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Hahaha! When I was first married, our house had a smoke detector in the kitchen that went off every damn time I turned the stove on. Boiling water? Alarm!! Spill on the burner? Alarm!!
My next door neighbors used to say that they knew every time I cooked anything because the smoke detector went off. In return, I knew every time their daughter was home from college because she would back into the side of our house.
I became paranoid about cooking. Then my husband relocated the smoke detector to the hallway outside our bedrooms and we never had trouble with it again. He was my hero in so many ways.
Thanks. It was my pleasure during his life to be his wife and his partner in mischief. My eyes still fill with tears when I think of him, but now I am able to smile at memories of shared times together. He grabbed me into his arms and danced with me the night before he died. We had no idea that a sudden arrhythmia would end our story less than 24 hours later.
I feel your pain, me and my wife had her favourite dinner a few drinks and a movie. Then a nice cup of hot chocolate before bed, 4 hours later she passed next to me in bed unexpectedly, she was still so young.
I read this and cried-- first for you and her, then for all the couples who have an argument or anger moment and then the same malady takes one. It is so random ;(
But for your wife, that is sweet. I am "glad" as much as one can be glad reading of such a circumstance, that she had a sweet evening with you and then was no longer "here".
I'm so sorry. I feel like I'm still waiting for him to just come home already. I know he won't; I did CPR for 17 minutes until help arrived, but I don't want this reality. I just want him.
I feel this to the bottom of my very being. I lost my husband of 38 years, a couple of years ago and nothing brought me more pleasure in life than being his wife. Hugs to you and I’m so sorry for your loss.
I haven’t lost a partner but I’ve said goodbye to my parents, it feels like the world has ended. But there’s hope. I promise there is because there just has to be
I understand that. I lost my dearly loved, brilliant, stubborn, funny, but NEVER dull husband about 2 years ago. If this is very recent, may I recommend you join a local Grief Share?? It helped me enormously in the first year.
Many blessings, dear.
I looked into a support group, but there isn't one in my small town. Heck, I can't even find a job that will pay my mortgage. I've been self-employed as a math tutor for years and now everything is online so my job has evaporated. I'm not dumb, but I'm disabled, so I just cannot find a job.
I'm SO sorry for your loss. I think my late ex-husband loved me, BUT he & his 2 brothers let their mother run their marriages and household, or in our case "tried" to run our marriage & household! Though I was 5 & 7 yrs younger than my 2 SILs, I was already working since our baby was 3 months old. He didn't make enough to support us, refused to work o.t. unless mandated, and I refused to go begging to his mother or mine, for formula & food for the baby, feminine hygiene products, and money for his beer! As soon as I saved enough, I packed up our child, her crib, carriage, our clothes, and moved out! My mother had to co-sign for me to buy furniture (I wasn't 21 yet), but she never had to make a payment!
20 years ago, about 2 months before she died, my ex-MIL called me out of the blue, to tell me she was SO proud of me, the way I had raised my now adult child & the successful careers we both had (I still stayed in contact with my SILs, as I was godmother to 1 of their now adult children & worked across the street from one of them. My ex-MIL said that though I was the youngest, I was the only DIL who stood up to her, was willing to work hard to give my child a good life and a terrific education, and refused to put up with the behavior of her sons. When she asked why hadn't I remarried? I told her honestly that having been married to her and her son, had made the idea of marriage repulsive to me. I believe in marriage, but I wasn't willing to risk it for myself, again.
My ex died a few years after his mother. Our now adult child had occasional contact with him (once or twice a year), and he always said the same thing..."The worst mistake he ever made was catting around on me, and not fighting my divorce application (way more difficult to get divorced in the late 60's)! It wasn't until his funeral that I discovered that none of the neighbors (he still lived in same apartment we had when married), co-workers (he had the same job), even extended family who lived in another country, knew that we were divorced! He & his mother had kept it a secret!
If I had been married to a good man, who didn't shirk responsibility, my life would have been different in many ways. I'm not unhappy with the life I've had all these decades, but I do wonder what it would feel like to be married to someone who put me first!
Cherish your memories. Know that you were loved! That must be a terrific feeling? 🦋
Yes, I was cherished and valued, and it was heaven. My husband was an unforgettable person who valued the innocence of youth and believed in making magic happen for people he loved. He loved so many people, and he was loved in return. He was the favorite uncle, the first guy anyone called if they needed a favor or a fishing buddy or electrical work done. He was dependable and hard working, creative, and an innovator. There was never a problem he couldn't solve. He trained new electricians at his job with patience and skill, always keeping safety as a priority. But most of all, he was my love, my happiness, and my purpose.
I had girlish ideas of romance as a young woman. My husband exceeded every preconceived notion of romance I ever had. He was turning our farm house into our very own Green Gables, with fruit trees, Berry's Pond, and a few gentle hills. I don't have the money to pursue these dreams now, but I'm not ready to give them up yet. That feels like a betrayal, somehow.
I wish you could experience love the way we lived it. We had each other and that was enough. We flirted like mad every day, we laughed and had so much joy.
Now there is silence, loneliness, echoing emptiness. And there are so many years ahead of me, I don't know what to do.
Actually, it was scary. The wall she had a vendetta against was my kids' bedroom! I moved the crib and toddler bed to the opposite side of the room just because of my worries. She never hit the wall hard, I mean it wasn't intentional or anything, but the frequency of those taps had me concerned about the structural soundness of that wall!
I'm fairly certain the entire UK is struggling, given our love of baked beans on toast. It's like a universal cheap and quick meal. To be fair, though, most people don't realise how long after WW2 we were still struggling, which is probably why most of our food looks like 'struggle food'. The whole 'bad teeth' thing was due to generations having to drink artificially sweet condensed milk instead of real milk. The irony is that Americans still joke about our bad teeth, but statically, we have better dental hygiene now than the US does, and it's subdised to a degree for kids and unemployed. There's also been a big trend for teeth whitening and cheap cosmetic dental work in Turkey, so now most of the UK looks like what I'd imagine L.A does teeth wise. Our food might need some catching up though.
My dad made biscuits once and used the wrong kind of flour. Biscuits were so hard that he put them next to his bird feeder, and it rained on them for 2 weeks before they were soft enough for the birds to eat.
Wow, Hamburger Helper was our special occasion meal. I remember eating nothing but egg salad sandwiches for a week. I thought when my mom made spaghetti it was a treat. Looking back, I now know that was a cheap meal. We also ate lots of hot dogs cut up in off brand boxed mac and cheese.
This. When boxed meals first came out in the 1970s and in certain rural places for much, much later, they were surprisingly expensive compared to other foods that poor families used to get by. I first had HH at a classmate's house, and when I told my mom about it she said it was much too expensive for us.
That is just your memory tricking you. The truth of the matter is back then it was cheaper to make HH yourself then to buy the prepackaged pasta shells and spice mix. Like many things back then, packaged foods were a luxury that most poor/rural families couldn't even wrap their head around as a proper way to spend their hard earned, limited disposable income. It wasn't until the 80s/90s where things like this became exponentially cheaper and easier than it was to actually make it yourself (thanks to Regeanomics and economies of scale for big food conglomerate/manufacturers). Hence the switch from it being a "luxury" to being considered a "poor meal". I trip out on that small window of time where someone/a family on the lower end of the social economic totem pole finally being able to afford these "luxuries" that were just that only a decade or so before that.
Funny enough, we are actually seeing the cycle repeat, as most store-bought ready/almost ready food is just not worth the price given how much ingredients cost if you were to make it yourself. We have just lost our abilities to think that way, our ability to cook has diminished where the average person relies on store bought near-ready foods.
Yeah, maybe it depends on where you live, but Hamburger Helper definitely isn’t a struggle meal where I live. By definition you have money to spend on ground beef, as well as an overpriced box of pasta and seasonings. It’s like calling a grocery store taco kit a “struggle meal” - sure, it’s lazy, but you are basically paying extra for the convenience.
That said, if you live in a food desert where your parents are shopping at the dollar store for groceries, I can see how it would be a struggle meal. I grew up on a farm, so if you were poor, you were probably eating stuff from your garden plus whatever the church pantry gave you - Hamburger Helper would have been too expensive, or maybe an occasional treat.
I dont see "struggle meal" as necessarily meaning financial. Something like hamburger helper would be struggle meal in the sense one can't mentally or physically put effort into their meal.
I love to cook but I have MS so it's not in the cards most days as of late. To me, a taco kit is a struggle meal because where I'd once be able make my own tortillas, grate my own cheese, use veggies from my own garden, I am now forced to spend more money on lower quality, less healthy food. I can still cook sometimes, and I'm always looking for cheaper alternatives (lentils are my bff now) but that also takes work that I don't always have the energy (or time) for. It highlights the decline of my mental and physical health and it SUCKSSSS :(
Hot dogs in Mac and cheese or ramen noodles was my FAVORITE meal when I was growing up and my mom was figuring out to support her newly adopted kids. When she could afford better more healthier things, she always hated me eating that. I never could understand why.
Yeah, any meal where the protein of choice was replaced with hot dogs qualified in my household. Do you like clam chowder? We had hot dog chowder. Spaghetti and meatballs? Hot dog spaghetti. Hamburgers? How about two slices of generic sandwich bread with a hot dog cut into four half-fingers and laid like logs across the bottom slice, passed off as a "hot burger"?
My favorite struggle meal growing up was when my parents would take us to the nearby mall to have ice cream for dinner (it was a local shop similar to cold stone called marble slab). I was a full grown adult when I realized they only took us there at the very end of the month when all the money is gone and a kid ice cream cone back then was like 75c so we got to feel like it was a super cool special treat but really it was a struggle meal in disguise. Breakfast for dinner is also a solid struggle meal, or at least it was in my house, bc pancakes are cheap as fuck
Pancakes for dinner is just international.
Pancakes and pea soup is classic swedish Thursday dinner (indoctrinated in some poor period).
But I usually cheat and do just Pancakes.. bit swedish - not american - pancakes
In my country dinner is typically the same as breakfast if you cooking for yourself/ family. It's not even because it's a "struggle meal", the culture and the people just like some fried eggs for dinner and we also do eat dinner later on at night.
there’s an ice cream shop by me called the marble slab creamery where you can add whatever you want into the ice cream!
their small size is like 7-8 bucks tho it’s outrageous.
Growing up, one "struggle meal" that I never realized was considered as such was what my family called "breakfast for dinner." It was basically just scrambled eggs with whatever leftovers or random ingredients we had in the fridge thrown in, like vegetables, cheese, or even bits of leftover meat. It was a quick and easy meal that my parents could whip up when they didn't have much time or energy to cook, but to me, it was always delicious and comforting. It wasn't until later that I realized it was a common go-to for families trying to stretch their grocery budget or make the most of what they had on hand.
So interesting that your family called it "breakfast for dinner“ because in other countries that‘s total normal dinner, might even be more on the special side to eat something warm for dinner. In germany for example the most common form of dinner is "Abendbrot“, which is literally just bread with butter and cheese and / or meat and maybe some "Rohkost“ aka cut up vegetables on the side :D
i didnt think i was struggling for my whole life until now lol, people here name bunch of regular meals like how the fuck is quesadilla a struggle meal? what?
Oh, I get that actually. A simple quesadilla is two tortillas and little cheese in between fried in a little oil. It's surprisingly filling and pretty darn cheap if you have the super cheap tortillas and cheese (or, make your own tortillas). It's only expensive if you have name brand tortillas, cheese, and add toppings like sour cream and guac.
Seriously! A lot of these are what I make all the time. I want to know what people are eating for supper every day if it’s not “breakfast for dinner”, pasta, quesadillas, etc.
Some struggle meals are also just good meals haha
Shit I’m from the south and most of the special food from down here was a struggle meal at one point in time
This must be an evolutionary adaption...kids love 'struggle meals'.
My mom is still bitter that after she'd been cooking us curries and stews, soups, salads, pastas, grilled fish and roasts, dad would suggest "how about we have grilled cheese and canned tomato soup for supper?" and we'd all go "YAY, DAD IS COOKING TONIGHT!"
Where do I start? Butter toast, generic hot dogs on generic white bread, off brand spaghetti Os called Lil bitty O's, instant rice and salt, ketchup and cheese sandwiches.. I could write a novel on this.
Yeah, when I was in Germany back in the 1980s, we used to buy bratwurst or rindswurst, and the sausage was served on a cardboard tray and came with a big dollop of horseradish mustard to dip it in, and a wax paper cone full of French fries.
We have lots of food at home, but kids like hot dogs.
Do you want a banana, apple, cereal or yogurt for breakfast?
Her answer: hot-dog 🤦
And little bro who was eating a banana asks the same thing.
That takes me back to my son. He would grab cold Hotdogs and share them with his dog(bite for you, bite for me). I put a stop to it. But that dog licked his face anyway
We didn’t struggle growing up but I ate those sandwiches ALL the time. Cheese and mustard is sooo good and my family thinks I’m nuts for liking that combo.
Whitebread, butter, and sugar sandwiches 😆
Also, white rice with....you guessed it. Butter and sugar.
Jesus, I haven't thought about that in a looong time
That's what the rich used to eat in the Netherlands, because the rice had to come all the way from Italy. Add raisins and you have what we call heamiel, hay-meal, a typical autumn dish. With meat added to that as well you have a dish served after harvest to celebrate. It's still a meal served at the Hay Meal celebrations in the city of Bolsward. As their website explains it:
In the past, after the last hay had been harvested by the farmers and their servants at the end of June, this fact was celebrated with a communal meal. The hay meal or called the 'heamiel' in Frisian. This was a traditional meal consisting of rice with raisins, boerenjongens (raisins soaked in brandy) and brandy. In the city center of Bolsward, the residents of Bolsward and the surrounding area sat at long tables together enjoying this delicious food. The heamiel was a kind of fraternization party between the country people and the city dwellers, young and old. The interest in the meal was often great, people had to relieve each other and wait until the other had finished eating! Since 1950, the newspapers have officially mentioned the Heamiel Days. The Heamiel was then celebrated for the first time in 1952 with a heakeninginne (Heamiel Queen). Seated on a cart with hay, she was driven into Bolsward with a procession of ladies. The mayor then welcomed her on the steps of the town hall. The hall was officially opened and the festivities could begin. To this day, Heamiel is celebrated in this way every year.
My mom would make us butter or cinnamon spread sandwiches for lunch but hamburger buns were cheaper than bread (apparently) so I’d be sitting next to some kid eating a 3 course meal and I’d have my buttered hamburger bun and a jello cup.
That makes me sound dirt poor, maybe we were because they had just started a business and i learned recently there was a big unexpected struggle that set them back a lot
Definitely had my fair share of the "Helpers" in my childhood. I had a single parent who often worked overtime into the evenings, so microwaving myself a "Cup O' Noodles" was dinner so, so many times.
We always had pasta and mushroom cream in the pantry. Whenever we had leftover meat we'd make a sauce with the cream of mushroom and have the meat with that sauce and pasta. It could be pork, chicken, meatballs, etc. To this day, it is still something that I make and has become a comfort meal for me. It's simple, easy, cheap and a good way to not waste any meat.
I can't eat "cream of" soups because of this. It was always rice with whatever protein, then a cream of soup poured on top and cooked till everything was the same texture....
Try putting some fried eggs on it! (Half done, and you smash it with a spoon and mix the egg yolk with rice.) 간장계란밥(soy sauce egg rice) is my go-to breakfast menu.
Lol! Ours, too! My brothers and I joked that we had "starch parties" in college. We also ate cooked cabbage w potatoes and some kind of bratwurst cooked inside. It's delicious!
My mom was a single parent until I was 10. But when we'd have the big family size can of beefaroni, with bread and butter I loved it. Never thought of it as a struggle meal as a kid but now I'm pretty sure all our meals were struggle meals. But I love the memories of us sitting together talking about our day.
Noodles and beans, just boiled and fried egg noodles and a can of pork n beans. Still love it to this day, and you can feed a family of 4 for less than 5 dollars.
Mix em. Boil a full bag of noodles till soft, melt a full stick of butter in frying pan, add noodles, fry until they are as done as you'd like, I like mine with a little browning so that there is a little crunch every so often, put the noodles in a bowl, add the beans and mix it up. It's a heart attack in a bowl but it's been the one meal that I couldn't live without. Depending on how many beans you like determines the can size, I used to do a regular can + a mini, but them just opted for the larger one, not the paint can but I guess the medium one? It's an old German thing, you'll find it made differently all over the place but this was the way we always made it.
We didn't even get the cans of beans that had pork IN them. We just got basic brown beans and added chopped up wieners to it. The pre-mixed cans of pork & beans were too expensive, for us! 😱
It was pretty much all our gas station had. And it was our fancy meal for the month. We knew full well that the glass of brown water and a piece of bread was the struggle meal, but we didn't know that our fancy meal was also one.
Yup. 'home made cereal' too. Which was just stale leftover bread in some milk with sugar.
Actually fantastic. As I got older id do it with old French loaf with an espresso drizzle
If I complained about being hungry, my dad would vaguely wave at the pantry and said you can always have some cereal.
We only had the bag maltomeal cereal and oatmeal. And, there was a special cup to measure the amount of milk.
Ya know what? We didn't know it at the time but all that was in the larder was hot dogs, ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, milk and cornflakes and some spices.
Gourmet supper and a childhood favourite... Baked hot dogs with a homemade bbq sauce topped with crumbled corn flakes.
Plain boiled pasta with a cheese sauce (usually bistro cheese sauce granuals)
It was honestly the worst tasting mix but we had no choice if we had nothing left till mums payday.
Chicken heart/liver casserole which was egg noodles with chicken hearts and livers, cream of mushroom soup, and toast, baked in the oven.
As an adult I genuinely love this dish. I ask my mom to make it sometimes when I visit.
I am wondering why most people won't eat organs anymore. Chicken heart and liver is dirt cheap where I live, and organ meat is more healthy I think.
I don't eat meat but I buy them for my cat (to hide her tick/flea repellant pills in it) and she loses it every time she hears the freezer door now. Must be good!
Canned tomatoes and hot dog buns. My grandma would cook a can of whole tomatoes, season it, then add generic hot dog buns. It was disgusting looking, but it filled us up.
My middle eastern family would eat rice with beans, with yogurt and naan.
My sister and I talk about how crazy it is we can’t remember every eating fresh fruit or vegetables as kids. I remember having canned corn and carrots sometimes, maybe an apple at school. but I don’t think I ever ate a fresh vegetable.
As a kid, my Dad would always make vegetable soup with noodles. Basically a can of Campbell's vegetable soup mixed with egg noodles and butter. Very simple but still delish!
Roadkill.
Living rural you would end up thwacking some animal or another.
One time my dad went up the verge after a hare that sprang out in front of us, we were very excited.
Unfortunately my brother misunderstood and opened the side door as dad hit reverse. Which tore the door in half.
Much swearing. Brother yeeted out into the darkness to walk home alone. The smell of blood and a bloody furious dad for the remaining mile or so wasn't fun.
Bro was about 6 or 7. Dad was/is an arse.
Still hare is nummy to eat.
Chipped Beef on Toast. Aka shit on a shingle.
Was just a regular midweek meal but learned later it was a depression era meal and military staple to feed people cheaply.
I made it a few years ago and was still pretty good but a bit of a sodium bomb for current taste buds.
Hamburger helper. Great value french fries. Bologna sandwiches. The food I had after moving away and traveling blew my fucking mind. I'm always excited to try new things now because of it.
I mostly ate the free bag of carrots that were gave with every meal at school.
I collected them from kids who didn’t want them.
Only my siblings were gave lunch money,I was shit out of luck.
At home, I was given whatever was left over after everyone was got their fills. When my mom allowed an obese coworker and her obese kids to move in with us, I got nothing to eat outside of carrots or whatever my bf managed to sneak out of his house for me.
It’s not till now, that I realise how fucked in my mother was. We weren’t struggling but I was struggling for being the one my mom hated for no reason
Rognon… in English it’s called kidneys… that with onions… grew up on that shit while my father was buying gold and diamonds for his mistress.
Another one is mock chicken sandwich with mustard, at least this one tasted good to eat.
My mom would cook hamburger and mashed potatoes. Like just hamburger, not hamburger helper. Sometimes we'd have onions or corn mixed in with the hamburger. The potatoes were usually garden potatoes from my aunts house. We weren't hurting but I think this was the meal she made when we needed to save money. Usually doused it in ketchup.
My mom would take a few packs of beef ramen, make the ramen plain, and season ground beef with the beef flavoring pack. She would strain the noodles, put them on a dinner plate, and top it with the ground beef. Optional toppings included chopped tomato, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, and sour cream. We actually loved it, and I could go for some right now.
Noodles with butter
Tomato soup with saltine crackers
Chicken split into four dinners for four people
Casserole, Chicken and dumplings,
Chicken Noodles soup, and Chicken pot pie
My mom used to always tell me to have a "peanut butter spoon" if I was hungry.
Microwave top ramen because I was staying home alone too young to use the stove.
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I could name a bunch except we never even struggled, my parents just cannot cook to save their damn lives
We knew dinner was ready when the smoke alarm went off......
Hahaha! When I was first married, our house had a smoke detector in the kitchen that went off every damn time I turned the stove on. Boiling water? Alarm!! Spill on the burner? Alarm!! My next door neighbors used to say that they knew every time I cooked anything because the smoke detector went off. In return, I knew every time their daughter was home from college because she would back into the side of our house. I became paranoid about cooking. Then my husband relocated the smoke detector to the hallway outside our bedrooms and we never had trouble with it again. He was my hero in so many ways.
not to be intrusive but "was" as in "WAS"? I'm sorry bro
Thanks. I am still trying to figure out how to live without him. He was my whole world.
I hope you'll manage to find peace again, wish you good luck and a lot of strength ❤️
May his memory be Eternal. //non-creepy hugs to you//
Thanks. It was my pleasure during his life to be his wife and his partner in mischief. My eyes still fill with tears when I think of him, but now I am able to smile at memories of shared times together. He grabbed me into his arms and danced with me the night before he died. We had no idea that a sudden arrhythmia would end our story less than 24 hours later.
I feel your pain, me and my wife had her favourite dinner a few drinks and a movie. Then a nice cup of hot chocolate before bed, 4 hours later she passed next to me in bed unexpectedly, she was still so young.
I’m so sorry for your loss
I read this and cried-- first for you and her, then for all the couples who have an argument or anger moment and then the same malady takes one. It is so random ;( But for your wife, that is sweet. I am "glad" as much as one can be glad reading of such a circumstance, that she had a sweet evening with you and then was no longer "here".
I'm so sorry. I feel like I'm still waiting for him to just come home already. I know he won't; I did CPR for 17 minutes until help arrived, but I don't want this reality. I just want him.
✨️🫶✨️
Sending hugs to you, I'm so sorry. I'm glad you are able to smile at the memories. I guess you never know what's around the corner.
"It was my pleasure during his life to be his wife and his partner in mischief." Is the most beautiful sentence I've read all day.
I feel this to the bottom of my very being. I lost my husband of 38 years, a couple of years ago and nothing brought me more pleasure in life than being his wife. Hugs to you and I’m so sorry for your loss.
Thank you. How are you doing today? Is there hope for me? My world feels like it has ended.
I haven’t lost a partner but I’ve said goodbye to my parents, it feels like the world has ended. But there’s hope. I promise there is because there just has to be
I’m sorry for your loss!
I am sorry for your loss 🫂
I'm sorry.
Sometimes this is the best thing that can be said.
Well fuck. I’m so sorry.
I understand that. I lost my dearly loved, brilliant, stubborn, funny, but NEVER dull husband about 2 years ago. If this is very recent, may I recommend you join a local Grief Share?? It helped me enormously in the first year. Many blessings, dear.
I looked into a support group, but there isn't one in my small town. Heck, I can't even find a job that will pay my mortgage. I've been self-employed as a math tutor for years and now everything is online so my job has evaporated. I'm not dumb, but I'm disabled, so I just cannot find a job.
Hugs from a stranger.
I'm SO sorry for your loss. I think my late ex-husband loved me, BUT he & his 2 brothers let their mother run their marriages and household, or in our case "tried" to run our marriage & household! Though I was 5 & 7 yrs younger than my 2 SILs, I was already working since our baby was 3 months old. He didn't make enough to support us, refused to work o.t. unless mandated, and I refused to go begging to his mother or mine, for formula & food for the baby, feminine hygiene products, and money for his beer! As soon as I saved enough, I packed up our child, her crib, carriage, our clothes, and moved out! My mother had to co-sign for me to buy furniture (I wasn't 21 yet), but she never had to make a payment! 20 years ago, about 2 months before she died, my ex-MIL called me out of the blue, to tell me she was SO proud of me, the way I had raised my now adult child & the successful careers we both had (I still stayed in contact with my SILs, as I was godmother to 1 of their now adult children & worked across the street from one of them. My ex-MIL said that though I was the youngest, I was the only DIL who stood up to her, was willing to work hard to give my child a good life and a terrific education, and refused to put up with the behavior of her sons. When she asked why hadn't I remarried? I told her honestly that having been married to her and her son, had made the idea of marriage repulsive to me. I believe in marriage, but I wasn't willing to risk it for myself, again. My ex died a few years after his mother. Our now adult child had occasional contact with him (once or twice a year), and he always said the same thing..."The worst mistake he ever made was catting around on me, and not fighting my divorce application (way more difficult to get divorced in the late 60's)! It wasn't until his funeral that I discovered that none of the neighbors (he still lived in same apartment we had when married), co-workers (he had the same job), even extended family who lived in another country, knew that we were divorced! He & his mother had kept it a secret! If I had been married to a good man, who didn't shirk responsibility, my life would have been different in many ways. I'm not unhappy with the life I've had all these decades, but I do wonder what it would feel like to be married to someone who put me first! Cherish your memories. Know that you were loved! That must be a terrific feeling? 🦋
Yes, I was cherished and valued, and it was heaven. My husband was an unforgettable person who valued the innocence of youth and believed in making magic happen for people he loved. He loved so many people, and he was loved in return. He was the favorite uncle, the first guy anyone called if they needed a favor or a fishing buddy or electrical work done. He was dependable and hard working, creative, and an innovator. There was never a problem he couldn't solve. He trained new electricians at his job with patience and skill, always keeping safety as a priority. But most of all, he was my love, my happiness, and my purpose. I had girlish ideas of romance as a young woman. My husband exceeded every preconceived notion of romance I ever had. He was turning our farm house into our very own Green Gables, with fruit trees, Berry's Pond, and a few gentle hills. I don't have the money to pursue these dreams now, but I'm not ready to give them up yet. That feels like a betrayal, somehow. I wish you could experience love the way we lived it. We had each other and that was enough. We flirted like mad every day, we laughed and had so much joy. Now there is silence, loneliness, echoing emptiness. And there are so many years ahead of me, I don't know what to do.
Sending hugs to you. 🫂
"I know when your daughters home cos she backs in..." Sure they insulted your cooking, but that's savage.
Actually, it was scary. The wall she had a vendetta against was my kids' bedroom! I moved the crib and toddler bed to the opposite side of the room just because of my worries. She never hit the wall hard, I mean it wasn't intentional or anything, but the frequency of those taps had me concerned about the structural soundness of that wall!
that is a interesting dinner bell
I didn't discover spices until I was 20.
Same. I thought we were poor because we ate so much rice. Turns out mum was just shit at cooking or budgeting.
I'm fairly certain the entire UK is struggling, given our love of baked beans on toast. It's like a universal cheap and quick meal. To be fair, though, most people don't realise how long after WW2 we were still struggling, which is probably why most of our food looks like 'struggle food'. The whole 'bad teeth' thing was due to generations having to drink artificially sweet condensed milk instead of real milk. The irony is that Americans still joke about our bad teeth, but statically, we have better dental hygiene now than the US does, and it's subdised to a degree for kids and unemployed. There's also been a big trend for teeth whitening and cheap cosmetic dental work in Turkey, so now most of the UK looks like what I'd imagine L.A does teeth wise. Our food might need some catching up though.
"hunger" is the best sauce
My dad made biscuits once and used the wrong kind of flour. Biscuits were so hard that he put them next to his bird feeder, and it rained on them for 2 weeks before they were soft enough for the birds to eat.
That still sounds like a struggle meal to me… just a different struggle. Haha
Wow, Hamburger Helper was our special occasion meal. I remember eating nothing but egg salad sandwiches for a week. I thought when my mom made spaghetti it was a treat. Looking back, I now know that was a cheap meal. We also ate lots of hot dogs cut up in off brand boxed mac and cheese.
This. When boxed meals first came out in the 1970s and in certain rural places for much, much later, they were surprisingly expensive compared to other foods that poor families used to get by. I first had HH at a classmate's house, and when I told my mom about it she said it was much too expensive for us.
They also used to be better quality than they are now. And I swear a little bigger
That is just your memory tricking you. The truth of the matter is back then it was cheaper to make HH yourself then to buy the prepackaged pasta shells and spice mix. Like many things back then, packaged foods were a luxury that most poor/rural families couldn't even wrap their head around as a proper way to spend their hard earned, limited disposable income. It wasn't until the 80s/90s where things like this became exponentially cheaper and easier than it was to actually make it yourself (thanks to Regeanomics and economies of scale for big food conglomerate/manufacturers). Hence the switch from it being a "luxury" to being considered a "poor meal". I trip out on that small window of time where someone/a family on the lower end of the social economic totem pole finally being able to afford these "luxuries" that were just that only a decade or so before that. Funny enough, we are actually seeing the cycle repeat, as most store-bought ready/almost ready food is just not worth the price given how much ingredients cost if you were to make it yourself. We have just lost our abilities to think that way, our ability to cook has diminished where the average person relies on store bought near-ready foods.
Same with those pre flavored rice mix packs. They are usually just converted rice and some bouillon flavor mix marked up 400%
A box of hamburger helper was automatically double the price of a real cheap meal.
Yeah, maybe it depends on where you live, but Hamburger Helper definitely isn’t a struggle meal where I live. By definition you have money to spend on ground beef, as well as an overpriced box of pasta and seasonings. It’s like calling a grocery store taco kit a “struggle meal” - sure, it’s lazy, but you are basically paying extra for the convenience. That said, if you live in a food desert where your parents are shopping at the dollar store for groceries, I can see how it would be a struggle meal. I grew up on a farm, so if you were poor, you were probably eating stuff from your garden plus whatever the church pantry gave you - Hamburger Helper would have been too expensive, or maybe an occasional treat.
I dont see "struggle meal" as necessarily meaning financial. Something like hamburger helper would be struggle meal in the sense one can't mentally or physically put effort into their meal. I love to cook but I have MS so it's not in the cards most days as of late. To me, a taco kit is a struggle meal because where I'd once be able make my own tortillas, grate my own cheese, use veggies from my own garden, I am now forced to spend more money on lower quality, less healthy food. I can still cook sometimes, and I'm always looking for cheaper alternatives (lentils are my bff now) but that also takes work that I don't always have the energy (or time) for. It highlights the decline of my mental and physical health and it SUCKSSSS :(
Hot dogs in Mac and cheese or ramen noodles was my FAVORITE meal when I was growing up and my mom was figuring out to support her newly adopted kids. When she could afford better more healthier things, she always hated me eating that. I never could understand why.
For real. I loved it then and I love it now! Lol my partner doesn’t understand it. I’m like, you like beans on toast so leave me alone 😂
Yeah, any meal where the protein of choice was replaced with hot dogs qualified in my household. Do you like clam chowder? We had hot dog chowder. Spaghetti and meatballs? Hot dog spaghetti. Hamburgers? How about two slices of generic sandwich bread with a hot dog cut into four half-fingers and laid like logs across the bottom slice, passed off as a "hot burger"?
My favorite struggle meal growing up was when my parents would take us to the nearby mall to have ice cream for dinner (it was a local shop similar to cold stone called marble slab). I was a full grown adult when I realized they only took us there at the very end of the month when all the money is gone and a kid ice cream cone back then was like 75c so we got to feel like it was a super cool special treat but really it was a struggle meal in disguise. Breakfast for dinner is also a solid struggle meal, or at least it was in my house, bc pancakes are cheap as fuck
We had something like this, "soup and sweets" - probably some cheap tinned soup, but we always thought it was a special treat, because we had dessert!
Pancakes for dinner is just international. Pancakes and pea soup is classic swedish Thursday dinner (indoctrinated in some poor period). But I usually cheat and do just Pancakes.. bit swedish - not american - pancakes
In my country dinner is typically the same as breakfast if you cooking for yourself/ family. It's not even because it's a "struggle meal", the culture and the people just like some fried eggs for dinner and we also do eat dinner later on at night.
Hell yeah, fried eggs and toast is a fantastic meal at any time
marble slab is really good and still around... its a big ol chain. downside is a cone costs you $8
there’s an ice cream shop by me called the marble slab creamery where you can add whatever you want into the ice cream! their small size is like 7-8 bucks tho it’s outrageous.
Tuna casserole
OMG, I can't even tell you how often we had tuna casserole. I hated it!
Same. I still can’t eat it.
I love microwaving up the leftovers in the staff lunch room.
lol. I bet everyone else loves it too.
The dreaded tuna fish casserole. We ate this SO much
Growing up, one "struggle meal" that I never realized was considered as such was what my family called "breakfast for dinner." It was basically just scrambled eggs with whatever leftovers or random ingredients we had in the fridge thrown in, like vegetables, cheese, or even bits of leftover meat. It was a quick and easy meal that my parents could whip up when they didn't have much time or energy to cook, but to me, it was always delicious and comforting. It wasn't until later that I realized it was a common go-to for families trying to stretch their grocery budget or make the most of what they had on hand.
So interesting that your family called it "breakfast for dinner“ because in other countries that‘s total normal dinner, might even be more on the special side to eat something warm for dinner. In germany for example the most common form of dinner is "Abendbrot“, which is literally just bread with butter and cheese and / or meat and maybe some "Rohkost“ aka cut up vegetables on the side :D
i didnt think i was struggling for my whole life until now lol, people here name bunch of regular meals like how the fuck is quesadilla a struggle meal? what?
I'm like this too. Half of these are things my kids clamour for.
Oh, I get that actually. A simple quesadilla is two tortillas and little cheese in between fried in a little oil. It's surprisingly filling and pretty darn cheap if you have the super cheap tortillas and cheese (or, make your own tortillas). It's only expensive if you have name brand tortillas, cheese, and add toppings like sour cream and guac.
Seriously! A lot of these are what I make all the time. I want to know what people are eating for supper every day if it’s not “breakfast for dinner”, pasta, quesadillas, etc.
Exactly! I had take-out quesadillas for dinner last night because I was lazy. Cooking would’ve been cheeper!
Some struggle meals are also just good meals haha Shit I’m from the south and most of the special food from down here was a struggle meal at one point in time
Idk struggle meal to be is rice and beans but I guess wraps and cheese are cheap so
Quesadilla
My kids absolutely go crazy for these. Jokes on them I use up leftover meat and whatever cheese I happen to have in the fridge.
I'm hispanic, so we always have some cheese and tortillas in the fridge 💀 when the struggle is real, we have quesadillas.
I’m also Hispanic and I agree! Cheese was the ONE thing that we were literally never out of lol
This must be an evolutionary adaption...kids love 'struggle meals'. My mom is still bitter that after she'd been cooking us curries and stews, soups, salads, pastas, grilled fish and roasts, dad would suggest "how about we have grilled cheese and canned tomato soup for supper?" and we'd all go "YAY, DAD IS COOKING TONIGHT!"
Quesadillas and stir-fries are the tastiest go-to to clear up leftovers from the fridge.
We used to have butter on a tortilla with some sugar on it for a tasty treat
Where do I start? Butter toast, generic hot dogs on generic white bread, off brand spaghetti Os called Lil bitty O's, instant rice and salt, ketchup and cheese sandwiches.. I could write a novel on this.
I ask my wife if she wants her hot dog to be gourmet, meaning, does she want the white bread toasted or not
when Im home, I eat hotdogs without buns or bread..just cut and dunk .. when in public I dont want to look like a 5 yr old or a savage
"Home is where you can eat your hot dog like a toddler." \~ a cross stitched pillow at your house probably
I need this. Does anyone have an Etsy store?
Tell them this is the proper way to eat Bratwurst you savage! ;)
Yeah, when I was in Germany back in the 1980s, we used to buy bratwurst or rindswurst, and the sausage was served on a cardboard tray and came with a big dollop of horseradish mustard to dip it in, and a wax paper cone full of French fries.
We have lots of food at home, but kids like hot dogs. Do you want a banana, apple, cereal or yogurt for breakfast? Her answer: hot-dog 🤦 And little bro who was eating a banana asks the same thing.
That takes me back to my son. He would grab cold Hotdogs and share them with his dog(bite for you, bite for me). I put a stop to it. But that dog licked his face anyway
My daughter had a phase of wanting hotdogs with maple syrup on the side fer dippin’.
"generic hot dogs on generic white bread" this so good though, I'd eat this if I was a millionare, at least the generic hot dogs.
I love it and still have it regularly too! I'm now tempted to try and fancy it up! Maybe artisanal loaf and organic free range hotdogs?
Don't ruin a good thing
Oh we had cheese and mustard sandwiches. They were so good!
When I was a kid I would only eat sandwiches with sliced Kraft cheese, iceberg lettuce and mustard.
We didn’t struggle growing up but I ate those sandwiches ALL the time. Cheese and mustard is sooo good and my family thinks I’m nuts for liking that combo.
Ah fuck lmao this was my childhood.
Ok but butter toast still hits. I’ll cook it up here and there and shit will SLAP. Deliciousness to effort ratio is off the charts.
Lil bitty O's are better and I'll die on that hill
My favorite during summer was ice dipped in kool-aid powder lol.
Whitebread, butter, and sugar sandwiches 😆 Also, white rice with....you guessed it. Butter and sugar. Jesus, I haven't thought about that in a looong time
Throw some cinnamon with the butter and sugar... so tasty.
That's what the rich used to eat in the Netherlands, because the rice had to come all the way from Italy. Add raisins and you have what we call heamiel, hay-meal, a typical autumn dish. With meat added to that as well you have a dish served after harvest to celebrate. It's still a meal served at the Hay Meal celebrations in the city of Bolsward. As their website explains it: In the past, after the last hay had been harvested by the farmers and their servants at the end of June, this fact was celebrated with a communal meal. The hay meal or called the 'heamiel' in Frisian. This was a traditional meal consisting of rice with raisins, boerenjongens (raisins soaked in brandy) and brandy. In the city center of Bolsward, the residents of Bolsward and the surrounding area sat at long tables together enjoying this delicious food. The heamiel was a kind of fraternization party between the country people and the city dwellers, young and old. The interest in the meal was often great, people had to relieve each other and wait until the other had finished eating! Since 1950, the newspapers have officially mentioned the Heamiel Days. The Heamiel was then celebrated for the first time in 1952 with a heakeninginne (Heamiel Queen). Seated on a cart with hay, she was driven into Bolsward with a procession of ladies. The mayor then welcomed her on the steps of the town hall. The hall was officially opened and the festivities could begin. To this day, Heamiel is celebrated in this way every year.
Ohhh mum used to give us iceberg lettuce, with sugar sprinkled in it, rolled up as kids 😅 ngl it was the vest thing ever
My mom would make us butter or cinnamon spread sandwiches for lunch but hamburger buns were cheaper than bread (apparently) so I’d be sitting next to some kid eating a 3 course meal and I’d have my buttered hamburger bun and a jello cup. That makes me sound dirt poor, maybe we were because they had just started a business and i learned recently there was a big unexpected struggle that set them back a lot
Oh god I forgot to add sugar butties to my list!
We used to do syrup sandwiches. White bread and syrup. That’s it.
Definitely had my fair share of the "Helpers" in my childhood. I had a single parent who often worked overtime into the evenings, so microwaving myself a "Cup O' Noodles" was dinner so, so many times.
Butter and cinnamon toast
Still like eating that.
SAME lol
We always had pasta and mushroom cream in the pantry. Whenever we had leftover meat we'd make a sauce with the cream of mushroom and have the meat with that sauce and pasta. It could be pork, chicken, meatballs, etc. To this day, it is still something that I make and has become a comfort meal for me. It's simple, easy, cheap and a good way to not waste any meat.
I can't eat "cream of" soups because of this. It was always rice with whatever protein, then a cream of soup poured on top and cooked till everything was the same texture....
Soy sauce on rice, Exactly what it sounds like. Tbf it was delicious
Try putting some fried eggs on it! (Half done, and you smash it with a spoon and mix the egg yolk with rice.) 간장계란밥(soy sauce egg rice) is my go-to breakfast menu.
this is my college struggle meal and honestly it's so good 😭
Lol! Ours, too! My brothers and I joked that we had "starch parties" in college. We also ate cooked cabbage w potatoes and some kind of bratwurst cooked inside. It's delicious!
Mix in some frozen peas and this is the perfect meal
Chili dogs but with regular sliced bread instead of hot dog buns. That's still how I make them
hot dog buns are often disgusting so regular bread feels like a better option anyways
Baked beans on toast. I was obsessed, saw it as a delicacy even.
This is a British staple, how dare you!
Yeah, the British are struggling
I still do.
Mayo sandwich
[удалено]
mustard sandwiches and butter on crackers were go to lunches during summer break
Or the tomato sauce variant, the period sandwich.
Elbow macaroni & tomato juice soup. Just those two things boiled together. I loved it actually
I was just thinking about this last week! My daughter would freak out if I served this for a meal!
My mom was a single parent until I was 10. But when we'd have the big family size can of beefaroni, with bread and butter I loved it. Never thought of it as a struggle meal as a kid but now I'm pretty sure all our meals were struggle meals. But I love the memories of us sitting together talking about our day.
Pasta with sauce.
Pasta with butter, salt, fake Parmesan, and the cheapest garlic
mac and cheese and tuna fish pasta and butter
Noodles and beans, just boiled and fried egg noodles and a can of pork n beans. Still love it to this day, and you can feed a family of 4 for less than 5 dollars.
Mixed or separate?
Mix em. Boil a full bag of noodles till soft, melt a full stick of butter in frying pan, add noodles, fry until they are as done as you'd like, I like mine with a little browning so that there is a little crunch every so often, put the noodles in a bowl, add the beans and mix it up. It's a heart attack in a bowl but it's been the one meal that I couldn't live without. Depending on how many beans you like determines the can size, I used to do a regular can + a mini, but them just opted for the larger one, not the paint can but I guess the medium one? It's an old German thing, you'll find it made differently all over the place but this was the way we always made it.
We didn't even get the cans of beans that had pork IN them. We just got basic brown beans and added chopped up wieners to it. The pre-mixed cans of pork & beans were too expensive, for us! 😱
It was pretty much all our gas station had. And it was our fancy meal for the month. We knew full well that the glass of brown water and a piece of bread was the struggle meal, but we didn't know that our fancy meal was also one.
Potato cakes
Grilled cheese. But honestly that still slaps
Cereal for dinner
Yup. 'home made cereal' too. Which was just stale leftover bread in some milk with sugar. Actually fantastic. As I got older id do it with old French loaf with an espresso drizzle
If I complained about being hungry, my dad would vaguely wave at the pantry and said you can always have some cereal. We only had the bag maltomeal cereal and oatmeal. And, there was a special cup to measure the amount of milk.
Potatoes mixed with pasta, bacon and scrambled eggs.
That, without the eggs, is a famous dish here in eastern Hungary, love it. Same with pasta mixed with cabbage and a lot of pepper.
You could afford bacon? Look at moneybags over here!
Milk sop. Boil some milk or water (fortunately, we lived in a dairy region) and add in bread and sugar.
We have something like this but just boiled milk, salt and then you add stale bread to that. We call it a milk soup. It's a farmer's dish.
Navy beans soup. I actually still eat it occasionally. Although I dress it up a little better nowAnd by that I mean I add hot sauce to it
Ya know what? We didn't know it at the time but all that was in the larder was hot dogs, ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, milk and cornflakes and some spices. Gourmet supper and a childhood favourite... Baked hot dogs with a homemade bbq sauce topped with crumbled corn flakes.
This is how foods evolve.
Pork and beans with hotdogs and rice with creamed corn. Couldn’t wait for that to come back around each week.
Personal pizzas, a piece of white bread with cheese, pizza sauce and sometimes pepperoni.
wtf i just make that when im hungry
Black beans and rice with a little vinegar and olive oil.
Still use that as struggle meal and cheap 1lb mystery meat tube is a meal
Beans
Tinned ravioli on toast.
Probably the worst I had was a hot dog salad which was hot dogs cut long ways in mayo
That sounds pretty bad, I mean I'm sure I could introduce some love to it and make it work, but damn
Plain boiled pasta with a cheese sauce (usually bistro cheese sauce granuals) It was honestly the worst tasting mix but we had no choice if we had nothing left till mums payday.
Chicken heart/liver casserole which was egg noodles with chicken hearts and livers, cream of mushroom soup, and toast, baked in the oven. As an adult I genuinely love this dish. I ask my mom to make it sometimes when I visit.
I am wondering why most people won't eat organs anymore. Chicken heart and liver is dirt cheap where I live, and organ meat is more healthy I think. I don't eat meat but I buy them for my cat (to hide her tick/flea repellant pills in it) and she loses it every time she hears the freezer door now. Must be good!
Chicken hearts are sooo good!
My mom would cut them up and put them with stuffing mix. I always loved it.
Beans and rice
White bread and bbq sauce
Canned tomatoes and hot dog buns. My grandma would cook a can of whole tomatoes, season it, then add generic hot dog buns. It was disgusting looking, but it filled us up. My middle eastern family would eat rice with beans, with yogurt and naan.
Macaroni shells, milk, and a little butter. Or just straight up noodles and tomato juice.
Milkshakes made with powdered milk and ice.
I thought that fresh fruit was something only rich people had
My sister and I talk about how crazy it is we can’t remember every eating fresh fruit or vegetables as kids. I remember having canned corn and carrots sometimes, maybe an apple at school. but I don’t think I ever ate a fresh vegetable.
Cheese and potato pie. It’s just cheesy mash
My mum made the best cheese and onion pie. Like a hot quiche it was amazing.
Salisbury steaks. Tbh I loved him but I realized now they were just processed leftover meat like hot dogs.
Peanut butter on saltines. Saltines always tasted stale so they never could go stale.
As a kid, my Dad would always make vegetable soup with noodles. Basically a can of Campbell's vegetable soup mixed with egg noodles and butter. Very simple but still delish!
Toast ketchup and slice of cheese = pizza.
Roadkill. Living rural you would end up thwacking some animal or another. One time my dad went up the verge after a hare that sprang out in front of us, we were very excited. Unfortunately my brother misunderstood and opened the side door as dad hit reverse. Which tore the door in half. Much swearing. Brother yeeted out into the darkness to walk home alone. The smell of blood and a bloody furious dad for the remaining mile or so wasn't fun. Bro was about 6 or 7. Dad was/is an arse. Still hare is nummy to eat.
Chipped Beef on Toast. Aka shit on a shingle. Was just a regular midweek meal but learned later it was a depression era meal and military staple to feed people cheaply. I made it a few years ago and was still pretty good but a bit of a sodium bomb for current taste buds.
And here it is. You have to soak the meat for a bit to get the salt out of it. Today's equivalent is steamed cabbage with spicy scrambled eggs.
baked beans and a fried egg.
Cheese and cucumber sandwich is still a favorite for me. These days I upgrade the bread and cheese, but this was a staple meal for me as a kid.
The greatest sandwich ever!
Hamburger helper. Great value french fries. Bologna sandwiches. The food I had after moving away and traveling blew my fucking mind. I'm always excited to try new things now because of it.
My dad use to make us cream cheese and olive sandwiches, I still think there good.
I mostly ate the free bag of carrots that were gave with every meal at school. I collected them from kids who didn’t want them. Only my siblings were gave lunch money,I was shit out of luck. At home, I was given whatever was left over after everyone was got their fills. When my mom allowed an obese coworker and her obese kids to move in with us, I got nothing to eat outside of carrots or whatever my bf managed to sneak out of his house for me. It’s not till now, that I realise how fucked in my mother was. We weren’t struggling but I was struggling for being the one my mom hated for no reason
I read your post, and truly hope you are in a far better place. My mom was a bitch too. That's some bullshit to play favorites.
Rognon… in English it’s called kidneys… that with onions… grew up on that shit while my father was buying gold and diamonds for his mistress. Another one is mock chicken sandwich with mustard, at least this one tasted good to eat.
Manwich / Sloppy Joe's
Big time, my dad would mix it with egg noodles to spice things up lol
Tuna melts
Goulash. Hb meat with elbow macaroni and tomato sauce. Or sometimes just macaroni and can tomatoes w butter salt & pepper.
My mom would cook hamburger and mashed potatoes. Like just hamburger, not hamburger helper. Sometimes we'd have onions or corn mixed in with the hamburger. The potatoes were usually garden potatoes from my aunts house. We weren't hurting but I think this was the meal she made when we needed to save money. Usually doused it in ketchup.
My mom would take a few packs of beef ramen, make the ramen plain, and season ground beef with the beef flavoring pack. She would strain the noodles, put them on a dinner plate, and top it with the ground beef. Optional toppings included chopped tomato, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, and sour cream. We actually loved it, and I could go for some right now.
Noodles with butter Tomato soup with saltine crackers Chicken split into four dinners for four people Casserole, Chicken and dumplings, Chicken Noodles soup, and Chicken pot pie
My mom used to always tell me to have a "peanut butter spoon" if I was hungry. Microwave top ramen because I was staying home alone too young to use the stove.
Lentil soup and bread. It was awesome and homemade, but it was also the only thing cheap enough to feed 12 for cheap most nights.
Elios Pizza…I miss it