The Patels of New Jersey

                                             Typical Food Breakdown By Cost Per Week

Dairy: 15 %

Fruits, Vegetables, and Legumes: 50%

Grains: 10%

Spices: 5%

Premade Foods and Snacks: 15%

Drinks: 5%

Total: ~$100-150

My family is usually very busy. My father mostly comes home at 3, but sometime stays at work until 9. My mother, being a dentist, has to stretch her hours out until 6, but on Wednesdays and Thursdays her work lasts until 8:30. My brotheris a tae kwon do enthusiast, and often goes to practice after school between 5 and 7 on the weekdays. Thus, when it comes to eating meals, we often find ourselves eating at different intervals. Lunch is almost always eaten separately due to time constraints. Dinners are more or less the same, unless its the rare occasion when we eat out or order food in, in which case we do eat together.

The kitchen

However, that doesn't mean that our meals lack any of the love and enthusiasm that the meals of a closely knit family do. My mother, being the main cook of the family, often goes out of her way to make special 'get-together' foods, like 'katri' (potato stick snacks), that the entire family loves to eat. When one member of the family begins eating these 'get-together' foods, it's not long until all four of us are crowded in the kitchen munching on a delicious snack or satisfying meal.

Snacking is big in my family, as it helps us keep up the amount of energy we need to exert in our daily lives. We often have little bits of food in between meals, such as a bag of Poptarts or a bowl of Doritos, but sometimes we can't resist the temptation of Indian snacks like mathia or paratha. My brother's personal favorite is 'vaghareli' cereal, which is basically 'cooked' cereal mixed in with spices and other flavors. This gives the cereal a unique taste that can prove to be very addicting.

Overall, our dinners mainly consist of some sort of grain (usually in the form of Indian bread), plenty of vegetables, rice, spices or spice condiments on the side, and a banana. My mother usually prepares this in the morning before she leaves, so all my brother and I have to do is heat it up at night and enjoy. While we all usually eat separately and have different favorite foods, the food of my family has always been a focal point in bringing everyone in the house together.