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SOS is creamed beef on toast, also very popular in the service.
Coming from an Italian background of large families, my Grandmother cooked a lot of "cheapo" meals like pasta fagoli, minestrone, fritata, escarole and bean soup, pasta, pasta and more pasta. Some of these "cheapo" dishes are on menus in restaurants today and are healthy!!!!
My Mom made all those dishes also. We did not have a lot of money, and I'm also from an Italian Background.
How could I forget..Tuna Noodle Casserole! And for dessert..Amborsia.. mini marshmellow with the fruit cocktail mixed in. I actually liked it except for whne they put coconut shreds in..yuck!
I hate to admit this, but a lot of these so-called budget foods are also some of my comfort foods.
My mother used to make macaroni with canned stewed tomatoes mixed in, sometimes would add a few cubes of cheddar cheese and bake it. YUM!
Do not forget about tuna noodle casserole, with or without the peas.
No one mentioned meatloaf. When I was a kid, I never would touch it, but make it from time to time as an adult.
My mother grew up during the Great Depression in the 1930's; she told me something that REALLY poor families ate was "stone soup", as in stony broke soup. What was in stone soup was water and butter.
Meatloaf with bacon
I actually love meatloaf but you have to put ketchup and bacon on the top while it's cooking. And my mom made the best baked mac & cheese with the little bread crumbles on the top..yumm! You know what I miss the most... Roast Pork! Mom would smother the outside with S&P... that was the best part..the fat with all that S&P on it! And remember eating the skin off the turkey before it had a chance to hit the table and getting yelled at for doing so
Last edited by wileynj; 08-10-2008 at 05:32 AM..
Reason: pix
I have to say that we must have been spoiled because the only low cost (or what I consider low cost) meal was spaghetti. I'm actually surprised because my parents both came here from Hungary in the 50's, no family, no job, no money. My dad ran Shell stations (worked as a mechanic) in Maplewood & Union, had rent, a house payment & 3 kids. We did have really tough times although I never remember not having some kind of meat. She used to buy a lot, every time she went shopping, she had a certain amount of money to spend & would stock up the freezer and buy extra paper products, laundry soap. I remember my dad yelling that we didn't need all of that, the joke was that she came from a poor family & she was hording stuff; which isn't funny, but the things she horded were funny back then.
Now my hubby can tell stories. He comes from a family of 8, his dad was the principal at a few schools in NJ, out by Freehold. He tells stories about not having milk, they used powdered, no sugar cereals, ate lots of oatmeal. They would go to their grandmothers, where she would take them shopping and buy them what ever cereal they wanted.
My freezer is usually stocked. I watch the sale papers, then when meat goes on sale I buy a lot of it. I refuse to pay over $2 per pound on pork or steak, chicken was usually $1 per pound, now of course with gas/diesel prices those numbers have increased by $1 per pound but I do manage to find great sales still.
Stuffed peppers are better when you use red peppers, and it's all in the time you cook it. Most people over cook them. A treat for us was using my dad's Hungarian yellow peppers, I bet if anyone had my stuffed peppers when dad was alive & had his garden you would think you died and went to heaven. I need to find a Hungarian that can get me some seeds.
My dad Matty in his Phillips 66 uniform Watchung, early 1970's
My partner and I..both who come from very poor families, were in hysterics today talking about the stuff we had to eat as kids because our parents had no money. My favorite was some gooie stuff my mom used to throw on top of toast.. she called it "sh1t on a shingle". I have no idea what it was but we ate it. Any others?
We had Shi*t on a Shingle too ! We also had a Big block of cheese and tub of peanutbutter that said in black bold letters government. I also remember a type of meat that to this day I do not know what animal it came from but it was jelly like and smelled real bad. When we spent time down the shore if we caught an eel my mom would mix it in eggs and make us eat that too. That was so gross
The red thing is what...a stewed tomato? And what are those black things at the bottom, or do I not wan to know?
I was thinking prunes?
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! We also had a Big block of cheese and tub of peanutbutter that said in black bold letters government. I also remember a type of meat that to this day I do not know what animal it came from but it was jelly like and smelled real bad. When we spent time down the shore if we caught an eel my mom would mix it in eggs and make us eat that too. That was so gross
huh?
