Pork chops, instant mashed potatoes, canned peas.

NEWYORKER: Amundsen

Pork chops, instant mashed potatoes, corn niblets instead of peas.

NEWYORKER: Amundsen

Around our house, when not infected by the Birdseye plague, real food often meant chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and cream gravy, sugar peas, field peas, black-eyed peas, lima beans, green beans, all greens, ambrosia, okra, corn, tomato aspic, squash casseroles, pot roast, fried fish, chicken and dumplings, hot rolls, biscuits, cornbread, cakes, pies, fudge, divinity and Mama's homemade vegetable soup, which was world famous in our family.

NPR: Linda Ellerbee, Taking 'Big Bites'

Stop yourself and focus on the fact that you chose salmon and peas for dinner and ate two helpings of mashed potatoes -- compared with the cheeseburger and French fries you would have eaten two years ago.

CNN: Tired of slights, embarrassment, man sheds 87 pounds