Todays controlled, preplanned, allocation of food (aka ration). Canned ham with mustard, half a can of canned vegetables, half a box instant stuffing. All given to me by people who threw it out after they got it at the food pantry, and called it trash as it wasn't what they liked.
Posted by elonmusktheturd22@reddit | shittyfoodporn | View on Reddit | 76 comments
autoredial@reddit
Being able to cook allowed me to eat well even when I was broke. Made magic with canned food and a few fresh vegs. You can’t always control your circumstances but you can control how you react to them. Keep on keeping on!
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
I thought the brown on the ham was obvious that i pan fried it. Vegatables were boiled.
Had the same yesterday (half can vegetables, half can ham, half box stuffing)
Caylennea@reddit
It is clearly fried. Is that spam? My daughter loves spam.
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
Nope, its from a 16oz can of ham, very similar though.
Caylennea@reddit
Interesting. Is it less expensive? Spam is pricey…
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
Its cheaper by weight iirc. Last i saw it was $3.90 at Aldi's (here anyway) for thrir cheaper store brand. Armor or Hormel ham is 30% more. Spam is a name brand and will be higher priced than store brands, though there are not many store brands. Spams kinda expensive so i don't buy it often.
Reading_Mermaid@reddit
Aldis has a store brand spam that's pretty good. it's labeled luncheon meat
lechatsage@reddit
Great answer, and I concur.
Awkwardpanda75@reddit
I love this take. Thank you for reframing my day.
sugaredviolence@reddit
Yessss get some onion powder, garlic powder, decent black pepper and some sea salt and maybe if you’re flush some Italian Seasoning (my dad hates Italian seasoning for some reason, so we grew up with just basil and oregano and thyme separately).
Those work with almost everything and they truly add so much to basic shit. I don’t do spice blends but that’s bc I make my own. Spices and herbs are FUNDAMENTAL to anything imo. That meal can be so much tastier just by adding a few little things.
sara-34@reddit
And when you know how to spice and brown things, you don't need as much salt!
Greenebean1717@reddit
Maybe it’s a sign of growing up in poverty but I’ll be honest, that looks like it slapped. If I were given a meal like that, I’d honestly be pretty grateful! You clearly know how to make a good, filling meal with what you’ve got and that’s what matters
dlh48304@reddit
Back when I was over my head in learning how to be an adult, I would have been THRILLED to eat something g substantial like that. A can of green beans and a boil-in-bag Salisbury steak was LIVING LARGE. Bon Appetit!
TriggerWarning12345@reddit
I'm not big on ham, but that half box of stuffing would NOT have lasted long enough to be lunch. I'd have scarfed the whole box right after it set, because I love stuffing so much. The veggies aren't bad looking either, I'd happily eat those as well.
Long-Development461@reddit
Every year without fail my mom would make stuffing for thanksgiving and I’d always find one of her long black hairs in it 😭
Ok-Hovercraft7184@reddit
Well, that's an appetite suppressant for me! Yuck!
zorggalacticus@reddit
I smoke the turkey and usually use the drippings to make the stuffing. Most times, it's a cajun turkey. Then I make the gravy with a little creole seasoning and a dash of Louisiana hot sauce to give it some twang. So we end up with cajun turkey and stuffing with creole gravy. Got hungry just typing this out.
basement_egg@reddit
provided you dental floss
Long-Development461@reddit
Ewww😭
Awkwardpanda75@reddit
I have food issues so I’ll go days eating the same thing. Stuffing and instant mashed potatoes are two of those things for me.
TriggerWarning12345@reddit
My food issues are, if I get too depressed, I can't get motivated to eat. But stuffing? I rarely pass that up. And I don't feel bad about eating too much of it, because honestly, how can even bucketloads of stuffing be too much? At least, to me, anyway.
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
My cooking does tend to be both shitty and artesianal at the same time.
My neighbor would go to the food pantry twice a month. Get everything she could, thrn throw out boxed stuffing, dried beans and rice, canned vegatables. Just ate the fresh/frozen meat and only the beef, pork snd chicken, would throw out the 3lb bags of fish sticks, Pollock, or catfish. Would keep cheese and eggs, throw out the bread in favor of stale cake and donuts, and whine that they gave so much trash (like canned chicken or canned vegatables). Being frugal i took what she threw out.
She would whine that they didn't give her large blocks of butter anymore and that she was was destutue, i listened as i rode with her to town and she blew $20 on a tuna sub andc cherry coke at a gas station and just shrugged with a grin when i pointed out that $20s could have got her 5lbs of butter (price at Aldi' s at the time) and she had just given me 3 cans of tuna she got from the food pantry. I gave her $40 for the ride to Aldi's that day.
Later she came whining to me that her family was starving and needed food, they had nothing at all. I offered her stuff i had and she rejected it (kraft dinner, canned stuff, boxed stuffing) as they only wanted steaks and burgers.
I grew up eating literal trash (had dime size spots of mold on the plain bagels my parents gave me as a bag lunch) and had to scavange many times so i won't throw out edible food even if i don't like it.
She also bragged she was going to go to multiple food pantries with a fake name to get multiple dispersals. I was appalled by this.
I haven't spoken to her in 2 years but still have a lot of old food pantry stuff she would have thrown out. I don't overeat so it lasts a long time.
And she was hardly the only one who went to the food pantry then threw out 1/2 to 3/4 what they get because its not what they like. Mennonites i know occasionally give me multiple large boxes of stuff they didn't want from the food pantry, and i got s frirnd in town who gives me stuff they don't like from the food pantry (they car pool with their sister in law and pick up for their kids too, they are retiree's. Anything the 3 households don't want they give to me).
Mennonite and Amish have rules to value self sufficiency but around here most go to the food pantry. The ones who don't generally shame and look down on those who do because its against their communities self sufficiency beleifs. I too value self reliance so don't go to it myself, i have a few times in the past right after my injury when i was using a walker but always had a conflicting feelings over it. Kept feeling i was taking food i didn't need and it should go to those more destitute since i could get by on sourdough rye, turnips, and woodchucks.
Anyway sorry for my old man yelling at a cloud moment here rambling on about nothing. Just felt like sharing how i got boxed stuffing and canned vegatables and why i felt it counted as shitty.
CD274@reddit
I have had friends like that and kept them propped up for many years. I still do but get angry about it. I can afford it now but I grew up as an immigrant whose grandma hoarder used tin foil 😅. There's a Mennonite run chain of groceries near me that sell near expired foods that have crazy deals that, if you have the room for storage (and I think this is the #1 issue for people that struggle with food - buying in bulk is impossible for them) is incredibly cheap.
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
Yeah. They are a menace to my crops. I make the most of everything. Its just a very large rodent.
Mennonite stores here. Back in 2022 i got 210lb of betty crocker instant buttermilk pancake mix for $30 from them. Their supplies are dried up and deals are rare in the last 2 years though.
Got the mix in my cellar, figure it will last me another decade at the rate i use it.
CD274@reddit
Same, I have ground squirrels and I leave them out for vultures but I debated if they tasted good 🤣
Yeah the deals for actual Mennonite stuff aren't there in their stores, just expired canned goods and cheese they get from bigger stores
producerofconfusion@reddit
I have celiac and the food pantry gives me so much stuff with wheat, I donate it, I don't throw it out, but damn I would kill for a load of food I can actually eat.
Vegetable-Seesaw-491@reddit
My next door neighbor goes to the food pantry some times. They're not poor, but are older and fixed income. They have brought me so much food they don't like over the years. If it's something I don't like, I'll give it to my dog or my chickens.
I've got a bunch of frozen fish filets in my freezer right now that they gave me. They make a quick, tasty meal when done up in the air fryer. I also have some cinnamon rolls that they didn't like for some reason. They're pre-made and quite tasty. Throw one in the microwave for 30 seconds, put some syrup on it and I'm good to go.
Knowing what they've given me I almost want to go to the food pantry to get stuff. I'd feel like an asshole doing that as I make enough that I can afford to buy my own food. I'd just be taking from someone that needs it then.
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
I hear in the local news that the food pantries are in panic mode, underfunded, numbers of people going has doubled or trippled. Huge numbers if people talking about hunger and desperation, that snap is going away. Yet so many people throw out the stuff they are given just because its not what they like.
Their ancestors are rolling in their graves, they knew a fat muskrat on the spit is worth more than a deer that got away.
My thoughts on it are complcated and conflicted though i have no answers for societies problems.
boolmi@reddit
It is fucked up they’re not giving food stamps in November and it’s sad we think canned ham, which I wouldn’t feed my dog, is something people should be grateful for. We don’t have socialized medicine but we make the poor eat unhealthy shitty meals like this? Truly dystopian.
eugeneugene@reddit
Maybe it's just because I grew up dirt poor but wtf is wrong with canned ham? I chop mine up and throw it in the pan with some eggs, bit of cheese, seasoning and you got a pretty easy tasty scrambled egg lol. I'll throw it in a stir fry, a sandwich, fried rice, etc.
boolmi@reddit
It’s unhealthy and doesn’t taste good compared to fresher alternatives. It’s not right that we have to learn to eat like we’re living in the trenches while billionaires and corporations refuse to pay taxes. Of course we can make it work and learn to enjoy these things, but we shouldn’t have to. You shouldn’t have had to grow up dirt poor.
I know people who are comfortable living in their cars because they’ve done it so long, but that doesn’t mean we should stop demanding housing. We deserve to eat healthy food and have roofs over our heads. Respect yourself and demand more.
eugeneugene@reddit
You're 100% right we should have access to fresher food. I volunteer at a food bank and the sad reality is that a lot of people don't have anywhere to store food that needs to be refrigerated, or access to facilities to prepare and cook food. We do have fresh food to give out but a lot of people coming through ask us to not give them that, and prefer shelf stable food. A lot of our fresh food ends up getting passed on to the soup kitchen or various other organizations so they can use it up before it goes bad.
Which opens another can of worms... why the hell are we allowing people to live in situations where even when they get fresh food, they can't store it or cook it?
All this to say, yes I think it is ungrateful for someone to take food from a pantry and THROW IT OUT because it's not up to their standards. At least have the decency to return your unused unopened food so someone else can eat it. There are days where we run out of food to give, to think that someone has taken food from us and then thrown it out while people are coming to us hungry and we have nothing for them. Kind of fucking sucks.
boolmi@reddit
I just think that it’s pointless to blame the poor for throwing out some food when it’s the rich that are actually starving people. Ever seen the movie the Platform? We could all be super careful with what we have and still not have enough because the people at the top are the ones creating artificial scarcity.
notabigmelvillecrowd@reddit
I like it myself, but I do agree with the above comment that it's quite grim that what's handed out to poor people is all unhealthy processed garbage. I might eat a bit of spam every once in a while knowing full well that it's not doing me any favours, but to be forced to eat it every day, in place of real food, is going to cause people a lot of harm. Especially, as they say, in a country where the hospital can bankrupt you.
sara-34@reddit
I volunteered at a local food pantry for years. Many years ago, they changed from giving people pre-packed boxes to letting people pick their own food (with limits per family on popular items like eggs and frozen meat). The amount they gave out per family actually went down once people could choose just what they wanted. For sure there are people like your neighbor, but there are also people who don't know how to cook certain things, and that's why they don't take certain things. When people have choice there's less food waste.
From years of observing what people took, I believe the people who took the fresh vegetables and dried beans were eating a lot better than the people who took mostly prepackaged stuff, just because they were able to be more flexible and still have meals that satisfied them. I have a friend who recently needed to use the food pantry, and she made like you, experimenting with cooking to make use of everything, and she discovered new stuff that she loves now. Experimenting, cooking, and eating nutritious food is its own reward. I think it's worth having some people take it for granted in order to have food pantries available for the people who need it.
LOTRfreak101@reddit
An empty stomach does not cares where your food comes from or how much it cost. It doesn't care if you got the food from a wholesale grocer, a food bank, a 3* michelin restaurant, or picked/hunted fresh that day. I'm glad that although you like to be self sufficient, you are not prideful enough to let food go to waste.
lobotomy4free@reddit
Looks like almost every meal I ate growing up in a trailer park in rural Iowa. And that isn’t an insult:) You eat what you got and you’re not too “fancy” to act like that food is beneath you!
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
Fancy is the word lol
As a kid my father had sold timber to some loggers. Then he was an opinionated ass to them, telling them what to do until they got sick of him and left, leaving piles of logs all over the landing near the house.
The logs were poplar and they are not the best firewood but burn clean. My father left them to rot. I kept asking why we didn't cut them into firewood, he would smack me and call me stupid, and insisted it wasn't fit to use.
He would cut some maple, cherry, etc for firewood, never enough, then whine all winter having to buy firewood and complain we didn't get enough in heap. All while those logs sat there rotting away.
In my 30s, clearing up my land for farming i cut lots of poplar firewood. Sold it cheaper than hardwood. Most people were prejudiced against it and treated me with distain for suggesting it. A few people though loved it, it produced 2/3 the heat of better hardwood like cherry and ash, and i sold it 2/3 the price. Just have to feed the stove more often. Fall and dpring people loved it as it lowered their heating costs. Opinionated people wouldn't even use it for campfires and demanded only the best then argued wanting the oak and hickory for the price of poplar.
So many opinionated people will make noise about how hard things are and expensive but then reject anything that isn't the best.
Personally i prefer poplar, easy to cut and split, doesn't overheat my cabin, and i can sell the better stuff for a profit.
lobotomy4free@reddit
I’m glad you didn’t let your dad completely shame you out of using something that was being wasted! People are so stubborn when it comes to what they think will work best, that they don’t try anything new! He could have been saving so much money. You did the smart thing. Even selling it for cheaper is better than just getting rid of it! People still judge me for preferring fruit out of a can because I never tried real fruit until I was around 10, but fuck em. I’d rather be happy with being able to have any food than be miserable because no food is good enough
Blankenhoff@reddit
I would cdush that plate. Except i like my canned ham (im assuming this is spam) on bread and a little more burnt than that with no sauce.
100% would crush that plate
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
This stuff
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=canned+ham+Aldi%27s+&t=fpas&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Farchivana.com%2Fpics%2Ff3%2Fd8%2Ff3d86e7e9d5539560cae8d927cba4e048eb00922.jpg
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
Not spam, its ham, though very similar
OGBRedditThrowaway@reddit
As someone who lives a building with a high percentage of low income residents, it's frustrating seeing how many food boxes are left out in the hallway with only the processed meat and sweets removed.
I take a lot of it. I have an endless supply of black and pinto beans for refried beans, an endless supply of farina and an endless supply of sodium free mixed vegetables.
LaRoseDuRoi@reddit
Honestly, I hate the low-sodium canned veggies because they don't taste like much of anything, BUT I throw them into a can of soup or some bouillon and it at least gives some texture and bulk to the broth.
A surprising number of people don't seem to realize that you can use canned food like that IN SOMETHING ELSE to improve on it. I used to live in low-income housing, and I got so much food from other people's food pantry runs because they just wouldn't use it.
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
To ancient humans protein, fat, salt and sugar were rare, so we are biologically programmed to crave those rare highly valuable nutrients.
Modern farming makes them abundant but people can't override instinct so we binge on McDonald's and create an obesity epidemic. Favoring salty, fat dripping meat, soda, and donuts, over a salad
Moosyfate17@reddit
Not a fan of canned veggies here but I would eat it fornthe vitamins.
That looks like a good helping of Thanksgiving to me. I would eat that.
I don't get people who would throw perfectly good food away.
Honest_Turn_7231@reddit
I can’t stand mfs who go to a food pantry and are picky. Like all of this is delicious stg. It’s a struggle meal but this is the kind of shit my childhood was made of. Spam needs to be crispy tho
boolmi@reddit
Only the rich should be picky. The rest of us should accept their runoff. Right?
Honest_Turn_7231@reddit
No? But if you’re going to a food pantry maybe don’t throw shit away from it? Being a picky eater and being poor doesn’t mix tho. It’s tough to be poor, you take what you can get.
Drackar39@reddit
I will never understand people that won't eat spam like products.
Healthy balanced meal out of "garbage", and someone gave away fucking meat ? I will never understand it.
Can't say I love boxed stuffing, personally, but free is free.
Doglover4561@reddit
Still looks more sustainable than the bag of cheez-its I had for lunch
shandalf_thegrey@reddit
Being poor does not mean you have to force yourself to eat food you don’t like.
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
I agree to an extent. I just rambled a bit about how i get this stuff.
Heck, in my early 20s i was eating carpenter ants and larvae and hard tack as thats all i had.
I called it soft tack though, just flour and water baked. If hard as a brick its hard tack, but I left it a little plyable. Was making it 2 times a week, plus plain oatmeal and plain rice. The ants were better than earthworms.
my past was really... shitty, only other people i know of who squirreled preserved food away like i do were the ones who grew up in the great depression. Hard times does give people a certain perspective
sara-34@reddit
If you don't mind my asking, where did you live?
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
At the time i lived in a condemned house on the edge of the village of Rensselaer falls ny, just outside the Indian Creek nature center (huge wetland).
Got the house at a tax repo auction for all the money in my pocket in 2001. Had lived in my car since turning 18.
It was exactly the kind of house you could get for nect to nothing, looked like the kind of place you see in r/abandonedplaces or whatever its called. Floor collapsed in kitchen so used a plank to go room to room. Shit in a bucket. No heat, water, electric the first 2 years.
Renovated it as i could, sold it in 2009 for $38k. Parents stole the money from the sale (abusive explotative assholes, hence living in my car at 18. Slept on the floor growing up, went without glasses, etc).
Couldn't get food stamps or heap because my mother got them under my name at the time.
Was a shitty situation and complicated, legally complicated too. they got disability under my name at 17 because i was diagnosed with depression due to the abuse. At 18 they krpt getting it as rep payees since i had no work history to prove i could manage money. I was forced to work up to 14 hours a day for sub minimal wages at demeaning and degrading jobs that would never get me out of rep payee status, treated like crap, had to have mothers permission to have a job, and my mother took anything she could under my name, including bank loans i spent years dealing with. All legal as a rep payee, which meant i had to live on trash. She could also cut power to my house when i got it, so if yelling and hitting me didnt break my resistance to the worst bs she would cut the power, confiscate any food i hadnt hidden, cut all my hours at my crappy jobs, and starve me into submission all while crying to everyone that the government didnt give her enough for "her poor dusabled son" and told bs stories about me so everyone in that small town thought i had diwn syndrome or something. If i complained it was dropped instantly in favor of whatever she made up since she was rep payee for a disability claim. I was exploited and abused badly. Didnt end till i got a degree and decent job in 2008 (full college funding with vesid because of dis claim). Parents went bankrupt once they no longer got free money under my name, stalked and harrassed me for years. Stole the money from the house sale blaming the bankruptcy on me for getting a job. Cops did shit about it.
I didn't end up a PTSD addled backwoods hermit for nothing.
wetwilly2140@reddit
Man, I bet you're a good hang. I'd love to knock back a pint or two and chat with you. Get a little perspective in my damn life lol.
cutestslothevr@reddit
Yeah, canned ham and that kind of canned veg aren't to everyone's taste. That entire meal is is going to be too high sodium for some people too.
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
Yeah its a bit much. I know one of my other posts here i mentioned i never add salt to my homemade canned stuff and that comment was downvoted hard. I figure i can take the salt in this as uts balanced out by being fairly rare in my diet. I wouldn't buy it myself but i won't pass up free stuff that would go to waste otherwise.
SerDuckOfPNW@reddit
I would diced the ham and mid it with the stuffing and veggies like a casserole…sounds good to me
ExcellentWolf@reddit
I can’t consider this food shitty. You are too thankful for it, and too respectful of it, to call it shitty. I am glad you have it. And, it don’t look like bad eats at all. In fact, my own mother put plates in front of me that looked just like that when I was a youngster, and I would give anything for one of her home cooked meals today.
winthroprd@reddit
You seem well prepared for a zombie apocalypse and I think there's something to be said for that.
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
Growing up in rural poverty does wonders for adaptability, guys like me would just shrug and call the apocalypse a tuesday
kna5041@reddit
That's a nice big plate of food. I'd probably just do some pepper on the veggies. Maybe some gravy and it's like a thanksgiving meal.
elonmusktheturd22@reddit (OP)
I have packets of instant gravy but its too much bother to clean up the pot. I use it in homecanned doups to make stews when reheating.
denn1959-Public_396@reddit
Looks fine to me
Feisty_Caregiver_Duh@reddit
Yuck. It’s not gotten that bad yet, buddy
hangry_hangry_hippie@reddit
Are you living his life?
5aladknuckle5@reddit
Probably not
BunnyLady91@reddit
I’d fry up the meat and put it in the stuffing!
MichiganInTexas@reddit
Looks good to me!
lemonloth@reddit
The mustard saved it, I'd smash.
azaghal1502@reddit
I'd eat it. And it's definitely better than letting it go to waste.
Sallyfifth@reddit
It's not my dream meal, but it's probably better than the upcoming Thanksgiving at my in-laws!
Poop30@reddit
I’d eat it.
RaftCityBitch@reddit
Man i really enjoy seeing your posts
Pkyankfan69@reddit
Pretty gross but I like what you did with the mustard