What's for Lunch - Mon., 5/6

BRUNCH FOR LUNCH
Cinnamon Challah French Toast w/
Baked Ham Slice (Boar’s Head®)
OR
Scrambled Egg & Cheese Wrap
Sweet Potato Wedge
Fresh Berries & Orange Salad

I'm really curious as to why we stopped serving whole wheat french toast to go back to the meal declared to be "cake" for lunch by our committee's nutritionist - basically white flour bread.  The syrup is basically HFCS.  They are looking for an affordable maple syrup but do not have one yet - but they will be limiting the serving size this year in the meantime.  Actual lunch from our schools above. This meal has a lot of sugar, simple carbohydrates -- no whole grains.

Ham is Boar's Head.

I do believe the wrap used for the egg and cheese is whole grain.  But they do use actual eggs like you would use at home. 

Sweet potato wedges are flash-fried and frozen with 4.5g of fat and 140mg of sodium. Ingredients are Sweet Potatoes, Potato Starch - Modified, Vegetable Oil (Contains One Or More Of The Following Oils: Canola, Soybean, Cottonseed, Sunflower, Corn). Contains 2% or less of Annatto (color), Baking Soda, Beta Carotene (color), Caramel(Color), Natural Flavors, Rice Flour, Salt, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate(Maintains Natural Color & Leavening), Sugar, Tapioca Dextrin,Xanthan Gum.

The berries and orange salad sound great.

Don't Miss the Last Seed Table! Your Kids Will Eat Veggies!

Don't Miss the last seed planting table - Monday at pick up in front of the school!

Want a Fun Way to Get Your Kids to Eat More Fresh Vegetables? . For just $1 per vegetable plant, we'll help your kids plant seeds they can take home. We'll offer different vegetables each week at the right time for planting. Your kids grow the seeds indoors for a few weeks and then plant the whole container in your yard, flower pot - even in your flower beds (our cucumbers always grow over the azaleas!)

When kids grow vegetables themselves, they are much more likely to try new ones and eat more of the ones they already like. Join us for a few minutes on Mondays through April and May and you'll have a cheap, diverse vegetable garden with very little effort.

We've got: Broccoli, Cucumbers, Cauliflower, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Peppers, Watermelon, Lima Beans

And send us your pictures as your garden grows!

Weekend Fun

Fun

Old Westbury Gardens has a program on "companion planting" for families. You can get a pass from the Village library to the house and gardens.

On Sunday, Bailey Arboretum is having a family nature adventure - Who Lives in the Ground?

What's for Lunch - Fri., 5/3

Meatball Parmigiana Hero
OR
Whole Wheat Penne Marinara
Mozzarella Stick
Caesar Salad w/Chick Peas
More Salad Bar Veggie Sides
Fresh Apple Slices

For the meatball, parmigiana, unlike our hamburgers, this "beef" is from Tyson and  is a USDA commodity product.  The meatballs are processed, cooked and frozen by Tyson from commodity beef.  Ingredients are: Ground beef (not more than 20% fat), water, bread crumbs (bleached wheat flour, salt, yeast, dextrose, and soybean oil), seasoning (salt, dehydrated onion, dehydrated celery, garlic powder, spices, soybean oil), tomato puree (tomatoes and citric acid), grated parmesan cheese [(cultured part-skim milk, salt and enzymes), cellulose powder, potassium sorbate], grated romano cheese made from cow's milk [(cultured pasteurized part-skim milk, salt and enzymes), cellulose powder, potassium sorbate].   They have 9g of fat (3 are saturated) and 450 mg of sodium.

The sauce is a Red Pack vitamin enhanced tomato sauce.  Here are the ingredients: Tomato Concentrate (Water, Tomato Paste), Sugar, Soybean Oil, Potassium Chloride, Onion Powder, Salt, Citric Acid, Spice, Garlic Powder, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Black Pepper, Vitamin E (DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate), Natural Flavor, Vitamin A (Retinol Palmitate).  The cheese is a USDA commodity part skim mozzarella.  Ingredients are cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes. The sodium is 240mg/oz.

Whole wheat penne with sauce above. Mozzarella stick is part-skim.  Caesar salad is romaine lettuce, tomatoes and croutons - plus chick peas this week. Fresh fruits and vegetables. 

What's for Lunch - Thurs., 4/2

FAJITA DAY
Southwest-Style Chicken Strips,
Brown Rice & Black Beans
& Build Your Tortilla
OR
Cheese Quesadilla,
Side of Beans
Carrot Crunchers~ Salsa
Pineapple in Juice
 
The brown rice is a whole grain but as previously discussed cannot be cooked in a way that minimizes the arsenic content.

The black beans are canned and the ingredients are "BLACK BEANS, WATER, SALT, AND CALCIUM CHLORIDE" with 140mg of sodium.

The chicken is from Tyson. It is described as "1/2" diced chicken meat" and as "boneless, skinless, and fully cooked." It is chicken breast. But sometimes...we get chicken with "grill marks" or "added smaoke flavor" but hopefully everything will go well....

I think we use Tyson's whole wheat tortillas. They have 4.5g of fat and 320mg of soidum. The ingredients are: Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Potato Starch with Monoglyceride, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Contains one or more of the following: Cottonseed Oil, Soybean Oil) with Mono- and Diglycerides and/or Citric Acid, Honey Wheat Seasonong (Dextrose, Wheat Germ, Caramel Color, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sucralose, Tricalcium Phosphate), contains 2% or less of the following: Vital Wheat Gluten, Salt, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Calcium Acid Pyrophosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Dough Conditioners (Wheat Flour, Calcium Sulfate, Sorbic Acid, Fumaric Acid), Preservative (Sodium Propionate (Propionic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide (for pH adjustment), Water and Potassium Sorbate).

The quesadilla has Monterrey Jack cheese and the beans and tortilla described above.
Fresh carrots with a mild organic salsa.

Canned pineapple in juice from China.

Weekend Reading -- and Local Fun

Reading

No Reading this weekend!

Fun

This weekend is the Planting Field's big Arbor Day Celebration. Seriously - it's fun and they give you a small tree. Well, a sapling. 

On Sunday, Old Westbury Gardens is having a "Tree-mendous" celebration for families and - trees. Pick up a pass at the Sea Cliff Library.

What's for Lunch - Thurs., 4/25

HOMEMADE BREADED CHICKEN CUTLET
Brown Rice & Black Beans
Salad Bar Veggie Sides
Strawberry-Yogurt Smoothie

I'm not sure about the homemade chicken cutlet. This will be chicken from Tyson and presumably we are breading it ourselves.

he brown rice is a whole grain but as previously discussed cannot be cooked in a way that minimizes the arsenic content. The black beans are canned and the ingredients are "BLACK BEANS, WATER, SALT, AND CALCIUM CHLORIDE" with 140mg of sodium.

The smoothie  will be made with plain yogurt to which we add  honey plus 1% milk and strawberries. The food service department says the strawberries are fresh -- we previously used frozen and have asked about the country of origin. Our fresh strawberries are from California.