Packed Lunch

People, feed your children good food.

Over the years I have really paid attention to how kids eat and what's in their packed lunch and I have to say, it's getting bad.

Most meals are carb heavy w/(fattening rich) sauces galore, skinny kids bring lean cuisine and weight watcher meals, and for the parents we know don't cook...yes, we can tell you packed your kids lunch with leftovers from whatever restaurant or take out joint you ate at last night, night after night after...

It's Summertime! If your not going to purchase school lunch this year then lets get a "game plan" together! Start trying out foods this summer to see what your children like. Watch the trash can, it doesn't lie! Start cruising Pinterest like a PRO. Build up a menu of choice you can shop for and throw together quick once school starts. Lets get ahead of this!

Here, let me start you off with some IDEAS!

Once again, I paraphrase a great quote from my friend PW, "Never saw anybody get fat from eating school lunch!".

Grilling, School Lunch, Bad Weather

Cheeseburgers, Fries, and Cookies!

Thursday: Cheeseburgers, Fries, and Cookies!

The first thing we do is roll out the grill! Who wants burger patties cooked in an oven? Unless of course it may be raining, in which case we would definitely season them up for a different cooking process!

Little Valley Academy (Infant - K4)

Valley Fellowship Christian Academy (K5-12TH)

Sure, we would all like to have "fried" fries but ours are cooked in the oven. They still come out hot and crispy! The burger is 100% ground beef. Grilled with just a pinch of salt on it. Nothing fancy, just a pure american classic!

Homemade Spaghetti & Bread Sticks!

Wednesday Lunch: Spaghetti & Meat Sauce, Green Beans, and Bread Stick(s)
Little Valley Academy
[update: I should point out that we use shells or shaped pasta for LVA because we feel the spaghetti noodle is a potential choking hazard for children this young]

Here we have Mr. John, the greatest "on time" delivery service to LVA!

Valley Fellowship Christian Academy

Bread sticks are made right here, and so is the meat sauce!

Chicken and Mash

Chicken Tenders, mash potatoes and gravy, mix vegetables, and a biscuit! Not to bad for a Tuesday lunch.

Little Valley Academy Pictured here with the meals is Jim, but we call him Cookie Monster (for obvious reasons associated with his nickname) just as Sous Chef Roberto was a nickname for Robert who I mentioned in earlier posts when we first got started with this lunch program. 

Cookie Monster is checking quality control!

Valley Fellowship Christian Academy

And yes! I do use a large "ice cream" scoop for the mashed potatoes! LOL!

BBQ Plate (pulled pork)

Yesterday was BBQ Pulled Pork, Coleslaw, Potato Chips, and a Chocolate Chip Cookie! Apple sauce instead of coleslaw for the younger kids.

Little Valley Academy

Valley Fellowship Christian Academy K5-12TH Grade

Slow cooked, pulled pork video I posted awhile back explaining how to do it:

Breakfast For Lunch!

Everyone seems to love eating breakfast at lunch! Today was a little different and since breakfast originally fell on Labor Day on the calendar I figured lets just move it to the end of the week. Fridays are usually pizza day. We order from Dominoes...it helps me work on receiving orders (from trucks), paperwork, and extra cleaning.

Little Valley Academy gets a sausage biscuit, hash rounds(w/ketchup), and mixed fruit!

Valley Fellowship Christian Academy (K5-12TH) gets scrambled eggs, hash rounds, biscuit and sausage gravy, and of course ketchup and real butter. We scramble real eggs, cook the sausage, make the sausage gravy...Shown is the High School plate.

Chicken and Waffles, Cinnamon Apples

Before school started this year I actually started Chicken and Waffles with the LVA (Little Valley Academy) kids. But today was the first time for all grades to be able to order. It was one of the best ordered lunches so far this year! *Here is the prior post Chicken and Waffles*

VFCA (Valley Fellowship Christian Academy) High School plate: Crispy Chicken Filet, Waffles, Butter, Syrup, Fresh Cinnamon Apple Slices...

Baked Ziti, Mixed Vegetable, Garlic Bread

Baked Ziti in essence is another form of Lasagna as far as kids are concerned. Here it is pictured made with penne pasta and not ziti. What's the difference? Not much. If I can't find the one, I buy the other. We make it here at the kitchen. Cook the meat, salt the water and boil the pasta, season the tomato sauce (made out of puree and blanched chopped tomatoes) and layer with Mozzarella and a Cheddar/Monterrey Jack cheese mix. The kids are always worrying about getting the cheese, so I started putting a layer of the cheese in the middle AND on top. (that's what makes it similar to lasagna besides just ingredients, another layer) 

The mixed vegetable shown is called a Cali Blend: Broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots (I think it used to be called Normandy Blend). I season the veggies with a small amount of salt. And sometimes a dash of salt-free Ms. Dash original seasoning. Most veggies I buy frozen or fresh, usually never canned (except for maybe tomato products). Fresh obviously has no extras added BUT canned or frozen foods I always check the ingredients list. At the most I want the ingredient list to include the main product like tomatoes, then water, and/or salt...nothing else.

LVA, K5-12TH all pretty much get the same thing as shown in the picture but in grade appropriate portions. The picture shown is for Little Valley Academy. On our menu I use the listing bread/roll because some days I use rolls or buns and then some days I make my own bread or bread sticks!

Leave a comment to ask questions about our school lunches or anything related!

Tomorrow: Chicken & Waffles!

BBQ Chicken Sandwich, Baked Beans, Potato Chips

I am going to try my best to start taking pictures of each meal served here at Valley Fellowship Christian Academy and Little Valley Academy! For those of you who are local and have connections to our school please spread/pass this around to parents and kids. This will give parents an idea of what is being prepared, how its done, and what the presentation looks like. Hopefully providing some positive feedback and encouraging more parents to order our meals for their students!

LVA (K1-K4): For Little Valley Academy we prepared Lays Potato Chips, Baked Beans, and the little version of a BBQ Chicken Sandwich (which is two chicken tenders on a bun with BBQ sauce on the side). * A lot of the little kids frown on grilled (or other forms of) chicken so we stick with the tenders. 

K5-2ND Grade: As the grade get higher and the kids get bigger we increase the amount of baked beans and graduate them to a grilled chicken sandwich where it has been lightly based with a BBQ sauce at the end of cooking. In addition we add a BBQ sauce condiment cup for them to "control" the sauce.

3-6th Grade and High School: Not much difference between 3-6th and High School except the portions. More chicken on the sandwich, more baked beans in the bowl! Both sets of these grades get a Tomato & Lettuce Set-Up (that's what we call it).

Some days you may see me at the grill smoking up the outside parking lot...sorry if I smoked you out, but know that I am preparing and cooking to make your child's lunch delicious and this is just one way of doing it!

The Public School Lunch Fiasco

To be fair, this is not directed towards the schools themselves, but rather the mandates that are handed down to them.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution was more of a "revelation". Sure, I loved the show and it pointed to weak areas in the school lunch program...but as the show progressed you noticed it was more about food choices, availability, genes, culture, and economics outside of the school system than the actual school food itself!

In public school most children, if not all, are NOT overweight and/or unhealthy because of their food choices at school. Even before the government started changing the requirements of school lunch (and breakfast) when have you EVER known a person that became overweight, obese, or unhealthy solely because of their school lunch or breakfast? We were eating long before we started kindergarten so lets not be so bold as to say the school system is responsible for our food choices and health...But maybe they should be held responsible for trying to force their "solution" to the problem on us! In essence they are now guilty of diminishing our freedom, right?

[start satire] Let's recap what we have learned the last few years from reading the daily headlines. I think we will find that maybe, just maybe problems with our schools lunches may indeed be created by the school system itself!

• Bad lunches, not enough calories, and absurdities created by the overhaul. Google: "School Lunches Michelle Obama" 
• PE (physical education) now consists of mostly non-physical activity because of "unfairness", injury, bullying, competition(that encourages a "negative" aggression?)...et cetera. Or, we have given electives to opt out of PE.
• Parents complaints of school having so much homework the kids never get to play outside before it gets dark! [although depending on your research and statistics you use, this is considered a myth. Not that it doesn't happen, but that the percentage is less than 13%]

So help me figure this out, we take away almost all the physical from "physical education". Then we burden our kids with so much homework there's no time to play outside. But now we are concerned with their health enough to reconstruct school lunches with lackluster choices and poor calorie content? Of course! They no longer need high calorie content because they have very little physical activity during and after school! (Unless of course you are involved in school sports!) But wait! There's more! Maybe BECAUSE they took away so much physical activity in PE and gave them so much homework THAT'S when those prior high calorie school lunches started giving our children health problems, weight gain, and sluggish school performance? [end satire]

As in most situations its easy to complain, be the critic, and rant over a perceived injustice without actually being part of the solution or offering to help! SO here are a few suggestions towards a more suitable solution to this problem...

WHAT IF?

• What if we put the physical back in physical education and make it mandatory (no opting out unless its medical)...thirty minutes to an hour of exercise does not have to be competitive, unfair, or allow for bullying. Remember jumping jacks, squats, running in place, using the medicine ball...? 
• Decrease the amount of homework to promote more after school physical activity and school sports? [Won't we get more productive results on school work done IN SCHOOL when the body is well fed and invigorated?] 
• And last, but not least...remove as much processed food from school lunch as we can while maintaining the calorie count of "yesterday". [More Jamie Oliver, less Michelle Obama]

If food doesn't taste good and its not an enjoyable choice for children, its thrown in the trash! Wasted food, wasted money! We still have the freedom to pack their lunch, but if we don't start fighting somewhere they may start regulating that!

School In Session! Chicken and Waffles

Going into my third year of the newly started lunch program here at Valley Fellowship Christian Academy (k5-12) and Little Valley Academy (infant to k4) I decided to start sharing some posts from  a work perspective. 

In the past I have done a bit of everything which helps educate and make one a well rounded food service professional. Starting a school lunch program from scratch started a new chapter in my "cook book". Now that we are in it a couple of years I thought it would be nice to share some plates and thought process. 

Above is a meal for Little Valley Academy. Its a play on that classic, chicken & waffles. Most of the kids that will eat this are between 1 and 4 years old. It includes crispy chicken tenders (oven baked, not fried), small waffles that I cut into 4 sticks (Aunt Jemima brand), a fruit cup, Mrs. Buttersworth syrup in condiment cup (tastes like butter is already in it, older kids will actually get real butter pats), and a pack of ketchup. We add ketchup because the kids may still want to eat their chicken tenders without syrup. Depending on fruit prices the cup could be 4 ounces of tropical fruit mix from a can, or fresh fruit. I don't like to use fruit cocktail, the color of the fruit seems to all blend together and the fruit itself can be near mush consistency. If I won't eat it or I wouldn't feed it to my kids, I am pretty sure I won't feed it to your kids!

Next month we will try it with the academy (K5-12). The plate usually graduates as it goes up the grades...bigger portions, more condiments (like real butter), larger size waffles, and not cut into sticks.

Mama's & Daddy's give me some feedback on what your children like to eat...what do you think they would order at school...is this a dish you would order for your child? Menu suggestions...

Back 2 Work...

It's that time again...school is cranking back up for everyone! After a hot and sweaty summer working for a former employer in the beverage industry I am now back in the kitchen!

This will be our second year with a school lunch program and I am pretty excited that we started the year with a kitchen that is already open! In honor of a 'return to business as usual' I had my chef jackets sealed with the schools emblem. Its time to make things permanent, settle in, and get ready for the coming year!

Probably not the best picture, but you see it...our school colors are green and gold...and yes, that is an "old school" thermometer. Feel free to purchase and/or donate a Thermapen or TWO for the kitchen (or even some mini's ~ they travel better in the pockets), I will not turn it down!

Bad Packed Lunch

People, feed your children good food.

Over the years I have really paid attention to how kids eat and what's in their packed lunch and I gotta tell ya it's getting bad.  But more specifically where the schools have started letting them use microwaves and bring in reheat-able foods.

Most meals are carb heavy w/(fattening rich) sauces galor, skinny kids bring lean cuisine and weight watcher meals, and for the parents we know don't cook...yes, we can tell you packed your kids lunch with leftovers from whatever restaurant or take out joint you ate at last night, night after night after...

Once again, I paraphrase a great quote from my friend PW, "Never seen anybody get fat from eating school lunch!".

Cost your meals!

Second week almost done and things have been great!

Something that you should always know and do, is the cost of each meal down to the mayonnaise pack for a sandwich and the napkin used to wipe their [kids] mouth. I have created a spreadsheet for each menu day (basically a copy of the same spreadsheet with new title and cost information) and have been tracking my costs. This is beneficial to sit down and see where you may be able to add more value and decrease the amount of cost. (among other things...)

Here are two examples:

• Herb Chicken w/Focaccia Bread and chips - buying bread (versus making it) is convenient and saves time and money on labor but the cost is higher and takes up a lot of freezer space. This particular type of bread is also higher in cost than the others available. On a 'personal note' the bread is 'too much' (probably meaning too chewy or not soft enough) and not really appreciated any different from basic white bread on grades k2-3rd or maybe even thru 6th. Possible solutions:
• Do not use the word 'Focaccia' on menu and use a softer bread/bun that costs less for grades k2 thru 6th and only use Focaccia for 7th thru 12th and Staff lunches. Or just go with a 'wheat-berry' or other nice low cost bread for all the sandwiches.
• Purchase dough balls and make your own 'Focaccia' style bread which greatly reduces cost of the bread, keeps the labor cost down, and lets you control the softness of the bread. Added bonus: the smell of the bread baking will probably increase lunch sales that day!

• Baked Ziti and Broccoli - This day was a big hit and cost wise it is probably one of the better menu items. It has Bread/Grain (pasta), Vegetable (tomato sauce, broccoli, onion...), Meat (beef), and Dairy (cheese, and lots of it!). [capital letters added just for emphasis on part of meal] You would probably say "whats wrong with that?". Nothing. We don't need to decrease the cost, and actually it would be hard to do BUT If we spend just a few more pennies we can add value to the meal which may increase the orders.
• Several of us agreed that adding a piece of garlic bread would complete this meal. It seemed like it was lacking that 'sopping it up and licking the plate clean' effect.
• Another thing that we already implemented was adding a layer of Mozzarella in the middle of the pasta as well as on top. Kids always want the cheesiest parts and the way its made at  restaurants and other places there's only a layer of cheese at the top, so when that's gone, they complain.

You can't do this without long term financial effects and that's why you have to know your cost down to the pennies. Its really not that hard once you set up spreadsheets that you can just plug in the numbers.

I have been using Google Drive and Google Documents to make all my spreadsheets, documents, pictures...to be able to sync over all computers, online, and my smart phone so I will always have access to updates and update as needed. I can then download and/or convert to excel or pdf, batch files, or 'as is'.

Later in the school year I want to add another page to my site and be able to share the forms, spreadsheets, or other information that I have created that has helped me with this whole process.

Any good ideas? Drop me a comment or email.

Fourth Day Lunch Menu

Pulled pork BBQ sandwich, coleslaw, and oven-fried tators. (or, potatoes if I must)

I didn't have a commercial smoker to pull off this feat. But about 15 hours in the oven at 200F was enough to break these Boston Butts down to fall apart, melt in your mouth, fatty goodness! You can still achieve a good 'smoke' taste by applying certain spices and herbs BUT NO, do not use liquid smoke! A lot of times that will make the products taste acrid and the meat ends up tasting like a fake smoke. But I am not going to give up all my 'tricks' and techniques in one posting!

Now I will stop the lunch menu count...I feel the first week kickoff was a success. I will leave you with a few pictures my friend P Dub took on day four. I think I might use the pulled pork picture to use as wallpaper on my iphone!

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Third Day Lunch Menu

Teriyaki chicken, white rice, and stir-fry vegetables.

Worked out pretty good.  As a whole I think the meal was a 'keeper'. The only additional thing I would add is portioning out more of the 'teriyaki' sauce. We put it on the chicken but some wanted it on the rice and/or vegetables.

The teriyaki sauce was 'made'. Yes we started with Kikkoman's Teriyaki Sauce as base (probably about 20% of whole liquid) but then built the sauce up with additional ingredients.

Roberto and I had a good day! ~ On to prepping the Boston Butts for pulled pork BBQ sandwiches...

Second Day Lunch Menu

Day two, loaded baked potato! Was that a real sentence? Ah, I don't care its my blog.

The word on the street was there were no complaints today that anyone heard. Yesterday there were a few complaints but that was because I was hoping with all the emphasis on food, food shows, health, and Michelle Obama messing with the public school system lunches that these kids taste buds would have evolved to enjoy or try hummus. Not so much. I am not sure about the rest of the country but in the south its "Ranch Nation" or maybe "Ranch Country". We don't even bother saying Hidden Valley Ranch or Ranch Dressing. We love it on about everything!  That, and HOT SAUCE y'all!!!

Ok, back to the spuds. Baked potato, chili, cheese, bacon bits, butter, sour cream, and a side salad! And yes, with ranch! LOL!

My right hand man Roberto has had to learn how I do things at a fast pace. He's holding up well, but it is only day 2...

First Day Lunch Menu

Today was our first day out on the new menu of the new school lunch program! Busy!

**Yeah, this is probably not my best picture. I got some weird looking smile on my face which makes me look goofy! [[Shrug]]**

We had Mediterranean style chicken wraps with veggies and hummus today. Man! I feel kind of embarrassed that I didn't even remember to get a picture! Right now my sous chef Roberto and I are running the show in the kitchen. We feel like everything went pretty smooth today but we know for the office and administration it was pretty crazy trying to get all the orders in!

We have four lunches. The daycare runs infants to k4 and they eat at 11:00am. Then the school runs three lunches as follows: k5-2nd grade 11:25am to 11:55am, 3rd-6th grade 12:00pm to 12:30pm, 7th-12th grade 12:50pm to 1:20pm.

Its a bit unusual to me to have four lunches but I think its an excellent combination of fitting each group of kids thru the cafeteria in an expedient manner and managing the quality & volume of the food for each group. If your running behind this schedule gives you a chance to catch up before the next lunch comes thru and not bottle neck by trying to get the total amount of food out at one time! The kitchen is limited in space in both storage and physical work area.

I wanna give a shout out to my man Roberto! Excellent job today! I know its a steep learning curve...but I'll try my best to keep you from cutting off a finger or two!

Kitchen is Open! Lunch Menu - Go!

Awhile back I posted that I started a new job. It was a 'startup' of sorts. I am working for a private academy that has a commercial kitchen but had not been in the position to start a school lunch program. Now they are.

We spent weeks on plans, lunch menus, instructions, manuals, lining up vendors, tweaking the way we do things, 'courting' the health department...I did not want to start posting on this venture till I knew we were in the clear and things were about to kick off. That's why I have not posted much this week. But now...

The kitchen was approved today by the Health Department for its permit to operate! There are still a few things to work on but they are mostly minor.

Starting Monday we will kick off our school lunch program for the Academy...its going to be BUSY, and CRAZY! If you want to check out the school and the lunch menu go HERE! (Right hand corner, read: Lunch Menu)

Woo-Hoo!