Kid Foods We Still Love (and Some We SO Don't)

By Lauren Passell

November 26, 2010

Now that Thanksgiving'S over, it's time to forget about stuffing and get back to other food—kid food. Remember those old lunchtime favorites that you would gladly trade your little brother for? Spaghetti O's? Capri Sun? Fruit By The Foot? In Kid World, those treats were key not just for your taste buds, but for your popularity and sense of self-worth. (Especially if you had one of those moms who made you eat organic-everything. Anyone? Anyone?)

And today, we still covet these mouth-watering wonders. Why? They're some of the only things in this crazy, crazy world that we can all relate to. Bring up Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in a room full of anyone younger than 35, and you'll make an instant friend. So let's hear it for these kid-favorite snacks that we still would trade our brothers for. And at the bottom, a few snacks that are legitimately nasty and we don't know what we were thinking when we liked them. But we did. And you did, too. You know you did.

Rice Krispy Treats
We We Liked It Then: It was the only time we were allowed to help in the kitchen. Plus, it probably meant there was a birthday party somewhere nearby.
Why We Like It Now: Reminds us of being 5, still the only thing we can make without mom's supervision

Cheese Pizza
We We Liked It Then: Chuck E Cheese told us to eat it, and we never stopped. Even picky eaters like cheese and bread.
Why We Like It Now: Can be delivered in 30 minutes or less. It is impossible not to love pizza.

Spaghetti Tacos
We We Liked It Then: They didn't exist. Kids these days don't know how lucky they are!
Why We Like It Now: If there was such thing as a carb overload, this would be it.

Pop Tarts
We We Liked It Then: Seemed too dessert-y to be breakfast ("Is Mom going bananas?")
Why We Like It Now:We weren't actually allowed to eat them for breakfast, so now that we can, we take full advantage. And we are finally old enough to use the toaster oven!

Raw Cake Batter Right Off of the Mixing Spoons
We We Liked It Then: We didn't know anything about nutrition, but we knew it was bad for us, and we knew it was delicious.
Why We Like It Now: Living on the edge is fun... even if it's just the edge of salmonella.

Mickey Mouse Pancakes
We We Liked It Then: Kids are easy to trick. Even if we hated pancakes, if they looked like Mickey Mouse we were sold.
Why We Like It Now: Now we love pancakes, and the Mickey Mouse ear-shapes provide MORE SYRUP CREVICES.

Happy Meals
We We Liked It Then: The toy.
Why We Like It Now: The french fries.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cereal Or Whatever Sugary Mess You Like To Eat In The Morning
We We Liked It Then: It tasted like candy, but our moms thought it was cereal.
Why We Like It Now: Still the perfect accessory for Saturday morning cartoons.

And things we were wrong about:
Handi Snacks. That little red plastic knife is still pretty cool, but it doesn't make up for the terrible cheese or lame crackers.
Lunchables. Not actually sure it's real food, now that we think about it. And "Lunchables" isn't actually a word. DOUBLE FAIL.
Those syrupy little cans of fruit. We were even wrong, even about the little red cherries.
Peanut butter and jelly in a jar. We hope someone was fired for this one.
Butter (as in, a stick of it). Proof that little kids have no sense of taste.