Junk food people would be surprised you like?

It's confession time. There has to be some grocery store item, perhaps introduced to us in our childhood, that we still occasionally buy and make, even though we know it's junk and some type of a cheap-shot ripoff of some noble dish in an effort to bring it to the masses who can barely boil water.

In my case, it's Rice a Roni. Chicken flavor. It's a mock of risotto, I know, and includes a Sandra Lee-approved packet of powdered seasonings. And it's salty as all heck (even the "low sodium version"). But from time to time, I crave it. I even went out and bought a box after seeing the street cars featured during the All-Star game recently, because that's what they reminded me of.

Does anyone else indulge in some prepackaged food that is not, ahem, "Good Eats?"

I have a particular fondness for the usual Velveeta Shells and Cheese but I add a bag of frozen peas to the boiling macaroni water so it becomes Mac and Cheese And Peas.

One meal my mom served with some consistency was macaroni and cheese (which she made with velveeta and milk) with meatloaf and peas. I always largely ignored the meatloaf and mixed the peas right into the mac and cheese.

I don't eat it too terribly often because it has about 80 grams of fat and zero grams of nutrition but every once in awhile it hits the spot.

My husband thinks its possibly the grossest thing ever and he wants no part of peas in his cheese.

Campbell's tomato soup and bean-with-bacon soup. Because Mom used to make them for us for lunch in grade school. We ran all the way home, had soup and cheese sandwiches, watched Bozo Circus, and ran all the way back.

I really do like instant mashed potatoes sometimes. Mostly as a vehicle for butter, but sometimes I like the fake, processed taste they come with.

I tend to stay away from most of the processed food boxes as a whole because they are generally WAY too salty for my tastes now - I did however grow up eating them all the time - R-A-Roni, Mac&cheese, Lipton side dishes et al. PLUS the canned "pasta" Chef Boy ar dee stuff - used to love it as a kid (like just about every kid.)

Husbands fav lunch- Campbell tomato soup, grilled cheese and Fritos.

Has to be Shake n Bake for me. I know I can do my own, but something about the Shake n Bake that I still buy it. Hate to admit this, I even help along the seasoning, cause I can't find the hot and spicy anymore, so add red pepper flakes.

I feel guilty about the dinner I made last night, though I will do it again. Shane 'N' Bake pork chops, Mott's original apple sauce, boxed au gratin cheesy potatoes, and canned green beans. I like it!

-ramon

nicinchic wrote:Husbands fav lunch- Campbell tomato soup, grilled cheese and Fritos.

Has to be Shake n Bake for me. I know I can do my own, but something about the Shake n Bake that I still buy it. Hate to admit this, I even help along the seasoning, cause I can't find the hot and spicy anymore, so add red pepper flakes.

Mmmm . . . Shake n' Bake pork chops. One of the best things my Mom made. Seriously.

Ramon wrote:I feel guilty about the dinner I made last night, though I will do it again. Shane 'N' Bake pork chops, Mott's original apple sauce, boxed au gratin cheesy potatoes, and canned green beans. I like it!

You don't seem guilty at all. You seem downright proud!

As much as I love quality chocolate, there's a certain perverse thrill about some of the really crappy stuff:

• Ho-Hos. Waxy thin layer of choc over creme rolled chocolate-colored cake. Mmmmmm.
• Yoo Hoo Double Fudge - why do I drink this when a Dean's Milk Chug is cheaper, more chocolatey, and bigger? I don't know. I really don't. But I drink it anyway when I see it in a minimart. Maybe it's the nearly dairy-less flavor that hints of egg creams?

Hi,

I had a friend in Germany who used to live the USA. She regularly requested Shake and Bake.

Regards,

okay...here's my confession -- every once in awhile, I have to go buy two cans of spaghettios -- one with franks and one with meatballs and mix them together and have for a meal.

I especially like to load it up with parmesan cheese and I do mean the dried, non parmigiano parmesan cheese. It's like a total sodium fest and I think I usually have it with about a gallon of water.

But...it's only every once in awhile.

shan

Spam. Fried crisp.

Well, my list is probably going to have my LTH registration suspended, but here we go.


- Taco Bell (I don't know what it is made of, but the fire sauce makes it taste good!)
- Jewel brand supreme frozen pizza
- Kruncher's original flavor dragged through cream cheese and Pickapeppa sauce
- Hamburger Helper stroganoff flavor
- Kraft Cheese'n Macaroni
- Fruity Pebbles


Flip

Flip, you and I must be related, because my answers are almost identical:

-Taco Bell (fire sauce is a must. Also, I am still lamenting the loss of the glorious late 90s concoction, the 3-cheese melt. I've tried to recreate it with zero success), which is the food equivalent of a holey, frayed sweatshirt for me.
-Kraft Mac and Cheese, blue box, dried cheese powder. the food equivalent of the ratty Paddington Bear I slept with every night until junior high.
-Fruity Pebbles! the food equivalent of sunday morning cartoons.

-mac & cheese with fried hotdogs.
-oreos (I can eat a whole bag without even thinking about it)

I guess I could name a lot of store bought cookies. My mom was a stay at home mom so she always made everything from scratch, including the baked goods. I thought it was a huge treat to get store bought cookies at a friends house, silly me.

I have to agree on the Velveeta and Shells. I mix in a can of stewed tomatoes and bake with some Sargento mozzerella on top to make "Italian Mac & Cheese." College favorite.

Also, after enough drinks and not enough food, I still crave frozen (and then microwaved) Home Run Inn pizza (pepperoni).

Fish sticks, canned stewed tomatoes, green beans.

(when I was a teacher, they gave us free lunch, and soup was always whatever had been for lunch the day before. Cream of Fish Stick soup was my favorite)

I'm not sure if this counts as junk food, but since I eat so little junk food:

Wonder bread with Skippy peanut butter (creamy) and smucker's strawberry jam.

I'm a PB&J lover since I could barely walk. Nowadays, I'm mainly eating natural PB, gourmet jams, and fancy breads (because I am an effete snooty-pants dilettante), but every now and again, I get a craving for the sugar-laden PB&J of my youth.

Best,
Michael

I too like Spam - especially panfried on toasted bread with a little mayo and sliced tomato.

I like those pink & white confetti frosted animal crackers. The bright pink should be scary enough to deter me from eating them, but they're goood.

Brown sugar and cinnamon Pop Tarts--Frosted....mmmmm warm sugar for breakfast

And I second the frosted animal cookies, with sprinkles

We love the White Castle cheeseburgers you can buy in the freezer section!

Jello Whip 'n Chill -- which while no longer sold in supermarkets is still available by mail (I've ordered it from Vermont Country Store in institutional-size pouches.) It's my favorite childhood memory dessert from the 60s; a faux chocolate mousse that no other boxed product comes near to.

However, if you ask Barbara, she joneses for Junket Rennet Custard (ick).

>>Brent

earthlydesire wrote:okay...here's my confession -- every once in awhile, I have to go buy two cans of spaghettios -- one with franks and one with meatballs and mix them together and have for a meal.

I especially like to load it up with parmesan cheese and I do mean the dried, non parmigiano parmesan cheese. It's like a total sodium fest and I think I usually have it with about a gallon of water.

But...it's only every once in awhile.

shan

This is what I mean about the strange, processed cravings. Last summer, I had this strange craving for canned Chef Boyardee ravioli. It sucks, it's not good, authentic ravioli and it comes from a can dammit. But nothing else would do. And as I was "preparing" it, I remembered that I ate that crap almost daily during the summer for lunch as a latchkey kid. (What kid can't open a can of Chef Boyardee and warm it up in a pan?) I think that sometimes these cravings are triggered by some weird group of brain cells in the back of your head -- the ones that lay dormant for months or even years, and then awaken to remind you of the things you'd eat as a kid.

I fully support the eating of skippy peanut butter and smuckers jam on wonderbread. I guess it could be called junk food, I call it "excellence".

This morning I had a peanut butter and bacon (on toasted sourdough) sandwich for breakfast.

This is what I mean about the strange, processed cravings. Last summer, I had this strange craving for canned Chef Boyardee ravioli. It sucks, it's not good, authentic ravioli and it comes from a can dammit. But nothing else would do. And as I was "preparing" it, I remembered that I ate that crap almost daily during the summer for lunch as a latchkey kid. (What kid can't open a can of Chef Boyardee and warm it up in a pan?) I think that sometimes these cravings are triggered by some weird group of brain cells in the back of your head -- the ones that lay dormant for months or even years, and then awaken to remind you of the things you'd eat as a kid.

I soooo get what you're talking about here. It triggered a memory of my teen years when I would make my mom buy me canned chili -- sometimes Hormel but I really liked the Armour in the blue can. Now...I haven't picked up a can of that chili in YEARS...but now, after having read your comments....i'm thinking I might have to go check out the shelves and get myself one. I can smell it right now. OH so sodium-y, oh, so bean-y. It never was very good for my system. <grin>

Most of the things I want to eat when I have that memory cell wake up call are things I made from scratch though. Potato soup made with onioin powder and milk instead of being cooked in broth, Au gratin potatoes -- in fact, it's funny because I just got back from visiting my sisters and my middle sister begged me to make her the family "au grats" because she's a lousy cook and she missed them so much. So there I was at 10 am making au gratin potatoes so she could get a taste of home. <grin> They were awfully tasty though.

Mmm....anyone who knows me would NOT be surprised by this revelation, but I loooove green bean casserole. Yes, the gloppy, faux-mushroomy, canned green bean, canned fried onions mess.

I have been known, on more than one occasion, to cook up a batch and eat it for breakfast.

Also, on the snack front (though really, green bean casserole is a more than adequate snack if I decide to call it a snack), I also semi-secretly love Funyuns, the onion-flavored rings. I always feel like people are judging me when I eat them, though, because they smell so foul. I generally only eat them in the privacy of my home.

Mary Kitchen corned beef hash, or really any canned corned beef hash as long as it isnt low-fat. Fried very crispy, with maybe some onions thrown in (to make it healthy), and a couple of fried eggs on top.

-Will

WillG wrote:Mary Kitchen corned beef hash, or really any canned corned beef hash as long as it isnt low-fat. Fried very crispy, with maybe some onions thrown in (to make it healthy), and a couple of fried eggs on top.

-Will

Ooh, yum, another secret junk food addiction of mine. I blame my parents for that one, since it was always on hand in our house. Don't forget the tabasco, though.

This is almost as much fun as reading the thread on restaurants we remember from our youths and childhoods. As I read, I'm thinking, "Oh, yeah, I remember Whip 'n' Chill -- used to love it." and "Oh, yeah, I remember that canned corned beef hash-- used to live on it." And Hamburger Helper Stroganoff -- I remember making it once only about three days after my first dinner at Le Francais (we're talking late '70s here) and laughing out loud because I was so enjoying it only a few days after having had this world-class, sublime meal.

There are a few things on this list I don't remember (never had Shake 'n' Bake, for example, and don't think we did Chef Boyardee), and most of the items I remember fondly -- and though I haven't thought of some of them for ages, seeing them listed makes me want to run out and try them again.

Tomato soup got mentioned a couple of times -- but how about Tomato Bisque. Still Campbell's, but of the two, the latter became a stable at our house after it was introduced.

And Rice-a-Roni, green bean casserole, grilled cheese. Mmm.

I've gotta go shopping.

Fried bologna

Original Sara Lee All-Butter Pecan Coffee Cake

(Related: Sara Lee Pound Cake, toasted, with pat of butter)

Jay's Potato Chips

Orange Julius

Slim Jim's