Regular readers are familiar with one of my lifestyle choices: Twice a week I get together with other families for most of the day. We take turns bringing lunch to each other’s houses, ensuring that the mom that hosts never has to prepare lunch. In consequence, at least once a week I plan, prepare, and serve lunch for 6 to 9 children and 2 to 5 adults. Generally we try to bring it already made, to cut down on the mess.
(Sounds smart? We’ve been getting together like this for six and a half years and we only just came up with the bring-an-already-prepared-lunch idea a year ago.)
All summer the lunches have been mainly sandwiches, made the night before and packed back into the bags the bread came from, plus fresh fruit, mainly grapes or melon. When the weather starts to turn cold in the fall, though, we’re all going to long for hot soups and casseroles and things.
Which is why I’m glad I discovered this index of recipes on the USDA website at the National Food Service Management Institute Website (link updated 4/2/2009). The index is designed for child-care facilities to use in preparing meal service, 25 or 50 child-size servings at a time. If I halve the 25-serving recipe, well, that’s pretty close to what I need for the kids I’m feeding once a week. The recipes are nothing fancy. They remind me (unsurprisingly) of the lunches served at my elementary school, lo these many years ago. But they are appealing to children, simple, and inexpensive to prepare. With a few adaptations (e.g., substituting whole-wheat flour for white flour), they are even healthful.
And it’s not just a matter of doubling and trebling recipes for more kids — some of it is technique. For example, the toasted cheese sandwich recipe (link updated 4/2/09) calls, not for buttering 50 slices of bread and pan-frying 25 sandwiches, but for assembling the sandwiches on buttered baking pans, brushing the tops with more melted butter, and then oven-baking the sandwiches. I will use this technique next week, as Oscar has requested grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for his birthday party. And then I may use it again this winter — bringing a dozen sandwiches pre-assembled in pans ready to pop into Melissa’s or Hannah’s oven.
Their very nature means that these recipes will also travel well. Many of these recipes are designed to be held in steam tables for hot service. That means that they can be put in a casserole dish and re-heated in somebody else’s oven. I expect this winter I’ll try making "Tiny Meat Loaves," "Pizza-in-a-pocket," and even "Stir-fry chicken" (although nothing is messier than nine children eating rice, I’ll tell you.)
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