Who Says Healthy Foods Are Yuck
Having browsed the two school lunch menus, one school in the town of Montigny le Bretonneux, just southwest of Paris and the other in Pittsford, New York, I found that French kids eat more interesting meals in a wide range of variety. For example, French menu has got Iceberg lettuce with radishes and vinaigrette, Grilled fish with lemon, Stewed carrots, Emmental cheese, Apple tart. American kids has only got Zweigel’s™ hot dog on a roll with tater tots on their school menu although they are allowed to choose three additional items from the following list: milk, chocolate milk, salad, ‘hot vegetable’, fresh fruit, canned fruit in syrup, crackers. They can also purchase a dessert. What is the message sending through these two school menus?
Today our kids are trained to choose fast food and are fed a monotonous diet of pizza, burgers, chicken parts and meat. Obesity is a very serious health problem in our younger population. Besides, adults only know how to steam vegetables or boil peas. I think not many adults will enjoy dull green peas, let alone kids take them. Kids have already lost the appetite, the ability and the opportunity of tasting healthy and yummy foods. The culture of eating and methods of cooking should be transformed if we really want our kids to enjoy a healthy life. In my previous post, How Do Parents Train Their Toddlers to Eat Healthy Food, the number one thing is to cook good food. Knowing how to cook really good food in various ways is a start.
French Week: On School Lunches [idlewords.com]
November 21st, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Banquet Pepperoni Pizza Meal
Yep, it’s back. The Banquet Frozen Meal review parade rolls on, this time with an interesting looking Pepperoni Pizza Meal. It’s been about an even number of standouts and duds so far with reviewing the Banquet line, but remember that these are all only ONE dollar so beggars can’t be gourmet eaters .
Anyhow, this Pepperoni Pizza was a bit of a bummer. I couldn’t get the cheese to “stretch” like on the box picture and the actual pizza rectangle certainly seemed a bit smaller, maybe the size of one of those squares. More disappointing was the taste. I made this in the oven so I was expecting the crust to be excellent but it had only minor crunch and the pizza sauce was pretty much ketchup. The cheese was OK, but the pepperoni “crumbs” might have been left off in favor of just more pizza.
At this point, I’m getting a bit tired of corn as the side dish. But I expect it’s the cheapest most reliable vegetable to put in, and they certainly can’t call it a meal without vegetables according to the food pyramid. So, I don’t begrudge them the overuse of corn. I do begrudge them the glue-like chocolate sludge that they call a brownie. First of all, it’s way to sweet. I don’t like sweets anyhow, but this thing was REALLY sugary. I don’t know how they got their brownie out of the pan and onto the plate because I couldn’t get it to lift out. I had to spoon it out like baby food. Yuck.
This was thoroughly disappointing on nearly all counts. The pizza, even if it tasted better, was less than satisfying; I finished it in 3 bites. If you really want a pepperoni pizza meal, you can probably make a fitter, happier one out of just bread, ketchup or tomato sauce, some dried herbs and some cheese on top. Or, they probably have standalone mini pizzas that probably taste better, though I can’t vouch for low prices on those since I’ve never bought them.