Monthly Archives: November 2011

School lunch news: Better lunches for high schoolers

Photo: Chicago Tribune

I never heard of the company OrganicLife, but it sounds like they are doing amazing things here in Illinois. The article, Premium food on the plate in Niles high schools, is by Monica Eng. The company uses sales from paying customers to offset the costs of free and reduced lunches.

Chef Ann is quoted in the article saying that the only drawback is the stigma of those who are unable to pay for free lunch. Chef Ann’s program offers the same healthy lunch to all students. I would argue that if all kids are eating better food, even if it is different, than that is a lunch program is successful. What are your thoughts (after reading the article)?

Lunch Wrap Up: Week of Nov 7th

Recently I chatted with my son’s caregiver to get more information about how the lunches are going over. She told me that he eats well. However, sometimes his lunches are too big and that other times they are too small — then he complains of hunger. I think this is the struggle of many meal planners — how much, how little. Even during my year of school lunch last year, I remember that some meals felt more substantial than others.

Am I wrong to look at these lunch boxes and think they are overflowing with food for a three-year-old? I think some of this comes from that fact that at home, my son doesn’t eat a whole lot at lunch. Normally we might be lucky if he ate half of one of these lunches at home. However, he really will load up one meal per day (sometimes it’s breakfast or dinner and not lunch — it varies).

To think that some days at school he’s still hungry makes me sad, but part of me finds it hard to believe. He is running around and having fun so I can imagine that he is burning more calories at school than he does at home. Still, he spends almost every weekday night throwing footballs and hitting baseballs around the living room — he’s not a couch potato.

However, I get hungry a few hours after lunch. I think it’s very possible that my lunches are too small. I think I need to bulk up my own meals. Also sometimes I need to bulk up my breakfasts because many mornings I can barely find the time to feed everyone and I’m grabbing something on my way out the door.

Many of you asked about the fact that my lunches aren’t matching up to the school’s menu. I stopped doing it because I ran out of time. My son has not seemed to notice. I did mention this to his caregiver and she seemed pretty much indifferent, but hinted that I could check out the menu. I think I’ll try to do a little better matching up his lunches, but overall it seems like a non-issue.

(Also those of you who questioned my declaration that our lunches are “dairy free” — you are right. They are not dairy free because we use goat milk products, but they are cow dairy free.)

Charlie’s lunches

Turkey wrap; mandarin orange; pretzels; toasted squash; brussel sprouts

Charlie is nuts for the wraps and for brussel sprouts. The wraps are made from teff flour (sort-of hard to find). He told me he tried the squash. Child care menu: Baked lasagna, veggie blend, sliced pears, wheat bread

Pasta and sauce; crackers; carrot sticks; egg; sliced pears

This would probably be a lunch that wasn’t enough, but it would have been plenty for a regular home lunch on the weekends. Perplexing. Child care menu: Turkey taco, cheese, lettuce, tropical fruit, tortilla

 Rice and pickles; mandarin oranges; brussel sprouts and BBQ chicken; applesauce

The last week of applesauce containers. I have phased them out. Child care menu: Chicken tenders, salad with ranch dressing, cinnamon apple slices

 Turkey wrap; mandarin orange slices; chickpeas over “grass” (pea shoots); pepitas; applesauce; rice cakes

All I can say is YUM. Child care menu: Turkey hot dog, rice, veggie blend, banana, wheat bun

 Turkey wrap; applesauce; brussel sprouts; chickpeas; pear slices

I asked my son what he wanted for lunch (keep in mind I STRUGGLE with keeping momentum up when packing lunches on Friday). He said turkey wrap. I said ok. Child care menu: Mashed potato bowl, green beans, applesauce, wheat bread.

My lunches

Chicken sausage, squash, brussel sprouts, rice; mandarin oranges; pear sauce, KIND bar

My son didn’t like the pear sauce that I bought at Trader Joe’s so my husband and I are finishing it off.

Butternut squash soup (CSA); chips; BBQ chicken drumstick; sweet potato; carrot (far right)

I had never made butternut squash soup before because, well, I had never purchased a butternut squash before. So I had to do something with the squash I got in the CSA box and then my mom showed up with some more butternut squash that she bought at the farmer’s market. The soup was heavenly, but my son was not a fan.

Turkey wrap; mandarin orange; brussel sprouts

Delicious, but probably not enough food.

 BBQ chicken wrap, raisins; chickpeas; pear sauce

 Now that lunch was filling!

(And Friday 11/11 was Veteran’s Day so I didn’t pack. Instead I stayed home and did a bunch of interviews, like this one on dietsinreview.)

Open thread: Pizza = veggie?

Over the past couple weeks, Congress scaled back the new USDA guidelines for school lunch. First it was potatoes winning their right to stay on the daily menu and now the tomato sauce/paste on pizza will continue to qualify as a veggie. One Twitter friend suggested finding out all of the people who voted on the bill and tweeting them our complaints every day. Well, it looks like Congress found a way to do it off-record: We couldn’t find a record of Congress people’s “Yea/Nay” votes. Those dirty dogs.

I have to confess: I had pizza for dinner tonight. Gluten free and cow dairy free (it is not pictured above). It was a taste explosion. I will not pretend that tonight’s pizza wasn’t a calorie orgy. I don’t eat pizza often, but when I do I make sure that it’s something to remember.

Many of the people who read my blog are accomplished home cooks. Although I don’t put myself in that company, I have been teaching myself how to cook and steadily improving my skills. I know that you guys can make pizzas loaded with veggies. But are school pizzas loaded with veggies?? No. What I found last year was that many school pizzas have 62 ingredients. So they are loaded with lots of things….things we can’t pronounce and things that are doing who-knows-what to people’s insides.

One lunch lady had this to say on YouTube about pizza as a veggie. What she says in 20 seconds is powerful: it’s the truth.

What are your thoughts?

My kind of town: Shedd Aquarium

This summer I took Charlie to the Shedd Aquarium. When I told him we were going to the aquarium, he told me that he wanted to bring a fishing pole. I tried get him to understand why we couldn’t do that but he didn’t get it. To him his logic was flawless: I like to eat fish, they have fish there, let’s catch some. Thankfully we don’t own fishing poles so I was able to redirect him.

Charlie is very intrigued by jellyfish ever since my husband told him that when Chinese people get married they eat jellyfish. It is a Chinese custom and yes, my husband and I ate jellyfish at our Chinese wedding reception. Well, Charlie now wants to get married so that he can eat jellyfish. He has mentioned marrying a little boy in his class, also me, and/or my husband. All to get a sample of jellyfish.

When I see a jellyfish, I don’t think “food.”

I just love how they move.

This shot of white jellyfish was my desktop background for a little while and from a far Charlie thought it looked like a “tar” (guitar). Sure does.

They dip and roll.

Here Charlie is with his “noculars” — he’s explaining something to me, as usual.

We found Nemo!

There’s where Nemo likes to hang out these days.

 They have short movies (12 minutes) in 3D. The two of us saw the “Dora” movie. This is a rare treat because TV is only watched on special occasions at our house.

I took this shot from the window of Shedd’s cafeteria. The Shedd is on a strip of land that juts out in the lake so the vistas back towards the city are tremendous.

Looking at this shot all I’m thinking is…I miss summer!

(I’m doing a series on Chicago and sharing photos I’ve taken around my city. I love it here. This is part of NaBloPoMo — National Blog Posting Month. I’m endeavoring to post every day in November).

Cooking up Change (Part three)

The last and final installment about my series on Cooking up Change. Read the first and second part to get caught up.

Back to the Bridgeport Art Center where the place was filling up with hungry guests.

From North-Grand High School: “The NG Spiced Turkey Wrap, Sweet and Spicy Rice, Nine Treasure Salad”

 From Manley Career Academy: “Black Bean and Corn Cakes with Dirty Rice, Roasted Siced Sweet Potatoes, Apple Slaw”

 I like reading  these menus

 From Harper High School, “Blackened Chicken with Garden Vegetables over Rotini Alfredo, Sauteed Collard Greens, Romaine Salad.”

 Yum.

From Dunbar Career Academy, “Buffalo Ranch Chicken Wrap, Sweet Potato Supreme, Tomato White Bean Soup:”

Corliss High School had an interesting display. The vase contained all of the ingredients (minus the flour) of the bars they made for the healthy snack part of the competition.

 Here are the bars, looking delectable!

And the chefs themselves!

 All of a sudden it was time to announce the winners of the challenge.

 Pictured here on stage (from left to right): Chef David Blackmon, CPS Program Coordinator for Culinary Arts & Hospitality; Rochelle Davis, Executive Director of the Healthy Schools Campaign; Bob Bloomer, Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality; and Enrique Rodriguez, Reporter and Weekend Anchor for Univision (Master of Ceremonies for Cooking up Change).

And the winners were Chicago Vocational Career Academy!

 I didn’t get the best shot as everyone was rushing to their booth to congratulate the winners and have another taste!

The menu included, “Oven-Fried Chicken with Dinner Roll, Cousins (the sauteed greens), and Sweet Potato Salad.”

Running the credits on a terrific night thinking about school food in a new way.

Five Important takeaways: 

1) Student empowerment — Give kids the chance to participate in creating menus, tasting foods, and preparing meals and they make healthy choices.

2) Greens are in — The students prepared a lot of greens both sauteed and fresh. Take note meal planners.

3) Bye, bye white spuds — Hello Congress? No tray contained traditional potatoes. However, there was a lot of sweet potato. Mmmm.

4) Getting “wrapped” up — Many schools created wraps — I think I’ve spotted a new trend in school food.

5) Vegetarian without the cheese — Some of the meals were meatless, but didn’t have processed cheese AND still met the USDA standards for a reimbursable meal. Let’s get rid of processed cheese, which is incredibly high in sodium.

America’s Lesson Plan: Pizza is a Veggie!

I’ve developed a visual that I’m going to use when I teach the new rules to my students, many of whom have special needs. I think my terrific graphic about sums up yesterday’s ruling by Congress to amend the regulations to continue to allow pizza to be a vegetable. I’m hoping my students will grasp this, but I don’t think they are going to believe me. I think there will be a lot of dissent.

Let’s develop a lesson plan for teaching this amazing new discovery to students. Ok, here’s an Illinois state learning standard for science:

STATE GOAL 12:  Understand the fundamental concepts, principles and interconnections of the life, physical and earth/space sciences.

Why This Goal Is Important:  This goal is comprised of key concepts and principles in the life, physical and earth/space sciences that have considerable explanatory and predictive power for scientists and non-scientists alike.  These ideas have been thoroughly studied and have stood the test of time.  Knowing and being able to apply these concepts, principles and processes help students understand what they observe in nature and through scientific experimentation.  A working knowledge of these concepts and principles allows students to relate new subject matter to material previously learned and to create deeper and more meaningful levels of understanding.

 A.  Know and apply concepts that explain how living things func­tion, adapt and change.

(Early Elementary)

12.A.1a  Identify and describe the component parts of living things (e.g., birds have feathers; people have bones, blood, hair, skin) and their major functions.

12.A.1b  Categorize living organisms using a variety of observable features (e.g., size, color, shape, backbone).

Mrs Q’s Pizza as a Veggie Lesson Plan – 

Purpose: The students will be learning about how Congress reclassified pizza as a vegetable so that they better understand what pizza is, what a tomato is, and what a vegetable is so that they can make informed choices when eating.

Materials: Pizza from the school cafeteria, fresh tomatoes and other vegetables purchased from grocery store. Pencil and paper. Possible field trips to extend learning and share pizza’s new classification to stakeholders:

1) Visiting a pizza place to learn about how pizza is made and with what ingredients. Inform people making pizzas that pizza is now a veggie! Rejoice!

2) Tour a grocery store to observe how food is categorized and grouped. Tell employees to move pizzas into the produce section because it’s only logical.

Instruction: Getting out our materials, students will observe, feel, touch, and smell both pizza, tomatoes, and random vegetables. Students will write down observations, describing words, and characteristics of pizza, tomatoes and veggies in three columns. Note similarities and differences. Point out to students that pizza is a vegetable now! Write out definitions for pizza and tomatoes and make sure that they are the same. Squelch any student dissent by producing Congress’s new rules and regulations. If Congress and its many lobbyists say it is so, it must be true!

Check for Understanding: Make sure that students understand pizza’s new category by asking them, “Is pizza a vegetable?” Students should say “Yes,” but if they say, “No,” keep repeating the question until they relent.

Encourage students to share their new learning with their parents at home! Tell them that they should say to their parents, “Let’s eat more vegetables! I mean, let’s eat more pizza!” (Let’s really confuse the issue by reminding everyone that actually tomato is a fruit!)

Please consider calling or emailing your representative in the House (find your representative here) and telling them how you feel about the changes to the new healthy rules. When we put corporate interests first, common sense gets lost and kids lose out. We’re going in the wrong direction!

Further reading: Food Politics (nice round up of the coverage).

My school lunch videos (plus a book giveaway)

I created two videos using my school lunch photos with the help of pummelvision.com. Here’s the slow one:

Mrs Q’s School Lunches (SLOW) (405 photos in 3 minutes)

Here’s the fast one:

Mrs Q’s School Lunches (FAST) (405 photos in 1 minute)

The fast one is my favorite, especially after the ten second mark when the little containers look they are dancing on the tray. But the slow one? Yeah, I get choked up a couple minutes in… what a year 2010 was!

Which video is your favorite? Comment below telling me which video is your favorite and why to be entered into a giveaway of my book “Fed Up With Lunch.” Winner to be announced next week!