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!".

Red Beans and Rice and Random Bits

Things have been moving right along at the academy...last week we had Red Beans & Rice and I feel it was a 'keeper'. Some of the staff were surprised that the smaller kids knew what it was, they liked it, and ate it up. We served it with Kielbasa.

Pancake Breakfast: from time to time the school has fundraisers and pancake breakfast seems to be a big hit. It runs from 7am to about 830am on a regular school day and the cost is $5 dollars. Parents and grandparents are welcome to come and eat. Its kind of like 'all you can eat' but we don't say that. We start off with two pancakes about 5 inches in circumference and let you know you can come back for more. There is a table set up with toppings such as Redi-Whip (that whipped cream in a can) chocolate syrup, original syrup, mixed berry syrup, fresh strawberries, chocolate chips, and butter. The syrups are kept warm in chafing dishes. We provide milk and orange juice(also on the table). It was pretty successful.

Our next fundraiser is a 'Thanksgiving Dinner for Four'. Our advertisement/announcement for that will probably come out today, or tomorrow until then the following may change at any time.

 

Thanksgiving Meal for Family of Four - $40

• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Cornbread Dressing 
• Green Bean Casserole 
• 2 pounds Roasted Boneless Turkey Breast and 16 oz of gravy

AND then offer a pumpkin pie at $9 OPTIONAL.

 

We have worked out a great meal at a great price. I have researched these food items locally so its pretty competitive, not to high or low.

 

Students Favorite Meals so Far (based on total orders for a single day): First - Taco Salad/Nachos, Second - Baked Ziti, Third - Loaded Baked Potato. I feel like today's lunch will have an increase in orders next time too...'Breakfast for Lunch!' which consisted of scrambled eggs, hash rounds, biscuits, and sausage gravy. All the menu items are doing well so far.

Favorites This Week

Below are a few things I found this week I like. Each picture was borrowed from, and has a link to the original post so hopefully I am not breaking online etiquette. Merely trying to bring attention to some cool ideas and a few new things.[click pics for link back to articles]

Tomato Soup w/Poblano Chiles - Chef Steve, although he would probably call himself  'Camp Cook' over at 'Round the Chuckbox (one of the blogs I read, its on my sidebar) always comes up with, and/or has some great recipes on his site. This one looks like a sure add-in for this Fall.

Yes, even I want to save some money and use coupons. This site starts the first page with -
Top Forty Stores with Awesome Coupons - then on the right in the sidebar it breaks down the coupons by popular categories. Very helpful and quick (smart phone app available too). On The Frugals page it lists helpful sites that can save you more money.

5 Tips for Freezing Pasta - Probably good general knowledge for those of you who want to do that dish ahead of time (like lasagna) and freeze it for later, or freezing leftover pasta dishes.

"Saturated fats have gotten a bad rap over the past few decades, but are they really as dangerous as we have been led to believe?" - Great article on Benefits of Saturated Fats! Detoxinista says "...I have a hard time believing that eating a fresh coconut can possibly lead to heart disease or cancer, even if it is brimming with saturated fat!"

Dish Soap / Hand Soap

This cool set of 'bar type' dispenser bottles by Tablecraft are originally used for oil and balsamic vinegar. Bed Bath & Beyond have them for about $12 but we paid about $7+ at Target, or was it Walmart? Anyway...

My wife came up with a cool idea: We put antibacterial hand soap on the left, and Dawn dish detergent on the right. The bottles are on the window sill right above our kitchen sink (at our house, not at my work...in case there was confusion).

The only problem you may have is some hand soaps are real thick and may not flow from the bottle with this type of dispenser on top. You can thin down the hand soap if possible, but sometimes if you don't do it right you will end up with a lot of suds and frustration.

It looks cool, and its functional! And at our house with the colors involved and location of the bottles you will not be confused and try to use it on your food! LOL! 

Health Department Score

Our first inspection does not get a score since it is the first time to be permitted. An inspection is done and you get a food permit and a paper like this one with no score on it. Then within 30 days they come back to give you a 'scored' inspection. During this time they will look at everything they asked you to do, or suggested that you improve, change, or fix.

We lost 2 points on a ceiling in our pantry/stores that was textured. It has to be smooth and non absorbent. We were given 4 months to fix it but you still get counted off until its done. What happens if it never gets done? I don't know, and won't be finding out! We had it scheduled to be done last Monday which was unfortunately 3 days AFTER she came back. So we probably would have gotten a 100!

But, no matter...we did a great job and she was complimentary of our attentiveness for getting things done and keeping them clean.

Just like an awards ceremony I would like to thank a couple of people: Pastor Will (P-Dub) and Sous Chef Roberto (Robert B.)! Job well done!

P-Dub did most of the maintenance that was involved, or arranged for it to be done. Sous Chef Roberto is...well, he's my sous chef. SO you know I give him the grunt work! LOL!

Thanks everybody!