To think that this primary school lunch menu is not up to scratch?

[Fedupofplaystation]

Menu for this week.

Monday: Jacket potato with beans and/or cheese. Chocolate Mousse.

Tuesday: Sausage, mash and carrots. Pineapple upside down cake.

Wednesday: Meat/quorn pie, potatoes, peas. Sago pudding.

Thursday: Meatballs with Jamie's tomato sauce, pasta and cheese. Mixed berry crumble and custard.

Friday: Breaded chicken goujons, new potatoes, corn cobettes. Ice cream.

To me there doesn't seem to be much veg on offer and the meals seem a little unadventurous. Am I being too fussy/expecting too much?

The menu is altered slightly each week, but the above is fairly representative of a typical week.

Blardy hell Manic - do you get to eat those lunches too? They sound amazing.

Dullsville. But as said upthread - they have to cater to the masses, and pick foods that most children will eat.

Not enough veg for my liking.

I have no idea balletmum , I didn't get the job and they didn't give us lunch in the dining hall at the interview.

To be honest, I don't see why they wouldn't though. Take away the fancy phrasing and it's fairly child friendly food.

It's getting to the point of serving your kids with a full on breakfast, letting them eat/ not eat crap at school and then feeding them what you think is sensible on their return from school.
I am so glad my Dcs are out of the system!!

I think it looks fine

looks similar to ds menu but never heard of sago pudding

they have a roast and curry or stir fry once a week I think they food he has is great he does too very rarely complains about not liking something

Not in London manicinsomniac. That menu wouldn't look out of place in a restaurant!

I think I expected more 'proper' dinners as my Nan would say. So a roast dinner with broccoli, carrots, mash, gravy, a lasagne or spa bol with hidden veg or side salad, casseroles, stews, Shepherds pie with veg, curry and rice etc.

The above was the sort of food on offer in my state primary many years ago.

Oh I read this and thought this is a good menu, it's similar to what I make for my own DC at home

We have packed lunches at school

they could have more veg looking at ds menu they always have two vegetables

he has cheesecake for pudding tomorrow, seems like an odd choice vile tasting pretend cakes

I wouldn't eat a thing on that menu manic & neither would ds. Dd would eat some & she's very u fussy.

Our state primary has a choice of 2 different meals per day, dessert, plus salad bar, fruit and yoghurt.

So there's not enough veg? Just make sure you serve enough to your satisfaction in the evening. It's obvious really.

Ours is awful. Lots of crappie white wheat for main course and pudding, few fresh veg, processed meats and fish, rubbish puddings.

Ds's school has a 4 week rolling menu:

Week 1 as an example is

Mon - Chicken/veggie tikka with rice & naan. Muffin
Tues - Cottage pie with broccoli. Carrot cake
Wed - chilli con carne & rice. Apple crumble
Thurs - Meatballs with spaghetti & sweet corn & garlic bread. Chocolate rice crispy cake.
Fri - breaded fish, chips & peas & bread & butter. Chocolate pudding.

There is a jacket potato option & salad bar every day

Fruit & Yeo valley yoghurt also available daily.

Looking at Monday, do baked beans count as one of your five-a-day I know Heinz say that they do on the tin, but I'm sceptical ? I would've thought the salt content would lessen any benefits from eating them.
If not, there is no five-a-day option on Monday.

I do my best to get as much veg as possible in at home, but with a small child who eats little, it seems a shame to miss an opportunity to do so at lunch, which is the meal that is best received.

Baked beans do count as one of '5 a day' . Beans are still vegetables, whether they have salt added or not.
I agree ,there should be 2 or 3 different veg per meal though, or a salad bar.
balletgirlmum that's a pretty decent menu. That's probably as good as possible for school dinners to be.

Surely sugary desserts are a 'sometimes' food not an 'every day of the week' food? Either we have an epidemic of childhood obesity or we don't. Either we have increasing levels of Type 2 diabetes or we don't. Which is it? Normalising daily cake/ pudding eating is irresponsible of the school. I think the menu is terrible.

Is it possible they have 2-3 veg on offer but dc is just choosing 1? I work in a school and there is 2-3 veg available every day but the children don't have to more than 1 if they don't want to. There is always fresh fruit available for desert and smoothies and a salad bar

Tuesday and Wednesday give me a distinctly 1950s vibe.

It's all a bit starchy, isn't it? I don't know if I would be very happy with this.

I'm a bit baffled by the dessert at lunch, every day. Is that the norm? I also find this baffling when I read the 'what's for dinner' threads (which I love, I love food, meal planning, etc), many people list their main meal and then what they are having for pudding. Growing up, we had dessert only on the occasional Sunday and when out to dinner for special occasions. Even now, as a 30 year old adult, I'd struggle with eating dessert every day. If I had it at lunch I'd be asleep at my desk at 2pm due to eating too much!

I agree with angsty, surely sugary desserts are not an every day food?

It's a bit shit, not terrible but I'd expect better from an independent school. DS1's state school has better dinners.

Beans are not vegetables! They are legumes - like lentils, pulses etc. It's probably the tomatoes in the sauce they're referring to, if they want to count them as one of the five-a-day. Crazy.

I was also surprised at each day's pudding, all seems quite sweet. What's wrong with a plain yogurt? Maybe with some fruit? If mine had that at lunch (and which kid is going to turn down ice cream or chocolate mousse??) I wouldn't be able to give them any other crap at home. It's lazy of the school, a bit of thought could make this a whole lot better (at no extra cost).

Erm, so the lunch menu includes one portion of fruit or veg, they get another one for morning snack, and another one for afternoon snack, leaving you two more to fit in at the other two meals... Or as many as you care to add for the other two meals - fresh rasperries and banana smoothie for breakfast maybe, or veg stir fry in the evening.

It's hardly child abuse, is it? The menu looks fine to me. The frothing is bizarre. Send a packed lunch if your child will only eat food with grand adjectives. You could label the individual items 'freshly baked whole grain focaccia with leafy greens, sun ripened tomatoes and honeyed haunch of suckling pig', the reddest Apple plucked at dawn on a September morning, or 'foil wrapped kettle chips with Himalayan sea salt' ol, no, better banish those...

Your menu's very, very similar to the school dinners I had in the 60s, Fedup! Is it a school that vaunts traditional values, by any chance? Did you realise they meant that traditional?