AARP Online Community and Discussion Forums - Re: AARP Online Community Memory Contest 2021 Week... - Page 4

AARPTeri · ‎08-27-2021

Did you ever have this for dinner?

What memories does this evoke for you? Did you have a favorite one that you would ask for?

Share by replying to this post for a chance to win!

Rules: https://community.aarp.org/t5/Brain-Health/AARP-Online-Community-Memory-Contst-Week-3-Official-Rules...

Week 3: August 30 - September 5, 2021

AARPTeri

lk4746 · ‎08-31-2021

The last line should have been like an Asian dinner or something that was too much work ... (My computer sometimes thinks it knows what I am trying to write.)

WynoniaS607080 · ‎08-31-2021

I remember eating TV dinners and watching Gun Smoke. The best part of the TV dinner was the little dessert portion. My Mom would let my sisters and I pick our own dinners; my choice was always based on what dessert was included.

CarolB321530 · ‎08-31-2021

When my mom wanted a break from cooking we would have Banquet frozen dinners (Salisbury steak was my favorite) while watching Hogans Heroes. Thanks for the memory since frozen dinners were my dad's favorite.

arroyavemia · ‎08-31-2021

I remember eating these when I was 11. I was visiting my aunt. We used to eat then on TV trays and she let us eat while watching TV. I don’t remember my favorite but I don’t remember any I didn’t like.

RogerandCyndy · ‎08-31-2021

Actually, the one pictured was one of my favorites. There was 7 in our family and the paycheck often did not stretch very far with hungry mouths to feed. Many meals were simple... rice with butter (no meat), pancakes or macaroni and cheese or "pot luck" which was a sort of soup/stew made up of all the leftovers in the fridge. One supermarket had these on sale, as they were nearing their expiration date. My folks stocked up on these and filled our freezer. I absolutely loved the meatloaf with tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, veggies AND a little dessert. Fond memories of getting to occasionally splurge on these special little treats. My mom even saved the tins they came in and reused them to "make homemade TV dinners", after holidays like Thanksgiving as a way to extend the leftover turkey and dressing without everyone getting tired of having leftovers day after day until they were all gone.

kb73506776 · ‎08-31-2021

I never had a tv dinner until I became an adult, my mom was a talented cook and she made dinner for my family every night and we ate at the dining room table. I guess I would have to say the best memory I have is my mom's food that was always seasoned with love!!

BURBAROONI · ‎08-31-2021

I still get the turkey hungry man dinner sometimes as it reminds me of the Thanksgiving dinner my mother used to make

cchrane · ‎08-31-2021

My favorite TV dinner was actually one that was chicken noodle soup. It was so good with a few crackers. I would take it for supper when I worked an evening shift at a printing company around 1972. The only way to heat it was to put it in a line printer that used gas heat to raise the print on cards and wedding invitations.

ab5283 · ‎08-31-2021

TV trays for these in front of Saturday night tv - Perry Mason!
I liked the chopped steak ones!

MarilynS363763 · ‎08-31-2021

So excited to have a dinner that was touted as sooo wonderful and delicious. As a youngster, it was magical…a dream! It really didn’t matter what it was…it was special AND on a TV tray just like the President and First Lady

befh7160 · ‎08-31-2021

I don't recognize that entree so I did not have itl]

FredP305011 · ‎08-31-2021

Fried chicken was my favorite.

AlanaC657018 · ‎08-31-2021

Fried chicken w mashed potatoes, green beans, or a roast same sides, corn bread or dinner rolls. Or a pot of pinto beans, pan fried potatoes w onions. Granny and Mama could cook but we would eat what ever was put in front of us. Didn't have a lot, except love and we had fun, dancing, singing playing cards.

brucel710743 · ‎08-31-2021

Swanson turkey tv dinner were the best. Was a real treat when Mom could not make us dinner or was working late in late 60's. Was like having a personal Thanksgiving Dinner all to my self.

😁

TLM80209 · ‎08-31-2021

Salisbury steak was my favorite. Yes. TV tray in front of the TV watching Disney's Wonderful World of Color on Sunday night. It was rare when we could afford them, but this article brought back one of the few enjoyable memories of my childhood.

yobee2 · ‎08-31-2021

We would have these when my grandparents would come over to babysit when mom and dad went out for the evening. I remember the one pictured and the fried chicken. We had a little table for children set p in front of the tv and we would watch the Flintstones and Top Cat cartoons while eating.

vk3015 · ‎08-31-2021

My first taste and love of tator tots. I liked the Turkey dinner, fried chicken and the baked apples. Eating from a TV tray watching the news.

TimeWillTell56 · ‎08-31-2021

I remember when they only had three sections main course, potatoes and vegetables. I thought it was wonderful when they added the little desserts. I remember my mom also getting boil in a bag beef and Salsberry steak. And pot pies. I still like Marie Callendar’s chicken pies.

sj6764 · ‎08-31-2021

I remember as a child eating the tv dinner with my mom and sister in living room with the tv on as a family.

NancyH783978 · ‎08-31-2021

Oh yes, I remember those and we would eat them on a real TV tray, too! I was always excited when I was lucky enough to eat a Swanson's turkey with mashed potatoes... wasn't thrilled about the mixed veggies, tho!

458581964 · ‎08-31-2021

I thought TV dinners had foods that rich people ate. There were things that our mom never cooked. Steak! Wow, and with a tomato sauce. Also, mixed vegetables that were not lima beans and corn (succotash). All of this delightful food and you just popped it in the oven and it was ready to eat. It was something even I could "cook" when Mom had to work. I am smiling just thinking back to those carefree days

tigertaylor · ‎08-31-2021

Yes. i remember the Salisbury steak which was my favorite. I just had gotten divorced and worked over 70 hours a week and the dinners were my salvation because I didn’t have time to cook and I wasn’t a good cook. They kind of kept me alive.

tigertaylor · ‎08-31-2021

Yes I remember the Salisbury steak which was my favorite. I just got divorced and worked 70 hours a week. The dinners were my salvation because I didn’t have time to cook and I wasn’t a good cook, so I relied on those TV dinners and my oven.

dt62565275 · ‎08-31-2021

Salisbury steak, instant potatoes, apple cobbler....a real treat and break from T-bones, free range fried chicken, new potatoes, home made cherry pie. But what does this farmers daughter know?

nac1648 · ‎08-31-2021

Yeah! Mine was fried chicken but we thought it was special also. All those home cooked meals. We didn't know how good we had it!

bsavoca · ‎08-31-2021

Yes, I remember having a frozen entree with mixed vegetables, with a chocolate cake-type desert in a divided section of the top center of the foil container. I also recall having fish sticks and baked macaroni on Friday nights. The baked mac was the best !

geezerette · ‎08-31-2021

Ah, yes, I remember them well...The light-catching, Swanson aluminum platters, with their perfect geometric sections to assure correct portions of meat or poultry, vegetables, and a dessert, sometimes graced with a jewel-like cherry on top. My mother was a good cook, but even good cooks need to take a break from toiling over a hot stove. On those (rare) occasions, she bought the dinner that offered chicken, mixed veggies, and mashed potatoes with gravy. That was my favorite. I can recall the fragrance of those meals when they emerged, hot and steaming, from the oven. Opening them was also part of the ritual; and even the slightly metallic sound that the aluminum container made when it was placed on the surface of our folding tables evokes good, 1960s memories. The best part (at least for my mom) was: the aluminum platter could be thrown away! Marcel Proust dipping his little madeleine into his tea can not hold a candle to this remembrance of things past. The meals were simple, wholesome, filling, cheap, and we enjoyed them together.

nac1648 · ‎08-31-2021

Growing up in the late 50s we rarely had TV dinners, but once a month my parents would go out for dinner with a group of other parents and we would have Banquet TV dinners, what a treat! I never would eat them now but it seemed like a treat at the time, especially the apple desert, We almost always had the fried chicken. Also had a babysitter which, as it was only once a month, was quite a unique occurrence. As another writer said, all that salt, fat and additives I now cringe at.

ew2524 · ‎08-31-2021

In my household we had TV dinners on little TV tables in the den to watch the Ed Sullivan show every week. My memory is turkey, mashed potatoes, peas and custard in the little metal tray, so hot it would burn your tongue if you didn't give it time to cool a bit. Even though this was not the highest quality food (as I now know), my mother was not much of a cook, so this little dinner was a real treat!

DavidR2246 · ‎08-31-2021

I loved the tv dinners. There were also turkey and chicken pot pies. I hated them. We all sat in front of the TV with our TV trays and TV dinners several nights a week in the 60's and into the 70's/