Health care/insurance reform is soooo yesterday. Let's all try to be in the now, m'kay? For those who haven't met me, or have quickly forgotten me, I'm Pixie - born in Sacramento, CA, product of the public schools and survivor of the '70s & '80s. So from bell bottoms to skinny jeans, feathered hair to mo-hawks, I have sampled some of the finest cuisine our schools have to offer. Everything from mystery meat in brown gravy, to taco surprise, to what-is-this-on-my-plate-and-why-is-it-moving!
But things have changed from those culinary delights of my childhood and schools, cities, counties and states are hurting for budget money. So here are some tried and true recipes that will help stretch the school budgets and fill the tummies of little children everywhere. My source tells me that the meat substitute is cheap and plentiful.
Soylent Green Meat Substitute Pie
2 tablespoons oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 large potato, chopped
3 tablespoons flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup frozen peas
1 can soylent green broth
1 pound soylent green meat substitute, cubed
2 sheets ready rolled pastry
1 egg yolk mixed with 2 tablespoons milk for glazing
Pour oil in a saucepan and add onions and potato. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add flour and a little salt and pepper. Then add the peas and stir. Pour in the soylent green broth and stir until it is nice and thick and bubbly. Add the chopped soylent green meat substitute (make sure you chop it into small bite-sized cubes) and stir.
Grease a deep 9 inch pie plate and line the bottom with one ready rolled pastry. Make sure there's a little bit of pastry overlapping. Pour the filling into the pie plate. Brush the edges of the pastry with the milk and egg yolk glaze. Gently place the other ready rolled pastry on top. Press the edges of the pastries together to seal. Trim off any extra pastry and press around the pie with a fork. Cut 4 steam holes on the top and brush the top of the pastry with the rest of the glaze.
Bake in a 425F degree (220C degree) oven for 30 minutes. Serves 4. Delicious!
Soylent Green Steak
2 pounds soylent green tips (1 inch strips)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 onions, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup flour
1 can cream of soylent green soup
1 small can soylent green sauce
1 large can soylent green juice
1 small can crushed soylent green
Put flour in a bag. Salt and pepper the soylent green steak, toss in the bag, and shake well. Brown the onions and celery in oil in a saucepan. Then brown the soylent green tips. Put browned soylent green and vegetables in a 9X13X2 inch casserole dish. Add 1 tablespoon flour to the oil that is left in the saucepan. Stir in the soup, soylent green sauce, soylent green juice, and crushed soylent green and stir for 1 minute. Pour over the soylent green and vegetables in the casserole dish and stir.
Bake in a 300F degree oven for 45 minutes. Serve over steamed rice or egg noodles.
I'm sorry, excuse me? Say that again, I can't quite make out what you're saying....WHAT??? What are you saying??? Soylent Green is PEOPLE????? NOOOOOOOO!!! Soylent Green is people!!!!
Hmm, maybe I should rethink my plan....
The world has changed a lot in my lifetime. Teflon covers everything. We use microwaves to cook and we put corn syrup in everything. Almost everything feels like it has to done or available instantaneously. So while many try to go green and eat healthy and prepare as much of their own food from scratch, many are trapped on the opposite end of the spectrum. They're poor, many are uneducated because the cycle of poverty repeats - those who get out and move on are the exception and not the rule, and their choices in nutrition are limited. Their children's choices are sadly, less.
The National School Lunch Program was started in 1946 because, as many of us probably didn't know, there were large number of men who were rejected from the World War II draft due to nutritional deficiencies. So we're starting off with a plan to help children get adequate nutrition...but what's happened since that time? Are we helping or hurting our children? The answer is yes - to both sides of that question.
The last time the nutritional content was updated and/or reviewed was....thirty years ago. Yep, back in the Carter administration. Obviously, a lot has changed in 30 years. We have more information on nutrition, diet and how well children (and adults) perform and retain information when they're not hungry.
School Lunch Nutrition Standards Haven't Been Updated in 30 Years
School Lunch Nutrition
Today, the National School Lunch Program provides meals to more than 30 million students nationwide. For those students whose families live below 130 percent poverty level (an income of $27,560 for a family of four), the lunch is free. Those who live between 130 percent and 185 percent poverty level (an income of $39,220) pay a reduced price for lunch, no more than 40 cents. And all others pay full price.
There's a lot of easily obtained information on the nutrition. But what about the kids who suffer without the food programs? When we were visiting family in Virginia in February, the kids hadn't been in school since January in that area, due to the snow storms. The schools opened up the day after we arrived (much to our nieces' and nephew's dismay) and the local paper had an article in it that talk about how many of the children had gone hungry during the previous weeks because their main source of food was the school lunches.
I have to be honest, the hard truth made me weep. I can do without a meal now and again. I've had the good luck to have better options as an adult. But how do we change a system that alternates between a very real necessity - I had several friends who were dependent on school breakfasts and lunches - and the poor nutrition and quality of the food we serve???
For more information, visit:
USDA - National School Lunch Program
And to end on a more positive note, information about one of the programs happening right now in Berkeley, CA:
Welcome to the Edible Schoolyard