OK, I'm going to do a little comparison here: home cooked meals vs. school lunch. Recently I had a Girl Scout meeting at my house, and we, meaning the girls in the troop, each had to bring either an appetizer, a main course, or a dessert. The dishes each had to be from a different country, and we were assigned courses according to the alphabet, so we had plenty of each. It was delicious!!! For appetizers we started with avocado sushi and labneh, a middle-eastern cheese made with yoghurt, with olive oil and herbs ( ...made by yours truly! My Granny showed me how. Then came the most delicious homemade eggrolls, and tamales. Main courses were tacos we made ourselves, couscous with dried cranberries and turkey, and pasta with Pesto Genovese. Dessert was chocolate peanut butter pecans and melon agua fresca. Our around - the - world meal was so healthy but so yummy! It just shows non-believers that healthy food can be great. If everyone could taste this dinner they would all know what I mean!
Now, let's take a trip to my school cafeteria during lunch - I know you're probably thinking this will be horrible to contemplate. Well, aside from the average P B & J, there is a pretty wide selection of greasy and sugary items in the lunch line and in lunch boxes, too. Pizza is the most popular in the lunch line, so why not make it thin crust with veggie toppings? People also bring bags of chips, so what about exchanging for baked chips or pita with hummus? And I'm personally switching from microwave mac-n-cheese to that wonderful couscous Geneva brought to the Scout dinner.
PS - Over Christmas weekend at my family's restaurant in New Orleans, the chef served an appetizer of chilled raw broccoli stems, peeled and cut like cucumber wedges, with nothing but a little salt. I thought everyone threw away the stems, but this was fantastic!
