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I could have driven railroad spikes with my H.S. pizza, we had some kind of salad dressing between the color of catalina and americanized "french" We would put it on darned near everything the cafeteria served.... at the time we thought it to be a great taste enhancer... perhaps it was a better alternative to the actual taste of the food.

I remember they had the best bagels and cream cheese at my school. A break in the middle of second period would be the most exciting time of the day when they had these bagels! The line was out the cafeteria room door.

Hillary
Chew on That

I absolutely LOVED my high school caf's chuckwagon sandwiches. I doubt I could eat one now - in fact, they sell them prepackaged at my local grocery and I've stared at them in morbid fascination, but cannot bring myself to buy one.

The sandwich was comprised of a hotdog bun with a slice cheap cooked ham, topped with a slice of cheap salami, and a slice of processed cheese. This was microwaved and the preferred serving style had it slathered in mustard.

eeekkkkkk....... I could inhale two of these after eating my home brought lunch EASILY. Ah to have that metabolism back again!

OMG! Elizabeth I remember that exact same pizza! It was very bizzare. I guess it had to have something from all the major food groups. So tomato sauce could pass for a vegetable back then, after all. Grilled cheese and that cheap tomato soup. Awful fish sticks. But what I wish I could find is the ice cream bar they used to sell. It was called a Cho-Cho Bar. It was malted ice cream dipped in chocolate and something crunchy. I must be older than most of you because when I was in grade school the microwave was not yet invented!!

This may sound horrid and deranged, but I did love the grilled white bread, cheese-substance sandwiches made in the cafeteria of the US elementary school I attended. They were so... different to the the whole-grain bread, vaguely-salty-peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches that were inevitably to be found in my little brown bag.

I've taken a few grade school lunch dishes into my adult life. Macaroni in meat sauce, ham and cheese in foil and of course, grilled cheese made in the oven, not a pan, for a crispy crunchy texture. We used to fear the shepherds pie, but I'm trying a version this week from Marco Pierre White that I hope will not bring back nightmares...

Ha ha! We were kids, hence the "Johnny". This was early '70s grade school fair, so I guess they tried to make it more appealing by giving it a catchy name. I was perusing an older cookbook I found ( can't remember which one) and saw it in there- I was pretty amazed. I thought they just made it up. And now that others have heard of it, that's great! I'm going to have to whip up a batch this weekend!

I rarely, if ever, ate the cafeteria food (provided the school I went to at the time had one--went to like, 6 different schools). I generally took soup or something in a thermos. The school food was just too bad. Everything was packaged. I want the school food you guys are talking about (not the Taco Hell and McD's, sorry). Have you ever thought about compiling a book of updated, more healthy versions of these dishes?

I mostly had to bring lunch to school when I was a kid as I wasn't allowed to eat meat and most processed foods. When I was a teenager I rebelled and reveled in the joys of McDonalds, etc. That said, I'd toss my brown bag lunch in a second when they had english muffin pizzas. They were made with some kind of orange processed cheese and tomato sauce and I loved them. And the vegetable lo mein which which was just delicious. Oh and the richest, creamiest chocolate pudding I've ever eaten with Cool Whip. Heaven. I am fully aware that my love of the pizza and pudding were in direct response to the whole grain veggie lockdown at home. But it didn't make them any less wonderful at the time.

Grade school food was ranged from fair to terrible. The one thing I loved, because I had never seen it or heard of it before, was ravioli. Of course, it was Chef BoyArDee from a can, but it seemed pretty exotic to me. The only Italian-ish food I'd ever eaten was pizza, my mother's version of spaghetti, and Italian sausage.

The burgers in grade school were strange. They didn't taste like beef at all. Probably a lot of filler. Meatloaf actually had meat, though. So that wasn't too bad.

What I remember were some odd food combinations. Like spaghetti with meat sauce, mashed potatoes, and corn.

And I always had chocolate milk, because the white milk always tasted funny to me.

In high school, I went through the "cold lunch" line, which included things like sandwiches, jello, twinkies, ice cream....If I was hungry, I invariably got the bologna sandwich on while bread, which always had a thick glob of butter in the middle.

@jcrisco..........my mother put butter on every sandwich she made, except those with peanut butter........I think? I thought it was a Canadian thing, but on some thread, discovered that it was extremely common everywhere. I could understand if it was something like tuna salad or egg salad, if the purpose was to keep the bread from getting soggy, but it was slathered on both slices of bread before other condiments like mustard or mayo. When people (and my mother) started using margarine, I couldn't eat the sandwich. My mother couldn't fool me. When I was old enough to make my own, I eliminated the butter altogether.

I live and grew up in Michigan and my mom put butter (actually margaine!) on every sandwich she ever made us. She was also born and raised here, but none of my friends had their sandwiches buttered and they looked at me like I was crazy. My Dad was born and raised in Ontario, Canada and I too thought it was a Canadian thing, but my mom said that no, her family did it also. My husband HATES the thought of it. Especially when my mom butters a pb&j sandwich! It was normal to me.

OT - sorry, does anyone in the SE family think it is awful to salt and/or pepper watermelon, cantaloupe and things like crudite (celery, cucumber slices, bell peppers, etc.? My husband insists I am a crazy person for doing this.

@radley24.......if s&p on fruit & veggies is weird, then count me in that club. I've never put either on watermelon, but I don't know why not. I always salt cantaloupe and pepper on strawberries brings out more flavor, too. Crudite cries for them........tell him to just listen really hard, or even better, taste! I can't think of too many foods that aren't improved with salt, pepper or both.

@radley24. I always salt my watermelon. It is so much tastier than not. Having eaten both ways, I honestly don't see why everybody doesn't. And I love pepper on berries and melon, but not salt. Crudite? Salt, sometimes pepper.