Cheap foods funny

[Basylica]

I've already commented in other threads how i'm surprised the way my mom fed us didn't lead to scurvy or rickets (altho i'm a healthy 5'9 and sis is 5'11, and brother is 6'3) ....

I came across this thread today

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/269261

I'm actually REALLY surprised mom never did this! seems like her style between serving buttered cooked noodles with salt and butter and on a rare occasion kraft parm cheese dust. And she eats ketchup and white bread sandwiches (ewww!) even today.

Anyone else have any odd cheap foods they grew up eating?

Its not really from my childhood but grew out of my childhood.

I eat my baked potatoes with sour cream and A1 (but I don't eat steaks)

and my cottage cheese with bacos. only bacos. no sub branding allowed! and the kids want "the red stuff" with their cottage cheese too!

[grisandole]

When I was a poor young adult, I would eat pasta with mayo and salt. I dindn't have any spaghetti sauce nor did it cross my mind to spend extra money on it. I still eat it that way once in a while :)

[Basylica]

Lol.....hope I don't offend you by saying i totally went "ewww!" when I read your reply. but I wanted to make ehh...deviled eggs or something the other day and realized the container of mayo (unopened!) was expired in 2008.

Suffice to say, I never eat mayo.

The only thing i've ever used mayo with/in/whatever was very sparingly for tuna salad (which I don't eat anymore), egg salad (never ate but ex liked it), and deviled eggs (usually once every 2yr project)

I use just enough to bind and mustard to make up the diff....lol

my stepdad and stepsisters would fight over who got to lick off the mayo knife. they had a knife specifically for mayo. yeah...

I have no idea why the aversion, because it's not gross. must have been one of those subliminal fat things I got from my mom!

I know that my food oddities are kinda gross tho, so feel free to mock me :)

[SunRise]

At first it sounded weird - spaghetti and ketchup - but then I realized I put ketchup on mac and cheese, so maybe its not that far off. In college, I ate a lot of pasta and melted butter and salt. Or rice and butter.  I still love mac and cheese (kraft dinner).   Just ate to nourish although that may not have been the must nourishing meal. 

My son only likes melted butter on his pasta too, ketchup though we have never tried.

[Ragana]

My brother used to eat ketchup sandwiches as a kid. The cheapest for me was ramen noodles in college - not that odd, though! The oddest was probably milk soup - milk heated up with pasta in it & some butter. Maybe that's an Eastern European thing like the pigs' feet in aspic we ate (I really liked it as a kid). My aunt ate rice with jam. We also poured milk over jello, and I still like that.
 

PS I would totally fight to lick the mayo knife!

[justmama]

Oh man.  Gross thread.

[mamarhu]

My brother and I ate white bread, slathered with margarine, and covered with white sugar. As much as we could get to stick. Somehow, we survived childhood.
 

[A&A]

Originally Posted by mamarhu 

My brother and I ate white bread, slathered with margarine, and covered with white sugar. As much as we could get to stick. Somehow, we survived childhood.
 

  I remember that delicacy.  

[root*children]

;I spent many a college nights eating saltines with jelly for dinner - because those were free things I could stash in my pockets from the campus cafeteria :)
 

[SweetSilver]

Mustard sandwiches.  Store brand, of course, before store brands were cool.  (However, we never had those black-and-white-labeled products.  Yes, folks, not too far in the past, generic food really had a white label with black lettering  "CREAMED CORN".  *That* was generic!)

Cheerios with milk and store brand pancake syrup.

These were my snacks after school.  I also discovered that if you dropped unsweetened koolaid (mixed with just a tad bit of water) into the sugar canister, you got these wads of cherry-flavored goo that you could pick up.  Yup, we were latchkey kids!

Mostly, my mom made some yummy, not-too-weird food, if you don't consider canned spinach, dehydrated onions and garlic weird (I didn't see a fresh onion until I was 19).  One favorite my dad made was "rice scramble".  You browned a pound of hamburger (*not* lean!), mixed in powdered gravy mix (like Lawry's in the packets)  then added water and white rice.  Absolutely my favorite!  But not funny, just thought I'd mention that one.

[Basylica]

Originally Posted by A&A 

  I remember that delicacy.  

We ate "cinn sugar sandwiches" which was like cinn/sugar toast, minus the toast. LOL....

PB+J was high brow for my school lunches. Occasionally i'd get some carl budding meat, but unlike now where I use 1 packet on 2 sandwiches, we had to make atleast 6 out of one. basically meat flavored bread. LOL.

the two most common lunch sandwiches we ate were cinn/sugar/butter, or cheez whiz sandwiches. EW.

and my mom eats grape jelly on saltines for a snack, I have never tried it in my life I don't think. I have a weird thing not only with textures but with salty/sweet combos. I don't do em! no chocolate covered pretzels, no pineapple in my cottage cheese. I like my savory foods savory and salty foods salty :P

oh, and sweetsilver - I have a dish I make somewhat similar now...although it's been awhile. Brown ground beef, add tomato sauce or soup, packet of onion soup mix, shredded chedder. Stir in cooked white rice and serve topped with crumbled bacon. Bacon cheeseburger rice!

its um...low fat. yeah...thats it!

[orangemomma]

We did butter and sugar sandwiches too - on white Wonder bread.

My mother used to make this dinner that my brothers and I called the "yellow supper" - she would make box mac and cheese - bright yellow, frozen fish sticks  from a carton, and a can of yellow wax beans or she would alternate that with a can of creamed corn. We ate it but always wondered why the trouble with the color wheel??

[caiesmommy]

My dad made "fish in white sauce". Frozen generic mashed fish in a white sauce that you had to COVER in s&p to get any taste besides lumpy over cooked mush. Served with over boiled potatoes and canned peas cooked until gray in colour. I swear I'd puke even SMELLING that meal ever again.

My Grandma use to make "cheap" meals but they were also pretty healthy...not by todays standards but compared to how her kids(my dad and aunts and uncle) cooked a million times better. I think it was the living thru the depression that did it. I always tell my gma to write a book....her response is always "Oh everyone knows how to cook like this!" umm no Grandma not everyone knows how to stretch the worlds smallest roast to feed a family of four for a week lol
 

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by caiesmommy 

umm no Grandma not everyone knows how to stretch the worlds smallest roast to feed a family of four for a week lol

I've seen a depression-era chocolate pie recipe that uses 1 Tbsp of cocoa!

[Basylica]

my mom used to make the canned chicken a la king and minute rice. I SWEAR to all that is good and holy the stuff was less edible than wall paper paste.

It still makes me nauseated to think about it now!

my mom was raised by depression era grandma (my great grandma who died when I was 15, so I knew her fairly well) who had no account for husband who disappeared for years at a time and 3 boys to take care of. she knew how to stretch a buck!

I'm having fond memories now, she had teapot collection (i'm still rather upset that I didn't get one!) and used to make me a teapot of chocolate milk she made with the hersheys in a can, and set it on a old school tv table for me. it was of course her oldest teapot....but I rememeber feeling so special I had a little teapot of chocolate milk all for myself :)

[micah_mae_]

Originally Posted by Basylica 

my mom used to make the canned chicken a la king and minute rice. I SWEAR to all that is good and holy the stuff was less edible than wall paper paste.
It still makes me nauseated to think about it now!

my mom was raised by depression era grandma (my great grandma who died when I was 15, so I knew her fairly well) who had no account for husband who disappeared for years at a time and 3 boys to take care of. she knew how to stretch a buck!

I'm having fond memories now, she had teapot collection (i'm still rather upset that I didn't get one!) and used to make me a teapot of chocolate milk she made with the hersheys in a can, and set it on a old school tv table for me. it was of course her oldest teapot....but I rememeber feeling so special I had a little teapot of chocolate milk all for myself

Might be because I'm pregnant but the teapot milk just made me tear up...

[JudiAU]

Well, we had the ingredients in the house but otherwise my mom can't be blamed. Latchkey kids who like to cook can get into a lot of mischief.

Favorites: balogna wrapped around a big tube of miracle whip  or A1 on bread or an entire box of Kraft mac and cheese for a snack

SO GROSS

[Nursingnaturalmom]

Mayo sandwiches!

[Basylica]

Originally Posted by micah_mae_ 


Might be because I'm pregnant but the teapot milk just made me tear up...

LOL....I used to think PMS was a myth, but since my kids were born I get breast heavyness/tenderness now, and I def have some mood changes before where I didn't....well, I got serious case of nesting when PMSing from 12 - 24...hahaha...but that was a GOOD thing I thought!

as I sat crazily scrubbing things at 3am with a toothbrush or pulling down my 4 full bookcases of books to alphabetize and catagorize.... *grin*

but I've found myself sobbing at the stupidest stuff right before AF....and i'm like NOT a crier.

had those moments a few times when pregnant too (damn hallmark!!)

I suspect hormones!!

but don't tear up, everytime I think about it...it just makes me smile!

it's one of those memories where you doubt anyone else but you remembers them, but they impact your life signifigantly?

I was working at a huge salvation army store that had clothes/furniture/full pantry/etc. I was moving out the summer clothes and bringing in the winter I believe with my curch youth group, and I recall a "old" woman (probably 30...hahahha) coming in and talking to one of the SA workers and just beaming about how she needed a white dress because she got a job at a hospital changing bedpans and such.

and I could remember thinking "gosh, most people would turn their noses up at such a job, and yet she is SOOO excited" and even though I had a pretty crappy and poor homelife, remembering to be greatful for the things you have and not bemoan the things you don't.

Still think about that whenever I have some materialistic moments, or don't feel like going into work.

For pitys sake I am making a ton of cash to sit and play with computers which I LOVE, and i'm generally amazed they PAY me. I am very very lucky in that regard!

That lady probably doesn't even remember getting that job anymore, but she def made an impression on me :)

[Storm Bride]

We actually ate really well at home. But, we use to sleep over at my grandma's, and we always had the same dinner: Kraft Dinner (think it's Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in the US), Minute Rice, and hot dogs (no bun)...with Pepsi or 7-Up. She also fed us Frankenberries and Count Chocula for breakfast, and if we ate lunch, it was probably KFC or something similar. She provided an endless stream of cookies, candy and ice cream bars. Blech.

The only real hangover I have from that is that I sometimes really crave Minute Rice. I like real rice. I really love brown rice, and I adore the blends, with multiple kinds in them (don't often buy them, as they're pricey). Minute Rice really isn't very good...but sometimes, it's just what I want.