My High School Diet 8 During Coronavirus

Pop-Tarts and Tacos are on the menu of my latest High School Diet series. 

This is the eighth free meal I picked up from my local high school and it hits all the sweet spots, especially if you are a student. Hey, even an old-timer like me had a pretty tasty flashback experience inserting a couple of strawberry flavored Pop-Tarts into the toaster, and it's pretty hard to mess up a Beef and 2 Cheese Taco.

And since when did Goldfish Crackers become healthy? I guess listing whole wheat as an ingredient gives junk food a passing grade! 

For this new Food Series, I gave myself the assignment to find out what High School kids are being fed during Covid-19. We here in Los Angeles care about the nutrition needs of young people.

I'll be sharing a different Breakfast and Lunch meal every few days. I think you'll be as surprised as I am of the good, the bad, and the ugly...oh boy.

These meals are Grab & Go from my local High School. I'm sure regular school cafeteria fare is different (better?) than the ones I am getting carryout at the drive-thru lane. You can click here to see the first meal I had at my neighborhood Grab & Go.

The GIF above is a Grab & Go walk up at Susan Miller Dorsey High School. 

There seem to be plenty of meal bags laid out on the tables and once I asked if they ever run out and the attendant replied emphatically "Never!"

Breakfast: Pop-Tarts, Apple, Orange and Milk

It's been quite a while since I had Pop-Tarts, and boy do they hold up as a cheap breakfast pastry. Since I tried Pop-Tarts again I've purchased off-brand ones called  Toast 'em from my local Dollar Tree and 99c only Store. While not officially Pop-Tarts, they are close enough.

You get 2 Pop-Tarts in a package. They are a bit smaller than a slice of toast. And the best way to heat them up is in a toaster, of course.

 Pop-Tarts were filled with strawberry jam. The thin smear of fruity filling is quite tasty if a bit over-sweet like typical grocery shelf fruit jam. It works with the soft cookie-like pastry. 

And there is that hard sugar frosting shell on top that softens when toasted. It's super sweet of course, just the way I remember them. When Pop-Tarts originally appeared on grocery selves in 1964, and we first had them it was a memorable day, indeed. They were a favorite at my breakfast table, and so convenient for late-running student sleepy-heads.

They used to be pure sugar and white flour, but now it's whole wheat flour and sugar.

Click on any photo to see larger.

Fresh fruit is needed after these sugary pastries. The school supplied apple and orange does the trick

Lunch: Beef and 2 Cheese Taco, Carrots, Goldfish Crackers, Apple, and Milk (always Milk.)

Let's dive into my High School Lunch bag and start with an appetizer of Goldfish Crackers. Can't say I've ever had many Goldfish Crackers before, I guess I missed that boat, but I could learn to like them after trying a bag. 

They are salty like a regular cracker, but with cheddar cheese as extra flavor. I can see how kids could become addicted to them.

I've seen different flavors of Goldfish in my local Dollar Tree, too. 

I do play with my food and Goldfish Crackers are another product in need of a personality like The Lego Movie.

Included in my High School Lunch is a small bag of baby carrots. Peeled and bite-sized they are a welcome raw veggie addition. No need to describe them, right? 

For the main course, the following high school Mexican treat is a Frankenstein Taco, halfway between a Jack-n-Box and  Taco Bell taco. But don't get me wrong, I actually liked it better than the Jack-n-Box two tacos for 99 cents. 

There is more cheese than ground meat. Again with no label, I could not tell if the meat is beef or fowl or a soy/meat mixture...hmmm

The corn tortilla is a swimming pool of molten cheese when microwaved. Cheese tastes of mild Jack cheese with a sprinkling of yellow cheese (American?) Since there is no ingredients label I am guessing specifically what's in the Beef and 2 Cheese Taco. 

The ground meat is mushy more than chunky. I couldn't tell what kind of meat it was. The seasoning has a welcome, but mild, chili flavor - this is a taco meant to please all palates. 

The tortilla is not a typical one, it seems like a rough cornmeal blend, it doesn't quite work like the corn tortillas you would normally get at a grocery or taco truck. But I can see how unformed palates would be okay with it, as it's really not bad, just inauthentic.

The Beef and 2 Cheese Taco reminded me of a Jack-n-box version with the mystery meat and off tortilla texture. Although I thought it better than Jack's.

 If you want to see what I really think of Jack-n-box tacos just watch my 99 Cent Chef Cheap$kate Dining Review below.

For reviews or info about the purveyors of these food items you can check out Fooducate, just enter a product food name and see what pops up about it: https://www.fooducate.com/

And you can learn about Los Angeles Unified School District's Cafe LA (which supplies a lot of the packaged food) here: https://achieve.lausd.net/cafela

And do check back for more of my latest food series High School Meals.

 Be safe & keep your distance!

My High School Diet 7 During Coronavirus

No meat in this day's High School Meals and that's okay, but there is plenty of dairy and with French Toast an egg is normally used to coat the bread.

The unusual part of this Meal is Ardella's Fun Pack for Lunch. It's just a couple of bread rounds with pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese.

And I can't remember when I had a frosty Slush, but what the heck I'll give it a taste test!

For this new Food Series, I gave myself the assignment to find out what High School kids are being fed during Covid-19. We here in Los Angeles care about the nutrition needs of young people.

I'll be sharing a different Breakfast and Lunch meal every few days. I think you'll be as surprised as I am of the good, the bad, and the ugly...oh boy.

These meals are Grab & Go from my local High School. I'm sure regular school cafeteria fare is different (better?) than the ones I am getting carryout at the drive-thru lane. You can click here to see the first meal I had at my neighborhood Grab & Go.

The GIF above is a Grab & Go walk up at Susan Miller Dorsey High School. 

There seem to be plenty of meal bags laid out on the tables and once I asked if they ever run out and the attendant replied emphatically "Never!"

Breakfast: French Toast, Blueberry Muffin, Apple, Juice, and Milk (always Milk.)

French Toast is a real kid-pleaser and this one is almost perfect except one part which I will talk about later. The bread is soft and the coating extra-eggy. Is it sweet too,  and with a dash of fragrant cinnamon spice.

French Toast is precooked so all you need to do is heat it for a few seconds until warm...or just go ahead and eat it at room temperature.

A very good French Toast, however, there is a strange slick coating, that I'm not sure of...hmmm, I think it is oil? I know it isn't syrup as it's neither sticky or sweet, just a neutral taste. Since the package has no labeling, I guess it will remain a mystery.

It's a 2fer of sweet bread with the addition of a Muffin. I don't know if this was supposed to go the lunch as these 2 meals come in one bag and it's up to me to guess what item goes with breakfast or lunch?

The cupcake is moist and sweet with cinnamon spice. There is no package label but once I broke it open I could see a couple of blueberries. It is a tasty Blueberry Muffin.

Lunch: Fun Pack (Bread Round, Pizza Sauce, Mozzarella Cheese), Carrots, Orange, Frozen Slush.

This is a very good Fun Pack, even when served at room temperature. I guess you could call it a vegan pizza, or an open-faced sandwich?

The bread round is very soft, so not really pizza dough or pita bread. It's a thick slice too and that's fine. I assume the bread is made of whole wheat, like most bread products I've tried so far.

The Marinara Sauce or Pizza Sauce is thick and loaded with herbs and spices, very satisfying in fresh tomato flavor. I liked it a lot and want the recipe!

The shredded Cheese is Mozzarella (I think as there is no ingredients list on the package.) It's very soft and a mild-flavored version -- quite tasty.

The most peculiar thing is the amount of Pizza sauce and Mozzarella cheese to too much for just 2 bread rounds - you would have to really pile it on to finish those toppings. So if you have any bread laying around then get out a slice!

I tasted the open-faced sandwiches at room temperature and grilled. Of course, grilled is better as a cracker bread crispness and flavor come to the fore, but either way works for me.

It was fun to have childhood visions when slurping on a Cool TropicsSlush packet.

Click on any photo to see larger.

It's a short ingredient list and I like that, a nod to healthier fare these days. 

Paradise Punch is lightly sweet and a mild fruit flavor like white grape juice. I liked that there was no lingering cane sugar extra-sweet flavor. 

I refroze the packet since it was lukewarm to the touch by the time I got home. After a half-hour or so I poured and squeezed out the icy parts into a glass. There is a spout to cut along, but next time I would cut lower across the wide part and pour it all out at once. This would enable the packet to be more frozen like a Slush should be.  

Finally, the Orange was sweet and seedless while the Carrots are crunchy and fresh tasting.

For reviews or info about the purveyors of these food items you can check out Fooducate, just enter a product food name and see what pops up about it: https://www.fooducate.com/

And you can learn about Los Angeles Unified School District's Cafe LA (which supplies a lot of the packaged food) here: https://achieve.lausd.net/cafela

And do check back in a few days for more of my latest food series High School Meals.

 Be safe & keep your distance!

My High School Diet 6 During Coronavirus

It's eclectic eats for Day 6 of my High School Meals Series. Today I picked up Mexican sweet bread called Conchas and a Chef's Salad. I consider this a lucky day indeed. I never know what is in store when I drive thru the  Grab & Go line to pick up grub at my local High School.

For this new Food Series, I gave myself the assignment to find out what High School kids are being fed during Covid-19. We here in Los Angeles care about the nutrition needs of young people.

I'll be sharing a different Breakfast and Lunch meal every few days. I think you'll be as surprised as I am of the good, the bad, and the ugly...oh boy.

Click on any photo to see larger.

These meals are Grab & Go from my local High School. I'm sure regular school cafeteria fare is different (better?) than the ones I am getting carryout at the drive-thru lane. You can click here to see the first meal I had at my neighborhood Grab & Go.

The GIF above is a drive-thru Susan Miller Dorsey High School's Grab & Go. 

There seem to be plenty of meal bags laid out on the tables and once I asked if they ever run out and the attendant replied emphatically "Never!"

Breakfast: Conchas Mexican Sweet Bread, Corn Muffin, Apple, Orange, and Milk (always Milk.)

This breakfast is more interesting than typical sugary donuts.

Mildly sweet and a bit dry this sweet bread is of the Mexican pastry variety.  Conchas is a tasty way to start the day.

Go to any Latin market and you will see these in the bakery department. I have found them at my local 99c Only Stores, too.

It's about the size of a hamburger bun. The white stripes on top are sweeter than the interior which makes a nice contrast and overall -- it is a good balance. It's a bit on the bland side but that's okay with me.

I think this is a Corn Muffin as there is no labeling on the package. Corn Muffin is a bit grittier than a cupcake probable due to the cornmeal base.

You can taste corn in the cake part and every once in a while I thought I got a chewy corn kernel. It is a sweet cornbread and more crumbly than a cupcake. The thin sticky-soft top seemed to hold most of the sugar sweetness. Overall I liked it.

Lunch: Chef Salad and Cookies.

I hit the jackpot today with a Chef Salad and Educational Snacks (cookies).

At almost 8 ounces this is a good-sized green salad with Turkey, Ham, and Swiss Cheese topped with a creamy Ranch Dressing.

Now the green part is just Iceberg lettuce and the label calls it a "Classic Salad" so I expect nothing less.

I like Iceberg for the crunchiness and an almost sweet (green) to a lightly bitter (white) range of chopped leaves. It is the kind of lettuce I grew up with and as far as I'm concerned it will never go out of style.

The segmented top to the salad holds small half-inch bars of lightly smoked ham and turkey.

The turkey is white meat and the ham is very lean. The texture is of real meat, not a processed ground and shaped type. It is a hearty and filling salad.

The Swiss Cheese is shredded and soft in texture and mild in flavor. I would have liked a more intense type of Swiss, but this is fine anyway.

And finally, you can mix in Ranch Dressing. The Ranch is thick and creamy with a slight onion and chive undertaste that comes thru the mayo and buttermilk base. It's a rich dressing and I liked it very much.

The ingredient list is a long one but this salad has everything in it.

If you're vegan then this salad is not for you, but I would line up at the Grab & Go  anytime for this old school Chef Salad

The Lunch Dessert is a bag of smart cookies called Dick & Jane Educational Snacks. They are tasty and crunchy. Not too sweet and similar to Animal Crackers or a mild vanilla wafer - nothing special, just a plain cookie.

I never heard of this brand, but you can click here to find out what Dick & Jane are all about. But basically, the cookies are nut-free (Dick is allergic to nuts,) low sugar. They are distributed through Amazon to the general public and I guess they have a contract with schools.

The cookies I got are a collection of English and Spanish words with the translated image on each cookie. There are other cookie themes like States & Capitals, Presidents, and Food & Nutrition.

They have nutrition and ingredients listed clearly on the package. And it doesn't look bad, mainly whole grain wheat and a few other ingredients including sugar, honey, eggs, whole milk, and sunflower oil.

For reviews or info about the purveyors of these food items you can check out Fooducate, just enter a product food name and see what pops up about it: https://www.fooducate.com/

And you can learn about Los Angeles Unified School District's Cafe LA (which supplies a lot of the packaged food) here: https://achieve.lausd.net/cafela

And do check back in a few days for more of my latest food series High School Meals.

 Be safe & keep your distance!