Mmmmm. School Lunch...

I should preface with the fact that I'm absolutely NOT a food connoisseur. 

I grew up in a very middle class midwest house with very typical midwest fare served at a table each night with perfect table settings, but by no means gourmet or cutting edge. 

That being said, I'm also not picky. 

OK. I HATE Chipotle. 

But that's it. 

I love really high end food served in tiny portions at restaurants that have 3 month waiting lists. 

I love Sushi, and Indian food, I love oysters and truffle fries. Hell, I'll even eat Vegan dishes and turn around and eat a bone in filet or a rack of ribs. 

But I also LOVED school lunch. 

As in, I would NEVER choose to pack a lunch over ANY school lunch day.

And... when I went to school in the late 80's, 90's there was no such thing as 

Chick fil-A Fridays

Taco Bell Tuesdays

or Pizza Hut Wednesdays.

This was what you got.

And it was the greatest lunch ever. 

I looked FORWARD to school lunch

EVERY DAY

Sometimes my dad, the principal, would even surprise me and be the one serving the lunch! lol

We lived in a small town (350 people) in Iowa for a few years and when you have a limited number of people available to do anything, you end up doing everything. Even lunch duty. 

I think almost every kid ate school lunch at my school. And if you showed you cleaned your plate they gave you a butter and lettuce sandwich on white bread. And I lived for that too!!!

Smuckers ran a commercial the other day and I almost fell out of my chair. 

The simple joy of a freaking peanut butter and jelly sandwich almost brought me to tears

For complete transparency... I also ate school lunch all through high school. 

It was expensive to eat pizza and Gatorade. All the a la carte food. Elementary school lunch was like $1.25 and I think it was a whopping $1.65 when I was in high school. 

The reason I'm bringing this up is because I've been thinking about food nonstop for a month now. 

In fact, I laid in bed the other day and reminisced about food for over an hour with Peter. School lunch, bagel bites, Pop Tarts, Kix cereal, avocado toast, sushi, poke, acai bowls, California burritos, and everything in between... It was torture... LOL

Everyone has asked me what my first meal back would be and since that will be slightly limited, it's not ONE particular meal I'm looking forward to, but ALL meals going forward that I'm looking forward to. 

I would gladly eat school lunch as my first meal, just as much as Chick fill-a or a bone in filet from Ruths Chris. 

I CANNOT wait to eat :)

And I'm more grateful than ever that, although I've been hungry for a month. There is an end for me. It makes me so humbled when I think about complaining about this knowing some people are hungry their whole lives. 

So I'll shut up now. 

I'll eat whatever you put in front of me. 

Happily. 

I promise.