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.