10 foods you used to eat like there was no tomorrow as a teenager

Did teenage-you ever imagine that you’d eat an ultra-healthy salad at work every day? With ten types of vegetables, a low-calorie dressing and fat-free nuts in it? Of course not! They’d laugh at you, with a frikandel roll in one hand and a can of Red Bull in the other. Today we’re taking a trip down memory lane, back to the good old days of being a teenager. We used to eat ourselves silly on these 10 things as teenagers. You too?

When I was a teenager, I went through life like a dumpster. Like a bottomless trash can. Where I put it all, I have no idea. I didn’t have a bottom for nothing. But I do know that all those steamed buns, microwave hamburgers and school biscuits would now stick everywhere. If I could turn back time…

Microwave hamburgers

Once upon a time, in the distant past, I played field hockey at a reasonably high level. But don’t think for a moment that I considered the impact my diet had on that. Yes, I ate plates of (dry) pasta, because I was addicted to it (correction: am). And besides that? Microwave hamburgers from Lidl. Those limp, tasteless buns with dry, grainy meat and a separate sachet of sickly sweet ketchup that you squirted all over them. That’s what I trained on. Where has the time gone when you could eat 5 microwave hamburgers a week and still be as lean as a rake?

Steamed buns

After training, I was of course hungry again straight away. Hello, I was 16: my teenage digestion worked faster than light. I’d never heard of protein. No, instead I replenished my energy reserves with steamed buns. Nice and easy, and nice and squishy too. Yes, that was the ideal after work-out meal for me.

Frikandel rolls (with energy drink)

This one is an open goal. Anyone thinking back to secondary school can easily name 10 people who routinely had a frikandel roll and a ‘can of energy drink’ with them. Cheap, greasy and sweet, and it gave you the energy to make it through the final lessons of the day. I also hear stories about cold croquette rolls. I’ll be honest: when I have a hangover, the croquette roll from Appie is still the only thing I can stomach.

Pre-packaged sausage rolls

The very best sausage rolls come from the bakery around the corner. But as a teenager who loved sausage rolls, you could get a much better deal. At the supermarket, you could buy a multipack of 4 for less money. More food and less money spent? That sounds like the ideal teenage motto. Let’s just forget for a moment that these things were often incredibly dry. And full of additives. If I’m honest, I now walk around them in a wide arc. Except for the sausage rolls from Lidl. For those, just like FavorFlav’s Sabina, I’ll even take an extra lap around the block.

Cocoa cakes (from Lidl)

More former teenagers MUST know these. There simply have to be loads of households where packs of these cocoa cakes disappeared in bulk. It’s a light cake with a kind of chocolate cream inside, covered in a generous layer of chocolate. I secretly stuffed whole packs of them into my schoolbag. Whether it was the short break or the eighth period, these cocoa cakes from Lidl always went down a treat.

Toasted sandwiches

‘Lots and lots of toasted sandwiches!’ cries one of my lovely friends when I ask her to dig up teenage food memories. ‘We’d secretly plug the sandwich maker in somewhere in a corridor or room at school.’ A truly wonderful teenage memory. Toasted sandwiches are still for the win. As hangover food, an office lunch or girl dinner, the toasted sandwich never disappoints. Not when you came home with a terrible grade in chemistry, and not now when you come out of that meeting with colleagues completely overstimulated.

Everything from the school canteen (from Crackles to Liège waffles)

I think—and hope—I’ve just unlocked a core memory for a lot of people. Do you remember Crackles? Those bright pink, long, chewy candy sticks filled with some kind of powder? We ate kilos of them. A break without a Crackle was a break wasted. The same went for Liège waffles. No whipped cream or sauce, just a warm sugar waffle handed to you in a canteen lady’s napkin. Really, everything from the school canteen was good. Even if only because everything in the display case cost less than 2 euros.

French-fry crisps (or potato crisps)

Speaking of cheap snacks. During our teenage years, those little bags of French-fry crisps (or potato crisps, for those from north of the rivers) were impossible to keep stocked. They cost next to nothing and, in your mind, there was a generous amount in each bag. They were also super crunchy, incredibly salty and seriously moreish. Exactly what you want in a bag of crisps. These days I find them a bit hidden away in the crisp aisle at the supermarket. Shouldn’t we give this eternal secondary-school love a little more credit?

School biscuits

As a teenager, I never wanted to go grocery shopping with my mother. Because: boring and embarrassing (what if you ran into your crush from the village?!). Unless I was allowed to choose the school biscuits. Then I’d be ready to go immediately. From disco biscuits to Prince Mini Stars, I’d throw packs of them into the shopping cart. The next day I could go back to the store, because I’d shamelessly demolished those biscuits at lightning speed. By now, I haven’t eaten biscuits like that in years. Why not, actually? I could happily sit at the office with a Plopkoek in my hand. My colleague Sharon empties her soy sauce dish in a fully Japanese restaurant—I’m just saying. No shame here at the office when it comes to food.

A whole lot of sandwiches

When I ask the men around me about their favorite teenage food, I very often get the answer: sandwiches. A. Whole. Lot. Of. Sandwiches. With peanut butter, with cheese, with sprinkles or chocolate spread, whole loaves disappeared every week. Sometimes even one whole loaf a day. Per teenager.

Can’t get enough of this trip through time? I also have a list for you of meals you definitely ate a lot as a student. It undoubtedly contains plenty of ‘oh yeah’ moments too.

Read also:

• 6 tips for getting more out of your waffle iron!
• A frankfurter toasted sandwich is absolutely delicious, and this is the proof
• Tested: this is the tastiest frikandel roll from the supermarket (and the nastiest)

Images: Lidl, Jumbo, Albert Heijn