Nothing can take you back in time like a bite of the food you loved as a kid. Here’s some nostalgic food that we couldn’t (and still can’t) get enough of.
What better way to start talking about nostalgic food than Betty Crocker cakes? These were so easy to make, they brought out the baker in all of us.
And, of course, angel food cake was the crowning glory. It had a delicate taste and texture that could only be described as heavenly.
Honestly, Betty Crocker’s angel food cake is still a godsend. Top it with some strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream, and you’ve got yourself a solid dessert.
If you grew up in the South, you’re probably all-too-familiar with this nostalgic food. With the help of Pillsbury and Jimmy Dean, this meal became super easy.
Jimmy Dean doesn’t sell their own gravy, but they do provide the sausages. If you’ve wanted to remake this as an adult, the recipe is easy to find.
As for the biscuits, well, who doesn’t love Pillsbury? Their store-bought bread dough made everyone’s life a lot easier. You can make anything with it.
McDonald’s fries save lives. Well, not really. There’s an argument to be made that it’s actually the opposite, but I don’t really care.
There’s something about these fries that’s just irreplaceable. The saltiness. The texture. The thin cut, which allows for so much more crunchiness…they’re elite, truly.
Sorry to say it, but, out of all the fast food chains, McDonald’s has the best fries. Or maybe this is just the nostalgia talking.
Country Time Lemonade was sold in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Whether you bought its canned form or preferred the powder, you loved its sweet taste.
If you’ve got a nostalgia craving, you’re in luck. You can find it at most Walmart or wholesale stores. Or you could just buy it off Amazon.
Heck, maybe you could reopen that childhood lemonade stand. People might look at you funny, but at least it’d be easy to make the lemonade.
I remember waking up to these pancakes at my grandparents’ house. I’d practically float downstairs like some cartoon character with the scent hooked into my nostrils.
And then there’s the syrup. It’s not the real stuff, that liquid-y maple syrup you get from actual maple trees. But oh, is it good.
Now, apparently, pancake mix can kill you. But anything can kill you, at any time. If I’m going to go, I’d rather it be via pancake.
If you needed a quick, cheap, and filling meal, Stouffer’s always had you covered. A personal favorite of mine was the meatloaf. Now that was a nice dinner.
Even now, I still get a craving for this nostalgic food. Sometimes, a warm Stouffer’s meatloaf and some mashed potatoes are all you want on a cold night.
Unfortunately, Stouffer’s is no longer sold in Canada, according to Financial Post. You could still try your hand at making a meatloaf at home.
Speaking of meatloaf, this is the perfect side dish. Though it’s not too hard to mash potatoes on your own, Idahoan made it that much easier.
There’s something about that mash that makes it so delicious. Like, weirdly delicious. I don’t know what it is. At this point, I don’t want to.
All you need to do is combine the mixture with water and stir. Though if you want to make your mash extra delicious, then use whole milk.
Everyone and their mother loved Nestlé Toll House chocolate chip cookies. Well, besides Instagram user @doubleup448.oxy, apparently. Shame on you, Mr. Doubleup448.oxy. Think about what you did.
Somehow, they tasted better than cookies made from scratch. Well, it depended on who was making the cookies. In my house, you wanted Toll House.
This is a nostalgic food that you just can’t get away from. You see them in the supermarket, and you’re just compelled to buy them. It’s like witchcraft.
When you made this as a kid, you probably felt like a little Gordon Ramsay. As an adult, it’s decidedly less impressive, but the magic’s still there.
Did your dad ever chop up a hot dog and put it in a bowl of this? Well, if he never did, you make it yourself. Worth it.
Mac and cheese is the ultimate comfort food, especially when you make it extra creamy. Seriously, don’t make it with skim milk. Whole milk all the way.
Getting a whole chicken is the way to go. Not only is it perfect for holidays, but you can also use the bones as broth for soup.
Perdue’s whole chicken is perfect for meal prep, too. You can put it in any meals you want throughout the week. Soup, salad, you name it.
Of course, Perdue sells other chicken products too, like drumsticks and chicken breast. But we both know that buying the whole chicken is best.
McDonald’s apple pie was a treat. If you got an apple pie on the night you were allowed to have McDonald’s, you had it made.
They were the perfect size and shape, too. Instead of selling actual pies, McDonald’s opted for a treat that was closer to a strudel.
Of course, this worked in their favor. It made the “pies” easier to hold and eat on the go. Thankfully, you can still buy them at most locations.
Was there ever a better food combo than grilled cheese and tomato soup? Go on, try thinking of one. That’s right: there isn’t.
There were lots of gross food combos we tried as kids, but this certainly wasn’t one of them. This nostalgic food has stood the test of time.
Personally, I think that the creamy tomato soup is best, but to each their own. I can respect some condensed tomato soup with milk.
Okay, we all love a good PB&J, right? Like, this isn’t up for debate? Well, unless you’re allergic to peanut butter, that is.
The real question is what kind of PB&J you preferred. Was your peanut butter crunchy or smooth? Did your parents cut off the crusts?
Now, I’d like to think that you all were smooth peanut butter kids who could handle a little crust. But ,aybe that’s just wishful thinking.
For some reason, a can of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs always felt special. Maybe it’s because the company was founded by an actual chef.
I know, right? Total curveball. According to NPR, Chef Boiardi immigrated from Italy to America in the 1920s. He and his family started out with a restaurant.
Their business took off when they started selling jarred sauces and teaching people how to cook Italian food. And yes — he had the mustache.
Cinnamon toast is a simple, sweet snack that you can make within a matter of minutes. All you need is bread, sugar, cinnamon, and butter.
If you’ve run out of eggs for breakfast and you’re not in the mood for cereal, then this is the perfect fix. First, mix all those ingredients together.
Then, after you’ve toasted the bread to your liking, you can spread the mixture onto the surface. Pretty easy, huh? No wonder we loved it as kids.
Not only are baked beans one of the top tailgating foods, they’re also the perfect side dish for any barbecue. Who didn’t love baked beans as a kid?
They’re so good when you mix them together with spicy brown mustard. Seriously, that food combo was my favorite part of any family barbecue.
The best thing about Bush’s is that they’ve got options. You can get a can of Original baked beans with meat, or get the vegetarian version.
Nowadays, Chick-fil-A is all the rage. But if you didn’t grow up in the southeast, you’re probably more familiar with KFC. Their fried chicken buckets were everything.
They’re still around, but they’re a little less popular than Chick-fil-A, which has since expanded their reach. KFC hasn’t disappeared, though — they’ve just changed tactics.
You see, KFC is a huge phenomenon outside the U.S. They’ve basically taken over the Asian fried chicken market. They claim to have 1,200 restaurants in Japan alone.
Speaking of barbecues, remember Green Giant’s miniature corn on the cob? They were perfect for grilling. Top it with a pat of butter, and you’re in food heaven.
Plus, they came frozen, making them easier to make. All you needed to do was pop the bag in the microwave, and boom! A solid side dish.
There’s lots of different recipes that you can try with these, too. You can make elote, for example, a popular Mexican street food made with chili powder.
For some reason, moms seem to love making casserole. It’s, like, their favorite thing to do (I think). Of course, tuna casserole is no exception.
With Starkist, tuna casseroles were made that much easier. There’s no need to skin and debone a whole tuna fish when you’ve got Starkist.
Casseroles aren’t the only thing you can make with tuna fish. You can make tuna salad, tuna salad sandwiches, tuna patties…the list goes on.
Who didn’t love splurging on a Dairy Queen banana split? They really knew how to make them. Hot fudge, pineapple topping, and strawberry sauce…yum.
Oh yeah, and it’s made of vanilla soft serve. And they top it with whipped cream. We seriously can’t blame you for this nostalgia craving.
It’s the perfect dessert to end your day with. Even if you don’t go to Dairy Queen, you can easily recreate it at home.
Manwich sloppy joes were so easy to make. Heat the sauce up in a pan, spoon it onto a roll, and you’ve got dinner for the family.
The thing about sloppy joes, though, is that they’re always easy to make. You could buy a can of Manwich, but you don’t have to.
If you want to recreate the Manwich magic, start off with some ground beef and tomato sauce. Sautée and season with whatever you like.
If you don’t have the energy to make cornbread from scratch, then you can always turn to Jiffy. Like baked beans, it’s a great barbecue side dish.
This is probably a nostalgic food for you because you ate it plain. However, there’s lots of different recipes you can make with cornbread.
Take elote cornbread, for example. Tear your Jiffy cornbread into chunks, before topping it with homemade crema, cheese, chili powder, and cilantro. Talk about delish.
Famous for their Spam, Hormel has another (significantly better) food item: beef pot roast. With Hormel, you don’t need to wait for your meal to slow cook.
Slow cooker meals can be hard! They should be easy, but then you forget how long they take, and then you have to put it off until tomorrow.
I don’t know, maybe I just need to make more time for cooking in my day. Anyway, Hormel’s beef pot roast eliminates that issue completely.
If you were a Scout, you probably remember s’mores very fondly. Sitting around the campfire, roasting your marshmallows, trying not to be afraid of the dark…
Those were good times, weren’t they? No other nostalgic food hits you quite like a s’more does, especially with those little squares of Hershey’s chocolate.
Maybe the process is what makes people so attached to s’mores. Whatever it is, they remain a summertime campfire delicacy, regardless of how old you are.
What kid didn’t like Rice Krispie treats? The best part about this snack was that it was so easy to make on your own.
With Kellogg’s Rice Krispies and melted marshmallows, you could make your own dessert. If you gave some to your classmates, you’d be the talk of the town.
Plus, you could add anything you wanted to them. Chocolate drizzle? M&Ms? Mini marshmallows? The possibilities had seemed endless, and that’s because they were.
No nostalgic food makes my mouth water like a shepherd’s pie. It’s a warm, filling comfort food that was manufactured in a lab to remind you of family.
Not actually. You know what I mean. It’s really good! Marie Callendar’s was easy to heat up, on the days where your parents didn’t feel like making it.
Nothing tastes quite like a homemade shepherd’s pie, though. If you want yours to be hearty and authentic, make it with ground lamb meat.
Here’s another barbecue side dish that totally took over our childhood memories. Maybe you thought they were gross at first, but once you try one, you love them.
Like every other nostalgic food, deviled eggs have such a simple recipe. They may have been hard to make while we were kids, though.
But now that we’re older, we can totally make deviled eggs with ease! Just cut the eggs straight down the middle, so the whites can hold the filling.
Hot dogs are the indisputable king of barbecues. Burgers are at the top, too, but they have to be the queen, for the sake of the previous sentence.
Now, the ketchup is debatable. Some people like ketchup and mustard, while others prefer only mustard. But just ketchup? I don’t know about that one.
Still, who am I to stop you from feeling nostalgic about ketchup on a hot dog? Regardless, Heinz ketchup is undoubtedly the most nostalgia-inducing brand.
Ah, chicken noodle soup. It’ll warm you up in the wintertime, heal you from your cold, and fill your belly, all in one swoop.
Even if you felt no nostalgia for the other foods, you’ve got to be nostalgic for this. If you didn’t eat Campbell’s, you at least had chicken noodle.
This soup is one of the only constants in childhood and adulthood. Your dreams of going to space were crushed, but you still have chicken noodle.
Okay, we know that this is a polarizing one. Some people are diehard candy corn lovers, and others gag at the sight of it.
If the latter more accurately describes you, then…sorry. Your opinion is respected, but it’s so not shared. Candy corn is the perfect Halloween candy.
Think about it. Does any other candy immediately remind you of Halloween the way candy corn does? I’ll go out on a limb and say no.
See? I told you that moms love to make casserole. There’s a reason why it’s shown up twice on a nostalgic food list.
Green bean casserole, at least in my experience, is another love/hate food. Regardless of how you feel, it’s probably shown up at a Thanksgiving or two.
Now that you’re an adult, you can decide whether or not to eat the green bean casserole. The choice is, fortunately, yours to make.
If you broke one too many egg whites while making those deviled eggs, you could always make egg salad sandwiches. This picnic food staple is so simple.
Mix together hard boiled, crushed eggs (yolk and white) with your Hellman’s mayo. You can also add mustard, paprika, salt, pepper, and a vegetable.
Lots of people like to add celery to their egg salad for some crunch. It’s up to you. You can also add lettuce and onions to the sandwich.
Back in the day, Baskin-Robbins was known for having a whopping 31 different flavors. Now, that’s nothing. They’ve even one-upped themselves, having reached over 1,000 flavors.
Yep — this isn’t your mother’s Baskin-Robbins. Of course, they can’t physically fit all those flavors into their stores, so they sell them separately.
This works in your favor. When you’re feeling nostalgic for a cup of Baskin-Robbins’ cotton candy ice cream, you can buy it online instead.
Nostalgia is a funny thing. You know that life in the past wasn’t perfect. Maybe you shouldn’t be idealizing your life as a first-grader.
But that doesn’t stop you! It was nice, to not have to cook all the time, to have your parents heat up some Campbell’s chicken noodle soup.
Sometimes, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of adult life, all you want is a PB&J to ease the pain. We at So Yummy understand you.
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