Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

in my high school we had 4 stations and a decent amount of options, yet i would only get 5 things - ever! friday was pizza day and i would always dip my pizza in the mini salad and dressing it came with.
wed was chicken ranchero day - chicken patty topped with bacon, american cheese and the obligatory lettuce and tomato slice and you top it yourself with ranch dressing on a kaiser roll and it usually came with baked mac and cheese - the line on wed was always rediculously long!
the other days i had a bagel with cream cheese, fries and an arizona iced tea. or cheese nachos loaded with toppings (i don't eat beef) or a cheese sandwich on a kaiser as i have always been adverse to lunch meat.
i am very surprised i have normal cholesterol these days - i can't imagine what it was back then...although growing up in a vegetarian household my other meals must have cancelled out the cholesterol loaded fest during the school week.

@jword2001: No prob! I hope your fave place is on the list. If only I knew what a green chile cheeseburger tasted like.. :(

In elementary school i loved the cold triple decker PB&J's... Also i loved the taste of the sloppy joes with melted kraft cheese but i didnt like the chunkiness of it so i would scrape it all out and eat what became a sloppy joe flavored cheese sandwich mmmmm.....i've tried to recreate it but to no avail.

In H.S. we had open campus so i always left for lunch. lucky me

Ooh - someone reminded me of the chili and chicken noodle soup my elementary school used to serve. I don't know what it was, but both were fabulous. As I got older & I was able to participate in my church hosted blood drives, I always looked forward to the half a peanut butter sandwich & the bowl of chicken noodle soup they'd serve to anyone that donated. MUCH better than the Ritz crackers & Lorna Doones I make do with now.

And yes - totally looked forward to the Thanksgiving & Christmas lunches, mostly because in addition to actual pumpkin pie, we got to choose a little container (paper peel-off lid) of ice cream: vanilla, chocolate swirl, or strawberry swirl. I always went with chocolate. Always.

After graduating I really missed cafeteria food. I loved drinking carton milk over ice and eating halved kiwis. The turkey a la king was so good back then and students would actually run to the lunch room for it. I also miss enchiladas on Wednesday, Mexican food day. Oh, and the lunch ladies used to offer Frito Pie on the side. Chili and cheese served from separate crock pots would be ladled into a bag of chips of your choice. I chose Hot Cheetos! It was so gross and delicious and would leave you with heart burn afterwards.

1955-1958. Lawrence High School, Lawrence, L.I., N.Y.
Sausages on top of mashed potatoes with gravy.
I still think about it after all these years.

In grammar school, they made kickass french toast sticks. Then the problem was that they started out giving each person five, but a few years later it dropped to four, then three. Cheapskates. I also always looked forward to chocolate milk in the tiny carton.
I never bought lunch in high school because the food was revolting, but I occasionally indulged in one of those underbaked cookies.
My college cafeteria isn't much better. They do awesome wraps, and any form of potato is hard to mess up, but the produce is atrocious. They reuse the same batch of vegetables for days, the salad bar is continuously wilted and brown, and the "vegetarian station" always, ALWAYS consists of lukewarm bean burritos. Ugh.

I use 1 1/2 cups Tollhouse chips and 1 1/2 cups Ghiradelli 60% bittersweet chips in my chocolate chip cookie recipe. The taste is incredible and the cookies disappear fast.

I'm a vegetarian now, but I used to love Hot Ham and Cheese days. Was that a universal lunch item? Ham and cheese melted on a soft roll.

I loved reading all of these--it really took me back.

Elementary school:
"taco pie" It was a mix of ground beef, beans, probably american cheese, lettuce and fritos! All scooped onto your plate with an ice cream scoop.
Macaroni and Cheese with two little smokies. I guess they added the little smokies to meet the protein requirement.

Junior High:
I don't remember a lot, but I ate salad bar and that rectangular pizza

High School:
I would eat lettuce and tomato sandwiches on white bread with yellow mustard (yuck!) but would also eat nacho bar.

College:
Breaded Chicken Sandwiches, Taco Pizza, Pasta Bar, Baked Potato Bar, the breakfast was always the best, "premium night" always the absolute worst.

The Turkey A La King served on top of a scoop of boxed mashed potatoes!
Before taking off for Thanksgiving they would serve this with a roll and a piece of "pumpkin pie", which was nothing but pumpking pie filling with a thin layer of Cool Whip frosting.

The only other thing that was remotely edible was the grilled cheese sandwich. I have yet to find one that comes close to that neon, buttery monstruosity.

I loved the beef stew and the sugar cookies. This was when there were lunch ladies who cooked the food and served it lovingly to you. I was a picky eater (I would be skinnier if I still was) and I remember eating many things that I would not have eaten at home. In high school I ate a lot of salads and saltine crackers with butter.

I have the sloppy joe recipe from the high school I attended from 1954 thru 1958, the best. The ladies who cooked were mothers of students and when they got busy serving lunch the janitor would help serving. Great hot beef sandwiches too.