Fast Foods

Fast Foods, Then and Now As a child growing up in a Filipino home and a military father who was over seas a lot, my mother made home cooked meals. She preferred to cook at home rather then take seven children out for a fast food meal. She was raised in the old ways, so the great portion of the time, my siblings and I ate a lot of Filipino food. My mother loved to cook and she always cooked for an army, although having seven children was pretty much an army for her. So she had to cook meals that would be enough to feed all of my siblings and me, as well as having enough left over for the next day. Fast food was considered as a treat, which my siblings and I received very seldom. Once in awhile my mother felt like having a special family time and she would go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and purchase two bucket of original chicken, biscuits with honey and two large containers of mash potatoes with gravy and some corn on the cob. The whole family would eat dinner in the living room and watch a movie of her choosing. When she would treat us to KFC, it was a very special bonding time for all of us. It is the kind of memories that put a smile on a face and stay for a long time. Now that I am older and my children are grown and have families of their own, my husband and I depend on fast food. My husband and I live with our daughter and son-in-law and two grandchildren and our entire schedule are different hours. My husband works from seven to five and me and my daughter and son-in-law attend school. Because of all our busy and odd hours, I help take care of the grandchildren. Being able to cook dinner is not always an option, so we rely on fast food or buy TV dinners. My husband is very picky of what type of food he eats, so we end up eating from El Burrito for a carne asada burrito or we get a hamburger from Carl’s Jr and a kid’s meal for our granddaughter. Our grandson is only one year old so we have to get something that is still soft enough for him to eat and my daughter and son-in-law usually takes care of their meal when they come home. We do try to have a home cook meal as a family at least once or twice a week; I would cook meatloaf or Bar-B-Q a tri-tip. But because everyone’s taste in food is different, like my daughter is on a diet and our schedule to eat are all different times, my husband and I rely on fast food. Cooking for my family use to be a wonderful and normal routine and I would eventually like to get back to cooking at home again, because I miss cooking in the kitchen and financially it would be better.