#928 Eating foods you loved when you were a kid

Neil Pasricha

Grab a spoon and turn on Saved By The Bell

The flood of memories that come shooting back when you eat food you loved as a kid is a giant, neuron-splattering head rush.

You get transported back to the kitchen you grew up in and can practically see the avocado-green stove, three-hundred pound microwave, and plastic alphabet magnets covering the fridge.

So come on, let’s all go back together now:

•Mac N’ Cheese N’ Chopped Up Hot Dogs. Call it Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, call it Kraft Dinner, call it whatever you want. But after you whip up a box of it, nothing’s better than chopping up some hot dogs to go in it. Optional here are the massive squirts of ketchup. Not optional is eating the whole box.

Thank goodness for canned pasta•Canned pasta. Whether your fancy is Chef Boyardee’s Mini-Bites, Beef Ravioli, or the tangy ketchupy sweetness that comes from a soupy bowl of Spaghetti-Os, these piles of of sodium and meatpaste definitely tickle the memory bone.

•Squished up balls of fresh bread. This one involves taking a piece of really soft, really fresh bread, ripping off all the crusts, and then rolling it into a tight, white ball of dense deliciousness. Feel free to hide a wedge of butter in the core there, too.

•Tang. The beautiful thing about Tang is that as you get older, you can just water it down a bit if you can’t handle the sweetness anymore. Or you can do the opposite and have yourself a glass of Super Tang.

•Melted Cheese. This is one that my sister and I used to love. We would put a piece of bread on a plate, slice up five thin slices of cheese, and then nuke it for 30 seconds. We had it down to an exact science. Once in a while things would get a little crazy and we’d put some tomato sauce on it, but mostly just Melted Cheese. A perfect name for a perfect after-school snack.

•Liquid antibiotics. Okay, it’s not really a food, but how about that banana penicillin you used to get? You can apparently still ask for it as an adult, but you might need to take eight teaspoons three times a day.

Ritz can take the crackers, but don't mess with the cheese

•Those Cheese Spread Cracker Kits with the Red Plastic Stick. Who else always ran out of cheese way before they ran out of cracker?

•Your favorite sandwich. Maybe today you’re on a health kick, but remember when your favorite sandwich was bologna and Kraft singles cheese? Or salami and mayo? Or how about that weird-looking macaroni-and-cheese ham? Of course, you might have had your own personal favorite, like my friend Scott who used to eat Ketchup and Mustard sandwiches or my friend Mike who was a fan of the ol’ peanut butter and tomato. Not bad, not bad.

A tasty box of salt•Lunchables. If you could get past the portion control, you might remember building a decent cracker-cheese-ham pile with these things. Of course, there was the time when they suddenly released a pizza version and totally blew everyone’s mind.

Cooking up deliciousness•Mom’s Spaghetti Sauce. Was your mom a Ragu in a pot kind of gal? Or a slow, all-day simmering type of lady? Did she leave the mushrooms chunky, chop them real fine, or leave them out completely? What was her position on onions, on melted cheese on top, on meatballs versus meat sauce? If you grew up with homemade spaghetti sauce, I’m willing to bet it’s still something that tastes amazing today.

•Cold hot dogs straight from the fridge. Oh, don’t worry. The worms all died in the factory.

Barely won out over Family Circus cereal or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cereal

•Sugar Cereals. I ate Corn Pops every day for breakfast for nearly a decade and somehow I survived. These days, you can always ‘cut it’ with an adult cereal if it’s too sweet. Throw some plain Cheerios on those Honey Nut Cheerios or some Corn Flakes on those Frosted Flakes. Just don’t tell anybody, old man.

Now, let’s be honest, sometimes the foods you loved as a kid slowly drift away and disappear. Grandma passes on and her secret meatball recipe is buried with her, you move away from the sibling you used to bake your special squares with at Christmas, or the sugar in your sugary cereal suddenly turns into a more profitable high-fructose apartame syrup.

But that’s why it’s doubly important to treasure those adult glimpses into your childhood tastes. That’s why you gotta love those perfect little loves at first bite. That’s why the memory-jolts from the sugary treats and salty snacks are such amazing little highs. Because even though your stomach may not always thank you for it, your brain surely will.

AWESOME!

Served open-faced for presentation

Photos from: here, here, here, here, here, and here

179 thoughts to “#928 Eating foods you loved when you were a kid”

  2. We must be about the same age. And on my upcoming 29th birthday, I just might enjoy a glass of Tang. Do they still make it?! Thanks for writing this… great memories!

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  4. For my brother’s 40th birthday I made up a ‘care package’ with as many of the things we loved to eat as kids growing up. Took me months to assemble it (some I had to send away for even – specific brands were essential). It was a huge hit.

  5. Anyone else remember Kraft Spaghetti in a box with the tin of sauce and packet of herbs? Or, the pizza kit?
    How about Squeeze-a-snack? – That orange plastic sausage of cheese with the plug-hole in the side. Anyone?

    Fave childhood comfort food has to be Campbell’s Tomato Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches on white bread with Kraft Singles.

    Heck, my mom had all the Kraft booklets with recipes! Oh! How about Cheez whiz and Miracle whip on bread under the grill? – Bubbly Cheez Bread anyone?

    Kat

    1. Hey, I remember Kraft Squeeze a snacks…the hickory bacon one especially. Anyone know why they took this off the market? My husband and I were telling my sons about it. Tried to google it but could only find this site.

  6. Oh, I almost forgot – Pillsbury crescent rolls wrapped around hot dogs – aptly named “Wiener Wraps” (we had a good laugh about that as kids, let me tell you).

    Kat

  8. I used to smoosh marshmallows into a gooey ball and called them taffy…
    and yogurt with the fruit on the bottom!

  9. Dude! You nailed these! My sandwich was a fried bologna sandwich…it makes me feel like I’m gonna puke now!

  12. Some of my memories to add to the pile:

    – Fruit Roll ups! NO fruit, just sugar, loved the shapes you could “peel” out.
    – Putting chips in your bologna and cheese sandwich, the crunch was awesome.
    – Nestle Quik (sp?) for making chocolate milk, but making it super thick with extra “mix”
    – Grape or Orange Crush – Can you still get that?
    – Spaghetti-O sandwiches in a sandwich press – Take two slices Wonder bread, a couple of spoons of Spaghetti-O’s, a slice of processed cheese, and butter. Put the constructed sandwich in the sandwich press until crispy on the outside. Dip in Mayo for extra calories. Yum.
    – those little plastic bottles of watery juice that had the foil tops. You didn’t take the foil off, you just poked the straw through it.
    – Nutella. Oh my it was good on Wonder bread… really, what wasn’t good on Wonder bread?

  13. Grilled cheese, SpaghettiO’s with potato chips in them and those little vienna franks….wow, this brings back memories! And what where those weird triangluar packages that you could tear off the top and add to your milk to make a shake? Oh, and those square peanutbutter cookies…they aren’t around anymore!

    1. Linda, I don’t know if you’ll ever see this, but if you are talking about the thin shell cookies with the peanut butter inside that come in a long strip, they are available. They’re now called Nutter Butter, just
      like the ones that are peanut shaped. I see them now and again at the SuperFresh. If you don’t live near that chain, try A&P if you still have them. To me, they still taste just as good.

      Barbar

    2. Oh my gosh! I can’t remember what those square peanutbutter cookies are called??!?!? those were soo good.

  14. My peanut butter sandwiches had Cheerios in the middle… my way of making “crunchy” peanut butter without the peanut part. I think I ate those through high school…

    and Dunkaroos anyone? Fruit by the Foot? Fruit Roll Ups?

  15. The secret to cheese and crackers is too divide the cheese into 4 with the red spreader. My children still love these in their lunches and have perfected the cheese/cracker ratio!

    I always liked to lick my finger and dip it in the Tang packet…pure sugar rush!!! No wonder my mom was always stressed out.

  16. We’re kids and we don’t like any of that utter crap. Try well-done steaks with a side of fresh parsley, lightly salted, on a mahogany plank. Top it off with special seasonings, extra bloody, and grilled in front of you with the smoke drifting into your nose, and your good.

    And of course, we meal could be complete with Angel Cheese Cake with a strawberry on top with extra frosting and cream cheese in the center?

  17. re: to Kat aka Poetikat and others
    Our families must have had similar taste buds, or brainwashed by the same TV ads. I have a box pizza kit in my kitchen cabinet right now, right down to the “too small” can of Parmesan! We used to get the spaghetti kit with the herbs as well. I felt so “grown up” when we “moved up” to bottle sauces, and separate pasta!

    The Kraft Squeeze-a-snack cheese spreads were my fave “cheeze” as a kid!!! I believe a “garlic” flavored cheese “tube” is still available, but they have removed the “x” cut replaceable cap and lid. Don’t tell me I was the only one to rip that thing apart and lick the wrapper! Gross I know, but I was a kid. What did I know.

    However my #1fave over all others were the Pillsbury Space Sticks. ….yummmmmm

    Those foil wrapped “tootsie-roll-like” snack bars almost became an addiction. The taste and texture were unique. When they disappeared I used stuck together tootsie rolls for withdrawal therapy.

    I could sit and eat a whole box o’ them tasty things. If someone still had a old stale box sitting around, I would seriously contemplate eating a stale space stick today.

    There was also the Marathon candy bar. I loved it, (especially frozen) but it kept shrinking in size over the years and then went away for good….so sad. Where’s my time machine, dadburnit!

  18. Rod check ebay…..looked to see and sho-nuf-space sticks!!
    How about Underwood deviled ham with mao on wonder bread? I LIVED on that, tried some a couple of years ago and it made me gag. And those sno-cones that your Snoopy sno-cone machine made? And Bit-o-Honey before we had fillings? Those blue “slushies” that were tiny balls of ice….

  19. Space Food Sticks :(

    Even now, just typing the words, I can sense a glimmer of their tasty wonder; see that thick foil wrapper.

    Sadly, they are no more. Some company in Australia sells what they CLAIM are Space Food Sticks, but trust me – I ordered some! They’re not!

    DO NOT BE FOOLED !!! :O

  21. Mac N’ Cheese N’ Chopped Up Hot Dogs is my all time childhood favorite minus the ketchup. Me it was a dab of mustard on every bit of hot dogs bites. Yummmy!! And my mom’s spagetti sauce. It would simmer on the stove for hours and the house smelled awesome, with the spices and garlic. So many great memories that are making me teary eyed because i lost my mom a couple of years ago.

    Great blog. Heard you on Terri & Patti’s this morning Friday Oct 10th.
    Have a great day, and looking forward to many more gawesome thing in the years to come.

    Hélène from Regina, SK.

  23. Dude, this is BANG on! How did you know? LOL. It seems so strange that such a large number of people could all enjoy the exact same things when they were kids. I was definitely surprised when you mentioned the kids medicine, I didn’t know of anyone else who liked it until now – man that stuff sure tasted great, haha.

  24. Best lunch in the world as a kid was a PBJ with cheetos in the middle(preferrably crunchy) and a big, glass bottle of ice cold pepsi to wash it all down. God that was good. I think that is what loves tastes like.

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  26. I used to love Kraft singles on one sandwich eaten together with a Vegemite sandwich. I thought I was alone until Kraft came out with Vegemite Singles. But either the proportions or the lack of distinction between the two made it just wrong.

    I also used to love Milo (think a slightly malty, crunchy version of chocolate Quick). Because of its expense (and there were 4 of us), our Mum limited us to one teaspoon; we just found the biggest teaspoon and kept adjusting our dig into the tin to get the highest pile on that spoon that we could. We were supposed to put this in a glass of milk… :-)

    Now I don’t eat dairy – that’s for unweaned calves – Milo is the only dairy containing thing I miss so I use Aktavite instead.

    Hot chips on a white bread sandwich.
    Farex – marketed as a baby food, it’s flaked rice that you mix with milk (and sugar) to the consistency you prefer. This one is reserved for weird craving days.

  28. My fave, and haven’t eaten it since i was probably 14 or 15, was peanut butter and BBQ sauce – i believe the sauce of choice was Open Pit. Both my brother and I grooved on it. Good stuff.

  29. My all time favourite was a little thing that we called frwnch fry soup – fries, ketchup, mayonaise smothered with gravy – yum

  30. Pastina!!!! Talk about the ultimate in comfort food-Ronzoni still makes it.

    And SSips juice boxes, and Teddy Bear brand Natural peanut butter….Every year, first day of school, I would bring the same lunch. Natural crunchy peanut butter and Shop-Rite brand strawberry preserves on Wonder Jumbo Sandwich bread…….never broke the tradition!

  31. yes, spaghetti-o’s on toast was great. wieners and beans on toast I still eat. Danish people think I’m nuts when I talk of the liverwurst and ketchup sandwiches I ate as a child, but they taught me to like strawberry jam and havarti cheese sandwiches.

  32. Frito Pie: frito chips at the bottom, chili on top of that, and shredded, melted cheese on top of that. I had the awesomest grandma!

    I could not (and still can’t) eat bologna unless it was fried, well-done. Then it was mustard and sometimes cheese. “Raw” bologna definitely gives me that too-many-hotdogs feeling.

  34. count chocula, lucky charms, cookie crisp, trix, … and each box constituted one meal… especially count chocula!!!

    peanut butter, nutella and homemade jam (mommy makes the best jams :D)

    banana milk, anybody? I don’t think it exists anymore, but I remember as a treat on Christmas, Banana milk!

    sigh… what can’t be put on this list of deliciousness!??!

  35. When I was living with my cousin and his kids we’d often have “white trash lunch” on a Saturday afternoon. Of course, this was really just nostalgia lunch but since we grew up in southern Illinois the name seems appropriate. Anyway, this consists of a bologna and generic cheese singles slice (not Kraft) with Miracle Whip on 2 slices of delicious hard almost stale Wonderbread, with a little bowl of Spaghetti-O’s for dunking the sandwich in. Served with a tall icy glass of Grape Crush. Delicious!

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  37. Niche Foods is relaunching an “Old Time Favorite.” Lemon Cookies “Cooler than Ever” are launching nationally in all Safeway banner store over Easter. They are just as you remember. Crisp Lemon Cookies rolled i whit powdered sugar. They are truly “Cooler than Ever.”

  39. One word: Bugles.

    Those little wizard’s-hat shaped chips that you’d stack on all of your fingers until you were all out of wide-bottomed chips. And then you’d crunch on them straight off of your fingers until they began falling apart. It was even better if they were cheese flavor.

    Deliciousss. Can’t seem to find them anywhere, though. Bummer :[

  41. I hit the jackpot when my best friends dad became a sales rep for the food service place that provided the original, retangled shaped school pizza. Somehow those were the best pizza’s in the world. My parents bought us a case. They came frozen in a big sheet and you had to break them off via their serated edges. I’d eat 4 at a time.

    While I’m on pizza What about the tiny pizza’s that preceeded Bagel Bites? They were way better as they also came in a tin sheet tray with indivual compartments.

    Lastly I going with Manwich slooy joes with optional potato chips inside!

  42. Leah…you’re right about Bugles. I found the cheese flavor the other day and tried the sweet carmel ones too. :)
    Still have to put some on my fingers when nobody is looking

  44. best post ever. literally every single one of those was my favorite. Alphaghetti, KD with ketchup and hot sauce, melted cheese, cold hot dogs!!! hahahaha i thought i was the only one with all of those. this truly is AWESOME!

  46. OMG, it’s interesting what one finds in various links.

    This post brings back many memories of Mac ‘n Cheese with cut up hot dogs (of which I still make a version of to this day and I am 33!). Spaghetti-Os (can’t get em now days since I don’t live in the States), sugar cerals (Frost Flakes please), and other childhood delicacies. Mom was a “take a jar of Ragu and jazz it up” kind of women, however I have since learned to make my own meat sauce. I didn’t go for Tang but many a Capri Sun pouch was sucked dry. And to this day, I still snack on cold hot dogs, straight out of the fridge. I love cold cheese stuff hot dogs. Mmm. I still eat the occasional PB&J.

  47. -Was my family crazy, or were we the only ones who spread peanut butter on our Fruit Roll Ups, and then rolled them back up?

    -My dad used to make plain macaroni with tons of butter, salt and pepper. Yum!

    -My sisters and I were often deprived of hot dog buns with a plethora of hot dogs, so we would put the hot dog on a slice of bread with some Kraft cheese (shredded if there weren’t any squares available) and eat our hot dogs that way.

    -Count Chocula, Campbell’s Bean with Bacon soup, and Chef Boyardee ravioli…meal staples still active in my kitchen today. :)

  48. Dunkaroos! Those were delicious. But my all-time favorite “kid” treat… War Heads! I still like them, but only for the sour portion, then get too sweet for me.

  49. I, as well, use a pit-bull who will be the most supportive animal I’ve ever owned. Soon, a fresh dog breed will arrive together for that media to blast, as they have done rotties and dobies in preceding years. Unfortunate that media sensationalism breeds a lot inaccurate data.

  50. Anyone from the South Hills area of Pittsburgh will probably remember Danny’s Pizza & Hoagies. They roast the Italian Hoagies in the pizza oven until the edges of the salami are crispy and the provolone is all melty. But the thing is, right now in 2010, I think they are using the same pans they used back in 1967. And everything else about the place is nearly identical. Especially the taste of those Italian Subs. It’s rare that when you go back and have something like that after 20 years that it tastes as good as you remembered it and exactly the same as you remembered it.

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