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

Chicken Fajita with Trimmings
Brown Rice/Black Beans
Lettuce, Cheese & Salsa
Zesty Corn Salad
More Salad Bar Veggie Sides
Petite Banana!

The brown rice is a whole grain but rice has been found to contain significant amounts of arsenic  - so don't eat it every day and make sure you rinse it thoroughly multiple times and boil in extra water like you would pasta/ (Unfortunately, our cafeteria cannot take these extra steps.)

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

The chicken is a USDA commodity food via Tyson. On at least one occasion it was "fully cooked boneless skinless chicken dark meat chicken fajita strips -smoke flavor added." Here are the ingredients: "Chicken dark meat, water, seasoning [salt, spices, dehydrated garlic, dehydrated onion, sugar, chili powder (chili pepper, cumin, oregano, salt, garlic powder), lemon juice powder (corn syrup solids, lemon juice, lemon oil), modified corn starch, natural mesquite smoke flavor (maltodextrin, natural smoke flavor), natural flavor (from partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil)], modified food starch and sodium phosphates."  The "partially hydrogenated" oil is a source of trans fat.  Chicken has 7g of fat (2 of which are saturated) and 490 mg of sodium.  Read more about farm animals raised by industrial giants like Tyson,  antibiotics and hormones. 

The corn is canned and has added salt - 200mg per serving and the cans do contain BPA. 

What's for Lunch - Tues., 6/4

WHOLE WHEAT PITA PIZZA
With Chicken Cutlet or Plain
Red Pepper Sticks with Dip
Salad Bar Veggie Sides
Cinnamon Applesauce

We make these ourselves - we do not serve highly processed frozen pizzas. For our various pizzas, we use  the 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 -  we use 2 ounces. The broccoli is fresh.

I might avoid the chicken version.  The chicken is a pre-cooked Tyson product.

Applesauce and fresh peppers with a full fat organic ranch dressing for the dip. More fresh sides on the salad bar.

What's for Lunch - Mon., 6/3

Meatball Parmigiana
On Whole Grain Roll or with side of bread
Sauteed Broccoli with Garlic and Oil
Salad Bar Veggies Sides
Orange 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 grain roll. Fresh fruits and vegetables including orange slices.

Weekend Reading - and Local Fun

Reading

 Don't miss the NYT piece "Breeding the Nutrition out of Food."

Action

Join the movement to get GMOs labelled in New York. 

Local Fun

Saturday - Garage Sale Day in Sea Cliff! Hurray! Pick up a map at Clifton Park.

Bailey Arboretum's Family Day is this Sunday and a lot of fun.

On Saturday at noon, kids can visit Old Westbury Gardens to explore the gardens and make "fairy petal portraits". Get a pass at the Village Library.

What's for Lunch - Fri., 5/31

Whole Wheat Rotini ”Bolognese” (Order Entree #1)
OR
Pizza Bagel (Order Entree #2)
Carrot Sticks with Dip
Salad Bar Veggie Side

This is a whole grain rotini by Zerega.  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, Spices, Salt, Citric Acid, Garlic Powder, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Black Pepper, Vitamin E (DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate), Natural Flavor, Vitamin A (Retinol Palmitate)

Pizza bagel is on a whole wheat bagel. 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.

Carrots are fresh with an organic full-fat ranch dip. More fresh veggies on the salad bar.

What's for Lunch - Thurs., 5/30

BRUNCH FOR LUNCH
Cinnamon Challah French Toast (Order Entree #1)
w/Applegate® Turkey Bacon
OR
Scrambled Egg & Cheese Wrap (Order Entree #2)
Potato Puffs ~ Orange Rounds

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.

The turkey bacon is by Applegate.  Here are the ingredients: Turkey (Turkey Used Never Administered Antibiotics, Growth Promotants or Animal By-products), Water, Sea Salt, Maple Sugar, Celery Juice, Onion Powder, Spices, Lactic Acid Starter Culture (not From Milk.)  They promote it as nitrate-free but this NYT article indicates otherwise - and cites the company saying their products have the same level (naturally) of cancer-causing nitrates as conventional brands. Read more about nitrates here.

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

Fresh oranges.

Then there are the commodity potatoes processed by McCain's into tater tots -- although they are labeled "frozen pre-formed potato rounds."  They are flash-fried before they get to the frozen part.  They have 7g of fat (one of which is saturated) and 190mg of sodium. Ingredients are: potatoes, vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following oils: canola, soybean, cottonseed, sunflower, corn). Contains 2% or less of dextrose, salt, sodium acid pyrophosphate added to maintain natural color. 

What's for Lunch - Wed., 5/29

FLATBREAD PIZZA
Thin Crust Pizza with Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella
(Broccoli Topping Available)
Cucumber Sticks
Fresh Grapes!

The pizza sauce (from Red Pack) ingredients are: Tomato concentrate (water, tomato paste), salt, citric acid, basil.

For the crust, the ingredients are: enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, soybean oil,, dextrose, salt, calcium propionate, fumaric acid, dough conditioner (wheat flour, salt, soybean oil, l-gyssteine, ascorbic acid, enzyme) potassium sorbate.

Broccoli is fresh along with the cucumbers and grapes.