Thanks for sharing such a special meal with us. I have a question for all of the viewers here who make okra on a regular basis. I hate okra because I find it slimy. Is there a way you can prepare it that it is not slimy maybe then I won’t mind it. I doubt it but I’m willing to try! 😁🤣. I’m really looking forward to your video next week with that $15 challenge for 4 people. Oh, and I have a piece of advice for you that have great cast-iron cookware. If you’re getting married, don’t listen to your loser now ex-husband who convinced you that cast-iron is useless and you should give it away. He thought it wasn’t fancy enough for him to coo with. Yes, I should’ve kept the cookware and gave him away instead. 🤯
😂 Thanks for the laugh. Did you see my video where I made the okra and tomato stew? That was not slimy at all. I think it was the acid in the tomato that removed it. Actually, that would probably be good poured over the cornbread too.
There is actually ways to prepare so it is not slimy. A few ways: 1. cook quickly over high heat 2. cook it with an acid such as a tomato sauce, 3. ensure no moisture on outside of okra 4. cook whole 5. if you need to cook sliced, use a very sharp knife and wipe knife between slices 6. soak in cup of vinegar an hour before cooking and ensure dry after soaking etc.
Funny 😂. Made me laugh. Now you know always listen within yourself. You most likely knew he was going to be the biggest pain in your as_ before you married him. Some life lessons are painful to learn. When you've survived your own bad choices you shine like the morning sun in life and become a big blessing to others that are walking in a cloud 🌞
My mother grew up during the depression in the 30’s. She always talked about how hungry she was most of the time. I didn’t realize until I was older that the scars of hunger remained with her. She was a tiny little thing weighing no more than 105 lbs but later in life when she had $ up until she passed, her house was packed with food, I mean PACKED. Extra freezers, an extra pantry, the spare bedroom packed with food, food every where! So much food that you could not fit a piece of paper in her freezer!Always trying to feed everyone. One day she stopped at my house with a 50 lb bag of potatoes and said “ this is so you won’t go hungry”. I was fortunate to have a high paying job and didn’t have to worry about food. I just said thank you. I had to give potatoes to everyone I knew. Lol. That is when I realized the hunger from her youth really scarred her. She spent all her $ on food that she couldn’t possibly eat. I would go food shopping in her house. Lol. It was so sad when she passed, I donated the food to a lot of older people in need.
Thank you for sharing this with us. 🥰 I can so relate to this story and to your mom. For people that were hungry as children it feels like security to have extra food in the house. I'm sure her food storage gave her great satisfaction and peace of mind. 🌸
Who cares what food costs as long as its good food! We grew a lot of our food and canned it for the winter. We did that with venison as well. Canned or froze the meat. I wish we still had govt cheese from back in the day!
Major life tip for beans, if you find they usually upset your stomach try adding a splash of vinegar (apple cider vinegar is the most popular option for flavor) to the beans right at the end of cooking. The acidity will break down some of the insigestible sugars that cause stomach upset.
I can relate to this. There were times I remember calling my Dad (parents were divorced) and complaining that we were hungry. Not that we lived in poverty, and my Mom was doing the best she could. We were struggling more than I understood back then. I loved it after we went shopping. But yes I remember looking in cupboards for hours looking for things to make. I used cookbooks to figure out ways to make anything I could. Like low ingredient cookies, we ate toast w cinnamon & sugar a lot, my Mom made sausage bread a lot. We would make and eat a lot of plain spaghetti. I didn't think we were food insecure back then, but looking back we were at times. There was abundance and then there were lean times...Anyway, as an adult I stock up on food a lot like u are describing. I try to do it in a strategic way these days. I try to have a prepper attitude about it. My Husband doesn't understand this or like it. But I look for deals and stock up on shelf stable items, I also garden a lot, for this reason.
oh yes, that feeling you got when they went shopping 🥰 It's like you've never felt richer in your life 😂 Sausage bread? You have me intrigued. What is that? Having an ample food storage is necessary for peace of mind for kids that grew up food insecure.
Me Three...four, five. Well, me too. I never linked my childhood with my adult shopping habits. Meals, lunches, tight, very tight. Things were so tight also when my daughters were growing up, too. I often did without, saved the best for them. My normal meal was cheap instant mashed potatoes, with a bit of cheese if I could afford it, and it wasn't taking away from my girls. As long as my girls had their veggies, protein, dairy, starch, I really didn't care what I ate, the instant mashed potatoes were very filling. And now, the girls are grown, with families of their own, and with my new-ish hubby I just, stock, stock, stock. I usually make everything from scratch still. Cheaper. Let's just say, when the pandemic closed everything down, there was plenty to eat out of the pantry/freezer. It was two months or so before we ventured out to shop.
@@ArdentMichelle I was intrigued by the sausage bread that I had to Google it. Lol,maybe I was hungry too. I found a recipe that looks delicious and is so simple. It's at Julia's Simply Southern website, all one word. Hope this saves you a bit of time. 😊 Can u tell I am a big fan?
Chip shop style curry sauce isn't like Indian curry sauce, it's mild and sweet and often has red lentils in it. You need to include the term chip shop in your search!
I know there are good and bad people in all walks of life, but I find people who were raised poor seem to be more loving and caring and generous ❤ I was raised by a single mom who worked two and sometimes three jobs. I was very loved and she was not a great cook. I was never hungry. One of my favorite memories was when it was my birthday or Christmas. She would buy “ exotic foods”for us to try. AKA. Surgar cane, avocado, whole coconut. Yes avocado was exotic at the time. I was born in the 1950s
@kathy I remember my mom getting those long stalks of sugar cane to cut up for us every once in awhile and she’d get a coconut and smack it with a hammer but I think she drilled holes in it to get the coco water out first. Thanks for reminding me, sweet memories…and I was raised without much money too.
I grew up in a large rural TX family that had Get Togethers of 35-50 people for every holiday & certain staple dishes were always included. A Pennsylvanian (who we love) married into the family and on maybe her 4th Thanksgiving she loudly asked "Can we please not have the pot of pinto beans for Christmas this year? It makes the buffet table look bad." There was absolute silence after that for about 5 minutes.
That's so funny 😂 For people that didn't grow up eating beans, I don't think they know what a delicious staple they are and what an important part of southern culture they are.
Oh yes! Beans and cornbread were definitely a staple for me growing up too!👍 Great video! Wow...talking about childhood meals...my sister, who is fighting cancer, asked me to fix a meal for her we used to have as kids. My grandfather (a Navy cook in WWII) used to make salmon croquettes. My Mom (RIP) made them from time to time also, and we just loved our 'crispy fish' meal back in the day. My Sis, who was always 'the cook' in the family, told me today that she didn't make croquettes for her kids much because they didn't like 'that kind of eating' lol. However, I remember calling my Mom and asking her for that recipe because it was a great way to stretch a can of salmon to feed four people, and I've been making them for years. Now that my Sis is bedridden, I made those salmon croquettes for her today with some mac n' cheese, mixed veggies and cornbread (and I have some mini cast iron skillets and I FORGOT to use them for the cornbread lol...btw our recipes for cornbread are quite similar) She absolutely loved them! She told me she only wanted three croquettes, but I made her two plates with two each, and I'm sure she finished them up before the day was out lol. I know my family finished everything by nightfall, for sure lol.. Now she wants me to make some pot roast next weekend. Trust me, I will NOT forget the cast iron for the cornbread! 😁
I'm so sorry about your sister. 😞 I always wished I had one. I can so relate to this and how these recipes are a source of comfort. I would love to have your salmon croquettes recipe if you care to share.
@@ArdentMichelle Hope you'll make those some time! I love recipes like my mom used to make... canned fish stretched to within an inch of its life with filler food, like bread or potatoes, and so yummy!!
My grandparents went thru the depression too. They had a room full of home canned food. When we were kids from about the age of 10 to 15 we would go to big momma's house several days in the summer to help her can food. My other grandmaw had large paper bags of beans and peas in her house. When anyone sit down they were expected to shull beans and peas while watch tv.
Hi Samantha 😁 I'm projecting here...but reading this is giving me the warm, cozy feels. 🥰😂 I had two grandmas that couldn't be more opposite but the one I talked about sounds similar to yours. My grandma had canned food too and there was always some kind of food preservation going on.
My parents were born in the 30s and gardened when I was a young child (I was much younger than my 3 siblings so I think they stopped when I was the only child left at home). We shelled peas and beans and shucked corn on the front porch every evening in the summertime.
My son had never had okra until he was in the Navy. He said he hated it. My family came from eastern Europe and Germany. Very poor, but lots of carrots, onions, potatoes, turnips, and chicken fat instead of lard. Tina, Al's wife
Hi Tina 😁 I feel like many people were just never exposed to it. I didn't make it when my sons were growing up either for some reason. I wish I would have. It's harder to introduce things later on 😂
My dad would eat milk and crumbled saltiness as his snack. My grandma would save popcorn overnight and then have it with milk the next morning as breakfast.
I grew up in a poor country and having a small stockpile of food in the house is incredibly important for my emotional wellbeing. And food is my love language, too. Thank you very much for mentioning that, I always thought it was just me and couldn't tell anybody about it because I thought it was some kind of unhealthy copying mechanism. And the meal that you cooked in this video reminded me of eating fried potatoes with onions as our main dinner dish with some pickles or fresh vegetables from our garden on the side with my family when I was little - I can afford any food I want now, but nothing tastes as delicious and warms the soul as much as those fried potatoes did back then because it was all we had.
Thank you for sharing this because I think a lot of us have this issue. 😁 It's normal and a survival mechanism. I think it's good too because it helps to be able to save money on food when you already have some. You can take advantage of sales.
This meal is still one of my favorites. My Mom was a lousy cook, but she made killer pinto beans, corn bread, and fried potatoes cooked with some onions. It's heaven on a bun to me!
You're right about the whole food insecurity as a child thing, I have a veritable grocery store in my house. I sleep better knowing my family won't ever go hungry.
I have to say that I love what you said in the beginning of your video. Obviously I don’t love that you grew up poor and food challenged. I took a rapport and food challenged. My mom did not like to cook and the grandma that I saw on a semi regular basis was her mother and was not a good cook either. Very regularly I saw my dad‘s mom who was an excellent cook and I ended up learning from her that you cook by feel. She didn’t measure anything not even when she baked. And it was definitely my grandma’s love language food I mean and yes, everybody deserves delicious food that’s one of the things that I pride myself on because I have multiple challenging food allergies and we have to make our own food, and it almost always requires an alteration of a recipe. So I cook by feel also.
Hi Chris 😁 thank you for this comment. I can relate to what you're saying. I also had a grandma that didn't cook. I never remember her in the kitchen once, and she never interacted with us grandkids much. I don't think kids were her thing 😂 My other grandma cooked just like you described, without measuring the ingredients. I'm so glad you've been able to alter recipes to suit your needs. There is so much freedom in that and it's also a key to budget cooking.
Love this. I'm the daughter of Immigrants who now lives in the south. Love this type of cooking. I've had the privilege of dining at some extremely exclusive places - but nothing compares to the feeling of food made at home with love and the memories you make. Thanks always for making these videos. I think it's a true gift to educate people who really need it ❤
Hi Suzy 😁 I'm so glad you like this video! What's really interesting is when those fancy restaurants start imitating these meals. For example, fried green tomatoes, bread pudding, and other meals with a humble history that are served again and sometimes with a new twist to them. It gives that feeling of nostalgia to the diner and are usually hugely successful meals. Thank you so much for the nice comment. I appreciate it. 🥰 Have a great week!
A delicious “day before payday” meal for us growing up was a can of tuna, drained and mixed with a can of cream of chicken soup. That was heated and served over toast and we never even knew we were eating it because we were poor. It was so good! Still one of my comfort food go to meals today. I always have ingredients for it on hand!
@@ArdentMichelle it depends on how thick you like it and how thick your brand of soup is. I use store brand soup, which is pretty thick, so I add about 1/3 soup can of water to it. I also add a lot of black pepper on top when I plate it, but I really like black pepper! My sister also makes this with canned chicken, and it is good, but I prefer the tuna. Also…any “cream of” soup will work, but I use chicken because that’s what my mom used.
From NM-Black and pinto beans, rice, green chile, potatoes, onions, eggs, butter and flour- these are always my basic shopping items because you can make so many good meals that are filling and good for you!
Back when I was young and in that food challenge household, my mom would make biscuits or cornbread to go with her food to stretch it and I’m not a big fan of honey but honey or molasses on biscuits or cornbread is delicious
Yes, powdered milk used to be the cheap stuff but now I think it cost three times as much. Still keep it on hand though in case I can't make it to the store before I run out of whole milk
My mother was a single Mom & I did not realize we were food poor as she was such a good cook. Welfare Mac & Cheese, beans & fried potatoes & gravy were delicious. Cream of Wheat or Wheatina for breakfast. Sometimes powdered milk.
Sometimes we are impacted by the poverty our parents grew up with. My parents would always make us clean our plate, saying we didn’t know how lucky we were. Beans and rice, or flour gravy over white bread, appeared often at the table. That corn pone looked awesome - have you ever tried a leftover slice, rewarded, with either broth from the beans (savory) or butter & maple syrup (sweet) - both are yummy. Your posts show me how items can be stretched over several meals and it’s been eye-opening, in a wonderful way. I will be retiring soon, and have to learn how to live on 2/3 less monthly income. You are a blessing!
Hello 😁 yes, I love cornbread with beans and broth over the top. I love the broth from first cooked beans. It's the best. It always thickens up so much the next day. I also like cornbread with honey but I've never tried it with maple syrup. I bet that's fabulous! I'm so glad my videos are helpful. I know that I'll need to do some serious planning in my retirement too. I have lots of viewers that watch my channel that are on a fixed income. Thanks for taking the time to comment 🥰
What is hilarious about picking over beans is that when I do find a pebble in the pile (maybe once a year..?) it's always the exact shape of the beans that I'm sorting through. It's pretty clear how Stealth Bean snuck through the processing! Note: apparently the fancier, more "gourmet" a dry bean is, the more likely it is to have debris that needs to be picked out. Smaller "artisanal" growers usually dry their beans outdoors the old fashioned way, whereas large bean producers usually use ventilated warehouses.
Mom lived through the Depression. Cinnamon toast was a common breakfast. French toast was another common breakfast. With 6 kids, it was a way to stretch the eggs. We had to carry lunch to school so it was sandwiches: 1 slice of American cheese with lettuce and butter or 1 slice of bologna with butter or tuna salad with lettuce and butter or butter and sugar, or crackers with butter or peanut butter or cheese. We usually had at least 1 fruit, canned or fresh, a day. No garden salads but macaroni salad. Frozen or canned vegetables for dinners. During summer/fall, we had fresh corn and tomatoes. Also, watermelon. Mom and Dad both worked so that cut in to long meal prep times.
Hello 😁 Toast with cinnamon and sugar is so good. Not sure why I haven't made it on my channel yet. Thanks for the reminder and also for sharing these meals you ate as a kid. These are all helpful budget meal ideas. 👩🍳
Thanks for sharing your memories of your Grandma. So sweet. My grandma would come to visit and make beans and homemade yeast rolls. The whole house smelled amazing all day. I associate smells of certain foods with memories as well. Have a great week!
Hi Michelle 😁 oh yes, I can remember my grandma making yeast rolls too. I'm with you on the smells. I've started an association in my own house too with the scent of rice cooking. I've come to adore the way it smells.
Beans and cornbread with fried potatoes are life sustaining delicacies! I’m now diabetic and can no longer have potatoes or cornbread, but occasionally will sneak a couple of bites.
Thank you for your stories as well as your cooking. My mother was an excellent cook and baker. I wish I had her recipes. She died when I was 11 and my best memories are in the kitchen with her making pancakes, cinnamon rolls, and lemon meringue pie. The dinner recipes like spare or short ribs made in a pressure cooker were a mystery to me. I remember coming across garlic powder years later and realizing that it was a key ingredient that made it taste so good. Love your channel.
Thank you so much 😁 I'm sorry you lost your mom at such a young age. I'm glad you are enjoying my channel. I agree...garlic is such a game changer in the kitchen!
From Louisiana here! We eat fried okra all summer, we grow okra, so cheap and plentiful! I use egg with milk to soak the cut okra to fry, I also use all purpose flour or self rising flour not cornmeal and use more oil than you do to fry okra. They come out delicious and light and crispy! Also fry eggplant 🍆 all summer while it’s plentiful, we grow that too. Grew up on this stuff, we had a huge garden growing up! Tomatoes 🍅 are cut, eaten with salt pepper all summer also. It was white beans ( great northern) for us growing up!
Oh, Michelle, beans and cornbread is my favorite meal of all time. It's good with some ham cooked in but I almost never have it on hand, so I usually cook the beans without it. Sometimes I use chili powder and a little garlic and onion powder; sometimes just salt and pepper. My family didn't have much money when I was little, and my mother was a very practical, country cook. She baked her cornbread in a cast iron skillet, and fried potatoes in one, also. Usually we had some kind of greens with it or okra. It makes a really happy meal for me. I was a very picky eater (however, my mother didn't cater to me, and I agree that she shouldn't have). She fixed one meal for supper and it was eat it or be hungry. And I took my lunch to school because I've never liked institutional food. However, that was in the days when the cafeteria ladies actually cooked. Nothing heat and eat from their kitchen. Every Tuesday was Beans & Cornbread and everyone bought their lunch that day because it was so good. Best cornbread I've ever eaten. They set bottles of pepper vinegar on the tables and I did like that in the beans. Tried to find a bottle at Winco, but they don't have it......Carla H.
Hi Carla 😁 I'm so glad we share in the love of this meal together. It's remarkable how many of us grew up on this same exact meal. I like hearing about your school lunches. I would have loved to eat this for my school lunch. 😋 It's amazing how just a touch of the pepper vinegar mixture adds to the dish. That's why I liked the Crystal on it. The next day I had left overs with salsa instead, but I think I actually like the Crystal Louisiana hot sauce best.
If you search for Southern Pepper Sauce Recipe, you'll find it is simple to make. We made this all the time and had different pepper varieties in each jar. Even now, it is a treasured gift from gardeners in the family. BTW, we used to top it off with vinegar as we used it and saved interesting jars just for this purpose since it's not necessary to can it.
I use fresh okra when I can get it - I always add a bit of flour to the corn meal batter and instead of cooking the fried potatoes separately we add them to the okra The extra starch helps the crisp and some of the batter sticks to the potatoes. Grandma said this fed a crowd” when you didn’t have quite enough okra.
Not being from the south, this looks great. I have never cooked potatoes and onions in a cast iron cut french fry shape. I love beans so beans as a base with cornbread sounds delicious. Growing up our budget eats were things my mom foraged like wild leeks with fiddleheads etc. Those were our treats and were delicious and fresh. She also grew sprouts in the window and we had a big veggie garden and fruit trees so looking back I think I was spoiled hahaha. In the winter we ate it as we helped to can it over the summer/fall.
Hi Christine 😁 Oh wow....wild leeks? I bet those were amazing! May I ask where you were that she could get those? I can think of so many delicious ways to use those. I bet they were a real treat. 😋 yum!
Your issue with the okra is because of both it’s frozen and the egg. If you come across some fresh okra toss it in just pure cornmeal that’s all you need then fry it!! We have this dinner every week 💜
Thanks for sharing this info! 😁 I bought frozen because the markets were out of fresh, but I just saw that Wholesome Choice has okra in now and on sale. Yay! Looking forward to trying this!
You are right about having lots of food if you have experienced food insecurity. I also grew up rural and poor. We had a vegetable patch and cattle for beef and at one stage cows for milk. My dad survived WWll in the Netherlands. We had extra food in the basement on shelves and 2 deep freezers. I married an Australian and his parents owned a grocery store so he was able to just get what he wanted from the shelves in the shop. He could never understand why I would freak out at anything less than a full food pantry. I also had a period of time after I was widowed where my hours of work were cut back. I thank God that I had a lot of shelf stable products to see us through. An Auntie was also a Morman and she always had lots of food in her basement as the story of Joseph who told the Egyptian king. 7 years of prosperity and 7 years of lack.
I was raised on beans and cornbread too, in the morning we would eat leftover cornbread broke up in a glass of milk …spaghetti was our fancy meal once or twice a month. I was always outside and always skinny. That poor life kept me pretty healthy really ❤
Hi Cheryl 😁 I feel like this is a common meal for a lot of people. Even when I went to visit relatives in Oklahoma as an adult this was the same meal being eaten most of the time. Same for me....I was always outside and skinny too 😂 although, I'm certain I didn't get enough nutrition growing up.
I love this meal and all it's varieties...We had purple hull peas and butter beans in the summer (that we had shelled) , dried beans like lima and navy beans all other times of the year. We had home fries, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, squash, collard greens, green beans and new potatoes, or succotash as sides, but all were served with cornbread. In the summer the kids were sent out to the kitchen garden to pick a few hot and bell peppers, onions, and tomatoes to slice, but we always had a couple different hot pepper sauces on the table, too. BTW, we never put anything on our fried okra except corn meal and I do frozen the same way once it is thawed.
Hi Kristy 😁 Thanks for the input on the okra. I knew I shouldn't have added the egg batter. 😂 I loved reading all of these dishes you ate. Very similar to what my grandma cooked. Cornbread is so filling too that to make it a staple of a nightly dinner really helps with budget cooking.
@@ArdentMichelle My grandmother and father adored cornbread crumbled into buttermilk, but I never liked it. I was big into "pot liquor" and cornbread. This was the broth from cooking greens with cornbread crumbled into it. It was a well-loved "dish" where I come from.
Powdered milk is very expensive where I live. I mix 1/2 cup oats with 1 qt. Water a pinch of salt and 2 pinches sugar in the blender. It makes for a delightful substitute. I first learned about this during a blizzard when we were snowed in for 12 days. I heard it during a discussion on a radio talk show helping people take care of themselves and their families until the roads opened. Today oat milk is readily available but at a hefty price.
You're welcome 😁 Oh my...that's terrible. I'm such a clean freak (about my food) that I probably won't stop sorting....but it just feels so unfruitful 😂
My mom hated cornbread because she said it was dry, so we never had it growing up. Thank goodness that didn't trickle down to her daughters..lol We never had peanut butter either for the same reason.
@@ArdentMichelle I don't know what my grandmother made because she didn't speak English and lived hundreds of miles away on a farm. The only thing my mom ever said is that they ate potatoes with sour milk (sour cream?) During the Depression. She also said that she carried a salt shaker into the fields when they went to pick potatoes and ate them raw right there. The only 2 stories she ever told about those times.
@@patpeters6331 They must have been hungry to eat them raw right in the fields. The potatoes with sour milk sounds pretty good 😋potatoes are so filling. This reminds me of a Korean drama I watched that depicts people eating whole boiled potatoes for their meal- holding the potato and taking bites out of it. Everyone sitting around the table, each with their potato. I'm sure they have been eaten this way many times.
YUM! I remember eating this same meal when I was a kid. I did not think of this as a poor man's meal then or now. All the items on the plate as wonderful.
Hi Mary 😁 I saw this comment just before I headed to the kitchen for breakfast. I was planning on grabbing a piece of the leftover cornbread and trying it with peanut butter..... but it was gone 😂 Even though my sons didn't grow up eating this meal, they LOVE cornbread. Can't wait to try your suggestion. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us.
@@ArdentMichelle lol. You should know that with teenagers in the house, leftovers are non existant. Couldn't shop or cook fast enough when I had 2 teenagers.
Many times we ate cornbread with butter and syrup on it as a meal…..like you would eat pancakes, but we would have the cornbread for supper. Comfort food!
Sometimes I have made cornbread salad with the leftover cornbread. I grew up eating pinto beans with the potatoes cooked in with the beans and onion, and a side of cornbread. Simple meals like this are the best!
Also, if you use baking soda while cooking your beans, it will take the gas out of it so it will not upset your stomach and then you yourself would not have gas for anybody who is eating beans! I learned this trick along time ago and I am a big fan of all things beans when it comes to a meal replacement for meat and also loving my chipotle or burrito bowls so many times in a week lol Burrito bowls are one of my favorite meals and the baking soda won’t be tasted while you’re cooking it in your beans. It just helps to reduce and release the gas.
Thank you for sharing your memories and recipes. I actually never thought I was poor until I was in college and a teacher asked if I could share about my life growing up poor and then being a poor single mom relying on the system to get by. That hurt. One meal we ate a lot and it was my first meal I made for my dad and me at age 8 or nine was hot dog stew. A can of corn , a potato or two and a few hot dogs. Saturday was always hot dogs and beans. When my dad had a bit more money in his pay check we had sword fish and steak.
Hi Victoria 😁 You're welcome. First of all, congratulations on going to college after growing up poor and being a single mom. You've already beat the odds and must be a very special and determined individual with a lot of grit 🥰 Children frequently don't know how poor they are. Sounds like you became the family cook? Thanks for the reminder about hot dogs. They're very cheap. I feel like I should use them more often on my channel.
@@ArdentMichelle thank you. I learned to be frugal and to make little go a long way. I learned how to budget too. My dad set a good example. My dad felt eduction and hard work were good ideas. I did have some great gifts from my dad. He bought me a car so I could do both. We lived to far away that I could ride a bike or walk to work as he did.
I Michelle this video hits home. While growing up we were a normal middle class family in a big city in Southern India. I remember us being financially struggling a few years when I was a kid but my parents always made sure I had good food to eat. We are vegetarians so we generally ate rice, beans, lentils, and veggies at home. And my grandmother who lived with her son (my mom's brother) would make snacks at home and send it across to us. Unfortunately my mom passed away due to cancer when I was 18 years old and my dad remarried (only after he asked me if he could). I infact wanted him to get married since I had a sister who was just 4 years old when mom passed away. He got an arranged marriage and my step mom wouldn't cook regularly (indian households people make fresh food every single day. That's what we are used to. We rarely eat leftovers) so that would bother me so much. I would many times not eat cuz she prepared food that wasn't very nutritious. I remember being desperate all the time for good food. Now I am 37 living in the US married. My husband is a white guy who is born and raised here. I give so much importance to cooking good food because of not getting it all those years. I spend a lot on groceries. I don't spend much on clothes, shoes, bags or make up at all so my husband let's me spend how much ever I want on groceries. We now have a 6 month old daughter and I am looking forward to cooking good food for her every single day! ❤ sending you lots of love for making this video❤
Hello 😁 Thank you so much of sharing this with me. I'm so sorry you lost your mom. 🤗 That's rough. I think our overall health as Americans would be so much better if we ate whole foods everyday, as it is done in India. You will be such a blessing for your daughter to give her nutritious home cooked meals. 💜 Thanks for taking the time to comment and also for watching my videos! 🥰 I hope you have a great week.
One reason to try out dry milk in recipes regardless of cost is it can be more readily available at neighborhood food banks -- some programs don't provide refrigerated goods because of the energy expense and fast expiration.
I’m a southerner and grew up eating this food. Still eat this food. I wash fresh okra and let dry. Cut with a sharp knife. Otherwise it feel’s slimy. I also cook it longer than you did to get that airy texture. We ate this meal often with wedges of raw onion. And ham hocks in the beans. And I love cornbread without the sugar and milk. This is how my mom cooked too. Yum yum.
Thanks for sharing this. I think my favorite way to eat okra is roasted with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Sounds like we enjoy the same kind of food .
so so true 👍 same problem here. I went through and got rid of some items yesterday morning and cleared out my room and it feels so good now. It's hard to take that step though.
Now we understand why our parents and grandparents were reluctant to throw things away and reused rather than buy. Remember how they reused jars and cool Whip containers...
My parents were from the east coast and one of the cheaper comfort foods was creamed peas and tuna on toast, definitely an acquired taste for most 😂 but comfort food for me.
I don't like green peas, but this sounds like a meal I should make on my channel since you all love it so much 😂 Can someone send me a recipe or tell me how to make it?
@@ArdentMichelle super easy - make a roux with milk, butter and flour add salt and pepper, mix in tuna and add peas (I usually thaw frozen because I don't want them to get mushy or overcooked) and serve on butter toast.
I had to google this to confirm what cracklins are although I had an idea 😂 I bet there are lots of cornbread variations out there, but the post I read about cracklin bread said it's "life altering." 😂
I prefer to use a mix of cornmeal, AP flour, breadcrumbs (I prefer panko), a little cornstarch, and seasoning for the coating. I keep a container full of the mixture so it's ready any time I want to fry fish, chicken, or vegetables. If you like to change up the flavor, just leave the seasoning out of the bulk blend.
I grew up food insecure, and I have so many memories of eating only potatoes or corn on the cob as a kid. You’re definitely right, I always keep a very well stocked pantry. To the point where visitors have asked if I was prepping for the apocalypse. lol!
I can relate to this apocalypse statement 😂 I may have food under my bed as we speak. But on the upside, it's allowed me to purchase items at a deep discount so overall I think I'm saving a lot by being this way.
One very easy and cheap recipe I came up with is onion gravy. It's yellow onion, chopped and carmelized. I add butter and flour and brown and then add milk. It might be a can of diluted evaporated milk, thickening the gravy. Add salt, pepper, sage, or thyme if you like it, and serve over toast or biscuits or with chicken or pork or hamburger. It's super delicious, quick, cheap and easy to make. I'd love to see you try it.
I grew up in a home with food insecurities, lived it again when I got divorced & had 2 teenagers to feed, again when I lost my 2nd husband...now in my 60's I keep a lot of food on hand (don't think you ever get over it)
Ardent, thx for these yummy meals! And for being vulnerable abt the awful issues of food insecurity. Nice that u share ur 😋 yummy recipes!! God bless u
Girl...I was raised on that meal you just made! I love fried okra and my grandma made the best in the world.. it was best when she made it with fresh out of the garden okra. She had cast iron skillets she cooked in and cornbread was so good (no sugar) my snack after a meal like that was buttermilk and cornbread...lip smacking good!!!!😂
I figured I would have a few viewers that could relate to this meal. 😁 I had totally forgotten about buttermilk and cornbread until I read another viewers comment. That was actually my grandmas preference. As an adult, I don't think I've ever had buttermilk, and it was certainly never in my house growing up. Now I want to try that. My grandma always had buttermilk on hand and she may have used it in her biscuits.
My mom had no food growing up and this was a kind of meal she had. One of her favorite was cornbread with buttermilk. And we still had this kind of meal also and I love,love fried okra.❤️❤️❤️
oh yes...I had almost forgotten. My grandma drank buttermilk too. Hmm.....wondering now if she had her cornbread in buttermilk. As for the okra, are you dipping in egg or no?
My mom bought a case of instant mashed potatoes she got on sale. But we couldn't afford milk or butter, and my mom always refused to buy salt. Instant mashed potatoes made with water and pepper are the nastiest. I, to this day, refuse to eat instant mashed potatoes. They are ok for thickening a soup or if you added too much liquid to real mashed potatoes. But I would have been happy with the meal you made. My mom hated beans, so I never ate beans until I went vegetarian in my 30s. I, too, have a huge stocked food pantry. My husband never grew up poor, so he has a hard time understanding why I stock my pantry. The things I've learned over the years I wish I knew growing up. Would have been really helpful!
you have such great videos! i love all your creative ideas for cost effective and budget friendly meals that are really delicious! your voice is so soothing too. i can't believe you don't have more subscribers! thanks so much for all your wonderful content!!
People need to really be alert to the quality of the potatoes and onions. I've found that recently (last was in August and early September of 2023) that the potatoes smelled of rot, and those almost never last very long - if they haven't already started going bad. And frequently the onions are going soft if they aren't already moldy. I don't buy bagged carrots because of rot or hidden damage.
This is literally the meal I request from my parents every year for my birthday! The only small variation is I get my dad to make hot water cornbread instead of baked. With a slice of cantaloupe! Great meal!
I too grew up food hungry. Now I am a hoarder. Buying food I will likely never eat, just on the off chance, I might want it. If there was couple or three hundred extra dollars after all the bille were paid, and my paycheck coming the next day, I splurged--at the grocery store. I kept a full freezer, refrigerator and cabinets. Canned good-veggies, fruit, soups. We could have lived a few months on it. I didnt invest in stocks, I invested in food. I still do. Funny though, with all the food I have in my house, I veer back to wanting beans and cornbread, fried potatoes, cabbage and potatoes. Potatoe soup, Bacon and eggs. Salmon patties. While the chicken, porkchops, cod, and beef turn to freezerburn, to be thrown out in the next couple of months.
yes, it's good. I've had it before. I've been using the SamsClub bulk garlic salt and then I pour into the smaller container I had. I really like it too.
my mom called this country supper- the only meal my dad would eat without meat..sigh. he also liked a wedge of white onion! I always hated the added salt - every tomato sliced up or anything he would salt the heck out of it. I never liked veggies until many years later when I realized they wren't salty without all the added salt
Thanks for sharing such a special meal with us. I have a question for all of the viewers here who make okra on a regular basis. I hate okra because I find it slimy. Is there a way you can prepare it that it is not slimy maybe then I won’t mind it. I doubt it but I’m willing to try! 😁🤣. I’m really looking forward to your video next week with that $15 challenge for 4 people. Oh, and I have a piece of advice for you that have great cast-iron cookware. If you’re getting married, don’t listen to your loser now ex-husband who convinced you that cast-iron is useless and you should give it away. He thought it wasn’t fancy enough for him to coo with. Yes, I should’ve kept the cookware and gave him away instead. 🤯
I agree about the okra. Tried it many years ago but couldn't get past the slime. Lol.
😂 Thanks for the laugh. Did you see my video where I made the okra and tomato stew? That was not slimy at all. I think it was the acid in the tomato that removed it. Actually, that would probably be good poured over the cornbread too.
There is actually ways to prepare so it is not slimy. A few ways: 1. cook quickly over high heat 2. cook it with an acid such as a tomato sauce, 3. ensure no moisture on outside of okra 4. cook whole 5. if you need to cook sliced, use a very sharp knife and wipe knife between slices 6. soak in cup of vinegar an hour before cooking and ensure dry after soaking etc.
@@christinejunk8184 Thanks for sharing. Michelle should definitely pin you comment for everyone to read. Not everyone reads the replies. .
Funny 😂. Made me laugh. Now you know always listen within yourself. You most likely knew he was going to be the biggest pain in your as_ before you married him. Some life lessons are painful to learn. When you've survived your own bad choices you shine like the morning sun in life and become a big blessing to others that are walking in a cloud 🌞
My mother grew up during the depression in the 30’s. She always talked about how hungry she was most of the time. I didn’t realize until I was older that the scars of hunger remained with her. She was a tiny little thing weighing no more than 105 lbs but later in life when she had $ up until she passed, her house was packed with food, I mean PACKED. Extra freezers, an extra pantry, the spare bedroom packed with food, food every where! So much food that you could not fit a piece of paper in her freezer!Always trying to feed everyone. One day she stopped at my house with a 50 lb bag of potatoes and said “ this is so you won’t go hungry”. I was fortunate to have a high paying job and didn’t have to worry about food. I just said thank you. I had to give potatoes to everyone I knew. Lol. That is when I realized the hunger from her youth really scarred her. She spent all her $ on food that she couldn’t possibly eat. I would go food shopping in her house. Lol. It was so sad when she passed, I donated the food to a lot of older people in need.
Thank you for sharing this with us. 🥰 I can so relate to this story and to your mom. For people that were hungry as children it feels like security to have extra food in the house. I'm sure her food storage gave her great satisfaction and peace of mind. 🌸
It’s not cheap, it’s cost effective!
👍👍😊👏
yes!!! 👍
Who cares what food costs as long as its good food!
We grew a lot of our food and canned it for the winter. We did that with venison as well. Canned or froze the meat.
I wish we still had govt cheese from back in the day!
Major life tip for beans, if you find they usually upset your stomach try adding a splash of vinegar (apple cider vinegar is the most popular option for flavor) to the beans right at the end of cooking. The acidity will break down some of the insigestible sugars that cause stomach upset.
I can relate to this. There were times I remember calling my Dad (parents were divorced) and complaining that we were hungry. Not that we lived in poverty, and my Mom was doing the best she could. We were struggling more than I understood back then. I loved it after we went shopping. But yes I remember looking in cupboards for hours looking for things to make. I used cookbooks to figure out ways to make anything I could. Like low ingredient cookies, we ate toast w cinnamon & sugar a lot, my Mom made sausage bread a lot. We would make and eat a lot of plain spaghetti. I didn't think we were food insecure back then, but looking back we were at times. There was abundance and then there were lean times...Anyway, as an adult I stock up on food a lot like u are describing. I try to do it in a strategic way these days. I try to have a prepper attitude about it. My Husband doesn't understand this or like it. But I look for deals and stock up on shelf stable items, I also garden a lot, for this reason.
oh yes, that feeling you got when they went shopping 🥰 It's like you've never felt richer in your life 😂 Sausage bread? You have me intrigued. What is that?
Having an ample food storage is necessary for peace of mind for kids that grew up food insecure.
Yup. My sister and I do the same thing for the same reasons.
Memory lane - cinnamon sugar toast seemed like such a treat growing up.
Me Three...four, five. Well, me too. I never linked my childhood with my adult shopping habits. Meals, lunches, tight, very tight. Things were so tight also when my daughters were growing up, too. I often did without, saved the best for them. My normal meal was cheap instant mashed potatoes, with a bit of cheese if I could afford it, and it wasn't taking away from my girls. As long as my girls had their veggies, protein, dairy, starch, I really didn't care what I ate, the instant mashed potatoes were very filling. And now, the girls are grown, with families of their own, and with my new-ish hubby I just, stock, stock, stock. I usually make everything from scratch still. Cheaper. Let's just say, when the pandemic closed everything down, there was plenty to eat out of the pantry/freezer. It was two months or so before we ventured out to shop.
@@ArdentMichelle I was intrigued by the sausage bread that I had to Google it. Lol,maybe I was hungry too. I found a recipe that looks delicious and is so simple. It's at Julia's Simply Southern website, all one word. Hope this saves you a bit of time.
😊 Can u tell I am a big fan?
As a Brit, the equivalent meals would probably be beans on toast, soda bread and chips with curry sauce!
Thanks for sharing this. I'm going to have to google those chips with curry sauce
@@ArdentMichelle In Europe "chips" are the equivalent of our (American) home fries.
Chip shop style curry sauce isn't like Indian curry sauce, it's mild and sweet and often has red lentils in it. You need to include the term chip shop in your search!
@@colettebishop2173 thanks for the tip. This has been added to my bucket list of recipes. 👩🍳
I know there are good and bad people in all walks of life, but I find people who were raised poor seem to be more loving and caring and generous ❤ I was raised by a single mom who worked two and sometimes three jobs. I was very loved and she was not a great cook. I was never hungry. One of my favorite memories was when it was my birthday or Christmas. She would buy “ exotic foods”for us to try. AKA. Surgar cane, avocado, whole coconut. Yes avocado was exotic at the time. I was born in the 1950s
Hi Kathy 😁 I think growing up poor creates humility in most people. I love how your mom made those events special. I would have liked that very much 😁
@kathy I remember my mom getting those long stalks of sugar cane to cut up for us every once in awhile and she’d get a coconut and smack it with a hammer but I think she drilled holes in it to get the coco water out first. Thanks for reminding me, sweet memories…and I was raised without much money too.
@@shelzp7272 love reading all these stories.
I grew up in a large rural TX family that had Get Togethers of 35-50 people for every holiday & certain staple dishes were always included. A Pennsylvanian (who we love) married into the family and on maybe her 4th Thanksgiving she loudly asked "Can we please not have the pot of pinto beans for Christmas this year? It makes the buffet table look bad."
There was absolute silence after that for about 5 minutes.
That's so funny 😂 For people that didn't grow up eating beans, I don't think they know what a delicious staple they are and what an important part of southern culture they are.
That's hilarious!
Oh yes! Beans and cornbread were definitely a staple for me growing up too!👍 Great video!
Wow...talking about childhood meals...my sister, who is fighting cancer, asked me to fix a meal for her we used to have as kids. My grandfather (a Navy cook in WWII) used to make salmon croquettes. My Mom (RIP) made them from time to time also, and we just loved our 'crispy fish' meal back in the day. My Sis, who was always 'the cook' in the family, told me today that she didn't make croquettes for her kids much because they didn't like 'that kind of eating' lol. However, I remember calling my Mom and asking her for that recipe because it was a great way to stretch a can of salmon to feed four people, and I've been making them for years. Now that my Sis is bedridden, I made those salmon croquettes for her today with some mac n' cheese, mixed veggies and cornbread (and I have some mini cast iron skillets and I FORGOT to use them for the cornbread lol...btw our recipes for cornbread are quite similar) She absolutely loved them! She told me she only wanted three croquettes, but I made her two plates with two each, and I'm sure she finished them up before the day was out lol. I know my family finished everything by nightfall, for sure lol..
Now she wants me to make some pot roast next weekend. Trust me, I will NOT forget the cast iron for the cornbread! 😁
I'm so sorry about your sister. 😞 I always wished I had one. I can so relate to this and how these recipes are a source of comfort. I would love to have your salmon croquettes recipe if you care to share.
@@ArdentMichelle Sure! Where would you like for me to send it?
@@ambreewilliams6585 ardentmichelle1@gmail.com. Please and thank you 😊
@@ArdentMichelle Hope you'll make those some time! I love recipes like my mom used to make... canned fish stretched to within an inch of its life with filler food, like bread or potatoes, and so yummy!!
My grandparents went thru the depression too. They had a room full of home canned food. When we were kids from about the age of 10 to 15 we would go to big momma's house several days in the summer to help her can food. My other grandmaw had large paper bags of beans and peas in her house. When anyone sit down they were expected to shull beans and peas while watch tv.
Hi Samantha 😁 I'm projecting here...but reading this is giving me the warm, cozy feels. 🥰😂 I had two grandmas that couldn't be more opposite but the one I talked about sounds similar to yours. My grandma had canned food too and there was always some kind of food preservation going on.
My parents were born in the 30s and gardened when I was a young child (I was much younger than my 3 siblings so I think they stopped when I was the only child left at home). We shelled peas and beans and shucked corn on the front porch every evening in the summertime.
My son had never had okra until he was in the Navy. He said he hated it. My family came from eastern Europe and Germany. Very poor, but lots of carrots, onions,
potatoes, turnips, and chicken fat instead of lard. Tina, Al's wife
Hi Tina 😁 I feel like many people were just never exposed to it. I didn't make it when my sons were growing up either for some reason. I wish I would have. It's harder to introduce things later on 😂
This meal was a staple in my home growing up. My dad would enjoy a glass of milk with crumbled cornbread in it as a nighttime snack. A sweet memory.
I feel like this was a very common meal for a large part of the U.S. 🇺🇸 I love reading these kinds of comments.
My dad would eat milk and crumbled saltiness as his snack. My grandma would save popcorn overnight and then have it with milk the next morning as breakfast.
My grandfather would have a glass of buttermilk with cornbread.
hah, my mother too.
@@laurithomasson6979 that's a first for me - hearing someone eating popcorn with milk. 😂
I grew up in a poor country and having a small stockpile of food in the house is incredibly important for my emotional wellbeing. And food is my love language, too. Thank you very much for mentioning that, I always thought it was just me and couldn't tell anybody about it because I thought it was some kind of unhealthy copying mechanism.
And the meal that you cooked in this video reminded me of eating fried potatoes with onions as our main dinner dish with some pickles or fresh vegetables from our garden on the side with my family when I was little - I can afford any food I want now, but nothing tastes as delicious and warms the soul as much as those fried potatoes did back then because it was all we had.
Thank you for sharing this because I think a lot of us have this issue. 😁 It's normal and a survival mechanism. I think it's good too because it helps to be able to save money on food when you already have some. You can take advantage of sales.
This meal is still one of my favorites. My Mom was a lousy cook, but she made killer pinto beans, corn bread, and fried potatoes cooked with some onions. It's heaven on a bun to me!
You're right about the whole food insecurity as a child thing, I have a veritable grocery store in my house. I sleep better knowing my family won't ever go hungry.
It's a nice peace of mind to have, and you end up saving money because it enables you to shop the sales and stock up when food is less expensive.
I have to say that I love what you said in the beginning of your video. Obviously I don’t love that you grew up poor and food challenged. I took a rapport and food challenged. My mom did not like to cook and the grandma that I saw on a semi regular basis was her mother and was not a good cook either. Very regularly I saw my dad‘s mom who was an excellent cook and I ended up learning from her that you cook by feel. She didn’t measure anything not even when she baked. And it was definitely my grandma’s love language food I mean and yes, everybody deserves delicious food that’s one of the things that I pride myself on because I have multiple challenging food allergies and we have to make our own food, and it almost always requires an alteration of a recipe. So I cook by feel also.
Hi Chris 😁 thank you for this comment. I can relate to what you're saying. I also had a grandma that didn't cook. I never remember her in the kitchen once, and she never interacted with us grandkids much. I don't think kids were her thing 😂 My other grandma cooked just like you described, without measuring the ingredients. I'm so glad you've been able to alter recipes to suit your needs. There is so much freedom in that and it's also a key to budget cooking.
Love this. I'm the daughter of
Immigrants who now lives in the south. Love this type of cooking. I've had the privilege of dining at some extremely exclusive places - but nothing compares to the feeling of food made at home with love and the memories you make. Thanks always for making these videos. I think it's a true gift to educate people who really need it ❤
Hi Suzy 😁 I'm so glad you like this video! What's really interesting is when those fancy restaurants start imitating these meals. For example, fried green tomatoes, bread pudding, and other meals with a humble history that are served again and sometimes with a new twist to them. It gives that feeling of nostalgia to the diner and are usually hugely successful meals.
Thank you so much for the nice comment. I appreciate it. 🥰 Have a great week!
A delicious “day before payday” meal for us growing up was a can of tuna, drained and mixed with a can of cream of chicken soup. That was heated and served over toast and we never even knew we were eating it because we were poor. It was so good! Still one of my comfort food go to meals today. I always have ingredients for it on hand!
Saving this to make on my channel. 👩🍳 Thanks so much.
Did you add water to the soup? So, did you make it like regular soup or did you leave it thicker?
@@ArdentMichelle it depends on how thick you like it and how thick your brand of soup is. I use store brand soup, which is pretty thick, so I add about 1/3 soup can of water to it. I also add a lot of black pepper on top when I plate it, but I really like black pepper! My sister also makes this with canned chicken, and it is good, but I prefer the tuna.
Also…any “cream of” soup will work, but I use chicken because that’s what my mom used.
@@janita7014 ok thanks for sharing this. I just want to get it right for the viewers. I agree on the pepper. 👍
My mom made white sauce (butter flour and milk), and put the tuna in. Creamed tuna on toast. I thought everyone ate that until I was much older.
From NM-Black and pinto beans, rice, green chile, potatoes, onions, eggs, butter and flour- these are always my basic shopping items because you can make so many good meals that are filling and good for you!
Love that list 👍 especially the green chiles. Are you getting the canned?
Back when I was young and in that food challenge household, my mom would make biscuits or cornbread to go with her food to stretch it and I’m not a big fan of honey but honey or molasses on biscuits or cornbread is delicious
I am not a fan of honey either but have you tried it on fried chicken? Yum. 😋
yes I agree. 👍 LOVE honey on biscuits.
"Real food" is so good. I work on the road and have to eat out alot.
That must be very difficult 😞 plus expensive!!! 💰
Hopefully there's a Cracker Barrel nearby on occasion. It's as close to homemade that I have found..
@@ArdentMichelle
Company pays $30 a day. Not much.
@patpeters6331
I do eat crackers barrel usually once a week and zabxys salads once a week.
@@samanthadodd8112 true, especially for takeout.
Love meals with simple ingredients
me too 👍
Yes, powdered milk used to be the cheap stuff but now I think it cost three times as much. Still keep it on hand though in case I can't make it to the store before I run out of whole milk
I agree that it's a good idea for a pantry staple. I should get some for mine.
Not me literally refreshing to see if your video dropped yet. I told you, Sundays in South Africa is for Ardent Michelle
I'm so glad you look forward to my videos 💜 Hope you like this one!
My mother was a single Mom & I did not realize we were food poor as she was such a good cook. Welfare Mac & Cheese, beans & fried potatoes & gravy were delicious. Cream of Wheat or Wheatina for breakfast. Sometimes powdered milk.
Sometimes we are impacted by the poverty our parents grew up with. My parents would always make us clean our plate, saying we didn’t know how lucky we were. Beans and rice, or flour gravy over white bread, appeared often at the table. That corn pone looked awesome - have you ever tried a leftover slice, rewarded, with either broth from the beans (savory) or butter & maple syrup (sweet) - both are yummy.
Your posts show me how items can be stretched over several meals and it’s been eye-opening, in a wonderful way. I will be retiring soon, and have to learn how to live on 2/3 less monthly income. You are a blessing!
Hello 😁 yes, I love cornbread with beans and broth over the top. I love the broth from first cooked beans. It's the best. It always thickens up so much the next day. I also like cornbread with honey but I've never tried it with maple syrup. I bet that's fabulous!
I'm so glad my videos are helpful. I know that I'll need to do some serious planning in my retirement too. I have lots of viewers that watch my channel that are on a fixed income. Thanks for taking the time to comment 🥰
What is hilarious about picking over beans is that when I do find a pebble in the pile (maybe once a year..?) it's always the exact shape of the beans that I'm sorting through. It's pretty clear how Stealth Bean snuck through the processing! Note: apparently the fancier, more "gourmet" a dry bean is, the more likely it is to have debris that needs to be picked out. Smaller "artisanal" growers usually dry their beans outdoors the old fashioned way, whereas large bean producers usually use ventilated warehouses.
Mom lived through the Depression. Cinnamon toast was a common breakfast. French toast was another common breakfast. With 6 kids, it was a way to stretch the eggs. We had to carry lunch to school so it was sandwiches: 1 slice of American cheese with lettuce and butter or 1 slice of bologna with butter or tuna salad with lettuce and butter or butter and sugar, or crackers with butter or peanut butter or cheese. We usually had at least 1 fruit, canned or fresh, a day. No garden salads but macaroni salad. Frozen or canned vegetables for dinners. During summer/fall, we had fresh corn and tomatoes. Also, watermelon. Mom and Dad both worked so that cut in to long meal prep times.
Hello 😁 Toast with cinnamon and sugar is so good. Not sure why I haven't made it on my channel yet. Thanks for the reminder and also for sharing these meals you ate as a kid. These are all helpful budget meal ideas. 👩🍳
Thanks for sharing your memories of your Grandma. So sweet. My grandma would come to visit and make beans and homemade yeast rolls. The whole house smelled amazing all day. I associate smells of certain foods with memories as well. Have a great week!
Hi Michelle 😁 oh yes, I can remember my grandma making yeast rolls too. I'm with you on the smells. I've started an association in my own house too with the scent of rice cooking. I've come to adore the way it smells.
Beans and cornbread with fried potatoes are life sustaining delicacies! I’m now diabetic and can no longer have potatoes or cornbread, but occasionally will sneak a couple of bites.
I shouldn't be eating them too often either 😂
Onions corn bread and Mayo mixed in your bowl of beans is amazing
For our family it was tuna and Rice. Great memory maker
Same with my Grandmother. ❤
Love those sweet childhood memories of grandma 💜 I'm glad you can relate.
Nice video. Thank you for sharing. Grandma's are a big blessing in this life.
Thanks so much 😁 and I agree. I can't wait to be a grandma.
@@ArdentMichelle You are going to be a huge blessing to your grandkids. 👍😉👍😉
@@emily--m awe...thanks 💜
Thank you for your stories as well as your cooking. My mother was an excellent cook and baker. I wish I had her recipes. She died when I was 11 and my best memories are in the kitchen with her making pancakes, cinnamon rolls, and lemon meringue pie. The dinner recipes like spare or short ribs made in a pressure cooker were a mystery to me. I remember coming across garlic powder years later and realizing that it was a key ingredient that made it taste so good. Love your channel.
Thank you so much 😁 I'm sorry you lost your mom at such a young age. I'm glad you are enjoying my channel. I agree...garlic is such a game changer in the kitchen!
From Louisiana here!
We eat fried okra all summer, we grow okra, so cheap and plentiful! I use egg with milk to soak the cut okra to fry, I also use all purpose flour or self rising flour not cornmeal and use more oil than you do to fry okra. They come out delicious and light and crispy!
Also fry eggplant 🍆 all summer while it’s plentiful, we grow that too.
Grew up on this stuff, we had a huge garden growing up! Tomatoes 🍅 are cut, eaten with salt pepper all summer also. It was white beans ( great northern) for us growing up!
Would love to have a garden. 🌱Thanks for sharing your method for cooking okra 👩🍳
Oh, Michelle, beans and cornbread is my favorite meal of all time. It's good with some ham cooked in but I almost never have it on hand, so I usually cook the beans without it. Sometimes I use chili powder and a little garlic and onion powder; sometimes just salt and pepper. My family didn't have much money when I was little, and my mother was a very practical, country cook. She baked her cornbread in a cast iron skillet, and fried potatoes in one, also. Usually we had some kind of greens with it or okra. It makes a really happy meal for me.
I was a very picky eater (however, my mother didn't cater to me, and I agree that she shouldn't have). She fixed one meal for supper and it was eat it or be hungry. And I took my lunch to school because I've never liked institutional food. However, that was in the days when the cafeteria ladies actually cooked. Nothing heat and eat from their kitchen. Every Tuesday was Beans & Cornbread and everyone bought their lunch that day because it was so good. Best cornbread I've ever eaten. They set bottles of pepper vinegar on the tables and I did like that in the beans. Tried to find a bottle at Winco, but they don't have it......Carla H.
Hi Carla 😁 I'm so glad we share in the love of this meal together. It's remarkable how many of us grew up on this same exact meal. I like hearing about your school lunches. I would have loved to eat this for my school lunch. 😋 It's amazing how just a touch of the pepper vinegar mixture adds to the dish. That's why I liked the Crystal on it. The next day I had left overs with salsa instead, but I think I actually like the Crystal Louisiana hot sauce best.
If you search for Southern Pepper Sauce Recipe, you'll find it is simple to make. We made this all the time and had different pepper varieties in each jar. Even now, it is a treasured gift from gardeners in the family. BTW, we used to top it off with vinegar as we used it and saved interesting jars just for this purpose since it's not necessary to can it.
I use fresh okra when I can get it - I always add a bit of flour to the corn meal batter and instead of cooking the fried potatoes separately we add them to the okra The extra starch helps the crisp and some of the batter sticks to the potatoes. Grandma said this fed a crowd” when you didn’t have quite enough okra.
Not being from the south, this looks great. I have never cooked potatoes and onions in a cast iron cut french fry shape. I love beans so beans as a base with cornbread sounds delicious. Growing up our budget eats were things my mom foraged like wild leeks with fiddleheads etc. Those were our treats and were delicious and fresh. She also grew sprouts in the window and we had a big veggie garden and fruit trees so looking back I think I was spoiled hahaha. In the winter we ate it as we helped to can it over the summer/fall.
Hi Christine 😁 Oh wow....wild leeks? I bet those were amazing! May I ask where you were that she could get those? I can think of so many delicious ways to use those. I bet they were a real treat. 😋 yum!
@@ArdentMichelle I grew up in the countryside in Ontario Canada. The forests here are full of them!
@@christinejunk8184 I knew this because I was thinking Canada but I didn't trust my memory 😂😂 That is so awesome!
Your issue with the okra is because of both it’s frozen and the egg. If you come across some fresh okra toss it in just pure cornmeal that’s all you need then fry it!! We have this dinner every week 💜
Thanks for sharing this info! 😁 I bought frozen because the markets were out of fresh, but I just saw that Wholesome Choice has okra in now and on sale. Yay! Looking forward to trying this!
Being from the South I agree. I've never used egg in fried okra.
You are right about having lots of food if you have experienced food insecurity. I also grew up rural and poor. We had a vegetable patch and cattle for beef and at one stage cows for milk. My dad survived WWll in the Netherlands. We had extra food in the basement on shelves and 2 deep freezers. I married an Australian and his parents owned a grocery store so he was able to just get what he wanted from the shelves in the shop. He could never understand why I would freak out at anything less than a full food pantry. I also had a period of time after I was widowed where my hours of work were cut back. I thank God that I had a lot of shelf stable products to see us through. An Auntie was also a Morman and she always had lots of food in her basement as the story of Joseph who told the Egyptian king. 7 years of prosperity and 7 years of lack.
Thank you for watching my video and taking the time to comment 😁
I always have lots of food in my house. I probably have enough to feed my family of 3 for 6 months or more. It makes me feel safe.
Hi Yvonne. 😁 I'm right there with you on this! Plus overall you save money on groceries because you can shop the sales.
Texas lady here we eat this at least three times a week. My favorite meal!
Hello 😁
My dad was from Oklahoma and could eat this meal three times a day. 😂 Glad you enjoy this like I do.
Beans cornbread and salsa…. My go to 💓
I was raised on beans and cornbread too, in the morning we would eat leftover cornbread broke up in a glass of milk …spaghetti was our fancy meal once or twice a month. I was always outside and always skinny. That poor life kept me pretty healthy really ❤
Hi Cheryl 😁 I feel like this is a common meal for a lot of people. Even when I went to visit relatives in Oklahoma as an adult this was the same meal being eaten most of the time. Same for me....I was always outside and skinny too 😂 although, I'm certain I didn't get enough nutrition growing up.
Love this! As an East Texan, Okra is a staple here. We cook ours a little longer to get that airy feel ❤
Thanks for sharing this. So you are using egg as a batter?
I love this meal and all it's varieties...We had purple hull peas and butter beans in the summer (that we had shelled) , dried beans like lima and navy beans all other times of the year. We had home fries, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, squash, collard greens, green beans and new potatoes, or succotash as sides, but all were served with cornbread. In the summer the kids were sent out to the kitchen garden to pick a few hot and bell peppers, onions, and tomatoes to slice, but we always had a couple different hot pepper sauces on the table, too.
BTW, we never put anything on our fried okra except corn meal and I do frozen the same way once it is thawed.
Hi Kristy 😁 Thanks for the input on the okra. I knew I shouldn't have added the egg batter. 😂 I loved reading all of these dishes you ate. Very similar to what my grandma cooked. Cornbread is so filling too that to make it a staple of a nightly dinner really helps with budget cooking.
@@ArdentMichelle My grandmother and father adored cornbread crumbled into buttermilk, but I never liked it. I was big into "pot liquor" and cornbread. This was the broth from cooking greens with cornbread crumbled into it. It was a well-loved "dish" where I come from.
Powdered milk is very expensive where I live. I mix 1/2 cup oats with 1 qt. Water a pinch of salt and 2 pinches sugar in the blender. It makes for a delightful substitute. I first learned about this during a blizzard when we were snowed in for 12 days. I heard it during a discussion on a radio talk show helping people take care of themselves and their families until the roads opened. Today oat milk is readily available but at a hefty price.
I agree 👍 oat milk is so easy to make.
Thanks for a great video friend! 🎉 A lady I watch one time found SIX small rocks when she was sorting her beans! 😳😱🤯
You're welcome 😁 Oh my...that's terrible. I'm such a clean freak (about my food) that I probably won't stop sorting....but it just feels so unfruitful 😂
My mom hated cornbread because she said it was dry, so we never had it growing up. Thank goodness that didn't trickle down to her daughters..lol
We never had peanut butter either for the same reason.
Hi Pat 😁 We all basically grew up eating what our mom's liked to cook 😂 Your grandma must have made dry cornbread 😂😂
@@ArdentMichelle I don't know what my grandmother made because she didn't speak English and lived hundreds of miles away on a farm. The only thing my mom ever said is that they ate potatoes with sour milk (sour cream?) During the Depression. She also said that she carried a salt shaker into the fields when they went to pick potatoes and ate them raw right there. The only 2 stories she ever told about those times.
@@patpeters6331 They must have been hungry to eat them raw right in the fields. The potatoes with sour milk sounds pretty good 😋potatoes are so filling. This reminds me of a Korean drama I watched that depicts people eating whole boiled potatoes for their meal- holding the potato and taking bites out of it. Everyone sitting around the table, each with their potato. I'm sure they have been eaten this way many times.
YUM! I remember eating this same meal when I was a kid. I did not think of this as a poor man's meal then or now. All the items on the plate as wonderful.
I'm surprised at how many of my viewers used to eat the same exact meal. I agree...it's more like a treat for me now.😋
I love corn bread. You might think this is strange but I love it with peanutbutter and sometimes jam. 😊
I am definitely going to try that.
Growing up I ate my slice of cornbread with butter and pancake syrup. Not healthy but it was desert after a bowl of pinto beans and rice.
Hi Mary 😁 I saw this comment just before I headed to the kitchen for breakfast. I was planning on grabbing a piece of the leftover cornbread and trying it with peanut butter..... but it was gone 😂 Even though my sons didn't grow up eating this meal, they LOVE cornbread. Can't wait to try your suggestion. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us.
@@ArdentMichelle lol. You should know that with teenagers in the house, leftovers are non existant. Couldn't shop or cook fast enough when I had 2 teenagers.
@@patpeters6331 so true 👍
Many times we ate cornbread with butter and syrup on it as a meal…..like you would eat pancakes, but we would have the cornbread for supper. Comfort food!
Sometimes I have made cornbread salad with the leftover cornbread. I grew up eating pinto beans with the potatoes cooked in with the beans and onion, and a side of cornbread. Simple meals like this are the best!
Cornbread salad is a wonderful idea! I haven't made that yet. Adding it to my bucket list. Thanks for sharing.
Also, if you use baking soda while cooking your beans, it will take the gas out of it so it will not upset your stomach and then you yourself would not have gas for anybody who is eating beans! I learned this trick along time ago and I am a big fan of all things beans when it comes to a meal replacement for meat and also loving my chipotle or burrito bowls so many times in a week lol Burrito bowls are one of my favorite meals and the baking soda won’t be tasted while you’re cooking it in your beans. It just helps to reduce and release the gas.
Love the fried tomatoes. Many have a garden full of tomatoes and this is a great way to eat them. Always love your recipies.🥰🥰
Thank you for sharing your memories and recipes. I actually never thought I was poor until I was in college and a teacher asked if I could share about my life growing up poor and then being a poor single mom relying on the system to get by. That hurt. One meal we ate a lot and it was my first meal I made for my dad and me at age 8 or nine was hot dog stew. A can of corn , a potato or two and a few hot dogs. Saturday was always hot dogs and beans. When my dad had a bit more money in his pay check we had sword fish and steak.
Hi Victoria 😁 You're welcome. First of all, congratulations on going to college after growing up poor and being a single mom. You've already beat the odds and must be a very special and determined individual with a lot of grit 🥰
Children frequently don't know how poor they are. Sounds like you became the family cook? Thanks for the reminder about hot dogs. They're very cheap. I feel like I should use them more often on my channel.
@@ArdentMichelle thank you. I learned to be frugal and to make little go a long way. I learned how to budget too. My dad set a good example. My dad felt eduction and hard work were good ideas. I did have some great gifts from my dad. He bought me a car so I could do both. We lived to far away that I could ride a bike or walk to work as he did.
@@VictoriaFerland-gu7rb a good example is a blessing 💜
I Michelle this video hits home. While growing up we were a normal middle class family in a big city in Southern India. I remember us being financially struggling a few years when I was a kid but my parents always made sure I had good food to eat. We are vegetarians so we generally ate rice, beans, lentils, and veggies at home. And my grandmother who lived with her son (my mom's brother) would make snacks at home and send it across to us. Unfortunately my mom passed away due to cancer when I was 18 years old and my dad remarried (only after he asked me if he could). I infact wanted him to get married since I had a sister who was just 4 years old when mom passed away. He got an arranged marriage and my step mom wouldn't cook regularly (indian households people make fresh food every single day. That's what we are used to. We rarely eat leftovers) so that would bother me so much. I would many times not eat cuz she prepared food that wasn't very nutritious. I remember being desperate all the time for good food. Now I am 37 living in the US married. My husband is a white guy who is born and raised here. I give so much importance to cooking good food because of not getting it all those years. I spend a lot on groceries. I don't spend much on clothes, shoes, bags or make up at all so my husband let's me spend how much ever I want on groceries. We now have a 6 month old daughter and I am looking forward to cooking good food for her every single day! ❤ sending you lots of love for making this video❤
Hello 😁 Thank you so much of sharing this with me. I'm so sorry you lost your mom. 🤗 That's rough. I think our overall health as Americans would be so much better if we ate whole foods everyday, as it is done in India. You will be such a blessing for your daughter to give her nutritious home cooked meals. 💜 Thanks for taking the time to comment and also for watching my videos! 🥰 I hope you have a great week.
@varsharao86 I'm glad there's a happy ending to your story. I wish you many happy years providing wonderful food to your family.
And one last thing - not sure if mentioned - the juice form the beans is called potlikker in parts
Thanks for sharing this
Simple foods are always the best! Thanks 👍🏻
So true 👍 and it's my pleasure. Thank YOU for watching and taking the time to comment.
One reason to try out dry milk in recipes regardless of cost is it can be more readily available at neighborhood food banks -- some programs don't provide refrigerated goods because of the energy expense and fast expiration.
Brown beans are what we are eating today with corn muffins! (And onions) good eating!
That IS good eating 👍
I’m a southerner and grew up eating this food. Still eat this food. I wash fresh okra and let dry. Cut with a sharp knife. Otherwise it feel’s slimy. I also cook it longer than you did to get that airy texture. We ate this meal often with wedges of raw onion. And ham hocks in the beans. And I love cornbread without the sugar and milk. This is how my mom cooked too. Yum yum.
Thanks for sharing this. I think my favorite way to eat okra is roasted with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Sounds like we enjoy the same kind of food .
It’s not just hoarding food, it’s everything else. 😪. we get afraid to throw away things in case we need them later.
so so true 👍 same problem here. I went through and got rid of some items yesterday morning and cleared out my room and it feels so good now. It's hard to take that step though.
Now we understand why our parents and grandparents were reluctant to throw things away and reused rather than buy. Remember how they reused jars and cool Whip containers...
My parents were from the east coast and one of the cheaper comfort foods was creamed peas and tuna on toast, definitely an acquired taste for most 😂 but comfort food for me.
I've made that and it's delicious! I like serving it over rice. I was thinking about it the other day. 😋
we had this too, my folks called it "Tuna Pea Wiggle" 😊 I've been thinking of making it lately but substituting chick peas for the tuna.
I don't like green peas, but this sounds like a meal I should make on my channel since you all love it so much 😂 Can someone send me a recipe or tell me how to make it?
@@ArdentMichelle super easy - make a roux with milk, butter and flour add salt and pepper, mix in tuna and add peas (I usually thaw frozen because I don't want them to get mushy or overcooked) and serve on butter toast.
@@thelisaofmonalisa4829 Yay! 🥳 Thanks for sharing this. Expect to see this in an upcoming video very soon!
My southern mother in law use to make cracklin bread and she would break it up in a glass of buttermilk. She absolutely loved that treat ❤
I had to google this to confirm what cracklins are although I had an idea 😂 I bet there are lots of cornbread variations out there, but the post I read about cracklin bread said it's "life altering." 😂
Bean with cornbread is so good. I love that you give all the tips ro help people.
Thank you so much 😁
Fried okra tastes amazing with cajun seasoning and garlic salt added to the coating mix. Sometimes, I also add a splash of hot sauce to the eggs
I prefer to use a mix of cornmeal, AP flour, breadcrumbs (I prefer panko), a little cornstarch, and seasoning for the coating. I keep a container full of the mixture so it's ready any time I want to fry fish, chicken, or vegetables. If you like to change up the flavor, just leave the seasoning out of the bulk blend.
yum! 😁
I grew up food insecure, and I have so many memories of eating only potatoes or corn on the cob as a kid. You’re definitely right, I always keep a very well stocked pantry. To the point where visitors have asked if I was prepping for the apocalypse. lol!
Me too!!
I can relate to this apocalypse statement 😂 I may have food under my bed as we speak. But on the upside, it's allowed me to purchase items at a deep discount so overall I think I'm saving a lot by being this way.
Same here!!
One very easy and cheap recipe I came up with is onion gravy. It's yellow onion, chopped and carmelized. I add butter and flour and brown and then add milk. It might be a can of diluted evaporated milk, thickening the gravy. Add salt, pepper, sage, or thyme if you like it, and serve over toast or biscuits or with chicken or pork or hamburger. It's super delicious, quick, cheap and easy to make. I'd love to see you try it.
thanks for the idea! 😁It's a good one! Definitely going to use this
I love to watch these videos. Thank you for sharing about your childhood.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks!
Thank you Charlotte 💜 You are so kind to me! I appreciate the support!
I grew up in a home with food insecurities, lived it again when I got divorced & had 2 teenagers to feed, again when I lost my 2nd husband...now in my 60's I keep a lot of food on hand (don't think you ever get over it)
sorry to hear you can relate 😞
I’m from WV we grew up eating this meal a lot
surprised at just how many of my viewers ate this same meal.
Thanks for your videos thanks ❤😊
My pleasure 😊 Thank YOU for watching!
You are amazing! Thank you so much for all you do!!! ❤
awe... Thank you so much 🥰 and thank YOU for watching my videos!
Aww 🥰 grandma’s are the best! 🥰😍💕💕
Hi Cathie 😁 They really are. I wish EVERY grandma knew how important they are in the life of a grandchild. 🥰
Ardent, thx for these yummy meals! And for being vulnerable abt the awful issues of food insecurity. Nice that u share ur 😋 yummy recipes!! God bless u
My pleasure!! 😁 Thank YOU for watching!
Girl...I was raised on that meal you just made! I love fried okra and my grandma made the best in the world.. it was best when she made it with fresh out of the garden okra. She had cast iron skillets she cooked in and cornbread was so good (no sugar) my snack after a meal like that was buttermilk and cornbread...lip smacking good!!!!😂
I figured I would have a few viewers that could relate to this meal. 😁 I had totally forgotten about buttermilk and cornbread until I read another viewers comment. That was actually my grandmas preference. As an adult, I don't think I've ever had buttermilk, and it was certainly never in my house growing up. Now I want to try that. My grandma always had buttermilk on hand and she may have used it in her biscuits.
My mom had no food growing up and this was a kind of meal she had. One of her favorite was cornbread with buttermilk. And we still had this kind of meal also and I love,love fried okra.❤️❤️❤️
oh yes...I had almost forgotten. My grandma drank buttermilk too. Hmm.....wondering now if she had her cornbread in buttermilk. As for the okra, are you dipping in egg or no?
@@ArdentMichelle I use buttermilk and cornmeal and a little flour for my okra.
@@earlenebrown7181 ok that's what I thought. I'm thinking I messed up with the egg. I never used that before and it was lighter.
My grandma used to use fresh okra, and no egg
Reminds me of home. ❤ I don't use eggs when I batter my okra. And we diced the potatoes and onions.
I knew the egg batter was where I messed up 😂 Thanks for sharing this. 👩🍳
I love cornbread!!!
Hi Penny 😁 yes and it's so filling and satiating. Already thinking about making another loaf 😂 Glad you approve.
My mom bought a case of instant mashed potatoes she got on sale. But we couldn't afford milk or butter, and my mom always refused to buy salt. Instant mashed potatoes made with water and pepper are the nastiest. I, to this day, refuse to eat instant mashed potatoes. They are ok for thickening a soup or if you added too much liquid to real mashed potatoes. But I would have been happy with the meal you made. My mom hated beans, so I never ate beans until I went vegetarian in my 30s. I, too, have a huge stocked food pantry. My husband never grew up poor, so he has a hard time understanding why I stock my pantry. The things I've learned over the years I wish I knew growing up. Would have been really helpful!
I can't imagine eating any potatoes without salt 😳 I can see why you didn't like them 😂
PTSD from the 2020 pandemic. Hoarding/ stocking up on food is absolutely necessary.
I can relate.....I can still see the empty Walmart store shelves in my mind. Who would have thought that could ever happen?!?!?
Awesome video ! Thank you !
Glad you liked it! 😁 Thanks for watching!
The beans really do look delicious. Thank you for the video!
My pleasure 😁 Thank YOU for watching!
you have such great videos! i love all your creative ideas for cost effective and budget friendly meals that are really delicious! your voice is so soothing too. i can't believe you don't have more subscribers! thanks so much for all your wonderful content!!
Thank you so much 💜
Looking forward to the 15 dollar challenge!
Working on it now 😁
There were times all we had was biscuits and gravy.
People need to really be alert to the quality of the potatoes and onions. I've found that recently (last was in August and early September of 2023) that the potatoes smelled of rot, and those almost never last very long - if they haven't already started going bad. And frequently the onions are going soft if they aren't already moldy. I don't buy bagged carrots because of rot or hidden damage.
Thanks for the tip 😁
Fried okra with potato in it is a popular Trinidadian breakfast dish.
Would love to try that. 👍
This is literally the meal I request from my parents every year for my birthday! The only small variation is I get my dad to make hot water cornbread instead of baked. With a slice of cantaloupe! Great meal!
It really is. 👍 Glad you share my love for this meal. I've heard of hot water cornbread but I haven't made it.
Thank you for sharing your recipe and your heart. I love your content.
My pleasure 😊
and thanks for letting me know that you are enjoying my content 🥰
I too grew up food hungry. Now I am a hoarder. Buying food I will likely never eat, just on the off chance, I might want it. If there was couple or three hundred extra dollars after all the bille were paid, and my paycheck coming the next day, I splurged--at the grocery store. I kept a full freezer, refrigerator and cabinets. Canned good-veggies, fruit, soups. We could have lived a few months on it. I didnt invest in stocks, I invested in food. I still do. Funny though, with all the food I have in my house, I veer back to wanting beans and cornbread, fried potatoes, cabbage and potatoes. Potatoe soup, Bacon and eggs. Salmon patties. While the chicken, porkchops, cod, and beef turn to freezerburn, to be thrown out in the next couple of months.
It's good now that you are able to recognize it though. 😁 It does have its upsides too. Like having enough that you can buy items on sale and save.
Looks great. I'm looking forward to next challenge.
Thank you 😁
I like Lawry's garlic salt
yes, it's good. I've had it before. I've been using the SamsClub bulk garlic salt and then I pour into the smaller container I had. I really like it too.
my mom called this country supper- the only meal my dad would eat without meat..sigh. he also liked a wedge of white onion! I always hated the added salt - every tomato sliced up or anything he would salt the heck out of it. I never liked veggies until many years later when I realized they wren't salty without all the added salt
oh yes...supper, the best meal of the day! 😁
my job as a little girl was to help sort through the beans for rocks
Yes, I have so many memories of watching beans being sorted. 😁
I love this meal!! Looking forward to Sundays video. Blessings 😊
Thank you 😁