Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Kid Food - Blast from the Past

I'm not trying to claim that I only ponder deep thoughts, but sometimes I find myself thinking of things that have absolutely zero impact on anything.  This morning was one of those times.  What lametastic thoughts went through my head?  I was remembering food that I liked as a kid.  If you're in my age bracket, perhaps you have fond memories of these foods too!

Rectangle shaped pizza from Little Ceasars - I can't be the only one who remembers when you'd get two rectangle-shaped pizzas in a ridiculously long cardboard box bottom with the entire thing covered by paper, can I?  My father does not eat cheese and, as a result, this was my first experience with pizza that wasn't in the lunchroom at school.  Speaking of such things. . .

French bread pizza - Who thought it would be a good idea to take a really thick piece of bread and pretend that it's an adequate pizza crust?  I don't know and I think it's awful as an adult, but I always begged my parents for lunch money on pizza day and this was always the pizza on the menu at the cafeteria.  I don't know if it's still a hit with kids, but I found a frozen one and tried it to see if I was missing something.  I wasn't.

English muffin pizzas - My mother usually bought brown bread (I think it was white bread with brown food coloring added) and that was it, but every now & then English muffins would end up in the house.  I loved topping them with everything from butter, peanut butter, honey, jelly, and most of all, pizza toppings.  My mom had a toaster oven on the counter and it was the perfect size to make a little English muffin pizza.  Kid cuisine at it's easiest!

Canned chocolate pudding - Yes, canned!  This was long before the plastic pudding snack cups showed up on the market and it was a perfect single serving of rich & delicious pudding.  I know it sounds horrible and I'll admit that it did have a slightly metallic taste, but this stuff was soooo good!  I don't recall exactly who made it, but I want to say it was Hunts or Del Monte.  I used to jam home after school, grab a tin of pudding, turn on the animated version of Dennis the Menace (followed by Heathcliff!) and chill out for an hour.

Canned macaroni & cheese - Yes, canned!  I want to say that Franco-American or Chef Boyardee provided this impossibly cheesy lunch favorite.  The cheese sauce was incredible (to my not-all-that-particular tastebuds), but the pasta is what made it so darn good.  It was mushy & weird like all canned pastas and it was perfect with the creamy-cheesy sauce.  It was in a blue-colored can and I've looked for it for years to see if it was really all that good or if nostalgia was swaying my memory.

Canned spaghetti - Are you seeing a theme here?  I swear that my mother did not raise me on canned foods (except vegetables, it was all about the canned vegetables - BLECH!), but she did buy them for weekend lunches so I've definitely had my fair share of preservatives.  This stuff from Franco-American looked like wormy brains, but it was really tasty with a sprinkle of garlic powder.  Yes, I added it to canned goods as a kid too.

Canned asparagus / canned spinach - Do they even still make this stuff?  Having enjoyed the deliciousness that are both of these vegetables freshly prepared, I can confidently say that I will never eat the limp and stinky (just what someone looks for in food, right?) canned versions ever again.

Ice-Cream Cones cereal - It was a cereal shaped like, well, ice-cream cones.  The jingle has stuck in my head for YEARS though I'm pretty sure it went off the market when I was still in elementary school.  "My name's Ice-Cream Jones.  I'm bringing the kids my ice-cream cones!"  My mother never, ever bought this cereal, so I can only dream how it might have tasted.  What cereal did I get?  Bags of puffed wheat, puffed rice, and other horrors.  I'm not being dramatic.  Seriously, did you even know that cereal comes just in bags?  No box, just a sack o' cereal.  Anyway, it was all horrible, but the puffed wheat turned into something that can only be described as Elmer's glue when it came in contact with milk. :::shudder:::

Tribbles - You know, I'm not positive on the spelling of these.  My Star Trek dorkiness might be why I think they were called Tribbles so they might actually be called Trebles?  It was a bag (like M & M size) of little cookies (again, about the size of an M & M).  I had these one glorious Summer and they disappeared off the shelf and out of my life. 

Astro-Pops - My all-time favorite lollipop!  These things seemed like they lasted all day long and they were kinda shaped like a rocket.  I'm embarrassed to admit that the Astros were my favorite baseball team for a long period of time because my under-6 aged brain thought they had something to do with my favorite lolly.  How much did I love these suckers?  I can vividly recall crying because I dropped one in the sand at the beach when I was around four.

Vienna sausages - I know these still exist, but I feel the need to admit the shameful truth:  I freaking loved these disgusting wieners.  The smell would probably make me gag now and sticking my fingers in the weird jelly that they are packed in definitely would, but OMG I LOVED these things.  How much did I love them?  I'd eat them straight from the can.  No need to class up these babies!

Have you ever eaten any of this stuff?  If so, did you like it?  What crazy food did you eat as a kid?

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