Mix It up

In college it seems that food is the last priority when it comes to budgeting living expenses; behind tuition, books, rent, and entertainment, food is the least of our concerns. On Average you could say the typical American college student’s diet consist of, fast food, microwavable meals, and a lot of soda and beer. More like steroid pumped beef, ridicules amounts of unwanted calories, and high fructose corn syrup.   

When I was in 6^th graded I developed an interest in cooking. Over the last nine years I have gained a worthy skill. As I matured I began to think about health and how one’s diet has a direct connection to their health. It became clear to me we all had been poisoning our bodies with some artificial substance we called “food”. I couldn’t remain to be victim of this vicious cycle so I had to change my eating habits; I now try to raise awareness with information and offer alternative meal ideas. 

A simple recipe is my very own infamous chunky salsa. It’s not a meal but it’s a great snack and can easily be a side dish or give any other meal that tasteful kick. It’s a great recipe because it’s not too time consuming and it’s relatively inexpensive. The recipe calls for tomato, yellow bell pepper, white onion, jalapeno, cilantro, and lime. For starters I like to begin with cutting up the tomatoes because their like the foundation of the salsa. After cutting up the tomatoes this will now set up to cut the onion. Since this isn’t a formal recipe you have to be the judge when adding the ingredients together. Onion has a strong flavor and some maybe sensitive to its taste so be careful when adding and remember you can always add more but you can’t take it out. After you have the tomatoes and onion cut you can continue to chop the rest of the ingredients in any order you choose and be mindful of the ratio. As you experiment and become more familiar with the recipe you can tweak it for your own taste. Just add chips and you have a game day salsa for the guys or toss it in a quesadilla for a gourmet taste. The cost is about eight dollars and that includes all the ingredients and a bag of tortilla chips. 

When it comes to eating right there is a lot of deceit and misconception from these large corporations. They use terms like “natural” or “pure” on labels and packages, but I ask how is something natural if its full or preservatives or frozen and needs to be cooked in the microwave for two and a half minutes on high? Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of eating well? People don’t realize that the best thing to eat comes from the earth not some large-scale factory. Fruits and vegetables will give you more sustainable energy throughout the day compared to an energy drink that claims to have the right mixture of vitamins. I challenge you to just be more aware of what you eat and ask you self where did this come from? Or how was it prepared? If your perfectly content with your answer and your food than there is no reason to change your ways, but if you don’t like the images or thoughts than make you should come up with your very own homemade recipes. 

Rough Draft

As a college student you all probably know it’s hard to eat well on a tight budget. Typically a college student’s diet consists of easy mac, top ramen, and anything off the dollar menu.  What if i told you that you could eat healthy without the high cost? I have always been interested in cooking and making tasty foods so i have developed and created some inexpensive meals and snacks. I want to share with you today one of my favorite recipes. It’s my infamous chunky salsa; i got the idea to make this one day when i was eating at chipotle. As i was eating the salsa i couldn't help but think to myself that this was the best salsa I've ever had. With each bite i took it was like and explosion of flavor in my mouth. As i stared into the tiny see through plastic cup containing the salsa i began to dissect what was in the cup. This is how i determined what ingredients to use. After figuring out the basics i was able to make the foundation of my salsa with plenty of room to experiment with other ingredients. 

For starters you need to decide how much salsa you need to make based on how many people you want to feed but to keep it simple we'll just assume it's only for two to three people. The recipe calls for about three to four tomatoes, one onion of your choice,(red, yellow, or white; I prefer white) yellow bell pepper, one jalapeño or if you like hot two, a branch of cilantro, and two limes. Now this is what i like keep in mind that you can customize the ingredients to your personal liking. Start with cutting up the tomatoes because it will tell you how much of everything else you will need. Second you will need to dice the onions until their finely chopped you will have to just your best judgment to determine was a good tomato to onion ratio for you. Always remember you can always add but you can’t take away, so start with a little and slowly add more as needed. At this point it’s just chopping up the rest of the ingredients and adding them together. With the limes you will want to cut in half and squeeze the juice into the salsa bowl and stir all of it together. This will leave you with your final product. This can be eaten with chips but it can also be used to kick up any meal. For all of the ingredients it usually cost about 5 to 8 bucks depending on where you go and how much you buy. Well now that you understand the basics you can make and create your very own salsa.