Group A.F.K. 11

Alejandra Escalante

Fabiola Langarica

Kristel Andal

Professor Mariana Abuan

Writing 1 Section 36

16 December 2014

Collaborative Essay

Affordable Healthy Meals for Off-Campus Students

Do you want to know how to eat healthy and cost efficiently? If so, now is the time to start. Think about all of your college expenses; there’s a lot to pay for. Are you an off-campus student? It must be difficult for you to save money to buy enough food and pay rent for the month. Good news, we have a healthy lunch recipe that you can easily prepare and save money on. By choosing the right meal, ingredients, and local grocery store, this can be accomplished. By comparing local grocery stores, such as Raley’s and Walmart you will then see which store would be worth your money and time. We will be looking at nutrition labels of each product’s, and calculating the total prices for the recipe. For lunch, it is time to stop eating ramen noodles, and start eating a healthy meal, such as a fajita-style quesadilla and chicken with parmesan noodles.

One of our lunch recipe that we will use extensively to determine its affordability and healthiness will be a fajita-style quesadilla. The recipe contains a half of red or green sweet pepper, a half of onion, one serrano pepper, two teaspoons of vegetable oil, four corn tortillas, a nonstick cooking spray, a half of Monterey Jack cheese, two thin slices of tomato, and one tablespoon of parsley. In total, this recipe can create eight servings, and will only take twenty minutes to prepare and ten minutes to cook, which will only take thirty minutes altogether.

Name of the recipe:

Fajita-Style Quesadillas

Fajita-Style Quesadillas

Grocery Store:

Raley’s

Walmart

Ingredients and its prices:

· red or green sweet pepper $2.00

· onion $1.69

· serrano pepper $1.99

· vegetable oil $2.99

· corn tortillas $1.79

· Monterey Jack cheese $2.99

· tomato $2.49

· parsley $0.99

· red or green sweet pepper $1.58

· onion $2.18

· serrano pepper $1.98

· vegetable oil $2.12

· corn tortillas $1.78

· Monterey Jack cheese $2.48

· tomato $2.48

· parsley $0.88

Total price:

$16.93

$15.48

We can see that the fajita-style quesadilla ingredients were more affordable at Walmart than Raley’s. The prices were similar to each other, however, Walmart had a lower price every time.  So, this concludes that out of the two local grocery stores, the more affordable place to shop for this recipe is at Walmart. Off-campus students should go to Walmart if they want to eat this meal for lunch.

Looking at the nutrition labels for each ingredient, it provides the proteins and nutrients for the whole meal. “Nutrition analysis per two servings: 263 calories, 10g protein, 22g  carbohydrate, 15g total fat (6g sat. fat), 25mg cholesterol, 3g fiber, 3g total sugar, 30% Vitamin A, 75% Vitamin C, 161 mg Sodium, 24% calcium, 6% iron” (“Fajita-Style Quesadillas” 1). This informs and confirms off-campus students that the Fajitas-Style quesadillas are healthy. Knowing how much nutrients is in each meal is an important way to maintain good health. An entire proper healthy meal is 300 calories maximum, and for this meal it is 263 calories (“Fajita-Style Quesadillas” 1). This tells us that this meal meets the requirement. Now off-campus students will receive the proper nutrients through this healthy meal. Fajitas-Style quesadillas will provide good amounts of protein, vitamins, calcium, and iron (“Fajita-Style Quesadillas” 1).

Before attempting to cook this meal, you should first look at the precautions and dangers of cooking. The serrano peppers contain volatile oils that can burn; therefore, avoid contact with your skin and eyes. Try to have little direct contact with them, or wear plastic or rubber gloves when preparing the food. If you choose not to use gloves and you touch the peppers with your bare hands, then wash your hands and nails thoroughly for at least twenty seconds with soap and warm water. As always, it is recommended to not leave food cooking unattended for best results of  the meal, and to prevent burning of food, and even of the kitchen or house.

If you are still having doubts about saving money, and maybe even enjoying the meal, there are alternatives for it. One option is to change or get rid of a few of the ingredients suggested.

Raley’s

Walmart

Fresh Cilantro $0.99

Cilantro Leaves $3.48

Daiya $4.99 (dairy-free)

N/A

Galaxy Go Veggie $4.29 (lactose free)

N/A

As stated above, if you do not like parsley, a great substitute for it would be cilantro, which has more of a minty taste. Fresh cilantro can be purchased at Raley’s for only $0.99. In Walmart there are no fresh ones, but you can purchase a seasoning of cilantro leaves for $3.48. Also if you dislike, are allergic, vegan, or lactose intolerant to cheese you can replace the monterey jack cheese with dairy-free cheese. In Raley’s there is a dairy-free cheese brand named Daiya for $4.99 and a lactose free cheese brand named Galaxy Go Veggie for $4.29, whereas in Walmart, there are no dairy-free cheese or lactose free cheese. If you choose to take on these alternatives or similar to, it is best to go to Raley’s due to the availability of fresh produce, lactose free, and dairy-free products.

Another affordable healthy lunch recipe for off-campus college students is the chicken with parmesan noodles recipe. Like the fajita-style quesadilla, it is easily prepared by college students and within their budget. The ingredients and prices for the chicken with parmesan noodles recipe is:

Name of Recipe:

Chicken with Parmesan Noodles

Chicken with Parmesan Noodles

Grocery store:

Raley’s

Walmart

Ingredients and its prices:

· Angel Hair Pasta $1.18

· Large carrots $0.89

· Butter $0.98

· Skinless, Boneless chicken breast halves $6.98

· Basil Pesto $3.49

· Shredded Parmesan Cheese $1.99

· Angel Hair Pasta $1.98

· Large carrots $0.58

· Butter $1.48

· Skinless, Boneless chicken breast halves $5.98

· Basil Pesto $2.78

· Shredded Parmesan Cheese $3.24

Total Price:

$ 15.51

$16.04

As listed above, by comparing Raley’s and Walmart prices we can conclude that Raley’s is more affordable than Walmart for off-campus students. According to “Chicken with Parmesan Noodles” by Better Homes and Gardens, this recipe makes six servings and is easily prepared within twenty minutes (1). This allows students to save time when cooking, especially when they are busy doing school work. Also this recipe is not only easily prepared, but it is just as healthy. It is 290 calories, which is considered a healthy meal since it is below the 300 calories mark (“Chicken with Parmesan Noodles” 1). Providing this second recipe to off-campus students allow them to consider other recipes like this one, and choose which grocery store is better to buy the ingredients listed.

According to the article titled, “10 Ways to Save Money on Food Shopping”by Kathleen M. Zelman, some other helpful tips that are useful when trying to eat healthy and affordably are going generic, thinking canned, frozen or dried, and buying products according to their season. Going generic guarantees high quality foods, which follow standards that promise healthy food (1). An effective way to check if the food is healthy is by checking the nutrition labels located on the foods packaging (Zelman 2). Purchasing canned, frozen, or dried food can be less expensive than fresh food, yet they have the same nutritional value (Zelman 3). These kinds of foods also tend to have a higher expiration date, which means that the food would last longer without going bad, also helping you save money. Buying products according to their season makes the product less expensive (Zelman 5). For example, during the summer corn is usually ten cents each, and during the winter it is about ten times more than the summer price. Having this knowledge will make it easier for you to save money and eat healthy all at once (Zelman 5).

Moreover, these two local stores can be reached by bus, specifically CatTracks. UC Merced students use this as their primary method of transportation because it is free and can take you to many local areas. The main busses that can be used to get to Raley’s on G street are the Fastcat, the E-line, the E-2 and the C-2 (Fall 2014 CatTracks Bus Routes 1). The busses that arrive at the Walmart on Olive avenue are the E-line, the E-1, and the C-1 (Fall 2014 CatTracks Bus Routes 1). This makes it easy and accessible for students to shop at these stores, but may limit some students as well. Since many students are only able to use the bus stops near their home, many students may not be able to go to Walmart or Raley’s unless they take multiple busses. One method of simplifying this and saving time is to schedule your trips. This can be done by using many available resources. One useful resource is the bus schedules, which can be easily found on the CatTracks website. The websites address is cattracks.ucmerced.edu. Students can use the bus schedule to help plan trips by giving you the times when the bus should arrive at the stop. The Fleetmatics mobile app can also help. This app is designed to give students live information of where the bus is at throughout the day(Fall 2014 CatTracks Bus Routes 1).This app can be used to make sure students never miss the bus or question at what exact time it should arrive. By doing these two small actions you can secure a safe and timely trip with little to no complications.

In order to stick to a healthy meal like the fajitas-style quesadilla, and not buy items that you do not need and are unhealthy for you, it is suggested to write a list of food you only need to buy at the grocery store. According to the article, “Eat Better, Spend Less” written by Fitness Magazine, it is helpful to “decide on the recipes you want to make for the week,” and then “jot down the ingredients you need and head to the supermarket” (Johnson 1). By following this method, you will no longer question if you need to buy an item that was not on your list because most likely you would not. So, there will be no more contemplating, or actual buying of a product that is not needed, instead you will save more money at the end of your trip at the store.

Do you think a hand written grocery list is not convenient for you? The way that society works today is that college students would prefer something handier and less bothersome than a hand written grocery list. Students have to keep track of a lot of paper work for school, it would be common for a grocery list to go missing. Most college students own a portable electronic device; either a smartphone or a tablet that could hold the grocery list for better access. There are apps in the app stores for just about anything, including a grocery list maker. For android users the most recommended app to use is, the Out of Milk Shopping List which can be found in the Google Play Store for free. For Apple users the app we most recommended is Grocery IQ, which is free in the App Store. These apps are useful and will work just like a regular shopping list. Since most of the teenagers have their phones all the time these apps will make shopping fast and easy because you will not forget what you need.

College students are often very tight on money and they tend to not eat healthy because they do not want to spend too much money. Again, in the article “10 Ways to Save Money on Food Shopping” by Kathleen M. Zelman, she argues that eating healthy is cheaper than what people think. There is a stereotype that healthy foods are more expensive so people tend to purchase unhealthy foods to keep the extra money in their pockets. This article goes against that stereotype, “The savings came from reducing portion sizes and from buying fewer of the high-calorie foods that tend to increase the amount spent at the grocery store”(1). When someone stays away from the extra food that they do not need they save more money. This is a huge tip that college students should take into consideration every time they take a trip to the supermarket. A helpful question to ask is “Is it a need or a want?” Usually the “wants” can wait, it is more important to get the needs.

In conclusion, there are many tips that can be used when trying to eat healthy and save money. Eating healthy is probably one of the cheapest ways a person can go. The fajita style quesadilla and chicken with parmesan noodles are just some of the many healthy recipes that are delicious to enjoy. As off-campus college students it is understandable that there is a need to save money in order to pay bills, but that is no excuse to not take care of your health. By following these tips one should save money. It requires a little more research than just showing up to the store and shopping but the results are worth it. Comparing the products at specific stores to find the lowest prices and making a shopping list is just the beginning of saving money while eating healthy.

Works Cited

“Chicken with Parmesan Noodles.” Better Homes & Gardens. Meredith Corporation, n.d Web 16

Dec.  2014.

“Fajita-Style Quesadilla.” Better Homes & Gardens. Meredith Corporation, n.d Web 30 Nov. 2014.

"Fall 2014 CatTracks Bus Routes." CatTracks. UC Regents, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.

Johnson, Sharlene K. "Eat Better, Spend Less." Fitness Magazine. Meredith Corporation, 2014.

Web. 25 Nov. 2014.

Menoni, Tanya. “7 Time-Saving Grocery List Apps for the iPhone”. About Tech.com. 2014. 08

Dec 2014.

"Raley's." Raleys.com. Raley's Family of Fine Stores, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.

"Walmart." Walmart.com. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.

Ybañez, Alvin. “Best Grocery Apps for Androids”. Apps.com. 20 July 2012. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.

Zelman, MPH, RD, LD WebMD Feature, Kathleen M. "10 Ways to Save Money on Food

Shopping." WebMD. WebMD, 11 June 2012. Web. 01 Dec. 2014.

Appendix

Alejandra searching for ingredients at Raley’s Website.

Kristel Andal creating a visual aid for ingredients and prices at Walmart and Raley’s.

Fabiola searching Walmart’s Website for ingredients’ prices.