What did you eat growing up? (s/o Duggar food)

[kalanamak]

Breakfast: cereal and fruit on Saturday, waffles on Sun, toast and eggs or hot cereal during the week

Lunch: creamed tuna on toast, salad and cheese sandwich, salami and butter on rye with veggie sticks, fresh tomato salads and mac and cheese, soup and sandwich. All whole wheat, from scratch dishes.

Dinner (which was 1 pm on Sat and Sun and 6 pm SHARP weeknights): roast or steak or baked chicken, two plain veggies, a great salad (waldorf or oil and lemon juice), no bread at dinner (low class), and dessert was custard or ice cream. RARE pie or cake for a birthday.

Supper: at 6 pm weekends: meatloaf or sandwiches with cuck salad, etc, and ice cream. Sunday night we got a milkshake and popcorn. Wednesday night, after winter swimming at the gym, a Heath Bar (ice cream).

 

In the summer we'd have hotdogs and potato chips on a couple of picnics, and we made ice cream in an old crank barrel-style maker.

 

All the time: bushel basket of fruit (oranges, grapefruit or apples) and we could eat as much of it as we wanted up to an hour before meals.

 

NO pop, NO canned pasta sauce, NO spices but garlic and bay leaf, no liquids with meals, almost no white flour. Nothing fried either. All veggies simply steamed with lemon juice and a pat of butter on top.

 

My mother was a great cook. EVerything was delicious, simple, and finished. Never any left overs.

 

Oh, and she made PRUNO using perfect fruits, bubbling away on the counter, alcoholic as all get-out, spooned over the ice cream.

Edited January 12, 2012 by kalanamak

[Tigger]

I grew up in the '80s with a quintessentially '50s mother. We had pot roast, pork chops, baked chicken, beef stew, etc. Everything was seriously overcooked. I didn't know what juicy meat was until after I got married. Anyway, once my mother went through a 'frugal' phase and we ate Spanish rice and something she called 'cabbage skillet' once or twice a week until my dad put his foot down and insisted she find other dishes because we were all sick of those two. She obliged with the fake stir-fry that's been mentioned. Spaghetti sauce came from the cheap cans - we didn't even rate for Prego - and the only other pasta we ever had was macaroni and cheese. Thankfully that was made on the stove with Velvetta, not from a box. Breakfast was cereal at our house, too, usually from bags, not boxes. Brand names were a luxury reserved for family vacations, when Mom would allow us to bring along some of the mini-boxes of the good stuff. Veggies were canned corn and green beans and potatoes. Rarely we would get broccoli, and that was always coated in Velveeta.

 

I should mention that our family was in no way hurting for cash, so there was no reason for my mom to have been this frugal. She just didn't care a whole lot about meals and wasn't (isn't) a particularly great cook. I've gotta hand it to her, though - she's really tried to branch out in recent years and once called me for directions on how to cook butternut squash. I was proud of her and told her so. I think that surprised her.

 

Only difference is my mom cooked, all the time. Homemade spaghetti sauce, homemade mac & cheese, did her own stir-fry, lots of roasts, potted pork chops, homemade chicken cutlets (she breaded them herself, not the packaged nuggets), fresh veggies with dinner each night, salads galore. But, she wasn't crunchy-granola, she just loved to cook. Things she didn't make were things my dad wouldn't eat, like rice! When he wasn't going to be home for dinner, she'd make it, the long-cook type - she hated minute rice! Actually, she hated almost anything in a box, can or frozen box.

 

Our big treat, every now and then, is we'd cajole her into letting us have Fruity Pebbles! Our usual breakfast was fresh cooked eggs, sausage, etc., even on school days! Getting a bowl of cereal instead was a major, major treat!

 

She usually baked any sweets we were allowed (treats, now and then), but another major score for us was Ding Dongs or Yodels - when they were still wrapped in foil and tasted like real food (the ones today to me are too waxy and nothing like the ones in the late 70's, early 80's)!

 

Until I was out on my own, I'd never had:

Kraft Mac & Cheese

Hamburger Helper

Velveeta

Chef Boy-A-Dee anything

Jarred or canned spaghetti sauce

Pepperidge Farm Cake

Eggo Waffles

or a bunch of other stuff my friends had routinely

 

....and I'm glad I missed them - now that I have a family, I tend to cook everything from scratch too!

[Mommee & Baba]

My step-dad was the cook in our home. When my mom cooked it was because it was a holiday.

 

I recall ALOT of

Spaghetti

Fried Chicken, Mashed Instant Potatoes, Corn

Hot Dogs

 

RARELY did we get FRESH vegetables or FRESH fruit and RARELY did we get ANY canned fruit at that.

 

My dad tried his best with what we could afford. I don't recall alot of the meals they made as I was raised mostly by my grandma and her food was always wholesome, hearty, and filling!

 

Now I make almost everything I can from scratch, stockpile canned veggies, always have fresh veggies and fresh fruit in the fridge!

[RoughCollie]

My Mom cooked wholesome meals from scratch. She was a great cook back then. No soda. No junk food. Snacks = fresh fruit, which was always available in abundance. No fast or processed food. Four vegetables served at dinner (always including carrot sticks, boiled potatoes, and tomato wedges). No bread at dinner. The only foods she fried were flounder (which I hate, so the dog ate mine) and liver (which I love). We didn't usually have dessert.

 

On Saturday mornings, we kids had cereal for breakfast while we watched cartoons and our parents slept. Those were what I call kid cereals - Super Sugar Crisp and the like. Other days, Mom would make pancakes or French toast or eggs.

 

Every 2-3 months, my mom would make Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee pizza from a box. She added stuff to it. I still love it, but plain, nothing added to what is in the box. That was before there were pizza restaurants on every corner. If there were any, we didn't know about them.

 

My parents didn't go out very often, but we loved it when they did because they would get soda for the babysitter (we got some, too) and we would get TV dinners for supper.

 

A couple of times a year, as a special treat, my 2 siblings and I would get to share a 12 oz. Coke. When the family would go out to eat, we would have to drink milk. To this day, I hate drinking restaurant milk. I get water, tea, or coffee instead, because I don't like soda.

 

I basically cook like my mom did, updated by current nutritional standards and more variety. She likes to visit us so she can eat things she no longer cooks.

Edited January 12, 2012 by RoughCollie

[Lucy in Australia]

My mother is Russian and was brought up in France from age 3. We also lived in France till I was 12. We ate like the French: a huge quantity of very varied fresh vegetables, smallish amounts of good quality meat & every thing was cooked from scratch except bread. We also had plenty of nice pastries & desserts (although the portions were tiny compared to what is accepted as normal here in Australia now). We never had soft drinks or candy. My mother is still fond of telling anyone who will listen that every time I went to a birthday party, I had a runny nose & sore throat the next day. She worked out it was the sugar.

[In2why]

I didn't think I was a food snob until I read this thread:D. But I have to ask, what is Tator tot casserole?

 

And I cant be too snobby because I loved SOS which Mom made with sausage and gravy, or chipped beef and gravy.

[MistyMountain]

We ate very similarly.

 

Staples incude

tacos with iceburg lettuce and ground beef with the taco seasoning packages

hamburger heper

chef boyardee in a can

soup from a can

white bread and lunch meat

ragu sauce and spaghetti

hot dogs

hamburgers

sugar cereal in the morning

fluff and peanut butter sandwiches

ramen noodles

mac and cheese from a box

frozen pizza

steak with no seasoning at all

pop tarts

fish sticks

 

We had fast food twice a week at least. We did have fruit and vegetables and didn't really have soda in the house. I do much better but I still feel lacking and it is hard for me to get rid of processed things completely because I haven't been cooking and eating it until I was on my own. My husband cooked more before we had kids. I was motivated to eat healthy but it is hard because it doesn't come naturally since I didn't grow up eating it.

Edited January 12, 2012 by MistyMountain

[MissKNG]

Stuffed peppers

Apple fritters

Golash

 

All made me sick as a kiddo!

[Pippen]

And I cant be too snobby because I loved SOS which Mom made with sausage and gravy, or chipped beef and gravy.

 

At our house we were told those were "Cowboy Sandwiches" and were always made with leftover meat and gravy, never the processed meats. We never knew the real name until we left home.:lol:

 

My mom liked to cook, so we usually had homecooked meals for dinner. She was a frustrated cook as we kids vastkt prefered canned Spaghetti-O's to eggplant parmesan. Occasionally she'd mix in a convenience foods like frozen pizza or tv dinners or pot pies (remember those?) but those were the exception, not the rule.

 

Lunches were mostly sandwiches, with canned soup, or boxed macaroni and cheese mixed in.

 

Breakfast was unsweetened cereal, but we could dump in a teaspoon of sugar if we wanted. Back then sweetened cereal was far more expensive than the unsweetened stuff--the reverse of today.

 

Sweets and sweetened beverages were treats, not everyday.

 

On Sunday nights we got to eat dinner while watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom and Disney.

[kewb]

Was this some sort of Cool Whip/Jello type thing? My sister always made Pink Fluff. I consider it gakky, but I liked it when I was a kid.

 

 

Fluff is a marshmallow creme.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshmallow_creme

[gingersmom]

I cannot be alone in that meals in my family of origin were not much better than tatortot casserole. In fact, some were far worse. Here are some of the meals we ate frequently:

Spam with Crushed Pineapples

Red-Capped Franks (which was Kraft Mac N Cheese with hot dogs on top, topped with ketchup. :ack2: I never ate that, btw.)

La Choy "Shrimp" Chow Mein (I did not even know there was such a thing as stir-fry meals from scratch with fresh veggies!) This was always served with Minute Rice.

Cookin' Bags Anyone know what these are? Food in a bag; drop it in boiling water for 7 minutes. Voila. Chicken A la King.

Chef Boyardee Mush pasta in any shape.

Tacos - iceberg lettuce, Velveeta cheese, pickles and seasoned meat (out of a package).

Spaghetti - with Prego or Ragu sauce

 

Breakfast was cereal - Fruit Loops, Chex, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Sugar Corn Puffs, Puffed Rice. My mom would only buy milk every two weeks, though, so if we wanted cereal with milk, we could use reconstituted dry milk.

 

Beverages were water (jug in the fridge), iced tea and Kool-Aide.

 

Amazingly, I lived long enough to rethink those meals. :D

 

Can I just say I would have loved to eat like this as a kid. :001_smile:

 

Hamburger Helper never entered our house.

 

The only cereal was Cheerios.

 

My mother hated to cook and was awful at it anyways.

 

If we were not eating out (which we did way more often than anyone else I knew) we ate-

 

overcooked hamburgers (with no bun)

hotdogs (no bun and broiled)

filet of sole (uggh, disgusting, undercooked)

flounder (see above)

steak (just say no, I have not had red meat in about 30 years)

lamb chops (just the most disgusting food on the planet, my mothers favorite)

veal chops (broiled, or on a blue moon breadcrumb and fried)

iceberg lettuce with every meal (italian dressing only)

carrots from a jar

canned corn

applesauce

[LazyDazy]

We had whatever you could make with eggs, cheese, milk, and bread. French toast, grilled cheese, cheese sandwiches, eggs any way you like 'em, oh and pb and j. Veggies were lettuce and tomatoes; fruit was apples and oranges. My mom didn't like to cook, we didn't have much money, and we only ate meat on special occasions. BUT we always had ice cream, vanilla, with chocolate syrup. This sounds like we were on public assistance but, my mom would not do that, she just figured this was the cheapest way to feed us. I wonder why we never had rice or beans?

[JeneralMom]

We actually ate very well in terms of variety and healthfulness. My mom scratch made a lot of things (yoghurt, baked goods like cookies, cakes, etc). However, she is very sensitive to spices (both the heat type of spice as well as the flavour spice) so our meals were very bland. She was also deathly afraid of undercooked meat so everything was cooked to charred level and veggies were always over done.

 

TV dinner or Kraft dinner were treats that were reserved for when my parents would go out and we would have a babysitter. We got to eat them in front of the television so I have a soft spot for Swedish Meatballs and Mashed Potato TV dinner, eventhough I haven't eaten one in several decades.

[Guest]

Can I just say I would have loved to eat like this as a kid.

 

As a kid, I mostly liked it. There were a few things I never liked (see Red-capped Franks), but I honestly did like eating Spaghetti O's, Chicken N Stars Soup, and all those other low-ranking foodstuffs. :D I only became a food snob after I met dh and ate his mother's amazing home-cooked meals. That was when I knew I was not going to repeat the eating I grew up with.

[BatmansWife]

We ate the basic kinds of meals...pretty much like how I cook today; spaghetti, tacos, chili, porcupine meatballs, pizza. For a long time my mom served the very same meal every Monday, the same meal every Tuesday, and so on...for the entire week (so she only had 7 meals to think of and once in awhile she'd go wild and serve something different). I remember that Friday night was always homemade pizza and spaghetti-o's (and we loved it). The pizza dough was some Weight Watchers recipe (it was kind of a pourable crust).

[EmilyinND]

I wish you people would stop dissin' tater tot hotdish because that is what my family is having for supper tonight! :lol:

 

We actually ate pretty good. We were poor so we grew a lot of our own food. My parents were from the south so I guess we did eat lots of rice and gravy with meat. But we ate a lot of beans and rice too.

 

:iagree:

[jenangelcat]

Processed junk mainly. Cooking involved cans.

 

The worst was the last year I lived with my mom (17) when she spent all her money on cigs and home decor each month leaving just enough money to buy several 50lb bags of potatoes. Every meal was fries that year.

[woolybear]

We ate lots of meat and potato kind of meals. Also, when my mother went back to work and got a crockpot, we ate lots of stews.

 

Also popular with mom and kids:

TV dinners :lol:

Frozen chicken pot pie

Chef boyardee

Campbells soups (I still think this is good for when you're sick.:D)

Favorite snacks (which I don't believe anyone monitored or cared what or how much we ate, though I could be wrong):

Yodels

Chocolate chips mixed with peanut butter

Ice cream all kinds of ways, mixed with stuff (marshmallows, ch. chips, bosco syrup)

Bag of potato chips with Coke

 

ETA: My Dad had two things he would make:

Daddy Omelet (really more of a fritatta, but pretty darn good)

Daddy Milkshake (not bad-hard to mess up really, but sometimes he added raw egg which now makes me gag just thinking about it)

Edited January 14, 2012 by woolybear
added something

[BeehiveSez]

We had some box meals like hamburger helper but also a lot of home made meals like stuffed cabbage, pot roast, etc.

 

Hamburger helper what is this?

 

Another meal I looked forward to was my mums rice pudding, she used to put heaps of cinnamon in it and sugar. I used to be so excited my desert.

[Aelwydd]

We ate terribly growing up. At one point, we did have a garden, so we got some fresh foods. But, largely, it was high sodium, high fat, high sugar, processed foods.

 

All three of us (me and my sisters) have had health problems stemming from our diet. One had her gall bladder out at 26 years old. The other one is having gall bladder and other issues. (They're both thin, BTW.)

 

Me, I have ongoing health issues related to my diet growing up. I was overweight as a teenager, and it wasn't until I moved out as an adult, that I lost weight and slimmed down. Now, if I want to avoid having high blood pressure and diabetes, I have to avoid refined sugar and processed foods like the plague.

 

My parents didn't know better, but my generation doesn't really have that excuse anymore. We eat some processed foods, but 90% of our diet is based on fresh, prepared foods. No casseroles or boxed foods. I don't want our son suffering from health problems due to a poor diet.

[MariannNOVA]

i am going to guess that meals were my mom's forte:

 

Breakfast: Toasted English Muffins with Muenster Cheese meltd on them

Bagels

Pancakes

Eggs

NEVER Cereal

Oatmeal

Farina

 

Of course, we are talking about a woman who cooked breakfast for the CAT every morning -- I kid you not -- chicken liver cooked every morning.

 

Dinner: Breaded Veal Cutlets

Steak

Meatloaf

Beef Stew

Pasta and Meatballs (sauce was never from a jar)

Pork Chops

Roast Beef

Chicken

 

Salad with dinner every night and fresh bread (my grandfather owned an Italian Bread Bakery)

 

Milk with very meal -- we were only allowed soda on sundays when we had pasta.

[Momof3littles]

Tuna noodle casserole with potato chips crumbled on top

pork chops and noodles with some sort of curry sauce (quite exotic for my parents I think :lol:)

S.O.S. (cream dried beef over toast which I despised)

liver on occasion (I always dug my heels in and refused that one no matter what the thread. If they told me I'd have to stay at the table until I ate it I would request my pillow because I was going to be sleeping there LOL).

sausage, pepper, onion sandwiches

spaghetti and homemade meatballs

beef stew (had a few canned soups but was a big family favorite)

chicken

steak um chip steak on a roll with cheese

I remember eating lima beans a lot because I hate them. It is one of of the only veggies I still dislike today.

 

My parents had 4 teenage boys to feed when I was a young child so my mom definitely used meals that could be stretched.

 

She did always give me wheat bread and reasonably healthy lunches for that time. I did eat stuff like oscar meyer balogne and cheese though. One of my good friends from childhood and I always joke that we were the "brown bread kids" and that's how we became friends. Her mom was public school teacher who won numerous awards from the state for teaching nutrition to kids. She had lots of kids who were of poor socioeconomic status who ate fluffernutters on white bread every day for lunch, so she did a lot of work with them on nutrition back before this was a common thing in public school.

 

Lunches were often Chef Boy R D ravioli or Campbells soup. I always ate chicken and stars when I was sick :glare: New England Clam Chowder from a can was also a common lunch.

 

My mom rationed out the snacks since there were 4 teenage boys in the house, and she'd keep some stuff stashed in her room so she could dole it out slowly. The boys would always say they were going to tell everyone their mom hid cookies in the closet ;) I totally get why she did it though. If she left 2-3 packs of cookies out at a time they would have eaten them all in a day or two (or one sitting!) :001_huh:

[Pretty in Pink]

We ate a lot of crud growing up. Some of Mom's specialties:

 

• Hamburger or Tuna Helper, with an extra package of white pasta and a can of cream of x soup stirred in, perhaps a few slices of American cheese product, to stretch the meal further
  
• lots of made up casseroles that included a box of pasta or rice, a few can of veggies, a can of cream of x soup, and ground beef or tuna
  
• lots of generics: mac n cheese, Debbie-style snack cakes, cookies, canned goods (veggies, pasta sauce, soups), whatever white bread was on sale, sugar cereals, potato chips, soda pop, bologna, hot dogs
  
• chicken salad in a can (I don't remember the name -- the can was small and wrapped in a yellow paper with a devil on the front)
  
• she bought one gallon of milk per week but we weren't allowed to drink it since it was for cooking and for my father to drink. We had to drink powdered milk.
  
• She never, ever once bought fresh fruit that I recall. The only fresh veg we ever had was iceberg lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. Once in a while she would get a ton of yellow summer squash or zucchini, boil the crap out of it, and put it up in jars so we usually had mushy squash year-round (served over white rice).
  
• breaded and fried cubed steak, instant mashed potatoes, brown gravy from a packet
  
• lots of fried chicken and fish
  
• lots of steak. We ate steak no fewer than twice per week, every week. With it we had baked potatoes and salad as described above. This was probably the healthiest meal I remember being served.
  

 

[FaithManor]

My mother did not cook, she dumped and warmed! This was the common thing in her day...convenience foods. To be fair, she worked in my dad's business doing all of his book keeping and volunteered A LOT at my school so her time was limited. However, the concept of a quickly broiled chicken breast, a big salad, and a bowl of fresh fruit just didn't enter her head.

 

So, there was a HUGE ton of stuff from jars, boxes, cans, etc. She kept some fresh produce in the house, but it certainly was not the basis of any meal. My dad did like good beef, so the only truly healthyish thing in the house was the 1/2 cut of grass fed, locally grown, beef - spring calf, raised on grass, butchered in late fall, early winter...no grain.

 

Mom still doesn't get it. She's type 2 diabetic now and still doesn't seem to understand that she needs to NOT have HCFS and should read labels or that sugar is lurking in all kinds of prepared foods. I think old habits die hard. She does roast an excellent turkey with homemade dressing, though...she did learn something there.

 

Breakfast was always boxed cereal and a pop tart. Lunch was packed for us since she felt that school hot lunches were exceedingly gross - which they absolutely were - typical would be a sandwich, cookies, and apple slices with lemon juice sprinkled on them...supper - typical might be spaghetti with cheapest off shelf sauce, Del Monte canned peas (which I dug my heels in and refused to eat...would have starved myself straight into the hospital if they'd tried to force me...the things looked like large, mutated, bacterial cultures to my young eyes, mashed or fried potatoes (yeah, I know, on top of the pasta it was nothing but overkill), sometimes a salad which consisted of lettuce and a few carrots and drowned in western dressing, canned corn (you read that right), cottage cheese, and milk to drink...sometimes there would be garlic bread with the pasta and the mashed potatoes, and the corn.....But, she thought she was doing something wonderful because she served veggies - peas, corn, potatoes, and the salad.

 

Honestly, at 68 almost 69, I have been starting over trying to teach my mom about nutrition. Her generation was really taught nothing useful. On top of which, her first pregnancy was when dad was in the service and back then, OB care was not contracted to private care providers. She had a couple of old, nasty, angry army docs who were really mean to the women. Their weight gain guidelines were 18 lbs. for a single baby and 22 lbs. for twins. Any woman who went over was placed on a liquid diet had her husband's commanding officer contacted and the serviceman was punished for having a wife "that was an embarassment". No joke, my mom spent her entire pregnancy eating less than 1000 calories per day so she wouldn't go over the limit. She didn't consume a drop of dairy from the day the pregnancy test came back positive...no eggs, no fats of any kind, mostly ate celery sticks, carrot sticks, apples, oranges, and beans. That was pretty much it. My brother was born with some bone issues and I've often wondered if it wasn't from calcium deficiency during her pregnancy. Oh, and they weren't given any vitamins either.

 

On top of that, they were punished if they were caught breastfeeding. Yep, as the pediatrician's put it, "We aren't going to have you uneducated hics running around with your breasts out embarassing the U.S. Government. This is America. We are educated here." So, my mom developed the idea that bf.ing was disgusting. Guess what happened when I nursed my first? My poor, poor mother had an awful lot of feelings to come to grips with in order to accept it.

 

She's a great mom! She did the best she could. But, she did not know any better. Her parents lived in an urban setting and her dad was a milkman. They were dirt poor, rented and had no space for a garden, etc. A typical day was oatmeal for breakfast - not bad in and of itself by any stretch, but unfortunately there wasn't much else to go with it - fried oatmeal cakes with applesauce or honey for lunch - and then a tiny bit of a vegetable or fruit...bruised produce bought at the market just before it went bad so it was marked down, oatmeal again, homemade bread with bacon grease spread on it, and a strip of bacon per person. The only time it was any better than that was when relatives invited them over to eat. So, I also know that how we ate as children was because my mom was giddy that she could "provide" all of this food for her children. We were reminded often how we were eating like kings compared to her childhood. Thankfully, my sibs and I were really active during all seasons spending a tremendous time playing outdoors. We also had long recesses at our school...the old generation of teachers still being fairly convinced that exercise and fresh air were just as important as spelling lists. So, we didn't have weight issues to contend with.

 

That said, I don't think it is that hard for my generation to become educated on nutritional issues, I just think it's easier to maintain the status quo. Frankly, I also think that if my kids were in regular school, it would be an uphill battle with the nasty cafeteria foods, pop vending machines in every corner (money makers for the school so they won't get rid of them no matter how much pressure is put on them), kids trading lunches in the cafeteria, etc. My kids do not have that outside influence on their eating right now and it makes it much, much easier to teach them to eat well. Of course, I buck the FDA on a lot of things, and I don't have to worry about the school sending the opposite message either. The local high school health teacher maintains the P.C. line that everything the FDA says is okay, must be so!

 

We garden in a large plot with my folks. My dad grew up on healthy foods that his mother raised and stored either by canning, dehydrating, root cellaring, and even freezing in the woodshed once the weather turned cold - you know...back in the mists of time when there were real winters unlike the Michigan mild "cold snaps" of late - and so he is now an avid gardener and loves it. We work with him in a huge plot and it provides quite a bit of what I put up for my own family. My grandmother on that side was the supreme healthy cook of the world. She had gone through the Great Depression and emerged from that side healthy because she was fortunate to have been raised on a farm. Her parents may not have had any money, but they always had good food and plenty to share with the neighbors. She cooked entirely from scratch and because my grandfather had a heart condition, was liberal with the fresh fruits and vegetables, made lovely vegetable casseroles, used only lean meats, cooked fish often, made the best whole grain bread in the world, etc. She and grandpa gardened well into their retirement and I spent many a summer eating at their house because I helped snap beans, husk corn, pull weeds, cut asparags, etc. They lived three blocks away and I ate a lot of meals with them. It was the main source of good nutrition for me.

 

Faith

[KarenC]

We ate a lot of frozen tv dinners and pot pies. There were also these frozen meat and gravy pouches that you put in boiling water to cook. I can't even stand the smell of fried bologna today.

 

Karen

[fourcatmom]

Am I the only one that has never eaten tator tot casserole? Is there a recipe for this? I might need to just try it once.:001_smile:

[stripe]

Am I the only one that has never eaten tator tot casserole? Is there a recipe for this? I might need to just try it once.:001_smile:

I never have either, but I did eat tater tots at school occasionally.

 

My mother is pretty healthy. We always ate whole wheat bread, and she was ahead of her times in her interest in soy. I remember drinking flavored soy milk as a kid (and hating it!).

 

My grandma likes casseroles and canned goods, often at the same time.

[Bang!Zoom!]

Summer food was by far the best.

 

Fresh apples out of the trees, salads from the forest, bass and perch from the river cooked over a bonfire, ice water out of the hand pump, fry bread and honey in the morning, pasties still warm in the pail after a five mile walk...oh ya, living was good. Real good.

[DawnM]

It depended on what country we were in as to what we ate. When we were in Kenya we had fresher foods. In the States we often ate crappy stuff as it was easier on my Mom. I think she hated cooking.

[Pretty in Pink]

Am I the only one that has never eaten tator tot casserole? Is there a recipe for this? I might need to just try it once.:001_smile:

 

Brown some ground beef (with an onion, celery, and some seasonings if you have them). Drain the beef, if necessary. Stir in a bag of frozen veggies or a few cans of veggies and a can of cream of x soup. Gradually add a bit of milk to get the desired consistency (you want sort of a pot pie type of filling here). Dump it into a glass lasagna pan and top with tater tots. Bake according to tot directions until tots are golden. Some people toss shredded cheese on top and let it melt during the last few minutes of baking.

[stripe]

Hamburger helper what is this?

 

http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/hamburger-helper

 

It's a box of stuff that one mixes with ground beef.

[fourcatmom]

Brown some ground beef (with an onion, celery, and some seasonings if you have them). Drain the beef, if necessary. Stir in a bag of frozen veggies or a few cans of veggies and a can of cream of x soup. Gradually add a bit of milk to get the desired consistency (you want sort of a pot pie type of filling here). Dump it into a glass lasagna pan and top with tater tots. Bake according to tot directions until tots are golden. Some people toss shredded cheese on top and let it melt during the last few minutes of baking.

 

 

Thanks. I have never heard of this before. I might not want to introduce it to my kids.:tongue_smilie:

[SKL]

We were a meat-and-potatoes family. We had some kind of meat (usually red) almost every day, along with plenty of starch (potatoes, noodles, bread) and one veggie on the side (canned corn, green beans, or peas). Sometimes it was a "real meal" like roast beef/chicken, sometimes hotdogs with mac & cheese, usually something in-between.

 

For breakfast our two choices were Cheerios and Wheaties. Lunch was either pbj, bologna sandwich, or Campbell's soup. We didn't have snack food or drinks unless we bought them out of our own spending money.

 

Big difference was, we were out running around all day long (except during school hours).

[GingerPoppy]

We ate a lot of crud growing up. Some of Mom's specialties:

 

• Hamburger or Tuna Helper, with an extra package of white pasta and a can of cream of x soup stirred in, perhaps a few slices of American cheese product, to stretch the meal further

• lots of made up casseroles that included a box of pasta or rice, a few can of veggies, a can of cream of x soup, and ground beef or tuna

• lots of generics: mac n cheese, Debbie-style snack cakes, cookies, canned goods (veggies, pasta sauce, soups), whatever white bread was on sale, sugar cereals, potato chips, soda pop, bologna, hot dogs

• chicken salad in a can (I don't remember the name -- the can was small and wrapped in a yellow paper with a devil on the front)

• she bought one gallon of milk per week but we weren't allowed to drink it since it was for cooking and for my father to drink. We had to drink powdered milk.

• She never, ever once bought fresh fruit that I recall. The only fresh veg we ever had was iceberg lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. Once in a while she would get a ton of yellow summer squash or zucchini, boil the crap out of it, and put it up in jars so we usually had mushy squash year-round (served over white rice).

• breaded and fried cubed steak, instant mashed potatoes, brown gravy from a packet

• lots of fried chicken and fish

• lots of steak. We ate steak no fewer than twice per week, every week. With it we had baked potatoes and salad as described above. This was probably the healthiest meal I remember being served.

 

 

When you said "crud", I thought maybe you were being a little mean to poor ol' mom. Then I read your list and made little gaggy noises a few times! :lol: Mushy canned squash year round really did it for me!! :tongue_smilie:

[Annie Laurie]

Both my parents worked but they always made dinner. Sometimes it had cream of whatever soup in it or something processed, but for the most part it wasn't that bad. My dad is from a tiny Ohio town so he likes plain country food and he did a lot off the cooking so that's what we ate. Meals I remember:

 

meatloaf, baked potato, plain veggies

 

spaghetti with homemade sauce and garlic bread

 

tacos

 

Chicken with swiss cheese baked w a white wine/cream soup mixture and topped with stuffing and butter. I still like this one and make it occasionally, my kids love it, but I make it from scratch or use Amy's cream of mushroom soup.

 

Chicken stir-fry, though my mom used canned water chesnuts and baby corn and when I make it now I prefer fresh bok choy, carrots, mushrooms, and whatever other fresh veggies are on hand.

 

Chicken pot pie w a refrigerated crust and cream of whatever soup

 

stuffed cabbage

 

chicken, rice and broccoli casserole with velveeta

 

pork chops with cranberry sauce and rice- this is the one I always hated

 

roasted chicken w mashed potatoes and veggies

 

swiss steak w gravy and potatoes and veggies

 

I keep jarred marinara on hand for emergencies myself. I buy no sugar sauce though, I do not like the sweet taste of Ragu and Prego.

[BeehiveSez]

I just foudn this image on the web and it is the ipitomy of what I sued to eat as a child in Ireland!

 

:tongue_smilie:

[dansamy]

Fried bologna. No, I don't have coronary artery disease (yet)!

 

Actually, we were broke with a capital B, so if it was cheap, we ate it.

 

 

• X Helper
  
• Cheapest possible roast cooked to beyond death in the crock pot
  
• Loads of pasta
  
• Miscellaneous casseroles
  
• Cream of wheat or grits
  
• Cinammon/sugar toast
  
• Cheese toast
  
• Cheapest possible cereal (corn flakes, shredded wheat, cheerios)
  
• Rice a Roni with a bit of ground beef added
  
• Boxed mac & cheese with a can of peas and a can of tuna
  

 

 

Fried bologna and any actual lunchmeat was a treat. I ate a lot of PB growing up.

[tristangrace]

It is funny to look back and see how things must have looked from the perspective of my own parents. There were five of us kids, and my mom always felt a little inadequate as a homemaker. She prepared sit-down meals day in and day out, but I suspect she found it difficult. She never expressed enthusiasm for cooking--except later in her life, when I was an adult, she would wax eloquent about certain frozen convenience foods she really liked! I think the eating habits of my folks were pretty typical of their generation back in the 60's, 70's, and 80's, but they stayed the same or even worsened as the rest of the country became more health-conscious.

 

Dinners: For some reason, I don't remember many of the main dishes very clearly--casseroles, sloppy joes, occasionally pork chops or lamb chops. There were lots of canned vegetables on the side, along with Jello "salad", and, invariably a stack of Wonder bread and margarine. Sometimes a green salad that was typical of the era: iceburg lettuce and pale tomato wedges with bottled dressing.

 

Lunches: Leftovers, pb&j, lunchmeat sandwiches, mac and cheese, with a piece of fresh fruit or a box of raisins plus a Hostess dessert or two storebought cookies.

 

Breakfasts: sugar cereals or pop-tarts we served ourselves were the norm

 

Snacks: We had dessert after lunch and after school and after dinner plus a "treat" before bedtime, which seems totally excessive now. Portions were pretty strictly rationed, though. I remember being shocked that a classmate would go home and have six Oreos in one sitting--unheard of! For all that my parents (and us kids!) loved desserts, Mom was never into baking cookies from scratch, and desserts, with a few delicious exceptions, were ice cream or cakes from mixes. Getting a sip of my parents' pop was a big deal--only milk or water for kids. And I don't think we kids ever had free range of the pantry (um, I guess we didn't need to).

 

ETA: And I remember my Dad occasionally making fried bologna or fried cheese on toast as a treat--loved that fried cheese! (Still do!)

[In the Rain]

I remember eating similarly to those of you listing processed foods. :tongue_smilie:

 

What intrigues me though, is wondering what my kids will remember. My hot dog lover would say we never got them, and my hot dog hater would say we ate them all the time.

 

In reality, we buy them for dd's birthday, and maybe one other time a year (and always offer hamburgers as an alternative). What neither will probably remember is that I pay $7 for a pack of nitrite free, grass fed beef hot dogs in hope that they are not floor scrapings. :tongue_smilie: :001_huh:

 

Although homemade salad dressing is always available, both kids choose Annies. They'll probably look back and say that we always had bottled dressing.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Home cooked food; if it came from the 1950 edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook my mom fixed it. Family recipes tended to be of the farmhouse style of cooking.

[BeehiveSez]

Home cooked food; if it came from the 1950 edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook my mom fixed it. Family recipes tended to be of the farmhouse style of cooking.

 

 

Yes I do love this cookery book, I think my mother borrowed it off a family friend once and attempted to make some receipes from there! Gosh this has bought back soem memories. I nowadays use cooking books as Nigella Lawson, I just love her really simple homely foods which are always great for family dinners as she does think from that perspective. I purchased the whole series from this website! It was fantastic, got a great deal from them although the offers I think may not be available anymore.I am a avide fan of Riverside cottage series, what an idyllic lifestyle I would love to live in the countryside and grow all my own foods!

 

:lurk5:

[Vanna]

Ha! :lol: Fun thread!

 

I cannot be alone in that meals in my family of origin were not much better than tatortot casserole. In fact, some were far worse. Here are some of the meals we ate frequently:

Spam with Crushed Pineapples

Red-Capped Franks (which was Kraft Mac N Cheese with hot dogs on top, topped with ketchup. :ack2: I never ate that, btw.)

La Choy "Shrimp" Chow Mein (I did not even know there was such a thing as stir-fry meals from scratch with fresh veggies!) This was always served with Minute Rice.

Cookin' Bags Anyone know what these are? Food in a bag; drop it in boiling water for 7 minutes. Voila. Chicken A la King.

Chef Boyardee Mush pasta in any shape.

Tacos - iceberg lettuce, Velveeta cheese, pickles and seasoned meat (out of a package).

Spaghetti - with Prego or Ragu sauce

 

Breakfast was cereal - Fruit Loops, Chex, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Sugar Corn Puffs, Puffed Rice. My mom would only buy milk every two weeks, though, so if we wanted cereal with milk, we could use reconstituted dry milk.

 

Beverages were water (jug in the fridge), iced tea and Kool-Aide.

 

Amazingly, I lived long enough to rethink those meals. :D

 

Same here! I grew up in the 70s as the 4th out of 5 children to a single parent and here's what my awesome mom was able to provide for us:

 

 

• spam w/tomato paste and onions over white rice (this was my least fave meal)
  
• pig's feet
  
• hamburger helper
  
• ramen noodles
  
• "toaster pizza" (Wonderbread, with ketchup and cheese)
  
• and on the subject of cheese, I was "privileged" (I am being sarcastic here) to stand on a long line to receive "Government cheese" (that I think Eddie Murphy joked about in one of his early stand up comedy routines)
  
• Pop-tarts
  
• Cap'n Crunch w/Crunch Berries (had to have those "berries")
  
• Frosted Lucky Charms
  
• Sugar Smacks (when they were called that - I think they changed the name since then)
  
• Oh, and my die-hard fave: Corn Pops
  

 

 

Kool-aid, soda, and Sunny Delight were the beverage standards:tongue_smilie:. I didn't start drinking water till I was an adult.

 

We did have a number of "good" foods (not all bad). I also had full breakfasts and lunches when I attended elementary school.

 

It's been fun reminiscing about the "bad" ol' days! :D

[momtoamiracle]

we never ate processed food until my dad lost his job and people would give food to us. We ate it because it was a gift. But it was horrid.

 

 

We grew all of our own food, raised our own meat, had our own cows. So we had fresh homegrown food the whole time I was growing up. My mom was a fabuous cook from New Orleans, so you can imagine the food we had!

 

I don't cook like that at all. I hate to cook so I cook as simply as possible. I wish I had gotten that cooking gene tho, I love good food, I just don't like to make it! I use as little processed food as possible tho. Just can't stand it...

[TammyinTN]

I cannot be alone in that meals in my family of origin were not much better than tatortot casserole. In fact, some were far worse. Here are some of the meals we ate frequently:

Spam with Crushed Pineapples

Red-Capped Franks (which was Kraft Mac N Cheese with hot dogs on top, topped with ketchup. :ack2: I never ate that, btw.)

La Choy "Shrimp" Chow Mein (I did not even know there was such a thing as stir-fry meals from scratch with fresh veggies!) This was always served with Minute Rice.

Cookin' Bags Anyone know what these are? Food in a bag; drop it in boiling water for 7 minutes. Voila. Chicken A la King.

Chef Boyardee Mush pasta in any shape.

Tacos - iceberg lettuce, Velveeta cheese, pickles and seasoned meat (out of a package).

Spaghetti - with Prego or Ragu sauce

 

Breakfast was cereal - Fruit Loops, Chex, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Sugar Corn Puffs, Puffed Rice. My mom would only buy milk every two weeks, though, so if we wanted cereal with milk, we could use reconstituted dry milk.

 

Beverages were water (jug in the fridge), iced tea and Kool-Aide.

 

Amazingly, I lived long enough to rethink those meals. :D

 

 

I don't remember eating anything like this stuff.

 

Breakfast was eggs, bacon and toast. Oatmeal or cornflakes.

Lunch was sandwiches. Tomato with cut up cucumbers in vinegar. Maybe a hotdog or some soup and a grilled cheese. Piece of fruit.

Dinner was a small portion of meat, loads of veggies and a roll.

Snacks: popcorn, vanilla wafers with peanut butter and bananas or maybe a scoop of ice cream. We didn't have sweets except once a month.

My parents made everything from scratch and we had a huge garden each year. Food from that garden tasted so delicious.

 

Drinks: Breakfast a small glass of orange juice. Lunch was milk and dinner you could have ice tea. Any other time was water.

[dansamy]

Ha! :lol: Fun thread!

 

 

 

Same here! I grew up in the 70s as the 4th out of 5 children to a single parent and here's what my awesome mom was able to provide for us:

 

• spam w/tomato paste and onions over white rice (this was my least fave meal)
  
• pig's feet
  
• hamburger helper
  
• ramen noodles
  
• "toaster pizza" (Wonderbread, with ketchup and cheese)
  
• and on the subject of cheese, I was "privileged" (I am being sarcastic here) to stand on a long line to receive "Government cheese" (that I think Eddie Murphy joked about in one of his early stand up comedy routines)
  
• Pop-tarts
  
• Cap'n Crunch w/Crunch Berries (had to have those "berries")
  
• Frosted Lucky Charms
  
• Sugar Smacks (when they were called that - I think they changed the name since then)
  
• Oh, and my die-hard fave: Corn Pops
  

 

Kool-aid, soda, and Sunny Delight were the beverage standards:tongue_smilie:. I didn't start drinking water till I was an adult.

 

We did have a number of "good" foods (not all bad). I also had full breakfasts and lunches when I attended elementary school.

 

It's been fun reminiscing about the "bad" ol' days! :D

 

 

See above referenced "broke with a capital B". We received flour, peanut butter in gigantic tubs, 5lb blocks of govt cheese, saccharin tablets, etc. as part of the USDA surplus program. Today, that program has been replaced by WIC. (Thank you!!)

[Radish4ever]

fast food (nuggets and fries)

porcupine meatballs

hamburger helper

stew

potato soup with ham and celery

spam sandwiches

creamed corn

bowls upon bowls of cereal

soda

chocolate milk

[clarkacademy]

Ha! :lol: Fun thread!

 

 

 

Same here! I grew up in the 70s as the 4th out of 5 children to a single parent and here's what my awesome mom was able to provide for us:

 

• spam w/tomato paste and onions over white rice (this was my least fave meal)
  
• pig's feet
  
• hamburger helper
  
• ramen noodles
  
• "toaster pizza" (Wonderbread, with ketchup and cheese)
  
• and on the subject of cheese, I was "privileged" (I am being sarcastic here) to stand on a long line to receive y joked about in one of his early stand up co"Government cheese" (that I think Eddie Murphmedy routines)
  
• Pop-tarts
  
• Cap'n Crunch w/Crunch Berries (had to have those "berries")
  
• Frosted Lucky Charms
  
• Sugar Smacks (when they were called that - I think they changed the name since then)
  
• Oh, and my die-hard fave: Corn Pops
  

Kool-aid, soda, and Sunny Delight were the beverage standards:tongue_smilie:. I didn't start drinking water till I was an adult.

 

We did have a number of "good" foods (not all bad). I also had full breakfasts and lunches when I attended elementary school.

 

It's been fun reminiscing about the "bad" ol' days! :D

 

 

Government cheese" That awesome big block?? :lol: I had a neighbor friend who got this and man I loved grilled cheese at sleepovers at her house YUM!! I remember being like 5 at McDonalds eating a cheese burger when I loudly said This is not governor cheese! My mom tried to run out as fast as she could lol!

[Birkenkathy]

Some of my fondest memories are watching Sunday night t.v. and feasting on popcorn and koolaid.

Tell me that's not brilliant!

 

We always had popcorn for dinner on Sunday nights. Otherwise it was lots and lots of casseroles. I don't want to calculate how many cans of cream of mushroom soup I have eaten in my life. But we hardly ever ate out and did have some really good things too. My mom makes the best Thanksgiving dinner on the planet.

[Remudamom]

I'm sorry but those breakfast cereals are outrageous. Where's the Cap't Crunch and Frosted Flakes?

[learningmama]

We ate lots of boxed/frozen food. Frozen family-sized salisbury steaks in mushroom gravy, Hamburger/Tuna Helper :tongue_smilie:, mom did make baked spaghetti and chili (which was a big can of tomato juice with a can of kidney beans, a little beef, and some spaghetti). We would have canned corn or green beans- but all four of us would share only one can. Fresh fruits and veggies were rare- and iceberg lettuce all the way! There was always Lipton iced tea in the fridge and although we did keep milk on hand, I never remember drinking any. Breakfast was pop-tarts, Toaster Strudels, or an assortment of sugar cereals with fake orange juice. Bread was always white. I did not have wheat bread until I was 19 at future dh's Grandpa's house! I remember coming home from jr high/high school and would just sit and down tons of Doritos or other chips while doing my homework. :w00t:

Needless to say, I decided a long time ago my family would not eat like that.