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| Fried plantains with bread and crackers |
This is a very common breakfast choice here in Jamaica and I even had it a few days ago. Normally we will add scrambled eggs but, fried plantains are so sweet that we normally just make a sandwich and call it a day. Although your sandwich is filling, unfortunately, fried plantains and bread do not constitute a balanced meal because plantains belong to the staple group. Plantains do belong to the Banana family, but due to the high content of starch, it is classified as a source of carbohydrates and therefore a staple.
As we have discussed in the Eating to Survive post, a balanced meal is one that contains at least three of the six food groups. The six food groups are Staples, Foods from Animals, Fats and Oils, Vegetables, Fruits, and Legumes. However, a meal of Fried Plantain and Bread is a staple sandwich. Adding some eggs and orange would balance out this meal. This is an example of ways that we might plan our meals and enjoy them but we are not actually making wise selections on the basis of nutrition.
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| Fried Plantains |
Another example of this is the pairing of Macaroni with tinned corned beef with Rice. As with the previous example, Macaroni and Rice are both staples. Doubling up on staples means doubling up on calories. When we are trying to account for the calories we will end up calculating the rice as our only staple, and fail to account for the macaroni because we have that mentally classified as foods from animals, but it isn't. Corned beef with cabbage is a better combination that replaces another staple with a vegetable, thus making it more balanced. It is also more delicious.
With the recent increase in food prices, most households in Jamaica have been affected. Mine was no different and since I am responsible for meal preparations I have started to mix and match with staples to ensure that daily requirements are met.
This has resulted in me having to use pasta as our meal accompaniment, much to the delight of my youngest sister. We have also increased the use of Ground provisions and prepare more one-pot meals. We have not lost a step since these price increases due to proper planning.
These are things that I believe everyone should be able to do and I will continue to try to teach you how to do this affordably.
4 comments:
I would eat this every morning..this never gets boring.
I know right!! Just add some protein and your good to go. It's worth knowing for those persons on a strict diet though.
My husband is crazy about everything that has grain in it, I have to constantly find new ways to add veggies to it. Granted he uses up a lot of calories, so I guess he needs it, but there are only so many pies I can eat.
Arts
Thank you Armada. This is true. I always encourage persons to get more creative in the Kitchen, and I commend you for doing that.
I guess adding foods from the legume group could be your next project.
Good Luck.. :)
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