Favourite School Dinners From Childhood

[TheShellBeach]

I didn't have school dinners until I was eleven and went to secondary school. Prior to that I went home for lunch (lots of children did in those days).

School dinners were a revelation. I loved them. There was nothing I did not like.

My favourite dinner was mince, cabbage and mash. We didn't eat cabbage at home because my dad didn't like it. I also looked forward to school salad because there was coleslaw, which I had never tasted before.

Some of the puddings were wonderful, too. Jam tart and custard. Yummity Yum.

Gipsy Tart was everyone's favourite, though.

They were all disgusting

Except one school did good fish and chips on Fridays.

I used to eat packed lunch to avoid school dinners.

I remember the chocolate brownie with pink custard! And the cornflake tart and custard!!
We also had chocolate crispy cake! Amazing! I don't remember the mains!! 😂

I loved school dinners (70s and early 80s). My favourite was cheese and potato pie with baked beans, followed by chocolate sponge and peppermint custard.

Ditto.

Fish fingers or fish and chips on a friday was my saviour. Monster munch, a penguin biscuit and a corned beef sarnie in a packed lunch the rest of the week.

It always amazed me how the kids went mad for seconds.

Disclaimer - I'm Autistic and have major sensory issues around food.

I hated school dinners (80s at primary school). Spam cold corned beef, lumpy Smash, soggy fish fingers, tinned bolognese (dog food!)…urgh!!

But I loved the puddings. Cake & custard, delicious toffee tart, yoghurt & biscuit YUM

90s secondary school I think it was all Turkey twizzlers. I occasionally had chips & salad cream but mainly I used to spend my lunch money on fags, classy little girl that I was

Cheese pie with the prettily arranged salad in stripes
Fish and chips
Roast dinner

Chocolate crunch with chocolate custard
Bakewell tart
Custard with shortbread biscuits

Ooh. That sounds glorious.

Yellow fish (smoked haddock or cod I think) with mash and peas.
Far too expensive these days (this was 60's - 70's)

I loved the sausages, chicken pie, Manchester tart, jam roly poly, cornflake cake in primary. Only ever had sausage roll chips and gravy in secondary, preferred the chip shop, or fags like a pp. 10 fags and a packet of spicy bikers was a good lunch

I remember when I was in primary school (and went home for lunch) I got back to the playground about ten minutes before we all had to go in for afternoon school. The dinner ladies were giving out some leftover jam tart and I wasn't allowed any, because I was a "home dinner child."

I have never got over that.

Sausage and mash, mince and gravy with a baked pastry dumpling, gypsy tart, baked lemon sponge with custard, spotted dick and custard, jelly and ice cream. I loved school dinners, but I was at school during the sixties and early seventies and all the food was prepared and cooked on site in the school kitchen. The best bit was there was nearly always seconds if you were still hungry, which I nearly always was. The only thing I hated was tapioca and something called mock cream served at my primary school, but luckily my best friend loved it so she ate mine.

Me and my sister were on free school meals, and they were really good hot dinners. Portions were good too.

At primary school I liked spam fritters and there was a time when the pink custard actually tasted of strawberry. Very disappointing when it changed and was just pink and tasteless.

I went home when I was at secondary school - dinners there were terrible junk food crap.

This thin beef slices with skin around the edge. Havent had it since school. Oh and cheese flan 😥 I miss these.

@RobertsRadio
Yes Tapioca was a strange one, looked like frog spawn 😁 I loved semolina, and all other milk puddings though.

Thinking back now, I also loved liver and bacon, which a lot of the kids weren't that keen on, but I and my siblings were never fussy eaters, money was tight and we were brought up to finish our plates or go hungry.

The snow and ice all around me now reminds me how glad we were of a good hot meal at lunchtime during the winter months.

Hamburgers in gravy💜

I used to love the fish and chip Fridays and the days when the school used to have the Tottenham cake and also the days they used to have roast turkey.

I loved turkey twizzlers and pizza. Absolutely dreaded the day when the meal was cheese flan. Horrible.

I'm sure they must have fed us more than those three meals, but I genuinely can't remember what they would have been!

I never had school dinners, didn’t know they even existed until I found out over the internet I suppose when that came about. Then again my DC’s school don’t do school dinners either 🤷‍♀️ In primary I brought a packed lunch and in secondary I went home for lunch.

I can't even remember primary school dinners but I think I liked most of them. I wasn't a fussy eater and probabl just glad to get whatever was on offer. Bonus for us was our Grandmother was a canteen server and would bring us seconds when they were going spare.

Secondary school I loved that we actually had options! I always stuck to chips and a chicken and coleslaw sandwich (can never recreate one that tastes the same) and a cup of hot chicken soup.

Mid 80s/early 90s.
Chicken pie which was small balls of chicken in a white sauce.Also mince and onion pie I can still taste that pastry 😋

At primary in the '80s my favourite was the cod in white parsley sauce. And there was a bright green minty custard that I loved, although I didn't like any other custards. And they always formed a horrible skin on top as they cooled. We sat in tables of eight and there were always a couple of kids arguing over who got the skin, the weirdoes.

Loved mine. Went to boarding school so had to like them really! Favourite was probably something we called Chicken Slop. Very unfairly named as it was delicious. A sort of cream chicken and mushroom stew thing with rice. Alpen days were a massive hit with me as I generally got 8 bowls due to no one else liking it. Weekend roasts weee always good too. We had ‘picnic’ bags on Saturdays, and I also lucked out there too with lots of girls hating cheese and onion and prawn cocktail crisps. Always a Trio bar in there too. Sausages we very likely minced up extremities, but nothing a good dollop of marmalade wouldn’t turn into deliciousness.