Our school lunches are $2.65. The lunches here seem decent. They offer 3 main meals each day. Everyday there is also a choice of Yogurt, Hummus or PB&J sandwich. With the above you get a choice of fruit, veggie or starch. There is also a salad bar option. I have checked the lunch menus all year and was THRILLED to see NO FRENCH FRIES EVER. I think that's great! Although there is pizza every Friday, but the portions are small and kid appropiate. We also have a credit system, where I place money on her account. Kids don't handle money at all if they don't want to. I can also get an itemized list of what she has bought. My DD brings her lunch 95% of the time. Once a month they serve "Breakfast for Lunch" (Pancakes, turkey sausage & milk) which she absolutely loves. But I am very happy to pack her lunch since I know it's healthy and foods she enjoys and will eat. Normal day she gets turkey, carrot sticks, fruit (like apple slices, grapes) and popcorn. Kids are not allowed to "trade" or bring Candy for the snack, but I'm sure it goes on. My DD is picky, so she would not eat a school lunch each day-heaven forbid the sauce touch the pasta!! LOL My issue is that kids may take the veggie or fruit option but not eat it. Or just choose the starches and ala carte "junkier" items. I think our school system does the best they can with foods most kids like (Baked chicken tenders instead of fried) Most of the breads are Whole grains each day etc. Nice selection of fresh fruits. When I was in school the lunches were so/so. I knew my mom's fresh food was better then the mass produced, waiting under a heat lamp school lunch. I normally brought my lunch as it was MUCH quicker too. But you could have spent your "lunch" money on a meal of Twinkies and chips! I could strangle the 15 year old me, for all the junk I ate and NEVER thought twice about!!! Here is a link that might be useful: Lunch menu for the month

I found a recipe if anyone is interested 7 layer salad 1 pound bacon 1 large head iceberg lettuce - rinsed, dried, and chopped 1 red onion, chopped 1 (10 ounce) package frozen green peas, thawed 10 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese 1 cup chopped cauliflower 1 1/4 cups mayonnaise 2 tablespoons white sugar 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese Directions 1.Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Crumble and set aside. 2.In a large flat bowl, place the chopped lettuce and top with a layer of onion, peas, shredded cheese, cauliflower and bacon. 3.Prepare the dressing by whisking together the mayonnaise, sugar and Parmesan cheese. Drizzle over salad and refrigerate until chilled.

Well, it certainly did not take much time to get way behind! John, my old barn is kind of like a walk out basement, there is earth on two sides, an old fieldstone foundation and the south side has a large sliding door which I leave open so the cattle can go in and out as they choose. There is no heat and the water tank would freeze without an electric tank heater, so it's warmer than outside and out of the wind, but when it's below zero outside it's about 10F inside the barn. Add some big cows and body heat will raise it another 10 or 15 degrees, so maybe up to 25F. It's dry, though, and out of the wind. so a much better place for the little guys who don't have the sheer body mass to stay as warm as their mothers. My littlest one is 9 days old now and seems to have survived the worst of the weather without ill effects. One more is still to be born, so it'll probably be Friday night because Saturday is supposed to be a high of 22F and a low of 11F. Sunday will be similar then Monday back up into the mid-30s. I've been checking the barn and calf "crib" multiple times daily, making sure there is dry straw, that no new babies are left out in the weather, no water tanks are freezing, and everyone is OK. I have so much winter gear that it takes longer to get everything on than it does to do the farm "check", LOL. Thankfully, it was up above 40F today, and Elery says anyone who says they like winter does not have livestock! Meals have een quick, this was a baked potato covered with chili from the freezer and a side of coleslaw: After that we had roasted radishes/romanesco/carrots and some maple glazed salmon: A kind of "burrito bowl" with beef barbacoa, also from the freezer, some riced cauliflower and rattlesnake beans from last year's garden. The cauliflower was left off my plate, I just cannot make myself eat the stuff. Hamburgers with our grassfed beef and some freezer dill pickles that I found when I was cleaning the freezer: Finally, baked chicken breast from chickens we raised last year, mashed potatoes made with some of those canned potatoes and some salad that was supposed to be an Olive Garden copycat. I ate the salad but I wouldn't make it again, it was unremarkable. Tonight we had a high heat roasted and nicely rare top round, which was unfortunately very tough, accompanied by baked sweet potatoes and a package of "kung pao broccoli" from Aldi which had been languishing in the freezer. Elery liked it but it was a bit too spicy for me. Good thing chickens don't have heat receptors in their mouths because mine ended up in the chicken bucket, LOL, and I forgot pictures. And that's what's for supper here, although I'd sure like to have some surf and turf or shepherd's pie or shrimp. Tomorrow we are going to have "supper" at the neighbors' home, as one of the ladies is having a birthday and she just wanted a whole meal of "snacky finger food". I gave her a big bag of chicken wings from last year's chickens and she's going to make those as well as some little smoky sausages wrapped in crescent roll dough because she likes those. She does not care for sweets so in lieu of a cake I made Fire Crackers, some cheese crackers, a batch of whipped feta dip and I'll take a jar of my homemade salsa and good tortilla chips. Annie

Dinner tonight is homemade pizza! i started the dough yesterday and it fermented all night in the fridge. I made a sauce of sundried and fresh tomatoes with evoo, garlic, thyme, oregano and marjoram. Parbaked the crust and then turned it over so the crispy side was on the bottom, dressed the pie with sauce, thinly sliced shallot, wilted spinach, a bit of bacon, uncured pepperoni, whole milk mozzarella and a dusting of parmesan. Here it is just out of the oven! I have had a long day and am ready for this treat! So yummy! It’s almost cooled enough to cut.