I like strange foods

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Back in my grade, middle, and high school days, to my tastes, the hot lunch program couldn't be beat. There were so many great options serve, with everything cooked on site. half pint cartons of white, or chocolate milk for three cents, amazing, fresh breads, rolls, and of course, everyone's favorites - sticky buns. I loved the shepherds pie, , corned beef casserole, tuna casserole, pigs in the blanket, toast beef with real mashed potatoes and gravy, even the fish sticks, and comod's Government cheese sticks. It was rare that
I didn't stick around for seconds, after everyone else was out on the playground.

Deserts were usually freshly made pudding, even tapioca, lemon bars, fruity gelatin, cottage cheese with fruit, etc.

With an endless stomach, skinny as a rail, and ridiculously high energy output, it was a good time to be a kid, much better than my children' lunch menu, that was a poor shadow of what I enjoyed.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[taxlady]

I ate in the school cafeteria on Thursdays, hot dog day. I remember enjoying it, but I don't remember the details. On rare occasion, my mum hadn't made a lunch for us to bring to school and she would give us the 35 cents for a school lunch. I often really disliked what they served. I remember feeling nauseous from the smell of mac and cheese. I tried to avoid it. But, the food was cooked on site. I vaguely remember Jello with some sort of artificial whipped topping was a common dessert. On days that we didn't eat cafeteria food, we would buy a small carton of milk for a nickle. I did love my milk.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I loved school lunches, I was often able to trade my sack lunch for someone's lunch tray. I loved the food so much I made friends with the lunch lady, Izola Kopf, and she gave me the recipes for my favorites. Often, she would let me behind the line to observe and help with small prep chores. Missed eating a few times because I was caught up in the scenes behind the line.

 

[Roll_Bones]

I hated school lunch until high school. We were allowed to leave the campus for lunch in high school.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

I don't remember sticky buns in the cafeteria. Well not on the food line anyway. Sometimes on the chairs, if you didn't look before sitting.

I think what everyone remembers most was the peanut butter cookies. I am sure that every elementary, junior and senior high school cafeteria in North America had the same recipe for peanut butter cookies, and they were crisp and delicious! Unlike the Jell-O, which, regardless of colour, was totally flavourless.

Too bad they aren't allowed to offer peanut butter cookies any more. Peanut allergies, dontcha know.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

I hated school lunch until high school. We were allowed to leave the campus for lunch in high school.

I hated school, period. It was like a prison sentence that you served Monday through Friday, from 8:30am to 3:30pm, the exact opposite of the work furlough program.

 

[Andy M.]

My daughter's favorite school lunch was American Chop Suey. She liked it so much she asked me to come up with a recipe that tasted like the stuff in the school cafeteria. We worked it out together and now it's a staple in three families, ours, hers and SO's daughters.

 

[summer57]

I've read that the school lunches in France are very impressive. And -- free, funded by the local municipalities.

 

[skilletlicker]

Most of my schooling was in military boarding schools. Acquired a taste for creamed dry beef on toast. Also, grits were always served with scrambled eggs. The eggs came to the kitchen in several gallon round cardboard tubs. We all thought at the time they were powdered but probably just shelled and blended. I eat a lot of grits and often still mix them with fried or scrambled eggs.

Came to prefer those meals and others like them to my Mom's '50s "home cooking," which always seem to involve a lot of can openers and boxes, Rice-a-roni, instant potatoes, etc.

 

[summer57]

Most of my schooling was in military boarding schools. Acquired a taste for creamed dry beef on toast. Also, grits were always served with scrambled eggs...

Came to prefer those meals and others like them to my Mom's '50s "home cooking," which always seem to involve a lot of can openers and boxes, Rice-a-roni, instant potatoes, etc.

Nothing wrong with grits & eggs! We don't get grits up here, but I've had more than my share of Mom's '50s hamburger helper, cans and rice-a-roni, too. Ugh.

Happily, I spent a lot of time learning to cook from my grandma. She cooked in restaurants most of her life, and cooked for boarders when I was little. She was an amazing and creative cook and I learned so much from her. She was also very strict when it came to cooking, and although it turned my mom & aunt totally off cooking, I thrived on it.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

My daughter's favorite school lunch was American Chop Suey. She liked it so much she asked me to come up with a recipe that tasted like the stuff in the school cafeteria. We worked it out together and now it's a staple in three families, ours, hers and SO's daughters.

What's he recipe?

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Kathleen]

The lunch ladies at our junior high could cook! Everything was fresh. Everything was from scratch. And everyone wanted our school lunches. In elementary school, there was no lunch served at the school before I was in sixth grade. We either brown-bagged it, or ran home to eat - which I still do not know how we managed that during the short lunch time we were allocated. In sixth grade, they started to import these little horrible lunches in tiny bento-sized plastic trays.

By high school, the lunch was pretty standardized, and gone were the days where we had lunches made from scratch. Burgers with weird "chargrilled" marks were served. Tater tots were good. But....nothing at all like junior high.