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!

May Highlights

We had another visit from the health department and if you follow me on twitter @tyronebcookin or Facebook you saw my humorous posting: Stick THAT in your dishwasher and sanitize it!

Things are wrapping up here in the kitchen as school winds down. We grilled a few meals outside in front of the kitchen just to kick things up a level. Chicken for fajitas!

Burgers for cheeseburgers and fries!

When I am not in the kitchen or out in the parking lot playing with fire, you can try to catch up with me at my mobile office:

Ice coffee, nothing fancy here...keeps me moving. 

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!

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!