Do you have food memories of your struggling years?

[ChrisL]

I remember putting down lots of top ramen, frozen burritos and boxed Mac & cheese in my/our broke struggling days.  That and regular trips to my moms for meals.  

Do you remember what foods got you through during lean times?

[shootingstar]

What I prepared for self or what my mother prepared?

While I was studying, I did make Kraft mac 'n cheese, but I actually...put in peas or green beans half cooked before adding all the other stuff. I did have instant ramen occasionally and after finished my studies, then found a job, I stopped buying Kraft and instant ramen packs.  Latter really is not healthy because of the extra pkged seasonings/oil. Ugh.

When cooking during tough times, it was therapeutic, mindless distraction from intellectual head stuff.  So I tried to make the dish a tiny bit better.

I haven't had instant ramen pkgs., .... in the last 40 yrs. My "lazy" food is just drained boiled light noodles with  abit of oil and soy sauce. Or 2 steps more work, sautee some onion and then add noodles, mix with pesto. Yummy laziness.

[Further]

Brown rice

And hitting Red Barn burger joint at closing time cause they passed out the leftover burgers, buy a small drink and sip it till the girl came around with the burgers.

Weight wasn't an issue in those days

[Longjohn ★]

We ate a lot of cheap hotdogs. The kids loved it. We ate a lot of spaghetti my wife made her own sauce from tomatoes and peppers and onions from the garden. We ate venison that I shot and butchered myself. We never went hungry.

[ChrisL]

5 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

What I prepared for self or what my mother prepared?

While I was studying, I did make Kraft mac 'n cheese, but I actually...put in peas or green beans half cooked before adding all the other stuff. I did have instant ramen occasionally and after finished my studies, then found a job, I stopped buying Kraft and instant ramen packs.  Latter really is not healthy because of the extra pkged seasonings/oil. Ugh.

When cooking during tough times, it was therapeutic, mindless distraction from intellectual head stuff.  So I tried to make the dish a tiny bit better.

I haven't had instant ramen pkgs., .... in the last 40 yrs. My "lazy" food is just drained boiled light noodles with  abit of oil and soy sauce. Or 2 steps more work, sautee some onion and then add noodles, mix with pesto. Yummy laziness.

I guess it doesn’t matter, struggles were struggles.  My mom was financially OK after my dad passed but definitely no extra money.  But we ate well as she was a phenomenal cook. 

My financial struggles were after I left the house.
 

[groupw]

We are a lot of the standard cheap fare to get by. A couple that became family favorites- WoW would make spinach fettuccine noodles sautéed with a little oil, ham, basil, garlic and cheap grated Parmesan. 
The other I found by accident. I wanted a snack and there wasn’t much in the fridge. I grabbed some cottage cheese and some Nacho Doritos. Used the cottage cheese as a dip. I still love it!

[Wilbur ★]

Walleye.  I was a float pilot so I could drop a line and catch lunch anywhere.  Other than that, Hamburger helper and peanut butter sandwiches. 

[shootingstar]

29 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

I guess it doesn’t matter, struggles were struggles.  My mom was financially OK after my dad passed but definitely no extra money.  But we ate well as she was a phenomenal cook. 

My financial struggles were after I left the house.
 

I consider my financial struggles incredibly pale against my parents' for 6 children on a cook's salary. 

I remember my mother sitting at kitchen table,....peeling off meat from cooked chicken necks. To make a meat dish for her family. That's how far down the chain in terms of money she had to get meals for us at times. However...I NEVER felt hungry as a child.  That is incredible achievement based on an eldest child's (mine) memory.  Things improved abit by child 6 was a toddler. But my father was still a cook, he just worked at a better restaurant with better conditions.

I do have a dish from poverty childhood/teen years that I love preparing on my own for fall /winter several times every year:   stir fried butternut squash. It is to me, wonderful touchstone / heirloom family dish. thx, mom.

 50 years ago, butternut squash was dirt cheap and people didn't understand its versatility as they do now. 

[BR46]

After dad died there was a little country grocery store that would give us can goods the had missing labels so we had mystery meals. You didn't know what you were going to have until you opened the can. To this day I can't stand chicken pot pies. Mom bought a lot of them because they were 5 for a dollar. 

[ChrisL]

10 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

I consider my financial struggles incredibly pale against my parents' for 6 children on a cook's salary. 

I remember my mother sitting at kitchen table,....peeling off meat from cooked chicken necks. To make a meat dish for her family. That's how far down the chain in terms of money she had to get meals for us at times. However...I NEVER felt hungry as a child.  That is incredible achievement based on an eldest child's (mine) memory.  Things improved abit by child 6 was a toddler. But my father was still a cook, he just worked at a better restaurant with better conditions.

I do have a dish from poverty childhood/teen years that I love preparing on my own for fall /winter several times every year:   stir fried butternut squash. It is to me, wonderful touchstone / heirloom family dish. thx, mom.

 50 years ago, butternut squash was dirt cheap and people didn't understand its versatility as they do now. 

My older siblings have similar stories but being the youngest my dad was earning good money during my childhood.  When he died my mom was set up OK and lived frugally but we didn’t struggle. 

[Airehead]

When I was first married to Husband 1, we would shop very frugally.  We would often have enough money left over for a bag of pretzels or a store brand two liter coke-- but not both.  I can still remember discussions over which we would get.

I miss those days.

[Square Wheels]

I grew up in a Hostess house, I liked it - too much.

[JerrySTL ★]

On 7/25/2021 at 9:46 PM, BR46 said:

After dad died there was a little country grocery store that would give us can goods the had missing labels so we had mystery meals. You didn't know what you were going to have until you opened the can. To this day I can't stand chicken pot pies. Mom bought a lot of them because they were 5 for a dollar. 

When I was about 3 years old, I ripped off all the can labels at my home. My mom still talks about not knowing what we were going to eat until she opened the cans.

[Ralphie ★]

On 7/25/2021 at 10:27 PM, Further said:

Brown rice

And hitting Red Barn burger joint at closing time cause they passed out the leftover burgers, buy a small drink and sip it till the girl came around with the burgers.

Weight wasn't an issue in those days

I miss the Red Barn. I think it is largely because their salad bar was where I discovered chick peas. Mmmm-mmm!

[goldendesign]

When I grew up we had lean years and good years. The lean was never too bad but I do remember going to our churches pantry getting cans of beans and tuna to take home after Sunday service. There always was a casserole that got taken home too made by one of the other church ladies. Now that I think about it the Lutheran churches of city limits detroit were pretty great. When my dad made enough money that he moved us outside the city limits to the burbs we got better schools, better housing, and better foods but boy did the churches go to shit. I haven't actually been back to a service because of how horrible the people where to us back then. It has to be going on 25-27 years now. 
Midwestern "Karens" running a church group ruined organized religion for a whole generation of me's I think.

 

Weird how the memory of tuna, mac & cheese, onions and chili powder (go to staple in our house) brings out a completely different memory

[Longjohn ★]

On 7/25/2021 at 10:46 PM, BR46 said:

After dad died there was a little country grocery store that would give us can goods the had missing labels so we had mystery meals. You didn't know what you were going to have until you opened the can. To this day I can't stand chicken pot pies. Mom bought a lot of them because they were 5 for a dollar. 

Labels don’t fall off very often. Did you get some good stuff like beef stew and chili and baked beans? That grocer might have been pulling the labels off because he didn’t want you to feel you were getting charity.

[maddmaxx ★]

Honey sandwiches.

Succotash when my mother and I would pick a couple of corn ears and some lima beans, take them home, shuck the beans and cut the corn off the cob and cook it.

Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs 

[BuffJim]

Never had food insecurity. My money struggles in my 30s were the type where we had to forego something or put it on a credit card. But it wasn’t food mortgage car payments etc, it was furniture, vacations, car repairs, etc. 

I didn’t have a great understanding of nutrition in my 20s and 30s. Dinner was always meat, starch- often a boxed rice, pasta or potatoes and a vegetable. We drank tons of diet soda, and let the kids drink it too now. Wish we could have a do over on that. 

[BR46]

1 hour ago, Longjohn said:

Labels don’t fall off very often. Did you get some good stuff like beef stew and chili and baked beans? That grocer might have been pulling the labels off because he didn’t want you to feel you were getting charity.

That's probably true. My dad died and the age of 39 and had no life insurance so mom had 4 kids under the age of 18 and was making less than 4 dollars a hour. 

I think the owner of the store was friends with my dad in high school so they probably thought that this was a good way to help us out.