Cheap foods funny - Page 2

[EmsMom]

I had this one from my grandmother.  Don't know that it was particularly meant to be frugal, but it was so weird:  salad consisting of one half of a canned pear with a scoop of cottage cheese.  Yes, that was the salad... 
 

[jgallagher66]

A couple that I remember were canned baked beans with hot dogs cut up in them and fried bologna sandwiches with ketchup. Also lots of very bizarre jello concoctions for dessert. Lots had canned pineapple in them and I remember one with carrots shredded in the jello.

[34me]

Carrots on jell-o was normal at my house :-), so were potatos from a can -eeeewwww to both

The weirdest thing my mom ever tried to get us to eat was a banana with Miracle Whip (could not be mayonaise) slathered on it, rolled in crushed peanuts and proudly placed on an iceburg lettuce leaf. Neither my sister or I eat bananas to this day!

[Basylica]

Originally Posted by 34me 

Carrots on jell-o was normal at my house :-), so were potatos from a can -eeeewwww to both

The weirdest thing my mom ever tried to get us to eat was a banana with Miracle Whip (could not be mayonaise) slathered on it, rolled in crushed peanuts and proudly placed on an iceburg lettuce leaf. Neither my sister or I eat bananas to this day!

oh god....I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit....*gag*

interesting fact sprung to mind that in the 1800s eating lettuce leaves sprinkled with vinigar and sugar was the norm. Sounds bizarre, but i guess it was a precurser to our salad dressings!

[Ragana]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

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

Have you seen the mock apple-pie recipe? The apples are actually crackers!

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by EmsMom 

I had this one from my grandmother.  Don't know that it was particularly meant to be frugal, but it was so weird:  salad consisting of one half of a canned pear with a scoop of cottage cheese.  Yes, that was the salad... 
 

Mmmmm....canned peaches and cottage cheese!  Love it.  I've never had it with pears.

Originally Posted by Ragana 

Have you seen the mock apple-pie recipe? The apples are actually crackers!

Yes!

 

Originally Posted by jgallagher66 

Also lots of very bizarre jello concoctions for dessert. Lots had canned pineapple in them and I remember one with carrots shredded in the jello.

Ahhh.... the jello.  My grandmother(actually both of them) made several strange jello concoctions (whose didn't???)  and had one with lime jello and stuff with mayonnaise.  One always made her fruit salad with mayo, too.  I get that it keeps the salad from browning, but yuck!  I hated choking that stuff down.

No, I hated the jello crap, but the casseroles (any kind) made with condensed cream of mushroom and potato chips were fabulous!

[Ragana]

I will admit to eating cottage cheese sprinkled with nutritional yeast as a snack.
 

[Basylica]

speaking of depression era cooking....have you guys met clara?

http://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking

She totally reminds me of my great grandma....but the sweet version ;)

She'd need some scotch, a pack of smokes and some more colorful language to do great grandma proud!

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by 34me 

The weirdest thing my mom ever tried to get us to eat was a banana with Miracle Whip (could not be mayonaise) slathered on it, rolled in crushed peanuts and proudly placed on an iceburg lettuce leaf. Neither my sister or I eat bananas to this day!

I love Miracle Whip. I love bananas. I like peanuts okay. And, I still feel kind of ill reading that.

[tash11]

Originally Posted by Basylica 

....

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.

...

My dad made egg noodles with butter. I liked them with black pepper. He actually made much healthier stuff then my mom. Actually buttered noodles are still yummy, just not healthy so I don't make them much (maybe once a year or less).

My mom made white rice and hamburger. The hamburger was plain ground chuck just broken up and cooked (read: burnt) in a pan. It stemmed from me being on an allergy diet and her not knowing how to cook.

For a while when I was younger I had some roommates that for some reason only ever bought steak and mac and cheese. Being veg I was left with mac and cheese. I got bored and started adding all kinds of thing to it to change it, never ketchup though as I don't like it, but I did do salsa, bbq, steak sauce, various marinades etc....

More recently I found the combo of cheddar cheese and caramel. At least there is some protein in it. :)

ETA: oh, not cheap, but gross. My mom really can not cook. And she has no use for any seasoning other then salt. Our holiday dinners usually included a butterball turkey breast thrown in the crockpot (from frozen with no seasoning) and cooked until it resembled round jerky. I would try to rehydrate it with worcestershire sauce, but it was still dry. On the side would be canned peas heated with butter (the best part of the meal), and cider (the only time we got something to drink besides pop). For desert: store bought pie.

Edited by tash11 - 10/17/12 at 12:46pm

[Basylica]

My parents got half a cow as xmas bonus (stepdad worked at a grainery) and only had to pay processing. so for like 200 bucks we got 800+ lbs of beef.

really the only way they managed to feed all of us on next to nothing.

since there were 8 of us and we lived outside chicago, the only way to cook that many steaks was on the grill, and there was only a few choice weeks to cook on the grill before it became bad weather. so for about 2 months of every summer dinner was steak + tots, steak + salad, steak + canned veg, steak + fries, steak, steak, steak, spam and steak....etc.

and there was no "oh, i'll just eat a peanut butter sandwhich" type thing.

so I had to gag down pound after pound of steak. yeacchh....i'm the only poor white kid going "ohhh man....steak? again?" heheheee....

so to this day I think i've had probably 5 steaks in the last 15 years? maybe?

but I love me some a1! I eat it on baked potatoes....I eat it on mac and cheese....

put it on burgers, mix it half and half with ketchup for fries (or half and half with sour cream for tots and such)

I went to local butcher who advertizes freezer packs to ask him about getting something that was more slow cook beef. I want some patties, ground beef, roasts, pork chops and whole fryers, and a ton of stew meat.....and maybe a few steaks for when family visits cuz they like the novelty of grilling year round and I OWN a grill. lol.

I opened with "I'm getting a freezer" to which he started about the freezer packs and I interrupted "well...problem is I really don't care for steak...."

You'd have thought i said I enjoyed eating babies. hahahhaa.....it was funny :)

[Purple*Lotus]

I was a latchkey kid and my favorite was wonder bread with Kraft singles slices, in the microwave so it got melty.  Yum.

[Katrinaquerida]

Originally Posted by EmsMom 

I had this one from my grandmother.  Don't know that it was particularly meant to be frugal, but it was so weird:  salad consisting of one half of a canned pear with a scoop of cottage cheese.  Yes, that was the salad... 
 

We made this, but put almond slices in the skinny end of the pear and the cottage cheese at the other end and it's a bunny! lol

[Ragana]

Love Depression Cooking with Clara!
 

[Caneel]

Originally Posted by 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

OMG!  Seriously!  I think the only thing that "saved" me was that many people in the family gardened so there was always a surplus of veggies gifted to us.  The thought of extremely overcooked green beans swimming in melted Velveeta will haunt me forever.  Otherwise it was Minute rice (and lots of it) and various bland meats, like plain ground beef.

I remember once my mom made hamburgers on a grill (I have no idea where this grill came from as we didn't have one) topped with lettuce and tomatoes, it was a taste sensation that sadly I didn't experience again for many, many more years. 

I was also a latchkey kid.  Bored + crappy food = gross snacks.  I remember nibbling on raw pasta.

[Greenlea]

My mom would make lime jello with carrots - I still love it to this day.  And I love eating canned peaches with cottage cheese.

Growing up we ate alot of hamburger helper. I won't touch it now that I'm older.  We would also eat sardines out of the can and smoked chub. But as kids we loved them. 

When my Dad cooked it was always Stouffers lasagna and canned potatoes. I hate canned potatoes but he still buys them even now at 54.

[Caneel]

Not at my house but I do remember cottage cheese with canned fruit at the school caf and at friends houses.

[Ruthiegirl]

We played 'build a potato" when I was a kid.  We had a potato patch in the backyard and a shovel that lived by the back door.  My brother and I would grab the shovel, dig a couple of potatoes for dinner and my mom would bake them.  Smother those in a  big slice of government cheese and that was dinner many nights a week.  

I did this with my kids the other night (no government cheese though, I think that welfare program ended years and years ago) and they loved it!  

I still gag a bit at the thought of that awful orange, weird cheese stuff.  

Oh!  And I remember my grandmother's 'salad' was half a head of iceberg lettuce with a knife stuck in it.  You were supposed to slice off a wedge of lettuce and drizzle it with blue cheese dressing.  I still go crazy for blue cheese.  

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl 

We played 'build a potato" when I was a kid.  We had a potato patch in the backyard and a shovel that lived by the back door.  My brother and I would grab the shovel, dig a couple of potatoes for dinner and my mom would bake them.  Smother those in a  big slice of government cheese and that was dinner many nights a week.  

I did this with my kids the other night (no government cheese though, I think that welfare program ended years and years ago) and they loved it!  

I still gag a bit at the thought of that awful orange, weird cheese stuff.  

Oh!  And I remember my grandmother's 'salad' was half a head of iceberg lettuce with a knife stuck in it.  You were supposed to slice off a wedge of lettuce and drizzle it with blue cheese dressing.  I still go crazy for blue cheese.  

"RONNIE WAX"!  That's what it was called by some.  We had cheap, store-brand cheddar cheese.  American cheese slices and Velveeta were expensive by comparison.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by Caneel 

Bored + crappy food = gross snacks.  I remember nibbling on raw pasta.

I like raw pasta. I used to put handfuls of elbow macaroni in my pockets, and take it with me when I went out with friends. I still tend to nibble on it when I'm making homemade mac and cheese...