Tailgates after soccer games

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Kimberly Fetto

Being apart of the women’s soccer team at Wagner College, is something I have always wanted to do. Now that I am apart of the team, it makes me love soccer even more and allowed me to meet new people and get out of my comfort zone. I consider my team apart of my family and I enjoy playing soccer with each and every one of them along with doing other activities outside of soccer. The team always does fun things, but our favorite thing to do is go out to eat. As a team we go to all sorts of places including Chipotle, Adriene’s Pizza Bar, Royal Crown and more. But nothing beats the tailgates after our soccer games.

After playing a long 90 minutes of soccer, all we want to do is stuff our faces with food. Drinking a lot of water to stay hydrated throughout the game and eating a salad before the game has become a daily routine for myself. I try to eat something light so I don’t cramp or feel during the game. When the game is over, we quickly change and make our way to the tables that are covered with foods such as pasta, pizza, salad, chicken, bread, cookies, cupcakes, doughnuts and more. Throughout the game I try to stay focused but it’s so difficult to not think about all the delicious foods I’m going to consume after. I fill my plate because I am feeling extra hungry after the game and I finish the whole thing. I took a little bit of everything because I couldn’t make up my mind. Normally after I play soccer I am starving so I eat more then I usually do. My parents always yell at me because they think I’m going to gain weight but then they take into consideration that I’m an athlete so I’m always exercising therefore it doesn’t really affect me.

Sadly, soccer season is coming to an end which means tailgates are too. I really enjoy eating a nice meal with my family, teammates and coaches. I’m looking forward to it again next year.

Lunch in Greenpoint

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Cheryl Manole

Enid’s

On Saturday, Angelika, Anna and I went to visit our neighborhood, Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We decided to eat lunch there to get a feel of one of the sides Greenpoint has to offer, the “hipster” side. Even though Greenpoint is a huge Polish neighborhood, a younger crowd has began to move in and make the area more “hip”.

Greenpoint Avenue

For lunch we went at a quaint restaurant called Enid’s. Everything was small. From the menu to the place itself, the restaurant was tinier than a regular spot to eat. Even so the atmosphere was nice. It may have been slightly crowded, but the grungy feel to the place created a comfortable vibe.

I ordered Huevos Rancheros for my meal. I was surprised to see it on the menu at first, but after I realized the style of the venue I understood the various selections they had. The menu ranged from burgers to pancakes. It was quite an array for such a small place, but it made sense because it fit the “hipster” feel the place was going for. Overall, the food was really good and I can’t wait to experience the Polish side when my team and I go again this Friday.

Markets in Washington Heights and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Jessica Aletta

Today my group went to go to Washington Heights for our Neighborhood project. This project is where we get to know a part of the city and do a grant proposal on that specific area. When we were walking through our neighborhood we noticed that there were many markets on the streets and also in store markets. The market prices were actually very cheap with deals like 5 for 1 on bananas. There was a market on every corner so they must need to have cheap prices to compete with all the markets around.

When we came back to the ferry from our neighborhood and went up the escalators we noticed that there was a market right at the ferry! This was the first time I have seen something like this in a public transportation waiting area. Seems like they were selling more of the fall and Halloween goods. As Halloween is this weekend. the had a range from pumpkins to apple cider to just apples and many more items. They also had deals of three pound bags for three dollars each or two bags for five dollars. These deals attract many people in the city because this is there only source of a market around the area of the ferry and they can get fresh fruit as the go home either way. I found this market to be placed in a very interesting and intriguing spot.

Importance of Recipe Reading

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Urszula Pawka

Yesterday, I decided to go visit my mentee Saniah at Port Richmond High School. On our first visit to the high school, Mr. Ryan said Monday’s were the “boring” days since they only reviewed the recipes and this had to be done before any cooking actually began. Remembering this I was very skeptical about going on a Monday thinking it would be boring. Well I was wrong- I actually learned so many new things that I was able to bring back and use next time I cooked.

This week’s food was knish. Mr. Ryan took the recipe from allrecipies.com and this particular recipe was titled Sarah’s Knish Recipe. I found this to be very interesting because the Thursday before going to PRHS, my group did a presentation on the Rogarshevsky family who made knish as a regular dish in their family when they immigrated here from Lithuania. One very important thing I learned from this visit to Port Richmond High School was that you must read the recipe thoroughly before beginning to make the food. Mr. Ryan explained to the class that there are both two different cooking oils and sugars used in this recipe and that if not read correctly the students may use the wrong one and mess up the recipe. I am really looking forward to returning to Port Richmond High School on Friday to see how this dish turned out!

“Supersized” drinks in NYC

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Kristen Bischoff

This article talks about how Mayor Michael Bloomberg ban drinks that have 25 calories per 8 ounces.

An Apple Orchard that Had No Apples

Posted on October 27, 2015 by LindaJeane Delfini

Last weekend, my family and I went to Casola Farms, an apple orchard in Marlboro, New Jersey. After the long drive, we arrived to find out that the over-crowed apple farm, had depleted their apple supply! Devastated, we knew we couldn’t come home empty handed. So, we decided it would be fun as a family to carve pumpkins and roast pumpkin seeds! Little did we know, A LOT of work would have to be done! We picked two large pumpkins, and then four smaller ones (for decoration). We picked the biggest pumpkins we could find, made sure they weren’t rotten, and was en route home!

Once we arrived home, my dad began to cut open the pumpkins removing all of the seeds and placing them on to a cookie sheet. My Mom took them inside and cleaned them while I continued to clean out the inside of the pumpkin with my little cousins and sister. We moved onto the next pumpkin, and repeated the previously stated steps. Once both pumpkins were cleaned my dad began to carve the pumpkins with an extremely sharp knife. While he continued to carve the pumpkins, I went inside and seasoned the pumpkin seeds. We made half of them savory and the other half of them sweet. On the sweet pumpkin seeds, we sprinkled melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nut meg and rolled the seeds around on the parchment paper. On the savory seeds, we sprinkled cumin, cayenne pepper, and chill pepper. Once my father finished carving the pumpkins, and the seeds finished roasting we did what we always do on Sunday evenings: we cooked our pasta and meatballs! This week however, we changed it up and made ricotta raviolis!

Quality time with family is one of the most important things to living a successful and healthy life. I’m not going to lie and say that my family and I have quality time every week, because we do not. We are lucky to have quality time every other week or every three weeks due to sports, school work, our jobs, and other extracurricular activities. As a result of my family and I’s lack of quality time, I can not bed explain how grateful my peers should be if their families are together every night for dinner. I genially can not wait for Sunday dinners when everyone is home and able to just hang out. Whether it be talking, eating, or watching TV, all time spent together, is quality time. Of course the delicious food is just a plus!

My day made me realize once again how much time is spent taking whole foods, and converting them into other products. For example, making bread and cake out of eggs. Food is a huge part in my family, and I love the time we spend in the kitchen daily.

YouTube: Funny and Harmful

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Lauren Fay

Whether or not you’re aware of it, there is a growing entertainment community that many kids and teenagers are influenced by, and that’s YouTube. YouTube isn’t just funny cat videos and videos of people falling anymore. There are real entertainers called “youtubers” that post videos and have strong fan bases. There are many types of youtubers: beauty gurus like Zoella, comedy vloggers like Danisnotonfire, sketch makers like Smosh, and gamers like Pewdiepie. No matter what category these entertainers fall into, they all participate in challenges. Although not always, these challenges often have to do with food. The cinnamon challenge, miracle berry challenge, tin can challenge, and chicken nugget challenge are all examples of how YouTube can influence viewers to do something harmful involving food.

glozell The Cinnamon Challenge entails pouring cinnamon on a spoon and swallowing it. Seems simple right? Not quite. The cinnamon dries out your mouth making it incredibly difficult to swallow. Coughing, gagging, and vomiting can result. In worse cases the cinnamon is inhaled leading to throat irritation and breathing difficulties that could result in damage to the lung. Sure it’s funny to watch, especially GloZell doing it (pictured right), but kids and teenagers started doing it all because of YouTube. The American Poison Control has received over 100 calls because of this challenge.

Miracle Berry Challenge is a fairly new challenge to YouTube. This challenge is quite berry interesting and it’s obvious why people want to try it. Eating this “miracle berry” can switch your taste buds so that things that you might normally find disgusting taste amazing and vice versa. Phil Lester and Tyler Oakley did just that and showed how strange the berry’s effects really are. We briefly discussed this fruit in a psychology class, but the reading from our textbook certainly makes me want to stay away from it. The author, Logue, says that miraculin, the substance that causes this taste changing effect, is something that she wants to stay away from because it could have heavy consequences. After further research on the berry it seems that the effects are unknown and that further scientific research has to be done.

Joe Sugg (thatcherjoe) and Alfie Deyes (Pointlessblog)

The Tin Can Challenge is like a lottery, except you don’t win anything that great. The point is to buy a bunch of canned foods and take the labels off, so you don’t know what they are. Then put numbers on the bottoms of the cans and put the same numbers on pieces of paper. Put the papers into a bowl and whatever number you pick you have to eat the corresponding can. Some of these cans have delicious foods and others have extremely disgusting foods. It’s the luck of the draw. Many teenagers are doing this challenge with their friends. I’m not afraid to say that I was one of those teenagers. It is an extremely funny game, but I can attest that you will feel very sick after.

Tyler Oakley attempting the Chicken Nugget Challenge

The Chicken Nugget Challenge is the worst of the challenges in my opinion. For this challenge you are to attempt to eat 50 chicken nuggets in 20 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly. It doesn’t take a nutritionist to tell you that you shouldn’t eat 50 chicken nuggets in one sitting. My friends also attempted this challenge, but I fortunately sat out for this one. I did watch them do it, however. After discovering that this one challenge would make them consume 2,000-3,000 calories, depending on how many they finish and whether or not they use sauce, I was quite concerned. This means that they could eat more calories in one sitting than they are supposed to in a whole day! The fact that kids and teenagers are influenced to do this is extremely unhealthy!

Clearly we see a modern case of monkey see monkey do. We imitate the people we admire and in many kids and teenagers cases, these people are youtubers. I am a huge fan of some of the youtubers named above and think they are incredibly talented and entertaining. However, I would caution viewers to be aware of the harmful effects of these challenges.

Mentoring Project

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Maria D'Amico

This past week I visited my mentee at Port Richmond High School. My mentee, Shannon, is one of the students in the class that basically cooks everything. She is not looking to go to college for cooking, but she is very good at it. The meal they made last week was stew fry. They prepared this meal by cutting up vegetables (peppers) one day, making the rice another day and cutting up the rest of the ingredients another day. The last day, Friday, was the day that they put everything together and it was incredible. I was shocked at how good these students were at cooking. They are all very young, 15 and 16 years old, and they can cook a meal better than most adults. Cooking is an essential trait that a person should have. Cooking isn’t just throwing cereal and milk in a bowl, it is knowing how to eat well with certain recipes and ingredients that are essential nutrients in a persons daily diet and these students really understand how to do it. This experimental learning project not only teaches my mentee, Shannon, about my knowledge of food and nutrition, but it also teaches me things about food that I never knew. Each week, Shannon will teach me how to make something new and I will notify her about why each ingredient is important to have in a meal. I feel as if this mentoring program will not only benefit Shannon and other students at the high school, but it will also help me and the rest of the Wagner College students in the program.

Food Cues

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Olivia Silvestri

Food Cues: Are they real or is it really because we are hungry?

During this weekend I ventured into the city with my friend for brunch. I couldn’t wait to go for brunch because it is my favorite. I love that breakfast food is offered until 4 pm with a few lunch options. When I got to the restaurant I ordered everything I thought would seem delicious. Pancakes, eggs, and French toast were shared among the 2 of us. When we were finished we couldn’t even think of eating more that’s how full we were.

Finally, after deciding to leave the restaurant my friend and I were walking to the train. On our way to the train we were complaining about how much food we consumed. With only about 2 more blocks until we hit the train station we saw a 16 handles (frozen yogurt store). We immediately looked at each other and couldn’t resist. Before we knew it we had filled our cups with 3 different types of frozen yogurt with 5 different toppings.

In my opinion, this is a true example of a food cue. My friend and I were so full walking to the train but once we saw that 16 handle we suddenly felt like we were able to eat it and went right inside we no hesitation. Food cues do impact the reasons we eat no matter if we are full or hungry.

Societal Norms on Overeating and Supersizing

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Ipek Miminoska

On Monday, during our psychology class we watched part 2 of the BBC documentary, The Men Who Made Us Fat. One thing that stuck with me was when the documentary mentioned that chocolate was no longer given on just special occasions. We also tend to overeat nearly everything we are given or have chosen to eat. One of my favorite chocolates are the Ferrero Rocher Hazelnut ones. A few days ago, my parents had come home with a box of them, knowing how much I enjoyed them. It was only after I counted the wrappers that I realized I had eaten about eight of them in one sitting. I overate without even realizing I did. I feel that in our society overeating has become the norm and we don’t realize the consequences until after.

The documentary also mentioned supersizing. This got me thinking about my experience with supersizing. Once in a while, when a movie I’m interested in comes out, I usually want to see it in a theatre. Regardless of whoever I’m with, we always order the same thing. Large popcorn and two drinks. It was after viewing this documentary that I realized how big the drinks really were. Theatre drinks and drinks from any establishment nowadays are huge. I have been so accustomed to seeing those sizes, that when I saw the comparison of how adult sodas used to be only 7 ounces, I was shocked. I immediately thought that it wasn’t enough to sustain me. However, I realized that 7 ounces of soda should be around the amount we should be drinking. One glass of soda is enough. Instead, we choose to drink more than one, when we should be limiting ourselves to live a more nutritious lifestyle.

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