What school food was your favorite, if any?

[fan-of-fans]

My favorites were probably:

Corn dogs with french fries and corn
Chicken noodle soup with grilled cheese sandwich
Chicken nuggets with mashed potatoes
Grilled ham and cheese, french fries, broccoli

"Chicken pot pie" which was chicken and vegetables in a filling with two biscuits on top.

They used to make a chicken marinara too which looked like a breaded chicken pattie from the chicken sandwich but with spaghetti sauce poured over it. I never tried it.

At Thanksgiving we always had sliced turkey with gravy, green beans, mashed potatoes and sweet potato pie on the last day before the break.

Sometimes we'd get tater tots but it was not often. Typically the french fries were crinkle cut ones. Those Keating fryers made the perfect fries, always just right.

 

[polkanut]

The cafeteria food at the parochial school I went to was all homemade.  The head cook's name was Valeria McDonald so we used to joke that we ate at McDonald's every day.  Her homemade pizza was out of this world, and her crazy cake.  Soup days were some of the best by far though.  Val and her two helper's (Marianne & Doris) would bake loaves and loaves of made from scratch french bread.  The smell of that baking bread along with the aroma of the soup would drive everyone crazy, and get mouths watering all morning long.

 

Eighth graders could sign up to help in the kitchen, and during those weeks your lunch was free. 

 

[frigilux]

Went to a very small public school where everything was homemade. Great turkey and roast beef dinners near holidays, excellent cafeteria goulash, dinner rolls and various desserts--especially the peach and apple crisps. For some reason I loved the hamburger gravy on mashed potatoes--probably because my Italian mother never made anything like that.

 

[brainardcooper]

Spanish Rice!

I can remember the taste of the "Spanish Rice" that was made at the elementary school I attended. Never had it since but I will never forget it. Loved it!

 

[iheartmaytag]

Dinner rolls

Everything was made on site, and there wasn't much that was really nasty. There were fresh made dinner rolls that were to die for. Light, fluffy, buttered tops. . .

Now-a-days all the school lunch food is made at a central kitchen and pretty much is stuff that was rejected from Alpo.

 

[ea56]

The only time in my school days that I ever regularly had school cafeteria lunches was when I attended Catholic School from 1958-63 in Berkeley, Calif. The lunch card was 35 cents a week and the food was wretched, and thats no joke either. I always loved to eat, and would eat just about anything, but I drew the line at just about anything that cafeteria crew dished up. I was caught a couple of times by the nuns stuffing food I couldn’t stomach into my empty milk container, and when I tossed it in the garbage it hit with a thud. I felt a nun grabbing me by the collar and making me fish out the milk box from the garbage while she proceeded to tell me that there were starving children in China that would love to have that delicious food. We weren’t alowed to throw any food away, our trays needed to be empty when we were through. I made the mistake of being a Smart Alec and retorting, “Well then send it to them”. That elicited a note home, after which from then on Mom packed my lunches.

Now the school food that I really did enjoy was Hot Dog Day! Now that was what I’m talking about! The Mothers Club had Hot Dog Day for us once a month, and this was a great treat.

In high school, my family was not very well off, and we never had lunch money, we all packed our own lunches to school. Maybe once in a Blue Moon I’d have a quarter to buy two cheeseburgers, for the price of one, that would be the leftovers, after everyone else had been served, and those were really pretty good.

My Aunt Louise was a school cafeteria supervisor in the Richmond, Calif. school district,and she made the most heavenly yeast rolls, like the ones she made for the cafeteria. They were out of this world.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 4/5/2019-11:48]

 

[norgeway]

Lower Creek Elementary School

In Lenoir NC had wonderful food, My Dads first cousin worked there, She made tons of the very finest yeast rolls I ever tasted, Everything was good, but the hamburger/tomato goolash was the best, stewed beef, homemade soup and on and on...

 

[countryguy]

Only the high school had a cafeteria and everything was made onsite. My fav meal was sloppy joes.

Gary

 

[xraytech]

My favorite school foods would have been pizza burger day.
Pizza burgers were a recipe created by Mrs. Peterson in the 59s or 60s. It was fried ground beef mixed with sauce, seasonings and cheese to make a spread that was put on hamburger bun halves and baked with cheese on top.

I also enjoyed the apple crisp, cherry crisp, and the Jell-o poke cake

 

[circlew]

The only menu item that was exceptionally good was the apple crisp. It was made fresh, and they had a really good recipe.

The grilled cheese was decent, as was the tomato soup (either Campbell's or Heinz).

Everything else was average or below.

 

[de409]

The soft pretzels were good. I always packed but would snitch a few off of the trays waiting for the ladies to wash them if they looked untouched.

 

[rinso]

I went to a comparatively large high school, in a small town. The cafeteria food was all made from scratch, but still mediocre. My favorites were Sloppy Joe's, lasagna, chili con carne, and chicken ala king. 

 

The daily menus were written on a chalkboard. Whenever we had baked lasagna, I would erase the word lasagna to placenta, so it read "baked placenta."  

 

[wayupnorth]

My high school had a unique cafeteria setup. The right side was the regular hot lunch line, you got what they served you. The left was an A'La Carte line. There was always 1 hot dish, tuna and italian rolls, soup, salad, delicious yeast rolls, sheet cake and juice or milk. I could easily spend $1 and load my tray.

 

[yogitunes]

Salisbury steak with buttered noodles, with your choice of green bean casserole or vegetable medley....

 

[lordkenmore]

Not school food, but school related...

I didn't think of this at the time as far as I can recall, but at the time I could have made an argument for my afternoon snack, simply because it meant I was Done and Finished with school for the day. Well, I wasn't totally done, thanks to the "joys" of homework, but at least I was home.

 

[labboy]

Warm sourdough bread they grilled with butter
Grilled cheese
Tater tots
Nachos
Mac and cheese

My mother is a good cook but never made anything fried or with cream sauce. When I got to Jr High and got to have real Mac and Cheese with a creamy cheese sauce and fried tater tots, I was blown away.

 

[lordkenmore]

I almost never ate school lunches. (Actually, it happened only once in junior high when considering standard cafeteria lunch IIRC.) But I can remember the smell of the cooking in the elementary school cafeteria (in particular). It was not appealing; however, it was probably solidly in line with other cafeterias. I just had no basis of comparison then, and probably was picky.

I was told in junior high that the actual cooking was done (or heavily done) in a central location, and then shipped out. Probably in trucks emblazoned with Hazardous Material warnings. LOL My junior high kitchen was apparently the district kitchen (or, at the least, a central kitchen for multiple schools).

They'd do barbecue days in elementary school, when the principal would grill. (One has to wonder if that would fly in today's world... I'd think there'd be some health department type objecting.) These were rare--I'm almost thinking only once a year when I was in elementary school, and probably at about the end of the year. I'd eat those lunches I think, but can't honestly remember any details. They still did barbecue days in at least high school, but I don't recall ever having those lunches.

 

[askolover]

Mine was some kind of blond brownie that they baked up.  I've tried to replicate it and have come close but not exactly the same.

The high school did make a good spaghetti sauce. 

 

[frigilux]

Xraytech: I’d forgotten about pizza burgers! From your description, ours were made the same way. Of course, they get their personality from seasoning and I admit with no small amount of shame that I’ve never been able to replicate the taste of those simple delights.