Thunder thighs wouldn’t eat the crap she has insisted the schools serve-to your point, the cafeteria meals are neither attractive nor tasty-what few veggies there are look overcooked/canned and bland-all the nutrients cooked out, and no seasonings.
The protein is mostly mystery meat-some chopped and processed garbage I would not feed to my pets, and there is too much starch on the menu-packaged potatoes, packaged bread, pasta, etc. Also, kids do not to be drinking milk all the time-it is not the best nutrition for an older child-natural cheese, yogurt and such are better. Most of the lunches are brought already prepared to the school from off-site now and just warmed in the microwave-I don’t think there are any more “real” kitchens where the cafeteria ladies cook...
I don’t eat processed food, never served it at home, and packed my kid’s lunch so she didn’t eat the stuff in the cafeteria-it was different from Michelle’s menu, but it was still processed garbage with little nutritional value. She learned to eat healthy food, and ignored the TV commercials-I never forbade her from seeing them-just made sure she knew that stuff was bad to eat, and didn’t keep it in the house.
I didn't realize that. Canned and bland veggies are worse than none at all.
When my kids were 5 and 6, I took them to the produce department of the grocery store and announced that we were going to try every vegetable, from A to Z. They said bleh and made faces, but were at least interested in the idea…and as it turned out, I could hardly move them beyond ARTICHOKE, as they both really loved them…Zucchini too, and almost everything between.
The one thing I could not make appealing was liver, no matter what I did with it, how I cooked it, or what I said about it. "This is peacock liver, favorite of the emperor of China," brought giggles but no cooperation. I really enjoy liver, but they didn't have to. No point in pushing against the tide.