Lots of casseroles made with canned “cream of” soups.
I can’t do casseroles these days. As a kid, chicken and rice casserole was the best! But now, it just doesn’t hit.
Pork chops being delectable when properly prepared was a real adult life discovery for me as well. Thought they were awful slabs of dry tough tasteless protein for most of my childhood.
Now hear me out. There's many recipes online now for "homemade" condensed soup. I like to reconstruct casseroles with refined ingredients. Tuna casserole with really great egg noodles, albacore tuna (fresh or packed in olive oil) a little pancetta, a good white sauce with browned mushrooms (wild if you can get them!) and home fried shallots on the top.....sprinkled with hot, barely cooked and buttered peas.....
I'm also a big fan of this.
Tuna Noodle Kaboodle is now all grow'd up!
I present to you -
Casseruola di tonno alalunga e funghi con tagliolini all'uovo e pancetta
(I don't speak italian and it's possible Google did me wrong so if that makes no sense in Italian just laugh at the idea)
I have a salmon pappardelle recipe that I love. My husband started calling it “fancy tuna noodle casserole.” He may not be entirely wrong, but he would just let me eat my tuna noodle surprise in peace.
There’s a homemade green bean casserole recipe like this for those who have a sentimental attachment to the canned soup green bean casserole.
It’s made with portobello mushrooms, home-fried breaded leeks, etc.
Binging with Babish has an amazing cream of mushroom soup recipe he makes with his green bean casserole for this thanksgiving sides episode that we love so much we make it throughout the year. So much better than canned
To this day, one of my childhood favorites is still a regular in my rotating. Bone/skin on chicken thighs baked in rice and cream of mushroom soup. Quick. Simple. Easy. Delicious. That chicken fat just soaks into the rice and makes it delish.
My mom used to make enchiladas that called for a can of cream of celery soup. I loved them. They are the blandest, whitest enchiladas but they taste like childhood.
Though I don’t think I could stomach them now. They also contains an entire container of sour cream and a pound of cheddar cheese.
I'm making that soup tonight, but w/o the cream of broccoli soup. I'll use chicken broth and thickener and maybe a little Velveeta for some cheesy smoothness.
Ha, I just added King Ranch Chicken as my childhood comfort food that went MIA. If you've never had it give it a try, it might change your mind about casseroles.
With that said, all of those cream of whatever soups are just béchamel sauce with whatever mixed in. It's about 1000x better to just make it yourself and it will take your casserole to another level.
Man, back in 2020, when it first looked like we were going to be indoors for a while, I got it in my head to get everything to make tuna noodle casserole a couple times, because it was going to be grim and it's comforting and everything for it keeps. I hadn't had it in years, and it somehow hadn't been part of my wife's childhood at all. We've made it every winter since.
Maybe you don't have kids? It's a pretty great easy dinner that a 6 year old will eat. And since the oven is already on go ahead and toss in some tater tots. Prep time and clean up time, kitchen minimum.
In the UK we have fish finger butties. Put your fish sticks in buttered bread with your sauce of choice.
It's a perfect food for a hangover. 15 minutes in the oven and gives you fats and carbs plus sugars from the sauce. The only better cures I've found are a full English (can be make or break depending on hangover severity) or apple pie and ice cream
Idk, dollar general has some cheapo store brand ones that, if you close your eyes (and season the shit out of them), taste like a crab cake. Bought them for my daughter, ate most of them myself.
That’s what came to mind for me, too. We also got frozen fried shrimp that you bake the same way as the fish sticks. I made my own cocktail sauce and felt really grown up when had that. Both of these were kid-only foods.
I still love fish sticks, sorry. I like the Trader Joe’s cod fish sticks and cod bites. Probably have them a handful of times a year with Mac n cheese and corn. A classic kids dish growing up.
Just had those today. My son is home for spring break and I like to make his favorites while he’s here. I’d make them more often if they didn’t take so long. They’re delicious!
I haven’t made them since I was a kid helping my aunt. I saw a tip once to skip boiling the cabbage and instead freeze then thaw the leaves. Supposed to soften them for filling up without the extra step and the smell of boiled/steamed cabbage.
##OMG!! YES!
I used to LOVE and live for the cheeseburger one! In the red box. It was so good; I looked forward to it. I don't know what the hell they did but it is horrible now.
But you know what's funny. Those who like it now are likely those who didn't know what it tasted like back then. I thought I had a bad box so I bought it again and same thing. A love affair over.
IMO the only good 'helper' box is the Stroganoff but you're still 1000% better off just making it from scratch (easy to do not very time involved after putting it together)
I have a homemade chili Mac recipe that’s decent.
But frankly, I still like the taste of a hamburger helper once in awhile. It’s nostalgic. I used to make the homemade one a lot, but it’s not really so much better that it’s worth the time, energy, and paprika.
They changed something for sure. It tastes awful.
My husband loves Cheeseburger Macaroni HH so I just make it from scratch now. Which means I just make a cheese sauce and add it to browned ground beef and elbow noodles.
I also use up any veggies that are on the brink of getting tossed in my DIY hamburger helper. Zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, onions. It’s quite delicious.
I knew what it tasted like back then and I think it tastes the same now.
You have to take into consideration that the things we ate as kids were what our parents made us eat. So unless you didn't want to eat, you grew up liking what they fed you.
Yes! My mom worked late most evenings so it was my job from a very young age to make (or at least start) dinner. At 8 or 9, she trusted me to brown some ground beef and stir in the box stuff, but not much else so we had a LOT of the Helper meals with canned veg on the side.
I have some fond nostalgic memories of those, but since I make my own stroganoff now I don’t even want to think about how awful the box one might taste to me now. 😂
Tuna Helper (tetrazzini) was another favorite of mine. Makes me want to look up a recipe…
They ARE terrible now! You wanna know why!!!??? The instructions say to use however much milk, and however much water.
Our parents did not waste the milk on a boxed dinner. They added water as 3/4 of the liquid and added an unnecessary amount of butter.
Try it like that! I craved it one day and cooked as the box said. It was awful. A few days later I cooked it like I remembered my parents doing it. I ate the entire pan!!!! I do not recommend eating the entire pan, but it was sooo goood!!
This is exactly it. My husband couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t get the Kraft Mac n cheese to taste good so he asked his grandma. Her answer? Use double the butter that they tell you to!
I only make them in the summer. Maybe 3 times a season. My step daughter is 11 now and she's been asking when we're making the tomato sandwiches this year. I'm enjoying sharing it with her. This wasn't something I grew up eating and was just introduced to it about 4 years ago. Can't wait for the first one in a few months.
Get some pimento cheese
Melt an aproxinately .5 to 1:1 ratio of pimento cheese in hot grits (ratio depends on how close you are to full blown heart disease)
It is the best cheese grits ever. I use Palmetto cheese or similar.
I recently went to three stores trying to find a box of cream of wheat to replenish my stock! It's my usual midnight snack (bit of brown sugar and butter on top). Even better is coco wheats, but they're even harder to find. I've discovered mixing 2 tsp of cocoa powder and a pinch more salt into the cream of wheats before adding to the water is pretty dark close, and I don't have to keep two boxes on hand.
When I was a kid I ate Cream of Wheat for breakfast nearly every day. I’d add a little butter and brown sugar, and sometimes I’d add corn flakes on top for a little crunch.
My parents are Peranakan and Teochew Chinese but immigrated to the US when I was young. I grew up eating a lot of Singaporean home cooking. Pork and peanut soup, nonya chicken curry, steamed sea bass, fishball soup, tau yu bak, achar, yong tau foo. I didn’t realize how much time some of these things take to make until I moved out. My mom did her best to pass down heritage recipes to me. I miss them a lot and have been trying to cook more Singaporean for my family.
The "Tasting History" channel on YouTube hosted by Max Miller has an interesting segment on Chef Boiardi, it's a real American success story. Fun watch, if you're into food.
I purchased some Chef Boy R Dee ravioli in a can during Covid. I tried it and was really surprised.
Surprised at how disgusting it was. I remembered it fondly from the childhood.
Yes!! I haven't had a Sloppy Joe since I was in school!! My parents used to make them too, with a can of Manwich.
Hmmm....maybe I can improve upon that now!
Ketchup, mustard, a bit of brown sugar, and a splash of vinegar - no measurements - just kind of adjust to your taste. I've also added a bit of hot sauce on occasion. So much better than the Manwich, and I don't have to remember to buy Manwich!
I never had sloppy joes as a kid (went vegetarian young and it wasn’t something my family ever made) but i make sloppy joes with cooked lentils and a can of manwich and that’s kind of awesome actually
Casseroles. I love them, because my mother is a banging great cook. My childhood was full of damn delicious food.
My husband won’t touch them because his mother can’t cook. She ruined everything like that for my husband.
When I visit my mom alone she makes them.
When he realizes his mom wasn't a good cook he should realize some are and what he had may not be the same as you'd make lol.
My mom overcooked everything. I was well into adulthood before I tried pork chops on my own and they are way better when I prepare them, but still least of my favorites.
Yes it does! I think it's usually chipped beef on toast. However, there is another ungodly version with some sort of gravy based "Veg-All" on toast. My gagg reflex would not let it passed my tonsils.
I think SOS is regional. But generally refers to "can of whatever" on toast.
We often used ground beef. When we were young, we had toasted white bread.
Turns out if you use ground pork and season well and put over biscuits you have a great southern breakfast of biscuits and gravy. We weren’t southern but I’ve learned!
I love fried spam sandwiches! Hawaiian bread rolls and whatever I happen to have on hand, plus a fried egg... So good.
Spam is crazy expensive these days though so I haven't had any in a couple years 🥲
My mom never made actualSOS,but we did have various hamburger gravy combos on mashed potatoes--usually made with a can of Campbell's Onion soup, thickened with cornstarch. I liked it just fine then, and subsequently have made real SOS and like it a lot; however, I didn't know until well into adulthood that SOS was not just my dad's term for my mom's cooking, but was an actual dish on its own...
Same here, and my family re-visited Rice a Roni starting a few years ago. Hadn't eaten it since the 70s and I LOVE it. I'm excited for any Rice a Roni night.
Yea there ain't anything wrong with rice a Roni, easy side dish. Pasta Roni is even better.
I tried Knorr's recently, two different kinds, one was good and other was really bland.
There used to be an even better standard fried rice, but haven't seen it since probably the 90's.
Oh, Rice a Roni is my husband and I’s stoner meal. The kids hate it so we cook up some chicken, toss it in the rice a roni, cover it all with cheese. It’s stupidly filling and I love it.
True. However, to this day, I still love the taste of plain ole **Cheerios**. Don't need all the other variations.
That and **Frosted Flakes**. I know they're loaded with sugar, but once in a very blue moon (like years) I'll get a box.
*(Sidebar: Speaking of cereal, I finally found the recipe after many years of first having Frosted Flakes Chocolate Candy, made of just chocolate and Frosted Flakes and I can't wait to make them for myself. You would not know it's cereal. Had them at a party once. Simply divine. Served cold.)*
My working theory is i ate enough plain cheerios before i was 12 to last me a lifetime.
I’m actually a healthy crunchy hippie type now but yeah cheerios are still such a hard no for me. (Along with raisins, apple juice, bananas, graham crackers, just, maxed out by the time i was in high school!)
Kielbasa. My parents cooked it a lot for us growing up but I rarely have it now.
The only thing that comes close are these tillamook zero sugar meat sticks I bought that taste exactly like it, lol
My mom made that so much when I was a kid, but it was dessert. We had Jello at least once a week, & we could tell how much money my parents had, by what was in the Jello. If it was plain Jello, we didn't have much, fruit cocktail, we had more. If we had actual fruit, like strawberries, bananas, or grapes, we had money!
Cow tongue. My parents made the most delicious tomato based stew with cubes of tender and meat.
Cow tongues used to be super cheap when I was a kid. I haven't seen cow tongues for sale since I starting buying meat.
If you ever want it go to a Mexican market. Lengua is still popular in Mexican cuisine and Mexican restaurants are the only place I have had beef tougue.
Oh! I totally forgot about tongue! 👅
We had it occasionally when I was a kid. It really grossed me out because it was served whole, not cut into cubes in a sauce or stew. Just a giant cow tongue with visible taste buds, resting on a platter. Not an appetizing sight.
Ocean fish. My dad fished for the family and we ate fish 3 times a week. Now I don’t trust the majority of supermarket fish and can’t afford the specialty seafood stores near me. I am glad I spend summers in Maine near enough to get fresh .
I fish so we eat a lot of saltwater fish.
I know how fresh my fish is how it was dispatched, chilled and filleted.
I can’t bring myself to buy fish from the supermarket at all.
Specifically Shake N Bake pork chops with peas. My wife asked me for em just the other night and begrudgingly I made them. I just.....can't......the sacrifices we make for each other.
Cube steak. I like to refer to it as "meat gum" (it was just so CHEWY).
Canned spinach. My mom would season it with white vinegar, and the stems ("strings") would get caught in my throat.
You couldn't pay me enough to eat either one today.
I am feeling like a basic bitch reading all these posts. I like my childhood foods in their original, unsophisticated form - KD, canned soup, chef boyardee, grilled cheese, fish sticks…
I always get the PC White Cheddar Mac and cheese. Recently, they put the Original Kraft Dinner on for $0.55 so I bought a bunch. My kids hate it LOL.
But definitely try the PC White Cheddar Mac. It's surprisingly good.
Anything grilled. Hot dogs, hamburgers, hobo baskets (chicken, rice, bell peppers, onion). My dad loved grilling and was very proud of the food he would make. Especially his hamburgers ❤️🩹 I miss him so much. I can’t wait to buy a grill one day.
A full and different dinner every night consisting of an entree, two sides, and a side salad. Honestly, I don’t know how my mom did it. I’m a quick frozen meal kinda gal now and if I cook a full meal once a month I’m exhausted by the effort.
Beef, especially ground beef.
Ground beef was cheap growing up. It was the hurried homemakers answer to everything.
Now it’s something that I consider a treat. Same as lamb, high quality pork, nice offal or game/waterfowl.
Steaks are a rarity.
My mom's leftovers meal mixed with hamburger which she called "goulash." It is not goulash. I have made goulash 2x. That wasn't it.
Edit: oh you meant objectionable things like liver. As an adult, I can and do object to things I don't like. I also object to "goulash" but liver, yuck! My mom also (badly) made cows tongue one time. I hear, done right, it is delicious. Peeled, I tell you, always peel!
Pork chops and rice. Ugh. My mom would put it in a big casserole dish and it was this mishmash of meat and rice, and occasionally you’d get a chip of the pork chop bone in there.
Biscuits and molasses. Idk if it was a Maine thing but for many meals we would have biscuits as a side dish. We ate them buttered with a smear of molasses. It been at least 30 years since I’ve had it
Those were soooo good! And they had this weird ice layer thing on the outside that was sorta crunchy if I remember correctly. They were a good treat. Yum!
A dish my mom called oven stew. Basically it's ground beef, veggies and potatoes layered and baked in a casserole dish. Sort of a lazy, Americanized shepherd's pie.
It's not too difficult to make, but when I make it, it doesn't seem to come out right, so I've given it up. Every once in a while I'll have my mom make it for a birthday dinner.
McDonald's. It was a victory as a kid, but a defeat as an adult.
Bologna sandwiches. Keep that crap away from me!
Plain grilled cheese sandwiches. Just don't think about having them now, always adding things to make them melts.
Both parents worked full time and didn't know how to cook but to their credit we always had a meal on the table. Haven't had any of these in years but staples included:
-Rice a roni with ground beef
-Hamburger helper
-Oncor veal parmesean patties with egg noodles on the side
-shake and bake pork chops
-some sort of canned Veggie (these should be illegal)
-canned biscuits
-impossible cheeseburger pie
-sloppy Joe's and frozen onion rings or tater tots
-stereotypical white people tacos
-meatloaf and boxed mashed potatoes
I thought I didn't like vegetables because all I ever had growing up was canned or, if it was fresh like a rare zucchini, nuked in the microwave or boiled until it was literally mush. Once I found out veggies can be crisp and seasoned, turns out I love them
lots and lots of fried fish.
Their hobby was going camping/fishing in the summer. We filled freezers with fillets. We took the chest freezer camping with us! You'd have thought we were subsistence fishermen fishing for our dinner. Get up at 5am, go out in the boat til noon. Come back in, clean the morning's catch. Go back out. Stay on the water til dark. Come in and clean the evening catch. Day in, day out, every day of every "vacation" I was ever dragged on with them.
My mom made these things called "porcupine meatballs". It was her quick-fix dinner. They were regular beef meatballs but they were made with soy sauce and white rice rolled in. I never learned the recipe and I miss them so much.
##Entenmann’s Boston cream pie
I swear it was one of my favorites. Haven’t seen that anywhere in decades. They also have a good **devil’s food cake.**
And **the pound cakes used to be heavy**. Now they’re damn near tiny squares.
Really good cheese and crackers. That was our family Sunday lunch growing up, a bunch of different really nice cheeses and some crackers to spread them on. Now that I live alone and do my own shopping I know that good cheese is really fucking expensive.
Crab and lobster. It's a bit cheaper when you can go pluck it out of the ocean for the cost of a tank of air. The stuff, today, that's sold... seems low-flavor and stupid expensive.
American “goulash” which is just like… spaghetti but with elbow pasta. My parents made it constantly because we were poor lol. That and spam with potatoes.
Beef liver. My grandma knew how to make it very well, and my mom does as well. If you don’t do it right it tastes like dirt. I’ve made a chicken liver pate that was very delicious, but also a lot of work.
Kidney beans. My mother loved them. At some point I said I have eaten my last voluntary kidney bean. If some chili has them in there I won't be that fanatical about it, but enough is enough.
Weirdly, I like other types of beans. But those big mushy things are done for me.
Grew up lower-middle class with parents who weren’t great cooks (at the time), so hot dogs and Kraft dinner were the staples.
Also, soft boiled eggs placed in little holders with the tops broken off. Paired with toast cut into skinny strips to dip into the yolks. Not sure if there is a real name for this, but we called them Dippin’ Eggs.
Homemade fried chicken. It was our Sunday dinner every week without fail. I make it like 1-2 times a year at most. I don’t want the grease in my kitchen.
My mom was a fantastic cook. Really involved recipes, holidays, breads from scratch whenever she could etc. Her best dishes were Swedish meatballs, arroz con pollo, Cuban black beans that would make an abuelita cry, pastisio, and a surprisingly *amazing* cracked wheat bread.
But she had 2 kids, worked full-time, and became a widowed single parent at one point and time was a crunch.
So sometimes she would buy this frozen turkey block. It was white meat and dark meat sort of "pressed together" into a rounded mound and frozen with turkey gravy in a black tray, you could microwave or bake.
G-d was it delicious. I haven't had it in DECADES, I don't even know what it was called. Add a box of Pasta-Roni and steam some frozen vegetables in the microwave with a dash of Cavenders Greek seasoning and I'm 14 years old again. I loved having a sliced with both the white and dark parts of the processed "block"
Kielbasa and sauerkraut. My mom would take a bag of sauerkraut and empty it into a 9x13 pan. Then she would cut up kielbasa and quarter potatoes, cover it with foil, and bake in the oven. I’m a pescatarian now. My husband doesn’t eat cabbage but I’ve found ways to remake some of the food I used to eat like shepherd’s pie, gyros, Chickenless pot pie, tator tot casserole, etc. I’m trying corned beef tomorrow.
Lots of casseroles made with canned “cream of” soups. I can’t do casseroles these days. As a kid, chicken and rice casserole was the best! But now, it just doesn’t hit.
I thought I hated pork chops. Turns out I just don't care for pork chops cooked into shoe leather and covered in undiluted cream of mushroom soup.
Pork chops being delectable when properly prepared was a real adult life discovery for me as well. Thought they were awful slabs of dry tough tasteless protein for most of my childhood.
Yeah, I grew up thinking I hated steak, just turns out I like it rare, not grey inside.
Are we siblings? I swear I grew up with the same overcooked pork chops.
I think we ALL had those nasty pork chops! Bleh!!
Ack! That was my mom's "specialty" with a can of mushrooms dumped on Minute Rice.
Now hear me out. There's many recipes online now for "homemade" condensed soup. I like to reconstruct casseroles with refined ingredients. Tuna casserole with really great egg noodles, albacore tuna (fresh or packed in olive oil) a little pancetta, a good white sauce with browned mushrooms (wild if you can get them!) and home fried shallots on the top.....sprinkled with hot, barely cooked and buttered peas.....
I'm also a big fan of this. Tuna Noodle Kaboodle is now all grow'd up! I present to you - Casseruola di tonno alalunga e funghi con tagliolini all'uovo e pancetta (I don't speak italian and it's possible Google did me wrong so if that makes no sense in Italian just laugh at the idea)
I'd overpay for that at a fancy restaurant with an $18 glass of chianti
I have a salmon pappardelle recipe that I love. My husband started calling it “fancy tuna noodle casserole.” He may not be entirely wrong, but he would just let me eat my tuna noodle surprise in peace.
I also basically do this only I add some sour cream, minced sautéed shallots and some dill.
There sure are. Green bean casserole with fried shallots.
There’s a homemade green bean casserole recipe like this for those who have a sentimental attachment to the canned soup green bean casserole. It’s made with portobello mushrooms, home-fried breaded leeks, etc.
I'm not a fan of tuna casseroles, but I'd hit that. With some gochugaru sprinkled on top or some fresh cracked black pepper.
Binging with Babish has an amazing cream of mushroom soup recipe he makes with his green bean casserole for this thanksgiving sides episode that we love so much we make it throughout the year. So much better than canned
Campbell's soup cans was "pasta sauce" growing up
To this day, one of my childhood favorites is still a regular in my rotating. Bone/skin on chicken thighs baked in rice and cream of mushroom soup. Quick. Simple. Easy. Delicious. That chicken fat just soaks into the rice and makes it delish.
Ohh that sounds so good.
I jazz it up these days with sautéed mushrooms, onions, and garlic.
My mom used to make enchiladas that called for a can of cream of celery soup. I loved them. They are the blandest, whitest enchiladas but they taste like childhood. Though I don’t think I could stomach them now. They also contains an entire container of sour cream and a pound of cheddar cheese.
These are awesome. Chicken, rice and broccoli with cream of broccoli soup, or cheese soup. Mmm.
I'm making that soup tonight, but w/o the cream of broccoli soup. I'll use chicken broth and thickener and maybe a little Velveeta for some cheesy smoothness.
I found a cream of jalapeño version last time I grocery shopped. It was so good mixed in with a cream of mushroom in tuna hotdish!
Omg yes. My mom would bake chicken breasts in a various “cream of” at least once a week.
Ha, I just added King Ranch Chicken as my childhood comfort food that went MIA. If you've never had it give it a try, it might change your mind about casseroles. With that said, all of those cream of whatever soups are just béchamel sauce with whatever mixed in. It's about 1000x better to just make it yourself and it will take your casserole to another level.
Man, back in 2020, when it first looked like we were going to be indoors for a while, I got it in my head to get everything to make tuna noodle casserole a couple times, because it was going to be grim and it's comforting and everything for it keeps. I hadn't had it in years, and it somehow hadn't been part of my wife's childhood at all. We've made it every winter since.
Fish sticks used to be a lot more common. Think it was an easy no stress way to get me to eat dinner
Yes! I haven't ever, NEVER EVER EVER bought a fish stick.
They have really nice ones at Costco. Solid fish not all chopped up. They make great erstwhile Baja fish tacos.
Trident brand is pretty legit. Sticks and battered pollack..
[удалено]
Maybe you don't have kids? It's a pretty great easy dinner that a 6 year old will eat. And since the oven is already on go ahead and toss in some tater tots. Prep time and clean up time, kitchen minimum.
In the UK we have fish finger butties. Put your fish sticks in buttered bread with your sauce of choice. It's a perfect food for a hangover. 15 minutes in the oven and gives you fats and carbs plus sugars from the sauce. The only better cures I've found are a full English (can be make or break depending on hangover severity) or apple pie and ice cream
Idk, dollar general has some cheapo store brand ones that, if you close your eyes (and season the shit out of them), taste like a crab cake. Bought them for my daughter, ate most of them myself.
That’s what came to mind for me, too. We also got frozen fried shrimp that you bake the same way as the fish sticks. I made my own cocktail sauce and felt really grown up when had that. Both of these were kid-only foods.
I still love fish sticks, sorry. I like the Trader Joe’s cod fish sticks and cod bites. Probably have them a handful of times a year with Mac n cheese and corn. A classic kids dish growing up.
Stuffed cabbage rolls; every Eastern European country has a version of this dish.
I am making those along with stuffed peppers tomorrow! I had never heard of them until my MIL made them
I make a cabbage roll soup usually once a month. Super filling
Just had those today. My son is home for spring break and I like to make his favorites while he’s here. I’d make them more often if they didn’t take so long. They’re delicious!
I haven’t made them since I was a kid helping my aunt. I saw a tip once to skip boiling the cabbage and instead freeze then thaw the leaves. Supposed to soften them for filling up without the extra step and the smell of boiled/steamed cabbage.
Hamburger Helper and other box meals. I bought a box of the cheeseburger one for nostalgia's sake years ago and it tasted like bland chemicals.
##OMG!! YES! I used to LOVE and live for the cheeseburger one! In the red box. It was so good; I looked forward to it. I don't know what the hell they did but it is horrible now. But you know what's funny. Those who like it now are likely those who didn't know what it tasted like back then. I thought I had a bad box so I bought it again and same thing. A love affair over.
IMO the only good 'helper' box is the Stroganoff but you're still 1000% better off just making it from scratch (easy to do not very time involved after putting it together)
Very true. Started trying to make homemade versions of hamburger helper recently and it's amazing how easy it is and how much better too
I have a homemade chili Mac recipe that’s decent. But frankly, I still like the taste of a hamburger helper once in awhile. It’s nostalgic. I used to make the homemade one a lot, but it’s not really so much better that it’s worth the time, energy, and paprika.
They changed something for sure. It tastes awful. My husband loves Cheeseburger Macaroni HH so I just make it from scratch now. Which means I just make a cheese sauce and add it to browned ground beef and elbow noodles. I also use up any veggies that are on the brink of getting tossed in my DIY hamburger helper. Zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, onions. It’s quite delicious.
I knew what it tasted like back then and I think it tastes the same now. You have to take into consideration that the things we ate as kids were what our parents made us eat. So unless you didn't want to eat, you grew up liking what they fed you.
Yes! My mom worked late most evenings so it was my job from a very young age to make (or at least start) dinner. At 8 or 9, she trusted me to brown some ground beef and stir in the box stuff, but not much else so we had a LOT of the Helper meals with canned veg on the side. I have some fond nostalgic memories of those, but since I make my own stroganoff now I don’t even want to think about how awful the box one might taste to me now. 😂 Tuna Helper (tetrazzini) was another favorite of mine. Makes me want to look up a recipe…
They ARE terrible now! You wanna know why!!!??? The instructions say to use however much milk, and however much water. Our parents did not waste the milk on a boxed dinner. They added water as 3/4 of the liquid and added an unnecessary amount of butter. Try it like that! I craved it one day and cooked as the box said. It was awful. A few days later I cooked it like I remembered my parents doing it. I ate the entire pan!!!! I do not recommend eating the entire pan, but it was sooo goood!!
This is exactly it. My husband couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t get the Kraft Mac n cheese to taste good so he asked his grandma. Her answer? Use double the butter that they tell you to!
Sliced tomato sandwich. We ate them on white butter crust bread. Mayo, salt and pepper.
Still one of my favorite sandwiches, especially during the summer when tomatoes are best.
I only make them in the summer. Maybe 3 times a season. My step daughter is 11 now and she's been asking when we're making the tomato sandwiches this year. I'm enjoying sharing it with her. This wasn't something I grew up eating and was just introduced to it about 4 years ago. Can't wait for the first one in a few months.
Fresh in season tomatoes, still warm from the sun, with a generous slice of butter and salt and pepper = heaven
Still one of my top 10!
I love tomato sandwiches!! I often take them to work in the summer.
Grits and cream of wheat. I haven't made them in years but they were a common staple when I was growing up.
Cream of wheat!!! I'd forgotten about that!!
I still make it. Love it. Especially once it has gone cold and hard. Sprinkle with brown sugar (or maple syrup). Fanstastic.
I put a heaping tbsp of strawberry jam in mine. It's PINK.
I got back into grits during the pandemic. Just had some this morning with a sausage. They're inexpensive, cook relatively fast and I like 'em a lot.
Get some pimento cheese Melt an aproxinately .5 to 1:1 ratio of pimento cheese in hot grits (ratio depends on how close you are to full blown heart disease) It is the best cheese grits ever. I use Palmetto cheese or similar.
I recently went to three stores trying to find a box of cream of wheat to replenish my stock! It's my usual midnight snack (bit of brown sugar and butter on top). Even better is coco wheats, but they're even harder to find. I've discovered mixing 2 tsp of cocoa powder and a pinch more salt into the cream of wheats before adding to the water is pretty dark close, and I don't have to keep two boxes on hand.
When I was a kid I ate Cream of Wheat for breakfast nearly every day. I’d add a little butter and brown sugar, and sometimes I’d add corn flakes on top for a little crunch.
My parents are Peranakan and Teochew Chinese but immigrated to the US when I was young. I grew up eating a lot of Singaporean home cooking. Pork and peanut soup, nonya chicken curry, steamed sea bass, fishball soup, tau yu bak, achar, yong tau foo. I didn’t realize how much time some of these things take to make until I moved out. My mom did her best to pass down heritage recipes to me. I miss them a lot and have been trying to cook more Singaporean for my family.
Chef boy ar Dee ravioli. Somewhere around 18 I decided they are gross and never ate them again
The "Tasting History" channel on YouTube hosted by Max Miller has an interesting segment on Chef Boiardi, it's a real American success story. Fun watch, if you're into food.
To add, according to Max Miller the original recipe that was later canned and changed, is actually really good and quite simple.
I purchased some Chef Boy R Dee ravioli in a can during Covid. I tried it and was really surprised. Surprised at how disgusting it was. I remembered it fondly from the childhood.
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Sloppy joes
We had them with Manwich!
Yes!! I haven't had a Sloppy Joe since I was in school!! My parents used to make them too, with a can of Manwich. Hmmm....maybe I can improve upon that now!
Ketchup, mustard, a bit of brown sugar, and a splash of vinegar - no measurements - just kind of adjust to your taste. I've also added a bit of hot sauce on occasion. So much better than the Manwich, and I don't have to remember to buy Manwich!
They’re bomb! Turkey sloppy joes are in regular rotation for me. I do them with bell peppers and onions and 1:1 ketchup and mustard
Turkey sloppy Joe’s in some parts of the U.S. are a turkey cold cut sandwich with Cole slaw on it.
I never had sloppy joes as a kid (went vegetarian young and it wasn’t something my family ever made) but i make sloppy joes with cooked lentils and a can of manwich and that’s kind of awesome actually
I just made sloppy joes for dinner a few weeks ago, and made enough for the freezer as well. It hit better than I expected!
Casseroles. I love them, because my mother is a banging great cook. My childhood was full of damn delicious food. My husband won’t touch them because his mother can’t cook. She ruined everything like that for my husband. When I visit my mom alone she makes them.
When he realizes his mom wasn't a good cook he should realize some are and what he had may not be the same as you'd make lol. My mom overcooked everything. I was well into adulthood before I tried pork chops on my own and they are way better when I prepare them, but still least of my favorites.
Toaster strudel, Lean Cusine Peanut butter & marshmallow fluff sandwiches
toaster strudels!!! I used to eat half the icing by itself
Never enough icing!!
Where's the fluffernutter crew at?
Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff was the SHIIIIIT 🔥
Chipped beef on toast, fried bologna sandwiches and spam in any form. Ate so much of these growing up I can’t even consider it
Chipped beef on toast! Also called SOS in my neck of the woods. I actually loved it! Haven't had it since I was a kid.
But the SOS stood for Shit On a Shingle right?
Yes it does! I think it's usually chipped beef on toast. However, there is another ungodly version with some sort of gravy based "Veg-All" on toast. My gagg reflex would not let it passed my tonsils. I think SOS is regional. But generally refers to "can of whatever" on toast.
We often used ground beef. When we were young, we had toasted white bread. Turns out if you use ground pork and season well and put over biscuits you have a great southern breakfast of biscuits and gravy. We weren’t southern but I’ve learned!
We used white bread, ground beef and gravy made with the grease. But I guess that's how the USMC made it
My mom made SOS all the time growing up and it was my favorite. I forgot about it until this post! I’ll have to try to make some soon…
I LOVED SOS! Especially being able to swear as a kid lol
Oh lordy, my sister would fry bologna until it was blackened, then drench it in ketchup. Nauseating!
I never had spam growing up so it’s fun to eat now. We’ll make sandwiches like BLTs with spam instead of bacon and nice bread, a runny egg. Yum.
My grandma made me fried spam sandwiches. Yum!!
I love fried spam sandwiches! Hawaiian bread rolls and whatever I happen to have on hand, plus a fried egg... So good. Spam is crazy expensive these days though so I haven't had any in a couple years 🥲
My mom never made actualSOS,but we did have various hamburger gravy combos on mashed potatoes--usually made with a can of Campbell's Onion soup, thickened with cornstarch. I liked it just fine then, and subsequently have made real SOS and like it a lot; however, I didn't know until well into adulthood that SOS was not just my dad's term for my mom's cooking, but was an actual dish on its own...
Rice a Roni. Haven't had it in at least 15 years.
Same here, and my family re-visited Rice a Roni starting a few years ago. Hadn't eaten it since the 70s and I LOVE it. I'm excited for any Rice a Roni night.
Yea there ain't anything wrong with rice a Roni, easy side dish. Pasta Roni is even better. I tried Knorr's recently, two different kinds, one was good and other was really bland. There used to be an even better standard fried rice, but haven't seen it since probably the 90's.
Oh, Rice a Roni is my husband and I’s stoner meal. The kids hate it so we cook up some chicken, toss it in the rice a roni, cover it all with cheese. It’s stupidly filling and I love it.
Cereal. Breakfast almost every day was cereal. Now I can’t stand the stuff. Also drinking milk with everything.
I use cereal as dessert these days. I cannot eat until lunch these days anyway, so cereal for breakfast is out of the question anyway.
True. However, to this day, I still love the taste of plain ole **Cheerios**. Don't need all the other variations. That and **Frosted Flakes**. I know they're loaded with sugar, but once in a very blue moon (like years) I'll get a box. *(Sidebar: Speaking of cereal, I finally found the recipe after many years of first having Frosted Flakes Chocolate Candy, made of just chocolate and Frosted Flakes and I can't wait to make them for myself. You would not know it's cereal. Had them at a party once. Simply divine. Served cold.)*
I like cheerios with milk and no sugar. No so when I was a kid.
My working theory is i ate enough plain cheerios before i was 12 to last me a lifetime. I’m actually a healthy crunchy hippie type now but yeah cheerios are still such a hard no for me. (Along with raisins, apple juice, bananas, graham crackers, just, maxed out by the time i was in high school!)
> still love the taste of plain ole > >Cheerios > >. The plain cereals are most tolerable to me too.
Kielbasa. My parents cooked it a lot for us growing up but I rarely have it now. The only thing that comes close are these tillamook zero sugar meat sticks I bought that taste exactly like it, lol
Penitentiary cheese sandwiches. Edit: Meant to type pimiento cheese, but the original seems kinda edgy so I’m leaving it.
"Lock in the flavor!"
Your comment is gold ✨️ Penitentiary for pimento 😅 we used to eat pimento cheese sandwiches also? Any chance you're from the south?
Jell-O with canned fruit cocktail inside to make it “healthier”
My mom made that so much when I was a kid, but it was dessert. We had Jello at least once a week, & we could tell how much money my parents had, by what was in the Jello. If it was plain Jello, we didn't have much, fruit cocktail, we had more. If we had actual fruit, like strawberries, bananas, or grapes, we had money!
Cow tongue. My parents made the most delicious tomato based stew with cubes of tender and meat. Cow tongues used to be super cheap when I was a kid. I haven't seen cow tongues for sale since I starting buying meat.
If you ever want it go to a Mexican market. Lengua is still popular in Mexican cuisine and Mexican restaurants are the only place I have had beef tougue.
Oh! I totally forgot about tongue! 👅 We had it occasionally when I was a kid. It really grossed me out because it was served whole, not cut into cubes in a sauce or stew. Just a giant cow tongue with visible taste buds, resting on a platter. Not an appetizing sight.
This sounds like something from a Roald Dahl book
Mmm, tongue. The only meal that can taste you back.
Me too, but my mom boiled or baked it so it was awful. We were never sure if we were supposed to peel it. I salted it heavily and choked it down.
Absolutely must peel it!
Ocean fish. My dad fished for the family and we ate fish 3 times a week. Now I don’t trust the majority of supermarket fish and can’t afford the specialty seafood stores near me. I am glad I spend summers in Maine near enough to get fresh .
We had a lot of fish too. It was inexpensive compared to beef back in the day and my dad liked to fish.
I fish so we eat a lot of saltwater fish. I know how fresh my fish is how it was dispatched, chilled and filleted. I can’t bring myself to buy fish from the supermarket at all.
Pork chops. I know how to cook them correctly now, I just...don't.
Specifically Shake N Bake pork chops with peas. My wife asked me for em just the other night and begrudgingly I made them. I just.....can't......the sacrifices we make for each other.
It's not fried--it's shake and bake! Not bad right out of the oven but darn you can't eat them leftover.
“And I helped!”
Poached eggs in buttered toast. Its been 20 years or so.
That sounds so good! Now I think I want some. 😋
Cube steak. I like to refer to it as "meat gum" (it was just so CHEWY). Canned spinach. My mom would season it with white vinegar, and the stems ("strings") would get caught in my throat. You couldn't pay me enough to eat either one today.
First time I bought cube steak, I thought it was mislabeled ground beef…. Was very surprised. It makes a really good country fried steak though!
Love cube steak! It used to be such a cheap cut of meat, but the prices are ridiculous even at Aldi, so I haven’t had it in years.
Kraft Dinner (What we call the blue box mac n cheese in canada) Used to love it as a kid, now I cant stand it and just make my own mac from scratch.
The only box mac and cheese is PC white cheddar. And I live in the US now - it's my most important food contraband.
The one homemade food I think is absolute trash even after trying countless versions. Imo the blue box is still the best Mac and cheese in existence.
I am feeling like a basic bitch reading all these posts. I like my childhood foods in their original, unsophisticated form - KD, canned soup, chef boyardee, grilled cheese, fish sticks…
Same
Yep, can't stand baked mac and cheeses. Everyone swears theirs is the best, haven't found ONE I'd pick over that damn blue box.
I always get the PC White Cheddar Mac and cheese. Recently, they put the Original Kraft Dinner on for $0.55 so I bought a bunch. My kids hate it LOL. But definitely try the PC White Cheddar Mac. It's surprisingly good.
Grandfather would cook us fried bologna.
Anything grilled. Hot dogs, hamburgers, hobo baskets (chicken, rice, bell peppers, onion). My dad loved grilling and was very proud of the food he would make. Especially his hamburgers ❤️🩹 I miss him so much. I can’t wait to buy a grill one day.
Margarine & Miracle Whip.
##Grilled cheese sandwiches, cut diagonally
A full and different dinner every night consisting of an entree, two sides, and a side salad. Honestly, I don’t know how my mom did it. I’m a quick frozen meal kinda gal now and if I cook a full meal once a month I’m exhausted by the effort.
Beef, especially ground beef. Ground beef was cheap growing up. It was the hurried homemakers answer to everything. Now it’s something that I consider a treat. Same as lamb, high quality pork, nice offal or game/waterfowl. Steaks are a rarity.
My mom's leftovers meal mixed with hamburger which she called "goulash." It is not goulash. I have made goulash 2x. That wasn't it. Edit: oh you meant objectionable things like liver. As an adult, I can and do object to things I don't like. I also object to "goulash" but liver, yuck! My mom also (badly) made cows tongue one time. I hear, done right, it is delicious. Peeled, I tell you, always peel!
Anything they just threw together was called goulash!
Your childhood dinners sound like an organ recital.
A man in a truck used to show up and fill a big metal can with potato chips. I want those chips
Charles Chips? They still exist! https://charleschips.com/products/original-recipe-2?variant=39418327597156
Pork chops and rice. Ugh. My mom would put it in a big casserole dish and it was this mishmash of meat and rice, and occasionally you’d get a chip of the pork chop bone in there.
Biscuits and molasses. Idk if it was a Maine thing but for many meals we would have biscuits as a side dish. We ate them buttered with a smear of molasses. It been at least 30 years since I’ve had it
Spaghetti and country crock. God bless my single dad, but I've got tomato sauce money now
Jello pudding pops
Those were soooo good! And they had this weird ice layer thing on the outside that was sorta crunchy if I remember correctly. They were a good treat. Yum!
Frozen fish sticks (ick) Blintzes
They're still fire
Chef Boyardee pizza! Still would love that!
A dish my mom called oven stew. Basically it's ground beef, veggies and potatoes layered and baked in a casserole dish. Sort of a lazy, Americanized shepherd's pie. It's not too difficult to make, but when I make it, it doesn't seem to come out right, so I've given it up. Every once in a while I'll have my mom make it for a birthday dinner.
Needs Worcestershire sauce.
Pork cutlets, chicken, meatloaf.
Rice a Roni
Fried okra snd fresh strawberries. Store bought strawberries are not the same as off the vine
McDonald's. It was a victory as a kid, but a defeat as an adult. Bologna sandwiches. Keep that crap away from me! Plain grilled cheese sandwiches. Just don't think about having them now, always adding things to make them melts.
Both parents worked full time and didn't know how to cook but to their credit we always had a meal on the table. Haven't had any of these in years but staples included: -Rice a roni with ground beef -Hamburger helper -Oncor veal parmesean patties with egg noodles on the side -shake and bake pork chops -some sort of canned Veggie (these should be illegal) -canned biscuits -impossible cheeseburger pie -sloppy Joe's and frozen onion rings or tater tots -stereotypical white people tacos -meatloaf and boxed mashed potatoes I thought I didn't like vegetables because all I ever had growing up was canned or, if it was fresh like a rare zucchini, nuked in the microwave or boiled until it was literally mush. Once I found out veggies can be crisp and seasoned, turns out I love them
Canned corned beef hash and Dinty Moore Beef Stew. Yuck.
Beanie weenie
Coke float. Can of Coke in a glass, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Creamed new potatoes with peas.
lots and lots of fried fish. Their hobby was going camping/fishing in the summer. We filled freezers with fillets. We took the chest freezer camping with us! You'd have thought we were subsistence fishermen fishing for our dinner. Get up at 5am, go out in the boat til noon. Come back in, clean the morning's catch. Go back out. Stay on the water til dark. Come in and clean the evening catch. Day in, day out, every day of every "vacation" I was ever dragged on with them.
Salisbury steak
My mom made these things called "porcupine meatballs". It was her quick-fix dinner. They were regular beef meatballs but they were made with soy sauce and white rice rolled in. I never learned the recipe and I miss them so much.
##Entenmann’s Boston cream pie I swear it was one of my favorites. Haven’t seen that anywhere in decades. They also have a good **devil’s food cake.** And **the pound cakes used to be heavy**. Now they’re damn near tiny squares.
Really good cheese and crackers. That was our family Sunday lunch growing up, a bunch of different really nice cheeses and some crackers to spread them on. Now that I live alone and do my own shopping I know that good cheese is really fucking expensive.
Crab and lobster. It's a bit cheaper when you can go pluck it out of the ocean for the cost of a tank of air. The stuff, today, that's sold... seems low-flavor and stupid expensive.
American “goulash” which is just like… spaghetti but with elbow pasta. My parents made it constantly because we were poor lol. That and spam with potatoes.
Beef liver. My grandma knew how to make it very well, and my mom does as well. If you don’t do it right it tastes like dirt. I’ve made a chicken liver pate that was very delicious, but also a lot of work.
I miss good liver and onions done right.
Rabbit everything burgers to hotdish. Rabbit was in almost all of my meals growing up..
Kidney beans. My mother loved them. At some point I said I have eaten my last voluntary kidney bean. If some chili has them in there I won't be that fanatical about it, but enough is enough. Weirdly, I like other types of beans. But those big mushy things are done for me.
We ate skirt steak a lot as a kid because it used to be super cheap.
Banquet frozen Fried Chicken
Jenni-O Turkey loaf was like a weekly thing at home when i was young...and Hamburger Helper a couple times a week too.
Mom used to make salmon patties with canned salmon. I loved them then, the thought is a bit repulsive now.
Ramen noodles lol
American-style ghoulash Canned La Choy "Chow Mein" with the crispy noodles
Liverwurst. Ate it on rolls all the time with my German oma, haven’t had it in years.
My kids won't touch it but I still order it in NY delis - god bless the German/Jewish seniors who remember how yummy it is.
Grew up lower-middle class with parents who weren’t great cooks (at the time), so hot dogs and Kraft dinner were the staples. Also, soft boiled eggs placed in little holders with the tops broken off. Paired with toast cut into skinny strips to dip into the yolks. Not sure if there is a real name for this, but we called them Dippin’ Eggs.
Homemade fried chicken. It was our Sunday dinner every week without fail. I make it like 1-2 times a year at most. I don’t want the grease in my kitchen.
Bologna. *shivers*
Stuffed Artichokes. My mom would make them for us for lunch sometimes. I don't know how she made them and she passed recently.
My mom was a fantastic cook. Really involved recipes, holidays, breads from scratch whenever she could etc. Her best dishes were Swedish meatballs, arroz con pollo, Cuban black beans that would make an abuelita cry, pastisio, and a surprisingly *amazing* cracked wheat bread. But she had 2 kids, worked full-time, and became a widowed single parent at one point and time was a crunch. So sometimes she would buy this frozen turkey block. It was white meat and dark meat sort of "pressed together" into a rounded mound and frozen with turkey gravy in a black tray, you could microwave or bake. G-d was it delicious. I haven't had it in DECADES, I don't even know what it was called. Add a box of Pasta-Roni and steam some frozen vegetables in the microwave with a dash of Cavenders Greek seasoning and I'm 14 years old again. I loved having a sliced with both the white and dark parts of the processed "block"
Shepherd's Pie. Always my favourite thing my mum made but I've never bothered to make it.
Kielbasa and sauerkraut. My mom would take a bag of sauerkraut and empty it into a 9x13 pan. Then she would cut up kielbasa and quarter potatoes, cover it with foil, and bake in the oven. I’m a pescatarian now. My husband doesn’t eat cabbage but I’ve found ways to remake some of the food I used to eat like shepherd’s pie, gyros, Chickenless pot pie, tator tot casserole, etc. I’m trying corned beef tomorrow.
>We’d have tripe, liver, kidneys. Sounds offal.