What childhood foods have you outgrown?
Given my old age, it is somewhat hard to recall many of the foods I ate as a youngster:) Three things do come to mind tho'...I no longer have the desire to drink Kool-Aid, and Cheese Whiz will never be tasted again nor will I build saltine sandwich concoctions out of pickles & mustard! What foods did you eat as a kid but no longer seek out? Reason?
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42 Comments:
PB&J .. actually I never really liked peanut butter.
NanaJoie at 7:19AM on 01/30/08
I can no longer eat a whole candy bar - like the ones at the checkout at the grocery store or those Hostess fruit pies. I used to love the apple ones. How sad. I used to ride my bike to the candy store with 50 cents and get 2 or 3 candy bars and be able to eat them all. Not any more!!!
eatmyfood at 7:24AM on 01/30/08
I loved donuts but couldn't afford them so in my young (7yr old) mind I had a solution. I would take white bread, remove the crust and squish it into a ball and that was my "donut". YUCK!! I still can't believe I ate that.
mommyme at 7:42AM on 01/30/08
pasta that comes in a can. I remember living in new england and my mom having a neighborhood fish dinner, at the time I thought i hated fish, so i sat in the backyard with a thermos of overly sweet mushy canned pasta. I should have been shot back then!
huney_bumper at 7:49AM on 01/30/08
Applesauce, processed meat (pasta in a can, lunchables, etc), and single serving American Cheese in a wrapper. The thought of those items gag me.
HMcChezz at 8:54AM on 01/30/08
Jello. My mom used to make every 1950s and 60s Jello mold that came out. While they were delicious as a whole and everyone raved about them I got so Jelloed-out that I can't stand the stuff today.
RichardCrystal at 8:56AM on 01/30/08
I was a weird kid... my favorite food (which I can't stand today) was the canned spaghetti-o's with franks! Lord help us all... they still make the stuff and my son adores it! Ohhh, and twinkies. Is it just me or did they change the recipe? They used to be light and fluffy- now they taste like dried out kitchen sponges.
sbelle at 9:01AM on 01/30/08
At one point, I liked bologna or salami rolled up with cream cheese. Yuck.
If I can help it, I'll never drink apple juice again. I'm not talking about fresh-pressed cider in season, but the nasty concentrated stuff
It seemed like a good idea to eat powdered orange drink mix straight from the container when I was a kid. Don't think I'll ever do that again.
One of my childhood friends thought that it would be great to share a whole bowl of peanut butter. After that, I couldn't stand the stuff for about 20 years and will still not eat the Peter Pan brand.
Kerosena at 9:26AM on 01/30/08
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. We used to have that every Wednsday for dinner and I can't stand to eat it now. It's nasty.
evilchefmom at 9:44AM on 01/30/08
sbelle, the Twinkies are the same. I think maybe you just grew up!
RichardCrystal at 9:46AM on 01/30/08
Tang! And orange drink. Not juice, drink. Sunny-D.
As a child, I sure loved my fake citrus . . . .
KarynMC at 10:01AM on 01/30/08
Tang for me too. Also Jello--I used to like to drink it hot
Lilla at 10:09AM on 01/30/08
Wonder bread. Gross.
charm city cupcake at 10:14AM on 01/30/08
Tang for me too! Orange soda, and other sodas...
Ramen noodles--I would eat a whole packet, sodium and all, for lunch every day in the summers.
Mayonnaise--won't touch the stuff now!
luswim06 at 10:19AM on 01/30/08
Pixie Sticks
Smarties (the American version, not the chocolate one)
Kool-Aid
Single sliced cheese in plastic (but I still reminisce about Velveeta in grilled cheese sandwiches, is that weird?)
Ketchup on vegetables (I think that I was just trying to mask the flavor, and now that I love the flavor, I don't need the ketchup
Fla-Vor-Ice
Red Delicious apples (there are so many more types, which actually have flavor!)
Traveller at 10:22AM on 01/30/08
Mustard sandwiches. Bread and mustard- that's it. I have no idea why I ate them but I did. Wouldn't consider it today.
And Twinkies have always tasted like dried up sponges to me. The husband loves them, tho, so he'll buy them occasionally. I pretend to gag every time he eats them.
AuntJone at 10:23AM on 01/30/08
My mother made her own bread and desserts. We had the most awesome packed school lunches including hot soups. For some reason she buttered the bread for meat/cheese/lettuce sandwiches. If she tried to sneak margarine on mine, I couldn't eat it. I'd never put either on a sandwich now.
I never tasted pasta or meat from a can, except the one time she tried spam and we all gave it thumbs down. It's hard to think of anything except Chicken ala King. I didn't hate it, but I don't make it. Not sure I had these as a kid, but I don't like the middle of Oreos. I don't like Twinkies, Tastykakes, any of that kind of thing. I did drink Tang for awhile - had to be like the astronauts! Don't think I could swallow it today. And we can't forget the flavored straws to turn milk to strawberry or chocolate, right Richard Crystal? ;)
PerkyMac at 10:41AM on 01/30/08
How could I forget!!! When Mom was away, Dad made his famous grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbells tomato soup OR Swanson Frozen Dinners. I don't know if there was any other choice, but we always had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and A BROWNIE! We got to eat on tray tables in front of the tv, which was verboten for any other meal, but after all, these were TV DINNERS. Haven't tried one in a long time, might have to for old time's sake. Look out arteries, here we come!
PerkyMac at 11:32AM on 01/30/08
Sweetened Kool-aid powder. Pour in a saucer, wet finger, lick. Repeat. Used to do the same with strawberry Quik.
And much of the following that I would happily consume as a child must be on the market purely for kids, because most have already been mentioned above. Plastic enrobed american "cheese," Tang, canned pastas, burnt toast spread with mayo (WTH?), most carbonated drinks, prepackaged pudding (Anyone remember those little cans of Del monte puddings? I adored them, but now the idea of canned pudding!?!?!?! Yikes!), boxed mac and cheese dinner, hot dogs, store-bought cookies and cakes, and almost all candies except for chocolates and Necco wafers.
coffeefrappe at 12:01PM on 01/30/08
boxed mac & cheese, ramen, cheetos, soda in general, jello, orange hi-c, hot dogs, pixie sticks and airheads, sugary cereals (especially frosted flakes), entemann's powdered donuts, ... gosh, reading this list and remembering what junk I used to eat makes me stupefied that I'm still (and always have been) really skinny.
mrsbao at 12:21PM on 01/30/08
After reading comments, I see I ate some of the same things---how could I forget the white bread balls?? Jello is now banned from my household! And I never want to eat Kellogg's Corn Flakes again!
Anyone have more recent taste changes----say within the past 5 years?
JEP at 12:48PM on 01/30/08
Hey Sbelle, don’t diss the Spaghetti-O’s and Franks. I still love those things. Which is pretty embarrassing. I mean, it’s not like they really taste good. It’s weird.
Tootsie Rolls. They were chewy, fudgy, chocolaty delicious goodness. Years passed, no Tootsie Rolls. I try them again. They are these waxy, flavorless things. I don’t know whether my tastes have changed or Tootsie Roll changed their recipe.
Filet o’ Fish sandwiches. I LOVED those things What the heck was I thinking?!?
chisai at 12:52PM on 01/30/08
My mom let us have fast food only as a "treat" -- I loved any of the "chicken" sandwiches from McD's or I think Burger King. I generally stopped eating it once I began feeding myself as a teenager, where I grew up it was chic to eat healthy, so that kind of stuck.
A few years ago, on a friend's insistance, I had a grilled "chicken" sandwich and small fries from MacDonalds. It tasted like a salty, chewy sponge. My body promptly reminded me that we don't do those kinds of things anymore -- and NEVER AGAIN!
savecara at 1:05PM on 01/30/08
My best friend and I used to eat ready-made frosting out of the tin with our fingers. Nasty! I also used to adore Fun Dip. For those unfamiliar with it, Fun Dip is basically coloured sugar that you eat by dipping a candy stick in the sugar and licking it off. My mom wouldn't allow it (it was quite messy) but my Nana would let us have it at her house. Why did I think it was tasty to eat packets of coloured sugar? Never again!
psychsarah at 1:18PM on 01/30/08
Cream cheese and jelly on white bread
salami and mayonaise sandwiches
hot dogs
fun dip
Chocolate cereal
ice tea made from sugar filled powder mix (probably 4x the amt of mix called for)
mountain dew
Spaghetti O's
The above are ones I no longer consume but below, I'm a bit ashamed, are the ones I still love:
Peanut butter and Jelly on whole wheat
Chocolate milk
Yoo Hoo
Orange Drink (not juice or soda)
grilled cheese on white bread
chicken nuggets
scrambled eggs
mac and cheese
I generally eat healthy but these childhood faves remain my splurges.
KtMc24 at 1:51PM on 01/30/08
I used to be a real dill pickle fanatic. Any kind, any time. Now, though, I am just not feeling it. And that makes me sorta sad. It's a concrete example of the end of childhood.
thebrokedown at 2:17PM on 01/30/08
How could I forget fast food in my list...
I used to always order the "Number 2 with plain cheeseburgers" value meal from McDonald's. With fries, and a Hi-C orange to drink. I was like, 12 years old, and I would down it all.
A lesson to myself NEVER to allow my own children to do the same thing...
luswim06 at 2:29PM on 01/30/08
Wonder Bread and Swanson Hungry Man frozen dinners.
bessfour at 2:43PM on 01/30/08
My babysitter dinner when I was younger - the meal my parents threw together for me before I left - always included fish sticks. I loved them then, but I'm not a fan now. I don't eat much fried foods these days, in fact.
It's been fun to read your posts - I was a picky eater as a kid but shunned traditional kid foods like PB&J (hated grape jelly), mac and cheese (I preferred mine with butter) and Spaghetti-Os (I never understood the appeal). So fish sticks is the only thing I can think of!
woodenspoon at 9:59PM on 01/30/08
*shudder* Graham crackers in any form. I had them daily for a long time, and I never want to even look at them again! Spaghetti-Os, too. And most candy bars for me as well. They taste like wax, now.
Skythe at 11:00PM on 01/30/08
Frozen, reconstituted orange juice. You know, the stuff that comes in the paper "can."
beth1 at 11:21PM on 01/30/08
Toast, topped with a little butter, homemade raspberry jam, and a bunch of grated cheddar cheese.
my family told me it was strange... but my mom still made it for me when I was feeling picky.
still doesn't seem all THAT weird to me. hmpf.
gretchenx5 at 12:46AM on 01/31/08
Ugh, the absolute worst is frozen dinners! Every once in a while my mom would be out of town and my dad would get my brother and me some sort of Swanson kid box with soggy chicken nuggets, brown green beans, and chocolate pudding, all of which went in the microwave, so the pudding usually got crusty and hot. I didn't like the pudding then, and the whole experience seems pretty despicable to me now!
On a more positive note, when my mom isn't home, my dad now makes NY strip steaks, baked potatoes, and caesar salad for himself and my brother. I'd say its a giant leap in the right direction (of course, steak and frozen ravioli arethe only things he cooks, so he has a ways to go...)
ChristineB at 1:42AM on 01/31/08
Wonder bread, Coca-Cola, Tuna Casserole, raw cookie dough sliced from the roll, spinach with ketchup (and for that matter peas with ketchup) canned fruit (we used to be served this for dessert!), McDonald's AND Burger King. Candy bars like Snickers and Milky Way (they make my teeth hurt, they are so sweet). And speaking of candy--does anyone remember those red wax lips and the little wax bottles with a smidge of a color drink in them?????
smallblondemom at 2:08AM on 01/31/08
smallblondemom--yes, I chewed on those wax things, too:( The only pop (aka soda) we were allowed to have was 7-Up on New year's Eve---have no interest in drinking any now--Uhh.. wonder if there's a connection?
JEP at 5:13AM on 01/31/08
So many things!
I used to ADORE but have abandoned:
For taste reasons....
Lemon Hostess Pies
Blueberry Hostess Pies
(Sucking out the filling of the sugar-encrusted shell, of course)
Too sugary....
Hostess cupcakes
Eclairs
Bavarian Creme Doughnuts
(Sucking out the innards first, of course)
Jelly candies like gum drops, jelly beans
Milk chocolate of all kinds
Hot fudge sundaes
Raw cookie dough
Pancakes
Most carrot cakes
Commercial cakes
Ice cream cakes
Savory food I have digestive issues with now...
Fried Clams
Hot dogs
Fried chicken
Pepperoni
Provelone Cheese
Green Olives
Pepperoni Pizza
Pizza in general (can't eat it like I used to...)
Root beer
My palate has grown more sophisticated, and I'm a very healthy eater now, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the gut satisfaction I got, sometimes, of being able to eat total crap and not care. Even when I indulge now, because I'm so not used to eating it, it doesn't bring the same satisfaction.
HeartofGlass at 5:56AM on 01/31/08
Wow so many of you have forgotten we only walk this way but once!
Why all the sensory denial?
Meh, whatever I still enjoy most all those things listed and must say the only thing I probably wouldn't indulge in is when my mom used to put strawberry or chocolate quik and even at times Hershey's chocolate syrup in Cream of wheat.
That was a serious trea for us...all seven of us.
Stiv61 at 9:55AM on 01/31/08
Pop tarts, the brown sugar and cinnamon kind. We only had them once a year on camping trips, so they were a treat. Now I think they pastry is like dry cardboard.
Bugles and tostitos, they make my stomach upset.
Tang - my mom used to make it hot with a cinnamon stick, but the only time she made it for me was when I was ill, so the smell of a sickroom, pine sol cleaner and Tang makes me sick now.
Wonderbread, except sometimes I still like it under a hot open faced turkey or roast beef sandwich with gravy.
Velveeta, except I still like it on an the occasional egg and cheese english muffin sandwich.
Pork Roll sandwiches - topped with Velveeta, I used to get them on the boardwalk.
Those little vienna sausages in a can with the weird salty jelly stuff. Why that jelly never was a huge red flag I'll never guess.
Cream Cheese and strawberry jelly sandwiches on wonder bread.
My mom used to put margarine on any and all of my sandwiches, which revolted me but she always seemed to forget. It was especially bad on Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but equally nasty on tuna salad sandwiches, too.
Most soda pop, but I was especially crazy about black cherry soda.
Twinkies - they taste so bad to me now that I also thought that they had changed the recipe. I still eat the occasional Tasty Cake. I favored Tasty Cakes over any and all other lunch snack cakes.
Funny Bones, a waxy chocolate covered chocolate twinkie shaped cupcake with peanut butter filling.
Snowballs, those pink marshmallow covered cupcakes rolled in coconut.
neuwife at 7:26PM on 01/31/08
psychsarah - FUN DIP!! those were the best, my tongue would be raw after eating it but it was worth it.
We didn't have a lot of the "good stuff" growing up ie spaghetti o's, pop tarts, kool aid, devil dogs, fish sticks, boxed mac and cheese etc., so they were all great treats and I loved them all. As an adult I will occasionally decide to "treat" myself to some of those but it is always a big disappointment. My taste has probably changed a lot but I also think it's largely that the thrill of eating something "bad" is gone. Except for the devil dogs, I realize they are horrible (sawdust according to my husband) but every couple years I will eat one and enjoy it thoroughly!
mrsmoosie at 8:01PM on 01/31/08
we used to put powdered nestle's quik on vanilla ice cream and eat it. i'd forgotten about that. it was really good.
vanilla wafers -- not the round kind that you make banana pudding with, but the kind that are long, flaky rectangles that come in stacks that you break apart, with a white filling. i thought the sun and moon rose and set in those things, and when i had one as an adult, i thought it was beyond nasty.
i also loved nikl nips! {the little wax bottles.}
cybercita at 8:52PM on 01/31/08
Nothing! Haha...still eat Pb&J, still like chicken fingers, and macaroni and cheese and all that stuff!
Ok, MAYBE I don't like Spaghetti-O's as much...
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 3:39PM on 02/01/08
I'm sure it would have been easier to come out to my family as being gay rather than have my father announce, incredulously, at the last extended family gathering "Rebecca told me yesterday that she DOESN'T like chocolate anymore!" and be greeted by looks of disapproval and disbelief. My aunt actually said "It's just a phase, she'll grow out of it".
I come from a chocoholic family and as a kid, I'd make chocolate milk that was 1/2 chocolate syrup, 1/2 milk.
rllevy at 12:48PM on 02/03/08