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AARP Online Community Memory Contest 2021 Week 3 of 3

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AARP Online Community Memory Contest 2021 Week 3 of 3

 
AARPTeri
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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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!!

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

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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.

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

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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 

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

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Fried chicken was my favorite.  

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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.

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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. 

😁

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Periodic Contributor

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.

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

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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!

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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

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Periodic Contributor

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.

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Periodic Contributor

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.

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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?

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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!

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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 !

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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. 

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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.  

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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!

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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/

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