I've discovered that they HATE black beans and refried beans with a vengeance, so Spanish rice and beans, bean burritos, black bean and potato tacos, black bean veggie burgers, have all been excised from rotation.

They also didn't much care for sandwiches with cheese and fresh vegetables, though they love a lot of those same vegetables when presented to them in their garden salads.

But this month, I'm introducing them to a veggie pasta salad, and we'll see how that goes over?

Well, not this month, but in April.

I need to work on my pizza cups recipe a bit more, because I think that would be a big seller with the kids.

I just have to make sure that each meal has a carb element, a vegetable element, and a protein element.

And I really don't want to just dial it in and add like a sunbutter and jelly sandwich to the menu, because. I mean. That kind of defeats the purpose of like a really delicious hot lunch, right?

Still haven't heard back on whether or not they liked last week's sweet and sour tofu.

....do kids that age like falafels? I didn't appreciate falafel until I was a teenager, but surely some kids must like them? Hmm.

Falafel is fried so maybe that'll help? I'll admit I didn't appreciate it until I was older

Yeah, it took me until I was like fifteen. But I wonder if falafel sliders on those Hawaiian rolls, with a little herbed hummus-mayo and cucumber might work. With a Mediterranean-inspired salad on the side.

That could work! It sounds like a more hearty vegetarian dish

I cater hot lunches for a local Montessori school nearby for their preschool/kg kids, so I'm always looking to try out a couple of new dishes each month with them to see what works/what doesn't so I can end up with a more diversified menu.

A lot of the kids - maybe about half - are South Asian, so at first I thought that they wanted a South Asian menu when they reached out to me, but they wanted someone who could cook more than just Indian food, which they were having difficulty finding in our area.

(So Mondays are Italian, Tuesdays are more American fare, Wednesdays is like Chinese/Thai/Indo-Chinese, Thursdays used to be Latin-American but is now relegated to quesadillas and experimental days, and Fridays are Indian.)