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:

1. Slice mozzarella cheese into ¼ inch thick slices

2. Do step 1 to tomatoes

3. Place 1 slice of cheese on each tomato slice  

4. Add 1 basil leaf to each tomato / cheese combo

5. Drizzle olive oil & balsamic vinegar on top of each combo

6. 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

Ingredients

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.

I made banana crunch muffins and I think that its 50/50 processed and whole food because it uses the usual things you use when baking like flour and sugar but it doesn’t use a lot of the processed ingredients. If you constantly ate this meal everyday, you most likely after a while would get fat from the sugar intake even though its not high and a good portion of the sugar comes from the bananas in it. Your body breaks down sugar and turns it into energy. I think that most of the stuff thats out of season comes from warmer climates outside of the country. I think the bananas traveled the farthest. I think that homemade food highly differs from fast food because fast food has lots of preservatives in it. In total the meal was about 30 dollars because I had to make more servings. Banana come from tropic areas. Most bananas sold by the British market come from Latin America and Africa. America gets their bananas from a number of places depending on the season. We get our bananas from Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, the Philippines, and Panama. We couldn’t grow own bananas here unless in warm climates, but we wouldn’t be able to have them all year round. Growing bananas yourself could prove difficult rather than getting bananas from another country.

Banana Crunch Muffin Recipe:

Makes 10 muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-crumb-muffins/

Reflection:

This unit we learned about different things relating to health and diet. Like Diabetes, disease related to diet, processed food, organic food,  obesity, and how we contribute to the food system. I think that we contribute to the food system with what we buy, and how we choose to eat and how we eat in our families. How we choose to eat at home is really important because if you constantly eat healthy at home, and cook it helps you lead a healthier lifestyle. Some people raise their kids vegetarians, some people make home cooked meals every night. I think the biggest issue with our food system is unhealthy food is too available. You can have it delivered to your house. Its easier than grocery shopping, because there aren’t a lot of places where supermarkets are in walking distance. Some changes I’ve already made in my food diet are to eat at least one fruit and veggie a day, and try to choose the healthiest option for me out of what I have, and drink a lot of water. I think it would benefit me in the long run. I feel like its a change I’m willing to make fruit is pretty easy to get, and its good.

Food Rule:

Ingredients

4 servings, serving size: 1 cup

2 apples, cut into bite-size pieces

2 oranges, peeled and break into pieces

1 lb strawberries

1 lb blueberries

3 Kiwifruit

2 Mango, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces

1/3 cup of sugar

2 tablespoon- balsamic vinegar

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping (such as Cool Whip®), thawed

Process

1. Refrigerate, 8-10 glasses in the Refrigerator

2. Cut all fruits into 3rds or 4ths.

3. Add all fruits into large bowl

4. Then add 1/3 cup of sugar & 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

5. Gently Stir

6. Next, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour

7. Last, spoon fruits from bowl to the chilled glasses.

8. add one serving of cool whip

9. Enjoy!

Analysis:

The percent of the meal that is processed is 20%. We are using all organic fruit from whole food. This store is the only store that sell organic food only. That mean all the fruit are not processed and locally grown. But we do know that the balsamic vinegar, sugar, and cool whip are factory made. One person will be consuming 39 caloric per serving, 1.5 g total fat, 1 mg sodium, 6 mg potassium, and  5.1 g  Sugar. We would be able to process the food better because it doesn’t have a lot of genetically modified ingredients. It will also mean that when you was to work off the fat it will not be as hard. We would not have any protein in our meal but we will have your 9 serving of fruit everyday.

We think all our food (fruits) for our recipes were locally grown in the U.S, since we brought them from whole foods.The Whole food products come from local farmers across the country. The apples are prominently grown in Washington. The Oranges are grown in Florida, California, Texas and Arizona. The strawberries are grown in California. The blueberries are from Michigan and Indiana. The Kiwis aren’t from here but are grown in California. The mangos are also grown in California and Florida. Most of our fruits are from the South or West where there is nice weather all year around. The foods that travel the farthest would be the ones from California which are the Oranges, Strawberries, Kiwis and Mangos. Our fruits were organically grown from these farms. The fruits were organically processed and it’s better for the environment because there are no outside chemicals tainting the environment.

4 servings, serving size: 1 cup

2 apples, cut into bite-size pieces

2 oranges, peeled and break into pieces

1 lb strawberries

1 lb blueberries

3 Kiwifruit

2 Mango, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces

1/3 cup of sugar

2 tablespoon- balsamic vinegar

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping (such as Cool Whip®), thawed

Process

1. Refrigerate, 8-10 glasses in the Refrigerator

2. Cut all fruits into 3rds or 4ths.

3. Add all fruits into large bowl

4. Then add 1/3 cup of sugar & 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

5. Gently Stir

6. Next, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour

7. Last, spoon fruits from bowl to the chilled glasses.

   8. Add, 1 serving of whipped cream.

   9.Enjoy!

Analysis:

The percent of the meal that is processed is 20%. We are using all organic fruit from whole food. This store is the only store that sell organic food only. That mean all the fruit are not processed and locally grown. But we do know that the balsamic vinegar, sugar, and cool whip are factory made. One person will be consuming 39 caloric per serving, 1.5 g total fat, 1 mg sodium, 6 mg potassium, and  5.1 g  Sugar. We would be able to process the food better because it doesn’t have a lot of genetically modified ingredients. It will also mean that when you was to work off the fat it will not be as hard. We would not have any protein in our meal but we will have your 9 serving of fruit everyday.

We think all our food (fruits) for our recipes were locally grown in the U.S, since we brought them from whole foods.The Whole food products come from local farmers across the country. The apples are prominently grown in Washington. The Oranges are grown in Florida, California, Texas and Arizona. The strawberries are grown in California. The blueberries are from Michigan and Indiana. The Kiwis aren’t from here but are grown in California. THe mangos are also grown in California and Florida. Most of our fruits are from the South or West where there is nice weather all year around. The foods that travel the farthest would be the ones from California which are the Oranges, Strawberries, Kiwis and Mangos. Our fruits were organically grown from these farms. The fruits were organically processed and it’s better for the environment because there are no outside chemicals tainting the environment.

This meal will cost about $5.00 per serving which correlates to about 20$ for the 4 servings which would feed about 8 people. Our price for this healthy meal is more expensive but way healthier than a fast food “McDonalds Meal”. Fast Food restaurants use a lot of grease and fatty materials and processed foods that ultimately is unhealthy and will kill the consumers. There food is cheap and will cause great health problems vs. our slightly more expensive healthy alternative. Our food isn’t genetically modified or tampered with as it has very little preservatives and is organically grown. The businesses involved are Whole Foods cooperating with the local farms, also the Cool Whip® Product at General Foods. There aren’t any social ramifications of our meal choice because it is a healthy delicious meal that everyone could enjoy while sticking to a healthy way of living.

Personal Reflection

So far in this quarter, I feel that I have learned a lot about food and food in the major industries. This was probably one of my favorite quarters because it's a topic that I can really relate to. In my opinion I don't have a major role in the larger food system, but I impact it in small ways. Major industries rely on the common people to but what they have to sell. They depend on us for their profit. That's why these industries use so much propaganda and advertisements to drive us in looking for food alternatives, healthy or not. I feel as though the biggest problem in the food industry is the amount of processed and unhealthy foods being sold to the U.S people. From 2 early assignments form earlier in this quarter, "Obesity in the US" and " Teach Every Child About Food(Ted Talk)" told us that 2/3 people that's about 66% of the U.S population is obese or will become obese. That is an extremely unhealthy way of living that could and will kill our people. It also stated the Japanese people of obesity is about 6%. This fact really stuck with me that the U.S knows that we are living so unhealthy but we still sell our people garbage. Changes in my diet that could make would be to eat foods that are less processed, not organic foods though because there too expensive (Simpsons Episode). If I just cut down on my sugary snacks and junk and instead eat more leafy foods than I would be living a healthier life. My diet would be better and I would be healthier. I am willing to make these changes but only by a little bit. I workout a lot and stay in shape. The sugars and cakes go against that, but I burn it off regularly. So I would limit my treats but not get rid of them. One of the "food rules" said you shouldn't deprive yourself, you want it eat it, just be smart. 

Plantains Recipe:

⅓ SALT

Plantains

Oil or water

Process:

Peel the Plantains

slice it small

add salt

Wait until the oil is hot then put the plantain in there

or if using water just put it in water and let it boil.

when turn reddish which would be about 8 to 9 mins take out and enjoy!

Analysis:

Plantains are a type of bananas, they are not bananas but are a type of bananas. My family has been eating plantains for many years because of one poverty at the time and also because they pretty delicious. Plantains are appetizer but could be also be a meal if you add other things like fish to it. Plantain are very healthy because according to foodworks “Fat free, cholesterol free, sodium free, an excellent source of vitamins A and C and a good source of potassium.” Despite the fact that plantains are really healthy food when my family makes it I think they take away all that. They put way too much salt and too much oil, and I was thinking maybe instead of using vegetable oil maybe use some coconut oil. As far as boiling it, that would work because you are just adding a little salt and that would still make the food good for you. Now the plantains could also be fried with red oil, red oil is healthy and could make the plantain more healthy. To make plantains is not very expensive, it is a poor food to make.The food from what I know definitely started in Africa, and as slave trade it then move up here.

According to food works “Plantain found its way into Madagascar from Malaysia and India through trading Asian merchants and by Arabs during the Trans-Saharan trade boom. Plantain and banana trade along with yam and other food crops became a very important factor in the wealth, prosperity and rapid expansion of the Bantu Kingdom of central and southern Africa around 1500 AD. Up till date, plantain is still a major and popular staple meal across Uganda and the rest of the former Bantu region.” The food cost about four dollars. This food has traveled 3450 miles from Africa to south America. Compare to fast food this food is actually a lot cheaper so therefore no excuses as to why it couldn’t be purchased. Growing this food could be a lot better, but if it is grown in the farm they may process it too much, there are also organic plantains that you can definitely look into.

Self Reflection:

The unit has been very interesting because we have been talking about food, I can relate to this because I love food and everything about food. I have a very major role in the food system because in order for something to change I feel like everyone should feel like they can do something so with that being said I am consider myself to be a very big part of the food system.  I definitely feel like big companies uses advertising to make everyday people buy their product and since I am a everyday people I think I could start to watch what I buy or consume. Since we talked about obesity this quarter and talked about about 66% of the U.S population is obese. That a pretty big percentage. Watching the the ted talk also gave us a lot information on how school lunch isn’t even healthy. Something that was very major was the japanese obesity was only 6% compare that to U.S was very strange. Another statement that was very interesting was when we talked about “If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple then you are not hungry”. I am definitely going to change my food choices, because this situation is serious and I don’t think we are taking actions as a society. I have come to a conclusion that healthy food is the way, but that also remembering that even “Healthy food” is also processed but as a consumer I just have to be aware. This was a very good unit, I enjoyed everything about it and I am looking forward to actually getting more knowledge on what I a consume.