Unhealthy/Gross foods growing up

Some of these really bring back memories. I grew up in the 70's/80's out in the rural Canadian prairies, my parents trying to make every dollar stretch. The big gardens were a necessity. Mom would buy a beef heart once a month for our Sunday "roast" since it was super inexpensive. And we'd have beef heart sandwiches for a few days afterwards.

Eggs fried in spaghetti sauce was a cheap one my mom used a lot to give us some protein with our pasta. My parents still eat that quite often.

Cinnamon and brown sugar toast. Cool Whip and strawberry jam sandwiches when no one was home to see. Cheeze Wiz instead of real cheese. Pop only on Fridays when it was homemade pizza night.

I don't know if they still make it as I haven't seen it in a few years. But Domino used to make little shakers of cinnamon-sugar. Sometimes they were shaped like circus animals.

liver some how as a kid i was made to eat it. now no chance

I just remembered! Fun Dips and Baby Bottle Pops. My big brother played baseball since I was barely walking and I always had to go and watch his games. My parents would toss me a couple bucks and I'd always come back with a blue/green/purple tongue and sugar all over my face.

Hamburger Helper immediately came to mind. This was probably the biggest "unhealthy" meal my mom used to make. I actually love it but haven't eaten it in years because I know how bad it is.

2aycocks wrote: »

We used to make sandwiches out of anything, miracle whip, ketchup and mustard. Mother also made butter and onion sandwiches. She cooked all the time so we ate well. I loved when Daddy made SOS: left over roast and gravy on toast like he had in the Air Force. And Nestle's Quik powdered chocolate in milk. Yum!

I loved SOS when my mamaw would make it. It was the only time I was allowed to say *kitten*. When I grew up I went to a restaurant and they called it chip beef gravy and I was like WTF that's definitely *kitten* on a shingle so bring me some toast!

Pear Salad: canned pear halves, a dollop of mayonnaise or cottage cheese, and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar on top of each half. I remember eating this a lot and I guess it isn't necessarily "unhealthy", the idea of it now is disgusting.

CricketClover wrote: »

Pear Salad: canned pear halves, a dollop of mayonnaise or cottage cheese, and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar on top of each half. I remember eating this a lot and I guess it isn't necessarily "unhealthy", the idea of it now is disgusting.

You're reminding me if a recipe for "candle salad" in a children's cookbook I had: Pineapple ring base, chunk of banana stuck upright in it, mayo dressing "wax drips", maraschino cherry "flame" on top.

Also, I grew up in the era of truly horrific gelatin salads, 1950s-60s. They were considered fancy for ladies' luncheons in a certain social milieu, sort of a faux aspic.

Usually they started with lime or lemon jello (I think it may've been less sweet then, not sure), but it seems like there were some made with plain gelatin and things like tomato juice or V-8. There were vegetables in it, usually shredded; they were varied, but I remember carrots, celery, black olives in some. It could have cottage cheese mixed in, and/or things like salmon or tuna or something. Scary, especially to children.

ETA: Mayo or other dressing, sometimes on the side (or in a dish in the center of the gelatin ring sometimes, with a fancy spoon), or drizzled artistically on top. There were special jello molds for savory salads, in the shape of fish and such.

MistressSara wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

CricketClover wrote: »

Pear Salad: canned pear halves, a dollop of mayonnaise or cottage cheese, and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar on top of each half. I remember eating this a lot and I guess it isn't necessarily "unhealthy", the idea of it now is disgusting.

You're reminding me if a recipe for "candle salad" in a children's cookbook I had: Pineapple ring base, chunk of banana stuck upright in it, mayo dressing "wax drips", maraschino cherry "flame" on top.

Also, I grew up in the era of truly horrific gelatin salads, 1950s-60s. They were considered fancy for ladies' luncheons in a certain social milieu, sort of a faux aspic.

Usually they started with lime or lemon jello (I think it may've been less sweet then, not sure), but it seems like there were some made with plain gelatin and things like tomato juice or V-8. There were vegetables in it, usually shredded; they were varied, but I remember carrots, celery, black olives in some. It could have cottage cheese mixed in, and/or things like salmon or tuna or something. Scary, especially to children.

ETA: Mayo or other dressing, sometimes on the side (or in a dish in the center of the gelatin ring sometimes, with a fancy spoon), or drizzled artistically on top. There were special jello molds for savory salads, in the shape of fish and such.

Aspic scares me. Meat jello yuck.

Ann-The candle salad rings a bell, maybe something I saw on tv once. Without the mayo it would be good.

My boyfriends family loves aspic and his mom makes if for all holidays, the first time I attended an event I tried it to be nice. That is the most foul thing I have eaten, I think hers is a ground beef, celery, and onions floating around in the brown beef flavor jello. Thankfully my boyfriend also hates it.

When I was a kid I would frequently eat an intire can of pringles or a whole stack of soda crackers. Now when I eat those foods its so easy to over do it and eat an entire days worth of calories lol.. ive learned how to manage it thought and the healthy foods usually outweight the junk .

I can't call this gross b/c I still love it, but we had sweet (southern super sweet) tea with every meal... breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I can't even imagine how many calories I drank everyday.

MistressSara wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

CricketClover wrote: »

Pear Salad: canned pear halves, a dollop of mayonnaise or cottage cheese, and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar on top of each half. I remember eating this a lot and I guess it isn't necessarily "unhealthy", the idea of it now is disgusting.

You're reminding me if a recipe for "candle salad" in a children's cookbook I had: Pineapple ring base, chunk of banana stuck upright in it, mayo dressing "wax drips", maraschino cherry "flame" on top.

Also, I grew up in the era of truly horrific gelatin salads, 1950s-60s. They were considered fancy for ladies' luncheons in a certain social milieu, sort of a faux aspic.

Usually they started with lime or lemon jello (I think it may've been less sweet then, not sure), but it seems like there were some made with plain gelatin and things like tomato juice or V-8. There were vegetables in it, usually shredded; they were varied, but I remember carrots, celery, black olives in some. It could have cottage cheese mixed in, and/or things like salmon or tuna or something. Scary, especially to children.

ETA: Mayo or other dressing, sometimes on the side (or in a dish in the center of the gelatin ring sometimes, with a fancy spoon), or drizzled artistically on top. There were special jello molds for savory salads, in the shape of fish and such.

Aspic scares me. Meat jello yuck.

You realize all jello is meat jello, right? The bright-primary-colors pseudo-fruity sweetened ones are just disguising it better.

potato salad and coleslaw sandwich

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.

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.

Yes, my ex-husband's father was a driver for Wonder Bread, got a discount for it, and they had bread throughout the day (bread and sugar sandwiches, bread and butter with every meal, etc.) like my gardening mother served cucumbers and zucchini during their season.

Butter and sugar sandwiches on wonder bread.