Pan-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Spinach

I don't know if this sounds familiar, but around here, school lunches usually taste and look like they languish in a package in a freezer for a few months before being served to the kids on sad little Styrofoam lunch trays. Not surprisingly, my kids refuse to eat them and have always brought lunches to school that we pack at home. Many kids though, rely on school lunches for a good portion of their nutrition. But what if an Iron Chef and a James Beard award-winning chef came to your school district to prepare a healthy and delicious, fresh lunch? If that happened here, I'd give my all to get a lunch reservation for a table in the school cafeteria! 

Well, that's exactly what happened in two school districts last month as part of the 2013 Great American School Lunch Challenge, sponsored by the Partnership for a Healthier America and First Lady Michelle Obama's Lets Move campaign. You can see the video here. Last month, I had a chance to watch the competition and taste the meals at the Partnership for a Healthier Americas summit in Washington, DC, and afterward, I asked Food Network host Anne Burrell why she had taken time to be part of this competition: Im interested in teaching people how to cook, because when they know how, they can start off with ingredients from scratch, which is inherently healthier than pre-made foods, according to Burrell. I sure hope that concept catches on in more US schools!