Monday, November 22, 2021

Oodles and Oodles of Lunchroom Noodles

As everyone finds themselves preparing holiday meals, often centered around traditional foods and recipes passed down for years, why not start planning to kick off the new year with something fresh and new in 2022? Start planning to celebrate National Spaghetti Day on January 4th introducing new concepts and flavors that will excite the customers!

There are literally oodles and oodles of noodles available to everyone on our Market Basket, but the question is what do you do with your noodles? Some answers are below. Thank you to our market basket brokers for providing the following information below (including recipes that use your market basket items)!
                                

Land O’ Lakes shares this quick 1 ½ minute video walking us through Simple Speed Scratch with Land O Lakes® Ultimate White Cheese Sauce! Chef Suzie helps to shake things up with 6 simple stir in recipes for the new year -- buffalo, Mediterranean, sweet chili, Sriracha, green chili, dill, parmesan, and MORE to top your pasta, vegetables, sandwiches, salads, etc.

Pizza Casserole is a terrific standardized pasta dish blending the student's favorites - PIZZA and SPAGHETTI! Using favorite Market Basket items and commodity offerings this recipe is sure to be a WIN-WIN for staff and students alike! 

“Buffalo Style” seems to only be growing in popularity for all grade level customers! Tyson shares great tips to quickly spice up mac & cheese and top with the favorite roasted drum in their Let's Eat! Roasted Drum with Buffalo Mac & Ranch - American Flavor Trends video, easily packed for grab ‘n go or converted to a plated lunch tray option. 

Knowing how popular mac & cheese can be, Land O’Lakes shares a great variety of bowl recipes!  These options would be a hit for menu rotations or as “build your own” noodle bar options.
  • Mac & Cheese - Caribbean Bowl: Using your customer's favorite mac & cheese as the base, build the Caribbean Bowl by adding black eyed peas, sweet potato cubes, chicken, pineapple and garnish coconut flakes and a lime wedge
  • All-Day Breakfast Mac & Cheese Bowl: Breakfast for lunch? Why not? Kids will love having their favorites paired with mac and cheese! This bowl option is completed by topping the noodles with shredded hash browns, turkey bacon pieces, chopped hard boiled eggs, sliced pepper, onions and salsa or pico garnished with green onions
  • Mac & Cheese - Korean Bowl: Start the bowl with your favorite mac & cheese and then top with Korean seasoned beef crumbles, possibly  a little Kimchi, sliced radishes, and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds
Complete with grains, fruit, veggie, and protein options, these mac & cheese bowl menu ideas will resemble what your customers are ordering at local build your own noodle bowl restaurants!
  
Let us know if you try any of these new ideas to bring “oodles and oodles of lunchroom noodles” to your cafeteria. We would love to spotlight you and your staff creating new masterpieces and your students' reactions to FUN NEW flavors you on the AEA Purchasing Twitter feed and Facebook page!

Not an AEA Purchasing food member? We would love the opportunity to talk! Email megan@aeapurchasing.org.