Last day

First my apologies! I was not able to update the last post until now. I've been moving to my fabulous new home. Sorry, but family comes first!

On the last day's menu:

Sack Lunch: Turkey and Cheese SW (Turkey was not offered . . . it may have been chopped ham??? I wasn't sure.)

Popcorn Chicken (not offered)

Chef Salad w/ Crackers

Baked Chips (not offered)

Carrot Sticks w/ Ranch

Chilled Peaches (not offered)

Variety of Fresh Fruit (apples and oranges)

BBQ flavored potato chips (served, not on menu)

A surprise for this day: The director of CNS came for lunch.

I was totally shocked. I asked why he was there and he told me that he didn't have any fires to put out at any other school, was in the neighborhood and thought he'd stop in for lunch. Since he didn't acknowledge my blog (I believe that's the real reason he stopped in. If you'll recall I posted the previous day wondering if he would come to lunch with me sometime . . . ) I went along with the pretending. I didn't like how this deception made me feel. Not at all.

I also thought it was a very safe day to show up for lunch. Just how bad can a sandwich be??? It's what is served EVERY FRIDAY.

As I noted above, it was unclear what the meat on the white bread sandwich was. It appeared to be chopped ham. I don't normally consume this type of cold cut, so I was unable to tell. The chips were served in a large container (see very top picture) and dished out on the Styrofoam trays. I wonder why they did this? To my knowledge they have always served chips in individual bags. Did they not want us to see the ingredient list? I don't know. One positive thing about serving this way is it creates less trash.

Not a very satisfying lunch. No lettuce to put on the sandwich. Cold cut, cheese "food", white bread. I guess "it's what the kids will eat" struck again. Carrots were fine. Orange was good.

I will post a summary of my month long adventure over the weekend. Thanks for continuing to read!

Day 15

On today's menu:

*Chicken Nuggets (not offered) OR

Steak Fingers (not offered) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered)

Seasoned Green Beans (offered)

*WG Dinner Roll (offered)

*Mashed Potatoes (offered)

Apple Bread Pudding (offered)

*Choice of Fresh Fruit (apples, oranges)

Made in Oklahoma Day (I'm guessing the steak is the made in Oklahoma item)

I'm not sure what I had. I think it was considered the steak fingers, but it was more like a breaded steak patty. It tasted like it was quick fried, frozen and reheated. Gravy was offered to put on top of the steak and potatoes. I accepted. The steak had a nice texture and flavor.

I couldn't finish the green beans. They had a really strange taste to me . . . it was like the flavor had been all washed out. They were soft and I couldn't taste any seasoning if there was indeed some. It makes me curious why the green beans are not consistent. Maybe they get different brands.

The worst thing on the menu today (well actually the whole month) was the Bread Pudding. It tasted watery. Water actually dripped out of it. :-( I'm a big fan of bread pudding, even bad bread pudding, but today's was the worst I'd ever had.

The horrible bread pudding makes me wonder if CNS tastes these meals before shipping them out to the schools. Or if they ever do quality checks by visiting the schools and eating the same food the kids are eating.

I wonder if the director would come and have lunch with me sometime and if he would eat the food served for 180 days (the same amount of days kids are required to attend school).

Tomorrow is my last day. I have to say that I'm looking forward to being done with this adventure.

Day 14

On today's menu:

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered) OR

Mexican Wrap (offered) OR

Burrito (not offered)

Frozen Fruit Slush (not offered)

Beans and Rice (offered)

NOT ON THE MENU: Fruit cocktail mix (offered with what looked like fresh bananas mixed in)

Variety of Fresh Fruit (apples, oranges)

Assuming you've not eaten today at an OKCPS elementary school, take a minute and imagine what a Mexican Wrap might be. I'll give you some time to think about it.

Wrap? . . . well that probably means in a tortilla. Mexican ? . . . what would that be? What could it be? How would one know what that description really means? But I bet something comes to your mind . . . .

Now that you've got a picture in your mind, here is what I had for lunch today:

It WAS a wrap. Inside the wrap was meat and cheese with some kind of "spread" with perhaps taco seasoning mixed in it. I have NO idea what made up the spread.

Did you picture the meat being perhaps, ground beef? If so, you would be wrong. The meat was some type of lunch meat. Turkey or ham or??

Several of the kids, myself AND teachers(!) thought the "wrap" would be served warm. Again wrong. It was served cold. It was very confusing for many of the kids. The item was wrapped up with the same paper that the heated food is wrapped in. It looked like a burrito. There was salsa served on the side (in my book another implication that it was burrito like). So based on previous knowledge "something was wrong" with this "wrap" that looks like a burrito.

The kids told me that they did not remember having this before.

I tried to unwrap the wrap to photograph the insides, but the tortilla stuck to the spread and pealed apart making it most unphotogenic.

Having said all that, it didn't taste bad. The beans had a nice flavor and the rice was so-so. NO VEGETABLES today. Apple was good.

It looked like another fast food item. It was something else than what was expected. I'm baffled why CNS (Child Nutrition Services) didn't just called it a sandwich wrap and at least offer some lettuce and tomatoes with it.

One of the teachers told me later in the day, that many of the kids needed to be excused to go to the bathroom. I too, spent more time than usual in the bathroom today. Crampy tummy. Could be just a coincidence . . .

Only two more days left in this adventure.

Day 13

On today's menu:

Turkey and Tetrazzini (NOT offered) OR

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered) OR

*WG Pepperoni Pizza (offered)

*Fresh Garden Salad w/ light dressing (offered)

Seasoned Broccoli (offered)

WG Dinner Roll (NOT offered)

*Variety of Fresh Fruit (oranges, apples, strawberries)

Peaches and Apricots (canned)

It was pepperoni pizza day! The first repeat all month. I finally got to have a chef salad. I was delightfully surprised at how good it tasted. The kitchen staff went to the kitchen to get my salad for me. My container had a big T on top. I'm not sure if that stood for Ms. Tree, Teacher (adult), or Turkey (referring to the meat, not me hopefully).

I'm unsure of what kind of meat was in the salad, could have been Turkey, but looked more like ham. Everything tasted very fresh. The salad was made of iceberg lettuce. Today they provided the light dressing, with a green triangle noting it was one of the healthy balance items. It tasted like Italian dressing.

An asterisk(*) denotes components of Balanced Choices meals that meet strict nutrient parameters for calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, fiber,

sodium, and other key nutrients. All Balanced Choices meals include a choice of 1% or less milk.

For the healthy balance choices today, the triangles were with the pizza, the side salad, the fresh fruit and the light dressing.

The broccoli today tasted like it had Parmesan cheese sprinkled on it. Again it was mostly stems, but the "seasoning" really added a nice touch (and flavor) to the broccoli.

The orange was very good. I understand that I missed out on the strawberries. I arrived later than usual today and they were all gone. Certainly my loss. And a loss for the younger kids who come later in the lunch rotation.

I think I could eat this meal for lunch for 180 days. It's the first time I felt I could say this. I was however hungrier than usual towards the end of the school day.

Day 12

On today's menu:

*Hamburger or Cheeseburger on WG Bun (offered)

Hot Ham and Cheese (not offered)

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered)

Seasoned Peas (offered)

Baked Tater Tots (offered)

Variety of Fresh Fruit (strawberry, apples, oranges)

Baked Apples (offered)

I chose the Cheeseburger. It was no worse than a child's burger at McD's. It was however served on a whole wheat bun. And that added a lot of flavor to the burger. I am grateful for the tomato and pickles to give it some added flavor. Can't say that the iceberg lettuce does much of anything.

It says that seasoned peas were offered. I don't know what seasoning is being used when it lists the vegetable as seasoned. Today, I couldn't taste any seasoning. The peas were overcooked and mushy, but served hot.

Tater tots tasted better today, than the last time I ate them. They were a bit crisp which helped make them seem like tots. I'm wondering now, if the tots that I ate previously were not fully cooked and that's why they did not have flavor. I don't know.

The strawberries were delicious! I've been very impressed with the fresh fruit.

Today I brought my husband with me to lunch. He had the "baked apples". These looked like pie filling from a can. Dear hubby said they tasted sweetened, but were not overly sweet. They also had cinnamon on them.

Another fast food lunch. At least there was the fresh fruit.

Day 11

On today's menu:

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered) OR

*Grilled Chicken on Bun (offered) OR

Sack Lunch (Ham and Cheese SW) (not offered)

Baked Chips (offered -- and I am assuming that Sun Chips are baked)

*Carrot Sticks w/ Ranch (offered)

Variety of Fresh Fruit (banana, apple, orange)

*Chilled Peaches (offered)

Today's meal was brought to you by the color orange.

The grilled chicken sandwhich was my choice today.

It was dry but tasted okay. Iceberg lettuce, tomato and pickle were available on the side. It appeared to be on a whole wheat bun. Carrots were crisp and yummy. The orange was delicious.

We had the sun chips again. Today I snapped a picture of the contents.

Sodium is 160 mg, Total fat 6 g

And I thought this was worthy of taking a picture of. This is what the chicken sandwich was wrapped up in. It is such fast food, that you don't even have time to figure out where to put the sandwich without written instructions. Talk about insulting the kitchen staff!

Have a wonderful weekend. I'll be back on Monday.

Day 10

And six more to go!

On today's menu:

Baked Chicken (offered)

Chef Salad w/ Crackers (offered)

Chicken Rings (not offered)

WG Dinner Roll (not offered)

Green Beans (offered with onions in it)

Chilled Pears

Macaroni and Cheese

Variety of Fresh Fruit (orange, banana, plum)

Today's meal almost resembled something I might have served at home (sans the mac & cheese -- more on this in a bit). I couldn't believe they actually had baked chicken. It looked great. And tasted pretty good. Much like a rotisserie chicken you can get at the grocery, it had a lot of seasoning on the outside of it but with no skin that I could detect.

The biggest problem with the chicken is it's history. It was served once before and it was not completely cooked. It's become a legend. "It wasn't cooked!" "The chicken was bloody!", "Bloody Chicken!! eeeeewwwww", "I wouldn't let the kids eat it because I was afraid they would get sick." I remember, even my daughter who brings her lunch had much to say about it when she came home that day.

The memory of "bloody chicken day" is still fresh in many minds.

Most of the trays that I saw today chose the chef salad and I believe it is because of the history the chicken has.

Today, my chicken was done. Maybe too done as it was very dry, (unlike a rotisserie chicken) but flavorful. A teacher who also picked the chicken, said hers was not done. Darn!

I feel so frustrated! This is one of the only "real" meals they've served and from the get go it was sabotaged. Not intentionally mind you, but what an unfortunate way to start off. I think if they keep serving it, kids (and adults) will learn to trust that the chicken will be good -- assuming it is cooked until done on subsequent servings.

The green beans had onions in them. It provided a seasoning for them, but I (and apparently many of the kids) like them better without the extra flavoring in them.

Mac & cheese looked and tasted like it was out of box. I'm not knocking all boxed mac & cheese, as I have been known to have it on my pantry shelf. However, we are getting back to that idea that fast food is healthy. And it's not. It's quick. It's easy. Healthy -- it's not. Real macaroni like they had yesterday with cheese mixed into it, would have at least looked more like it was made at home. And making trays of Mac & cheese would be easy. It's something OKCPS kitchens COULD make, I think. We are not there yet, but I think we could get there. They are now preparing the Chef salads in the kitchen . . . It's not a HUGE leap to think they might prepare other foods in the kitchen.

I remain optimistic and hopeful.