Corn silage harvest is over a month behind us and I’m finally getting my notes together about this year’s lunch meals! If y’all were following along on instagram, you saw that I helped to feed our hungry crew through out the week. I wanted to put all of the meals in one place so that y’all can reference them for your own harvest meals (and for my own reference too!) I made a few notes about where I bought certain things, what was homemade vs premade and a little feedback from the crew too.
Day 1
- Sub sandwich with ham, cheese, mustard, mayo
- Veggie sticks & ranch dressing
- Apple
- Potato salad – premade from Walmart
- Lance Crackers
Farmer Feedback: Perfect amount of food, but unlikely that everybody ate the veggies. Dietitian Feedback: Easy to prepare and could be done ahead of time (early morning) and stored in the fridge until lunch time as nothing needs to be served hot.
Day 2
- Quesadillas and Taquitos (premade/frozen from Costco)
- Clementine
- Veggie Sticks
- refried beans with cheese
- corn chips
Dietitian Feedback: Quesadilla insides didn’t look too appetizing but the boys didn’t seem to mind one bit. Buying a few large bags of corn chips and packing into snack size bags saved on cost vs buying snack size bags of Fritos.
Day 3
- Hamburger
- Mac & Cheese
- Broccoli
- Banana
- Lance Crackers
Farmer Feedback: 😋
Dietitian Feedback: Balancing burgers on the grill, mac and cheese on the stove and broccoli in the oven was tricky as all items needed to be done at the same time. If we do this again next year I’ll make sure I have another set of hands in the kitchen with me.
Day 4
- BBQ sandwiches (homemade pulled pork)
- Coleslaw (premade from Walmart)
- Pickles
- Baked Beans
- Chips
- Watermelon
Dietitian Feedback: Prepping this pulled pork in the crock pot and slicing the watermelon the day before made plating this one easier.
Day 5
- Lasagna (frozen, from Walmart)
- Green Beans (canned)
- Apple
- Garlic Bread (frozen)
- Pretzel rods (Large carton from Costco, divided into smaller bags)
Dietitian Feedback: The frozen lasagna always takes longer to heat up than the packing instructions suggest so lunch was delivered a little later to boys. I’ll try to remember for next year to crank up the ovens sooner!
Day 6
- Sub sandwich (ham, cheese, mayo, mustard)
- Chips
- Pasta Salad (homemade)
- Veggie sticks
- Grapes
Farmer Feedback: More than enough food to keep us going all day long!
Dietitian Feedback: Repeated sub sandwiches because they are easy and everyone seems to like them.
Day 7
- Pizza (Frozen, from Costco)
- Caesar Salad (bagged mix)
- Cheesy Corn (homemade)
- Clementines
Farmer Feedback: The cheese corn was extra cheesy but it all tasted good. Plenty to eat even without dessert!
Dietitian Feedback: One of our high school helpers pull this one together while I was working at the hospital. This meal ended up a little carb heavy but she left off the crackers and little debbie cakes because each person ended up with half of a pizza.
Day 8
- Grilled Pimento Cheese & Bacon Sandwiches
- Cucumber slices
- Clementine
- Either pasta salad, potato salad, or coleslaw (used up leftovers from earlier in the week)
Dietitian Feedback: Burned a whole sheet pan of sandwiches trying to toast these sandwiches and tend to customers at the same time. Making the bacon on sheet pans in the oven at least made that step quicker and easier.
Day 9
We ordered to-go plates with club sandwiches from our local restaurant, Juniper for the last day of harvest. Our family had to head out of town right after lunch time for a wedding so it would have been tough to pull off another meal and leave on time.
That’s a wrap until next year but it’s never too early to start collecting ideas! Let me know in the comments below what to-go meals you feed your hungry crew!
From Farm to Label 