February's Alternate Entree Gets Rave Reviews

I was recently granted an exclusive interview with two second graders at Sea Cliff School. Both had been excited to order February's alternate entree:

Abraham Lincoln's Fresh Fruit Salad Plate
APPLES, ORANGES, GRAPES & FRESH STRAWBERRIES
100% Whole Wheat Carr’s Crackers
Mozzarella Strips
Choice of sides

They made a pact to order it together one day last week and brave the lunch line hand in hand. Afterwards, one declared, "It was great!" The second said, "It looked like it does in a restaurant!" and vowed to order it again.  They did note that the received bread rather than crackers.

Bravo!

2-7-11 Note: Our consultant, Julia van Loon, says the vendor failed toe deliver the crackers last week but they have shown up this week - although for now they are the "classic" version. For next week, we've been promised the whole wheat.

What's for Lunch - Mon., 2/7

Pita Pizza (Plain or w/Broccoli)
Cucumber Sticks
Orange Quarters

The pita pizza is made with  a HFCS-free, minimal ingredient pita from Kronos or Athena. It is not whole grain until they can find one that is tasty. The sauce is 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).  The cheese is a USDA commodity part skim mozzarella.  Ingredients are cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes. The sodium is 240mg/oz - I think we use 2 ounces.  Meatballs are 100% ground chuck.

Plus, a fresh fruit and vegetable!

Weekend Reading

Reading

Jill Richardson lays out our options in terms of a response to the USDA's decision to legalize genetically-altered alfafa into our food supply. Like other GE-foods, it will not be labeled in any way. I think she's right in calling for labeling -- but then I want school food labeled.

The Small Bites blog had a couple of pieces that just might convince you that Munchkins et al. are not good foods for children.  or anyone.

The same blog also posted an aisle-by-aisle guide to navigating the supermarket - in case you plan to shop this weekend.

Truthfully,  I had to look it up but it appears that the Super Bowl is this weekend.  So, if you need to bring something to a party, Eating Well has some healthy recipes ideas.  As do 366,000 other sites according to Google.

Downloads

Feeding America is offering a download of "Cookbook for a Cause" - and asking that you make a doantion to the nation's food bank network.  I have not looked at them but the recipes are billed as "easy and economical" as well as healthy.

Shopping

From Slow Food Huntington's email -

Long Island Winter Farmer’s Market
The locations alternate between Huntington and Northport
From one of our members:
-- I've been to the first market at West Hills -- the Organic Vegetables were amazing! Grows year round in high tunnels. There is also great cheese and bread, and live music!
Among the vendors are: All You Knead Artisan Bakery (Beacon, NY), Horman’s Best Pickles (Glen Cove, NY), Madura Fams (Orange County, NY), Migliorelli Farms (Dutchess County, NY), Ronnybrook Dairy (Hudson Valley, NY), Sannino’s Bella Vita Vineyard (North Fork), The Big Cheese (selling Long Island-made artisan cheese)

Huntington Farmer’s Market
Jan-April, Saturdays 9am-1pm
Sweet Hollow Hall
West Hills County Park
Melville, NY
(Off of Old Country Rd)
Dates: Feb. 5 and 19, March 5 and 19, April 2 and 16

Movies to See

Slow Food Huntington Brings you -

Movie Night at the Reconstructionist Synagogue
Tuesday, February 8 at 7pm
Food, Inc.
Film, followed by panel discussion

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
admission: $5
Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore, 1001 Plandome Rd, Manhasset

Petitions to Sign

This email came from the Working Families Party:

When you fill up your tank at the station, have you ever been tempted to just grab the nozzle and take a swig? Thanks to hydrofracking [1], we can all be gas-guzzlers now. And you don’t even need a car.

That’s because, as a Congressional investigation just revealed [2], oil and gas companies – in their endless quest to “frack” – have pumped tens of millions of gallons of diesel fuel into wells that run straight into our nation’s water supply.

Now these companies want permission from Albany to bring fracking to New York. These diesel injections violate the Safe Drinking Water Act, and they put all of our communities at risk.

Will you sign this emergency petition to Governor Cuomo, asking him to put a permanent ban on hydrofracking in New York?

http://bit.ly/NoDiesel

Toluene. Xylene. Benzene. Do those sound like additives you want in your family’s water supply?

One of the companies caught in the act was Halliburton. Yep, that Halliburton. Maybe Dick Cheney asks for diesel with his tap water, but I prefer just a lemon wedge, thank you.

There’s no two ways around it – hydrofracking is dirty and dangerous to our drinking water. Thankfully, as the EPA sorts out its next moves in Washington, Gov. Cuomo can continue a fracking moratorium here in New York.

With this shocking new report, the movement to protect drinking water is gaining new momentum – but we need to make our voices heard in Albany, where oil and gas lobbyists no doubt think their money can trump our safety.

Join us in asking Gov. Cuomo to keep our state’s water safe and clean:

http://bit.ly/NoDiesel

Thanks,

T.J. & the Working Families team

Notes:
1) Hydrofracking = short for hydraulic fracturing – a dangerous natural gas drilling technique.
2) New York Times: [link]

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

Baked Macaroni & Cheese
Sauteed Broccoli w/Garlic
Watermelon!

The noodles we're using for the Mac n cheese are 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.  The sauce is made from Cabot Vermont Cheddar.

Plus, FRESH broccoli sauteed with garlic. The fruit is fresh watermelon.

Soup is available every day. This week they have homemade chicken noodle. You can still get the alternate entree of a 1/2 wrap and soup for lunch.   Wraps have romaine lettuce and a white flour tortilla.  Friday's wrap is our fresh breaded chicken cutlet marinated with yogurt and spices and breaded with panko.

February has a new alternate entree: Abraham Lincoln's Fresh Fruit Salad Plate in honor of the president's love of apples. It includes:  APPLES, ORANGES, GRAPES & FRESH STRAWBERRIES
served with 100% Whole Wheat Carr’s Crackers & Mozzarella Strips plus your choice of sides.

What's for Lunch - Thurs., 2/3

Freshly Breaded Chicken Cutlet
Baked Potato
Celery Sticks
Cinnamon Applesauce

Our wonderful food service staff is making the chicken cutlets from scratch in house with fresh chicken!  They are marinated in yogurt, spices, panko and corn meal. Plus,  A fresh baked potato and celery sticks. You can also choose the applesauce- a money-saving USDA govt commodity that we dress up with some cinnamon.

Soup is available every day. This week they have homemade chicken noodle. You can still get the alternate entree of a 1/2 wrap and soup for lunch.   Wraps have romaine lettuce and a white flour tortilla.  Thursday's wrap is tuna.


February has a new alternate entree: Abraham Lincoln's Fresh Fruit Salad Plate in honor of the president's love of apples. It includes:  APPLES, ORANGES, GRAPES & FRESH STRAWBERRIES
served with 100% Whole Wheat Carr’s Crackers & Mozzarella Strips plus your choice of sides.

Cooking Class for Kids is THIS Friday

Join us on Friday in the cafeteria at 6pm! Bhavani Jaroff will return with a new set of recipes to that will teach your kid show delicious eating right can be. The menu is still be developing but may include items like bread, yogurt parfaits and possibly pizzas.

$5 per child. RSVP to Denise Rieger.

For more about Bhavani, see her website.  Or, you can see pictures of her last visit here and check out the recipes she used as well. 

What's for Lunch - Wed., 2/2

Beef Tacos w/Lettuce, Salsa & Cheese
Choice: Hard or Soft Tortilla*
Fresh Fruit

* Gluten-free without the shell

The tacos are 100% ground chuck with lettuce and a low-far govt cheddar cheese. The salsa is actually organic by Green Mountain and the ingredients are: tomatoes, fire-roasted chiles, onions, tomatillos, jalapeno peppers, pasilla peppers, apple cider vinegar, cilantro, parsley, garlic, sea salt, spices.  Tacos shells are hard, yellow corn shells but I have not gotten the ingredients yet.

Plus fresh fruit - depending on what they can get.

Soup is available every day. This week they have homemade chicken noodle. You can still get the alternate entree of a 1/2 wrap and soup for lunch.   Wraps have romaine lettuce and a white flour tortilla.  Wednesday''s wrap is Boar's Head Turkey.


February has a new alternate entree: Abraham Lincoln's Fresh Fruit Salad Plate in honor of the president's love of apples. It includes:  APPLES, ORANGES, GRAPES & FRESH STRAWBERRIES
served with 100% Whole Wheat Carr’s Crackers & Mozzarella Strips plus your choice of sides.

Plus, you can still get on any day:

-Whole Grain Peanut Butter & Jelly Wedges

-Tuna on Pita or Whole Wheat w/Salad Fixin’s

-Egg Salad Plate w/Mini Rice Cakes, Pita Wedges or Whole Wheat Bread and Veggies