“What Did You Grow Up Eating All The Time But Now Haven’t Had In Years?” (30 Answers)
Interview
Growing up, home-cooked meals were few and far between in my household. Not because my parents were incapable of cooking, but simply because the value of a meal made from scratch was completely lost on my brothers and I. Why spend hours chopping fresh veggies and baking extravagant casseroles if we were perfectly content eating frozen peas, boxed mashed potatoes and rolls that came from a can?
Redditors have recently been discussing the foods that they ate growing up but rarely or never have today, so we’ve gathered some of their “nostalgia meals" down below. From foods that only a kid’s palate would enjoy to things people ate solely because their parents made them, enjoy scrolling through these delicacies that might transport you back to childhood. And keep reading to find conversations with the person who started this thread and Madison of Inherited Recipes!
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Sliced tomato sandwich. We ate them on white butter crust bread. Mayo, salt and pepper.
To find out how this discussion started in the first place, we reached out to Reddit user MinkSableSeven, who posed the question, “What did you grow up eating all the time but now haven’t had in years?” She shared that her inspiration for starting the thread was realizing how mundane her diet had gotten.
"I eat the same few items over and over again, year after year. I knew I couldn’t be the only one experiencing this, so I headed to Reddit to ask," she told Bored Panda.
In her post, MinkSableSeven mentioned that her mother often prepared tripe, liver and kidneys while they were young, but we were curious if she actually enjoyed these meals. "I didn’t always appreciate these foods growing up, especially when I was old enough to learn what parts of the animals these foods came from," she admitted. "However, I notice specifically that I was rarely sick growing up. We ate very little processed foods. We frequently had fresh vegetables with meals; collard greens, cabbage, turnips, beets. Foods I rarely eat today."
We also asked MinkSableSeven how different her diet is from how her parents ate. "There’s definitely a generational aspect that plays into the foods I grew up on," she shared. "For instance, growing up I always had oxtails. Almost every other week there’d be a pot simmering on the stove and I couldn’t wait for dinnertime. Back then, oxtails were considered poor folks food. Now it’s like oxtails have become gentrified. I used to purchase 10 pounds at a time (because most of it is bone) and have leftovers. Now when I purchase them, I get maybe 5 pounds at the most. They’re $12 a pound where I live."
"Ironically, I saw a TikTok several months ago where someone was showing how she prepared them," MinkSableSeven continued. "I noticed the packaging, took a screenshot and zoomed in. They were $5.99 a pound. I messaged her to ask where she was getting them so cheap, and she told me she lived in Texas near a farm where she could get them super fresh and inexpensive. I was so jealous. Still am. If I could get them that cheap, they’d make more appearances on my dinner plates."
Fish sticks used to be a lot more common. Think it was an easy no stress way to get me to eat dinner.
As far as what the OP thought of the replies to her post, she wasn't surprised that the topic resonated with so many people. "But many of the comments inspired me to start a little list of recipes I want to look for and add to my meal rotation," she noted. "Like many people mentioned casseroles. That’s a word you almost don’t hear any more."
"The answers really are like a walk down memory lane with people sharing their affections for the days of fish sticks, Hamburger Helper (before it changed; today it doesn’t taste half as good), pot roast, Swanson’s TV dinners, meatloaf and Jell-O," MinkSableSeven says. "Some of these I don’t miss, but again, I’ve been inspired by many of the comments to refresh my collection of recipes with some new iterations of meals I loved growing up."
Meatloaf. My mom was an awful cook, and meatloaf is generally awful, but for some reason my mom's meatloaf was amazing. I can make every other dish she actually made well (there weren't many lol), but I have no idea how she made the amazing meatloaf. I should actually have another go at recreating it, I miss my mom and her meatloaf.
finely chopped onions or challots, some chives, pepper and salt, egg, and spices of your liking... cannot go wrong.
Baked beans with cut up hot dogs. I always looked forward to this meal as a kid, but my mom recently admitted that she only made it when she barely had any money.
To learn more about recipes that might cause a flood of nostalgia, we also got in touch with Madison of Inherited Recipes. Madison started her blog as way to work through all of the recipes her grandmother gave her, including some from her personal life and others that she prepared as a professional chef. Madison was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda about these delicious recipes and how they can transport some people back to the past.
"I find many of the recipes on my blog are filled with nostalgia. Not necessarily for me, but I get many messages about how these recipes are from people's childhood!" she explained. "Which makes sense, all of the recipes I post are those that I inherited from my grandma. She had 5 sons, and cooked and baked every day."
"As for me, it is my first time making and trying a lot of these recipes, but I love that researching them and baking them myself does bring nostalgia knowing that these were recipes made many years ago by my grandma does bring me a lot of joy! And I love trying new things, so it is the best of both worlds," Madison added.
Stuffed cabbage rolls; every Eastern European country has a version of this dish.
Sloppy joes.
Reminds me of the song Adam Sandler sang on SNL back in the day...Lunch lady land. The chorus was " sloppy Joe's, slop slop sloppy joes" with Chris Farley dancing as the school lunch lady. Lol. Ahhh. Good times.
We were also curious which foods make Madison feel nostalgic. "I ate a lot of chocolate Pop-Tarts as a kid!" she shared. "I would eat chocolate Pop-Tarts and some apple sauce. I really don't eat them at all any more, except for when I was pregnant, and I had a mega craving for them!"
Another recipe that reminds Madison of childhood is just a simple chocolate chip cookie. "It was one of the recipes I baked all on my own. My mom let me do it by myself, and I still use the same recipe!"
Coke float. Can of Coke in a glass, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Frozen TV Dinners in foil: Hungry Man, Banquet etc.
For those of you born after maybe 1980, this was before microwaves. A foil tray, usually with three compartments: like Salisbury steak for the main dish, something like corn and carrots in the side, and a brownie for desert. They took like half an hour to reheat. There was a fried chicken dinner that had an apple cobbler. I can still smell it. No microwave Hungry Man dinner can match it.
They went spectacularly well on TV trays: folding trays you could set in front of you so you could eat while watching TV from a sofa or recliner. Before the VCR, you either watched Candid Camera when it aired at 9pm, or you missed it.
I remember the foil on the TV dinners back in the 70s ! That foil was heavy and thick and you could cut your little fingers on it the wrong way.
"Another recipe that reminds me of my childhood are sour cream cut-out cookies," Madison continued. "These are the cookies we would make every year for Santa, and I just remember having the best time baking them, cutting them out, and then having to wait for what felt like so long for them to cool down so we could frost them! I would use so many sprinkles and made some wild-looking cookies, but we would always eat them. I am looking forward to making them with my daughter!"
Chef Boyardee. I purchased some of the ravioli in a can recently. I tried it and was really surprised at how disgusting it was. I remember it fondly from childhood.
Our tastebuds are constantly changing and evolving, after all. I used to love marshmallows, thought my mom was a tiny bit crazy when she said they were way too sweet for her; you all can probably guess that I agree with her now. The fun part of getting older is finding foods you didn’t like before and do like now (never thought I’d go crazy over stuffed peppers or enjoy sour cabbage).
When growing up didn't like dressing for Thanksgiving. Didn't know if it was how my mom made it, but I domlike StovecTop dressingnow.
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same! not chef boyardee but my countries equivalent. tinned ravioli where such a treat in my childhood, and now they are just tasteless mush :(
When I was pregnant with my first child, I craved canned Spaghetti-O's!
My mother once served Chef Boyardee to my girlfriend and I when we were visiting. As soon as we got back home, my girlfriend made some marinara sauce from scratch to "show me what real spaghetti sauce was!" It was delicious, but my mother loved me far longer than she did.
I'm with you, still perfect to have on hand for "just some food"...
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It's so sweet now! Can't stand it. Why do we have to add sugar to everything?!?!?
I agree, I could swear it was much better in the 60' s ans 70's... had some recently.... yuuuuck
I seem to recall that they reduced the sodium in their recipes sometime around 2009.
Agreed. I used to exist on this stuff when I was a kid, but now I find it revolting.
Agreed. I used to exist on this stuff as a kid, but now I find it revolting.
A lot of canned foods have had to reduce their salt content due to food laws (UK/EU, at any rate) Heinz spaghetti doesn't taste the same any more.
Shepherd's Pie. Always my favourite thing my mum made but I've never bothered to make it.
Cereal. Breakfast almost every day was cereal. Now I can’t stand the stuff.
Also drinking milk with everything.
As an adult, cereal is now a "munchie" when I'm high on cannabis. Nothing better than getting baked and smashing a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and I've always loved milk. Chocolate milk is one of my favorite things in the whole human world.
Madison also shared recommendations of a few recipes that might fill you with nostalgia (as well as deliciousness). "One of my favorite recipes I have come across is my Great-Great-Grandmother's recipe for Chocolate Fudge Cake! She was born in 1900. My grandma's sister gave me this recipe, and she said that this cake would stay moist for 2 whole weeks!"
"The other one that I get a lot of comments on, saying things like that they used to make this, or their mom used to make it, is for Traditional Norwegian Coffee Cake! It is a very simple old recipe that was fun to find in my grandma's collection because she had a note saying 'Bruce's favorite,' who is my dad. He told me that she would make this recipe for his birthday every year, and it is one of the most popular recipes on my blog."
Fried bologna. My dad made a mean fried bologna sandwich with a slice of American cheese on wonder bread with mayo. On special occasions we also got our sandwiches with a fried egg or Lays potato chips added between the layers of bologna.
My dad always tells us about being poor in college and eating a lot of fried Spam. You couldn't pay me to eat that stuff!
Jell-O with canned fruit cocktail inside to make it “healthier”.
I hate that stuff, I’d eat around the fruit when it was served to me at lunch. The texture is so annoying. I don’t mind jello or fruit, but they do not go together.
Poached eggs in buttered toast. It's been 20 years or so.
"Another one of the most popular recipes is for Brown Sugar Frosting," Madison added. "It is very simple to make and was popular back in the day. People say this is what their grandma's used to use!"
"I just love how baking old recipes, and for me specifically going through the recipes from my grandma, gives a connection to the past and can help bring some nostalgia and comfort food to today!" Madison says.
If you'd like to make something that might make you or your parents incredibly nostalgic, be sure to visit Inherited Recipes!
Spaghetti and country crock. God bless my single dad, but I've got tomato sauce money now.
Buttered noodles with some fake parmesan cheese and a dash of Italian herbs was my go to
Taco night with all the white people fixins. Crunchy shells, ground beef, shredded cheddar cheese, lettuce, diced tomato, and miiiiiiiiiild salsa.
Hamburger Helper and other box meals. I bought a box of the cheeseburger one for nostalgia's sake years ago and it tasted like bland chemicals.
This is definitely something that was a common thing in my family. I really loved the beef stroganoff. Tried it again a few years ago and it was just a massive sodium bomb. I was very disappointed.
Lots of casseroles made with canned “cream of” soups.
I can’t do casseroles these days. As a kid, chicken and rice casserole was the best! But now, it just doesn’t hit.
Kraft Dinner (What we call the blue box mac n cheese in Canada) Used to love it as a kid, now I cant stand it and just make my own mac from scratch.
Anything grilled. Hot dogs, hamburgers, hobo baskets (chicken, rice, bell peppers, onion). My dad loved grilling and was very proud of the food he would make. Especially his hamburgers ❤️🩹 I miss him so much. I can’t wait to buy a grill one day.
Ha, gluten. Coeliac disease sucks.
That it does my friend that it does. Have had it since I was 8. Forget what most “normal”things taste like. Luckily gf substitutes are now more common and actually good!
Homemade fried chicken. It was our Sunday dinner every week without fail. I make it like 1-2 times a year at most. I don’t want the grease in my kitchen.
My age can probably be determined accurately by:
* Individually wrapped Kraft cheese slices
* Cottage cheese
* Campbell's cream of X soup
* Swanson's TV dinners
* Pepperidge farm turnovers.
OK my son and I discovered these SPECIFIC slices (pictured) and they are decidedly different than the usual American cheese-maybe a little less plastic, but honestly the best!
My parents are Peranakan and Teochew Chinese but immigrated to the US when I was young. I grew up eating a lot of Singaporean home cooking. Pork and peanut soup, nonya chicken curry, steamed sea bass, fishball soup, tau yu bak, achar, yong tau foo. I didn’t realize how much time some of these things take to make until I moved out. My mom did her best to pass down heritage recipes to me. I miss them a lot and have been trying to cook more Singaporean for my family.
A dish my mom called oven stew. Basically it's ground beef, veggies and potatoes layered and baked in a casserole dish. Sort of a lazy, Americanized shepherd's pie.
It's not too difficult to make, but when I make it, it doesn't seem to come out right, so I've given it up. Every once in a while I'll have my mom make it for a birthday dinner.
Ocean fish. My dad fished for the family and we ate fish 3 times a week. Now I don’t trust the majority of supermarket fish and can’t afford the specialty seafood stores near me. I am glad I spend summers in Maine near enough to get fresh.
A can of Campbell's soup was 'pasta sauce' growing up.
As a child I only had canned soup: tomato, vegetable and cream of chicken of the Campbells variety. I did not like vegetable, and as an adult was surprised soup could be homemade and not out of a can. I even like vegetable soup now. I occasionally still use canned soup as the base in casseroles and slow cooker meals.
I have distinct memories of chopped up hot dogs and easy mac. Getting to be the one who got to scrape the spoon was a huge deal back then.
Aside from that, I think we had an actual stouffers truck occasionally come by and drop of frozen lasagna? I always hated it, but I could be misremembering that one.
We had Schwann's food delivery trucks when I was a kid. They had anything that could be frozen. I loved their pies.
Chipped beef on toast, fried bologna sandwiches and spam in any form. Ate so much of these growing up I can’t even consider it.
Cow tongue. My parents made the most delicious tomato based stew with cubes of tender and meat.
Cow tongues used to be super cheap when I was a kid. I haven't seen cow tongues for sale since I starting buying meat.
I hated tongue. It was just as horrible as liver.
Grew up lower-middle class with parents who weren’t great cooks (at the time), so hot dogs and Kraft dinner were the staples.
Also, soft boiled eggs placed in little holders with the tops broken off. Paired with toast cut into skinny strips to dip into the yolks. Not sure if there is a real name for this, but we called them Dippin’ Eggs.
McDonald's. It was a victory as a kid, but a defeat as an adult.
Bologna sandwiches. Keep that c**p away from me!
Plain grilled cheese sandwiches. Just don't think about having them now, always adding things to make them melts.
I was packed a bologna sandwich on white bread 5 days a week as a kid. I was fine with that, until one day I was eating and suddenly I found it disgusting. That was the last time I touched bologna. (It was some time in the 80's) I think my taste buds finally grew up and were like WTF?? :)
Egg rolls ... but not the kind you would find in a restaurant. Hers were filled with shredded cabbage, ground beef, and cheese. They were good as hell and HUGE.
Canned corned beef hash and Dinty Moore Beef Stew. Yuck.
Have the hash from time to time. I just have to pair it with something like eggs now (I used to practically eat the whole thing by itself - what was I thinking?)
Beef, especially ground beef.
Ground beef was cheap growing up. It was the hurried homemakers answer to everything.
Now it’s something that I consider a treat. Same as lamb, high quality pork, nice offal or game/waterfowl.
Steaks are a rarity.
##Entenmann’s Boston cream pie
I swear it was one of my favorites. Haven’t seen that anywhere in decades. They also have a good **devil’s food cake.**
And **the pound cakes used to be heavy**. Now they’re damn near tiny squares.
My favorite was the raspberry coffee cake with icing. I still see it at the store but haven't eaten it in decades.
Toaster strudel, Lean Cusine
Peanut butter & marshmallow fluff sandwiches.
My mom claims that peanut butter and marshmallow fluff were her favorite sandwich as a kid. Sounds gross to me.
Liverwurst. Ate it on rolls all the time with my German oma, haven’t had it in years.
One of the basics on every proper german breakfast table ^^
Lots and lots of fried fish.
Their hobby was going camping/fishing in the summer. We filled freezers with fillets. We took the chest freezer camping with us! You'd have thought we were subsistence fishermen fishing for our dinner. Get up at 5am, go out in the boat til noon. Come back in, clean the morning's catch. Go back out. Stay on the water til dark. Come in and clean the evening catch. Day in, day out, every day of every "vacation" I was ever dragged on with them.
Salmon patties. My uncle was the cook in the house, and he and I were the only ones out of all of us that enjoyed salmon. So, when no one else was hungry he would make us a couple. They were so delicious but I haven't had them since I moved out at 18. May have to ask him to make it again soon, for old times sake.
My mom was a fantastic cook. Really involved recipes, holidays, breads from scratch whenever she could etc. Her best dishes were Swedish meatballs, arroz con pollo, Cuban black beans that would make an abuelita cry, pastisio, and a surprisingly *amazing* cracked wheat bread.
But she had 2 kids, worked full-time, and became a widowed single parent at one point and time was a crunch.
So sometimes she would buy this frozen turkey block. It was white meat and dark meat sort of "pressed together" into a rounded mound and frozen with turkey gravy in a black tray, you could microwave or bake.
G-d was it delicious. I haven't had it in DECADES, I don't even know what it was called. Add a box of Pasta-Roni and steam some frozen vegetables in the microwave with a dash of Cavenders Greek seasoning and I'm 14 years old again. I loved having a sliced with both the white and dark parts of the processed "block".
My mom made these things called "porcupine meatballs". It was her quick-fix dinner. They were regular beef meatballs but they were made with soy sauce and white rice rolled in. I never learned the recipe and I miss them so much.
Really good cheese and crackers. That was our family Sunday lunch growing up, a bunch of different really nice cheeses and some crackers to spread them on. Now that I live alone and do my own shopping I know that good cheese is really f*****g expensive.
Up at my grandma's, we used to do triscuits, blue cheese, and have pickled herring (wine sauce or sour cream). One cracker with herring, one with blue cheese. so good
Two things:
1) Spinach omelets. My dad used to make with frozen spinach in a box
. That was his entire scope of cooking for a kid. I did get iron and protein, though.
2) Crockpot beef stew. My mom used to set this up in the morning (she got up at about 5) and serve dinner when we were back home. I have a crockpot now, but I can't make a meal the way mom did.
My mom still does crockpot beef stew. In a pot she's had since the 70's. :)
Velveeta grilled cheese sandwiches.
Velveeta is my guilty pleasure. I always grab a couple bricks when I visit home or family comes to see me. My non-American partner tried it when I made shells and cheese (I make mine with onion), fully expecting to laugh and make fun of me…well he loves it now too. Gotta love those chemicals lighting up the pleasure receptors like a Christmas tree 😂
Oh man, My mom would heat up a family sized pack of those cheap, frozen Salisbury steaks with gravy and serve them with instant mashed potatoes. I'd always make a messy sandwich from it all, and be super stoked when she said that's what was cooking. Simpler times.
I refused to eat Salisbury steak because of the gravy. My mom did not understand. She'd say, "But it's just hamburger!" It wasn't. It was hamburger with gravy, which changed the taste and texture. My brother wouldn't eat it, either.
Grits and cream of wheat. I haven't made them in years but they were a common staple when I was growing up.
Kielbasa. My parents cooked it a lot for us growing up but I rarely have it now.
The only thing that comes close are these tillamook zero sugar meat sticks I bought that taste exactly like it, lol.
How come they have 'zero sugar' meat products???? I might have mint jelly with lamb, and apple sauce with pork, but that's the nearest that sugar gets to my meat.
Chef Boyardee pizza! Still would love that!
Sunday lunch every week. The toppings were hamburger and mushrooms. My brother and I hated mushrooms. Every family member had their own section of the pizza, with a few slices extra. Mom would do our sections without mushrooms, but then, every week she'd chop up mushrooms finely enough you couldn't tell what they were, and have me put them on my brother's pizza. It never occurred to me that she was doing the same to my pizza, as I was in the kitchen helping each week. I'd have seen her, right? Wrong.
Crab and lobster. It's a bit cheaper when you can go pluck it out of the ocean for the cost of a tank of air. The stuff, today, that's sold... seems low-flavor and stupid expensive.
We ate skirt steak a lot as a kid because it used to be super cheap.
Kielbasa and sauerkraut. My mom would take a bag of sauerkraut and empty it into a 9x13 pan. Then she would cut up kielbasa and quarter potatoes, cover it with foil, and bake in the oven. I’m a pescatarian now. My husband doesn’t eat cabbage but I’ve found ways to remake some of the food I used to eat like shepherd’s pie, gyros, Chickenless pot pie, tator tot casserole, etc. I’m trying corned beef tomorrow.
Pinto beans and cornbread for dinner. Bologna sandwich for lunch. ALL. THE. TIME!
I'm from Texas and pinto beans and cornbread are a very popular staple there. I still eat it to this day.
Mom used to make lasagna from scratch. She didn't make the noodles, but she'd make the sauce and meat from scratch. It was always so damned good.
Then she discovered Stouffer's lasagna, and we never had it again. Stouffer's is fine, but I want the stuff made with love.
Dad's signature dish was Cream Chipped Beef, or as Granny lovingly called it, Shit On A Shingle. Toast, white gravy, roast beef. It was something.
Not a common dinner anymore... I guess Banquet Table buffet when my folks were feeling lazy
My mom's lasagna from scratch is the best. She makes everything from scratch. Btw, it's not noodles that you put into a lasagna, I don't know the correct term but it's definitely not noodles
She'd make bisquick pancakes and scrambled eggs, breakfast for dinner, but it never made sense to me that pancakes should be sweet (with syrup), so just for me she would microwave up a little bit of spaghettios to go on them. I'm 40ish now, and a professional cook, but still kind of crave this. I might make some this week
Our neighbour used to make gulab jamun with bisquix they were divine. RIP Mrs Selim
My mom's leftovers meal mixed with hamburger which she called "goulash." It is not goulash. I have made goulash 2x. That wasn't it.
Jenni-O Turkey loaf was like a weekly thing at home when i was young...and Hamburger Helper a couple times a week too.
Stuffed Artichokes. My mom would make them for us for lunch sometimes. I don't know how she made them and she passed recently.
Chili rice. Just like it sounds, make some rice, heat up a can of chili, and then mix together and enjoy. I would usually eat it with some sliced white bread or saltine crackers.
My mom used to make enchiladas that called for a can of cream of celery soup. I loved them. They are the blandest, whitest enchiladas, but they taste like childhood. They also contained an entire container of sour cream and a pound of cheddar cheese. I'm not sure I could stomach them now.
When I was a kid, I ate Cream of Wheat for breakfast nearly every day. I’d add a little butter and brown sugar, and sometimes, I’d add cornflakes on top for a little crunch
Beef liver. My grandma knew how to make it very well, and my mom does as well. If you don’t do it right it tastes like dirt. I’ve made a chicken liver pate that was very delicious, but also a lot of work.
Both parents worked full time and didn't know how to cook but to their credit we always had a meal on the table. Haven't had any of these in years but staples included:
-Rice a roni with ground beef
-Hamburger helper
-Oncor veal parmesean patties with egg noodles on the side
-shake and bake pork chops
-some sort of canned Veggie (these should be illegal)
-canned biscuits
-impossible cheeseburger pie
-sloppy Joe's and frozen onion rings or tater tots
-stereotypical white people tacos
-meatloaf and boxed mashed potatoes
I thought I didn't like vegetables because all I ever had growing up was canned or, if it was fresh like a rare zucchini, nuked in the microwave or boiled until it was literally mush. Once I found out veggies can be crisp and seasoned, turns out I love them.
I am a definite fan of Shake and Bake. Mom made it, and when we want something different I use it. Pork, chicken all good
American “goulash” which is just like… spaghetti but with elbow pasta. My parents made it constantly because we were poor lol. That and spam with potatoes.
Shells and white cheddar pasta from a box. Used to be one of my favorites as a kid. Now I'm not even brave enough to try to sample it again, I'll just enjoy the memory.
My mom’s Swiss steak. She kept all of her recipes in her head and only wrote a few down for me when I got married right before she died. Wish I had her recipe!
Sounds like my mom. She frequently just made stuff up off the top of her head. She was an amazing cook. After she passed, my sister and I were going through the collection of recipes and finally figured out that her beloved German potato salad was made up and tweaked through the years. I still can't recreate it.
What was that salad with crunchy chow-mein noodles and canned mandarin oranges? I'm guessing that recipe dates back to the 50's/60's/70's, but I remember people still making it a lot for picnics and potlucks in the 90's. Personally I haven't seen it since then, though.
You can still find it. Matter of fact it was on my hospital menu once ! I think google oriental salad is what they used to call it. And the dressing was some kind of sesame seed, soy sauce, ginger thing. It was pretty good !
Canned chicken chow mien Chinese food that came with a can of crispy fried noodles. I think the brand was Chung King or something like that. This served with rice and tea was exotic
I think I remember the brand was LA Choy and it was in a blue can. Two cans held together. Bottom can was veggies and the smaller top can was your meat and sauce. The chow main noodles were in a blue can with a blue resealable lid. I think I'm aging myself a bit !
Tuna Noodle Casserole - an abomination I'm thrilled to never have plonked down in front of me again. Miss you, mom, you terrible and beloved cook.
Eggo waffles with melted sharp cheddar cheese. It was such a regular breakfast in my family that I didn't realize it wasn't a common meal until I moved into my first apartment. I told my roommate she was welcome to the Eggos and cheese, and she was confused.
Chicken breasts baked in Italian dressing with Pasta Roni. Mom's go-to.
Pork chops.
I know how to cook them correctly now, I just...don't.
Fried okra and fresh strawberries. Store bought strawberries are not the same as off the vine.
Fried okra is so good. Just slice it, dip it in flour and a bit of seasoning and drop it in the oil and bam - crispy as anything!
Rabbit everything burgers to hotdish. Rabbit was in almost all of my meals growing up..
Leftover cold roast meat (pork, chicken and beef) and raw fried potatoes (thin sliced spuds cooked in cast iron until crispy on the bottom).
My mother was a terrible cook and we were also poor, so at least 1 night a week, we had "Chicken a la King." It was canned chicken, cream of mushroom soup and a jar of pimentos. Heat that up and serve it over toasted white bread. I don't think I've had it in 25 years and I'm ok never having it again.
My mother had been a fry cook and so everything we ate when I was a kid was fried.
A full and different dinner every night consisting of an entree, two sides, and a side salad. Honestly, I don’t know how my mom did it. I’m a quick frozen meal kinda gal now and if I cook a full meal once a month I’m exhausted by the effort.
Fried breadcrumbs with noodles and ketchup. Used to love this! Oh, and bread with margarine and a little sugar sprinkled on top.
Nowadays I eat a bit healthier. 😅.
My dad always used to make macaroni with canned tomatoes with some salt and pepper. Cheap, filling, and too no time to prepare. Probably not the most healthy thing, but we didn't really have a ton of money
My mom made a semi-homemade Hamburger Helper when I was growing up using ground beef, green peppers, onions, and Manwich sauce. She'd make a pot of that with macaroni and we'd eat it topped with cheddar cheese. With a side salad. Always a side salad.
Cube steak. I like to refer to it as "meat gum" (it was just so CHEWY).
Canned spinach. My mom would season it with white vinegar, and the stems ("strings") would get caught in my throat.
You couldn't pay me enough to eat either one today.
Cube steak is how they make tough cuts of meat edible. Works well for chicken fried steak.
Biscuits and molasses. Idk if it was a Maine thing but for many meals we would have biscuits as a side dish. We ate them buttered with a smear of molasses. It been at least 30 years since I’ve had it.
Done in Virginia too (both of my parents were from there). Still have them that way.
Creamed Corn. Ham loaf. Sphagettio's (w/ scrambled eggs). I have a really long list.
And the list of things I eat now that never even entered our kitchen as a youth is even longer.
Travel really expands your taste horizons. Age reduces my ability to eat thing that are sweetened. And Ham loaf is just gross.
Kidney beans. My mother loved them. At some point I said I have eaten my last voluntary kidney bean. If some chili has them in there I won't be that fanatical about it, but enough is enough.
Weirdly, I like other types of beans. But those big mushy things are done for me.
Hamburger gravy was white gravy. My mom called it a milk gravy. Back then hamburger was the poor person’s meat.
Now it costs more than steak when the steak is on sale. I paid $5/lb for hamburger the other day and that was at the cheap store. 85/15
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I got through about 10 of these before I decided it was all just about the cheap, processed foods those of us that grew up less fortunate/poor ate when we were children. Yeah, we loved it and ate it because that's what we had and I hope that the moral of the story is that our parents did their best and kept us fed. I'm proud of growing up and becoming a professional chef and knowing how to feed my child, even on a budget because, no, we're not celebrities making millions on the Food Network.
Not always. Some kids just won't eat grown up food. Mine stayed on hotdogs rolled in a flour tortilla for too long. Also his lunch sandwiches on a flour tortilla, PB&J, bologna and cheese, whatever.
Load More Replies...
For my stepkids, it would be "mish-mash"... I tried to make a cottage pie and the potatoes collapsed into the meat and vegetables. I was so frustrated I mixed it up, added ketchup and Sriracha (before it was big), and served it. They asked what the orange gloop with meat and vegetables was and I said "It's mish-mash! Just eat it!" They all took bites and said they liked it and asked me to make it again so it became a staple meal... They are in their 30s now and still occasionally make it at their homes.
Oxtail soup. It used to be my favourite soup from Heinz, but I don't think I've had it in 20+ years.
I used to love oxtail soup, but even just thinking about it now gives me raging heartburn!
Load More Replies...
Perogies. In western Canada, they're everywhere because of all the Ukrainian diaspora (restaurants, supermarkets) and I ate them regularly. I moved abroad 20+ years ago, haven't had them since. Craving doesn't begin to describe it.
I had them last week. The local Ukrainian church near me ( southern Ontario) sells them every Thursday to raise money. They also do cabbage rolls and meat on a stick.
Load More Replies...
I see "White Gravy" referenced several times here, but never heard of it. Is this just like a thinned basic white sauce? In the UK gravy is usually made with the juices from, and served with, a roast meat. Instant versions were popular and often served with such delights as sausages and mash, but it's still fundamentally a brown meat-flavoured runny sauce.
We typically have white gravy (often mixed with breakfast sausage) with biscuits for breakfast (not cookies - biscuits, which are sort of like savory scones) or with mashed potatoes or chicken fried steak, but some people prefer brown gravy with their potatoes.
Load More Replies...
My go-to's in college: great value brand mac n cheese for 65 cents, bags of instant potatoes for a dollar, or ramen for like 12 cents. If I was really hungry I would cook ramen then use the same water to make the instant potatoes and mix them together. Just give me the carbs to give me the energy to make it through school and work. Nothing else. Also in high school I worked 3 mins from home so I'd drive home on lunch and make like 24 pizza rolls in the microwave. Took 1min 10sec for every 6. I had it down to a science. Yes, I have diabetes now lol.
I had extreme allergies as a child so my most common meal (different from the lovely meals my mum prepared for the rest of the family) was a MICROWAVED plain chicken breast, a plain baked potato, and as many green veggies as I could get my hands on. And I LOVED it. I still love that meal, except I cook the chicken like a human and use seasonings and sauces.
Cheesecake in the 70s the one made with lemons and condensed milk oh my goodness. I made it again a few years ago, yes it is fabulous.
Chicken croquettes, fried beef brains, pigs in a blanket.
I ate ketchup sandwiches when I was a kid. Just the thought of it disgusts me.
For me it was Rabbit Crepes back in the 80s. You could buy them at the supermarket, they were crepes that were rolled up and filled with a rabbit filling. They were really tasty. But no one sells rabbit meat anymore - in Australia at least, for many reasons.
My mum's signature dishes were roast lamb, apricot chicken with prunes, and this amazing lasagna with whole canned tomatoes in it for that extra bit of juiciness. I should ask her for the recipe.
Steak-ums or those beef/turkey w gravy in the boil pouches. Both quick to make after school and before job.
They don't include the ingredients in your chicken anymore. My mom used to fry chicken hearts and liver in bread crumbs. I could do without the livers, but the hearts were delicious.
Deer. My grandfather was a butcher, and had equipment of his own at home that he used expressly for butchering deer for local hunters. They paid him, but would also typically be gifted with steaks, roasts and burgers. We had it a lot, and I NEVER liked it. As an adult, I realized I had never seen deer meat in a grocery store. My second realization was that I had never looked for it.
Macaroni with ground beef, canned tomato and onion. We ate that once a week when I was a kid. My grandparents also would make us Cheese Dreams for lunch which was bacon or cut up hotdogs, a slice of cheese and tomato sauce on an English muffin.
boiled egg on a mountain of mashed potatoes and a moat of mustard sauce...you love it or hate it
I got through about 10 of these before I decided it was all just about the cheap, processed foods those of us that grew up less fortunate/poor ate when we were children. Yeah, we loved it and ate it because that's what we had and I hope that the moral of the story is that our parents did their best and kept us fed. I'm proud of growing up and becoming a professional chef and knowing how to feed my child, even on a budget because, no, we're not celebrities making millions on the Food Network.
Not always. Some kids just won't eat grown up food. Mine stayed on hotdogs rolled in a flour tortilla for too long. Also his lunch sandwiches on a flour tortilla, PB&J, bologna and cheese, whatever.
Load More Replies... For my stepkids, it would be "mish-mash"... I tried to make a cottage pie and the potatoes collapsed into the meat and vegetables. I was so frustrated I mixed it up, added ketchup and Sriracha (before it was big), and served it. They asked what the orange gloop with meat and vegetables was and I said "It's mish-mash! Just eat it!" They all took bites and said they liked it and asked me to make it again so it became a staple meal... They are in their 30s now and still occasionally make it at their homes.
Oxtail soup. It used to be my favourite soup from Heinz, but I don't think I've had it in 20+ years.
I used to love oxtail soup, but even just thinking about it now gives me raging heartburn!
Load More Replies... Perogies. In western Canada, they're everywhere because of all the Ukrainian diaspora (restaurants, supermarkets) and I ate them regularly. I moved abroad 20+ years ago, haven't had them since. Craving doesn't begin to describe it.
I had them last week. The local Ukrainian church near me ( southern Ontario) sells them every Thursday to raise money. They also do cabbage rolls and meat on a stick.
Load More Replies... I see "White Gravy" referenced several times here, but never heard of it. Is this just like a thinned basic white sauce? In the UK gravy is usually made with the juices from, and served with, a roast meat. Instant versions were popular and often served with such delights as sausages and mash, but it's still fundamentally a brown meat-flavoured runny sauce.
We typically have white gravy (often mixed with breakfast sausage) with biscuits for breakfast (not cookies - biscuits, which are sort of like savory scones) or with mashed potatoes or chicken fried steak, but some people prefer brown gravy with their potatoes.
Load More Replies... My go-to's in college: great value brand mac n cheese for 65 cents, bags of instant potatoes for a dollar, or ramen for like 12 cents. If I was really hungry I would cook ramen then use the same water to make the instant potatoes and mix them together. Just give me the carbs to give me the energy to make it through school and work. Nothing else. Also in high school I worked 3 mins from home so I'd drive home on lunch and make like 24 pizza rolls in the microwave. Took 1min 10sec for every 6. I had it down to a science. Yes, I have diabetes now lol.
I had extreme allergies as a child so my most common meal (different from the lovely meals my mum prepared for the rest of the family) was a MICROWAVED plain chicken breast, a plain baked potato, and as many green veggies as I could get my hands on. And I LOVED it. I still love that meal, except I cook the chicken like a human and use seasonings and sauces.
Cheesecake in the 70s the one made with lemons and condensed milk oh my goodness. I made it again a few years ago, yes it is fabulous.
Chicken croquettes, fried beef brains, pigs in a blanket.
I ate ketchup sandwiches when I was a kid. Just the thought of it disgusts me.
For me it was Rabbit Crepes back in the 80s. You could buy them at the supermarket, they were crepes that were rolled up and filled with a rabbit filling. They were really tasty. But no one sells rabbit meat anymore - in Australia at least, for many reasons.
My mum's signature dishes were roast lamb, apricot chicken with prunes, and this amazing lasagna with whole canned tomatoes in it for that extra bit of juiciness. I should ask her for the recipe.
Steak-ums or those beef/turkey w gravy in the boil pouches. Both quick to make after school and before job.
They don't include the ingredients in your chicken anymore. My mom used to fry chicken hearts and liver in bread crumbs. I could do without the livers, but the hearts were delicious.
Deer. My grandfather was a butcher, and had equipment of his own at home that he used expressly for butchering deer for local hunters. They paid him, but would also typically be gifted with steaks, roasts and burgers. We had it a lot, and I NEVER liked it. As an adult, I realized I had never seen deer meat in a grocery store. My second realization was that I had never looked for it.
Macaroni with ground beef, canned tomato and onion. We ate that once a week when I was a kid. My grandparents also would make us Cheese Dreams for lunch which was bacon or cut up hotdogs, a slice of cheese and tomato sauce on an English muffin.
boiled egg on a mountain of mashed potatoes and a moat of mustard sauce...you love it or hate it
