1. I was in Lily Kate's and Levi's school a couple of days ago. I went to eat lunch with them. When I walked in, the smell of the building about knocked me over with more nostalgia and sentiment than I could hardly bear. The smell of paper and school paint and gymnasium and cafeteria was so happy, I couldn't stand it. I know I must have looked like a big dork walking through the halls with a big dorky grin on my face. It took me back to Hardin Park Elementary, circa 19something. I LOVED elementary school. I still daydream about what those halls were like, and how much I loved being there.
This may be a post for another time, but I feel the need to say right here that I was one of those kids who LOVED school cafeteria lunches. I loved everything about them. Even those funky trays. The milk cartons. The salisbury steak. The square pizza. The ice cream that was so hard you needed a chain saw to cut it. The peanut butter balls that were always my favorite dessert they ever had. I loved it all.
2. Breakfast this morning. Angela's Coca Cola Cake. This stuff is both joy and insanity.
So, what did you think about school cafeteria lunches?
Have you ever had the joy of eating Coca Cola Cake?
72 comments:
I've never had Coca Cola cake. I think we need Angela's recipe. :)
As for school cafeteria's - I went to a private school so didn't really experience the "cafeteria" until high school. I do remember loving the french fries - the pizza not so much. :)
My girls were so excited when they switched from a private school 2 years ago to finally get a cafeteria. My one daughter is so picky that she takes a lunchbox most of the time but the other one enjoys the food for the most part, I think. Their faves? Popcorn chicken, chicken sandwiches and Italian breadsticks. :)
I want the recipe because it looks so good. wait, I can google. because I'm a 21st century kinda gal.
I had that nostalgic feeling when I took my kids to my high school years ago. WOW!! that was such a strange feeling. LOL!
BTW, I totally got the bunny t-shirt. that's an old Easter joke that gets emailed around every year.
Have a great day! :-)
School lunch thoughts:
1. Mashed potatoes served with an ice cream scoop.
2. Meat loaf that was sometimes served the same way and it was grayish, but delicious none the same!
3. I always wanted to go in the back and wash the dishes with that cool thing that you just put the dishes on a rack and then it went in by conveyor belt.
4. Strawberry Milk...enough said.
5. Frozen orange or grape juice in little cups. Did you have that? It was a delight.
5. French bread served with the spaghetti that left the entire student body wreaking of garlic for days!
And yes, Coca Cola Cake! I make that from time to time and it is heaven. Not so good on the WW points list, but totally worth it!
Tell Ang I said hi!
Blessings,
Dori
P.S. I have just half a mind to go get in the car and drive over there for a piece of that cake before you eat the rest for lunch!!
As a student I loved the homemade rolls and chicken fried steak. That was in the OLD days when they let you fry the food. ;-)
As a former school cafeteria employee I have to say I didn't care for it so much. Way too many changes... ;-(
Now you know I would LOVE to have the recipe!!
Did you know that you can buy those cafeteria trays? My Chris worked as a design engineer at Libbey Glass for almost 10 years and the outlet had those trays! All you need are the "right sized" milk and jello and you are good to go!
I'm with the others....recipe, please! Looks DELICIOUS.
I, too, loved school cafeteria lunches. The yeast rolls were TO DIE FOR. My least favorite day was soup day. Yuck! I still am not a soup eater and I think it was from the trauma of soup day in school.
I've had Coca Cola Cake. Actually here in the deep south it is Co Cola cake. Yum!!
Leah
Are those actual pecan halves on top of that lucious looking thing? Travis you're just about killing me - it's not even time for lunch, yet. Must. Post. Recipe.
I can remember my older brother by 4 yrs had to bring me my lunch money and he was mortified to take his 5th grade self into the 1st grade classroom. I remember that lunch was 50 cents. I remember the trays, the smells, the lunchroom, the tables, the ladies who served us.
I guess you could say I loved it too. And, can we just say that the lunch room has changed A WHOLE BUNCH since the 70's? At least at my kids school....its a heaven buffet for them every day...to the tune of $4-5 a pop.
Oh, elementary school....we love you.
And, no cake for me. I can't do nuts in cakes or brownies. ICK.
well, I went to a Christian school so we didn't have a cafeteria but something that causes nostalgia in me is every August when we get the school supplies...that scent brings back many memories of 1st days of school!
Add me to the list of recipe seekers! School lunches? Back in the day they were great! Fridays Fried chicken and homemade yeast rolls with peanut butter chewies (made with cornflakes) for dessert....yum!
Love me some school lunch! Especially the rectangular pizza dipped in waterty ranch dressing. Yummo!
I also loved the school lunches. I remember how the tray passed by each lunch lady on the conveyor belt. And they each used thir ice cream scoop to serve up their dish.
LOVE, LOVE Coca-Cola cake!!
My mom makes the best cafeteria lunches ever! (I'm homeschooled) Chicken Pot Pie is my favorite. : )
One of the funnest parties I ever hosted was a gourmet school cafeteria party. Everyone had to bring a gourmet version of their favorite school cafeteria food. They also had to wear their old school colors and bring memorabilia. Fun times.
Definitely nacho day or pizza day...and the peanut butter brownies were awesome.
If you ever make your way over to Lafayette, Bloomington, or Muncie, Indiana, you must eat lunch or dinner at Scotty's Brewhouse. They have a set of meals that are served on the old school lunch trays. You can choose your main (mini hamburgers, mini pulled pork sandwiches, mini corn dogs, or real-live rectangular pizza) complete with sides of applesauce, coleslaw, and french fries. You even get to choose a mini-dessert. (No, I'm not kidding. Yes, it's the best thing ever. And yes, by the way, I order one of these meals every. single. time. I eat at Scotty's, and the nostalgia brings tears to my eyes....every. single. time.) :)
My parents always packed my lunch... I'm that little girl who was sitting next to the rest of you looking at your trays and thinking, "I wish I had that"!
But I do go eat with my kids once a week and buy my lunch with them... it's very good! (and I made friends with the lunch ladies behind the counter so they give me more food now) :)
I'd LOVE to have Angela's recipe for the Coca-Cola Cake... never had it, but would make it in a heartbeat.
Not only did I love school lunch as a kid, I was also a school teacher so I got to enjoy it as an adult.
And, by the way, the pizza was RECTANGLE, not square. Unless it was a super special day when it was octagon and had orange cheese on it.
Alas, the peanut butter balls are all but forbidden in a school cafeteria these days. Too much liability with PB allergies. Did you ever EVER think that a PB ball would be a liability? Whatev.
And coca cola cake is stupid. In a totally fantastic way. But please hold the nuts because ew.
Shear anticipation!!! I had always brown bagged it and my mom gave me the okay to buy! I was beside myself. Enter the massive line and observe the regulars. The tray and the choices, it was great and I so enjoyed that ice cream for dessert. Great memories.
Yes, I agree with 3girlsmom, the pizza was indeed rectangular, but delicious all the same, i am not even sure the little pepperonis were real. haha. I LOVED school lunches. I would save my money so I could buy, because my mom made me take my lunch, so I was much like Lavonda most days. But OHH when I could, it was heaven, I felt like I was in the IN crowd..LOL. Would love the coca cola cake recipe btw...God Bless
I asked the cafeteria ladies to share recipes with my mom.
I don't recall having a particularly traumatic childhood, but schools creep me out. So do airports. And hospitals. And malls.
Okay, so maybe it's my adulthood that's traumatic.
Okay~the cafeteria lunches??? I did eat them sometimes but didn't much care for them. Except for the square pizza. You'll be glad to hear that the cafeteria pizza is now triangle like all other pizza.
Um, that cake??? Share the recipe with us!!! I have had Cracker Barrel's version of that and it was DELISH. Y-U-M-M-Y.
My absolute favorite meal was the turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy!
Please share that heavenly cake recipe!!!
I LOVED everything about school growing up, but I don't remember whether I liked school lunches or not. What I DO remember is loving to talk and socialize with my friends (even as an elementary school kid) during lunch. In middle school the worst thing that could ever have happened to me was to get silent lunch.
Coca Cola cake looks super yummy. Will Angela please share her recipe?
Loved school lunches! I thought I was the only one!
Have not had that cake, but will now add it to my "bucket list".
Oh,yeah!!! School lunches at my elementary school rocked... In Junior High (what they called Middle School back in the dark ages when I was a kid) not so much... But the hot rolls were definitely to die for! Oh, and those little cartons of milk??? In first grade, I could get them for just 3 cents!!!! They went up to a nickel I think by the time I left grade school. Oh, and we had milk breaks in the afternoon... so we bought those little ice cream cups or ice cream sandwiches for a nickel or so, too!
I loved elementary school, and lunch was a fave! But we don't want to move on to middle school.
That Coca Cola cake looks like it is to die for. Angela needs to up the recipe! :)
Wow..what a response!!
Okay..lurve Coca-Cola Cake...yum to the O!
Yay for square pizza on Fridays...with corn, of course!
My ALL TIME FAVE??? Chili with a Cinnamon Roll as big as the tray itself...yikes..and heaven forbid if you got a small roll b/c you'd be beggin' everyone around you to "trade"...
Your comment about the ice cream being so hard had me ROLLING...b/c I remember that I could hardly get it eaten before it was time to go it was so hard..it was just gettin' mushy and here comes Mrs. Howell askin' us to line up!! WHAT?!
I guess I must've been highly impressed w/ elem. school since I became an elem. school teacher!! I was so happy to be able to go IN to the teacher's lounge and TOUCH stuff! ;)
I'm homeschooling now..so my kids don't quite get the lunchroom experience but that's okay!!
Sooooooooo funny, Travis!
oh school lunches. I would have to say I really enjoyed when we had Build Your Own Burger day. It was almost like lunch in heaven.
and that would be a huge NO to the Coke Cola cake. Maybe it would appeal to me more if it was made with Diet Pepsi.. or better yet Diet Dr. Pepper
Our old elementary building was 3 stories and the cafeteria was on the bottom floor. I can remember waiting in line to go down the stairs and just thinking I would die of hunger before I got down there!
Loved me some p-nut butter balls too!
Please share that recipe! Looks delish, heard of it, never tried it!
The youth group at our church holds a Valentine's Day banquet every year as a fund raiser for camp. Last year the theme was school days and we actually had the rectangle pizza, corn and salad for our meal. Dessert was the hard ice cream cups.
As for my school lunch memories...I liked them for the most part. A couple that stand out are veggie soup with PB&J sammies and the "Farmer Joe Special". To this day, I still have no idea what it actually was. It was a cube like hunk of meat with this gravy stuff on top that you could peal off in one layer...YUCK!!!
I loved them when I was in school and even more now that I am a teacher. I buy my lunch every day and salisbury steak days with mashed potatoes are my favorite. Shout out to the lunch ladies!
I don't know you and you don't me - I am home with sick kids and have the joy of blog hunting all day long :)
I LOVED the school lunches, although we didn't have any money to buy them. I have always been supremely motivated by food, and I found a way to be the cafeteria student helper, washing the tables, helping hand out the food to the younger grades. Then I got to eat one for free! Awesome. I loved those lunches...
Funny I just had lunch with one of my girls 2 weeks ago and yeah, the cafeteria pizza ain't so bad afterall. Although the looks from the lunch aides had me scared as I took my first bite. Are you gonna post the recipe to the Coca Cola cake?? I suppose I could Google it if need be...looks DEEElish.
Memory Lane...love it! In fact, my oldest son said just the other day that his elemenentary days were his favorite because he felt so loved and secure there. He's now working on his doctorate and loves to go back to visit his teachers that are still there!
School lunch was good because it was fellowship time! I loved the special shortbread cookies they always served at my school.
Remember scooting your tray next to someone so they could rake something onto your tray if they didn't want it and you did?
Or "trading food?"
oh man - you have taken me down memory lane.
Love to your family,
Georgia Jan
I loved the pizza with cubed pepperonis, the THICK grilled cheese sandwiches and vegetable soup, the little ice creams with the wooden spoon/spatula thing to eat them. And I loved having those little cartons of chocolate milk. Elizabeth has something called "Frito Pie" at her school which is like a Mexican casserole, and "Salisbury Dippers." Still not sure what those are, or their content!
I love the Coca Cola cake. That looks great. I didn't get cake for my birthday since we were all "caked out" after our marathon of birthdays the past two weeks. (Pity me.) We have a lady at our church who does one with Cheerwine. It's awesome.
MY CAKE WAS AWESOME, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Recipe PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want that recipe.
School lunches? I remember canned corn was always served square pizza.
I guess my Mom wasn't that good of a cook. I loved the school cafeteria -- homemade rolls, fried chicken, hamburgers. Yum! The rolls are the thing I remember best.
I had the joy of eating the cake in that picture just last night, and let me tell you IT IS WONDERFUL. I want more!
I loved cafeteria lunches. Chicken nugget day was my favorite. There was an art of making a a sandwich using your roll, mashed potatoes, gravy, and nuggets! Yum!
How can you post that delicious looking cake WITHOUT a recipe? Ask Angela if she will share? :) I have never tasted Coca Cola Cake!
We need Angela's recipe!!!! Also, Beth Moore talks about her pancakes. We need that recipe too!! :) I liked some of the cafeteria lunches. Some were gross though. lol!
School lunches were not my favorite. I always felt extra-special on the days my mom would let me pack a lunch. School taco salad stands out the most. Gross!!
I've never had the joy of trying Coca Cola cake, but now I'm very afraid that I am missing something fabulous!
I use to love school lunches! We use to have something called Neshaminy cake that had powdered sugar on the top. You could blow it on someone! Talk about dating myself- lunch cost 35 cents, milk was a nickel! I only bought lunch a handful of times, but loved it!
Never heard of nor had Coca Cola cake. ?
Yes Plz post the Recipe!! And also your Thoughts on AI....been waiting..
God Bless
mashed potatoes COVERED in pepper
chicken fried steak
baked potato with anything I wanted on it from the salad bar. yummmmm
Yes, I loved me some lunch. Mostly 'cause after 10 years of my mom's bagged lunches at private school, Public school cafeteria food was a JOY to me. You mean I get eat a HOT lunch? neat!
and Amanda, I can't believe you asked for the recipes for your mom. she must have just wanted to DIE!
Where can we buy that square pizza?? I so loved it!!
Ok, square pizza. When I was in 5th and 6th grade, I went to the brand new elementary school right down the road from my house. Brand new, and yet it had no cafeteria. So our lunches were driven over from the bigger elementary school up the road a piece. And on Fridays, when we had square pizza, it always had a spork stuck on top of it, leaving a spork shaped indentation in the cheese.
I loved the yeast rolls that we used to get with our school cafeteria lunches - they always had that melted butter in the middle...OK I'm sure it wasn't REAL butter, but it was good!.
Hey you need to post the recipe for that coca cola cake; it looks wickedly delicious!!!
Adrienne
she MUST have slipped some Barley Green in there to let you have it for breakfast...
This is the first time anything you've said or done--ASIDE from a worship gathering--has brought me to tears! Having to see that Coca Cola cake while enduring a colon cleanse diet.....hey, "be ye kind one to another!" :)
My mama made THE best co cola cake in the world.. it looked just like Angela's. She has alzheimers and does not know any of us or communicate at all.. .how I would love one of her cakes.....
Does Coke Chocolate Cake Soup count?
I loved the cafeteria and I want to love that cake!! What is in that?
I, too, loved the square pizza. I also enjoyed the pizza buns, the spaghetti and the hamburgers. Not so much a fan of the jell-o with the shredded carrots or whatever that was that they stuck in there!
Yup. I actually liked the school lunches, too! And I know what you mean about the smell of the elementary school...
But I've never had Coca-Cola Cake. I haven't read thru the other comments, but I will assume that you've been asked no less than 58 times for the recipe?
Loved school lunches. Loved square pizza. Love Coca Cola cake. I'm right there with you.
I myself didn't care for school food. I remember having pea fights :(
Now I work as secretary at school and love the food.
Brownies look delicious. Does Angela share recipes??
I thought my grandmother was the only person who EVER made Coca Cola cake! I guess it's a NC thing!
I have had the Coca Cola Cake and you are right, it is good enough to have for breakfast! Yummy dessert.
When I was in 5th grade, in Greeneville, Tn. they had the best cafeteria food. That is when I came to love peanut butter and honey sandwiches and they had the best rolls! I can't believe I can remember that. lol
Happy Valentine's Day to you and your beautiful wife!
I remember in middle school they had the best pizza ever. The next day during recess you could buy a piece of the leftover pizza for ten cents. I did hate that they always put fruit in the jello.
My favorite memory of elementary school lunch was definitely the "Frito Bandito" little eraser man that came in my frito snack bag.(I was a packer;not a buyer) He even had a "jingle." It was the 70's!!!
Pizza day was the absolute best. We also had a really great turkey potpie.
Chocolate mousse was my favorite dessert
I have never had Coca Cola Cake - please please please have angela post the recipe
Wow, Coca-Cola cake. Yes, not for breakfast, but surely a winner at any time!
Carol in NC
mel makes a good coca cola roast. we should merge these two and call it dinner.
My husband's Granny Sue makes Coca Cola cake for him usually his birthday or sometimes for Thanksgiving. Technically, it is only for him...but he generously shares with me and our daughter. We LOVE it!!! It is great with a good cup of coffee.
Listened to your Found CD today while running errands. My almost 10 year daughter and I love 2000 Years! She says, "YOU ROCK!"
Blessings
Oh my goodness! Coca Cola cake.....awesome and sinful to say the least.
The peanut butter balls were my absolute fav. in elementary school. I wonder today how they made those to still be crunchy and taste so good!
One other thing that I remember was the smell of the soap in the bathroom......no other smell like it. Can't really describe it but just every now and then in airports or maybe other churches I have visited, that smell sometimes comes back to me with such good memories!
Be blessed!
I have been certain for quite some time that Coca Cola cake will definitely be one of those delights we will find in heaven. There are no words to describe the ultimate chocolatey goodness!
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