Tag: food

4 Easy, Cheap and Healthy Hostel Meals

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Throughout my time abroad, I am always traveling. We all know that traveling is expensive, but there are many ways to save money, especially when it comes to food. A lot of people believe that staying in hostels is “sketchy” or “cheap”, but now days, there are many hostels that are nicer than many hotels. One of the best amenities when it comes to staying in a hostel is the guest kitchen. This means you can cook your own meals saving you a ton of money rather than eating out for every meal, which can really add up. Sometimes, thinking of something easy as well as healthy to make can be difficult. Especially when you are traveling, you don’t know what you are going to be able to find at the supermarket. With that being found, I have found a few recipes to make while staying in a hostel. All of them are made with easy to find ingredients that are healthy and are simple to make!

  1. GRILLED CHEESE, HAM, AND TOMATO SANDWICH: Sometimes hostels serve breakfast so if yours does, try and take some bread, ham, and cheese back to your fridge so you don’t have to go out and buy it yourself. If this is the case, all you would need to buy is some veggies like tomato. You can even take out the ham to make it vegetarian.

Kitchen tools needed: Frying pan and oil, sharp knife, spatula (or get creative with what you’ve got)
Ingredients:2 slices of bread, Ham and cheese slices,Tomato, sliced

HOW TO MAKE IT:

 -Make a sammie with all of the ingredients and throw it on the frying pan.
– Turn over once. Welcome to some gooey goodness, with a bit of protein and veggies.

2. PERSONAL PIZZAS: If you are with a group of people, have everyone contribute by buying one ingredient/topping for the pizza. Cooking the pizza could also be fun when cooking with a big group! Even if you are not with a group, see if other people in the hostel want to join!

Kitchen tools needed: Oven, toaster oven, grill, or if you have to, a frying pan and oil
Ingredients:Pitas, pre-made pizza crust, or bread slices from breakfast, Tomato sauce, Any cheese or other toppings you like on your pizza

HOW TO MAKE IT: 

-Lay out your “pizza crust” and spread with tomato sauce.
– Cook your crust in your kitchen tool of choice for 2-3 minutes. Watch to make sure it doesn’t burn!
-Take the crusts out and top them with whatever ingredients you want.

3. PENUT BUTTER BANANA SNADWICH: Perfect for quick and easy breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even a snack! Instead of a basic peanut butter sandwich, add the banana for some protein and extra flavor.

Kitchen tools needed: Knife
Ingredients: Bread (from breakfast), Peanut Butter, Bananas, sliced (you can also use strawberries or blueberries)

HOW TO MAKE IT:

– Spread peanut butter on bread.
-Slice banana and put on top of the peanut butter.
-Assemble your sandwich.

4: VEGETABLE STIR FRY: Although this one may be a bit tricky to find the ingredients depending on where you are staying, it is defiantly the healthiest option of the recipes. You can also add chicken or beef for some added protein.

Kitchen tools needed: Frying pan and oil, Sharp knife if cutting your own vegetables, Stovetop burner or hot plate, pot to cook rice, Spatula or spoon to stir vegetables
Ingredients: Frozen bag of assorted vegetables (you can find this at most supermarkets around the world, but you can always pick the veggies yourself), Brown Rice, Teriyaki or Soy sauce

HOW TO MAKE IT:

-Cook rice according to directions on package.
-While the rice is cooking, add oil to frying pan and bring to medium high heat. Add veggies and cook according to package. If you’re using fresh vegetables, slice them and cook on frying pan for 6-7 minutes or until slightly brown, stirring frequently.
-Add vegetables and cooked rice together, and top with sauce.

Heres a video I found on quick & easy hostel meals

Hopefully with these recipes you can save money while traveling, as well as eat a yummy healthy meal!

Citizen Journalism

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This week in class we discussed citizen journalism. This is a very controversial term which many people don’t agree with. It refers to the reporting of news events by members of the public using the Internet to spread the information. It is easily spread through personal websites, blogs, microblogs, social media and so on.

Heres an awesome video that better explains citizen journalism.

An example of citizen journalism would be the use of food blogs. An article states that 79% of respondents consulted U.S. food blogs at least daily, if not multiple times a day, crediting their increased usage to a food bloggers candid writing style, diverse voice and range of topics, as well as their approachable personalities. Websites like yelp, trip advisor, and even google all review restaurants. Citizen journalism is used throughout these food critic websites because of how peopler posting their opinions on the restaurants, rather than it being actual credible facts. So why do we trust these websites?

 

 

 

 

 

Example of a Yelp review

 

 

Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Post

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This week in class, we talked about virtual and augmented reality. Before this class I knew what virtual reality was, but never really had a clear idea of what augmented reality was. Both virtual and augmented reality are being used to impact the future of the food industry. Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated real-world environment, augmented reality (AR) remains in the real world and uses a variety of hardware devices and extensions to give users a layered or multidimensional view of an object.

The main areas that are affected by VR and AR in the food industry are designed to reduce the costs of training and to enhance the customer experience. When looking at reducing the cost of training, Simulating the training with VR creates an excellent simulated but noticeably unrealistic environment. When using this type of training the chefs can then visualize the process and the details looking at a single screen, requiring only one video to instruct any number of chefs. When using VR and AR on the marketing end for the food industry, in order to get customers to come to your restaurant, it requires creating a visual experience using VR and AR that is memorable and motivational to the consumer. Here are two examples of Coca Cola using VR and AR in their marketing campaigns.

We can see that VR is an experience, AR is an immersive experience and more interactive for the customer. AR has extended itself into connecting the physical world with the virtual world. This shows us a whole new world for marketing speaking in terms with connecting with the customer. In this example, companies are making video games available to customers on their cereal boxes.

Today and moving forward, technology is going to be enhancing our overall experience as a customer. For example, tequila manufacturer Patron has already taken this bold step. The company recently launched a 360-degree video showing the entire tequila manufacturing process, from harvesting the agave plant to bottling the drink. Sure, pictures and videos are fine when it comes to choosing where you want to eat, but AR is so much better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Media Post

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This week, we discussed social media. Social media is something we are surrounded by all the time in our everyday lives. Especially us millennials, everything is documented through social media. This can be a good and bad thing. When it comes to food, I always go to Instagram to get inspiration on meals to make or even when choosing where to go to eat. For example, tonight me and my roommates went to Monster sushi. When simply just looking at the menu, we had trouble deciding what to order. Instantly we all pulled out our phones to search “Monster sushi” on Instagram. There are a couple ways you can use Instagram when searching for food. First, would be looking at what people have posted under the tagged location. This is where you are going to find most of the photos of different foods the restaurant you are eating at is offering. I always do this because sometimes when just looking at the menu you can’t really get a feel for what the meal is going to taste like. That is why some food places add photos on their menu of their most popular dishes because more people are willing to order something that has a photo of it looking yummy. The next way you can use Instagram when searching for restaurants is simply finding their company Instagram page. This is where you are going to see all their best sellers because you are getting information from the actual source. However, using the location tactic when searching for food is going to give you more of a real answer, because it is customers posting.

Instagram isn’t the only social media we can use when looking at food. Facebook is another great way restaurants advertise their food. For example, when out to eat you can use Facebook to “check in” to show all your friends where you are eating. By checking in other people can do research on where you are out to eat. Facebook also allows you to read reviews on different restaurants to see if they are worth going to or not. Other than going out to eat, Facebook is always posting videos on different recipes to make. For example, I am obsessed with watching the “Tasty” videos that pop up on my Facebook feed and always save them so I can make them on my own!

Have you ever seen someone post a snapchat or even an Instagram story of food and you wonder where they are eating? In my opinion, social media is a great way for restaurants to be advertised due to the fact we can check in and show people where you are eating. That way there’s no need to wonder where that burger came from because we can use social media to advertise where, and what we are eating.

Good article on social media marketing