What cafeteria food did you actually like in school? Mine was grilled cheese sandwich. What about you??

[debm55]

[displacedvermoter]

1. Pizza and chocolate pudding (with little chocolate chips)

[debm55]

2. That sounds good. Thank you very much displacedvermoter.

[MiHale]

3. Went home for lunch...no cafeteria...

Run home, slam down whatever, do noon chores, run back to school.

[debm55]

6. In grade school, I went home. Junior high and High School, we lived too far away. Thank you MiHale.

[The Blue Flower]

4. Pizza

For dessert, two Krispy Kreme doughnuts on a plate, one filled and one glazed. This was in Orlando long before KK went national and was just a local doughnut shop.

[debm55]

7. That sounds very good. The Blue Flower. My school's pizza was nothing to brag about. Donuts --yes.

[33taw]

5. We had ham and cheese sandwiches on Kaiser rolls every Thursday.

[debm55]

8. Thank you very much, 33taw. That sounds very good.

[33taw]

23. It was then, not sure I would have it now. But it was a school favorite.

[CrispyQ]

9. Fish sticks on Friday was my favorite.

They also made this fruit flavored chiffon type dessert that was really good. Very strong fruit flavor, usually orange but sometimes strawberry.

[debm55]

10. Thank you very much, CrispyQ. That dessert sounds wonderful.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

37. I liked fish sticks on Fridays, also.

We had those just about every Friday in elementary school. Along with parsley buttered potatoes and a vegetable like green beans or peas. My favorite desserts were the mixed fruit jello or apple crisp (like apple cobbler). We usually had pizza or spaghetti on Thursdays and those entrees were tasty.

In high school, we had the choice of a tray lunch or a plate lunch daily. I preferred the tray lunch which would be a bowl of chili or a bowl of soup which was usually tomato, vegetable or noodle. Then there was a sandwich which was usually a grilled cheese, a small cold cut on a sub roll or a steamer. The steamer was my favorite of the three; it was what folks in the Iowa-Illinois area would call a loose meat sandwich. They still the old reliable apple crisp, mixed fruit jello or applesauce for dessert and celery/carrot sticks.

[CrispyQ]

63. Try a shot of Amaretto drizzled over apple crisp for an adult version.

A la mode or plain, it's wonderful!

[debm55]

64. Thank you CrispyQ. I will give it a try. It sounds great.

[underpants]

11. Square pizzas and 80 cent hamburgers

We had one line that was just burgers. I’d get a burger, a salad, and a milk for 80 cents. Unfortunately the blue cheese dressing had a weird reaction in my mouth and my breath stunk.

[debm55]

12. Sorry about that, underpants. Didnt they give you a choice of other dressings?

[underpants]

21. Uh...never asked

I’d eat my lunch before any of my table buddies showed up and then I’d write papers I’d found out were due in periods 1-3. Day late. B becomes a C. I was a horrible student in high school.

[debm55]

25. Love you, Underpants.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

46. 80 cent lunches- hmmm....

I may have graduated a few years before you (late 1970s). Our lunches were 55 cents my senior year and an extra milk was 10 cents. I forget how much an ice cream was, though. I took things for granted back then but I realize today what a good value school lunches were. And they were pretty good, overall.

[underpants]

70. I had no idea how reliant kids are on school lunches

until 2020. There’s a guy who owns the Midas shops around here whose radio commercials are mostly about food programs not car care. He grew up really poor and had a weekend backpack program well before 2020. I had no idea.

We go to them exclusively. Is it maybe a bit more? I don’t know but I know where it’s going. They have a complete history on each vehicle, longtime employees, the front counter people are straight salary - no upselling. Always a loaner car (Honda Fit usually) even for $20 state inspections.

[debm55]

74. Thank you very much Prof.Toru Tanaka. I graduated in 1973.And yes they were resonable.

[SallyHemmings]

13. Tater tots

They were only served once a month. Everything else was terrible.

[debm55]

14. Thank you very much, SallyHemmings. They served tator tots with the grilled chees. Yum.

[Ritabert]

45. As a lunch monitor (a la Tim Walz) I remember the "Flying Tater Tot incident one time

[debm55]

48. HAHAHHAHAHaH. Thank you Ritabert.

[Ritabert]

51. My husband recalls that the high school served black olives ONCE

The sky was darkened by flying black olives.

[debm55]

56. I was a teacher for 40 some years. Two of the years in a high school. Thank you for the memories, Ritabert. had lunch

duty one day a week. Really disliked it.

[Ritabert]

61. Actually in my junior high lunchroom duty was coveted

You didn't have to have that long lunch period class. Of course the kids in my school were nice for the most part. This was way back.

[Diamond_Dog]

15. Grilled cheese and tomato soup.

I love that combination still.

[debm55]

16. Me too, Thank you very much, Diamond_Dog,

[kimbutgar]

17. I loved the tuna fish on wheat bread !

My Mother did not like fish and never cooked it. So if on the school lunch menu it had that tuna fish sandwich I’d beg my Mother for lunch money to buy it! It was 50 cents then!

[debm55]

19. I really enjoy tuna salad sandwiches too. Thank you very much kimbutgar.

[murielm99]

18. I liked the chili mac.

For some reason, their bread and better was good, too, no matter what the entree was.

[debm55]

20. Thank you very much murierlm99, It sounds very good.

[AllaN01Bear]

22. mac and cheese .

i liked the grilled cheese too also

[debm55]

26. Thank you very much, AllaN01Bear.

[sinkingfeeling]

24. Fish sticks

[debm55]

27. Thank you very much sinkingfeeling.

[OldBaldy1701E]

73. Yup. The were the best at the elementary school. (n//t)

[debm55]

75. Thank you very much OldBaldy1701E

[stopdiggin]

28. not real picky. brother and I would mow through most anything.

(without sounding like we were starved and deprived at home. we weren't .. by any stretch)
But have to say stove top stuffing (and how that ever ended up on a school lunch menu .. ?) was actually pretty good!
AND .. the really big treat was the chocolate milk in the cute little (half pint) cartons. I'd scoop up more than my single - if I was a good enough con with classmates. I don't know how much sugar they pumped into those things - but they went beyond any milk shake - and there was surely nothing like it at home!

[debm55]

33. Thank you very much, stopdiggin. Yes the Stove Top stuffing served with a slice of "turkey" . I ate the stuffing and

left the turkey. It was our Thanksgiving lunch. Thanks for the memories.

[SheltieLover]

29. Ice cream drumsticks

Sugar cone filled with vanilla ice cream and covered with chocolate.

Otherwise, I preferred to take my lunch to school.

[debm55]

34. Oh, I loved those ice cream drumsticks. Still do. Thank you SheltieLover.

[SheltieLover]

47. Nice to see you posting again, Deb!

[debm55]

49. Thank you SheltieLover.

[rsdsharp]

30. Every time they served chili, it included a glazed cinnamon roll.

The chili was OK, but the cinnamon rolls were excellent!

[debm55]

35. thank you rsdharp. I remember those cinnamon rolls. They were great.

[walkingman]

31. The rolls - the cafeteria ladies made the best rolls....yum!! (50s and 60s)

[debm55]

36. Thank you walkingman. Yes, the rolls were great.

[love_katz]

32. Hamburger and gravy over mashed potatoes.

It was the only cafeteria meal I would eat. They used real potatoes, not instant ones.

It's funny that I would like that meal, since I wasn't really fond of gravy. But, the cafeteria did a great job on that lunch.

[debm55]

38. Thank you very much love_katz. Thank you for sharing your memories with us.

[Ritabert]

39. Same here. We called it hamburg sundae.

Real potatoes and it was cooked by mothers of our students. They were very good cooks. It was a small junior high school.

[debm55]

43. Thank you very much, Ritabert. It sounds yummy. We got the instant kind.

[Ziggysmom]

40. I'm with you regarding the grilled cheese sammich, but only if I have tomato soup on the side

to dip into!

[debm55]

44. Thank you very much, Ziggysmom. Yes, grilled cheese with tomato soup. a winner.

[Tadams01KC]

41. Rectangle pizza

And Sloppy Joes and Fish Sticks. I always found the kids that did not like fish sticks and I would trade for them.
Oh and the Spaghetti was bland but good.

[debm55]

60. That's great. Thank you very much for your choices, Tadams01KC and welcome to DU.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

42. Beef enchiladas

I would eat at the school cafeteria every Thursday. My grandmother was a former teacher and I remember the school bringing a tray of these enchiladas to the house

[debm55]

62. Thank you very much, LetMyPeopleVote. They sound great. And what a great thing the staff did to bring your grandmother

some. We need more of that.

[Tetrachloride]

50. bread

[debm55]

65. Thank you Tetrachloride.

[Nittersing]

52. No cafeteria food for me. Lived too close to school.

I *did* work in a few school cafeterias for a couple of years.

The high school I worked at made some killer burritos... they were made to order. Chicken, pork or beef and a good variety of add ins. Also, some salsa we made with habaneros was VERY popular with the kids.

[debm55]

57. Thank you very much, Nittersing. That sounds delicious.

[brush]

53. Two scoops of mashed potatoes with brown meat gravy. Good and inevpensive.

[debm55]

79. Thank you very much. brush.

[spooky3]

54. I did, too, deb! Nt

[debm55]

76. Thank you very much spooky3.

[Keepthesoulalive]

55. Boston cream pie

[debm55]

58. At a school. Wow. Thank you very much, Keepthesoulalive.

[Tikki]

59. Hi Deb. I was a Public School Cafeteria employee for 11 years.

One of the best jobs, ever.
We made homemade bread loaves and served the sliced buttered bread fresh at least twice a week.
This was a K-8 School and the Middle School grades are when young-ones are growing at
an unbelievable rate.

The students loved the bread and our homemade macaroni and cheese with the crispy topping.
We, also, had a salad bar that would be well picked over each day.

The School’s snack bar and ice cream treats were popular.

Tikki

[debm55]

66. Wow, Tikki, your school lunch sounds wonderful. A salad bar---great. Fresh bread--terrific. Thank you for your 11 years

of service on the staff. Cafeteria staff get very little appreciation, but I want to say thank you.

[Jilly_in_VA]

67. We had honest to God lunch ladies and REAL food (before the school lunch program)

I didn't get to eat school lunch very often, but when I did, I tried to make sure it was on the day they had beef stew and a biscuit, MMM.

[debm55]

82. Thank you very much, Jilly_in_VA. That sounds delicious.

[subterranean]

68. Tacos...

My family moved to California from the East when I was in 6th grade, and the school cafeteria there served tacos a couple of days a month. I had never had tacos before, but they quickly became my favorite cafeteria food, and I always looked forward to "taco day."

[debm55]

83. Thank you very much for sharing your school memories with us, subterranean

[Paladin]

69. Mexican food every Wednesday, Texas public schools.

Hey, you think we became Tex-Mex food junkies by accident?

[debm55]

85. That sounds great. I don't ever recall being served mexican food in school, except for Spanish rice. TY Paladin

[FadedMullet]

111. Wow, the Texas school system actually got something right for a change.

[debm55]

113. HAHAHAHHAhAHAHHA

[yellowdogintexas]

71. Depends on which school.

From 1st through 9th grade I was in small school with all grades in the same building. The cafeteria food was marginal and a lot of it was commodity food. I hated almost all of it but I did like the fried chicken, the meatloaf, the turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas (they made turkey salad with the leftovers which was quite good), and the sloppy joes.
We had a soft serve machine and when fish was on the menu, the ice cream would run out.

Starting in 10th grade I was at a different high school and the food was better. Spaghetti was great, meatloaf, fried chicken (those are really hard to mess up) and we had an option to get a chef's salad as an alternative if we wished. I do not remember anything at that school that was awful. However, they used a lot of ground beef and we started rumours that the meat was being recycled. Scared a few freshmen, let me tell you.

One thing both had in common: Delicious hot rolls!!! I have a recipe which claims to be
"Lunch Lady Rolls" and they do come close. I love to make dinner rolls!!

[debm55]

86. That sounds very similar to my school. I will have to look up Lunch Lady Rolls. Thank you yellowdogintexas.

[LogDog75]

72. Vegetable soup and sheppard's Pie

The vegetable soup was made from scratch and tended to be a bit watery but it was good.

Sheppard's Pie is meatloaf topped with mashed potatoes and gravy. Normally, Sheppard's Pie is made with minced meat but meatloaf was cheaper to make.

[debm55]

77. Wow that sounds good, thank you very much, LogDog75

[exboyfil]

78. Burger and fries

I can't belief I ate like that. Would love to have all those years of bad eating back. I look at the typical Japanese student lunch and think how I would love to have eaten that instead. The US one is still grim.

[debm55]

80. HAHHAHHAHAH. thank you exboyfil. You are so right.

[ultralite001]

81. Stewed plums (prunes)...

Go figure...

[debm55]

88. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA. thank you very much ultralite001

[ultralite001]

89. Not cafeteria food... but one early school memory...

The abuelita next door to our house would hand out hot off the griddle hand-made tortillas w/ a smear of butter
to all the kids passing by on their way to school... One of the best breakfasts ever...

[debm55]

121. Wow, you were very lucky, Thank you very much ultralite001

[k_buddy762]

84. My mom gave me $1 a day

and I bought a 50-cent soda and a 50-cent roll of crumb donuts. Daily. For all of high school.

Terrible. Wish I had better self control back then. God only knows how much damage I did back then!

[debm55]

87. I know what you are talking about. I got a dollar for lunch and bought nothing. I saved it as I didn't get an allowance.

[FuzzyRabbit]

90. I rarely had cafeteria food, took a sack lunch almost every day.

[debm55]

91. Thank you FuzzyRabbit. My school lunch was not as good as those describe in some of the post. I would have loved to have

a Salad bar. homemade bread and buns. I mostly took a bag lunch or had a dollar for something special, at my school very few items were served a la carte. So I skipped lunch.

[Luciferous]

92. I went to a private school without a

cafeteria, but once a month we would have pizza day and it was from my favorite local pizza place, so I always looked forward to it 🙂

[debm55]

103. Thank you very much, Luciferous. That sounds great.

[Nixie]

93. Spaghetti. It had melted cheese on top, too, which

is kind of an unusual presentation as I came to realize. But it worked. They scooped it out like a casserole, so I guess it was spaghetti casserole. And the garlic toast.

[debm55]

104. Thank you very much. Nixie. That sounds yummy.

[Solly Mack]

94. The peanut butter cookie. That's it.

[debm55]

105. I loved the peanut butter cookie. Thank you for the memories. Solly Mack.

[Jack Valentino]

95. Pizza! It was particularly bad pizza, with no items, just cheese...

but I have no recollection of anything else that I particularly liked---
other than a small bag of BBQ potato chips, but that wasn't part of any actual "meals"...

[debm55]

106. Hahahahahahha. Thank you , Jack Valentino

[wyn borkins]

96. Apple Brown Betty (Only on Tuesday's)

[debm55]

107. Thank you , wyn bofkins. I remember that and it was a favorite.

[Figarosmom]

97. Salmon Loaf

Was just like salmon patties only in a loaf and was served with Mac and cheese

I liked the spaghetti too. I'm Italian and loved our spaghetti but the stuff at school was really different. Found out later from one of the moms that worked in the kitchen that they added peanut butter for protein. This was before knowledge of peanut allergies.

And shepards pie. My mom hated gravy so never made it so stew and stuff like shepards pie were never made at home . She hated gravy because when she had rheumatic fever it was hard for her to swallow solids so they fed her lots of bone broth and gravies.

[debm55]

108. Thank you very much for sharing your memories with us, Figarosmom.

[Morbius]

98. Mostly, cafeteria food wasn't an option.

I would bring a bologna & cheese sandwich from home and an apple, usually. Stuff in the cafeteria wasn't free and I grew up in a large family. After I got a job and could actually afford something, I typically bought the little cartons of chocolate milk and the bread slice "pizza". It wasn't good.

[debm55]

110. Thank you very much Morbius. I would take my lunch to school or in the early grades go home and eat.

[no_hypocrisy]

99. Does bread and butter count? You can't screw that up.

[debm55]

119. HAHAHAHHAHHAH. Thank you very much. no_hypocrisy. I understand.

[lark]

100. Pizza and stroganoff are what I remember.

We only bought our lunches for a year or two - most of the time mom made our lunches.

[debm55]

114. HAHAHAHAH Thank you lark. I did a mix of buying(very seldom) and brown bagging lunch or no lunch.

[milestogo]

101. M and M cookies

They were huge. Cookies and milk were my lunch.

[debm55]

120. Thank you milestogo for that memory. Sometimes, I would buy just the dessert and milk, too.

[OLDMDDEM]

102. I remember the lunch in school was $0.35. My friends and I would take that money and go to

Chris's Burger stand. You would get the best tasting hamburger ever and a soda for $0.35.

[debm55]

122. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA. Thank you very much for sharing that, OLDMDDEM

[catbyte]

109. None of it. I went home in grade school; high school we had a Dairy Queen across from the football field

that we went to for their $.25 loose meat sandwiches, lol.

[debm55]

118. Thank you very much catbyte. Wow, a DQ across the street. Yummy. Thank you for sharing.

[PJMcK]

112. English muffin pizzas

In Elementary School, the cafeteria cooks would make these great little pizzas using a toasted English muffin with pizza sauce and cheese with a choice of plain, sausage or pepperoni. Each plate came with two mini 'zas and a vegetable salad with Italian dressing. There was usually a fruit cup or a small pastry for dessert. It was many decades ago but I remember it clearly!

[debm55]

116. Thank you very much for sharing you memories, PJMcK. We had those English muffin pizza too, American cheese toppings and

no choice of toppings. Just plain.

[kozar]

115. Sloppy Joes,

The cook at school was also a neighbor.
When i got married, I called her and she gave me recipe, I still use it today.
And still one of my fave meals.

Koz

[debm55]

117. Thank you kozar. I loved the school's sloppy joes.

[kozar]

139. While,

I do Manwich, when im lazy,
When i cook, sloppy, here it is
Ground beef of course,
Ketchup, Mustard,sugar,
The sauce should not be red, it needs to be orange!!! If its red, add more mustard.
Garlic powder, onion powder, and salt, to taste.
Sometimes I even add some cayenne depending on my mood.
Koz

[debm55]

140. Thank you very much for you recipe, Koz. It is greatly appreciated.

[ProfessorGAC]

123. In HS, Everything

We had a very good cafeteria at the HS I went to. Anything they served was good.
They use to make fresh donuts every morning. No freshmen or sophomores allowed though.
The college I went to as an undergrad had a very good cafeteria, too. I recall on Thursdays (I think) one of the choices was Italian sausage, onion, & peppers over a pasta. Had that nearly every time, if i was around for dinner.

[debm55]

124. Thank you ProfessorGAC. What wonderful choices.

[Cirsium]

125. Everything

For most of us the school lunch was the best meal of the day.

[debm55]

126. Thank you very much, Cirsium

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

127. My school had a great ala carte potato salad for 10 cents

I ate it every day along with a 5 cent bowl of red jello and an 10 cent ice cream sandwich. Plus a carton of milk.

[debm55]

129. Thank you very much iwillalwayswonderwhy. You were lucky you could buy ala cart.We had to buy by the tray. No more no

less.

[orangecrush]

128. Same

[debm55]

130. Thank you very much, orangecrush.

[orangecrush]

131. Most welcome!

[Haggard Celine]

132. We had great cafeteria food.

We had all of the usual dishes, but my favorite was the gumbo. They served it once or twice a semester. It even had shrimp in it! The lady who ran the cafeteria was very nice and did a hell of a job

[debm55]

133. Thank you Haggard Celine. Wow gumbo with real shrimp. I could only dream.

[boonecreek]

134. Usually a greasy burger and soggy fries.

But once a week, they had beef chop suey like the old frozen brand Terry's.
Not great, but better than the burgers.

[debm55]

135. Oh you! HAHAHHAHAHAHA. Thanks for sharing, boonecreek.

[Beringia]

136. Cafeteria Rolls

[debm55]

137. Oh yes, they were great. Thank you, Beringia, for sharing the memory for us.

[pansypoo53219]

138. elm elementary school(art magnet) had awesome mock chicken w/ awesome rice. we walked home before that. br bag middle.

high school i limited myself to hash browns. not public school after the mock chicken.

[debm55]

141. Thank you very much for sharing with us. pansypoo53219