Boomers: back in the day, what food did you parents rely on (canned, boxed, etc.) (depression, meal)
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My mom worked full time for the local school district so she would get home at about 4-5pm (unheard of in a lot of today's working world) and she would use her good ole old-fashioned electric can opener to open a can of Franco American Spaghetti or Chef Boyardee ravioli. Another favorite was Hamburger Helper. Rice-A-Roni too. Uncle Ben's Minute Rice. Campbell's Pork 'N' Beans. I'm trying to remember what else was popular then. Help me out!
None of that. My mother cooked from scratch. No, this is not some post about how superior my mother was. She cooked meat to shoe leather. She's the only person I ever knew who dried out a leg of lamb.
We had mashed potatoes with whatever overcooked meat was on the menu five out of seven days a week, but she made good gravy. Rice was an occasional different changeup, as well as noodles, like egg noodles. Sometimes they were in a casserole with canned corned beef glued together with a white sauce and topped with potato chips. Once every other month or so, my mother would make spaghetti with meatballs and a jar of Ragu.
But she grew up during the Depression and did not buy convenience foods other than canned goods. I remember the commercials for those foods, but we never had them. We did not get takeout food, either, until maybe when I was a teenager.
I was nine years old before I had pizza. I was in the Girl Scouts, and there was an end-of-year trip for all the troops to go to a local pizza place. Everyone was excited and I pretended to be, too, because I was embarrassed to tell anyone that I'd never actually had pizza before. And that day, I fell in love with it!
But not stuff out of boxes, ever. As a matter of fact, when my sister had a kid and fed her Kraft Mac n Cheese (known where I am now as "KD") I thought it was a new product. I had no idea it existed for decades!
Ah, you're so lucky your mom liked to cook even if she did butcher the meat (pun intended!) My mom didn't despise cooking but she wasn't real into it either. She was a convenience cook, right at the time when convenience foods because more widely used. (1950's and 1960's).
Tuna casserole with Campbell's cream of mushroom soup mix was a biggee in our house.
Hamburger Helper, Rice-a-Roni, Van de Camps frozen fish fillets (the only fish allowed in our house besides tuna), instant scalloped potatoes, Shake n Bake.
Casseroles, casseroles! With the cream o mushroom soup and tater-tots on top.
Bless her heart---she was not a good cook and I had to teach myself to cook. I don't buy any of that stuff and only made a couple casseroles in my life.
It's funny how, despite having money, she had a Depression-era mindset. I never had a steak until I left home, lol. She cooked meat to death too....I didn't know what medium-rare even was!
I don't recall much in the way of processed foods getting on our table in the 1950s. We had potatoes with every meal, which I filled up on. Something green, usually, or maybe corn or carrots. I was a picky eater so wild horses could not get me to eat beets, which my mom loved. I still don't. My mom was a salad freak and we thought she was going to grow rabbit ears. I didn't eat a real salad until I was about 20. We sometimes had rice and often had chili-mac or spaghetti and meatballs. None of that was from a can. She was into pot roasts and pork chops. I don't recall having chicken very often. My parents were raised in the depression and had rationing in WW2, so they had ways of stretching food. Our hamburgers were about 1/3 bread or crumbs mixed in.
My dad liked fish, but we only had "jack salmon", a long and boney fish. I didn't know there was any other kind of fish until I was older. It is definitely not a salmon and I now think it is a smallish Pacific Whiting. My dad had more exotic tastes than my mostly Irish mom. If he cooked, we would sometimes have eggplant battered and fried. He liked brains (calf brains, I think) and would cook them and add them to scrambled eggs. A brain sandwich was a local thing, and you could get them at the grocery store. He liked cauliflower and also liver. He was a great one for breakfasts on weekends and pancakes was his specialty and the mix was from a box. My brother and I would make Chef Boyardee pizza from a boxed kit. You had to make the crust dough and then add all the other stuff you wanted. It was like pizza on a cracker, but we liked it. We ate out very rarely and always at the same place.
My parents canned tomatoes, beans and pickles and froze other items like corn that our neighbor grew. The proteins consisted of chicken, fresh caught fish or fish that was frozen, hamburgers, an occasional roast and, if it was hunting season, dove or squirrel. Cans or boxes weren’t unheard of, just something they didn’t purchase a lot of.
Eating out as a family in a sit-down restaurant was unthinkable. Maybe a hamburger once in a blue moon. There was no money for that. There was money for gas and we literally camped all over the US pulling a tent trailer that our dad built. Even then, we’d prepare every meal in a campground or rest area.
Life was and continues to be great. Our parents taught us well and my only regret is that they’re gone. I’d give anything to hug my mom or, even, just update my dad on my latest adventures.
The only processed foods that were common in our household were Campbells soup (chicken noodle, tomato, and of course cream of chicken for the casseroles), and pork and beans. The beans were never served straight up, they had to be doctored up and disguised as baked beans with added catsup, brown sugar, bacon, and onions. Canned green beans were generally cooked beyond recognition with the obligatory bacon and onions. Other than that, most things were from scratch except the pop n fresh biscuits, and Jiffy cornbread.
I don't recall much in the way of processed foods getting on our table in the 1950s. We had potatoes with every meal, which I filled up on. Something green, usually, or maybe corn or carrots. I was a picky eater so wild horses could not get me to eat beets, which my mom loved. I still don't. My mom was a salad freak and we thought she was going to grow rabbit ears. I didn't eat a real salad until I was about 20. We sometimes had rice and often had chili-mac or spaghetti and meatballs. None of that was from a can. She was into pot roasts and pork chops. I don't recall having chicken very often. My parents were raised in the depression and had rationing in WW2, so they had ways of stretching food. Our hamburgers were about 1/3 bread or crumbs mixed in.
My dad liked fish, but we only had "jack salmon", a long and boney fish. I didn't know there was any other kind of fish until I was older. It is definitely not a salmon and I now think it is a smallish Pacific Whiting. My dad had more exotic tastes than my mostly Irish mom. If he cooked, we would sometimes have eggplant battered and fried. He liked brains (calf brains, I think) and would cook them and add them to scrambled eggs. A brain sandwich was a local thing, and you could get them at the grocery store. He liked cauliflower and also liver. He was a great one for breakfasts on weekends and pancakes was his specialty and the mix was from a box. My brother and I would make Chef Boyardee pizza from a boxed kit. You had to make the crust dough and then add all the other stuff you wanted. It was like pizza on a cracker, but we liked it. We ate out very rarely and always at the same place.
That is too funny! I didn't eat lettuce or salad at all until I was 23 yrs old. I didn't like wine either, never had that until about the same age.
We never ate out except for Clifton's Cafeteria on Sundays after church (Southern California). I love Clifton's. They were so good. I need to look up Pacific Whiting. You'd think I would have heard of it. And oh yes, my mother would always mix bread crumbs into the hamburger patties and meat loaf. Thanks for the reminder. I don't think I would have remembered that.
My parents grew and canned their own vegetables but they also both worked FT. I don't remember having Spaghettio's or Chef Boyardee for dinner but we had that often for lunch. We had boxes of sugary cereal and flavored sugary oatmeal for breakfast. On weekends, Mom sometimes cooked up a can of corned beef hash for breakfast.
Pork and beans, Rice a Roni, instant mashed potatoes were occasional dinner sides. Breaded fish sticks with frozen french fries, La Choy, boxed Pizza kit were always a treat.
We ate a lot of fresh meat, fish and vegetables, too, it wasn't all canned/boxed/processed but it wasn't all fresh from scratch, either.
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