Thanksgiving Holiday Macaroni and Cheese

MACARONI AND CHEESE FOR THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY 3

Macaroni and Cheese for Thanksgiving Holiday!

Outline

1. What meals have traditionally been popular during Thanksgiving holiday?

2. Which dish do you prefer during Thanksgiving?

3. Are there variations in as far as the preparation of this meal is concerned?

4. Could the meal be deemed a healthy food choice?

Discussion

The Thanksgiving holiday is a time for us to be jovial and thankful for the various blessings that have been bestowed upon us. We all celebrate Thanksgiving in different styles and formats. However, central to this particular holiday is Thanksgiving dinner! Traditionally this has consisted of a wide variety of foods and delicacies including, but not limited to; roast turkey, pumpkin pie, dinner rolls, mashed potatoes (Hallinan, 2019). My favorite dish over the last few Thanksgiving holidays has been Macaroni and Cheese. This happens to be not only a sumptuous choice of meal, but also a healthy one!

To give a brief description, this particular dish is largely made of a vegetarian recipe of macaroni and cheese. To the best of my knowledge, there are essentially two options one could embrace in the preparation of this dish – i.e. the oven-baked casserole or the pan-prepared cooked macaroni and cheese sauce. I find the latter tastier. I also like to keep it simple, with no layers of assorted ingredients. .

To establish whether this is a healthy dish or not, it would be prudent to strip the meal to its basic components, which are pasta (mainly comprising of grain) and cheese (mainly comprising of milk, culture, salt, and rennet). It is important to note that pasta (especially refined pasta – which we prefer) happens to have a rather high carb content. Carbs are a crucial energy source for the body. However, according to the Healthy Eating Hub (as cited in the Heart Research Institute – HRI, 2023), high “carbohydrate intake places a large metabolic load on the body” (para. 3). This, as Healthy Eating Hub (as cited in the Heart Research Institute – HRI, 2023) further indicates, could affect the metabolic health of an individual and result in weight gain. On the other hand, cheese has been described by the Harvard School of Public Health (2020) as a dairy food that is nutrient-dense. More specifically, it could be a source of minerals, fats, and protein (Harvard School of Public Health, 2020). In the final analysis, the macaroni and cheese dish is a delicacy that, if enjoyed in small proportions, is likely to be beneficial to health.