Favorite School Lunch

[jehoram]

*looking confused*
.....and the problem with that is what exactly?

Well, my kitchen was a little smaller than theirs. Just a little.

 

[goalie31]

Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets - elementary school in England (nicest lunch ladies EVER too!)

 

[bailadora]

... but I do recall that my cafeteria had these really dynamite rolls. I could make a meal of them. Years later, I went to an elementary school (kind of a "take your Dad to school day") and by god, they were serving the same rolls! I asked if they had the recipe, and the counterperson said, "Well, the recipe I have makes 700 rolls."

Try this. I haven't made them yet, but the write up claims they taste exactly like the ones in school, and the recipe is supposedly foolproof!

 

[Que]

The only place that Pizza didn't taste like Bisquick was Connecticut. I was there for the grand opening of the Norman H. Rockwell Elementary School. It was also the first place to have milk pouches instead of bags. Chocolate milk was an option but I think I actually avoided it. Mom had (has?) me convinced the process of making it does something untoward to the calcium absorption. I was desperate to grow, so anything that might length my bones...

Earlier I got my meals probably with some grown on "The Farm" one of the most infamous prisons in the country. Back then the little Catholic boys could not eat meat on Fridays so we all had to consume Shrimp Gumbo. I was not a fan, but in hindsight it was interesting. Pretty well done for an institutional setting. Every Wednesday we were served Red Beans and Rice.

They offered Breakfast for the poor kids and for some reason I was there early one day and a friend of mine (whose family, like mine likely didn't qualify for the program) encouraged me to go. It was a wonderland. Little boxes of Kelloggs Cereal. (Mom had us choking down cracked wheat or dry omelets for breakfast, shredded wheat if it was cereal)

I told mom my great find, she explained I shouldn't take form the poor so that was my one visit. When I went they just served whomever showed up. No questions.

In Mane I got Welsh Rabbit once. Interesting. I think my palate would have liked it better if I hadn't been nervously poking it for the rabbit part wondering what that tasted like.

Speaking of prisons and institutional food. I was popped an hour or so after 3:10 trying to escape Yuma once. I was there for taco-boat Thursday. Not bad at all. The other inmates informed me that was the best of the fare there.

 

[Kalamain]

Back in the 80s I remember having a fritter of sorts.... It was a round of some kind of reclaimed meat with a slice of potato on top dipped in batter and fried.

Best. Meal. Evar.

My daughter now only eats the chicken salad sandwich on a Friday and packs her own food the rest of the week. Her school meals are, apparently, utter horror stories. I can't believe they are that bad as here in the UK they have regular checks, but she won't eat them.
She eats well and doesn't pack crap so we let her.

 

[dirtycarol]

The grilled cheese and tomato soup was good! I wish I could find the soup in stores, (it wasn't Campbells!). Another favorite was the tuna melt!

 

[Aquagal]

Ironically enough, I had PBandJ for my entire elementary through jr high years. Every single day. Like maybe once or twice a year we'd get a school lunch. The tacos or no bake cookies were my favorite.

 

[sereneone4u]

Our jr high and high school had milkshakes. You had to purchase a meal to get a milkshake though and i liked to save my lunch money to spend at the mall, so my boyfriend would buy lunch and get me a milkshake...and let me eat off his tray if I was so inclined.

 

[unregistered]

 

[lovecraft68]

Ham and cheese with Mayo. Its all I ever wanted.

My mother would try to make me other things or ask if I wanted something new, but I never did.

 

[SweetErika]

When my mom found out my elementary school lunches were a whole day's worth of calories and fat, I wasn't allowed to get them anymore. I remember liking the chicken nuggets, tater tots, and everything else we never, ever had at home before the moratorium began, though. I brought my own lunch throughout middle and high school.

I'm dismayed to see my son's school is still serving a lot of the things that were on my school's menu 30 years ago. Many of the districts here have made the move toward much healthier fare, but ours isn't there yet. It should be, especially considering the demographics in this area. Between the lack of nutrition currently and all of my son's allergy/intolerance issues, he will be bringing his own lunch next year and beyond.

In the summer, I often take my son to get a free lunch at local parks and schools because it makes my life a bit easier when we're on the go. I remove anything that's unhealthy for him, but I've been really pleased to see many districts serving more and more whole foods and options for kids with allergies. Sadly, our district is still serving stuff like processed cheese, fruit preparations w/ added sugar and other crap kids don't need.

 

[piddlyass]

I remember, in elementary school, they used to make this concoction they called a flying saucer. It consisted of a slice of bologna, a scoop of mashed potatoes and a slice of cheese on top. Ooooh and those canned purple plums for dessert. I kinda miss those days now.

 

[YankeeGirl74]

Pizza on Friday...the institutional square kind as described in the thread. But once a month on a Friday, it was fried dough pizza, which seems to be a very regional NY/CT thing. Most people identify with the friend dough with butter, cinnamon or powdered sugar; however the kind I speak of was topped with marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese. It was divine. You ripped the sides of the dough and dipped it in the sauce and worked your way in. Yummy!,

 

[YankeeGirl74]

I was also a fan of a scoop of those stiff, mashed potatoes with the chicken in gravy poured over it, buttered corn, white bread (no butter) and pudding with whipped cream.

 

[Que]

Pizza on Friday...the institutional square kind as described in the thread. But once a month on a Friday, it was fried dough pizza, which seems to be a very regional NY/CT thing. Most people identify with the friend dough with butter, cinnamon or powdered sugar; however the kind I speak of was topped with marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese. It was divine. You ripped the sides of the dough and dipped it in the sauce and worked your way in. Yummy!,

I had that in Connecticut. I never thought about it like the Indian Fry bread we have out here. I just knew that Connecticut School lunch pizza was infinitely better than the Bisquick pizza everywhere else. Making actual pizza dough if you have an industrial Hobart is pretty simple. I have no idea why they don't. Maybe the cost of a dough roller?

 

[YankeeGirl74]

Perhaps it is. I remember (I was in elementary school in the 80s), that there were several Italian ladies in our cafeteria kitchen. They would roll out the dough, cut it and fry it in small batches, reusing the oil. I'm sure food laws have led to change things and perhaps makes it cost prohibitive?

This was also a time where the school served grinders (subs, hoagies to the rest of the world), that were made by a local grinder shop.

 

[Emerson40]

We just received a permission slip / notice from the school, should we wish to sign up our wee charge for a once a week hot lunch program.

If we sign her up, she will be getting "hot lunches" delivered on Wednesdays from the likes of A&W, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and the lot.

Jesus wept.

 

[Hypoxia]

Cafeterias were not subsidized when I was in public school. "School lunch" was whatever I took with me, usually sandwich and fruit, and maybe a carton of milk from the cafeteria -- that was a splurge.

 

[heartbreaker29]

When I was in high school we would have fried chicken every few months

and once in a while we would have Subway or McDonald's for lunch.

I loved the Fried chicken it was very addicting.

 

[YankeeGirl74]

We just received a permission slip / notice from the school, should we wish to sign up our wee charge for a once a week hot lunch program.

If we sign her up, she will be getting "hot lunches" delivered on Wednesdays from the likes of A&W, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and the lot.

Jesus wept.

I am completely surprised that schools still do this!!!! Wow! And they wonder why kids have an obesity/nutrition issue!!

The irony being that I'm sure in health class, your child will be taught a unit on healthy eating. *insert eye roll*

 

[Missingout]

Peanut butter sandwich. Take that you anaphylaxis beings.
Just kidding

 

[Que]

I am grandma-sitting for a friend. I'm off, he has day-shifts, His mom is working and their care-giver hurt her back.

So there is this meals-on wheels program probably costing the government and arm and a leg per meal.

All it is is a tv dinner warmed but delivered at the wrong time, some potato salad, a piece of fruit and a carton of milk.

Organizing the fridge, I find grandma is about a week and a half to two weeks ahead in cartons of milk. I got grandma to drink the day's ration by pouring it into a pretty glass. (I have kids, I know all the tricks to coerce nutritional intake.)

So. I helped myself to a spare carton of milk with my lunch. Something about the taste and texture of the carton made me wax nostalgic.

 

[silverwhisper]

tater tots, damn it! those things fucking rocked!

ed

 

[lovecraft68]

Yup tater tots.

In high school they started a salad bar which was pretty "new" back in the mid eighties. Well the first week they had these cool cheese cubes and the little baby tomatoes.

After the third food fight of the week they ditched the cubes and started serving sliced tomatoes.

Took away the easy ammunition.

 

[snugglestruggle]

Shepard's Pie was mine and favorite desert was an ice cream sandwich.