Did your school lunch get changed?

Ours were good last year. Now we barely get any food and its all nasty

Answer
Yes, I work as a Kindergarten Teacher, and our school lunch menu got changed at the end of last year, so that we could offer a "healthier" menu. Even the teachers often used to buy lunch at school if we didn't feel like packing a lunch that morning, and now we won't even touch the food that the cafeteria sells. They switched from cheeseburgers to plain turkey burgers on whole wheat buns, which are absolutely disgusting and have some sort of weird chewy chunks in them, and they also only offer white pizza on whole grain dough now, which tastes worse than dog food probably tastes. They stopped selling chips of any kind, and now they only offer apple slices, yogurt, or salad with low-fat dressing as a side.

It's all because the parents were complaining about the school's "unhealthy" lunch menu. Well, if they didn't like the lunch menu, then why didn't they go to the grocery store, buy "healthier" food, and pack their kids' lunches themselves? I don't understand why they had to make everyone else eat disgusting, tasteless food just because they felt like their kids weren't eating healthy enough. When I was in high school 8 years ago, a daily lunch menu option was chili poured into an open Frito's bag, and they called it "chili tacos"... lol. I ate it all the time, and I was still always a thin 110 pounds! What people don't understand is that as long as their kids are active and fit fruits and veggies into their diets at least once a day, then they will still be healthy, and they won't become obese.

Camping menu?

AriesAlway

Family of 4 - Kids ages 4 and 2. Any interesting fun foods to make while camping. We've got that samdwitch making - and have made grilled cheese, and pizza sandwitches, even poop tarts in it! LOL Any other things to cook over the fire? Doesnt have to be in that maker just in general. Thanxs

Answer
When our entire family goes camping - grandma & grandpa, adults, the grandkids, and maybe friends - we keep the pie irons busy most of one day. One trick we learned is to use butter-flavored cooking spray to generously coat the pie irons before each use. We have 4 regular irons and 2 waffle irons. If you can think of it, we have probably have tried making it in our pie irons. I sometimes prepare some 'fillings' at home, and keep them in the cooler, so the wait time is reduced when we get hungry. "Are they ready yet?"

>> Use Jiffy brand mixes and made pancakes and waffles - the pie iron people also make waffle irons. Make sure your irons are well oiled and hot. Great for breakfast or snacks.
>> We slice potatoes and make potato chips (like home fries).
>> Prepare taco meat at home. Fill soft flour tortillas with meat, cheese, and whatever else you like in a burrito. Fold to completely enclose, and grill in your pie iron. Ole!
>> One night when camping we usually have stew, chicken or beef. Make the gravy real thick. The next day you can use the left overs to make "pie iron pot pies, using a spoon or two of stew between the bread slices. Top with extra gravy. Yummo!
>> Besides the usual bread, experiment with tortillas, egg roll wrappers, and refrigerated biscuits, crescent rolls, or pizza crust.

A Sunday morning favorite for our family is "Eggs-In-A-Bag".
Get a supply of lunch bags. Cut bacon strips in half and line bottom of bag. Crack egg into cup, then gently add over the bacon. Okay, you can break the yolks, or even scramble them if you prefer. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Fold over the top of the bag several times to seal. You will want a medium hot batch of coals under your grill, no flames. If you can hold your hand over the coals, at grill height, for a count of 3 or 4 you have a medium heat. After 5 minutes peek in to see if they are done yet. (even after years of doing this we still keep checking - this is an art, not a science) The bacon will not get crispy brown, but it will be fully cooked. When finally ready rip open the bags and enjoy. You can eat them as is, or top them with cheese, salsa, or whatever else tickles your tongue.

Have fun camping, and eating.

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How To Spend Less At The Grocery Store, and make cheaper meals?

kids lunch bag menu image

Mom to Bel

Just looking for some advice on some good cheap meals to make. My husband and I are pretty tight on money lately, and i have two little kids to feed as well. every time i go to the store and buy fo od, i always end up spending way more than i expect. I'm kinda and impulse shopper, when it comes to food. lol. anyway, i'm making a list of only essential foods and ingredients i need. trying to make decent meals for as cheap as possible. and meat is so expensive. any tips. thanks.

Answer
I used to make a menu, then figure out exactly what I needed for the ingredients, then made a list, and then went to the grocery. I don't need to do that anymore, likely the recipe is in my head, so all I do these days is write down meat loaf, and I know what to buy and have on hand for it.
I include snacks, and especially at this time of the year, I make sure emergency foods are on the list, or already here in the house. And everything I want and need goes onto that list. And yes, I budget a couple bucks extra to take care of forgetfulness. I will bet you all that I get home next week without the Comet cleanser that I need.
We got freezing ice last eve, and we are not going anywhere today, trust me. I have adequate food in the house, I have meat loaf and mashed potatoes leftover for lunch.

And I budget for one treat that was not on the list, in case I find a bargain or a sale that I did not know about. A treat does not have to be something sugar laden, it could be a pound of hamburger and some house brand taco chips for a layered mexican casserole I make.

One way is to not put your groceries on a credit or debit card, to use only cash. and when the cash runs out, no more Ding dongs or chocolate covered donuts. You know how much to take out of the bank after you make your list.
Another way is to take time to look at the ads from all the stores, and buy what is on sale. Buy only items that are on sale, and plan your menu right from the sale ads.

When something you use a lot is on sale, buy more than one. Especially canned goods, since they keep for a long time.

Shop at the discount stores as much as possible, some things stay cheaper than at the regular stores. But watch! Rivers gets a huge sack of generic O cereal for > $3, even the discount grocery could not touch that price. And before Xmas I got cream cheese for $,88, and sour cream and onion dip for that price, too.
And Walmart had hot dogs for $.88 last time I was there.

Some tips. Eliminate soda pop from the menu. Empty calories. Eliminate juice form the menu. Whole fruits are healthier, and full of fiber, and juice does not fill us up as well as whole fruit does.

Forget the high priced snacks and treats . The name brand donuts are how much on sale? Yikes, go get some out of the store's donuts out of the case for way cheaper. And even cheaper? Skip the donuts, and go home and make french toast from your getting stale loaf of bread.
You paid what for a cake from the bakery? Go get some brownie mix on sale, and make a batch of brownies. Even if you frost them, still way cheaper than a bought cake. Save treats like that for BDs and holidays.

Cut chickens up yourself. It is not hard to do, and it saves big bucks when the butcher does not cut it up. Cook from scratch whenever possible, and do not ever buy any kind of pasta in the frozen food aisle, you can make a barrel full of spagetti for what one pkg of frozen pasta costs.

And when temptation strikes, when those Zingers just look so good, I keep walking. And I save my treat for last, and go make a special trip to get it, since it is often ice cream.

Go to a recipe site like allrecipes, and go through the recipes. Look for one you might like, that looks cheap to make.

And use loss leader items like bananas a lot, make banana quick bread, save some to make french toast with, cut nannars up on cereal, or serve nannars and sugar and milk as part of breakfast. . Stores keep prices on certain items cheap so you will come back. Things like generic bread, or those big bags of cereal like Rivers found[this is my fifth one, and it takes weeks for me to eat the whole bag]. Think up uses, look for recipes to utilize the cheap prices.
$.33 bread? Make garlic bread, french toast, toast some hot sandwiches, Mom made stewed tomatoes with torn bread in them. Now is the time to make meat balls with milk bread in them for the freezer, or make bread pudding or stuffing. ,

Is it ok to leave leave turkey sandwich out for 5 hours?

*Rose*

Packing lunch. Turkey sandwich with cheese on bread with no condiments & sealed in zip lock bag. Packaged in a paper bag, packed at 8:30, eaten at 12:30. Is the meat ok enough to eat?

Answer
Yes of course ..if your turkey is not several days old and had been kept refrigerated it will be fine and you certainly can add condiments if if you like, pickles too! Mothers and housewives have been fixing brown bag lunches for children and husbands for many, many years also farm wives fix lunches for their husbands to take to the fields so they do not have to travel back home again. that is how is was when I went to school and also when my kids where in grammar school there was no hot lunch program until they went to high school if they did not like what was on the school menu they took a bagged lunch I also packed lunches for my husband and my son every day to take to work for many years No one ever got sick and we are all very healthy but my kids did get sick a couple of times from the high school hot lunches The key is to make sure all your food is not stale or old .and well wrapped .. Edit~ don't forget contruction workers,carpenters,coal miners, brick and concrete masons and millions of others who work in the outdoor elements and take a steel lunch box and thermos to work everyday

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How can we get American children to eat healthier?

kids lunch bag menu image

kesey<3

More and more of America's children are gaining weight from eating non-stop junk food. Twinkies, HoHos, DingDongs, etc. All of these are leading to heart trouble. Which in the end leads to kidney failure, and even death if too serious! My question here is, why do America's children eat all this junk food if they know it is bad for you? And why can't everything prevent them from stopping? I mean seriously, food bans in schools, whole grain markets, and even the cookie monster on Sesame Street is now the vegetable monster. The 21st century is not a good place to be! And everyday immagrants come to America just to make more obese people in the future! 1,000 pounds for an adult is ridiculous! And so is a kindergartener who weighs 200 pounds! And the sad part, its so true! Its insane! More and more people are gaining weight, and this needs to come to an end!

Answer
Soon we'll be sharing the wealth with Europeans as they introduce junk food vending machines. The is one company that is actually giving away free sample of bags of chips in European schools.

Our school menus need to change. The meals are high in fat and sodium. When my son was on dialysis, he had to carry a bag lunch every day.

Add to that moms and dads who get home tired and exhausted from working all day - barely enough time to set down their bags, make dinner, help with home work, into bed and do it all over again the next day. They don't have time to struggle over whats for dinner and whose going to eat it, so they use what works - what their kids will eat.

Yes, 1000 lbs is rediculous and so is 200 lbs for a 6 year old, but keep in mind these are extremes. They are poor examples to use when trying to convince people that something needs to change.

How do we get kids to eat healthier? As parents, we need to limit the amount of "filler food": candies, sweets, sodas, chips, hotdogs, cakes, etc. I mean REALLY limit it.

We need to stop giving our kids "juice" boxes filled with high fructose corn syrup. Look at the label folks - look for 100% fruit juice!

Instead of candies and sodas, we need to offer our kids fruits to eat as filler foods between meals.

I need ideas for a Valentines Day party at church?

beckini

I am in charge of putting together a Valentine's Day party at our church. Can you help me with any fun ideas, games, or menu items?

Answer
Do you know what I honestly miss about Valentine's day, when I was in grade school? Handing out Valentines. Sitting down and writing a nice little note to every one of my classmates, putting a little red lollipop on it, and squeezing it into that tiny envelope. Then going to school the next day and gluing tiny pink and red hearts all over a crisp white lunch bag, setting it on a table, having a fun party with all of my friends, and going back home with a bag full of fun little notes and candy from all of my friends. Maybe you could do the same thing with "inspirational" valentines (I'm sure they sell them at Alpha and Omega or someplace). Just send the word out that everyone should bring an "inspirational" valentine for everyone else, maybe just get some heart shaped ink stamps and decorate all of the bags ahead of time, and people can just walk up to each other and exchange (it will encourage everyone to mingle). As for games, if the church-goers will be mostly older you could have a Valentine's bingo tournament, or perhaps a boggle, or dominoes or card game tournament, have everybody bring a dollar and the winner of the tournament will get the money. If there are a lot of smaller kids, they LOVE musical chairs, you could play christian rock music for them. If it's teens, they will want you to leave them alone as much as possible, just set out the food, clear a space, play christian rock music and supervise from afar. As for food, Valentine's is the perfect day for strawberry cupcakes, I know that some pizza places will make you heart-shaped pizzas if you request them and then maybe chicken wings and lot's of carrots and celery with bleu cheese.

You know you will probably get a LOT more answers if you post this question in the Religion & Spirituality section

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