TV Dinner of My Childhood!
So how does it stack up, decades later?
A little while ago, I posted about cooking up a crap dinner of microwaveable chicken nuggets and stove top mac n' cheese. Doug F brought up memories of the old Kid Cuisine meals from the past, and I decided to see if they were still on the market. And, surprise, they were!
My parents use to buy these for me when I was in my early teens; they served as Friday night dinner for those evenings when they would head out to bars with their adult friends and leave my sister and I home, alone, for late nights of Nick at Nite and Mystery Science theater 3000. I really can't say I remember getting excited for these things as a kid, but I don't really have any specific memories of thinking they were terrible! So, how do they stack up now that I've developed a palate for better tasting food?
I've got to say, the packaging looks fun! Too fun. Obnoxiously fun. Is that a basketball dunking penguin on the front? Why? And to be honest with you, I didn't even notice there was a quiz on the back of the box until I pulled up the photo I took for this article. How fun? Ha! I really only looked at the back long enough to get the directions. I thought to myself, "Ughhhhhh. I've got to take the nuggets out first?" I found that to be a little annoying. What is too much work for a TV dinner?
I need you to tone down some of this awesomeness please, Kid Cuisine.
Oh. There is a quiz.
Inside the box, my Kid Cuisine meal looked like the standard, classic TV dinner. And by that, I mean not all that awesome. I was a little worried about the portion sizes, as I'm a grown ass, overweight, American adult! Seeing the small portions of the sides and nuggets, I thought to myself, "No wonder I grew up to be such an angry person!"
Well this looks... ...interesting?
Nuggets out for cooking - this is just stupid looking. But I understand why!
I took the nuggets out and threw the mac n' cheese, chocolate brownie, and corn portions into the microwave to take their first little spin at getting zapped with electrons. After the microwave screamed at me loudly to announce it was done, I added the processed protein nuggets back into the tray and set the whole meal to spinning under power again.
All done!
I believe the cooked meal looked even more unattractive than the previously frozen version. I was prepared to be angry after eating this mess. I tried the chicken first, not expecting much of anything positive and heavily processed chicken "meat". Well, the chicken was indeed the heavily processed variety, but it actually wasn't that bad. The breading was closer to a panko style breading that what I usually get on a nugget. The nuggets didn't taste bad, and the texture overall wasn't off-putting.
Hmmmm. Actually not too bad.
I ate the corn next. The flavorless corn. Swimming in flavorless corn water. I shouldn't have been surprised when I looked at the ingredients for the side of corn; "corn, water". The corn was abysmal! These days, when I cook up corn, it goes on the grill seasoned with awesome Southwest flavors. When I cook corn, it kicks you in the face with flavor that makes you want more! Not the Kid Cuisine corn. No worries about being overwhelmed with flavor here!
Seriously lack of yum here.
Now the mac n' cheese was ALMOST good. I say almost, because it was actually good, but there was just sooooooooooo little of it. Just enough to make me want more, despite it's very unnatural yellow hue. There was just enough to make me angry. HAHAHAHA! The cheese sauce was flavorful and cheesy! Ughhhhh. I want more mac n' cheese.
This is YELLOW! Hahahaha!
I saved desert for last! And I was kind of excited for the small portion of chocolate brownie! I wish I hadn't been. It was TERRIBLE! It kind of had a flavor and texture like white sandwich bread flavored with chocolate. It was a little weird in how light the chocolate flavor was, and how light the texture was. It was very un-brownie like. UGHHHH!!!!
Did I mention, UGHHHHHH?
So there you have it, folks. An interesting dinner from my past, that probably should have been left in my past! Now if I could only find the frozen Patio brand chili-dog burritos my parents used to buy me when I was a kid. Now there is something I would love to try again!!!!! I need a time machine.
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Comments (7)
"I'm a grown a$$, overweight, American adult " OMG 🤣😂🤣 I so understand this statement. 😄
Mystery Science Theater 3000 was the best! I miss that show.
You had me laughing all the way through this post. I think I know those burritos, I ate them as well. If I remember right there was a bean and green chili one I used to really like.
YES! I loved that flavor too! And there was also a beef and potato flavor I also enjoyed. I wanna say the chili dog flavor came in a brown wrapper, the bean and green chili came in a green wrapper, and the potato one came in a blue wrapper. Damn!!!! ...
Read moreYup, a green wrapper with yellow written. I thought the brown wrapper one was bean and cheese because the was my second favorite. I have never seen one in a blues wrapper. I will keep a out for the now.
Hehe, it doesn't look good. I used to love cherry flavored gelatine with condensed milk when I was a kid. I tried that combination a few years ago and it was disappointing 😅.
That sounds...
...interesting? HAHAHA
This is terrifying
🤣🤣🤣