15 Meals Middle-Class Moms Cooked in the ’80s

Pass the Jell‑O Cake, Please!

The 1980s may have been a time of excess in things like flashy sports cars and ram­pant con­sumerism, but for mid­dle-class fam­i­lies, things were a lot more down-to-earth, even on the din­ner table.

Com­fort foods and con­ve­nience were king, along with a few trends toward more “exot­ic” fla­vors. Here’s what big-haired, shoul­der-padded mid­dle-class moms in the ‘80s were cook­ing up in the kitchen.

Sloppy Joes

No, slop­py joes weren’t just school lunch­room fare, they made reg­u­lar appear­ances on din­ner tables, too. Canned Man­wich, arguably the most pop­u­lar way to make slop­py joes, was intro­duced in 1969, but it real­ly took off in the ‘80s. It may not be as pop­u­lar today as it once was, but it’s still a fast, cheap, and fill­ing meal.

Breaded Pork Chops

Yep, we’re talk­ing about Shake ‘N Bake. Mak­ing bread­ed pork chops (or chick­en drum­sticks, or fish, if you were fan­cy) on the stove is a mess with splat­ting oil, but Shake ‘N Bake solved all that non­sense. Plus, it was mar­ket­ed as a health­i­er alter­na­tive to fry­ing, and every­one who was doing aer­o­bics with Richard Sim­mons in the ‘80s was into that.

Salisbury Steak

Microwaves were the height of con­ve­nience at the time, so frozen meals were pop­u­lar. One of the most com­mon was sal­is­bury steak, a sea­soned beef pat­ty that’s a burg­er and meat­loaf mashup. It was always drenched in gravy, of course, and usu­al­ly came with mashed pota­toes too. Lat­er on, you’d start see­ing the dish in school lunch­es, but it’s clear­ly dropped in pop­u­lar­i­ty since then.

7‑Layer Dip

Peo­ple love 7‑layered things. Sal­ad was the big one in pre­vi­ous decades, but 7‑layer dip reigned supreme in the 1980s. Tex-Mex food (we thought of it as just “Mex­i­can food” back then) was gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty fast, and this dip lay­ered all the best stuff: gua­camole, refried beans, sour cream, veg­gies, and cheese. Sal­sa was also a must, since this is the decade when it start­ed to become as Amer­i­can as apple pie.

Poke Cake

Every­one was mak­ing poke cakes in the ‘80s. It’s anoth­er brand inven­tion, this time by Jell‑O, the cake’s essen­tial ingre­di­ent. Just make a box mix cake, poke holes in it with the han­dle of a wood­en spoon, and pour liq­uid Jell‑O over it. Its arti­fi­cial fla­vor and col­or seep into the cake for a fes­tive, tooth-rot­ting treat.

French Bread Pizza

How do you make sta­ple food piz­za more fun, and most impor­tant­ly, eas­i­er to make at home? Skip the dough and put it on a loaf of store-bought super­mar­ket French bread instead. The crust was always crunchy, the mid­dle bread was always a bit sog­gy from the sauce, and there was always plen­ty of cheese and pep­per­oni. Even frozen, microwav­able french bread piz­zas were a hit back then.

Beef Stroganoff

Sure, some peo­ple demand­ed steak in their stroganoff, but mid­dle-class moms knew the best short­cut: ground beef. Sure, it may have turned into a very unap­petis­ing look­ing slop by the time din­ner was ready, but it sure tast­ed good. Ham­burg­er Helper was the stan­dard, but some moms made their own with canned cream of mush­room soup instead.

Penne with Vodka Sauce

Oppo­site ground beef stroganoff on the fan­cy pants scale of ‘80s noo­dles was penne with vod­ka sauce. It burst onto the scene, and it was on every Ital­ian restaurant’s menu, so nat­u­ral­ly moms want­ed to try and do it up at home, too. Turns out, it’s a pret­ty easy and eco­nom­i­cal recipe, so many lucky fam­i­lies got to eat that creamy, sophis­ti­cat­ed pas­ta often.

Monkey Bread

Pres­i­dents are known to influ­ence the country’s taste, and that hap­pened in the ‘80s with mon­key bread. It was one of Pres­i­dent Reagan’s favorite treats, and First Lady Nan­cy Reagan’s recipe for it is every­where. At home, mid­dle-class moms used short­cuts like canned bis­cuit dough to make it a fast and sim­ple recipe, com­plete with tons of but­ter, brown sug­ar, and cin­na­mon.

Onion Dip

The 1980s were big on dips, and onion dip was one of the eas­i­est dips to make that was also incred­i­bly sat­is­fy­ing. Like so many oth­er recipes of the time, it starts with a pack­et of French onion soup sea­son­ing mix (good old Lip­ton), and ends with sour cream. And that’s about it — just add pota­to chips.

Spinach Dip

Every par­ty in the ‘80s had a sour­dough bread bowl filled with spinach dip. It’s one of those recipes that is print­ed on the back of a pack­age (in this case, Knorr veg­etable soup mix) that becomes icon­ic. No mat­ter if you pre­fer chunks of bread or car­rots as your dip­per, that creamy dip will be gone in no time.

Tacos

Amer­i­ca real­ly start­ed its love affair with ground beef hard shell tacos in the ‘80s, and it’s been a sta­ple ever since. Fam­i­lies with lots of kids espe­cial­ly loved it since every­one made their own. Hate let­tuce? No prob­lem, load up on cheese. Love heat? Pass the jalapenos, please. Taco night was always some­thing spe­cial to look for­ward to.

Mud Pie

Mud pie, or the “Mis­sis­sip­pi” style, sprang up all over the place in the ‘80s. It could take many forms, but what the name always implied was choco­late, and lots of it. Cof­fee, crushed Ore­os, and Cool Whip often made appear­ances as well, mak­ing for an easy and cheap dessert for moms to tack­le. Mud pie’s cousin, French silk pie, was also com­mon in the decade, but felt a lit­tle too sophis­ti­cat­ed for home cook­ing. Best buy that one frozen, or from Baker’s Square.

Anything With Sundried Tomatoes

If you ever thought, “Hm, what could jazz up this bor­ing recipe?” in the 1980s, chances are the answer was sun­dried toma­toes. They were trend­ing big at the time, and so every mom had a jar stashed away in the pantry for spe­cial occa­sion meals. Bonus points if you also had pine nuts in the same dish.

Poppy Seed Dressing

What is pop­py seed dress­ing, exact­ly? All we know is that it’s some kind of liq­uid sauce that hap­pens to have pop­py seeds in it. It could be for any kind of sal­ad you can imag­ine, includ­ing things like slaw and pota­to sal­ad, it could be creamy, or vinai­grette based, and it could be store bought or home­made. All that mat­tered were those tiny black specks that impart­ed seem­ing­ly no fla­vor.