when i was a kid...

no, i didn't have to walk to school in the snow, with or without shoes. today i was thinking of my personal "kid foods," foods i ate, and adored, as a kid. before i give the list i must give one caveat: my mom was mother nature before mother nature went mainstream. like, we had carob as a chocolate surrogate ("it tastes just as good as chocolate, girls!") for the record it does NOT taste just as good as chocolate. it's okay, it's just not chocolatey.

okay, so junk food was not served in abundance at my house. in fact, the one time i could count on any sort of junky food at all was the last day of school before summer break. for the morning of the last day of school, you see, found my sister and i eating our choice of sugary cereal. prior to that morning we had made our yearly pilgrimage to Lopez Village Market and had picked out any cereal we wanted. each of us got our own box. and that was it. when it was gone, it was gone for the year (are you starting to see my mom's genius? not only try to convince your kids that health foods are sugary foods, but only provide sugary foods once a year so that when the inevitable whines of "we NEVER have sugar cereal" came pouring out of our mouths she could say, "oh yes we do; for the "last day of school.").

somehow, we did manage to sneak in junk food. i don't really know how. maybe when we went to friends' homes and their cheese was velveeta. or when their lunch meat was like the "meat" you get in a oscar meyer weiner (ours, on the other hand, came from an animal). or when dad took us to the grocery store to "shop".

however i came by them, i did grow to love some junk foods. here is my top 10 list:

10. fruit loops cereal
9. swanson fried chicken t.v dinner (with the fruit pie dessert)
8. swanson chicken pot pie
7. kentucky fried chicken original recipe
6. hostess pies (especially chocolate)
5. cheetos--crunchy not puffy
4. butterfinger candy bars
3. pop rocks (any flavor)
2. twinkies
1. ding dongs

what's on your list?