I miss disparaging the “veal cutlet” patties that were second cousin to scouring pads, and the Flagstaff-brand industrial-strength canned foods. I on ly had cafeteria food in my last three years of high school , and it was edible and kept hunger away, and that’s the best that could bec said about it…
…except for the cookies. They sold wonderful soft oatmeal cookies, and I’ve never seen any quite like them since. They may have been made by them.
For some reason, the lunch that stands out in my mind (in junior high, I think) is chicken fricassee. It was actually rather tasty, and it had to be made with real chicken because I found a bone in it once. 
It was served with rice that came out of an ice cream scoop & STAYED in a ball, not one grain falling off…but tasty.
I also seem to recall some really good yeast rolls - tied in a knot, maybe - from both elementary school & junior high. I don’t remember much positive about high school lunch, although I recall spending one year (my Junior year, maybe) where my lunch routinely consisted of a Snickers bar & a Dr. Pepper. Mmm. Healthy. 
I don’t fondly recall much of my school cafeteria days. I remember Pizza Day and you could get your lunch ticket punched twice if you wanted an extra slice. But it was nothing special; one of those frozen rectangular thingies. And always with corn.
I liked Milk Time in the afternoon in Elementary School, where your teacher put in an order on a slip of paper at the cafeteria and punched your milk ticket and there would be an order of like 29 chocolates and 1 white milk lined up on the table once we got to our table at the cafeteria… 
My junior high had wonderful yeast rolls – they were big and square and golden, drizzled over the top with melted butter. Man, I haven’t thought of those in years. My mouth is watering!
Kit Kats and Chocolate Shakes. I had this every day for four years.
Our school canteen didn’t serve hot lunches as such. You could get sandwiches, I think we must have been able to get sausage rolls and pies because those are standard aussie canteen fare, but the highlight for my crowd was the bacon and cheese rolls. It was basically a very very soft white roll, with hard square chunks of bacon and a mess of cheese baked onto the top. These were served very hot and pretty much soaked through with salty margarine. They cost 25 cents and were the cheapest, most filling thing you could get. I pretty much lived on them through high school. This was back when margarine wasn’t only cheaper, it was allegedly healthier than butter. I don’t think those things were any variety of health food.
The other thing they had that were prepackaged but really good for being cheap and filling, (and again I think they were supposed to be healthier than candy bars but weren’t really) were a variety of dried fruit and nut bars. One was straight up peanuts in some kind of sticky honey toffee, one was apricot and coconut (yummmm) and one was sesame seeds, again embedded in a toffee like substance. Oh glorious calories!
We were spoiled at my HS,the chef there,yes he was a chef not a cook,ran a catering business out of the cafeteria(with the blessing of the school system)and did several banquets a month.The day after a banquet was always eagerly anticipated,left over prime rib and chicken cordon bleu was often served, along with a big pile of shrimp cocktail and rumaki, high end desserts like double chocolate raspberry cake and a cheesecake that was out of this world rounded off the meal,all for the $1.10 we normally paid for lunch(think it was $2.25 for the staff and other adults).Ya had to get there early tho, cos it didn’t last very long.
Banquet fare aside,even on normal days the choices were plentiful,but the most popular was the pizza,which was bid out every year to the local pizza parlours,so it was usually Dominos or the like,which ain’t the best pizza in the world but the kids loved it.
The salads;had your choice of seafood salad,salmon salad,taco salad, vegetarian salad or ham salad.These things were huge,picture one of those big styrofoam containers that you get for leftovers,these were filled to the point of overflowing with gobs of meat,cheese,cherry tomatos,bacon bits,homemade croutons and a 12 ounce container of dressing on the side.
Finally, the burrito.It was BIG,served in the same styrofoam as the salads ,it was covered in melted cheese, the bottom of the tray was thick with it,stuffed with spicy ground beef,chopped onions,lettuce and tomatos and topped with your pick of salsa ,sour cream,jalapenos and guacamole, any or all.
The salads and burritos became so popular with the kids,word spread to the parents and many local businesses from around town started ordering their lunches from the high school cafeteria :eek: At the height of its popularity, the cafeteria was shipping out around 50 salads and 30 burritos a day for the price of $3 each.After I graduated,I ordered from them a few times a week for several years,along with a dozen or so of my coworkers.
The chef retired in the late 90’s and the new cook discontinued all the above,but man, was it ever good while it lasted.
We had a baked spaghetti thing I really liked. It wasn’t anything complicated, just spaghetti and marinara sauce with melty cheese all over the top, served with garlic bread. We also had these great burritos made by Posada that were amazing. And our cafeteria also sold Vicks and Tiger Milk.
I don’t miss anything about high school lunch. The main ingredient in 90% of the meals was hamburger, my third least favorite food. The worst was when they made mashed potatoes and hamburger gravy. The hamburger gravy had about a quarter inch of grease around the edges by the time you got to your seat. They also served really nasty cole slaw at least twice a week. Our menus were very repetitive.
The best meals by far were chicken patties with mashed potatoes and gravy, and tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. We only got the latter (and plain cheese pizza) during lent. Lent was my favorite time of year for school lunches.
I think it was called Red Velvet cake. Red cake with a creamy, vanilla frosting.
Ahhhh…
My elementary school used to have this ‘pizza’ with very bready crust (almost like a yeast roll), the meat sauce from spaghetti, and a very processed cheddar on top. It was amazingly good!! I’d love a slice right now.
Archie McPhee has some interesting lunch boxes, though none with superheroes. They’ve got a couple of cowboy boxes, a space lunchbox, and a couple more, I think.
I don’t miss anything from school lunch. Most stuff was edible, but there wasn’t anything I’d really look forward to. Once I got into High School, lunch was either at McDonald’s or Sizzler.
Oh ghods yes! The rectangular pizza!
At our shcool, the drama club’s third show each year would be a ‘dinner and show’ thing, where the extras would serve pizza when not onstage. It was always that rectangular pizza. It was odd how often we’d just ‘happen’ to mess up an order and, say, have some extra pizzas that we didn’t have to deliver to the tables…
For a real lunch box, try ebay. Most of the ones you’ll find retail these days are made of plastic, which just isn’t the same. I found a very nice metal “Captain Astro” lunchbox last year, cheap. My students think it’s very “retro.” At least that’s what they tell me.
Tuna Surprise…yes, I know, that sounds really scarey, but it wasn’t. I think it was some kind of tuna salad on a hotdog bun, which was then toasted. But I’m sure that the tuna salad I make would not have the same light texture as this did. I’ve confirmed with my sister that tuna surprise was a good thing. If I could get the recipe I’d make it in a heartbeat.
I’ve got one with Alice Cooper on it that I’d let you have cheap. I don’t think he counts as a superhero, though. At least not for most people.
I didn’t eat school lunch much in high school (I’ve pretty much blocked out earlier than that, but I think I took my lunch most of the time then too) but I do remember that they had these wonderful rolls. They were just your basic generic sort of dinner roll, but I loved them. They sold them for 10 cents each, and I’d usually buy a couple to go with my sandwich and Hostess chocolate nodule du jour.
This is what I’d love to munch on right now too. I loved that crust and it went so well with the toppings they used. I can just about taste it now. Why can’t you get restaurant pizza like that?
I also remember in junior high we’d occasionally get these lumps of chocolate about the size of an egg with raisins in them for dessert. Boy, they were good! I know I could probably make them easily at home but it just wouldn’t be the same somehow.
I learned to love cheese enchiladas and refried beans in my elementary school cafeteria. Hooray for living in West Texas.
My high school snack bar in Houston served Frito pie and these bean-and-cheese chimichangas smothered in chili. Delicious and completely terrible for you! I wish I had one right now.