mexico, the cheese came from Wisconsin, the olive oil came from spain, and the basil came from New Jersey. These ingredients are healthy, but since they have traveled so far, it means that they’re aren’t environmentally friendly. The vinegar, olive oil, and tomatoes all come from different countries, which means they’ve traveled the farthest. My dad was the one that went food shopping, but if I had gone then I would have chosen organic, local ingredients. From what I’ve learned this year, organic food isn’t necessarily better than conventionally grown food. They both contain nearly the same amount of nutrients, but organically grown food is better for the environment.
Overall, this dish made approximately 12 servings (2 cheese / mozzarella combos) and came to around $12. This is affordable, healthy, and filling as a side dish or snack. Fast food is cheap but will cause health problems and leave you feeling sluggish. If you were to eat this dish as a snack, it would be satisfying and refreshing.
My family grows herbs and tomatoes in our backyard in the summer, so my dad and I would use them when making this dish almost everyday. Basil pretty much grows on it’s own once it’s planted, needing only to be watered and trimmed, and the same goes with tomatoes. When these items are purchased, they have to be grown (where you don’t know the exact growing process that took place) shipped to the grocery store, and then brought home.
Reflection
There was once a man who could win wars with his bare hands.
He was a warrior of two faced intentions,
A liar and tyrant,
That started out so naive.
The idea of innocence is all thought of in vain,
When you find out what the man had became.
There was once a man who was given a prophecy.
Three little words, one from each witch
“King of all.”
Now fueled by his wife
Would result in the downfall of King Duncan,
And an army from Fife.
There was once a man who killed his best friend.
A line of kings was the prophecy Banquo was given,
So the man refused a bloodied hand,
And gave the blade away to two murderous men.
“Know Banquo was your enemy.”
Banquo was slain, but Fleance did fly.
Now the man had planned a banquet,
Much before they pronounced dead,
But visions of Banquo did dance in his head.
There was once a man who was told “Beware Macduff.”
It came as another prophecy,
This time it told war stories and warned the man of those who could harm him.
No man born of woman could harm the powerful man,
Now Macduff’s challenge angered him,
So he sent the two murderers back out for him,
And had his family killed instead.
His wife, his babes, and all who those marked of unfortunate descent.
There was once a man who forgot how to fear.
The forest would come to the castle,
A war would begin.
Macduff drew his blade,
And the throne would be claimed.
The man had been slain.
There was once a man who could win wars with his bare hands.
The man’s name was Macbeth.
A tyrant king, high atop his throne.
His name bathed in blood,
And his head on a stake.
All hail, King Macbeth.
