Unhealthy/Gross foods growing up
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My mom used to make what she called "goulash" with limited veggies (lima beans, corn, and tomatoes?), and then melt a TON of velveeta cheese into it, top it with bread, and throw it in the oven for like, 15 minutes. That was usually a side dish to... god know what. I have since learned that this is NOT what ANYBODY ELSE knows as goulash, and my mother was (well, is...) crazy.
Also, just thinking of breakfasts... the amount of massively sugary cereals we used to eat - Trix, Oreo O's, Fruity Pebbles, Lucky Charms, and Reese's Puffs... can't stand ANY of them anymore! Just thinking about them makes my teeth hurt a little bit.
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My lunch box for school was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips and a twinkie or dingdong and chocolate milk! We had dessert -either cake or ice cream every night after dinner. At least once a week we went to McDonalds for dinner.0
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Not sure what the issue is with white bread & butter... my mom used to have to have a small piece with *every single meal*. It's my 12 year old son's favorite thing too.
Now, you want to talk gross- my mom often made a can of corned beef hash with a poached egg over it. I had to sit at the table until I ate ("enough") of my dinner, and on hash nights, I just planned on a long night at the table
My dad used to cook hash until it had a crispy coating you could cut with knife. Then slather it with ketchup. Now that's strictly a nostalgic craving food, every other year or so.2 -
My mom would sometimes make "chip dip" which was just a tub of sour cream with just enough salsa to make the sour cream turn a pink-ish color and then we would dip the Doritos plain chips in it. The thought of that makes me want to gag now!!! EW.
We did something like that, but our version was made with onion and garlic powders, and something green. Dried chives I think, I don't remember exactly. We ate this with nacho chips.
I can't think of anything too weird. Maybe Spam burgers? You take a can of Spam and slice it vertically, producing three square patties. Cook in a skillet on both sides and serve on a bun, like a hamburger.
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AmberSpamber wrote: »How about Twinkies??? Thinking about those things to this day makes me want to vomit.
For a brief time right out of college, I worked for the company that made Twinkies, Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, and of course Hostess cupcakes. The funny thing was, I could have those things for free all day everyday and I lost about 20 lb while working there. My coworker friend and I were both sick of their snack cakes within the first couple of weeks, and the only thing we liked was the Banana Flips filling...so we would open a packet and scoop out the filling with a spoon, but that's it.
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On the butter note.... my mom used to put butter with any sandwich. Ham sandwiches had butter, turkey sandwiches had butter, pb&j had butter. The one I did like, and I still enjoy, is a toasted English muffin with butter and jelly with a slice of cheddar cheese in the middle. Rarely have it these days, but it's nostalgic!1
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Waxed candy or candy cigarettes3
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spam
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Buttered white bread with spaghetti was apparently a wide-spread delicacy!
Still occasionally have it, and my son loves it.
My mom wasn't a great cook, we often had microwaved frozen meals (Salisbury steak & gravy, turkey slices & gravy) and mushy veggies. Especially broccoli. It was cooked to mush & then mixed with american cheese. Might as well have been broccoli soup. I didn't like meatloaf (or lasagna) until I was almost 20 & had some of my now-mother in law's. Another fave we had at my grandparent's every breakfast after a sleepover; it was called "gravy bread". I got the recipe when I was craving it during pregnancy. I never knew it was basically melted crisco, flour, salt & pepper poured over torn up white bread. I couldn't eat it. It tasted horrible compared to the memory, and it was my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE as a kid. Haven't had it or even thought about having it in years.1 -
I grew up in the 70s/80s and my mom grew up in the 50s. I think she was one of those who was very much fascinated with all the new convenience foods that came her way. She loved frozen pizza, even though all of us kids were always begging for her "homemade" version (which also started from a boxed mix), and frozen anything, really.
Just thought of a new one... Swanson's pot pies! (But mom would at least slit the top crust & add some extra frozen veggies ) 0 -
newheavensearth wrote: »Not sure what the issue is with white bread & butter... my mom used to have to have a small piece with *every single meal*. It's my 12 year old son's favorite thing too.
Now, you want to talk gross- my mom often made a can of corned beef hash with a poached egg over it. I had to sit at the table until I ate ("enough") of my dinner, and on hash nights, I just planned on a long night at the table
My dad used to cook hash until it had a crispy coating you could cut with knife. Then slather it with ketchup. Now that's strictly a nostalgic craving food, every other year or so.
If you say so! 0 -
We didn't really have anything all that bad. Both of my parents were good cooks. Probably the worst thing for me personally (bc I'm so sensitive to blood sugar swings) was almost every Sunday we'd have pasta with meatballs and homemade garlic bread. Back then, I didn't like meatballs, but what I loved to eat that day was a big piece of garlic bread piled high with pasta and topped with parmesan cheese. I try to avoid carb on carb now bc that way of eating doesn't satiate me.
My parents were both of Italian descent and most of our eating was what's called the Mediterranean diet nowadays, lots of fresh veg, olive oil, fish. Whole foods galore. Even though I liked the food, I remember also finding it fun to eat at friends' houses and get access to more of the standard American foods, like white bread. Other than baguettes, my dad refused to buy white bread.6 -
My mom used to drink International Cafe Vienna coffee drink. As a kid I would secretly just eat the powder- or to be extra gross mix it with Crisco and eat it.
One of my favorite snacks was putting peanut butter and marshmallows in the microwave, melting it and then stirring. It looked gross but tasted great.
I liked Cheerios with melted butter and salt on it.
My mom would fry a piece of bologna until it bumped up in the center and then put a clice of cheese on the "sombrero" and then put it on white bread.
We ate things like Velvetta and Cheese Whiz frequently. I can't stand them now.
I thought the grossest thing as a kid was the can of Veg All. It made vegetables bad. I was a kid who liked lima beans and all the vegetables individually but they were horrible mixed together in that can.7 -
My mom didn't really cook because she worked. When she cooked, it was anything casserole-like with all of the ingredients coming out of a can or jar. I grew up on mayonnaise sandwiches and kool-aid full of sugar. I bought lunch at school. I taught myself how to cook by the time I was 9 or 10, and learned how to grill meat on our gas grill. That improved my food options a lot. Pretty much the classic latch-key kid of the 80s and 90s.5
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Back with bread.... toast pizza. Spaghetti sauce, cheese slices, and lunch meat on toast grilled under the toaster oven.
Ramen with Ritz crackers and fifty cent juices or sodas.
Jamaican beef patties. Even with the little chunks of gristle.
I actually think pot pies are pretty good. They're my sick day food.1 -
I grew up in the 70s/80s and my mom grew up in the 50s. I think she was one of those who was very much fascinated with all the new convenience foods that came her way. She loved frozen pizza, even though all of us kids were always begging for her "homemade" version (which also started from a boxed mix), and frozen anything, really.
Just thought of a new one... Swanson's pot pies! (But mom would at least slit the top crust & add some extra frozen veggies )
As a teenager I often ate Swanson or Banquet pot pies with a big scoop of cottage cheese on top.
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seltzermint555 wrote: »I remember the white bread slathered in margarine along with spaghetti or ravioli. Horrors! haha
A lot of mine are just horrific to me now, but none of them are really that notable or disgusting. We went out a lot to Pizza Hut and always got bread sticks before our pizza, and never salad. My mom wasn't a bad cook but she took a lot of shortcuts and didn't do many veggies. The vegetables she did cook, I didn't like because they were very overcooked, especially carrots with roast & potatoes...the carrots were the texture of chewing gum and tasted horrible, lol.
As a kid and teen, so many meals ended with a Little Debbie snack cake. I especially liked the zebra ones and Swiss cake rolls, or peanut butter bars. Even at school (grades 6-12) I remember them selling Little Debbie oatmeal crème pies, Star Crunch & fudge rounds like crazy and everyone would eat those for lunch...so many snack cakes. I always thought of them as "real food" and not "candy" so on some level, I imagined them being lower calorie than a Snickers or Twix and now I know that wasn't necessarily the case at all - especially if I had a couple of them or an XL one.
So much nostalgia with the Little Debbie snacks! I especially remember always getting the zebra cakes at lunch in elementary school. I had them once as an adult and omg the outer icing is straight up wax!! haha1 -
Hamburger Helper at my house. So much sodium now that i look back on it. Yuck!1
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I kind of wonder how many of these foods were fabricated from necessity. Some seem to be methods of stretching out a meal like serving white bread and butter with your meal. As kids we probably had to clue our parents were trying to get as much as they could from dinner for as little money as possible. My graham cracker cereal was probably created because we were out of cereal, but had a box of graham crackers in the back of the pantry. Same with the hot dogs and mac n cheese. a package of 50 cent BAR S hot dogs and a 10 cent (90's prices) box of mac n cheese fed 3 people for dinner. It is still one of my favorite ways to eat boxed mac n cheese, lol. If we were well off that week, it was a $1.00 Kelbasa sausage fried up with a box of store brand mac n cheese.
ETA: @08_GreenEyedMomma we called that SOS. AKA ShKitten on a Shingle. I LOVED that when I was little, but can't imagine eating it now.3 -
seltzermint555 wrote: »I remember the white bread slathered in margarine along with spaghetti or ravioli. Horrors! haha
A lot of mine are just horrific to me now, but none of them are really that notable or disgusting. We went out a lot to Pizza Hut and always got bread sticks before our pizza, and never salad. My mom wasn't a bad cook but she took a lot of shortcuts and didn't do many veggies. The vegetables she did cook, I didn't like because they were very overcooked, especially carrots with roast & potatoes...the carrots were the texture of chewing gum and tasted horrible, lol.
As a kid and teen, so many meals ended with a Little Debbie snack cake. I especially liked the zebra ones and Swiss cake rolls, or peanut butter bars. Even at school (grades 6-12) I remember them selling Little Debbie oatmeal crème pies, Star Crunch & fudge rounds like crazy and everyone would eat those for lunch...so many snack cakes. I always thought of them as "real food" and not "candy" so on some level, I imagined them being lower calorie than a Snickers or Twix and now I know that wasn't necessarily the case at all - especially if I had a couple of them or an XL one.
So much nostalgia with the Little Debbie snacks! I especially remember always getting the zebra cakes at lunch in elementary school. I had them once as an adult and omg the outer icing is straight up wax!! haha
Yes it is!! You could make a candle out of one! haha1 -
When I was little my parents had the habit of considering potatoes just like greens. So we often ate pasta and a side of...potatoes!
I grew up to learn that wasn't correct but guess, my parents are still eating like that.2 -
newheavensearth wrote: »Not sure what the issue is with white bread & butter... my mom used to have to have a small piece with *every single meal*. It's my 12 year old son's favorite thing too.
Now, you want to talk gross- my mom often made a can of corned beef hash with a poached egg over it. I had to sit at the table until I ate ("enough") of my dinner, and on hash nights, I just planned on a long night at the table
My dad used to cook hash until it had a crispy coating you could cut with knife. Then slather it with ketchup. Now that's strictly a nostalgic craving food, every other year or so.
Yeeeeessss....I didn't even eat canned corned beef hash as a kid, but discovered it as an adult! Haven't had it in years though but I will ALWAYS order it on very rare occasions I eat at a diner lol always with ketchup!1 -
So many of these foods sound exotically attractive to me now bc I grew up in a household that thought we were in Italy. Even though I'm an adult, I haven't yet tried many of these. 0
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newheavensearth wrote: »I actually think pot pies are pretty good. They're my sick day food.
Mmm, I love pot pies! I didn't have them until I was a teenager with a part-time job so was able to buy a frozen one to try. Love at first bite.
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Crafty_camper123 wrote: »I kind of wonder how many of these foods were fabricated from necessity. Some seem to be methods of stretching out a meal like serving white bread and butter with your meal. As kids we probably had to clue our parents were trying to get as much as they could from dinner for as little money as possible. My graham cracker cereal was probably created because we were out of cereal, but had a box of graham crackers in the back of the pantry. Same with the hot dogs and mac n cheese. a package of 50 cent BAR S hot dogs and a 10 cent (90's prices) box of mac n cheese fed 3 people for dinner. It is still one of my favorite ways to eat boxed mac n cheese, lol. If we were well off that week, it was a $1.00 Kelbasa sausage fried up with a box of store brand mac n cheese.
I agree. Necessity, what was on sale, what was available, what my allowance could afford me. I know a few delicacies were products of my Dad's experiences both growing up and serving in wartime. I didn't complain. It just was what it was.1 -
I still like bread and butter, I rarely eat it though. My grandma would make me sugar bread for snack after school which is the same as bread and butter, just with sugar on top, I still like that stuff, but I think I make it onece eery like 2 or 3 years, hahaha. I also used to melt shredded cheese on a plate and eat it
We used to eat only canned vegetables, or sliced cucumbers smothered in ranch, nothing else, I at one point hated all vegetables that were not canned or cucumbers, now I hate canned vegetables, and eat tons of fresh and frozen vegetables.4 -
id toast up an entire frozen loaf of garlic bread and eat it as a snack lol my mom worked all night slept all day we did best we could. Im sure i added extra butter and stuff i forget but yum butter
side story i remember once i forgot i was cooking a loaf and i set the fire alarm off and woke her up, she stopped buying them after that. Probably a good thing lol2 -
newheavensearth wrote: »Crafty_camper123 wrote: »I kind of wonder how many of these foods were fabricated from necessity. Some seem to be methods of stretching out a meal like serving white bread and butter with your meal. As kids we probably had to clue our parents were trying to get as much as they could from dinner for as little money as possible. My graham cracker cereal was probably created because we were out of cereal, but had a box of graham crackers in the back of the pantry. Same with the hot dogs and mac n cheese. a package of 50 cent BAR S hot dogs and a 10 cent (90's prices) box of mac n cheese fed 3 people for dinner. It is still one of my favorite ways to eat boxed mac n cheese, lol. If we were well off that week, it was a $1.00 Kelbasa sausage fried up with a box of store brand mac n cheese.
I agree. Necessity, what was on sale, what was available, what my allowance could afford me. I know a few delicacies were products of my Dad's experiences both growing up and serving in wartime. I didn't complain. It just was what it was.
Necessity often is the reason. When I was a kid my mom would serve spaghetti sauce on white bread sometimes. She made it seem we were getting a treat, something different than pasta. Didn't dawn on me until I was an adult that it was probably just before payday and no money to buy pasta.
We used to eat heated leftover rice for breakfast with milk and brown sugar when we were out of breakfast cereal. I still sometimes make extra rice just for that purpose.3 -
newheavensearth wrote: »I agree. Necessity, what was on sale, what was available, what my allowance could afford me. I know a few delicacies were products of my Dad's experiences both growing up and serving in wartime. I didn't complain. It just was what it was.
This was true for my grandparents. I had dinner with them at least once a week and there were things they would not eat that they had frequently during the war (WWII). Stuff like spam or other processed food was out of the question because my grandfather refused to eat it. My grandmother was a great cook though so it was night and day compared to my mom's cooking.
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Grew up in Japan so I didn't have anything unhealthy until I moved to the US.
McDonald's was the most amazing thing on earth and still is when I have a craving for something very unhealthy, and Taco Bell too! (Didn't discover Taco Bell until I was in college)5
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