Fun question: favorite elementary school lunch

seltzermint555

There was a girl in elementary school who brought my dream lunch every day. It was a string cheese (terribly exotic to me as a child back in the 80s), Kudos bar, and a can of Coca-Cola Classic.

Sunshine_And_Sand

Pizza and French fries was always one of the Friday choices.
Chicken tender and mashed potatoes was a good one.
Sometimes our lunch ladies would come in early and make us homemade donuts; that was great!
Also, we had a salad bar, and I always liked it when there were baked potatoes and toppings on the salad bar.

alicebhsia

In Texas in middle school they served us Frito Pie. Sooo good. And I used to love the little oil and vinegar salad cups from elementary school. eta- oops elementary school..

RaeBeeBaby

greyhoundwalker wrote: »

U.K. In the 1970s, all cooked on site in a huge kitchen, In my memory it was all good except the cabbage and the semolina pudding (looked like someone threw up in the bowl) but a favourite was cheese pie (pastry base, soft oozy cheesy filling, with mashed potatoes and baked beans. Chocolate sponge pudding with mint custard!

Is chocolate sponge pudding like what we would call a cake (in the US)? Because I always think of anything called pudding and custard being about the same thing.

ms_havisham

Mexican pizza day...

bbell1985

I can't remember my favorite but I'm a teacher and the last elementary school I worked at had BANGIN' peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I never snagged one but damn it was loaded. And it was a layer of pb, jelly, and then pb again because the kids wouldn't eat them if the jelly was sitting and made the bread soggy.

wizzybeth

kam26001 wrote: »

We had "pizza bread". I don't know if my school was too poor to make real pizza or what but pizza on french bread was a delicious idea.

Pizza bread was a special treat. That was the Epic Pizza day one that was available. I always took extra money so that I could get extra pieces. Regular pizza day was that boring square stuff with weird cheese on it but even that was better than the normal typical school lunch. I also liked sloppy joe day

KateBoss7521

I always loved what they called “turkey gravy”... it was a scoop of mashed potatoes with a gravy/shredded turkey mixture poured over the top. And a white dinner roll on the side.

zugmeister

For a brief period in middle school, you could get unlimited free cheese refills with your nachos! I remember eating nacho cheese with a spoon. Bliss as a kid, horror of horrors now as an adult.

kellyjellybellyjelly

Either pizza or the stromboli they had in high school.

blueheartrisen

Both kinds of pizza they served were really good. I still eat my grilled cheese sandwiches like they made them in the cafeteria. My favorite dessert--caramel cinnamon rolls...oozy hot cinnamon-y goodness fresh from the oven. The regular rolls were good too. I always enjoyed the canned fruit. For veggies, green beans and corn.

PBJs were good but didn't have those available until high school. I think it was always hot food in my elementary school.

dsboohead

Greasy school tacos and remember the huge cinnamon rolls???

seltzermint555

alicebhsia wrote: »

In Texas in middle school they served us Frito Pie. Sooo good. And I used to love the little oil and vinegar salad cups from elementary school. eta- oops elementary school..

Oh man we had Frito Pie day in high school (Missouri, 1990s) and two of the vice principals would be on their walkie-talkies in the hall saying, "Ken, it's FRITO PIE DAY, I repeat, FRITO PIE DAY" to each other...hilarious.

They also had these Hot Pockets that were somehow cooked in their wrappers and they were much larger and better (at the time) than any Hot Pockets sold in the supermarket. They were super loaded with pepperoni and cheese....I don't even know. My husband says they have these bigger & better Hot Pockets at convenience stores but I haven't investigated since I now try to avoid them.

ccruz985

French bread pizza and stuffed shells!

its_me_april

Oh man some of these posts are taking me back . . . I'm a 90's kid and I think my school's lunches were partly the reason I was nearly vegetarian as a kid. We had the weirdest meats in cheeseburgers, "sausage" pizza, nasty dry, freezer burnt chicken nuggets. . . blegh. I did love the pizza though! Cheese or with the teenie tiny square pepperonis! So good! Also dirt pudding with a gummy worm on special occasions. We also got single serve cheese cubes that I loved and the corn with butter on the side / rolls were so tasty, too. Man I could go for an old school lunch right about now lol. . .

nowine4me

PB&J

PrincessTinyheart

amanda_deanda01 wrote: »

Remember back when you were a kid and didn't have a care in the world about what you ate....yeah I miss those days, especially the school lunches! So let's gets nostalgic and tell me what your favorite school lunch was! Mine was the chicken strips that were the size of pencils, mashed potatoes, a roll and the vanilla flavored milk

Every Friday our school cooks made peanut butter sandwiches, and the peanut butter was mixed with syrup (not sure what kind) so it was super sweet and gooey. It was served with crinkle cut fries. Pure indulged awesomeness.

They also made "sweet rice", it was a thick creamy white rice mixed with cream and sugar. It was almost like a hot rice pudding.

There was also the huge squares of cheese pizza, the grilled cheeses sandwiches... and around Thanksgiving they would serve turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce out of a can and you were a lucky kid if you got a slice with can ridges still imprinted on it.

PrincessTinyheart

Crafty_camper123 wrote: »

It was pizza day for me as well. And by pizza I mean those overly-greasy square things they plopped on your tray that you had to fold in half like a taco or lose all your toppings. But they were so good!, LOL
@kam26001 , French bread pizza is amazing!! Makes for a perfect quick weeknight dinner! You just reminded though of when we had spaghetti and "garlic bread". It was almost always leftover hamburger buns that were going a little stale. So they just slapped garlic butter on them, toasted them and called it "garlic bread"

The greasy square pizza was fantastic.

I think a restaurant could really make a go of serving nothing but nostalgic cafeteria food.

Elle_Marie_Fit

Pizza, tater tots, & chocolate milk

bioklutz

My parents always packed a lunch for me. My mom was a bit of a health nut so I remember not getting that excited about the lunches she made. But if my dad made lunch he always threw in a little something fun. This may sound a little strange but it is a fond memory! He would put frosting between wheat thins. I remember loving the salty sweet combo!

CindyMarie85

I loved the mashed potato and gravy days. YUMM!

always4my2kids

Cheese Zombies!!! Ooey gooey goodness!!

always4my2kids

Also turkey gravy, mash potatoes and fresh baked butter rolls. I guess it's the way school cafeterias use to be in the "old days". Now it's all pre-fab most places and no thought put in it.

TonyB0588

crabbybrianna wrote: »

I went to a few schools when I was growing up, and none of them served lunch. Everyone either went home for lunch or brought their own. Is it a normal thing for schools to serve lunch to kids?

The only food I remember being served was a snack in kindergarten, and it was cheez whiz on saltine crackers, and it was awful!

Yes, the government provides meals for the younger children at school. For some of the poorer families, that's the only decent meal these children ever get. (of course kids from better off families thought the meals were inferior).

My favourite school provided lunch was Chicken Palau.

My favourite lunch from home was Spam sandwiches.

DancingMoosie

I always liked enchilada day. They came with pinto beans and a square of fresh baked corn bread. It was so good to mash it all together. The best breakfast was the fresh baked, thick sliced bread toasted with cheese on top.

onward1

All I remember was the peanut butter cookies. I swear they were the size of a dinner plate and oh so good with a carton of milk!