Response to Zac's Prepare a meal post

In this post, Zac explains how he prepared a meal for himself. Zac decided to make macaroni and cheese and a couple hot dogs. He states how he bought each item at the grocery store and used the kitchen in his dorm to prepare the meal. He goes on to explain just how he made his macaroni and cheese, by boiling water, putting the noodles in, and draining the noodles after they had been boiled. He clarifies that to finish off making his macaroni and cheese, he added the cheese powder, milk and butter. After finishing the macaroni and cheese, Zac made the hot dogs by cooking them in a pan on the top of the stove.

 

After spending an hour preparing his meal, Zac finally began eating. He started by eating the macaroni and cheese, followed by consuming the two hot dogs, which included mustard and ketchup. Zac definitely enjoyed his meal. To clean up, he washed the pans and silverware he used in preparation, put away the condiments, and threw away the trash produced. Zac describes how he felt proud after making himself a meal.

 

Zac agreed with what Pollan had to say after re-reading pages 54-55 of In Defense of Food. He agrees with the fact that eating has become less than what it used to be and admits that the cheese used in his macaroni and cheese was not actually “real” cheese and the hot dogs were definitely processed. I agree with Zac’s opinion regarding Pollan’s reading and believe that he quickly summarized the reading quite well.

 

In addition to blogging about preparing a meal and summarizing Pollan, Zac included a link to a very helpful site. The site is regarding eating habits and explains how exactly people eat and the eating behaviors that are learned. I think this corresponds with what Zac wrote about because it is reiterating the fact that the way Americans eat has changed overtime and that it differs among individuals. 

Post 5: Prepare a meal

While on spring break, I decided to prepare a very healthy lunch for myself. Before beginning to actually put together my lunch, I had to plan what exactly my meal would be made up of. I wanted to incorporate a variety of nutritious elements. I decided to make a salad consisting of lettuce, mozzarella cheese, carrots, Chow Mein noodles, pecans, croutons, and leftover teriyaki chicken from the previous night’s dinner. The salad would be topped with Italian dressing. On the side, I wanted to cut up a variety of fruit.

 

After deciding on what I wanted to eat, my preparation took place. To begin, I gathered up all my ingredients. I washed my lettuce and carrots and cut both into bite-size pieces. I put the cut lettuce and carrots on a plate, then added just the right amount of mozzarella cheese, pecans, croutons, and Chow Mein noodles. The next step was heating up the chicken. I cut the chicken breast into thin strips and then heated the strips up. After warming up the chicken, I added that to the salad and poured some Italian dressing on top. Now that my salad was complete, I had to gather, wash, and cut up my fruit. I grabbed pineapple, strawberries, and grapes as my fruit of choice. I washed each fruit under cold water, and then moved on to cutting each up. The pineapple was cut into small bite-size pieces, the strawberries were cut in half, and the grapes were left alone! I decided to clean up my ingredients before eating so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it after eating. I just put everything away and wiped down my area I worked in.

After preparing my healthy lunch, it was finally time to eat! I really enjoyed eating my chicken salad and fruit, and each element tasted great. I felt content after eating this meal because I felt as though I prepared a healthy yet delicious meal in less than 15 minutes.

 

After reading Pollan’s section of In Defense of Food regarding the fact that the American culture has led to acceptance of “a flood of damaging innovations…such as low-fat processed food,” definitely seems true in my eyes. Harvey Levenstein, a well-known author, describes how our culture now has a tendency to “eat and run” rather than “dine and savor.” Because of this, Americans aren’t taking the time to prepare well-balanced meals. This statement definitely is true because I feel as though many families and college students don’t take the time to sit down and enjoy a healthy meal; rather, they are constantly rushing to put together whatever is convenient to them. Because I am a college student, I tend to fall into this category, but while home for spring break, I decided to actually make something good to eat for once. This particular article proves that college students do not eat as healthy as one should. My goal is to continue to prepare healthy meals while at college.