{"id":429,"date":"2010-05-01T14:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T14:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/05\/what-does-natural-taste-like.html"},"modified":"2010-05-01T14:32:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-01T14:32:00","slug":"what-does-natural-taste-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/05\/what-does-natural-taste-like.html","title":{"rendered":"What Does "Natural" Taste Like???"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last Sunday I took both boys to the grocery store.  Dave was working at the train show, so I just took both boys along, which is rare for me.  I typically go during the week when I only need to take, at most, one of the boys.  So it had been a while since I took both Jacob and Timmy.  They weren’t poorly behaved, but I was inundated with “Mommy, can we get X?”…”Mommy, can we get Y?”…”Mommy, can we get Z?”<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Among the items they asked for was Hamburger Helper.  Jacob actually cracked me up during his sales pitch, since he even took the time to mention the Box Top for Education<\/a> at the top of the boxes.  While it isn’t the most nutritious meal out there, I guess it beats a Happy Meal<\/a>, right?   I remember having Hamburger Helper as a kid.  It was okay, but not at the top of my dinner-preparation list.<\/div>\n

Here’s the one I let Jacob choose. Why not? This can be one of our “sometimes foods”<\/a>, right? I had hoped he’d choose one of the more Italian-themed flavors, like the lasagna-style, but this is what he picked. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

If you can’t read the label, the description of the flavor is “Pasta & Naturally Flavored Sauce Mix”. <\/p>\n

What in the world is “Naturally Flavored?”<\/i> Staring at the packaging didn’t give me any insight. It looks like a cheese sauce in the picture, but it turns out it isn’t really. Looking at the ingredients, I didn’t see anything that indicated milk products. Sugar, beef stock and dried onion and garlic jumped out as a hint to the flavor. <\/p>\n

Patricia’s Hypothesis<\/b>: It’s going to be a standard beef gravy with the pasta and beef.<\/i><\/p>\n

So this will be our dinner tonight — I’ll leave a comment this evening and let you know how it turns out. I picked up some 96% lean ground beef, so I know this will be a low-fat meal, at least.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Hamburger Helper, who else remembers the jingle from the 1980s where the slogan was “Hamburger Helper helps the hamburger help HER….” Ha ha! Not “help HIM”….”help HER”.<\/p>\n

Because what man<\/i> would cook this, right?  I found the commercial on You Tube, so enjoy!<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday I took both boys to the grocery store.  Dave was working at the train show, so I just took both boys along, which is rare for me.  I typically go during the week when I only need to take, at most, one of the boys.  So it had been a while since I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[93,95,81,94,91,71],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-6V","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":430,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/05\/hypothesis-successful.html","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":0},"title":"Hypothesis Successful!","date":"02 May 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning I posted about the Hamburger Helper we were planning for dinner. I predicted that our dinner would be a beef-based gravy and it turned out that's exactly what we ended up with.I know I had promised just a comment at the bottom of yesterday's post about the outcome\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cooking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":433,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/05\/homemade-hamburger-helper-its-pretty-good.html","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":1},"title":"Homemade Hamburger Helper – It’s Pretty Good!","date":"08 May 10","format":false,"excerpt":"(Resubmitting to correct photo error)From 2010 05 01 Hamburger HelperSo here it is. \u00a0This is the\u00a0Chili-Cheese Hamburger Helper-like recipe\u00a0that I stole from\u00a0Suzanne McMinn's blog \"Chickens in the Road\". \u00a0About a woman who lives in rural West Virginia.Like I said before, we grownups aren't huge Hamburger Helper fans in the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cooking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":471,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2010\/10\/nebraska-discoveries-9-runza.html","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":2},"title":"Nebraska Discoveries 20: Runza","date":"07 October 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight for dinner, we went out. \u00a0It tends to be a necessity 1-2 times per week in the fall while the boys are in soccer 5-days per week (Jacob 3 days, Timmy 2). \u00a0I do what I can to cook but it's rather aggressive; when I do cook I try\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"food\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/mommy-i-need-you.html","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":3},"title":""MOMMY! I ‘need’ you."","date":"01 January 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Timmy's new mantra. He's my 2-year-old. Starting about a week ago he decided he could say this and I'd pick him up. He'd been on an independent streak until recently -- now he wants to be held all the time and I'm just not into that anymore. He's almost 3\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"parenting\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/01\/cinnamon-rolls-mommy-the-ones-you-bake.html","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":4},"title":"Cinnamon Rolls, Mommy! The ones you BAKE!","date":"03 January 08","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah. The ones I BAKE. You don't know how badly I want to try the cinnamon roll recipe featured here:http:\/\/www.thepioneerwomancooks.com\/2007\/06\/cinammon_rolls_.htmlBut that is NOT what the kids mean. THIS is what they mean:I was at Target today and was looking for the Pillsbury ones, but alas, they were ALL sold out.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cooking\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":235,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2008\/09\/mommy-it-smells-like-a-zoo.html","url_meta":{"origin":429,"position":5},"title":""Mommy, It Smells Like a Zoo"","date":"05 September 08","format":false,"excerpt":"This is what Jacob greeted me with this morning. At least he said \"Good Morning\" first.No, my house isn't that filthy! As you'll remember from my Pros and Cons posting at the end of last month, our neighborhood sits just north of a large cattle farm. When the wind is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}