The second week; my Crock Pot Meal

The second week of my panel is over! Whoo-hoo! With the help of my two awesome undergraduate assistants, I'm ahead of schedule! That means in my "free time" I can edit my journal article and thesis drafts which have been on my desk for weeks. I am starting to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Oh and what is this light? Graduation!!!!

Let's not forget that the husband also helped and labeled over 5,000 cups prior to the panel. As he has said numerous times, yeah, it's not fair that I am getting a PhD and he gets nothing for being my lab grunt and reading over my thesis drafts. He's way smarter than me, so smart that he was wise enough not to go to grad school. I love you Mike! He's back in Hawaii working longer hours at work than me. He works 6-7 days a week and has been pulling 12-hour shifts. With the time difference and our hectic schedules, we were lucky to have a phone date and celebrate Valentine's Day by playing online Scrabble. For now I have my "temporary husband" Aaron taking care of me. (I'm allowed to say this because Mike knows Aaron and is comfortable with our long-distance marriage.) He makes sure that I am eating, brings me beer chips (when I'm stressed, I am a chip binge-eater), and goes on lunch food runs with Erika.
So here's the crock pot meal that was waiting for me at home on Wednesday.
Recipe:
2 large chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes-Mexican flavor(?)
1 can of corn (drained)
1 can of pinto beans (drained)
1/2 cup of tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic
1/2 c. water (I would have omitted it, so it wasn't so soupy)
1 T. kosher salt (add more to taste)
1.5 t. cumin
1/2 t. Mexican chili
1 T garlic powder
1 chicken bouillon cube

Instructions: Throw everything in a crock pot. Turn the heat on to low, let it cook for 8+ hours. I let mine cook for about 12 hours. Stir and fix up the flavors to taste. Shred the chicken with a fork. Serve and eat.

For my first crock pot meal, it was not bad. It took less than five minutes to prep, and it was nice to have a meal waiting for me at home. I even threw the chicken breasts in frozen. If I were to make it again, I'd also add some chopped onions and chipotles or something to add heat to the dish.

Frozen dinners. blah! Hello crock pot meals!

My research

For the past few years, my "job" has been being a Food Science graduate student. I'm specializing in Sensory Science which involves evaluating and understanding foods/products, etc. using human senses. It also involves a LOT of statistics. I'm not doing the discipline any justice with that definition, but trust me, it's super duper cool and if you're interested, here's a link to the Institute of Food Technologists' (IFT) Sensory Evaluation Division (SED).

Sometimes we run acceptance tests to determine the level of liking of a product. Other tests like a Descriptive Analysis panel involves training panelists to hone in on key attributes(sweetness, flavor, texture, etc.) of products and rate the samples on these attributes. It's a great field to be in, plus there never seems to be a shortage of sensory scientist jobs on the mainland. You could work for companies focusing on food, pet food, skincare, household products...pretty much any company that involves consumer insight.

Yeah, so my lab is great! We all really enjoy food,like to eat, and like to study food. That's probably the reason why most of us decided to pursue Food Science and specialize in Sensory Science.

In February I'll be conducting a Descriptive Analysis panel for 4 weeks, so the blog posts will probably be sparse next month. I'll be training my human subjects to be "instruments" in rating attributes in solutions.
Does it sound like fun? Email me uiucsensory 'at' gmail.com if you're in Champaign, IL and interested in participating. This semester a few of my labmates are conducting panels, so if you want to be a human guinea pig, let me know.

My panel runs from Feb. 2-Feb. 27 (~1 hour/day, five days a week, four weeks) and we're paying you! Plus every day you get a snack (chips, snack bar, etc) too.

Beauty Teas

I try to stay current with new food products, especially functional beverages since my thesis revolves around these drinks. The beverage market is booming....think about it the more water you can sell, the more money a company makes. How cheap is water? It's the cheapest ingredient out there. The bottled water industry purifies or filters water, packages it and sells you a 18oz bottle for $1.00. Let's put this in perspective for you all. There are 128 ounces in one gallon, which means that you are paying $7.00 per gallon of water.
Compared to other food products there is definitely less money going into the Research and Development of beverages. The base formula is a sweetener, flavoring, pH controller (citric acid, sodium citrate), and maybe preservatives. Companies make "unique" products by adding functional ingredients such as tea extracts, supplements (i.e. vitamins, minerals), or stimulants (i.e. caffeine, guarana)

The next boom to hit markets will be beauty teas. Apparently beauty teas are big in Japan, but in the upcoming years we should be seeing them in American markets. In 2007 Coca-Cola and L'Oreal (yes the make-up company) teamed up to make a tea-based beverage called Lumae that will help promote great skin from the "inside out." I find this to be a great play on words. Extensive research must occur for these kinds of claims to be substantiated, so if the company can prove that consuming these ingredients will improve the skin, many kudos to them. But from another standpoint, if two major companies are pooling their resources and spending the money to develop Lumae, they have to know what they are doing and in theory should produce a legit product.

In 2006, Coca-cola and Nestle teamed up to introduce Enviga which has ECGC and is supposed to aid in burning Calories. There has been controversy surrounding this beverage and that this drink is not really as good as it seems.

Cornell's IFT Product Development team developed a beauty tea called TranquiliTea for this year's competition. I am curious to see how they were able to substantiate their claims when companies like Coke are under scrutiny with their carefully worded claims. The article reads that Aloe vera is the key functional ingredient in the product. I've been drinking this Korean Aloe drink (it tastes like grape juice with pieces of aloe) ever since I studied in Korea in 2002 and didn't realize that I was helping my skin become healthier. Maybe it would help if I could read the Korean wording on the bottle.

My little rant about Food Products in America. We travel to other countries and see novel products. A few years later you see them in the American market and think, "That's not novel."

Here are some examples:
*Pretz sticks and now Pringles Stix.

*Mixed Alcoholic Drinks in Cans- Back in 2004 when I was living in Australia it was a commonplace to purchase mixed alcoholic beverages in cans. Yes, I purchased rum and coke premixed in a can. This will soon be common in the American market too.

I guess the positive benefit of the "borrowing" of ideas is that eventually there will be American counterparts to the foods I miss from other countries.