Forgotten ’80s Foods For Some Serious Nostalgia

Since cheerios are still around, you can try this one at home – if you dare. The recipe calls for three simple ingredients, Cheerios, butter, and a dash of salt. For some reason, people in the ’80s enjoyed eating regular Cheerios, coated in butter.

They didn’t even choose the sugar or honey-flavored cereal, they recommended the regular kind. This recipe was so big in the ’80s it even got its own ad – some people ate fried Cheerios instead of popcorn. We’re not judging…

As if adding fruit to gelatin wasn’t enough, they had to go and add walnuts. We’re not sure exactly what thought process went into this strange creation, but our best bet is that someone’s mom was nagging them about protein deficiencies, so they decided to throw walnuts into Jell-O and call it a day randomly.

To make this ad a little more appealing to the people, they added whipped cream to the top of this giggly dessert – to be honest, it’s working.

MicoMagic products first appeared in the frozen food sections of supermarkets in the ’80s. The company sold hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, french fries, and milkshakes. The perfect meal, right? Microwaving a milkshake sounds like an oxymoron yet lo and behold, it was a thing.

Let us help you jog your memory – it was a cup of ice cream that you put in the microwave to partially melt it. We don’t know about you, but our fondest memory of these milkshakes was dipping fries into the chocolate flavored ones.

Hubba Bubba gum has always been an all-time favorite. Our mouths are watering up just thinking about the sweet, fluffy chewing-gum. By some miracle, Hubba Bubba managed to make a soda that was even sweeter than the chewing gum itself. No drink should ever be that pink, it was almost radioactive.

We’d love to see the dental records of every person that indulged in this drink back in the ’80s. Our parents never let us drank this, so we’re going to take this opportunity to thank them – here’s to you, mom and dad!

What is better than one Push Pop? The answer is pretty obvious – three Push Pops, a “triple power” Push Pop if we’re exact. Back in 1986, there was a version of this hard candy that offered three different flavors at the same time.

For the kid that still lives in us, this is simply heaven on earth. Our adult selves, on the other hand, it’s a little more complicated – we get an instant sugar rush just at the thought of this snack.

Yes, it was all the rage in the ’80s, but that doesn’t make this pink dessert look any less toxic than it probably tasted. A raspberry Halo Mold does not seem like a dessert; we would be happy for our dinner guests to bring.

This dessert combines fruit gelatin, bits of frozen raspberries, marshmallows mixed in with angel food cake. Success does come easy, so maybe the fact that this seems like a complicated recipe means something?

At first glance, this cake looks like a winner, a sponge cake with frosting and sliced almonds is something we would indulge in any day. But as we know, the ’80s wouldn’t be the ’80s without an extra twist to anything good.

They added Cream Sherry to this cake, making it off-limits for kids as well as clumps of almonds that run through the entire cake. It’s a bit much if you ask us, but hey, if someone is willing to bake this cake, we’re willing to eat it.

Condensed milk and fruit is something we would never say in the same sentence, yet here we are. The way they arranged these fruit and milk cups makes it seem like they put in more of an effort into making this dessert than was realistically put in.

Let’s be honest, this is about as basic as it gets. It looks like they were going for a classic parfait, but totally forgot they were supposed to add granola and nuts.

This 1983 cereal was described on the box as a “fruity sweetened corn, oat & wheat cereal fortified with ten essential vitamins and minerals.” Considering The Smurfs were huge in the ’80s, it’s no surprise there was a cereal that was based on the popular cartoon.

These we fun to eat with milk but were also a nice snack. In 1987, Post produced a second Smurfs cereal called Smurf Magic Berries, which contained marshmallows.

Easy Cheese is the trademark for a processed cheese that is packaged in a metal can. The cheese is extruded through a flexible nozzle and, although we are not proud to admit this, it is one of our favorite snacks. Yes – we are those kinds of people, the spray-cheese loving straight from the can kind of people.

Nabisco marketed the cheese under the name Snack Mate until 1984 and was merchandised as “instant cheese for instant parties.”

It took us a moment to understand exactly what ad we were looking at, but then it hit us, Jolly Ranchers! Jolly Rancher’s original flavors were watermelon, apple, and Fire Stix.

In the ’80s, ads for the hard candy featured an illustration of a young girl – they advertised the sweet by boasting it lasts for 23 minutes and only costs 10 cents, calling it a bargain. We’re happy Jolly Ranchers is still around, it was one of our favorites and will probably remain one of our favorites for as long as it exists.

Lactose intolerant friends, this one is definitely not for you. Cool Whip and yogurt together do not sound appetizing at all, but apparently, a pie made of both was all the rage in the ’80s. The crust that holds this “international sensation” together actually looks pretty delicious.

The marketing for this pie was exquisite, they managed to make a less than appetizing pie look half eatable. Would you ever consider making this? Or even better, would you ever consider eating this – the ingredients are still around.

You may have had spumoni on a luxurious vacation to Italy, the dessert consists of molded gelato made with different colors and flavors, usually containing nuts and candied fruits. This cake is the last thing we picture when we think about the Italian treat.

We understand the inspiration behind this cake, and in theory, it could work, it’s just we would never trust a “cake” wrapped in egg custard. The most appealing aspect of this cake is the strawberry rose on top of it.

Potato chips are delicious, and everything – but have you ever had potato skins? We have, and let us say that it’s hard to go back to eating regular chips once you’ve tasted this real slice of heaven.

Keebler understood the concept of potatoes, one side was dark, and the other was light – like a real potato. They had flavors that one could only dream of – steak and potatoes and cheese n’ bacon.

These brownies look the kind of brownies we love – the brownie to chocolate frosting ratio is exact, and it looks like there is the perfect amount of walnuts in each slice. The only problem we have with what is going on in this ad, is the ad itself.

The 1980s appreciated a good chocolate dessert – it’s just they may have enjoyed it a little too much. The wording in this add is just a little too moist for us – we cringe at the word every time we say it.

Fat Frogs bring us back to summer in the ’80s, when we would spend summers swimming in the YMCA’s pool and then run after the ice cream truck man hoping to catch him before he drove away.

Fat Frogs had a delightful artificial flavor, and yet is a flavor we give anything to get back. They were the perfect popsicle, there was a chocolate layer in the back, and the frog had gumball eyes, what more do you need?

You may recognize seven-layer dip as a Super Bowl party food – what you may not know is that it wasn’t popularized until the 1980s when Tex Mex became an inspiration for many American favorites. Over time the recipe has varied.

Many chefs and cooks at home put their own spin on it, but generally, the recipe includes refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, grated cheddar cheese, black olives, and either sliced lettuce, jalapeños or green onions. We’re licking our lips just thinking about it.

In 1981, General Mills received the first patent for a microwave popcorn bag, but it took a couple of years before the product was released. Popcorn from a popcorn maker was still the most popular to make the favorite snack in households across the United States.

This kitchen gadget performed one function only – popping popcorn into a bowl. The part we love most about this ad is the fact that they pointed out that it was available in Canada. Although we love bagged popcorn, we kind of miss this appliance – the popcorn always came out perfectly.

If you were ever at one of your parents’ house parties back in the ’80s, you probably remember this perfect pair. Bread bowls filled with creamy spinach dips were a guarantee at almost every dinner party. The savory dish was made out of hallowing out a loaf of bread and filling it with this mayonnaise-based dip.

Hosts were sure not to waste any bread they would slice the remaining bread into cubes and use them for dipping.

Comfort foods such as Rice-O-Roni and Hamburger Helper were big in the ’80s – Sloppy Joes became popular then as well. Kids could not get enough of the meaty sandwich, and neither could we, probably because it was fun making such a big mess while eating.

A mixture of ground beef, onions tomato sauce on a hamburger bun is all it took to perfect this delicious sandwich. Growing up in the ’80s meant you could heat a can of Manwich to avoid any cooking.

The 1980s were all about consuming quick-fix foods. Among those foods, there were freezer cakes made by brands like Sara Lee. These cakes were already baked, fully-ices that came in boxes found in the freezer aisles of grocery stores.

The fun part about these cakes is that you didn’t need to defrost them before eating the cakes, the ingredients managed to stay ice-hard yet spongy. Although Sara Lee’s cakes went down in popularity, freezer cakes are still going strong.

Many people seem to forget that in the early ’80s, Nabisco made the absolute best crackers. They had a viral commercial featuring a Dixieland that sang a very catchy theme song. They were chicken flavored and shaped to look like miniature drumsticks.

It’s interesting because Nabsico also had Chicken In A Biscuit crackers that were similarly flavored. Fun fact! The snacks are still available in Australia. If they could get our hands on a box, we would eat the whole thing now.

Squeezits were first introduced to kids in the 1980s, though their popularity grew in the ’90s. Squeezits were juices that came in a bottle that you had to squeeze. Instead of the standard juice box, this juice came in a plastic bottle with character faces molded onto the side of them.

Each flavor had a playful name, such as Chucklin’ Cherry and Grumpy Grape. People love playing with their food, so it makes sense that the juice had the tagline: “squeeze the fun out of it.”

Of all the ’80s snacks and candies that are still available for purchase today, Big League Chew has got to be favorites. The chewing gum was invented by a professional pitcher as a healthy alternative to chewing tobacco and hit the markets in 1980.

Strands of chewing gum came in a cool, unique pouch and had a cartoony design that took off like wildfire. It really was something special and remains to be because it has been selling strong in the 40 years since its release.

The creators of Five Alive were going to prove their worth no matter what, they were not going down without a fight. They added a whole new level to the game, instead of selling one type of juice, they combined five different fruits at once.

We can’t see the logic behind this tactical move – combining so many flavors into one juice, but they went ahead and did it. We’ve never had this specific juice, but we’re sure whoever has got all the vitamin C one could need.

If you love Oreos half as much as we do, this next one is for you! The Big Stuf Oreo was introduced in 1984 and sold individually or in boxes of ten. This monster Oreo was about ten times the size of a regular Oreo – or at least that’s how it felt. Each Oreo came out to be 316 calories.

Although the idea was golden, one big Oreo was too much for a kid to eat in one sitting or dunk into a glass of milk. Unfortunately, the mega cookie was discontinued in 1991.

A spin-off of Fruit Roll-Ups, Fruit Wrinkles were small fruit snacks that looked somewhat like wrinkled up fruit. They were introduced in 1986 and were purchasable in four flavors: cherry, lemon, orange, and strawberry. The fruit snack would come in small packets, and you’d tear off the end and eat the little fruit snacks out of your hand or out of the bag.

These snacks were around for what felt like longer than they actually were. Even though many fruit snacks resemble this one, nothing can replace this delicious snack.

There are only a small number of ’80s items that we wish were left in the past – Slice Cola is one of them. There was Orange Slice, Lemon Lime Slice, Apple Slice, and last but not least, Cherry Cola Slice. This soda variation was undrinkable, to say the least.

The most ironic part about the Slice ad is that they boasted about beating Cherry Coke in a taste test – which is funny because Cherry Cola Slice was discontinued in 1988 due to the rave over Cherry Pepsi.

Ralston introduced three Ghostbusters themed cereals over a few years back in the 1980s. Interestingly enough, all three kinds of cereal were the same cereals repackaged. The three variations: Ghost Busters, The Real Ghost Busters, and Slimer! And The Real Ghostbusters was a four-grain cereal that came in a bigger box and was fruit-flavored.

Kids loved it back in the ’80s, and we’re sure it would be a big hit if it were still around.

Introduced in the late ’80s, Bar None were milk chocolate flavored wafers filled with chocolate cream – yes, they were delicious. They were covered in crushed peanuts and then covered with a coating of milk chocolate.

They were absolutely perfect until Hershey’s added caramel into the recipe and split them up into two bars, somewhat like a Twix candy bar. Less than ten years later they disappeared, but rumor has it you can still find them in Mexico!