What's for Lunch - Thurs., 9/20

ANTIBIOTIC/HORMONE-FREE
Rotini Bolognese
(local, NY State Beef)
Sauteed Baby Spinach with Garlic
Baked Sweet Potato Puffs
Apple Wedges with Cinnamon

Today represents a big change in our school's lunch program. After much work, discussion and research, our district has discontinued the use of most USDA commodity beef for a variety of health reasons and contracted with a New York State farm to provide beef raised without antibiotics and hormones. It is more expensive and there is less beef on the menu as a result but it is a huge improvement in the quality of our lunches.

The rotini uses this beef and we use a Red Pack vitamin enhanced tomato sauce. The sodium at 140mg is much lower than we previously used.  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).

For the pasta, we use Barilla Plus.  The ingredients are:  Semolina, Grain and Legume Flour, Blend (Lentils, Chickpeas, Egg Whites, Spelt, Barley, Flaxseed, Oat Fiber, Oats), Durum Flour, Niacin, Iron (Ferrous Sulfate), Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid.

We also get sauteed spinach likely in response to the new lunch law which requires a wider variety of of variously-colored vegetables be served. Exciting.

And then we have The Return of the Tater Tot.  Or so I suspect. There was a tater tot-like food called a "puff" last year at the Middle School and now they have arrived at Sea Cliff. Our processed potato products generally come from McCain's who has a product called Harvest Splendor Bites.  From the picture, I think this is what we are serving.  The ingredients would then be: Sweet Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (Contains One Or More Of The Following Oils: Canola, Soybean, Cottonseed, Sunflower, Corn). Contains 2% or less of Corn Starch - Modified, Dehydrated Potatoes, Dextrin, Maltodextrin, Molasses, Salt, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate Added To Maintain Natural Color, Sugar, Tapioca Starch - Modified, Xanthan Gum.  We do bake them but I don't know yet if they are pre-cooked (fried?) before being frozen and shipped to us.  This counts as our orange vegetable while still teaching children to eat fries with lunch.

 Plus fresh apple slices - and the return of our salad bar.