I remember loving the pizza puffs our cafeteria had. The ones since, not so much but I had one once in a little Chicago hot dog stand that came close.
We have Brownies as younger counterparts to Girl Scouts (as opposed to Girl Guides) here as well. Blonde brownies (note the small b) are desserts. Blonde Brownies are girls. The importance of capitalization…
In the schools I attended in northeast Ohio, the Type A lunches regularly featured something called Cowboy Bread. It was apparently made from this recipe, or at least a very similar one. Chocolate Crunchies were also popular – here’s a recipe, although I seem to recall that the pasta base was rice, as opposed to Chinese noodles. A special treat was ice cream with strawberries – we only seemed to get that once or twice a year.
We didn’t have that at school (Minnesota), but my parents made it all the time, and now I do, too.
FTR, we lived in TX for a couple years, so maybe they picked it up there.
I dare say, InternetLegend, that it was most definitely a New Mexican thing. Although I wish it was also a Virginia thing. I had my first real Frito Pie when I was 8 years old at the 5 and 10 in the plaza in Santa Fe, and to this day have had nothing to replicate that. Thank goodness we visit NM once a year.
My elementary school did some pretty good lunches from what I can remember. In the early days when food was still made in the schools, they did really decent spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread and steak and cheese subs… The french fries (crinkle cut of course) were always tasty. Sometimes they’d get crazy and make something unusual like chicken fried steak, burritos, or taco salad which ended up being pretty good. The highlight of the year for school lunches was right before Thanksgiving when they’d do a turkey dinner – sliced turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce, and a slice of pumpkin pie. Nobody missed turkey dinner day.
When I got to high school they started breaking out the pre-frozen school lunches, and the only ones that stand out are again the spaghetti, steak and cheese subs, and they managed to do pretty good cheeseburgers. Again, the fries were great and at this point they were using the shoestring ones which are my favorite. The pizza in high school was awful, which stunk at a time when you can usually rely on pizza at that age to make you happy. We had a choice of skim, 2% and chocolate milk to drink. Towards the latter end of my high school years they introduced a salad bar and make-your-own deli sandwich bar which was a nice change from all the fried and processed crap.
Frito Chili Pie:
Fritos, preferably the regular size
CANNED chili, with or without beans, is traditional
Grated cheddar cheese (optional, but recommended)
Diced or sliced onion (optional, but again, recommended)
Heat up the chili by whatever means you like. Put a layer of Fritos (and it MUST be Fritos, nothing else tastes the same) in a bowl or plate. Top with a couple more Frito chips, and cheese and onion, if using.
Alternately, pour a layer of Fritos in an oven or microwave safe dish, pour the chili on top of it, and put the onions and cheese on top of THAT. Bake or nuke until the cheese melts and the chili is hot. Baking is better, as nuking tends to produce soggy chips.
You will note that I have not given any measurements. I always just eyeball it. I ALWAYS put lots of cheese on it, and no onions on my portion.
This was a great favorite at Camp Fire Girls campouts, particularly for the last day. The only ingredient that needed cooling was the cheese, which was a primary consideration.
By the way, at the Bodoni household we always serve chili with cheese and cornbread, or corn chips, or tortilla chips. My husband and daughter like to have some diced onion to sprinkle on top. Frito pie is the best, though.
Lynn - The real way you make Frito Chili pie is to heat the chili separately. Place regular-sized fritos in the bottom of a bowl. Cover with chili. Add shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, chives (and sliced olives or jalapenos, if you like them). Then I usually mix it all up. Yum!
StG
Chili and 1/2 of a Peanut Butter Sandwich. I still insist on a peanut butter sandwich when I have chili.
No, I recall having it from at least one or two of the various elementary school cafeterias I had the misfortune of encountering in Arkansas. I’ve blocked most things to do with school lunches from my memory, but I do recall that, and have a vaguely positive association with it.
Unlike the vilest school lunch food of all time: hominy. Holy moly that stuff is foul, and it seemed like we had it three times a week at a couple of places I went to school.
I’m pleased that Frito Pie (now officially called “corn chip pie” in the schools, since apparently Frito-Lay is picky about trademarks) is known outside the Southwest. For the record, I follow the “layer of chips, then glop on hot chili (as opposed to ‘chile’, which we can cover later), then sprinkle cheese and optional onions” route. And now that I’ve discovered Hormel’s Vegetarian Chili, I can have it at home whenever I get the impulse.
Not to get into a “no true Scotsman” argument here, I’ve always always always seen, heard and experienced “real” Frito Pie as hot chili poured into an individual serving size bag of Fritos which has been sliced open along the back seam to make a proper serving receptacle.
Mm, frito pie. 
TeaElle you’ve got it right. It was a very special day in the cafeteria when the frito pie actually came in the litttle pouch of the Frito bag. Imitation corn chips just ruin a good frito pie. Also, it is a staple at all high school football games across Texas—along with nachos (with real Rico[sup]TM[/sup] cheese) and stale popcorn.
The fake mashed potatos were the best thing on the menu at my school. You could get a bowl of potatos and a milk for 65 cents. That would just tide me over until I got home at 4 to eat a pepperoni sandwich.
I’ve been jonesin’ for those for a long time. We called 'em “Fiesta Pizzas” tho, but they were octagonal. Mmm Mmmm MMMMMMMM.
Anybody else remember “Pudding in a Cloud”?
It was just a little waxy-paper cup filled with whipped cream and then a dollop of pudding was put in the middle. (Afterwards, you’d slow remove the creases of the paper cup to make it flat.)