I think I’ll stick with Radio Dinner…
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Well, give them a day or two.
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So much more fun as a kid when you don’t know any better about overly salty foods.
Not so much years later as an adult. They are decent enough in a pinch and will keep you alive but I wouldn’t want to live on it as a staple.
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Off-topic, but we had a TV so big and awkward it required its own cabinet. Then, instead of putting the TV in the cabinet, we put the TV on the cabinet, and filled the cabinet with Roger Ebert movie guides, Martin Gardner books, and David Wallechinsky’s Books Of Lists. I’d use the TV for background noise while I read the books.
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Nastolgia?
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I do not miss Swanson tv dinners. I wanted Jeno’s Pizza Rolls.
What I miss from this time (growing up in Wichita), was the rolling pizza wagon that Pizza Hut introduced, before their recipe and prep methods went downhill. I think this was also before taco chains turned to “bucket meat” instead of grilling in-house.
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So, it literally went downhill?
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Not in Kansas, it didn’t.
Edit: It was pretty cool, I thought. A huge delivery van with warming ovens in the back, and the iconic red roof on top.
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Eating TV dinners on TV trays that were “bought” with Blue Chip stamps was as good as it got.
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Are you sure these didn’t make the jump to microwave? I could swear I remember eating these exact meals in the 80s, but they were microwavable. I remember mostly because the potatoes would always, always end up frozen in the middle. Mashed potatoes, even real ones, are notoriously hard to microwave, but I don’t see why cooking them in an oven would be difficult. I definitely remember the square, super-sweet cranberry dessert and the brownie.
EDIT: And while we’re on the subject, I kind of miss those Red Baron individually-sized pizzas, especially the breakfast ones that had eggs, bacon or sausage, cheese, and some kind of white gravy-type thing as sauce, and had weird little fold-out reflective platforms you had to use to microwave them properly… though they did come out nice and hot, and even a bit crispy around the edges sometimes. They’re one of those things that were probably gross and I’d hate if I tried them as an adult, but my kid mind remembers being really tasty.
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TV Dinners were reserved for the evenings my parents went out. Otherwise we ate dinner in the kitchen with no TV.
But when they went out it was TV Dinners eaten on a fold up standing tray while watching TV. And I loved the Swanson’s fried chicken. I’m not sure how I would enjoy the taste if I ate one today.
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They made the transition very late and lost the war.
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That was my first thought when I saw the TV dinners…
Ours had leaves something like these:
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We had friends who worked at the factory – there was always a small garbage bag full of them in our freezer.
Edit: In my late teens I helped disassemble that factory… Old man Jeno stopped by and watched me with amusement for a while before telling me that the the particular concrete pylon that I was whacking with a sledge hammer was fiber-reinforced concrete…
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Did your family carefully wash and save the aluminum trays when done? I remember my mom using them to hold poster paints for us during craft time, and sometimes serving leftovers to us in them when we were allowed to eat in front of the TV. But mostly they accumulated in the broom closet.
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My grandpa was a machinist at Nabisco. We’d always have a cabinet full of Oreos when Oreos were the least cost-efficient snack food commonly available, and we’d have way more spray cheese than anyone could find a use for.
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Your wish… IS GRANTED! Heavens help you.
http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/swanson-frozen-entre/6000001794312
http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/swanson-frozen-entre/6000001794313
Yes, they’re still made, and easily available, up here in the Great White North. They shifted to plastic trays for microwavability, but other than that, it’s exactly the same thing. And yes, the “Hungry Man” entrees are available too.
Indeed, the packaging proudly says they’re “Made in the USA”, so I’m not sure why you can’t get them anymore.
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My faves were the Mexican variety- two enchiladas that would burn on the ends, gray refried beans, and Spanish rice that I can’t remember liking or hating. I remember being disappointed when the “nuke” version came out, it wasn’t as good.
Totinos party pizza was my jam. Add a few scraps from the fridge, like onion and cheese, and maybe some garlic or oregano and dinner is ON! Remember the (nasty) nuke version had that weird disc that the pizza cooked on? I’m sure that wasn’t safe for a 10 year old to cook on, combined with having my face inches above curing model airplane glue all weekend long.
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These saved my sister and my life as a kid. My mother could not cook. I mean, her eternal nemesis was the boxed brownie. We either had to spoon it out half cooked, or chisel it out burnt. Once she made thanksgiving gravy with tapioca starch. . . That creates a mucous-like clear snot texture. It does not leave the spoon. Hell, we got served mostly raw hamburgers regularly. I thought that was what they were supposed to be like until I was in high school.
When I got into middle school, I started asking for TV dinners, and my mother was happy to not cook. I think 90% of my nutritional needs for 3-4 years came from these things, and top ramen. At least they didn’t give us food poisoning.
To this day, I sometimes miss the tiny brownie you got with them.
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I don’t miss the dinners as much as I miss our 1985 Amana Rad-A-Range microwave… You know why? It wasn’t the shiny heavy duty metal feel or the brand new concept of probed cooking. No. It was the door.
That’s right, fuck every one of you modern microwave manufacturers with your bullsht swing out door. Does your oven have a swing out door? Shit was so cash, flip down door made everything easier.
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