A Healthy Meal of Home Style Chicken Soup - Ian McClendon

My Home Style Chicken Soup Recipe and Analysis:

For my Home Style Chicken Soup the ingredients were: 

6 cups of chicken broth

1 1/2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 teaspoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger 

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Added salt and black pepper

Analysis:

-The meal that I made was more whole food than processed foods. Only the broth ingredient was brand name and the other was the packaged chicken breast which is pretty processed. 

-Over all the meal itself was not that high in calories. From eating my Home Style Soup I felt nutritiously filled and satisfied by the aroma of flavors and if I had to eat nothing but this soup I could stand it for about a week but other than that the ingredients would not have a substantial impact on your body because it's filled with proteins and organic vegetables. 

-Where my ingredients came from I have no clue but from a super market. My mother was nice enough to pick them up herself. I believe that there are no environmental issues with the meal. 

- Fast food versus the soup can not compare, the preparation time took 15 minutes, served up to 10-12 people when given in smaller portions, and the cooking time in a Crock-Pot was 3.5 hours. I believe that every corporation benefited from the purchase of my ingredients. 

My Personal Reflection of this meal: 

During this whole quarter I probably learned more than I ever wanted to know about food. Watching the Food Inc. movie made me realize a lot more about what's out there in middle America. All of the enormous fields of grass that you see as you're flying in a airplane are the hidden facts of how our food is made. From what I've learned I don't see myself as having a huge role in large food business but my parent usually purchases the groceries. About once a month I would go grocery shopping with her and specifically pick brands. I noticed that my mother is more of a savvy shopper than I am. She buys the discounted healthier foods and I search for the junk food. The biggest problem that America faces is blocked by the satisfying feeling of the food itself. The production of all our sugars, spices, and everything nice is not regulated by the consumers but by the corporations who's idea in mind is money, money, money. GMO's control our source of "nutrition" and "energy" for the food. But still I feel that all this won't drastically change my perspective on my consumption of healthy and junky food. Although I do feel that I have limited myself to eating junk food and healthy food. Of course like anything that I've learned in SLA has been very informative and useful to my own prior knowledge. 

I've also made a sort of Food Rule picture to keep in mind a sense of healthy eating: