Daily Meal Ideas

chocolate milk?
whole wheat bread?
low fat cream cheeses?
cheese...
deli meats...

Hey Ya'll,
I've been told that I'm not eating enough calories. Can I have some suggestions of healthy ways to increase my calories. I have been tired and sluggish because I don't think I'm eating enough and I don't want to eat junk. I just need some help.
Thanks!

P.S-I'm a school teacher so I can't eat all day in front of the kids

Banks posted this very informative link, after reading it, my comment is, what's wrong with teaching the kids how to eat healthier by snacking on good foods? Good chance to set an example? I was thinking today how sad that our educational system is sorely lacking in teaching our kids healthy eating habits....I always hated the fact that they only have a short time to eat their lunch and have to gobble the food. At least they improved on the quality of the food.

That's the problem...Clark County School District is so freaking large, distributors sell cost efficient food to the school district.

Food at the high school level isn't great either. Granted, they pulled soda and really fatty snacks from the lunch lines, but they don't offer the best choices. During my student teaching, I couldn't believe what the kids were putting into their mouths.

Here in Canada where I live , there are no "school lunches" like there is in the states. I remember when I was in school , when I lived in Tennessee it was the same thing every week ( Mon- burger, tues-chilli, wed-chicken burger, thurs- beef stew, friday-pizza) Here the kids have to pack and bring a lunch, which are monitored by the school , no junk food allowed, not so much as a fruit roll up, and the kids get an hour lunch recess. On an average day my son takes 1 water bottle, 1 juice, fruit cup/pudding/or yougurt/apple sauce, sandwhich or crackers/cheese/lunch meat, the most unhealthy thing he is allowed are teddy gramhs or bear paws , which I dont mind him having cause he only likes oatmeal or banana bread, and some baby carrots or celery stick. But this has been the case since he started school.

No cakes ,no cookies, no fruit snacks (gummies), fruit roll ups, no pop are allowed and they do inforce it. they also have healthy snacks at the school to provide to the kids with hard headed parents lol.

Wow, sounds like Canada is the place to send kids to school for healthy eating habits! I don't know about the offerings in different states in the U.S., but I spoke with my sons middle school cafeteria manager and she explained to me that the reason schools differ in what they offer the kids depends on how lazy or considerate the cafeteria manager is. The government offers great foods, but the managers don't like to bother with ordering (it's easier to order the same thing every week), or preparing the more labor intensive meals, or to offer more of a variety because it takes more work....she was wonderful and the kids had at least 4-5 choices of main dishes as well as a salad bar that included protein food as well. The meals were all the same price, about $2.45 without extra food added I believe, thankfully we had the free lunch program though.

The problem is with only a half hour lunch, till he stood in the long line, he'd only have 10-15 minutes to eat. He would come home with juice or milk and crackers or cookies that he didn't have time to finish stuffed in his pockets (which he wasn't supposed to do because there are rules that no food can leave the cafeteria, it must be thrown out).