The 90's and early 2000's were a great time to be alive. We had iconic movies (looking at you, Leo and Kate), epic dance moves, and of course, the best snacks. Those were the days when we still knocked on our neighbor's door to get our friends to come out and play. Nobody was arguing over avocado toast, and it was still socially acceptable to eat marshmallows and milk for breakfast. Get ready to feel hungry and nostalgic because here are ten foods of your Childhood that you probably haven't thought of for a while — until now.
French Toast Crunch
Oh, I remember it like it was yesterday — rolling out of bed on Saturday mornings to cartoons (Inspector Gadget, to be precise) and a bowl of the legendary French Toast Crunch.
Eating this as a kid, I had no idea the true delicacy of the meal in front of me.
The little toast-shaped maple-flavored bites of deliciousness were a staple of my childhood happiness. Since then, nothing has ever filled the hole in my heart where French Toast Crunch used to be.
This one has a happy ending though. After the popularity of a Facebook group devoted to the cereal went viral, General Mills did something we never thought we'd live to see — they brought back the much-loved French Toast Crunch! This happened in 2014, and although it is not sold in all stores, it isn't that hard to find a box of the maple-y good stuff.
Oreo O's
There are fewer things in this life that are worse than finishing a sleeve of Oreos and knowing it's time to stop (since the serving size is just three).
Why this cereal was discontinued in 2007 is one of the world's finest mysteries, because not only was it extremely tasty, it was like having candy for breakfast! In this new age of avocado toast and kale omelets, I'm not sure how this cereal would do on the shelves, but I know that I would buy it and that's all that really matters.
The Pillsbury-Doughboy lookalike mascot for the cereal was like Caspar the ghost but more relatable because he was chubby, wore sunglasses, and loved Oreos. My cream induced guilt was less present when I could justify it since it was a breakfast cereal. You need fuel for the day, right? Yeah, of course! Health all the way.
Planters Cheese Balls
Life got a little less cheesy in 2006. Yes, you can buy big fat cheesies that essentially taste the same, but as we all can agree, the original Cheese Balls were just incomparable (that's what she said?). Easy to eat and fun to carry, you'd just toss back a handful of Cheese Balls like it was nobody's business.
A cheesiness that would make even The Bachelor jealous, these Cheese Balls have been extinct since 2006. Thus, permanently leaving the absence of the stain on our fingers and, instead, a stain on our hearts.
Dunkaroos
Want to explore the land down under? No need! Dunkaroos were the go-to lunchbox snack that were devoured by children all over the world. Cookies that you put in frosting, sounds simple, right?
In theory, you could do this with any regular cookies and frosting, but it just wouldn't be the same.
However, my biggest problem in life, at this age, was that I couldn't take a lot of frosting first dunk because then I'd have nothing left for the other ones. Nobody wants a dry cookie. The struggle was real!
Fruit Gushers
These were my special treat. I would do good on my report card, and my mom would buy a box of gushers. The juicy goodness that was gushers was more of a novelty than anything. Essentially, just an outer layer of plastic gelatin that gushed flavors out of the middle, these were all the rage during my childhood. They all stuck together and there was never enough in the package so they were always gone too soon.
Did they get stuck in your teeth? Yes. Did you care? No.
One thing is for certain though, their commercial was creepy. The people's heads would turn into giant fruit after eating the gushers — how did that marketing work for us? Forever burned into my brain.
Lunchables
Stack. Eat. Repeat. The ultimate lunch. Before the days of DIY TacoTuesdays and Instagram pizza nights, there was the delicacy of the Lunchable. There was pizza, turkey meat (though was it actually meat?), and really questionable hard cheese and crackers. It's hard to believe that we actually ate and loved this lunch as a kid. You'd build the lunch by stacking the cracker with a beef product, top it off with a packet of weird red sauce, and BAM!
A lunch fit for a King. Sometimes, when they came with Oreos (that were bigger than the sandwich itself), it was a real treat.
Bonus points if it came with a mini Capri-sun.
Beefaroni
Aka when your parents had no time to make food. The noodles were thick and the texture was questionable, but the taste of runny tomato sauce was easy to munch on as a kid when the meal choices were limited. Before the days of using Instagram to show off your impressive pasta dish, why not open up a tin of Beefaroni for dinner? At the cost of $2 per can, it was a Tuesday night staple, and I wasn't mad about it.
In the tin = trash. In the bowl = Italian delicacy.
Push Pops
Not only were Push pops delicious, they also kept you entertained the whole time you were eating it.
It's like a lollipop, but better and cooler. The flavors weren't actually that great, but it was fun and that's all that really mattered. The downside was that you could never fully push it all the way up, so it was never fully finished. What a waste of melted plastic candy.
Oh, and the special ones with three flavors?... SO cool.
3D Doritos
Before Avatar, there was another 3D thing rocking our worlds. Extinct in 2005, our worlds have been flat and boring since their sad demise. For some reason, they never really tasted the same as normal Doritos, but we didn't care. The satisfying crunch you'd get after chomping down on one of these bad boys was worth all of the questionable taste. With dust all over our fingers, these chips were easy to dunk and more fun to eat.
EZ Squirt Ketchup
Our parents always taught us not to play with our food, so what was this company thinking when turning our ketchup purple and green? At first, this was new and exciting. "Hey look mom! My fries have purple goo all over them!"
As children, we were clearly easily amused. But you can see why this came to a quick halt after the initial cool-factor wore off.
It's been gone since 2006 and for good reason. Ain't nobody got time for a hamburger patty that looks like someone just sneezed on it!
