It’s funny. Some of the processed foods I remember eating (tostitos pizza rolls, Andy camps hot fries, frozen pizzas) where actually splurges when we had “money” to get popular food items because they were more expensive.
When we didn’t have money, it was just the basics because they were cheaper. I’ll never forget my mom fed the entire family for a week a couple of times growing up off $25 of groceries.
She bought some ground beef and chicken leg quarters, a cabbage, some collards, a bag of rice, eggs and bacon, a loaf of bread, some beans, lunch meat. Spaghetti and sauce.
We had grits and eggs and bacon for breakfast
Or French toast. A sandwich and soup for lunch.
Meatloaf rice and cabbage for two days.
Fried chicken collards and rice for two days.
Leftover meatloaf got turned into beef vegetable soup and cornbread and collards and black eye peas for two days.
Spaghetti and meat sauce.
$25 dollars! Family of four. A whole week.
We were never hungry. We kept cheap grains in our house like grits, rice, a bag of potatoes, flour. and beans. And we kept a big ole tub of butter.
Only thing we had to spend money on was meats and vegetables. There were times we didn’t even have money for cereal. But we didn’t sweat it b/c the shyt we ate for breakfast tasted better than the processed stuff anyway.
My momma’s biscuits and gravy >>>>>>>to frosted flakes anyway.
Fukk juice. Drink water.
We didn’t have money for chips or ice cream and my grandmother would pull out these old ass Cracker Barrel looking iron machines and make that shyt.
Slice them potatoes thin, fry em with some seasoning salt. Fukk Lays!
And fukk yo ice cream truck too.
Little boy next door once clowned us and said we lived like Lil House on the Prairie.
If we couldn’t afford any more meat, my dad would go fishing. Fried croaker and rice and tomatoes with broccoli casserole
My parents could make magic outta the basics.