High School diet

I was listening to Savor podcast and during the listener mail section they started talking about high school breakfast. I frequently had a piece of white bread toast with strawberry preserves and two slices of Velveeta. [Velveeta was made from a different recipe and, I think, tasted better in the late 1970's than today. It is so soft now that it is getting close to spreadable--they advertise it as easy melting but don't mention that it is harder to slice now. I had a co-worker from Wisconsin that insisted Velveeta was gross and not even cheese!] But I digress; on mornings where I had more time, I would butter the bread and put it on a hot griddle then after it was toasted, add the preserves and cheese. Another favorite was Carnation instant breakfast drink which was a powder stirred into a glass of milk. Now that I think about it, I don't recall if that was high school or college. The chocolate flavor was the most tolerable. Not being a fan of eggs, cereal or any of the foods that maple syrup is poured over, my breakfast choices were rather limited. Turns out it was the maple syrup that turned me off. Dark corn syrup is good on waffles but I prefer peanut butter on the first, top it with another waffle, then put grape jam on top.

Now lunch was, at least for a year or two, I'd buy a chocolate shake and a pack of 6 mini chocolate iced donuts from the school cafeteria. I have to wonder if those were really chocolate milk shakes or the equivalent of a frozen Carnation Breakfast Drink but either way, I loved it.

In spite of these being my favorite things back then, none of them are particularly appealing now--except for a real chocolate shake.

Then comes supper. Mom worked three days a week and didn't get home until nearly 6pm. I frequently made dinner which was most often a hamburger helper or pot of chili. There was the occasional instant potatoes, sauerkraut, sausage and cornbread with a side of green beans--it had to be those three together or not at all for me. But I don't recall putting forth a lot of culinary effort back then.

While we're talking diet, let's step forward to my college days. I commuted to the local college and was on my own for lunch several days a week as I frequently was done with class by 1pm. On the days when I made lunch, it was very frequently just seasoned white rice. I fell asleep once while boiling the water and the white corning pot got so hot it turned red. Mom set it on a pot holder and, not too surprisingly, it caught fire. To be fair, she left an enameled tea kettle on the stove so long that the enamel melted and the pot stuck to the burner. So we both had some attention issues. [While in college, my brother-in-law was hungry and put a pot pie in the oven which took 45 minutes back then as microwave pot pies weren't yet a thing. While it was baking he realized again he was hungry, didn't remember the pie in the oven, and went to McDonald's only to come home to an apartment full of smoke and a rather charred pot pie.]