to think that this is a pretty shocking school dinner?

[anchovies]

Today my boys had Caribbean style chicken with spaghetti hoops and garden peas. Pink sponge and custard. Strawberry milkshake.

£1.90 a day.

Thought there must have been some sort of mistake but have just checked the published menus and that is what they had planned for today. Only other main meal was the vegetarian option which they are not allowed (again with peas and spaghetti hoops.) Could have chosen fruit for dessert.

Mentioned it earlier to my neighbour who also has children who have school dinners and she thought it was fine as "the carbohydrate is in the spaghetti hoops".

Wrote (yet another) email to our local council but am now thinking I may be wrong?

Binfull... Great idea! I was thinking I was going to have to squish myself into a tiny uniform and sit in one of those tiny chairs.... I have now realised that there are easier, and far more ladylike, options!

OfPud are Go!

Sounds wierdly nice to me!! (but I'm hungry lol). My DCs both take packed lunches because we don't think much of school dinners. I'd rather give them a main meal at home in the evening and then I know what they are eating. The school where my mum teaches the food is pretty grim as well. Packed lunch all the way for mine!

Bin and Yearning the lunches are very nice - they invited parents to have lunch at the school once and I went to sample- it was fab!

Lying the --witch- head is someone not to be mess with so I wouldn't like your chances tbh....

witch

Gawd, my typos.. Not to be messed with

She has made me cry a few times I can tell you!

Nooooooo not the just water and milk deal pelase! I ahd to take the old school to the LEA for action to get them to allow ASD ds3 to ahve soya milk! you're resurrecting some bloody nightmares here!

I don't mind my school dinner eating boy having puds at school; he has an exceptionally nutritious diet and is a fit and healthy 7 year old which is IMO what matters. I can't say I serve spaghetti hoops at home and definitely not with caribbean chicken but- pah. i'd make it up with some extra fruit or swapping cereal for a fresh smoothie at home next breakfast.

Hula absolutely. So much fuss! it's a meal, eat it and go play. Proper play, running about not in front of a DS. Heck, get on a bike or climb a tree. Be kids for once!

hocus Can't they just eat something because it tastes nice?

You are quite, quite mad. And probably negligent too. And contributing to this country's obesitiy epidemic.

Anyone would think there was more to eating than ingesting nutrients ffs

Jenai Marr, exactly- too much food policing going on. Everything in moderation then let the kids run round like mad fools to burn it off.

FFS I get so sick of food snobbery. A healthy varied diet is what children need. The occasional "rubbish" school dinner will not do them harm. As someone said earlier, sometimes food is ok because they like it!

Children cannot exist on lentils and broccoli alone.

Why do people assume that if you eat healthily you live on lentils, broccoli, tuna and/or beetroot and you never enjoy your food - you think of it solely as a means to survive? .

"A healthy varied diet is what children need."

I agree and IMO a healthy diet does not include cake every day.

T'was a joke bubblemummy!! We eat healthily, but I don't get hung up about a pudding every day. if its part of otherwise decent daily diet then I can see no problem.

Oh god Jenai, I put my hands up and surrender. I realise I am mad, I am negligent and i am fat. My girls have no chance.

Make me one hocus

Well hocus, my boys eat pud every day of some form or another- Df ice cream, cake, smoothies, ehatever I fancy giving- and they are far from fat. With exceptance given for the one with an ED as he's no comparison, they're still skinny so and sos: smallest size of jumper offered by comp: 30". DS1's chest 8 weeks before starting said comp: 22".

They need cake / pud / calories every day. And probably a few more on top of that again!

No one NEEDS cake. Good grief - have a quick google and see the huge list of high calorie healthy foods that you could offer instead. Some of them even taste nice too

Oh FGS, I make all my own foods and have an extensive repertoire. I just do not beleive that some cake, in conjunction with the other things that I mentioned and many more besides hurts at all.

Funnily enough, the boy's dietician agrees wholeheartedly with me. Someone who knows actually what they eat and who has met them. Guess whose opinion I value the most?

Yeah - cause of course you need a degree to know what healthy food is

Why has this deteriorated in a pissing contest?
Why do people use what they feed their children as a way of assuming superiority?

God only knows Notrthern

A little of everything and nothing to excess

That's what I do and frankly, my boys are ehalthy and I am happy, that's fine. If Bubbly feels the same about her family well we all win then.

Strawberry milk? I'm sorry I'm pretty sure children happily drank milk with out strawberry flavouring and probably more sugar than a coke back in the day.,

Back in what day though? I am old and we had strawberry milk. We all did.

I do however think strawberry milk and pud together is OTT. Absolutely.

Be intresting to see the recipes; have seen all of our school's (as ds1 and ds3 dairy intol) and based on that very narrow snapshopt alone it may be that the cake is pink becuase of added fruit (a trick I use and I know our school does, though we are not in England) and likewise with the milkshake?

We can hope anyway.

Because it always does, Northern, some mothers feel insecure perhaps? Insignificant? I don't know, it's completely unnecessary. We all love our kids and we all want the best for them... there are 101 routes to that. :)