SEMINAR: Sustainable Meal Project

In this project you will design a sustainable meal.   Dishes from this project will be chosen later to cook both in a conventional kitchen and a solar oven.
We will be researching many aspects of the meal you choose, but we will begin with a main course and research its history.  Create a Google Doc for the project titled [your name]-Sustainable Meal and share it with me. (See my Example Project Doc) 

• STEP ONE (1): Choose a main course or main dish (not an appetizer or desert) that is the key part of a meal that you eat in your family.  Try to choose something that has as much tradition and history as possible.  Perhaps it is passed down from a grandparent, or it is a food that is traditional in New Mexico or another country or region.  Try to choose something that has a history of at least 50 to 100 years.
• Step 1A Recipe: find  a recipe online that seems close to what you make at home. (Include links to your sources!)
• Step 1B Origin and History:  Locate the city or region  that this food comes from (it may be multiple locations) and describe and people groups who are first known to eat it.   Cite information from at least 3 sources. (Include links to your sources like I did in the example)
• Step 1C Ingredients: List the ingredients of the recipe in order from what the recipe uses the most of to what it uses the least of.
• Step 1D Ingredient History: choose 1 plant-sourced ingredient and one animal-sourced ingredient to focus your research on. (If you do not have an animal-sourced ingredient you could do two plants, but diversity is more fun.)
• STEP TWO (2): In this step you will be researching the changes in ONE of your chosen ingredients from step 1d over time.  Be sure to link your sources for each part!
• Step 2a: How has the plant or animal you chose changed over time?
• Humans select plants and and animals with desirable qualities and breed or plant them.  Over time our selections make big and small changes in the organisms.  Changes will be less for wild animals and plants but most likely some change in habitat or habit will have occurred.
• Step 2b: How have farming (or hunting/gathering) methods changed since the first known civilization that consumed this plant or animal? 
• Be sure to mention key elements that changed along the way.
• focus on the comparison between early and modern methods.
• Step 2c: How has processing and cooking of the food from your plant or animal changed over time?
•  "Processing" is just a general term for methods (or "processes") of changing food to make it last longer or taste different.  Examples: drying, heating, freezing, smoking, pickling, grinding, mashing, seasoning, salting, marinating, blending, etc.