[The Great RJ]

Years ago my Mother noted that those she knew to be of lower income (it was a small town where everybody pretty well knew) tended to buy food for convenience like TV dinners rather than buy something like a whole chicken that could be made into several meals. She grew up during the Depression and learned to stretch your food budget. The big problem is that today few people know how to cook food from scratch.

Fortunately she taught me how to cook many things from scratch. A whole chicken for example can be simmered with some carrots, celery and an onion to make fantastic chicken soup and taking the meat off the bone you can make chicken sandwiches or my favorite chicken pie by using a tube of biscuits.

[GeronL]

chicken.. biscuits... chicken n dumplings...

[berdie]

“The big problem is that today few people know how to cook from scratch.”

That, I fear, is the sad truth. How to cook, prepare a weekly menu and shop accordingly is quickly becoming a thing of the past. There will be a whole generation of people that think gravy comes in a jar, lol.

Times change, I guess. It used to be a huge treat to go out to eat and prepared food at the grocery store was not the norm.

I found the list at the original post to be interesting. It included foods that were once staples.

[Vermont Lt]

Back in the depression welfare came to you in the form of food. You had no choice but to learn how to stretch that chicken.

My grandfather was the head welfare agent for his county. He would clean up today’s mess pretty quickly. And our parks would be clean. And there would be no potholes.