AARP Online Community Memory Contest 2021 Week 3 of 3

[AARPTeri]

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]

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

[ThomasD82018]

Love that chicken from pot pies

[AvocadoDog]

I see what you did there.

[emmaliz2]

TV dinners were a treat in our home.  We only received them if our mother was not feeling well or if the babysitter didn't know how to cook.  I still enjoy a good TV dinner to this day. 

[BonnieS304663]

Being a young bride with limited cooking skills.  Pot pies were a favorite along with Stouffers Macaroni and cheese. 

[b686849c]

My favorite was the fried chicken, but I have to tell you, I was burned out on those 10 for a $1.00 pot pies! Being semi-poor, we had those a lot! To this day I have a little shudder whenever I see them at the store.

[Rhymesometimes]

@b686849c  Welcome to the on line community!  I remember those pot pies back in the early '80s when I put myself through school.  My pot pies were packaged in basic  yellow boxes with black lettering.  No photo or illustration.  They were the no name generic versions. Cheap and filling, all that was required when the money was tight.

[jazzbone55]

Fried chicken and Salisbury steak, but no veggies for me.

[FrancesW292883]

Turkey dinner was my favorite

[BilliejoP127253]

Salisbury steak, my all time fav.  We had these for dinner on Mom's bowling night and she didn't have time to fix dinner.

[sljsp62972269]

Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes. Turkey and gravy. Mac and cheese. Pot pies. There were 9 of us, so Mom cooked. But if they had a night out, my older bro would fix TV dinners. I can remember when the pot pies were 10 for a $1.00. Right?

[nctarheel]

All I remember about the original Swanson TV dinners was that they took sooooooooooooo longgggggggggg to cook and invariably there was part of the TV dinner that overcooked and part that was still a little frosty, so to speak.

Oh, and one more thing.........

You were still starving once you finished the dang thing!!!!!!!!!!

[gs9107]

A tv dinner.

[Rhymesometimes]

@gs9107 welcome to the community!

[gs9107]

A tv dinner.

[DanaC893688]

Oh yes, that photo looks all too familiar! My favorite was salisbury steak, buried in something called "gravy", with mashed faux potatoes, mixed veggies, and some sort of "fruit" (was it really??) cobbler, all served up hot and placed on a TV tray, in front of "The Honeymooners", "I Love Lucy", or "The Ed Sullivan Show."  I wonder if this "delicacy" had anything to do with my becoming a vegetarian and healthy eater 30+ years ago? 🙂

[danstevens51]

Hey,

How bad can TV Dinners be if ZZ Top honored them with a song?  

[Rhymesometimes]

@danstevens51 That's right!  Welcome to the community!

[ToniC615904]

I really have only eaten them as an adult.  Growing up in an immigrant household, we didn't eat typical "American" fare.  One thing I really did not like was salisbury steak!  I do eat it now.  I suppose I have become Americanized.  Frozen dinners do make life easier...

[NormaC121873]

Turkey dinner was a favorite

[Rhymesometimes]

@NormaC121873 Mine too Norma!  Welcome to the on-line community!

[ToniS570313]

I have to confess.  I didn't eat a TV dinner until I moved out of my grandmothers house. As a young wife and mother who had not taken the time to learn how to cook all those good creole dishes my grandmother made - TV dinner's were a lifesaver. Cheap and what I thought then as well balanced - you had your meat, your vegetables, your starch, and your desert.  All I had to do was add a baked roll from the oven.  LOL - I thought I was doing something. Much smarter than my grandmother - right? I prepared a full meal without chopping, mixing or watching. And...didn't even have to clean any pots or pans.  I had discovered a beautiful thing. My favorites were the Turkey, the fried chicken and especially the meatloaf, gravy and mash potatoes. My former husband, he was starry eyed - he didn't care if I gave him a cold baloney sandwich. Funny how things come back around...I wish I would have tried to serve my grandchildren a TV dinner - they would have looked at me as if had lost my mind and would have considered it a form of punishment. Back then I thought the bright green and orange mixed vegetables were a sign of really prime/good/grown vegetables. Now I know the bright color was the result of chemicals and I wouldn't think of putting that in my system. Actually, I don't remember them having an aroma. I guess compared to my grandmother's good smelling creole food - I didn't realize TV had a smell. But that was part of the beauty - they didn't stink up the apartment. I suppose the TV dinners of the past are not much different than our frozen entrees and vegetables of today - just more sophisticated  marketing and packaging. Oh, and please, let us not forget the little aluminum standing TV tray. Sometimes I even had the nerve to dress it up with linen, a flower and my best eating dishes. Right in front of the TV watching shows like Bewitched, Bonanza, The Brady Bunch, Bill Cosby, Batman, Father Knows Best.  Oh, those were the simple days.  

[slywlf54]

As a kid, growing up in a 6 flight walk-up on the east side of Manhattan, we were too poor to get these often, so they were always a treat. Mom, sad to say, was - shall we just say - an indifferent cook, at best. Everything was always over-cooked to dry tastelessness, and minimally seasoned. Also, these happy little trays contained dessert - an otherwise seriously rare event. Eventually I grew up enough to take Home EC, and take over much of the cooking - a relief all around - but while I haven't had one in years, just the thought is a bright spot in an otherwise dingy memory. 

[ElaineP666706]

When I think of a frozen tv dinner I think of the opening to the Mary Tyler Moore show when she's in the grocery store, looking at the frozen tv dinner and throws it in her cart! It's a priceless memory for me whenever I go grocery shopping for frozen dinners!

[Rhymesometimes]

@ElaineP666706  Great memory.  Welcome to the community!

[jk3969]

Loved fried chicken TV dinners...Swanson or Banquet.  I grew up with those and Salisbury Steak and occasionally meatloaf or another variety.  While watching TV or at the kitchen table; it didn't really matter...fast food...made fast!

[bt8862]

My mom was a great cook.  Really don't know how we started eating tv dinners but it was a treat for us, it was convenient and delicious, just like homemade.

[MarleneT479348]

Yes I have eaten TV dinners. I especially like the turkey gravy and stuffing one. My 3 kiddos liked the fried chicken. Hubby ate 2. 😊💕

[n341760p]

TV tables with the painted flowered tray tops were popular so we could all sit in front of the TV  and watch everything from Howdy Doody and the Mickey Mouse Club to the news that came on during the dinner hour. I remember from the 50's 

[materqueen]

Wednesday nights were TV dinner nights. My Mom and Dad were on a bowling league that bowled on Wednesday nights so Mom would have TV dinners in the freezer for me and my three sisters with our older sister in charge of getting them cooked in the oven. No microwaves in those days! I was happy with any TV dinner that had the chocolate brownie as the dessert. Good memories from the 60's.

[km6241]

I was raising my three children on my on and working a full time job. When I got home we didn’t have much time for me to cook or the money to buy a lot of food so we would eat the Banquet TV Dinner. I loved the Saulsberry steak and mash potatoes and gravy. I would by the kids ones and they loved them. We used to by them a lot my kids have kids and they won’t buy them. We used to buy the pot pies also and to this day we still buy them. Thank you for listening. 

Kathy