Recipe
Chocolate Breakfast Pudding
Makes 2 servings

1/2 avocado
1/2 frozen banana
1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup of ice
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons of honey
pinch of cinnamon

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend on high until it is thick, creamy, and smooth.

Analysis
Of the ingredients 90% if them are whole foods and only the cocoa powder and the cinnamon is nonorganic. The raw milk came from Chambersburg, PA. The avocados came from San Juan Bautista, CA. The Bananas came from Ecuador meaning it traveled the farthest at about 2630 miles. There is about 20 grams of sugar in one serving and about 125 calories. Over all nether of those numbers are a lot and one can add less honey. If you ate nothing but this meal you would die of malnourishment because there isn’t enough fat and other stuff in it. It wouldn’t have any negative affects as long as you didn’t eat to much of it and ate other food as well. The raw milk cost $4 for a half of a gallon, though this is a lot the milk is fresh and is a small business. The cows are raised organically and are grass fed. The milk is also raw and is subject to more tests then is required by PA state law. They then make biweekly drop offs to different locations where people can go and pick up what they ordered. The avocados and bananas cost around $1.50, not sure exactly because they come as part of a box with different produce. The produce comes from different organic farms, is then put into select boxes and delivered to one's door.    

Personal Reflection 
One of the biggest problems with are food system is what food is made available to people. This deals with not only the location of good supermarkets but income levels as well. Sometimes it seems that people do not have a choice when it comes to what they eat because low quality food can be found almost everywhere and is cheep while it is harder to find high quality food and when one does it is usually expensive. My role in the food system is that stores sell what people will buy so by myself buying healthy alternatives, though it won’t seem like much, will slowly show stores that people want high quality food and so it will hopefully become more available to society as a whole. The problem isn’t just that people are not eating healthy but that the system sometimes prevents them from doing so. Some of the changes I should make to my diet is variety, specifically with different fruits and vegetables. Also I need to eat less of some things and more of others to balance things out more. Over all I don’t think this unit will affect how I eat because I already knew most of the information we talked about in class.        

Taco Recipe: (8-10 people)

Ingredients:

2 packets of ground turkey

2 packs taco seasoning packet 

1 pack of Whole grain taco shells

1 pack of Shredded Cheese

1 head of lettuce or pack of shredded lettuce

Salsa:

3 tablespoons of onion (chopped)

2 small cloves of garlic (minced)

3 tomatoes (peeled,chopped,seeds removed)

2 hot chile peppers (finely chopped)

2 1/2 table spoons of cilantro (minced)

1 1/2 tablespoons of lime juice

Salt and pepper

Guacamole:

3 avocados

1 tablespoon of lime juice

1/2 cups of red onion (chopped)

1 tablespoon of cilantro (chopped)

1 jalapeño pepper (seeded,chopped)

1 glove of garlic (minced)

1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/8 teaspoon of black pepper

1 tomato (seeded,diced,)

Steps for Guacamole:

Cut avocados in half and remove seeds.

Scoop the avocado into a bowl and mash together with all the other ingredients.

Stir and cover.

Steps for Salsa:

Boil two cups of water.

Put chopped onion and garlic in a strainer.

Pour bowling water over onion and garlic.

Combine onions and garlic with other ingredients.

Chill for 2-4 hrs.

Steps for Meat:

Turn on pilot to highest degree and place a large sauce pan on it. Allow to heat up.

Once hot, place ground turkey into the pan. Brown on both sides.

Use a fork to break meat apart.

Let sit until golden brown.

Drain off liquid.

Add a little water,less than 1/2 cups.

Add both packs of taco seasoning and stir.

Let simmer.

Sources:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/salsarecipes/r/bl40212k.htm

http://southernfood.about.com/od/diprecipes/r/guacamole-recipe.htm

Analysis:

The only processed part of this meal is the ground turkey,tacos seasoning packets and the soft whole grain shells. So maybe 50% of this meal is processed. Everything in the guacamole and salsa was fresh/whole food.To give a round estimate, this dish is less than 300 calories. I think all the sugars in this dish are natural because i didn't add any sugar. Fruit and veggies are good for the body. Ground turkey is light but somewhat filling so you won't be left hungry. I do think this meal may contain too much salt to eat everyday.I know for a fact that ground turkey is produced here in the US. I think the tomatoes and avocados I used were commercially grown, I didn't get them out of the organic section.At the market the groceries rang up to less than $40. You could problem get a least 4 meals from a fast food restaurant for that price. ShopRite made money off of this meal because that were I brought all my ingredients from. The brand of ground turkey I brought was Butterball so they made some money off this meal. From researching I found that Shoprite gets some of their tomatoes from NJ, which isn't too far away. When you grow tomatoes yourself they tend to be more red and have more flavor. I did know that the tomatoes I brought were a lighter red and not a deeper red.

Reflection:

I think simply put I'm a consumer in our food system. I buy what I like and whats easy not necessarily what is best for my health, as many do. There is where the problem lays.It is easier to grab a hamburger from McDonald's than it is to go to the supermarket and then make a salad at home. It takes extended effort and time to buy or cook food that is better for ones health. Easier more convenient food is always cheaper than food that is healthy. As we learned in class there are some areas where supermarkets are more than a mile away. People today don't have as much time or money anymore.Thus the good stuff is inaccessible. When the obvious healthy food is unavailable people turn to the things that seem to be healthy. Stuff with labels that say “all natural” and “light/lite”. We may think these things are benefiting us when in actuality they aren’t as healthy as we may think.

As for me personally I try to be conscience about the food I eat but not overly conscience to the point where I become obsessed. More recently I have been eating less fast food and making more food at home. Changes in diet almost always bring results either for the better or for the worst. Eating less fast food will most likely result is less risk of things such as obesity or high blood pressure. One change I’m working on is drinking more water and less juice. This could definitely lower my risk of having diabetes. It may be a struggle but it’s worth the effort in the end.

To view all components to the food benchmark please click on pdf file. 

​

Time : 1 hour

Materials :

Pot 

Bowls 

Solve

Knife

Cooking spoon

Ingredients

1-2 8oz pack of frozen cassava leaf. ( Get this from an local Africa market) 

1 smoked chopped Turkey 

Raw cropped chicken 

Bonely (dry fish ) 

1/2 regular drinking cup of palm oil 

1 tea spoon black peppers

2 tea spoon salt

1 onion chopped 

1 sweet pepper

2-4 maggi 

6 quarts of water in cups 

4-6 HOT peppers 

1) Add 6 quarts of water in cups in a big cook pot than add the chicken. Boil the chickens  for about 30 minutes. ( since the chicken is raw it would be best if it bowls by itself than add the rest of the meat later. This way the rest of the mat wouldn't be too over cooked. 

2) After 30 minutes, add 1/2 tea spoon of salt and black peppers with 2 maggi. 

3) Add the turkey, dry fish 

4) Now wait for about 5-10 minutes , before adding the 1-2 8 oz pack of frozen cassava leaf ( It’s does not matter wether or not the cassava leafs are frozen. ). Cover the pot. 

5) Since in this case the cassava are frozen, wait for 10-15 before opening the pot to see wether or not the cassava leaf melt. 

6) If the cassava is melt and the cooking spoon is able to stir the soup without it being stuck through the cassava leafs, you can now add the sweet peppers, onion.

 4-6 HOT peppers. ( blend the peppers, onions and sweet peppers together before adding) 

7) Close the pot for about 15 minutes so the cassava can cook with the rest of the other things that in there and the spice that were added to it, This way the cassava leaf would have the taste of the spice. 

8) After 15 minutes is over, stir the soup and taste it, if there’s not enough spice or season add 2 more maggi to the soup, or if it needs a bit more season ass 1 more. However, if the spice and seasoning are over, add 1 cup of water, this way it would make the soup less seasoning. But if the season and spice are not too salty or less salt you are good. 

9) Now, after completing step 8, cover the soup for another 5-10minutes, in this process lower the solve a bit .

10) Open the pot and stir the soup, this will proven the soup from burning. Taste the soup again, to check if the seasoning is not too much. 

11) After tasting, add 1/2 cup of palm red to the soup, ( make sure you are careful while adding, if you are making a smaller dish than this add a smaller amount than this and it you a person that like a lot of oil in your cooking add more oil. Stir for about 20 seconds. 

12) Close the pot and leave the solve on for another 5-10 minuets so the palm oil could reach everywhere in the soup and also get the spice. 

13) After 10 minutes, open the pot and taste the soup, if you like how it taste, turn the solve off and you are now done. But if you do not like the taste of the soup, you can add more spice o add more water to take the spice out. 

14) In this case, we love the way it taste, therefore we are done cooking. 

Analysis  

Cassava leaf is a common soup that is originally from an West African country, Liberia. Many people love the taste of it and there’s so many ways you can make it. Sometimes, some people like their cassava leaf bitter, so they add a leaf to it and this leaf is call (feva leaf). It makes the cassava leaf make like a stronger taste than it usually have. Also the leaf is healthy for you, so some people like to eat it with the cassava. Cassava leaf is leafs from the Cassava that is planted, and before the cassava comes out of the ground or in a stage to ready, there’s leaf that is on the stems. 

Other things that can be added to the cassava could be processed, depending where you are living. Whenever my mother used to make this dish back in Liberia, everything in the soup were whole, because people planted them and have farms where their crops and animals would grow until it's ready to be eating. Since we are not in Africa, the chicken and turkey could be a processed animals and this can be the only “unhealthy” nutritions that is in the soup. The rest of the ingredient are offers planted unit fulling growth. We brought our ingredient from our local African market, which makes this dish expensive, even in a restaurant. The reason is, like I said before in West Africa, Liberia there isn’t a lot of chemicals or resources that able to make our crops grow faster than usually or the animals don't grow as big than it's time period so people have to wait until their products are fully ready to eat or sell.
 The African markets buy goods from business women and men who export goods to America from Africa to sell in america because most Africans don't like the way american process their products. Therefore the african food would be more expensive however it's worth it because there’s isn’t “fat” in the products its all nurture and “healthy”.  For example cassava could be cause to cure some virus in west Africa, such as chicken pots. And the cassava leafs that is growing here probably wouldn’t because they're would be chemicals added to it and in Africa there wouldn’t be.
 I Personally experience this when I had chicken pots , the raw cassava in the village when I went to go and visited my grand mother. Since we were in the village there wasn’t a doctor there so they couldn't easily give me shot or something to cure it quickly as the once in the city. The way I was cure , my grand ma would grind the raw cassava leaf  and rub it on my body and after some days it went away. If I try that with a cassava that is growing in america, it wouldn’t work because there’s other chemical being added to it therefore it change the entire health of the leaf and when people eat it it give you fat because it’s not naturally grown . 

Reflection

This unit I learned a lot about process food and whole food. Which allows me to understands the importances of healthy food and “unhealthily” food. Depending on where you live and how you are used to eating, effects your diet. Since I am used to eating mostly African food and whole food, my body doesn’t over load or gain a lot of weight over the year. However, since I started to eat junk and processed food my body started to change overtime and I felt heavy than before. Most food companies in america makes their foods with chemicals, this way they would make more money and save more time. Eating African food,  that are whole food doesn’t not helps my body to gain weight, also I would rather eat african food than most food in America. Due to my lifestyle as an american now, I sometimes go out to eat with my friends, my family and most other Africans families does not go out to eat, no matter what occasion it is. There’s always a home cooked meal and the indigents are mostly whole food depending what they are cooking. The food in america creates more obese and over weighted people , the people themselves knows that the food isn’t good for the body, however, since it is cheap and America is a hard country to live in taking care of families is hard to eat “healthy”. This make people to just keeps buying the “unhealthy” food that is surrounding them, not only that is is cheap, they grew up eating these food therefore they can not help but to eat these food on a day by day . 

 

Ingredients:

·         ½ Ayco Mini Me watermelon

·         1 Ayco cantaloupe

·         1 Peruvian Mango

·         1 cup of rivoira frutta blueberries

·         1 cup of rivoira frutta raspberries

·         1 freshquest honeydew

·         1 pack of “USA Florida’s Best Berries” Gulf Sweet strawberries

·         3 organic Trader Joe’s kiwis

·         1 container of Marzetti cream cheese fruit dip

 

1.       Skin mangoes, remove pits and dice into manageable portions

2.       Remove the husks from the strawberries pits and dice into manageable portions

3.       Skin the honeydew pits and dice into manageable portions

4.       Skin cantaloupe pits and dice into manageable portions

5.       Skin kiwis and slice horizontally into multiple pieces

6.       Distribute blueberries throughout serving container

7.       Mash raspberries (blend for serving sauce)

8.       Cut watermelon in half and remove melon from the hard outer layer then dice into manageable portions

9.       Pour all fruits into a serving container and toss until thoroughly mixed

10.   VOILA!

 

 Analysis

As soon as this project was introduced, I knew a lot of people would bring in pasta or chicken- typical things. So, I brought something that I, and my family, eat a lot- fruit salad. Fruit is a natural sugar that your body can convert into energy easily. I eat these fruits practically every day, but if it were the only thing I ate, I’d probably weigh around 100 pounds. We didn’t use any artificial sweeteners or products, just fruit. Prior to introducing the concept of utilizing organic foods compared to regular, imported foods, I stocked up on lots of fruit in order to make my fruit salad. Then, we learned how environmentally friendly, more natural and healthier organic foods were. After the activity, I took a look at where my fruit came from. My cantaloupe and honeydew came from Guatemala. My mangoes came from Peru. My berries came from Italy. I thought about the environmental impact all that transportation must have by importing fruit halfway across the globe. So, I sought to buy more friendly fruits, which are usually organic. The strawberries and kiwis that I bought were organic, and cost a lot more than the traditional strawberries and kiwis would have cost. I didn’t mind much though, mainly because I wasn’t the one buying the fruit but also because I know the benefit of buying fruit from local business rather than from larger fruit distributors. My strawberries come from Florida and are grown by the workers of “Gulf Sweet Inc.” They acknowledge that growing fruit isn’t just a way to make money; it’s a way to provide people with a food that is essential to how they eat healthily. Their motto, and a great one to live by, is “Friends and partners, not buyers and sellers.”

Reflection

     The one thing I’ve realized, more than learned, is that I am a mere dust particle in the galaxy of the food system. I hate to say it but my role in the entire food system is so insignificant, I could buy all organic food for the rest of my life and not a single perspective of the economy or environment would change. That doesn’t mean I choose to buy McDonalds everyday, but my role as it relates to others and those who produce what I buy isn’t really noticeable. This sole reason led me to realize that the biggest problem with our food system is that not enough people care. There are too many people that feel exactly like I do. My mindset is that I’m just one person, and if 1 million people say I’m just one person, not a single thing changes for our food system for the better. Those corporations who believe it’s ok to maintain unhealthy food conditions will continue to do so, and those who flood artificial growth hormones will also continue to do so. The problem is us, not just one of us, all of us. One thing I could change though is care more about where my food comes from. Again, this won’t make that large of a change, but it has to start somewhere. For example, I love beef jerky, and one kind of jerky that I like is coming from Asia. I could probably choose to eat a different brand and/or flavor of jerky because I realize there’s quite a bit of pollution and money spent to get that much beef jerky from Asia to America. Being that jerky isn’t that large of a part of my diet; I can probably make the change to stop buying foods being imported from so far away.

​Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
8 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, (Neufchâtel), softened
8 large eggs
1 14-ounce can nonfat or low-fat sweetened condensed milk
1 12-ounce can nonfat or low-fat evaporated milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cook sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, gently  swirling the pan (do not stir), until the mixture turns golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Immediately, pour the caramel carefully into a 9-inch round metal cake pan. If it stiffens before it completely covers the bottom of the pan, warm the pan in the oven, then swirl to cover the bottom.
3. Beat cream cheese in a large bowl with a mixer at medium-high speed until soft. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly combined, scraping down the sides. Add condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla; mix until combined. Carefully pour into the prepared pan. (You may hear some cracking; the pan will be very full.)
4. Place the cake pan in a larger pan and pour enough hot water around it to come 1 inch up the sides. Bake until golden and set at the edges but still wobbly at the center, about 1 hour. A knife inserted in the center should come out clean. Transfer the cake pan to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Then cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. To serve, run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert the flan onto a plate.
   

Nutrition
Per serving: 247 calories; 8 g fat ( 4 g sat , 3 g mono ); 160 mg cholesterol; 33 g carbohydrates; 10 g protein; 0 g fiber; 192 mg sodium; 478 mg potassium.
Nutrition Bonus: Calcium (18% daily value).
Carbohydrate Servings: 2
Exchanges: 2 other carbohydrates, 2 fat

The dish that I decided to create is flan. Crème caramel, flan, or caramel custard is a custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to creme brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top. The dish is eaten throughout the world. Flan is found in recipes as far back as ancient Rome. It was during Roman times that domesticated chickens were first kept for laying eggs. The Romans, with eggs in surplus, and consulting the Greek's knowledge of the art of cooking, developed new recipes, one of which turned out to be a custardy concoction known as flan. It was originally a savory dish (not sweet, but aromatic and pleasing to the palate). The Roman Empire was destined to fall and on its ruins arose Medieval society. Yet the transition between ancient times and Medieval - though often violent - was somewhat contiguous. Flan survived barbarian invasions (and perhaps pacified a barbarian or two). It surfaced as a generally sweet dish but still based on the old idea of mixing creme and eggs to form a custard. Our word for flan actually is derived from the Latin, "flado" (meaning flat cake), which became "flaon" in Old French. Each country makes their flan based on their traditions or foods that are important to their culture. For Puerto Ricans, it is mixing coconut and condensed milk to the mixture, for Vietnam they would add black coffee to the top for taste and for Cuba they have ice cream and cinnamon sticks to the final product. To create this dish it does not require much skill except to the be cautious and watchful. This skill is important for when melting the sugar into caramel, because if you don't turn the oven off at the right time than you can put the sugar and have to start over again. The products for this type of dish you are able to obtain in any supermarket. The average cost of this meal is about $10-$15 depending on brand on ingredients and it makes a serving size for 20-30 depending on the size you wish to cut it due to the sweetness. The people that makes money off of the groceries that are needed for this recipe are the brand named items - the money goes back into their company. One of the large businesses that are involved are Neufchâtel for their cream cheese. The only difference between this cream cheese and regular cream cheese is that Neufchâtel has lower fat content.  If you compare 1 oz of cream cheese with the same amount of Neufchatel cheese then you’ll discover that the latter has about 6.6 g of fat compared to the former’s 9.9 g. Neufchatel cheese also has more protein (2.8 g) as compared to cream cheese’s 2.1 g. Both cheeses have the same carbohydrate value. Each ingredient has different points that are good or bad for our bodies one way or another. When you eat food, each ingredient is processed differently depending on the way the body breaks the food down. Your body will break the Flan down in a few days because it is not heavily packed with a lot of ingredients or other foods that will make it stay in your system longer. The percent of the meal that is processed vs. whole food is about 35% vs. 65%. According to the nutritional info on the label, how our body will deal with this food is well. Due to the sweet taste of the caramel, our tongues will taste the sweetness but it will not harm us.  All of the ingredients for this recipe has all been made/received/collected locally. How far away each ingredient was distributed depending on the brand but from research the maximum number of miles that the food is collected from is 50 miles. The only ingredient organically grown are the eggs which come straight from the chickens, the rest of the ingredients had to be processed from multiple items to create this one ingredient. The processing affects the environment because it's all machine spun, machine packed and machine created. Having done so much processing and packaging affects the environment since so much gas and pollution comes from factories that has no need for the extra items. When the company gets what the food or item they need out of a bigger item then they throw away all extra material they have no need for with pollutes the water and covers waste lands.

This unit I have learned many things like from what is "healthy" food , what is "unhealthy" food and how to tell the truth between the two instead of what is on the label.  During this unit it was really useful and informing to be able to understand the truth behind how food is made and distributed. When we first started watching Food Ink I was skeptical because of my first encounter with it but this episode was different. Yes there were some gruesome parts but the overall point behind was that their was a mother that just wanted justice for what haven't to her son and why it happened. Food recall or contamination in food is important because a week that it's been out of a factory you're already introducing it into the supermarkets and peoples homes. Once they start eating it than it becomes a greater issue when sickness or death happens and the company doesn't want to take the blame for it. What I see to be as the biggest problems with our food system is how we distribute and advertise our food. Since the population is growing rapidly, there is a higher demand in food. Also there is a greater serving size. A serving size for a piece of cheese was a cube and now it's almost half a block. Fast food restaurants tend to give food out past the serving size. For example, french fries, a serving size is a small handful whereas they give you more a big handful to two handfuls and the amount of salt in the small serving is. People think that what they are given to them as children or depending on the size of their plate is how much food that they should eat, when in reality it's not always healthy. For holiday gatherings such as Thanksgiving or Christmas people tend to fill their plates and are expected to eat all of it even if they fill themselves not being hungry anymore. Some changes that you can make to your food choices is being able to try diversity. It's okay to have junk food or greasy food but you have to proportion it with healthy food too. For example white bread isn't healthy for you so you can make wheat pasta or eat wheat bread. It's just the little changes that will help you live a healthier life style in the end as long as you're willing to give it a change. I am willing to make this change since my mom is on a diet and my dad wants to lower his blood cholesterol. We already switched to wheat bread, started to eat smaller portions and eat vegetables at every dinner. I am also on a no soda diet (drinking only water, tea and orange juice). I only drink ginger ale when I am sick.

Below are three screenshots containing all elements of the project.

Recipe & Analysis:

Ingredients:

White Rice

Red Lentil

Water

Tomatoes

Onions

Salt

Vegetable Oil

Indian Masala (spices)

Hand full of Parsley

Tumeric powder

Masala

Prior Steps:

Chop 2 red onions and 3 tomatoes

Put the 1 and a half cup of red lentil in a container

Wash red lentil until the water comes out clear

Steps:

Put 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a pressure cooker

Heat it on the stove for about 30 seconds

Put the diced onions into the oil

Put in 1/2 teaspoon of tumeric powder and 3/4 teaspoon of masala

Stir the goods.

Put in the chopped tomatoes & give it a good stir

Wait for the onions and tomatoes to be soft and mushy

Then add the 1 and a half a cup of Red lentil

Give it another stir

Add 6 cups of water.

Stir again and while you stir, add 3 teaspoons of salt.

Analysis:

Living in India for the majority of my life, I have grown accustomed to the things they eat, the way they cook and their life styles. I can remember up to 3rd grade and I remember eating rice and dal in our hostel room. Our home mother would make 15 liters worth of dal for the 40 students that live in the hostel. Dal is lentil soup in hindi. It is very popular in India. It is nutritious as well. I remember my house mother use to always tell me drinking dal would make you taller. I have always lived by these phrases of advice. 

Dal, or should I say, lentil soup, can be made out of different types of lentil. There are lentil beans, red lentil, yellow lentil, all sorts of variety. Everything in the soup is whole food, there is no processed food. A traditional dal would include, onions, tomatoes, lentil beans, salt, tumeric powder, vegetable oil and masala of your choice. You can choose to avoid masala but I wouldn’t recommended it because it would lose the generic taste. Lentil contains protein (which makes you grow, more so body development), vitamin B and dietary fibers. The best thing about lentil soup is that it doesn’t have as many calories as you would think it has when you eat it. 

For my dish, I decided to put in parsley to mix with my soup (it’s sort of my dad’s idea really.. but we have been doing that for awhile and we really like it). Parsley is basically a herb that many people use as topping or as decorations for their dish. It contains a lot of amazing vitamins such as vitamin A, C and K. These vitamins are good for 

​Reflection:

I have realized that in United States, junk food and processed food are ubiquitous, I can find them almost every corner of the nation. Consuming processed food is much more convenient than making something out of scratch. If one was to run out of things in the refrigerator, one can just simply walk around the block and end up at McDonald restaurant or Dunkin Donuts. I think one of the main factors of obesity and the poor food system is due to lack of government care. If the government cared enough to think about the citizens before businesses, they can easily turn down these businesses, not even that, just lessening the amount of fast food restaurants in general can reduce the obesity level. More and more people would be cooking in their houses rather than being lazy and grabbing a fast food product.  Another thing is reducing the prices of organic food, with the government’s power, I’m pretty sure they can make that happen. Everyone cares for themselves or their children and they would want the best for their family but with the amount of money they carry in their pockets will limit what they can get and cannot. 

For me personally, I have banned soft drinks, fast food, any meat in general and juice from my diet after this unit. I have successfully been a vegetarian for a whole week now and I’m planning to continue to do so. After watching those clips in class, I could not bare to see the cruelty that these animals face. I think I’m good with vegetables. My mom has been vegetarian for 7 years now and she is supportive about me excluding meat out of my diet. I am not sure if I will last but I’m determined and hopefully it lasts more than a month. I love beans so that’s my source of protein, instead of meat. 

Potato Salad Recipe By Allison and Keisha

Step 1:

Clean 6 potatoes 

Step 2:

Peal the 6 potatoes 

Step 3: 

Boil the 6 potatoes 

Step 4:

After boiling the potatoes, cut the potatoes anyway you like 

Step 5:

Get a big size bowl, perfect size for your servings.

Step 6:

Jar of light mayo (of your choice) 

Step7:

Boil 5 eggs

Step 8:

Peal shell off of eggs

Step 9: 

Cut eggs (or put into grinder) 

Step 10:

Pour the cut potatoes and cut boiled eggs in to bowl

Step 11:

Scoop hole jar of mayo, or half jar of mayo into the bowl then stir

Step 12:

After have two onions cut and pour into bowl

Step 13: 

Stir ingredients together

Step 14: 

Your choice of seasoning but if not add salt and pepper 

Step 15:

Put in refrigerators for and 1 hour then ready to serve

Analysis

Our potato salad is very simple; 6 potatoes, 12 boiled eggs, a jar of mayonnaise, an onion, some salt and pepper. The potatoes were most likely grown in Idaho or Washington which are two of the biggest potatoes growing states. They are then put on a truck and driven to Pennsylvania and put on the supermarket shelves. Potatoes are a wonderful food because they are almost fat free, cholesterol free, and sodium free. They are also an excellent source of nutrients, high in potassium, fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, and protein. In addition, they are low calorie. As for the eggs, they were most likely grown on a farm somewhere in Pennsylvania then shipped to the supermarket. Most likely, the farm was a chicken farm which specialized in the mass production of eggs. Different growth hormones were probably given to the chickens to make the eggs produce quicker. Eggs are a good source of Riboflavin, Vitamin B12 and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Protein and Selenium. However, they are high in saturated Fat, and very high in cholesterol. The mayonnaise originates from Spain but now it’s created all over the world with a simple mix of oil, egg yolk, and vinegar or lemon juice depending on your taste. For this recipe we used Hellmann's light mayo which has half the calories, only 35, and uses cage-free eggs. Onions are mainly grown in Idaho and Washington but some are grown in Pennsylvania. Little growth hormones are used in growing onions because they grown very easily. They are low in calorie and fat yet high in fiber. The salt comes from a salt mine or is made from sea water and the pepper is made from a tropical plant grown native to India. Salt and pepper is low in calorie but obviously high in sodium. The total calorie count of a serving of potato salad is about 350 calories per cup. They only part of the meal that is processed is the mayonnaise because we chose to use Hellman’s mayo instead of homemade. The meal was very cheap, the most expensive part was the mayonnaise which was about $6. This could be because the mayo traveled the farthest or it takes the most to produce. Unfortunately, we could not find a listing for where Hellman’s mayo is produced so we do not know how far it traveled to get to the supermarket. As for the other ingredients, they could all be home grown expect for the salt and pepper. This would be safer because there would be no growth hormones or pesticides but the process would take so long that it would just be easier to buy the products from the store. Most of the products were probably grown in Pennsylvania or a nearby state anyway, so it doesn’t take much to ship them to the supermarket.



Reflection

On of the biggest problems I see with the way American's eat is that we are too stuck on the need for convenience. It's convenient to go to Mcdonald's because you drive up order and be eating within 5 minutes, in comparison to having to cook food at home which can take hours. Even when cooking at home American's tend to be lazy. Instead of cooking from scratch things like minute rice and canned everything is used. American's no longer have to harvest their food like the Aborigines did, they can go right to the grocery store and have it done for them. The grocery store is only out to make money that's why in most stores there is little healthy food because it's hard keep up with. Healthy food can only be kept on a shelf for so long before it spoils because it lacks preservatives. That's way when going to a grocery store you should only shop the surrounds and not go into the aisles It's easy to rotate the stock of a healthy food if it's on the outside. One of the big things I learned this unit is that organic and free-range products are not necessary how they sound. For something to be organic it must be grown without pesticides but this leaves room for toxins that come naturally from the product. Also, cage free means that the product is not in a cage but can still be cramped together in a small area. I’ve learned this from the movie we are watching and from the articles we read in the organic food assignment.