First figure out how many cookies Jose got rid of. So firstly there would be those 5 that he ate, and then 21 that he gave to his friends (each friend got 3 cookies, so 7x3 is <u>21 cookies</u>). Add 21 and 5 to get 26. Since he got rid of 26 cookies, but subtract 26 from 54 to get the number of cookies Jose has left: