growing in in the monolithic food chain

At a recent birthday party i ran into my past, triggered by an innocent looking yogurt dipped pink cookie shaped like some kind of four legged animal (although only two were visible). My mother loved these circus cookies along with some white powdery cookie shaped like a small burial mount hinting of mild coconut flavors. This was the culinary home which forced me on my quest for the good meal. Breakfast consisted of two choices, as I recall. Pop Tarts, after all it's important to have a warm meal or the more 'healthy' choice of quaker oats instant cinnamon flavored cereal that conveniently came pre-measured in a packet that you poured into the hot water. Ritz crackers were a family favorite and I recall ( I hate to admit this) eating them with miracle whip. Yes, I know...but when you consider that my father's favorite night time snack was dipping tuna sandwiches into his hot chocolate, it doesn't sound so bad. Was my mother a baker? Well, honestly, she tried to casserole here and there and I recall her baking something called "mrs. good cookies". These things were...well, lets just say we didn't have much to compare them to and our cat, Muffin, sure loved to eat them! These came frozen, pre-shaped and already placed upon parchment paper...ready to slip into the oven. Of course you had to place them on a pan!

I recall that all the family had there own tv dinner trays, I think mine had a clever design from a popular cartoon show. TV dinners, yum! Salsbury steak with some kind of warm dessert thing with fruit?

You may have wondered in the past how I became so interested in the pursuit of eating good food. Well, this is where my food journey began...no wonder I have little tolerance for processed stuff. Is Processed Food Really "Food"?