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Starting when I was 8 (in the 1960s) my mother had to work full time, usually on 2nd shift (3pm-12m) so for a long time our evening meals were lots of canned and boxed foods, along with cold and re-heated leftovers. This of course was pre-microwave.
On weekends she would make pots of home-made soups, fried chicken or pork chops, oven roasted beef/pork/chicken, plus sometimes pirogues, pigs in the blanket, hamburgers (she ground her own meat and breadcrumbs), sausages, baked goods, etc. and fill the refrigerator.
During the week we would finish those (usually quickly) so a lot of our meals ended up being things like Franco-American Spaghetti from a can, canned pork and beans, hash (potatoes and canned meat), canned beef and gravy, Lipton soup packets, TV dinners, or one of my favorites roast beef & gravy in a boil-in bag over bread slices. We always had a pot of oil on the stove to fry up french fries in a basket. I did sometimes make "pizzas" in the oven using flattened pop-in-fresh biscuit dough with tomato sauce and cheese.
By the time I was 11 my brothers and sisters had all moved out (I was by far the youngest) and for awhile both parents worked 2nd shift, so I would spend evenings at a nearby aunt's house for dinner, although I don't recall much about the food she prepared.
Restaurant or take out was basically never until I was old enough to get a job and pay for my own food. My oldest brother did work at a summer job for awhile at an ice cream/hamburger stand and would bring food home at the end of the day. FYI these were also the times my mother would mix regular milk with powdered milk to save money, among many other things. We also had lots of fruits and vegetables that my mother would can every year that was grown by relatives. We had a very small garden, but several of our neighbors filled their entire yards with vegetable gardens. We would keep some of the grapes and beans that grew over our fence.
Last edited by RocketSci; 07-01-2022 at 01:35 PM..
Meat (chicken, steak, hamburger, veal, meatloaf, etc.), potato (baked, mashed, home fries, home made French fries, scalloped potatoes once in a while), and always two vegetables, home canned in winter, fresh from the garden in summer. Once in a while spaghetti with Ragu or hotdogs, (canned) baked beans, and homemade cornbread. Dessert was rice pudding, tapioca, apple pie, chocolate cake or if it wasn't homemade it could be chocolate pudding, applesauce, fruit cocktail, canned peaches or canned pears. I think the one exception to homemade was Swanson's chicken pot pies, a real treat.
Lots of casseroles like macaroni and cheese (made with Velveeta), tuna noodle casserole from soup, Hungarian goulash, chicken and rice casserole made with rice and onion soup mix, beef stew (not really a casserole).
I never had pizza (or even heard of it) until I got to college. Never had a salad either. Lunches would be soup from a can, Velveeta cheese melted over saltines, peanut butter & jelly, blueberry pancakes, Franco American spaghetti out of a can, lots of different kinds of sandwiches, especially grilled cheese. Some people ate tv dinners, some people ate really healthy, like the kids could only have an apple for a snack, but most people where I lived were just about like we were.
Sundays and holidays were roast beef or lamb and all the fixin's. Always a homemade pie for dessert--or a few homemade pies!
I never thought that an electric can opener was old fashioned. Never had one as a kid, had one as a wedding or bridal shower gift until we traded it for something useful and been using a non electric can opener since the mid ,70s.
My mother worker part time so she was home to cook suppers but she was not a good cook. Because of my Dad every meal was meant and potatoes with maybe a salad and few vegatables but no fish. Meat, potatoes and vegetables were always over cooked. On nights my Dad worked late we would have fish and rice and maybe corn.
Prepared food would be baked beans and spaghetti the latter is gross and Campbell's soap except Chicken noodle which was Liptons.
My wife is a far superior cook than were my mother of her mother
Mom agrees on that with me. Occasionally we would have Chung King Chinese food or Swanson TV dinner. Desserts were mostly home canned fruit or berries.
But back in the day, TV dinners were a real treat. At least in my house.
Yeah, that was the first thing that came to my mind as well. Swanson TV Dinners with the big compartment for the main course, and then two small compartments, one for the side dish and one for dessert. I think that my favorite was Salisbury steak & mashed potatoes.
As far as boxed dinners go, I remember us eating Macaroni & cheese. But it wasn't the "expensive" Kraft Macraroni & Cheese, it was Golden Grain's "Macaroni & Cheddar."
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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My mother stayed home having babies (9 kids) and my father did all the shopping. My sister and I did most of the cooking after about age 10. He would buy giant cans of olive oil, a huge bottle of mustard that we would have to put into the old small jars, boxed Biscuick, boxes of powdered milk, cans of Campbell's mushroom soup, giant whole chub bologna that we had to slice.
My mother was a sahm and an excellent cook and made almost everything from scratch. Most of our dinners were meat and potato type meals or something Italian, and every dinner had an accompanying dessert. My dad had a sweet tooth that we all inherited, unfortunately.
We had very few convenience foods, but on the rare occasion when she and my father were going out for the evening, we kids were able to pick out a tv dinners that we wanted and ate it in front of the TV. TV dinners and Chiller Theater on a Saturday night was a real, but rare treat.
My mom worked as a server, and we ate food cooked mostly from scratch, except for canned veggies and, like I said above, canned biscuits and box cornbread. In those days, preserved food was more expensive than scratch-made. I learned to cook before I was 11 or 12, and frequently would get dinner going before mom got home, according to her instructions. I made whatever she had planned. It might be spaghetti with meat sauce, chuck roast with potatoes, onions, and carrots, or tacos, etc. We ate a very "square meal" dinner (meat, vegetable, salad, bread or starch, and milk) almost every night. Exceptions were the rare pizza, or maybe a tuna salad stuffed tomato on a hot summer night. Considering how poor we were, we ate pretty good by today's standards. Mom just overcooked everything.
Today, 50 years later, it's automatic to me to fix dinner every night, and it's very hard to let go of it. We eat out about 2 nights a week, and DH will eat leftovers, or a deli sandwich he bought, about 2 nights a week. I feel guilty if I don't cook though. It's like it's my part of taking care of people I love.
My mother stayed home having babies (9 kids) and my father did all the shopping. My sister and I did most of the cooking after about age 10. He would buy giant cans of olive oil, a huge bottle of mustard that we would have to put into the old small jars, boxed Biscuick, boxes of powdered milk, cans of Campbell's mushroom soup, giant whole chub bologna that we had to slice.
Oh, man, we had the same brand of dad, lol. I'll never forget when he bought turkeys on a post holiday sale for dirt cheap at the wholesale store. He cooked one each week and then put the meat through a meat grinder to make a homemade turkey spread mixed with mayo and spices and slathered on bread. I absolutely hated that stuff but back then you ate what you were given and liked it...barf. For weeks we ate that.
Looking back, I can see why there was some serious penny pinching during the Carter years.
My Mom also had a million and one ways to use Bisquick. And I won't even get into those huge cans of Criso shortening that everyone had in their cupboards.
Yeah, that was the first thing that came to my mind as well. Swanson TV Dinners with the big compartment for the main course, and then two small compartments, one for the side dish and one for dessert. I think that my favorite was Salisbury steak & mashed potatoes.
I have a very strong olfactory memory associated with Swanson TV dinners: Chanel No 5 perfume. Why you ask?
Chanel No. 5 was the only perfume my mother ever wore, but she didn't wear it daily. It was reserved for special dressy occasions like a dinner party or trip to the theater or concert. Which translated into a special occasion for us kids. On rare nights my parents went out without us, we had permission to set up TV trays and watch a TV show in the family game room. We normally didn't watch TV on "school" nights or during the day, so any time other than Friday or Saturday evenings (with an exception for a Walt Disney special on Sundays) was unusual.
My favorite Swanson's meal as a kid was their fried chicken accompanied by buttered mashed potatoes and green peas (a bit crusty around the edges of course). When our parents eventually descended from their bedroom in their evening finery, my mother exuded her Chanel No. 5. At just about the same time our TV dinners popped out of the oven. To this day, if I catch a breeze of Chanel No. 5 my mouth starts watering for fried chicken!
Last edited by Parnassia; 07-01-2022 at 03:43 PM..
Swanson TV dinners, hamburger helper, Betty Crocker noodles romanoff and au gratin potatoes, Kraft Mac n cheese and shake and bake. We ate a lot of food that came out of boxes and cans.
My dad loved meat and potatoes, but he died when I was 12, so my mom didn’t want to cook much after that. I loved all the processed food, especially noodle romanoff.
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cans of Campbell's mushroom soup, giant whole chub bologna that we had to slice.
