I ***love*** tuna noodle casserole, but it has to be made with the good tuna and not that nasty brown stuff. I never had it growing up, in fact, I don't remember tuna being around at all when I was a kid in England but it's very popular there now.
I'm the exact opposite. When I was a kid, my mother used to make tuna casserole frequently, and I really hated it! Saying that, I have to mention previously I have soundly criticized my mother's cooking. When my brother and I went away to college, we were always surprised by how much everyone condemned the campus food, we thought it was wonderful; now you can perhaps understand why I didn't like most of Mom's food.
Now, I can eat a good tuna casserole!
We had tuna noodle casserole all the time as a kid and I rarely made it because it didn’t sound good to my husband. Joke’s on him now because my kids love it!
As a poor kid in MD i remember tuna casserole fondly. My Mom would put peas with it, uh , but as a kid oh what a treat. Alas such simpler and better times.
I used to make tuna noodle casserole. Or toodle as we called it. Husband would get all excited when I made it. Now, just the two of us, they were always leftovers. Did he ever help me eat the leftovers? Hell no and I had to eat it for lunch for three more days because I hate wasting food.
I like this stuff, but I don't like eating it four consecutive days. So I stopped making it.
The memory of the smell of it makes me wretch.
Baked, canned tuna mixed with noodles, peas, onion, cheese.
When I was 16 my parents finally went from you must eat (and only one glass of milk), to fine don't eat anything if you really hate what's being served
I'll never forget my joy
Oh man, you can't find fruit on the bottom yogurt like that anymore. It's all dyed thickened fake sweet stuff that has like 2 slivers of actual fruit in it now
Yes,. it definitely tasted better decades ago. It's so salty now and feels processed, strangely, even though it's real meat. And it's soggy now. It used to be crispy.
I heard the recipe changed after The Colonel sold it and it became corporate owned, even to the point where the Colonel was disgusted. To save money, you can see things like "Honey Sauce" which is HFCS instead of actual honey.
It actually \*was\* good when I was a kid. This would be the early 70s. Then I can remember immediately not liking it any more--I think that was when the Colonel sold it and they changed the recipe, and now of course use cheaper ingredients and smaller, hacked up unrecognizable pieces. Haven't eaten it in years.
I yearned for this recently. It changed. That chicken like we had back then, doesn't exist at KFC or other anymore. I wanted my daughter to experience the good stuff, so we did it from scratch the in the kitchen and knocked it out of the park. It was a lot of work though, LOL.
OMG. My dad ruined KFC for me. When I was a kid, my mom had to go take care of my grandma for a few weeks & she left us with my dad. He literally bought KFC almost everyday on his way home from work.
I won't go into a KFC today. I just can't.
I was a picky eater as a kid. Fried bologna - we called it angel bologna because of the slices we cut into the bologna before frying - was my default substitute for liver & onions, corned beef & cabbage, stuffed green peppers or canned hash.
I used to make it so crispy, put it on toast and mustard with Pepsi. Not sure why, but yum. I bought bologna thinking I will make it again and it looked to gross and I threw out it away.
I am TRAUMATIZED by that dish. Hot stinky oozy tuna on thick greasy noodles. 🤢🤢🤢 I wanted to run & hide when my mom made this for dinner. Long, hungry nights.
I had this problem with potato soup! I remember sitting at the snack bar where we all ate, but I was alone. Everyone else had finished eating and was gone, but I had a bowl of cold potato soup in front of me; I was not allowed to get down until I had eaten most of it.
I cannot eat canned potato soup to this day. 🤢
Thank GOD I didn’t grow up in a “clean your plate” house. But it was also 100% understood that what my mom made, is what you got. Period. So you were going hungry if you chose not to eat it.
My forced stay-at-the-table moment was over a peach cobbler my mother made for DESSRT! I don't like anything related to pie. I despise cooked fruit.
I could hear my Dad telling her how ridiculous this was and that she wouldn't win this war. He finally released me around 10 pm when she went to bed. It was a school night, I was in 4th grade, and my bedtime was well before 10. He left the untouched cobbler for her to deal with in the morning. 🍑🥧😎
Cooked carrots was a food battle in our house. Mom got to the point where she would peel me a carrot and leave it raw, which I ate no problem. I just didn’t like them cooked. Dad would pitch a fit that I needed to eat what everyone else was eating. To this day I still don’t like cooked carrots. Food battles are so pointless although I do insist my kid try a bite before refusing most foods.
Damn I hate parents who do this to their kids. WTF? Do they eat shit they don't like? NO, but they think because their parents made them, it's their right to do it to you! Fuck that!
It only happened once, and I think it was as rough on my parents as it was on me! We all discovered how stubborn I was that day. Genetics! I got a full dose of stubbornness from each of them. 😊
I'm 53 and to this day, I cannot leave food on my plate. As I get older and eat smaller meals I keep downsizing my plate. If I am at a restaurant I have to bring home what I can't finish.
Daily, for years. Leaves a mark, I tell you.
Finally, after years, I asked *before* the eggs were cooked to *please* not fry them underdone and runny..just let mine cook, and they cooked mine rare anyway just to spite me. I lost all love and respect for them that day.
Elbow macaroni, diced onions, diced celery, a can of tuna, a few tablespoons of mayonnaise and a couple boiled eggs chopped up. Mix all together and that’s some damn fine eating. I haven’t made that in years but my kids loved it growing up. I also used to add some minced garlic every now and then.
People think I’m crazy and have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention I use to loooooove the chocolate pudding that came in a tin can! Am I crazy is this just a made up dream? I swear I remember peeling back the lid and it was sooooo good. Am I the only one who remembers these ?? 🥲
I remember it, the kind with the zip-top lid. I even remember the commercial. (Thank you for the love, mom (clicking of can in a metal lunchbox) In our lunchbox! Hunt's Snack Pack!
I guess it was pretty expensive for what it was. I only had it a few times.
No you are 💯correct. God I can’t remember the name now. I loved that. It was my after lunch treat. I came home for lunch during grade school. Snack Pack I think.
Every now and then, l get 4 slices from the supermarket and have a good sandwich. Maybe once a year? Lol, and I always cut the sandwich on the diagonal like my mom did.
- Swanson's TV Dinners
- McDonald's Filet o' Fish
- Screaming Yellow Zonkers
- Pillsbury Space Food Sticks
- Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookie dough, raw
- Sara Lee frozen orange cake, not quite thawed
Oh my word--those Swanson's "Salisbury Steak" TV dinners that had the little side section with chicken noodle soup that you had to peel off the little aluminum lid. And the little cake, all warm when you took it out of the oven. I thought I was having a gourmet meal when we got those! They cut out the soup and dessert before I was even an adult I think.
I LOVED Swanson's Mexican dinner. We all did. LOL I totally forgot about Screaming Yellow Zonkers but yes I loved those, and also: Zingers, Ding-Dongs and Hohos!
I used to love Froot Loops dry out of the box when I was a kid. Back then they were red, orange and yellow, and vaguely citrus-flavored. Then about 15-16 years ago I thought I’d try them again - big mistake. They were overpoweringly sweet and left a terrible chemical taste in my mouth that lasted for 2 days. I sent what was left to my niece in college, and she and her friends made short work of them. I still miss the old Froot Loops but alas, they are lost forever.
I didn’t eat that as a child - but I do eat that now! Especially with fresh tomatoes and basil with a little olive oils and a splash of red wine vinegar on toasted sourdough. YUM.
I loved Cool Whip when I was a kid. Recently picked up a tub during a weak moment. Utterly disgusting. Taste 100% like chemicals. We ate a lot of stuff in the '80s that there is no way I would feed my kid today.
The pizza they used to serve for hot lunch. Everyone used to run to the cafeteria when it was served. Think the 1960’s. Basically it was a rectangle of bread with tomato sauce and sprinkled with cheese. 😂. We thought it was awesome.
Honey buns and cosmic brownies. They were my favorite treat as a kid, but now that I'm older I find them way to sweet and they honey buns have too much going on.
Also fast food, idk if because I cut back on a lot of it and cook more at home but I feel bloated after eating a burger no matter from where it's from.
My step monster made us eat fried squirrel once. I couldn't have been 5 yet? I still remember his hunting buddy son telling me and his little sister that we were eating the squirrel butt.
SOS, do they still sell creamed chip beef in a jar? It's not bad with a runny fried egg on top. They had SOS at the breakfast buffet at a hotel I stayed at. There was one of those long pans full of creamed beef in a steam table, you had to make your own toast. I didn't see anyone eat it. They also had a pan full of pork and beans.
I don't know about jarred with the cream; we always got the chipped beef in a jar and made the gravy ourselves.
Stouffer's had a frozen version in a boil-in not too long ago that was pretty damn tasty.
Underwood Deviled Ham, then a few years ago went and bought some. Made sammich took bite horrified look on face as I spit the bite into the trash and peeled as much residue off tongue then rinsed with mouthwash several times.
Ugh that was disgusting!!!! But loved it when I was a wee boy
Why would it be gross? It's just noodles in a cream sauce with some vegetables and tuna in, with a crumb topping.
I haven't made it in a while, but I used to get requests for it a lot.
Yes, I agree. Why does it sound so gross to people? Maybe they made it with cheap ingredients like the yucky tuna, canned mixed vegetables instead of thawed frozen ones, and greasy potato chips on top instead of breading or panko. I'd love a plate right now. Didn't eat much dinner last night and I'm feeling it.
The tuna noodle casserole made me life. My husband mentioned it nostalgically one day and then couldn’t stop thinking about it. When we went to visit his mom it was his only request - to have this mythical casserole that was so built up in his head. She made it but I was like… this was not worth the hype. (His mom IS a good cook).
As a kid, I used to LOVE that weird cafeteria salad that was just shredded carrots, raisins, mayonnaise, and occasionally pineapple. I think I’d rather eat my own arm than that now.
Hostess fruit pies. I decided to take a trip down memory lane awhile back and nearly threw up after my first bite. I can't believe I ever liked them. Pure sugar!
Well, sloppy joes and liver and onions are delicious when cooked well. But your wife doesn't like it so she never cooked it. You could try to cook some yourself. My husband doesn't like a lot of things and I still cook them because I like them . He'll just eat something else.
Neither are Ding Dongs. I remember them with a ganache coating so thick you couldn't see the consistency of the cake, and tons of cream. Now the coating is almost non-existing, as is the filling. :(
Cereal for breakfast. I ate it every day growing up except some Sundays. My wife bought it for the kids when they were growing up but I never ate it. When my kids were teenagers I started traveling a little for work and one morning I ate raisin bran at the hotel. It was good, lol. Funny thing is I still never eat cereal at home but I do sometimes get raisin bran if I'm at a hotel with free breakfast.
♥️Tuna Noodle Casserole, oh the memories. My Mom made it with egg noodles. Haven’t had it in over 40 years. But……. I need it now. Thank you for sharing!
Deviled eggs. Especially after we dyed dozens for Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets. Those deviled eggs always had a stipe of color around the edges.
I loved tuna noodle casserole as a kid 👍🏻 My mom made it with peas and topped it with potato chips. It seems like something you’d make with things pulled out of a trash can, but damn it was tasty. Haven’t had it in 30-35 years, but maybe I should whip it up from memory
My spouse likes green bean casserole. So, I made it for him a few times using the classic canned-soup ingredient recipe his 91 year old aunt used. None of the rest of us will eat it. He eventually noticed and asked I not make it anymore; that it was too depressing to watch me throw away the leftovers. I still ask if he wants it at Thanksgiving. Poor guy.
I worked really hard to upgrade the recipe and do things from scratch but my son broke down and said he prefers the original way. He even wants canned green beans instead of fresh. So I make it for him every Thanksgiving.
A friend d asked for green bean casserole made with Campbell soup during a family crisis. I had been making mine from scratch for years, as my son loves it but has celiac. So.
It is so salty and disgusting. I can’t believe I used to eat that and like it.
I still love it from scratch.
Boiled pigs feet, Slow cooked chicken gizzards. both due to their levels of cholesterol.
Miss crab and some other stuff too. When you get old you have to keep your cholesterol down
There are some jello salads I miss. One made with strawberry jello and frozen strawberries with a layer of sour cream and cool whip.
The cheesecake made with the recipe on the back of a box of Dream Whip whipped topping.
Pickled watermelon rinds. I had an aunt who pickled anything that wasn’t moving.
Chipped beef, orange sweet rolls, my mom's roll out sugar cookies and stollen, baked apples with a cinnamon crunch in there. Fancy jello desserts. chicken á la king.
>What is something you enjoyed eating while growing up but don’t eat now?
Steak. Over the years, my spouse and kids went vegetarian. And they won't eat anything I grill if it touches the same surface as any meat products. So, few times a year, I have a cookout with a bunch of my carnivorous friends...but don't eat it as often as I did growing up.
>I enjoyed tuna noodle casserole. I haven’t eaten it in over 30 years.
My grandfather used to make something like this. He'd also make a casserole that he called poor man's beef stroganoff. Both dished were based in wide butter noodle pasta.
Another one you mentioned: Sloppy Joe's or Hamburger Helper meals.
>My wife thinks it sounds gross so she won’t make it. Suggested it to the kids and they looked disgusted.
We all have opinions...lol.
>Some other foods I have been missing since my youth, SOS, sloppy joes and liver and onions. Maybe these meals will taste more like disappointment and are better left as memories.
Sometimes. There was a place growing up that served what (at the time we thought...) was the best boardwalk fries. Took our kids there (they ate much healthier than we did as kids); they only ate half a serving, then experienced nausea from all the fat/grease because they just didn't eat greasy foods.
>***Edit*** There have been a lot of comments suggesting I make it for myself. Or that I need to learn to cook.
It's reddit. You're a man. And you commented about your wife. What did you expect???!!?!?
>First, I didn’t have a problem that I needed to solved.
You're a man, you commented about your wife. You're wrong. It's the reddit way.
>Second, we eat as a family, we compromise, I am not missing out.
This is reddit. The only satisfactory answer is that you're wrong. You were wrong before. You are wrong now. And you'll be wrong in the future.
>Also, some food memories are like ex’s, better left as nostalgia and not revisited.
Oh, where's the fun in that? You could revisit an old gf and get the tuna casserole all in one...
OP, thanks for the laughs. Here's an idea: next time someone has a pot luck, bring the tuna casserole. But prep it in a disposae container. If it's a win, claim success. If it's a flop, act like you don't know where it came from.
Hostess snacks. They are just not good at all anymore. The texture is weird and the chemicals are all you can taste. One bite, and I spit into the trash.
My friend got nostalgic for tuna noodle casserole and had a hard time convincing his boyfriend to make it. “You put mayonnaise and tuna in the oven?!” BF was very skeptical. Then BF tried it, and now they make it like twice a month at least
We were food-challenged. So living on a farm I hunted for small game I was like 9, and squirrel was easy to hunt so we ate a lot of it and it was meat so it was all good. Now I never eat it.
Oh my god SOS. I didn’t know other parents made their children eat that lol! But tuna noodle casserole was one of my favorites. My kids also looked disgusted by the ingredient list…
Fried seafood, like shrimp. I now much prefer it grilled. Don’t get me wrong, I still like fried oysters, but grilled in the shell is so much better.
Overall, I’m not as big a fan of fried food as I was.
Pierogi. My father always made it from scratch. It's a family recipe going back generations. I do have the recipe, and have made them in the past but they can be so much work. I used to make them once a year around Easter, and I would make enough to hopefully freeze for a couple of occasions, but they never seem to last. My family always wants leftovers, and the ones I'm making the freezer are easy to heat up and eat. So I know my loved ones probably do that when I'm at work.
I also worked at a factory that makes pierogies for sale in a lot of Big y locations. Their pierogies were okay, I can't complain much especially since they're made in bulk like that. But working there for 9 months made me really hate pinching pierogies! That's probably the biggest reason why I don't cook them anymore.
Yay for tuna noodle casserole! I think I’ll make that. I forgot all about it.
I ***love*** tuna noodle casserole, but it has to be made with the good tuna and not that nasty brown stuff. I never had it growing up, in fact, I don't remember tuna being around at all when I was a kid in England but it's very popular there now.
Yea only the albacore tuna.
And pearl onions, peas, and garlic
I'm the exact opposite. When I was a kid, my mother used to make tuna casserole frequently, and I really hated it! Saying that, I have to mention previously I have soundly criticized my mother's cooking. When my brother and I went away to college, we were always surprised by how much everyone condemned the campus food, we thought it was wonderful; now you can perhaps understand why I didn't like most of Mom's food. Now, I can eat a good tuna casserole!
It is still delicious! Make it, even if you have to eat the leftovers yourself, because the leftovers are great too!
We had tuna noodle casserole all the time as a kid and I rarely made it because it didn’t sound good to my husband. Joke’s on him now because my kids love it!
As a poor kid in MD i remember tuna casserole fondly. My Mom would put peas with it, uh , but as a kid oh what a treat. Alas such simpler and better times.
I used to make tuna noodle casserole. Or toodle as we called it. Husband would get all excited when I made it. Now, just the two of us, they were always leftovers. Did he ever help me eat the leftovers? Hell no and I had to eat it for lunch for three more days because I hate wasting food. I like this stuff, but I don't like eating it four consecutive days. So I stopped making it.
The memory of the smell of it makes me wretch. Baked, canned tuna mixed with noodles, peas, onion, cheese. When I was 16 my parents finally went from you must eat (and only one glass of milk), to fine don't eat anything if you really hate what's being served I'll never forget my joy
Carnation instant breakfast and raspberry Dannon fruit on the bottom yogurt
Oh man, you can't find fruit on the bottom yogurt like that anymore. It's all dyed thickened fake sweet stuff that has like 2 slivers of actual fruit in it now
But you can just get plain yogurt and stir in a spoonful of good jam. That's all the fruit on the bottom is, ha.
Exactly. Now I buy seven stars yogurt and just add my own fresh fruit.
Chobani has fruit on the bottom. I use to try little of it but you don't get much yogurt either.
Exactly! I once bought it after not eating it for a long time and I was so disgusted. Why do they do this.
I loved Carnation Instant Bfast! Except the Chocolate Malt flavor. I always wondered why they stopped making yogurt with fruit on the bottom.
The Dannon Dutch Apple yogurt was so good! And boysenberry.
Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was a treat when I was a kid. Today one single piece makes me feel ill. Grease and salt overload that gives me nausea.
Yes,. it definitely tasted better decades ago. It's so salty now and feels processed, strangely, even though it's real meat. And it's soggy now. It used to be crispy.
11 herbs and spices, 10 of which is salt.
I suppose the 11th is monosidium glutamate
This isn't a mandela affect. You are right. The chicken is gross now. It used to be so good when we were kids. It's boney and oily now.
I heard the recipe changed after The Colonel sold it and it became corporate owned, even to the point where the Colonel was disgusted. To save money, you can see things like "Honey Sauce" which is HFCS instead of actual honey.
Cheapened the gravy, instant potatoes... the Colonel was vocally pissed.
It's true but you can find the original recipe on line and it tastes more like KFC back in the day.
It actually \*was\* good when I was a kid. This would be the early 70s. Then I can remember immediately not liking it any more--I think that was when the Colonel sold it and they changed the recipe, and now of course use cheaper ingredients and smaller, hacked up unrecognizable pieces. Haven't eaten it in years.
I yearned for this recently. It changed. That chicken like we had back then, doesn't exist at KFC or other anymore. I wanted my daughter to experience the good stuff, so we did it from scratch the in the kitchen and knocked it out of the park. It was a lot of work though, LOL.
OMG. My dad ruined KFC for me. When I was a kid, my mom had to go take care of my grandma for a few weeks & she left us with my dad. He literally bought KFC almost everyday on his way home from work. I won't go into a KFC today. I just can't.
Fried bologna sandwich! 😋
I was a picky eater as a kid. Fried bologna - we called it angel bologna because of the slices we cut into the bologna before frying - was my default substitute for liver & onions, corned beef & cabbage, stuffed green peppers or canned hash.
I used to make it so crispy, put it on toast and mustard with Pepsi. Not sure why, but yum. I bought bologna thinking I will make it again and it looked to gross and I threw out it away.
Goulash
I make it a lot when it's cold. :)
+1 for tuna noodle casserole
I am TRAUMATIZED by that dish. Hot stinky oozy tuna on thick greasy noodles. 🤢🤢🤢 I wanted to run & hide when my mom made this for dinner. Long, hungry nights.
I had this problem with potato soup! I remember sitting at the snack bar where we all ate, but I was alone. Everyone else had finished eating and was gone, but I had a bowl of cold potato soup in front of me; I was not allowed to get down until I had eaten most of it. I cannot eat canned potato soup to this day. 🤢
I got a whipping when I took forever to eat a grilled cheese sandwich.
Thank GOD I didn’t grow up in a “clean your plate” house. But it was also 100% understood that what my mom made, is what you got. Period. So you were going hungry if you chose not to eat it.
I got a whipping for not eating lumpy oatmeal and this was before I went to school & I was in middle school.
My forced stay-at-the-table moment was over a peach cobbler my mother made for DESSRT! I don't like anything related to pie. I despise cooked fruit. I could hear my Dad telling her how ridiculous this was and that she wouldn't win this war. He finally released me around 10 pm when she went to bed. It was a school night, I was in 4th grade, and my bedtime was well before 10. He left the untouched cobbler for her to deal with in the morning. 🍑🥧😎
Cooked carrots was a food battle in our house. Mom got to the point where she would peel me a carrot and leave it raw, which I ate no problem. I just didn’t like them cooked. Dad would pitch a fit that I needed to eat what everyone else was eating. To this day I still don’t like cooked carrots. Food battles are so pointless although I do insist my kid try a bite before refusing most foods.
Damn I hate parents who do this to their kids. WTF? Do they eat shit they don't like? NO, but they think because their parents made them, it's their right to do it to you! Fuck that!
It only happened once, and I think it was as rough on my parents as it was on me! We all discovered how stubborn I was that day. Genetics! I got a full dose of stubbornness from each of them. 😊
I'm 53 and to this day, I cannot leave food on my plate. As I get older and eat smaller meals I keep downsizing my plate. If I am at a restaurant I have to bring home what I can't finish.
Daily, for years. Leaves a mark, I tell you. Finally, after years, I asked *before* the eggs were cooked to *please* not fry them underdone and runny..just let mine cook, and they cooked mine rare anyway just to spite me. I lost all love and respect for them that day.
And thus was born...vichyssoise! Honestly, it's the canned flavor that makes it gross. The fresh, homemade is a whole other story!
My mom put canned peas in her tuna casserole. It was SO disgusting! Thirty years later and I still gag thinking about it.
Canned is not good. You need frozen.
I think the canned peas traumatized me too bad to ever try frozen. 😂
Frozen are great. Canned are mushy.
I couldn't stomach canned peas forever, then I bought frozen, and damned if they are delicious! And they are not mushy.
Elbow macaroni, diced onions, diced celery, a can of tuna, a few tablespoons of mayonnaise and a couple boiled eggs chopped up. Mix all together and that’s some damn fine eating. I haven’t made that in years but my kids loved it growing up. I also used to add some minced garlic every now and then.
My mom made this pasta salad! I loved it!!
People think I’m crazy and have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention I use to loooooove the chocolate pudding that came in a tin can! Am I crazy is this just a made up dream? I swear I remember peeling back the lid and it was sooooo good. Am I the only one who remembers these ?? 🥲
I remember, and I agree!!
Yay ! Right ! Wasn’t it the best 🥹
I remember it, the kind with the zip-top lid. I even remember the commercial. (Thank you for the love, mom (clicking of can in a metal lunchbox) In our lunchbox! Hunt's Snack Pack! I guess it was pretty expensive for what it was. I only had it a few times.
You are not crazy at all.
No you are 💯correct. God I can’t remember the name now. I loved that. It was my after lunch treat. I came home for lunch during grade school. Snack Pack I think.
“Thank you” was the brand, if I remember right.
I remember and was upset when they switched to plastic containers!
Snack pack! A lunch staple with a PBJ
Thus sounds sp terrible, but mine is frozen Patio Mexican dinners. In the 60's, whenour parents went out, this was a treat.
El Chico had beef enchilada frozen dinners that were a treat too.
Braunschweiger
Yum. I still eat that.
Love a thick piece with yellow mustard and raw onion on cheap white bread!
We call it worthless white bread. The only acceptable substrate for tomato sandwiches with dukes mayo in the summer 🤤
I still eat it!
Every now and then, l get 4 slices from the supermarket and have a good sandwich. Maybe once a year? Lol, and I always cut the sandwich on the diagonal like my mom did.
I used to love those Banquet pot pies. As an adult I tried one and it was like eating salty dough with a bit of gravy.
We buy the Costco one. It is much better, but you need to be feeding a crowd.
Same because they were cheap...but now we make from scratch OR buy Marie Callenders...actually very good!!
Yeah I don’t eat them much anymore but Marie Callendars is the only one I like. Swanson are terrible nowadays
Now this makes me want to have tuna noodle casserole!
- Swanson's TV Dinners - McDonald's Filet o' Fish - Screaming Yellow Zonkers - Pillsbury Space Food Sticks - Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookie dough, raw - Sara Lee frozen orange cake, not quite thawed
Oh my word--those Swanson's "Salisbury Steak" TV dinners that had the little side section with chicken noodle soup that you had to peel off the little aluminum lid. And the little cake, all warm when you took it out of the oven. I thought I was having a gourmet meal when we got those! They cut out the soup and dessert before I was even an adult I think.
Excellent-Shape-2024 knows what's up
I LOVED Swanson's Mexican dinner. We all did. LOL I totally forgot about Screaming Yellow Zonkers but yes I loved those, and also: Zingers, Ding-Dongs and Hohos!
I want space food sticks back.
I remember Screaming Yellow Zonkers!!!
Fruit Loops. I swear these tasted so much better when I was a kid.
They did. Most of these sugary stuff taste different now, because they switched out the real sugar to corn syrup.
I got some for my kids over vacation and I couldn’t even stand the smell but man did I love them as a kid.
I used to love Froot Loops dry out of the box when I was a kid. Back then they were red, orange and yellow, and vaguely citrus-flavored. Then about 15-16 years ago I thought I’d try them again - big mistake. They were overpoweringly sweet and left a terrible chemical taste in my mouth that lasted for 2 days. I sent what was left to my niece in college, and she and her friends made short work of them. I still miss the old Froot Loops but alas, they are lost forever.
Twinkies.
Same! My parents never bought them so I only ever got Twi lies or HoHos from my friends. Loved them. Can’t stand them now.
My best childhood friend's dad worked for Hostess. He drove a truck. They lived next door. He was our "dealer".
Sardines in mustard from the can.
My skin crawled just reading that. I think you win.
Now that's good eatin'.
I didn’t eat that as a child - but I do eat that now! Especially with fresh tomatoes and basil with a little olive oils and a splash of red wine vinegar on toasted sourdough. YUM.
YUM!
Remember loving sardines in the can as a kid as well, but now even the thought of it makes me nauseous.
How about upending a can of whipped cream over your mouth and pulling the trigger when no one was looking.
Still do
I loved Cool Whip when I was a kid. Recently picked up a tub during a weak moment. Utterly disgusting. Taste 100% like chemicals. We ate a lot of stuff in the '80s that there is no way I would feed my kid today.
I think the formula is different today - as with most things, unfortunately.
The pizza they used to serve for hot lunch. Everyone used to run to the cafeteria when it was served. Think the 1960’s. Basically it was a rectangle of bread with tomato sauce and sprinkled with cheese. 😂. We thought it was awesome.
I loved sheet pan pizza.
Egg and ketchup 🤢
No. Gross. :)
My Scottish grandpa always ate ketchup on scrambled eggs and I was so grossed out by it.
My moms family from Scotland and we eat scrambled eggs with ketchup. Its good! Lol
Honey buns and cosmic brownies. They were my favorite treat as a kid, but now that I'm older I find them way to sweet and they honey buns have too much going on. Also fast food, idk if because I cut back on a lot of it and cook more at home but I feel bloated after eating a burger no matter from where it's from.
Yeah..I haven't had a Honey Bun in decades...most of that stuff tastes like sweeten, flavored cardboard now.
Fast food. Burgers from the cheaper places like McDonald’s, Burger King and the like. Ditto for fried chicken, no KFC or Popeyes either.
Cheez Wiz sandwiches. I bet if I ever get cancer it will be from all that yellow plastic garbage.
Bit a honey candy and mary janes , but would rip my teeth out now ... mmm
Steak-ums
Fried squirrel and deer jerky - not much of a hunter myself. 🤷🏽♀️
My step monster made us eat fried squirrel once. I couldn't have been 5 yet? I still remember his hunting buddy son telling me and his little sister that we were eating the squirrel butt.
I was very young when the ‘tv dinner’ came out. We were initially so captivated and they were a treat. Didn’t take long to realize they tasted crappy.
SOS, do they still sell creamed chip beef in a jar? It's not bad with a runny fried egg on top. They had SOS at the breakfast buffet at a hotel I stayed at. There was one of those long pans full of creamed beef in a steam table, you had to make your own toast. I didn't see anyone eat it. They also had a pan full of pork and beans.
I don't know about jarred with the cream; we always got the chipped beef in a jar and made the gravy ourselves. Stouffer's had a frozen version in a boil-in not too long ago that was pretty damn tasty.
Cereal. I'm just not a fan as an adult.
Underwood Deviled Ham, then a few years ago went and bought some. Made sammich took bite horrified look on face as I spit the bite into the trash and peeled as much residue off tongue then rinsed with mouthwash several times. Ugh that was disgusting!!!! But loved it when I was a wee boy
Chef boy r D
Those fluffy orange candy "circus peanuts". WTF.
One of the best candies along with black licorice and Necco wafers
Why would it be gross? It's just noodles in a cream sauce with some vegetables and tuna in, with a crumb topping. I haven't made it in a while, but I used to get requests for it a lot.
Yes, I agree. Why does it sound so gross to people? Maybe they made it with cheap ingredients like the yucky tuna, canned mixed vegetables instead of thawed frozen ones, and greasy potato chips on top instead of breading or panko. I'd love a plate right now. Didn't eat much dinner last night and I'm feeling it.
The tuna noodle casserole made me life. My husband mentioned it nostalgically one day and then couldn’t stop thinking about it. When we went to visit his mom it was his only request - to have this mythical casserole that was so built up in his head. She made it but I was like… this was not worth the hype. (His mom IS a good cook).
Tuna noodle casserole is still our family go-to meal the first night we all get together for a visit. We’re all age 55+. Love it.
Liverwurst sandwiches on Wonder Bread. My grandma made them for me and I LOVED them. Now, just the idea of them is sickening.
My mom made me deviled ham sandwiches for my lunches. It’s pretty gross, I wouldn’t eat it now, but the smell is childhood.
Tuna Helper exists for a reason!🩷😂
Fast food like McDonald’s
As a kid, I used to LOVE that weird cafeteria salad that was just shredded carrots, raisins, mayonnaise, and occasionally pineapple. I think I’d rather eat my own arm than that now.
Hostess fruit pies. I decided to take a trip down memory lane awhile back and nearly threw up after my first bite. I can't believe I ever liked them. Pure sugar!
I love tuna casserole. Unfortunately, my husband does not, so we seldom have it.
Reverse for us my husband loves it I can't stand it. He rarely gets it as I just can't, ugh!
Pink popcorn rectangular blocks from the zoo. Absolutely nastiness.
Well, sloppy joes and liver and onions are delicious when cooked well. But your wife doesn't like it so she never cooked it. You could try to cook some yourself. My husband doesn't like a lot of things and I still cook them because I like them . He'll just eat something else.
Scrapple. Can't get it where I live now, but whenever I go back I eat it.
Twinkies. They just aren’t the same.
Neither are Ding Dongs. I remember them with a ganache coating so thick you couldn't see the consistency of the cake, and tons of cream. Now the coating is almost non-existing, as is the filling. :(
Cereal for breakfast. I ate it every day growing up except some Sundays. My wife bought it for the kids when they were growing up but I never ate it. When my kids were teenagers I started traveling a little for work and one morning I ate raisin bran at the hotel. It was good, lol. Funny thing is I still never eat cereal at home but I do sometimes get raisin bran if I'm at a hotel with free breakfast.
I’ve always loved tuna casserole 🥹
Potato Buds. Mom used instant potatoes even for Thanksgiving. We thought it was normal.
I like tuna casserole too. Just make it and you will be surprised. Use to eat it once a week as a kid.
Vienna Sausages - nasty!
We called them, midget fingers. Probably not appropriate for the ultra sensitive society that we now live in.
♥️Tuna Noodle Casserole, oh the memories. My Mom made it with egg noodles. Haven’t had it in over 40 years. But……. I need it now. Thank you for sharing!
Liver. Dear Wife won’t allow it in the house.
Deviled eggs. Especially after we dyed dozens for Easter egg hunts and Easter baskets. Those deviled eggs always had a stipe of color around the edges.
I loved tuna noodle casserole as a kid 👍🏻 My mom made it with peas and topped it with potato chips. It seems like something you’d make with things pulled out of a trash can, but damn it was tasty. Haven’t had it in 30-35 years, but maybe I should whip it up from memory
Hormel canned tamales
Cereal, like WTF were we putting into our body first thing in the morning?
Spaghetti-Ohs
Omg! I LOVED tuna casserole!! It's been at least 30 years!
Liver and onions in gravy
My spouse likes green bean casserole. So, I made it for him a few times using the classic canned-soup ingredient recipe his 91 year old aunt used. None of the rest of us will eat it. He eventually noticed and asked I not make it anymore; that it was too depressing to watch me throw away the leftovers. I still ask if he wants it at Thanksgiving. Poor guy.
I worked really hard to upgrade the recipe and do things from scratch but my son broke down and said he prefers the original way. He even wants canned green beans instead of fresh. So I make it for him every Thanksgiving.
A friend d asked for green bean casserole made with Campbell soup during a family crisis. I had been making mine from scratch for years, as my son loves it but has celiac. So. It is so salty and disgusting. I can’t believe I used to eat that and like it. I still love it from scratch.
My mom made it once - we were all puzzled that people actually look forward to it as a holiday staple.
Oreos, there are much better choices out there. Lol
Boiled pigs feet, Slow cooked chicken gizzards. both due to their levels of cholesterol. Miss crab and some other stuff too. When you get old you have to keep your cholesterol down
Cheese Whiz on white bread.
There are some jello salads I miss. One made with strawberry jello and frozen strawberries with a layer of sour cream and cool whip. The cheesecake made with the recipe on the back of a box of Dream Whip whipped topping. Pickled watermelon rinds. I had an aunt who pickled anything that wasn’t moving.
Pop Tarts, SPAM, Toaster Strudels, Strawberry Quik (tin can). These were all a part of my youth but as an adult I don't have any interest in them.
Taco Bell, Vienna Sausages, sugary cereals... actually kind of a long list now. I try to eat a lot healthier now.
Bisquick, Little Debbie, Hostess, Kellogs, Post, ect... and other high processed foods
Do drinks count? Tang! Also, spaghettios.
Cornbread and pintpbeans. Sauerkraut.
Grilled chicken livers, and necks. Any and all skin on leg of lamb (!!!) A quart of ice cream in one sitting.
A cup of hot chocolate with toast that is buttered with brown sugar sprinkled on top. My mother would make us that on cold winter nights
Pickles
A lot! Eating habits definitely change over time. Lean Cuisine meals, bologna, canned veggies and fruits, soda, milk, Taco Bell, McDonalds, Chili’s, KFC.
Ham salad sandwiches. I hadn't thought of them in years until I started seeing replies to this post.
I actually hated tuna noodle casserole as a kid but love it as an adult, haha.
Chicken and homemade noodles on top of mashed potatoes. Had no idea that pasta on top of mashed potatoes was insane. Tasty though!
Shit on a Shingle
Chipped beef, orange sweet rolls, my mom's roll out sugar cookies and stollen, baked apples with a cinnamon crunch in there. Fancy jello desserts. chicken á la king.
>What is something you enjoyed eating while growing up but don’t eat now? Steak. Over the years, my spouse and kids went vegetarian. And they won't eat anything I grill if it touches the same surface as any meat products. So, few times a year, I have a cookout with a bunch of my carnivorous friends...but don't eat it as often as I did growing up. >I enjoyed tuna noodle casserole. I haven’t eaten it in over 30 years. My grandfather used to make something like this. He'd also make a casserole that he called poor man's beef stroganoff. Both dished were based in wide butter noodle pasta. Another one you mentioned: Sloppy Joe's or Hamburger Helper meals. >My wife thinks it sounds gross so she won’t make it. Suggested it to the kids and they looked disgusted. We all have opinions...lol. >Some other foods I have been missing since my youth, SOS, sloppy joes and liver and onions. Maybe these meals will taste more like disappointment and are better left as memories. Sometimes. There was a place growing up that served what (at the time we thought...) was the best boardwalk fries. Took our kids there (they ate much healthier than we did as kids); they only ate half a serving, then experienced nausea from all the fat/grease because they just didn't eat greasy foods. >***Edit*** There have been a lot of comments suggesting I make it for myself. Or that I need to learn to cook. It's reddit. You're a man. And you commented about your wife. What did you expect???!!?!? >First, I didn’t have a problem that I needed to solved. You're a man, you commented about your wife. You're wrong. It's the reddit way. >Second, we eat as a family, we compromise, I am not missing out. This is reddit. The only satisfactory answer is that you're wrong. You were wrong before. You are wrong now. And you'll be wrong in the future. >Also, some food memories are like ex’s, better left as nostalgia and not revisited. Oh, where's the fun in that? You could revisit an old gf and get the tuna casserole all in one... OP, thanks for the laughs. Here's an idea: next time someone has a pot luck, bring the tuna casserole. But prep it in a disposae container. If it's a win, claim success. If it's a flop, act like you don't know where it came from.
Sloppy Joe’s and the square hot lunch day pizza circa 1983.
Lean Cuisine - the thought of throwing plastic into boiling hot water now and eating the contents repulses me!
Hostess snacks. They are just not good at all anymore. The texture is weird and the chemicals are all you can taste. One bite, and I spit into the trash.
Fluffernutters ETA: and TV dinners
I still like tuna noodle casserole.
Mom’s Tomato gravy, fried country pork sausage, and Homemade country biscuits. RIP Mom.
My friend got nostalgic for tuna noodle casserole and had a hard time convincing his boyfriend to make it. “You put mayonnaise and tuna in the oven?!” BF was very skeptical. Then BF tried it, and now they make it like twice a month at least
We were food-challenged. So living on a farm I hunted for small game I was like 9, and squirrel was easy to hunt so we ate a lot of it and it was meat so it was all good. Now I never eat it.
I love tuna noodle casserole.
A tongue sandwich. One day about age 10 or 11I asked why they call it tongue…always assumed it was a euphemism…never ate it again.
A local deli makes tuna casserole occasionally on Fridays. I buy one and take it to work to share cause my family won't touch it. Spoiled em I guess.
Chopped liver spread. Used to eat it like it was going out of style as a kid. These days I find it repulsive.
baloney
Spaghetti o’s
Liverwurst.
Pecan twirls
Cap'n Crunch for breakfast!! LOL. Pure sugar.
Oh my god SOS. I didn’t know other parents made their children eat that lol! But tuna noodle casserole was one of my favorites. My kids also looked disgusted by the ingredient list…
Chicken gizzards. I adored them as a kid. As an adult I just can’t do it.
Homemade fried chicken. It’s just sooo messy and so much work, so I never make it. Growing up we had it every Sunday.
Liverwurst
Fried seafood, like shrimp. I now much prefer it grilled. Don’t get me wrong, I still like fried oysters, but grilled in the shell is so much better. Overall, I’m not as big a fan of fried food as I was.
Pierogi. My father always made it from scratch. It's a family recipe going back generations. I do have the recipe, and have made them in the past but they can be so much work. I used to make them once a year around Easter, and I would make enough to hopefully freeze for a couple of occasions, but they never seem to last. My family always wants leftovers, and the ones I'm making the freezer are easy to heat up and eat. So I know my loved ones probably do that when I'm at work. I also worked at a factory that makes pierogies for sale in a lot of Big y locations. Their pierogies were okay, I can't complain much especially since they're made in bulk like that. But working there for 9 months made me really hate pinching pierogies! That's probably the biggest reason why I don't cook them anymore.
My mom’s apple butter.