Mystery Meat

It has been reported that 143 million pounds of bad beef has been shipped not only throughout the country but has also hit all over Utah, including fast food restaurants and schools. Now this beef hasn't made people sick, but apparently the practices in getting the beef wasn't, pun intended, kosher. Without going into the alleged practices of the slaughterhouses in question, I believe it's all the more reason to shun the dollar menu burger or to question from where lunches come. Certainly those school kids don't realize what they're eating. 

I never ate school lunch.

My mom would make my lunch every day, and I was the envy of my elementary school peers. I never had to chow the questionable chicken fried steak, never needed the partially crusty mashed potatoes, never blew bubbles in my carton of school-issued, lukewarm 2% milk. My mom would make my peanut butter and wine jelly (yes, it's jelly made from wine which we referred to as "the recipe" when she'd make it every holiday season) sandwich, cut the crusts off my bread and throw in a little Diet Coke for a mid-day pick-me-up. Kids would offer to trade for a greasy school-lunch roll, but I would never budge.

Now that I think about it, maybe I should've been made to eat a nasty school lunch; I might not have the food issues I have as an adult. Still, my mom always knew what she put in that personalized Garfield lunchbag, and she did it in such a way that at least she knew I was eating something semi-healthy. At least it was better than subjecting me to "mystery meat."