scabiscuelas

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Epilogue: Post Reflection

It was hard eating on a $25 a week. The budget is intensively frugal. The food was repetitive, and not as healthy as there was a limited portion and also no leaving any snacks throughout the day. Perhaps, I became too ambitious with my food choices but it was tough to even for someone that has a very unhealthy eating routine… like, me. 

The challenge made me, personally, realize that there are individuals out there living on the same budget as I had on an everyday basis and the access to good and healthy foods is limited. It was an eye-opening realization because not only that I got to experience living on a tight budget, but it made me also understand that I am a privileged person and that I take access to healthy foods for granted — often, I do not even recognize that buying foods is a privilege just simply because I can easily access them. But what about those that do not have the same access as me?

In class, we were taught barriers to healthy eating and they include lack of time, cost of healthy living, geographic isolation, and cultural influences. 

Lack of time: regardless of the budget, the time required to shop and prepare healthy food can be a major barrier for people who has busy schedules such as jobs, and busy families. Often, it would be less stress and less time if they opt for microwavable meals. 

Cost of healthy living: Fresh vegetables, meats, and other food necessities are very expensive nowadays. This is a barrier, especially among low-income members of the community. Sure, we can always offer a healthier substitute to promote healthy living, but when the healthier option is more costly, and they are living on a tight budget, they will obviously opt more for any food that they can eat rather than thinking about foods’ nutritional values. 

Geographic isolation: as said in class, food option is often limited by the long distances that residents from rural communities must travel to get such sources. 

Cultural influences: regardless of income, one's culture can affect one's idealism of what and how they maintain their food choices in a healthy way. Often in times, other population does not receive health education and might not fully understand that their food choices are not healthy and can even increase the risk of certain health problems. 

Overall, in my opinion, balancing how the budget of $25 for a week was my major concern. Upon reflecting, I did not recognize other barriers that can exist for other people because I have easy access. I still had a choice and the convenience of resources available to me. 

This may be a long run or an ambitious way of thinking for a solution but personally, I believe that if the community continues to offer educational opportunities that teach low-income families how to eat a healthy diet can go a long way toward improving diets. Perhaps, we can organize a campaign, or build volunteer groups that will encourage individuals to eat more healthily. 

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Seventh Day: July 11, 2022

Monday. I was at home attending my 10 AM online class but I had to step out to go grab some food as I was hungry. As pictured, I ate my pancit canton meal. 

At dinner time, I wasn’t able to have one. I had a busy day and I got home from school around 8PM. I had drop-in lab as well and had some papers and assignments due that week too. I most likely had water before going to sleep. 

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Sixth Day: July 10, 2022

For some reason, I woke up feeling already exhausted and hungry to a point that I tried eating two meals in one sitting. I was able to half my pancit canton meal but I definitely finished my rice and chicken meal. I was fairly satisfied after considering that I do not usually have big appetite. 

At dinner time, I enjoyed my pancit canton meal as pictured. 

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Fifth Day: July 9, 2022

I was awoken by my Mom saying she had some ripe mangoes upstairs for me so I obliged and decided to devour two in one sitting. We do not get ripe mangoes often, and it is not all the time also that the taste is actually sweet and close to Philippine mangoes so I was excited. I still ate my chicken and fried rice too and I had the best meal ever. Reminded me of home. 

At dinner time, I failed to eat the meal that I prepared. Since my Mom was off from her work, she decided to make baked mussels as pictured. 

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Fourth Day: July 8, 2022

As soon as my 10 AM class ended, I started to get ready for school. I still made sure to eat though. In the picture, I ate my pancit canton meal. 

I got home late, finished my drop-in lab at 6:15 PM, and still stayed at school to organize my materials for other courses. Therefore, no dinner for me. 

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Third Day: July 7, 2022

At 11:30 I woke. I did not go to school because my classes starts at 2PM which was online anyway. I also did not had any drop in lab that day so I was at home. 

Nonetheless, as pictured, I enjoyed my pancit canton noodles with stir fried vegetables and boiled egg and water is free from home. 

I decided to eat my dinner at an earlier time. As pictured, I enjoyed my fried rice with chicken and steamed vegetables. Again, the water is free from home. 

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Second Day: July 6, 2022

I woke up early to start my day at the college. No breakfast as usual so I was looking forward to my lunch. 

As pictured, since I had an extra meal from last night, I decided to switch up my lunch with chicken and fried rice. The water bottle is also filled in the library. 

That night, I was not able to eat dinner as well. I got home from school around 8 PM, I was exhausted and decided to call it a day for me. 

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First Day: July 5, 2022

This was on a Tuesday and I had labs in the morning. I brought my lunch to school so I can eat them after lab. As pictured, I was eating one of the meals that I made the previous night, and there is also a probiotic drink present that was kindly given to me by my boyfriend so I technically had it for free (?). I also brought a water bottle that day and filled it in the library.

Around 5 PM I got home. I was exhausted from the day and decided to take a nap. My nap took longer than I thought and I woke up around 9 PM. Not feeling starving at all, I decided to go straight ahead with my papers due. No food here, maybe some water.

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Action Part 2:

As soon as I separated the seasonings for my pancit canton and fried rice, I began to heat up my pan to stir fry the chicken breast to brown it a little bit using the oil that came from the pancit canton seasoning. I also then added two eggs with the rest of the pancit canton powder seasonings for taste. 

At this point, my rice was already cooked and cooled down so I was able to stir fry it along with the chicken breast and eggs. 

And the finished fried rice is as pictured. I did not wait for it to cool down, I used a measuring 1 cup to ensure that I will have enough and even servings for 8 meals that I had planned with this meal. You could tell that I was successful as pictured. 

With the same pan that I used for fried rice, I decided to ‘stir-fry’ and also the remaining pack of my vegetables. It was frozen so I was anticipating water evaporation to happen, use that water evaporation as ‘oil’ to cook my vegetables and to make them a little crispy. 

I then started to plate my noodles as well in each container. I was eyeballing the portion here, making sure that my packets of noodles are enough to give me 6 meals. It did not take a while for my vegetables to ‘stir-fry’ and I added them directly beside the pancit canton noodles. With that being said, I believe that I am successful with this meal as well. Please use my photos as a reference. 

The last two photos are my finished meals for the whole week. As I stated prior, I do not eat breakfast on a daily basis, therefore, I only planned out my lunch and dinner for this challenge. I finished cooking at 11:08PM. 

PS: I have been trying to figure out to insert a photo in each text sentence so you could follow my process a lot easier but I have been unable to figure out how to do so. Therefore, I am publishing these with all the photos at the bottom and I made sure that they are organized in the same timeline as the numbers stated above for easier reference. Thank you. 

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Action Part 1:

Monday, July 4th at 8:31PM. 

At 8:31PM I started to work on my chicken. Since it was a pre-cooked chicken, it was not as tough to tear it apart piece by piece. I ensure to have 8 pieces of chicken excluding the breast part as it is going to be incorporated into my fried rice. 

As soon as I was done taking apart my chicken, I remembered at 8:36PM that I should have done my rice first because it can take time to cook. I put my rice in my rice cooker and washed it three times until the water was a bit clearer. Now, this is the time where I can confidently say that even though I went over the budget by 19 cents, I think I still went under the budget because, with the two packs of 750 grams of rice, I only used one pack of it. Technically, I still have another pack for another week. 

While waiting for my rice to cook, at 8:48PM, I was already boiling my eggs. 

Since I wanted to save time and for my convenience also, I waited until the water with the eggs started boiling, and then I put the portable steamer pan on top to start steaming batches of my frozen vegetables. 

After a few minutes, the eggs were cooked and I peeled them and placed them in the container one by one. I also placed the chicken pieces and steamed vegetables in their own containers as well. Please see attached photos to see progress. 

I then began to open my Pancit Canton noodle packets so I can start reserving half of the seasonings that came with it for my fried rice, and start cooking my noodles as well. 

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Preparation:

Monday, July 4th at 7:21PM 

At 7:21pm, I had just finished my grocery shopping. Please see attached photo receipt for transparency. 

During my grocery trip, I was ensuring not to go over my allotted budget which was $25. It was a lot harder than I thought because there were a lot of options that were laid for me that will essentially result in better meals, however, they do not fit the budget. I was unable to get fresh vegetables because they are expensive so I settled for the frozen ones. I was happy about my eggs, I was able to get medium-sized ones for only $3.68 for a dozen. I was also pleased because the pack of rice was on sale for $4.76 for two packs of 750 grams. It was surprising on my end that the Pancit Canton noodle packs were cheaper than I was anticipating considering that they are an import from overseas but that is an advantage for me in this circumstance. The pre-cooked chicken was also on sale, however, I will go overboard on my budget if I acquire the sale, so I settled for one piece of the pre-cooked chicken. 

In the end of it though, I can say that I was successful at gathering my ingredients. I completely forgot that there was a 5% tax, however, I believe that I will be able to redeem my excess later on. 

At 7:44PM I got home, took a picture of what I was able to get from the groceries and I started cooking. Please see attached photo for transparency. 

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Planning:

The easier route for myself was to do meal prepping. I came up with two types of meals that resulted in 18 meals. 

Pancit Canton with Eggs 

Pancit canton is an instant noodle brand distributed in the Philippines. It is available in Canada in any Asian grocery stores, or Asian aisle sections. Since it is an instant noodle, there will be seasonings that will be incorporated in each noodle pack. I plan on having those seasonings halved for the pancit canton meal itself; the other halves will be going for the fried rice on my second meal. Also, I considered that since pancit canton is not necessarily healthy to eat everyday for a whole week, I challenged myself to incorporate vegetables in this meal as well along with boiled eggs.  = 6 meals. 

Chicken with Fried Rice 

It will be classic fried rice. Half of the seasonings from the pancit canton noodle packs will be used as flavour for my fried rice. I also plan to have a pre-cooked chicken butchered — the chicken breast will be minced into small pieces to incorporate into fried rice and the rest will become a side dish. Since there will be eggs leftovers, I plan to include those in my fried rice too for flavour and additional protein. I also challenged myself to include vegetables in this meal as well. = 8 meals. 

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Prologue:

I am not the healthiest nor the unhealthiest person but I try to eat what I think is good for me and of course, according to my liking as well. I often go out to eat with either my friends or family as a way to bond with them. 

As per my eating schedule and habits, I do not necessarily have one. I typically skip breakfast because I am not a morning person at all and this has been a habit for as long as I can remember. 

In terms of resources, I can say that I am privileged when it comes to having access to satisfy my needs and wants in food. For example, I have the luxury to eat out, I have the luxury to have options and be picky on foods that I eat — at the end of the day, I am lucky that I have a spare budget to satisfy my choice in foods. 

Therefore, when I learned about the food challenge in class, I was particularly scared because not only that there was a certain amount of money set for a week, but it will also require dedication and discipline. As soon as I found out that we were only allowed to have $25 for the whole week, I panicked a little because there was a realization that kicked in — $25 is at least one meal for me when I go out to eat. 

Nonetheless, I chose to do the food challenge to experience a different perspective when it comes to food budgeting and to have reduced resources.