Recipe & Analysis

Baked Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

Yield: 6 servings

Cook time: about 1.5 hours

Prep time: 30 minutes

9 medium organic russet potatoes (about 3 pounds)

1/2 stick of salted butter

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

5 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Sea salt & freshly ground black Pepper, as much desired

Crushed red pepper flakes, as much desired

1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1) Take the potatoes and rinse them under cold water; peel them until completely bare. Place the potatoes in a large pot with cold water over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Strain the potatoes, then put them back into the pot.

2) Take the potato masher to your root vegetable, that way, when you add in your first couple of ingredients, they become absorbed by the potatoes, creating a tastier dish. Add your milk and butter, but portion the milk as you stir it in. Do the same for the olive oil.

3) Add your salt, pepper, garlic slices, and red pepper flakes.

4) Add in all of the cheese, or leave some on the side to sprinkle on top before baking. Stir the potatoes until creamy.

5) Pour the mashed potatoes into a baking dish, place on top shelf of oven, uncovered. Leave in for 30-45 minutes, or until golden brown.

6) Serve hot.

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Processed vs.Whole Food

3 out of 8 items are processed, about 38% (37.5% to be exact)

Salted butter

Milk

Parmesan cheese

Health/nutrition

Since only 3 items have nutritional info available on their container, I can only write about them.

Salted butter

Calories: 100

Fat: 11g

Cholesterol: 30mg

Sodium: 90mg

Vitamin A: 8%

Butter can be good and it can be bad. Even though it contains 8% vitamin A, which is needed for the health of the thyroid, and also contains a number of anti-oxidants that protect against things that weaken the arteries, it can also be really harmful to other parts of your body. If the butter is conventional anyway (contains GMOs), and you’re continually consuming it, it’s most likely giving youorgan damage, gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, is accelerating your aging, digestion problems, and many more. Butter is fattening; it turns into actual fat in your body.

Milk

Calories: 150

Fat: 8g

Cholesterol: 35mg

Sodium: 130mg

Protein: 8g

Vitamin A: 6%

Vitamin C: 4%

Calcium: 30%

Vitamin D: 25%

Milk is amazing for getting potassium (which can avoid Charley Horse’s), and stronger bones. A downside to consuming milk, is that if you are a person who consumes a lot of sodium, and then you consume a lot of milk you have a higher chance of acquiring high blood pressure.

EVOO

Calories: 120

Fat: 14g

Cholesterol: 0g

Sodium: 0g

Omega-6: 9.7%

Omega-3: 0.76%

Vitamin E: 72% of the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance)

Vitamin K: 75% of the RDA

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is one of the best oils and fats for you and your body. Not only is it good for your skin and hair, but it’s also good as an anti-inflammatory and provider of nutrients. If the oil is pressed naturally, the EVOO would be high in phenolic antioxidants, the main reason why olive oil is so beneficial (phenolic antioxidants offer resistance to illnesses ranging from cancer to arthritis). EVOO is easily digestible and tasty start to any dressing.

Environmental

My potatoes and cheese are organic and came from a farmers market near my house; the farmers are located here in PA. Everything else was purchased at Shoprite. Shoprite uses food from Wakefern Food Corporation located in Keasbey, New Jersey. So the food I purchased from Shoprite traveled the furthest.

Political/economic

Butter: $2.19

Milk: $4.99

Cheese: $10.99

EVOO: $12.00

Salt: $2.29

Pepper: $3.49

Red Pepper Flakes: $3.00

Garlic: $2.69

Potatoes: $6.00

= $46.14 (about $50)

The price I spent on making this meal is equivalent to about 5 regular meals not from the dollar menu at McDonalds. Shoprite and its corporations (Wakefern Food Corp., specifically), and the farmers made money off of my meal.

Social

People have the option of gaining weight because of the ingredients within the meal.The parmesan cheese at Shoprite, already grated, was $3.99, but the whole cheese from the Farmer’s Market, same amount of ounces as the Shoprite brand, cost $7 more. Similar to my potatoes, the organic potatoes from the Farmer’s Market, cost $2.00 more than potatoes at Shoprite. The potatoes were grown in PA, on an organic farm, and the cheese came from grass fed cows, so it’s all healthy.

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/10-Reasons-to-Avoid-GMOs

http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthy-kitchen-11/dairy-truths?page=2

http://authoritynutrition.com/extra-virgin-olive-oil/

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-phenolic-antioxidants.htm

first you cook the rice for 30min:

- when the pot of white rice is ready

-let it sit for few hours so the rice get cold and than

-put cold water once the rice is cold

Fried your fish:

• get any kind of fish
• session it with salt and paper
• and fried them on a pot with oil until it get really crispy

I chose this dish because it is really close to me and also my culture because I’m from Bangladesh and as everybody know Bangladesh is not a wealthy country and it got it freedom in 1971 from Pakistan and during the war that only thing that people could affort to eat was white wet rice with fried fish. And I think This is the most healthy food I can think of and its really helpful over the summer season because it get really hot and the wet rice will keep you cold inside.

-salmon

-salt and pepper

-different types of seasoning

-olive oil

-green and red peppers

-lemon juice

-Parsley

-garlic clove

-broccoli 

-butter

 Process:

1. Rinse the fish off with the lemon juice

2. Season it in separate plate

3. pour oil in the aluminum foil pan and place the fish on it

4. Then out the fish in the oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes

5. lightly broccoli in a pot for about 5-10 minutes

7. When cooked sprinkle some salt and pepper with a touch of butter on top

Food Analysis:

I'm not sure where salmon originally comes from, but I know that salmon comes from the latin word salmonand lives in freshwater. The cost of salmon usually ranges from 4-8 dollars a pound depending on where it is bought. Broccoli was introduced from the Italian more than 200 years ago and from then on has been of large production because of it's essential nutrients of fiber, vitamins, carbs, protein and fat. Fresh broccoli usually cost around $1.80- to $2 per pound. Those of which are the essential part of the dish. All the other things such as the seasons, lemon juice and olive oil are pretty cheap as well in any local grocery store, especially walmart.

Regardless of the ingredients baking foods are but more healthier than frying because in frying foods  in all forms frying lead to no water-soluble vitamin loss, and very few heat-sensitive vitamins are lost. It can also lead to a high absorption of added fat and the formation of acrylamide. While baking requires little added fat.  Salmon is an excellent source of high-quality protein, vitamins and minerals. By using healthy oils like olive oil can boost your intake of healthy fats and vitamin E. The estimated time for this dish is about 25 minutes so it's not long of a wait. Broccoli is a good source of carbs and fiber, with 13 grams of carbs and 6 grams of fiber per serving. It helps you feel full faster, which might help you manage your weight. It also helps with prevention of heart disease, diabetes, and diverticular disease. Cooked broccoli is a good source of a number of essential vitamins and minerals that help keep you healthy, including vitamin C, folate and potassium.

Two ingredients that I would compare in my dish would be the salmon and the broccoli. Farming process vs planting or gaining these ingredients re my own would be very hard considering the type of environment that i live in. I live in an urban area so there isn't much of an healthy environment to plant broccoli or an access to a healthy freshwater ocean or lake to fish for salmon. Therefore, the only way to have these things would be to buy them at a local general store.

Personal Reflection:

I rarely had any issues with his unit because this unit was more so as a refresher for me. I learned a lot about the food industries in the 8th grade. Most of the things I already was aware of, but the biggest problem I've seen and that seemed to be new to me was when we watch the video on to talk of the man who was dedicated his life to educating people about the truth behind these things (TED Talk) he said that the labeling in this industry is massively incorrect. He used an example of how companies say that its milk is low in fat when is filled with tons of sugar. Which is something that is very true, but I never really paid attention, something I felt intrigued by. Another thing that caught my attention in this unit was that the maps that we looked over and how the rate in the US of people gain pounds increased over time. I always had a sense that was happening, but I wasn't really aware of how fast and rapid it was going along with how much is spread among the states. An interesting fact brought up in the TED talk video was that the school foods were just about similarly unhealthy like fast food. There aren’t fresh because of the budget cuts which makes them desperate in using the food that they can get, which are the unhealthy foods. I want to and will encourage my little sister and help her to stop eating those foods by packing her lunch before going to school or at night. Inform my mom on this information so that when she buys groceries she can be more mindful of these things. We are huge role in the food industry because we are not only victims of unhealthy foods, but also the consumers and the more we buy the stronger this cycle will become.

One cookie pie was 13 calories, one teaspoon of banana cream is 10 calories, one banana slice is about 8, the whip cream topping is 5 calories. The total amount of calories for this snack is 36 calories. The sugar content of this dessert has 10 grams of sugar in the cookie pie, the banana cream has 4.5 grams of sugar, one slice of banana has 2 grans of sugar and less than 1 gram from the whip cream. There are less than 17.5 grams of sugar in this dessert. The only ingredient that contained fat was the cookie pie and that was less than 1.5 grams.

The body will breaks done food by mixing it with fluids. When your stomach digests food the carbohydrate in the food breaks down into a different form of sugar, glucose. The glucose then gets released into the blood stream and stored for energy. Some possible health issues that could arise if you ate nothing but this meal everyday would be your body isn't intaking even protein. The only ingredient in this meal that contains protein is the banana and it isn't enough to power a human body. Another risk your body would be experiencing is not eating enough calories a day. It only contains 36 calories. If a man 30 years old 5’10 and 165 pounds needs to eat approximately 1550 calories a day. That means he would need to eat 43 desserts a day. That would result is weight gain and less energy.

My bananas came from Guatemala, the pudding mix is from Illinois, cookie mix came from Utah and the whipped cream traveled from Indianapolis. The banana traveled the farthest, more than 1852.7 miles. The bananas were organically grown from guatemalan soil. 

This meal to make 24 cost 9.16. Fast food restaurants don’t sell that many desserts. Some fast food restaurants, McDonalds for example sell chocolate chip cookies 3 for $1. In this case it would be cheaper to buy McDonald cookies by $0.14. The Pillsbury Factory, Del Monte Factory, Reddi Whip and Jell-O Factory all made a profit off of this meal. They are all large corporations. 

Wile E. Willie's ol' Southern Boi Carolina Corn Bread 

Ingredients:

-2 cups all-purpose flour

-2 tablespoons baking powder

-1 teaspoon salt

-2 cups yellow cornmeal

-1/2 cup sugar

-1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne 

-1 cup milk

-1 cup no fat plain yogurt

-2 large eggs

-2 sticks unsalted butter, softened 

Preparation:

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit 

-Butter up a large cast iron skillet

-Throw ingredients all into a large bowl 

-Stir the crap out of it with a electric beater until batter is thin

-Pour batter into iron skillet

-Place in oven (after it has preheated) on the middle rack 

-Let it sit in oven for about 50 minutes (it should look golden brown at the end)

-Take out of oven

-Wait ten minutes to let it cool down

-Sit down for a spell 

My cornbread is not that healthy, but still it would be fine eating it in small portions. 

Analysis: 

Most of the ingredients are conventional and/or non-organic. This means that the food used to make this dish has either been made with GMOs, chemicals like pesticides, or both. 

For example, instead of using good-old-fashioned organic valley butter, I used Land-O-Lakes salted butter. This contains a lengthy list of ingredients ranging from partially hydrogenated soybean oil and hydrogenated cottonseed oil to artificial flavor and cream, which warns us about its’ trivial amount of cholesterol. I used two sticks of this, but hey, at least it’s USDA double A—not the worst thing for you, but not the best thing either. Along with this, I also used Indian Head Old Fashioned Stone Ground Yellow Corn Meal, which contains some organic compounds like Niacin and enriched thiamine mononitrate. I wished I used real corn, but oh well. It seems like I used the next best thing. Corn meal also contains a healthy dose of riboflavin (vitamin B2), and iron.

The ingredients aren't what I would call, locally grown. In fact, the corn meal came from Maryland, that’s for sure the most local I ever got. While the butter came from Minneapolis and the milk came from as far as Idaho. At least all the food came from America, right? The positive side to having a lack of organic food in a recipe is that it means it is very cheap to make. Cornbread in general is cheap to make, only costing five to six dollars in price. I’ll take it. 

The coolest thing about some of the brands I used is that some of them care a little about the world. Dominos sugar for a hundred years been organic. It comes from the pure sugar cane and is harvested and milled on the same day. It is a US company owned by American Sugar Refining Industry. Land-O-Lakes is a little more controversial (PETA released an undercover video of animal abuse of dairy cows), but their eggs are supposedly cage-free. That’s good enough for me. 

I would say that overall my cornbread is fine as along as it doesn’t act as a replacement for real vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and of course... corn. 

Self Reflection:

After doing some personal reflection I have concluded that I have a very small, yet essential role in the larger food system. My food decisions, whether or not to go organic or conventional, has an effect on myself (my health and well being), on my family (I could influence my family to go organic), and of course on the business I am supporting (Whole Foods versus Monsanto). As long as you want to eat, you have to support some business that will be making some capital, so you minus well research and find out the best business to support. Some conventional farms use chemicals and pesticides to grow vegetables and drug chickens and cows to make them grow fatter, faster. Is this really the business you want to support? On the other hand organic foods can be a rip off and your bananas will only last you a couple days—you would have to go shopping more often. I think that’s the biggest problem with our food system. There doesn’t seem like an obvious right and an obvious wrong. Unhealthy foods are cheap and convenient, which will easily feed a starving family of four, but most foods are highly processed foods that are killing Americans more than any other cause of death. Organic sounds nice until you look at the price and then you realize being healthy is for rich people. What a shame. 

I generally buy organic, but that doesn’t mean I’m living a healthy life style. They say to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a jack, and dinner like a surf. I don’t eat anything for breakfast, I eat a apple and some bread for lunch, and for dinner I pig out with second helpings. Probably not healthy. I have already started to make changes. For breakfast I had fruit salad and a danish. If that’s not eating like a king, then I don’t know what is. It is important to remain healthy and eat right. I want to out live my parents. 

Ingredients:

For the meatballs:

1/3 cup parsley

1 egg

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon salt

1 spoonful of breadcrumbs

1/2 cup parmesan

8 oz. ground pork

8 oz. ground beef

For the rest:

12 cups of chicken broth

1 lb. of chopped escarole

2 tablespoons of grated parmesan

Add salt and pepper until you find the appropriate amount. 

Process:

1) Put the meat in a bowl along with all of the other meatball ingredients. 

2) Mix until you think its fully mixed .

3) Saute meatballs until they turn brown

4) Bring broth to a boil and add escarole and meatballs first. Make sure the escarole is evenly distributed.

5) Add parmesan to broth.

6) Keep pot under flame and periodically stir the soup for 1hr.

Analysis:

Overall I think that this soup is very healthy due to the escarole which is a vegetable and it makes up most of the soup. All of these ingredients can be made organic. For example the beef or pork can easily be purchased organic instead of factory farmed and they are not farmed far away usually. Escarole is another ingredient that can be easily made organic, although it does depend if its in season which I believe starts in early spring and all throughout summer. This can lead to problems but it can probably be grown somewhere else where it is able to be harvested. Also, even though red meat is proven to not be that good for you, it is a good source of protein and you will mostly be tasting the other things in the soup.

Depending on the quality of the ingredients, this soup can be either cheap or a little expensive since meat is quite expensive, especially organic meat. But the good thing about this soup is that there is a lot and it can feed a very large family. This is definitely nothing like fast food. It will take a good hour and a half to cook this and many of the ingredients are quality. I think that some social issues would arise from the meats in this soup, but that involves any dish with meat in it. There are people like vegetarians/ vegans who don't eat meat and there are people who specifically don't eat pork like Muslims. 

Personal Reflection

I thought that this unit was helpful to many people, including myself because of all of the helpful info that we learned during this unit. Since obesity and diabetes are a huge problem in this country, it seems only right that we be educated on how to prevent this stuff and eat healthier. One of the most impactful lessons that was given this unit was the ted talk by Jamie Oliver. It seemed a little extreme when he told a mother that she was killing her children, but it was true. That showed how childhood obesity affects our lives and how it can ultimately shorten it. Before this unit, I never really knew what organic food was honestly. There was really no obvious way to tell what food was and what food wasn't. Now I know to read the label. Also being someone who's family members are affected by diabetes, it really was a great lesson to learn about what causes it and how it can be prevented. I also noticed through this unit that America's food industry tries to be as cheap and efficient as possible, sacrificing the healthiness and quality of the food. All of these things can be changed, and hopefully over time it will. I have learned a lot of useful things and now i feel confident and more knowledgable in this subject thanks to this unit.

Food Slide