Remember when the TV basically raised us? Our parents were CONVINCED that brand names were the only safe way to feed a family. My mom was a Tide woman down to her bones, and she flat out refused to believe that Cool Whip would hold up better than real whipped cream on a potluck salad. She was wrong, but I loved her for it!
Sunday dinners at my house had a whole seating chart nobody ever wrote down but EVERYONE knew. My grandparents sat in the bay window. Mom and Dad had their assigned chairs, and heaven help you if you sat in Mom's chair! My brother and I got the couch. Weeknight meals are honestly a blur. I was doing a lot of the cooking by then, and I'm pretty sure my brother's nutrition was not my top priority!
Here are 10 foods from my 80s childhood that would absolutely never fly today, but sure made for some memories!
1. Fluff Salads
I didn't grow up with these much, but in college my boyfriend's mom made a banana fluff salad that changed my whole outlook. I'm not saying I stayed with that boy longer than I should have because of a marshmallow salad, but I'm also not NOT saying that!
2. Jell-O Salads
My mom had a signature Jell-O salad made with mandarin oranges, canned black cherries, and Coca-Cola. It was a potluck staple. I still remember the first time I saw a Jell-O salad with SHREDDED CARROTS suspended in it at a potluck table. I nearly clutched my pearls. Why. Just why?!?
3. Anything Made With Cream of Mushroom Soup
Campbell's was making BANK on the fact that our parents thought every easy weeknight dinner started with a can of cream of mushroom soup. Tuna casserole, green bean casserole, beef stroganoff, didn't matter. One can, endless possibilities.
4. Fondue
My mom lived in France while my dad was stationed there, so fondue was a real fancy party staple in our house growing up. The teak handled forks, the pointy ends, all of it felt so special. She loved her Gruyère, but if I'm honest my own fondue memories lean sweet. Chocolate dip forever!
5. A Literal Stick of Butter in Everything
I'm not going to pretend I've reformed on this one. I still cook with real butter and no guilt. My mom would sooner have let a stranger into the house than a tub of oleo!
6. TV Dinners
I have eaten more TV dinners than I care to admit, Salisbury steak tucked into its own little foil compartment and all. It was the easiest way to feed two kids without touching a single pot or pan. Honestly, are those meal delivery kits everyone uses now just the fancy grown up version of a TV dinner?
7. Scrapple and Canned Meats
I've always been a little jealous of Spam and deviled ham because my dad's Pennsylvania Dutch family gave us scrapple instead. If you don't know scrapple, it's basically every part of the meat nobody would eat on its own, all mixed together. Fried up hard in a pan until the edges get crispy, though? Genuinely good eating.
8. Shake 'n Bake
Shaking your chicken in a bag and tossing it in the oven felt like a whole event. Nobody NEEDED it to season chicken, it was just a clever way to get moms to buy a new product, kind of like that "set it and forget it" guy years later. My mom never got on the Hamburger Helper train, but we absolutely lived on sloppy joes.
9. Ragu Spaghetti Sauce
This one is a core memory and not a great one. For YEARS, whenever my dad was in charge of dinner, all he knew how to make was spaghetti with a jar of Ragu poured over plain noodles. I love spaghetti, but jarred sauce a few nights a week gets old fast. When Prego showed up, I genuinely felt like I had died and gone to heaven!
10. Bacon Grease in a Coffee Can
I can still picture my mom pouring bacon fat into an old blue Maxwell House can she kept right by the stove. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, like an egg fried in real bacon fat!
The Wrap Up
Growing up is such a big part of how we eat, and things have changed so much since we were kids. Now it's all about clean eating and giving our kids the healthiest start possible. It's a pretty different world from the one we grew up in.
But I still think food tasted better back then. The tomatoes from my grandpa's garden were incredible, that bacon fat made everything richer, and even those humble TV dinners hit different. Say what you want about the 80s, but our parents fed us with what they had, and most days, it was pretty darn good!
