hw # 6 - food diary

This is my daily breakfast, I didn't have the chance to take picture of it but this is it. Two slices of toasted bread with thin layer of strawberry jam. I usually eat this when I'm in a rush, if I have time I only have a bowl of cereal. Strawberries are my favorite fruit. They are usually sweet and are a rich red; one time I had fresh strawberries that were so sweet that they were sweeter than the jam. So instead I just sliced a couple of strawberries on my bread. The calories in this breakfast are about 300 calories. The website says I should have 2243 calories daily according to my height, age, my daily exercise and my weight. If I had time for a bowl of cereal (my usual Kellogg's corn flakes) I'd be in taking 200 calories. So you can see that the healthier choice would be a bowl of cereal but sometimes the amount of time you have to eat can also affect the food choices you make.

This is my lunch at times when I go to school. In the mornings I wake up early and make myself lunch, so that I don't waste my allowance on food but save it or spend it on other things I want. It is a sandwich with ham and Swiss cheese with some chipotle sauce and lettuce. And I also pack a bag with a handful of chips. I noticed from all this that I have a daily routine, where I eat at certain times and eat certain foods.

My dinner usually happens around 6 or 7, when my father has finally arrived and we all sit down at the table to eat. Today though most of my family was out, it was just me and my aunt. So I sat down at table by myself for once. It felt weird to eat at an empty table where no one is saying "pass the salt" or in my family’s case " salsa, please." A place where it's usually over crowded, especially when my brother and his wife come over. This is about 400 calories plus 25 calories from the broccoli. As you can see my meal is pretty balanced, I have spaghetti, meat and vegetables all in one plate. Like I wrote in a blog before, my mother makes sure we always have some sort of vegetable with our meal.

This is what my dinner was tonight and the minute my mother started cooking this, the smell of some type of seafood came all way to the living room where I was doing homework. I ran over to mom in the kitchen and like usual I asked, "What's for dinner?"Caldo de camarones she said, meaning shrimp soup. I love this soup! It contains shrimp (of course) pieces of carrots and potato and if you'd like couple of spoons of chipotle salsa. This is favorite spicy salsa, which you can eat with many different things like sandwich, quesadillas, soup, or use as dipping sauce. Even when I have friends over they ask me what it is because they liked it so much. It is made from a pepper called chipotle that is a smoked jalapeno pepper and they mix this with tomato sauce to make chipotle salsa. With this soup, you have the choice of eating tortillas with it or Ritz crackers. It makes you feel full after butdon't feel starving hours later or feel too stuffed and at the same time it's healthy, having only seafood and vegetables. This about 100 calories.

Today I had marble jell- o my aunt's specialty made with milk and water jell - o. The white is vanilla and the red is strawberry, it was delicious. I liked the way these two different jellos taste meshed together.

A snack I have sometimes is a piece of dark chocolate, but that is only 85%. To me it tastes better than milk chocolate. The sweet and bitter taste it creates on my tongue at the same time to me is more interesting than really sweet milk chocolate. It is also much healthier for you then regular chocolate, because it is more natural.

Hw # 4 - Your Family's Foodways

Since your born, your family begins to affect how you approach food. You become surrounded by a certain food, either your parent's favorites or their native foods. When I have friends over and my mom cooks native food they sometimes ask me what some of the food is. Like once a friend asked me what the green squares in the salad was and being the first time I was asked this, I looked at her like she was crazy. Their called nopales I explained which in English means cactus. Which shows that you only know and are accustomed to the food that is being served in your own household. So when I approach these foods I see them as normal, while someone outside my family may find them as weird. My parent's parents mostly ate their own produce and lands "gifts." And to this day, my grandfather still owns and has chickens, roosters, plants and trees, all in his backyard. I personally love his lemon tree, because there are always fresh lemons for lemonade. Although my mother grew up eating this way, she doesn't eat this way anymore. We buy our food and cook it or just buy it already made. To me growing our own chickens to eat is weird... sounds masochistic.

Every time I go to Mexico and stay with my grandparents, I must become used to eating a certain way. For them the use of a fork and knife is unnecessary. Not that they eat like savages, but there is just no need of it. All you need is a tortilla, and whatever you’re eating whether meat, beans, rice or vegetables and your choice of salsa you'd just dunk it in all at once or just one and take a bite. And because they are so used to eating this way they've made it an art, eating neatly and not dropping a single thing. Unlike me, I had salsa dribbling down my chin or rice coming out of the tortilla. I hadn't quite mastered the skill yet. As you can see my family even affected the way I ate because I have eaten with a fork and knife my whole life. In my house I wasn't allowed to eat without a knife and fork, because it was bad manners to do so. And one thinks "everyone must eat this way" mentally until the day they leave their house and realize that there are other ways.

The food choices you make and learn to make can also come from your family. For example at my home our fridge is not stuffed with junk food like cookies, cake, etc. My mom makes sure of that; it is filled with vegetables, homemade drinks, milk, meats, etc. Very balanced, so for my siblings and I a snack was a handful of nuts or fruit and once in awhile a slice of homemade cake. So it has definitely affected my daily eating, and I have become used to having some sort of vegetable on my plate. But this way of eating goes AWOL when I'm not at home because I get to eat what I choose. And I'm afraid this might continue to happen when I no longer live in my house. Although sometimes I feel bad about the choices I make and throw in something healthy in my meal. These choices also affect how long we live, my mother got to meet her great - grandmother! She tells me about how her great - grandmother would go to the wild carrying a long knife called machete, cutting fresh plants and wood along the way. She grew up livng in rural area, tending to goats, eating only dreid meat, fresh vegetables, tortillas and a bit of salt and she came to live 98 years old. Like Rossi said " The older the generation the healthier they eat." leading to a longer life span.

Inventory:

- Bottom three drawers filled with vegetables and select meats

- second level is water, milk, salsa, fruit, corn and flour tortillas, and deli sliced ham and cheese

- top level is filled with gatorades due to older brother, my and my little brother not allowed to drink this. Older bro gets away with it because he no longer lives with us.

- more salsa and milk on top level and a couple of leftovers we eat next day of it being made

Hw#3 - Food- Fast Food Insights and Green Market Realization

Minute you walk through the market you notice stands each with their own grown produce coming from places like Nassau, New Jersey. While just across the the street from all these white canvases is McDonalds written with eye -catching yellow letters, the haven of teenagers and adults alike. Two places that both sell food, but offer completely different things. The green markets provide food that is healthy, organic, fresh and with no added chemicals. Versus Micky D's that provides fast, processed, fried and unhealthy cheap food.

Even though you'd think that because the green markets are the healthier and better choice, most choose McDonalds. Why? I believe it is because when you look at the prices of the food sold at the green market, for many people the more economical choice is McDonalds. This is also the reason why McDonalds is so successful; when you watch TV they are always advertising the prices they have like 99ct burgers or fries. Which draws in kids with such low - prices, although it leads to the rise of obesity in youth. When I googled McDonalds the first image is a picture of two obese women eating McDonalds fries, followed by one with obese kids. This is what McDonalds represents, but still people keep eating it. Because sometimes the ordinary person cant afford eating organic food everyday, unlike the many celebrities who can. This has even come to affect my own school, today when I went to go buy a snack everything that was offered before at the vending machines had changed. No more Doritos and Snapple drinks, in their place were things that were either baked or with labels like no fats or trans fats. So in the end it becomes a choice of not only health but of what you can afford.

Hw # 2 - Food - Initial Thoughts

Food. A word that instantly makes me image my favorite food leading to me then trying to remember the taste it creates on my tongue and then my stomach growls out of hunger. When I think of food images of pasta, sushi, tamales , or just slice of pizza runs through my mind. But for everyone else these images can be different, which makes me wonder if there is scientific reason for this, making one enjoy certain food over another or if it is simply just a choice?

For me where I eat is never a question, its always the same at home at the dinner table with my family. My parents have always been strict about having actual family dinner, where we all sit together and converse about our day and what's going on in life. This only changes on weekends where its at a restaurant instead, but the principles are pretty much the same. Its also the only time we actually come together because we're always on our thing, so its our way to reconnect. To think that food is what can bring a family together!

My typical meal isn't bad but it does fail on what I'd like my ideal meal be. My ideal meal is located at the backyard of my grandmother's house with my huge and also extended family everyone is cracking jokes in Spanish, my aunts and uncles are cracking open coronas and victorias, while I'm surrounded by my dozen cousins who are like the sisters I never had, with the smell of steak, onions, nopales and tortillas that are on the grill drifting in the air with my mother and aunts hovering over it, my grandfather sitting down ready to take his bible out at any second and my little cousins running around playing. So can easily see how much my typical meal fails from being my ideal meal.

I believe food is sacred, because of the fact it is what helps us survive (w/ help of water as well.) and it nourishes us. Keeps us healthy and strong to continue with our daily activities and creates these rituals each household and society follows. Being sacred means it is treasured so usually food being wasted is badly looked upon because some one else in the world is yearning and in need of food to live. It also makes food holy, for example some even say grace to thank for having food on the table or have food blessed.

What I find the most interesting about this topic is how, where and what each different culture eats. Like in Japan and China it is common to eat with chopsticks, in the U.S. we use forks and knifes, and a traditional Indian will eat with their hands. What should and shouldn't be done at the table is different as well, burping or ripping one at the table is seen as rude in some cultures while in others it is seen as polite and good manners because it shows that you enjoyed your server's meal. Or the place where you eat is not the same everywhere, for example in US food is usually eaten at a table while in India " Dining table is regarded as a western thing. Most homes have dining tables now, but the traditional Indian way of eating is on the floor, sitting cross legged in a circle with all food placed in the center." (http://www.helium.com/items/1012589-proper-dining-etiquette-in-india) Or the food that is served changes depending where in the world you are eating, because somethings are seen as weird in some cultures while in others it is normal. We in US see eating a cat for dinner isn't normal while some in China do find it normal. So your culture also affects what you eat, the way you eat, your etiquette, where you eat and everything else that concerns food.