School Dinners ? Love em or Hate em !


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As the title says. Personally I loved them. With the only exception of Bread & Butter Pudding, URGGGGGGGGH !

Attending school in the 50s fom a poor background school dinners were looked forward to every day, in fact in our house at most times this was the only meal of the day for a lot of other kids too.

Also at one time we also had a school breakfast as well, until some councillor decided it was to expensive for the council to pay for, then promptly scrapped the service.

I did all of my education at the Player Schools where a large kitchen cooked & prepared the food for other schools as well & was transported in a fleet of vans daily.

The lady in charge of this kitchen was Miss Gough with her second in command a Miss Clarke who I think could have been no more than five feet tall but lacked in height yes, but was compensated by having a heart of pure gold. Lovely women.

I used to smile when my kids used to say they didn't like school dinners, they didn't know they were born. !

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As the title says. Personally I loved them. With the only exception of Bread & Butter Pudding, URGGGGGGGGH ! Attending school in the 50s fom a poor background school dinners were loo

I hated school dinners, except for the fish we had on Fridays and cornflake tart. I once wrote a note allegedly from my mum to say I was allergic to mashed potato and mustn't be forced to eat it. Un

It certainly was just water Smiffy. Now it's in plastic jugs as the metal ones were aluminium and that is probably why we are all batty

Loved school dinners because my mum was a dreadful cook. I was then at Huntingdon St school and dining place was in like a sort of wooden building at the top of Union Rd opposite the car showrooms I hope I have this right lol

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I too loved school dinners, I remember they were a shilling a day. Don't remember much about the dinners, but the puds I do remember, seeing how I've still got that sweet tooth. I remember that not much, if anything, was ever left on my plate, it was all good, wholesome grub.

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Never had a school dinner,always went home,and when Mam was working went to Grandma's along with 5 or 6 cousins,always felt sorry for one lad in my class,he was the only one entitled to free school dinners,and the Teacher always announced the fact when he collected his voucher.

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How true that is Katyjay.

When my kids were at school in the '80s only a handfull of kids paid for their dinners, suspect now not many at all pay.

One thing I remember was the dinner tickets, green with either 1'sd or FREE printed on them, the teacher made us wait until the paying kids had their tickets first.

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I had school dinners also and like Katyjay can't remember much about the dinners except the lumpy potatoes LOL but I do remember the puddings.

Tapioca.....horrible , Bakewell Tart and best of all Caramel Tart yum. You have just reminded me Catfan of that red syrup that came with the Bread and Butter pudding what flavour was that supposed to be.? I think is was plum.

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Caramel tart was everyone's favourite. Loved the sponge puds and thick custard, tapioca, (frogspawn) rice pud and semolina with a blob of jam. Still love milk puddings.

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To go to the opposite extreme, I might get the prize for the fewest school dinners. I only ever had one.

We lived very close to the Infants and Junior school, so I went home every dinner time. Secondary school was a bit further but I always went there on my bike, so the only school dinner I ever had was on my first day at secondary (Fairham) school.

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Never had school dinner, always waited till i went home, unless Olive, (sister), was having cookery lessons, then i would wait outside school gates and get off her whatever she had cooked, can't remember if it was any good, other than that every school day would arrive home, Frinton Rd, and grandma would give us Beans on Toast, every flippin day, Beans of Toast & popeye on tv. Can't have Baked Beans without thinking about popeye when i smell them, cooooorrrr

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I never had school dinner,my sister put me off by saying they had custard on toast......I used to watch popeye ,we always had potted meat sandwiches while we watched it, don't know why though.

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Caramel Tart.... Mostly on a Friday. I was Table Monitor over four first form girls and luckily the didn't like it. I told them it was horrible, and when they'd left the table, I'd scoff the lot. LOL

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God, have I got some stories of ice cream selling in Bestwood and Daybrook. Never a dull moment.

In fact there's a topic on here somewhere on ice cream selling I've posted on. LOL

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Our youngest grandchild starts school in September and he is going for a school dinner there next week to 'practise' so he knows what to do. He was told he could take an adult with him, who would also have dinner. He chose my husband and both are very excited as it's sausage and mash with peas and carrots, followed by chocolate cracknell (?spelling). All the dinners at our local primary school sound very good and there is always a variety of salad the children can add as well. They have a menu posted up at the school gates each week so the parents can have some idea of what their child has eaten.

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Always enjoyed school meals. The red sauce was rosehip syrup and usually accompanied milk puddings. It was served as it is so high in vitamin C.

Having been a school cook until 5 years ago I can tell you that some things don't change and for a lot of the children I cooked for it was still the only meal that they got for the day.

At the schools where I worked the new terms menu were always sent home to the parents so that they could see what was going to be on offer, with salad and vegetarian choices also available.

I have a really good recipe book which contains most of the old favourites, including caramel tart and also butterscotch tart, cornflake tart and all the sponge and milk puds, plus a few new ones that were pretty yummy too. Recipes can be made available if wanted, though it might have to wait until we have a house to move into, as my school recipe books are in storage at the moment.

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I loved my school dinners, they were great value - a dinner and pudding for a 1/- a day......That was back in the 1950's....... I remember the caramal and butterscotch tarts and the chocolate pudding with pink sauce.......The Exeter Stew was a favourite and really filled you up, my mother thought that they were good value, she pushed us off to school at 8.30am and did not see us again until 4.30pm, my dad worked shifts and it was ideal for her, she was happy.......Yes a thumbs up fom me too...........

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Never had a school dinner in my life. Went home each day and it was usually chips and beans. Still love baked beens in fact just had some for lunch today. Music to follow. Lol.

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George Spencer school dinners where brilliant I used to love ,em even the salads with orange segments on,the butterscotch tart was the best ever and i still love it.everything was cooked fresh daily at the school kitchen,and the dinner smells from about 11.30. had us drooling in the classrooms,lucky for me that my other half cooks better grub than school did,

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Two things I always hated for school dinner.

One was liver, the other was beetroot in vinegar - which tasted horrible and permanently stained everything that it came into contact with!

There's lots of things that I've never encontered since.

Things like turnip, swede, semolina and sago.

One thing that I did really like though: roast potatoes.

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