Thursday, August 13, 2009

I don't even like corndogs


As a daycare provider, I have the option to be in something called the Food Program. Basically, I fill out tons of paperwork and promise not to feed the kids anything that tastes good, and they reimburse me each month for some of my food. It’s worth it because six little kids can eat a truckload of Ritz crackers each day. And since I don’t have a fountain of free juice flowing in my backyard, I will take all the reimbursements I can get. I normally make like $3.00 an hour but with my Food Program money, I make almost $4.00!!! And lots of hugs. Sticky little hugs.

So last weekend I was trying to come up with some new menus for the kids. I have to have three weeks’ worth of menus planned and they just rotate over and over again. This seems like it wouldn’t be a hard task, but it turns out that it DOES take a rocket scientist to come up with 30 different meals that little kids will eat. It’s impossible. Because in addition to being something that they will eat, it has to meet the Food Program requirements. Here is an example:
I found out that little kids will eat corn dogs which made me really happy because they are frozen and all I have to do is heat them up – and add a milk portion, a fruit, and a vegetable, but whatever. The problem is that the food has to be labeled for the child nutrition program (which means it must be bought in bulk from a place like Sam’s). So I got a gigantic box of corn dogs with the appropriate label and started serving them up only to be told after I bought a box of 50 that they MUST be all beef. But alas, my corn dogs are beef and turkey.

It makes me wonder – who made up that rule? And why? We all know that hot dogs are made of knee caps and eyelids. So why does it matter if they are kneecaps from a cow or from a turkey? Are bovine eyelids more nutritious than turkey eyelids? I don’t know. Fortunately, I can ponder that question as I eat the remaining 45 corn dogs. Because I would never break the rules on such an important matter and feed them to the daycare kids. I guess now I have to scratch corn dogs off the menu – tuna casserole, here we come! Mmmm, tuna kneecaps…

1 comment:

April said...

Hey if you need any suggestions on the food program i think i remember a few recipes and full meal plans. The lady i worked for was on the meal plan and we also had to go by the guide lines.

April Suter

p.s. i think i may also have a recipe cookbook we put together.