S/O- family recipes or things your parents cooked you WILL NOT USE.

[QueenCat]

Tuna Casserole

Cube steaks

Heinz 57 Meatballs

Cream of soup of anything casserole

[AlmiraGulch]

meatloaf

 

sloppy joe

 

stuffed peppers

 

salmon...it was either raw or a hockey puck (again...sorry Mom..)

 

Oh, wow...

 

My mother made the World's Worst Meatloaf. I hated how she seasoned it, and it must have weighed 45 pounds.  My father, however, makes killer meatloaf.  Go figure.

 

I think we only ate canned vegetables growing up.  Not in my house.  Gag.  

 

Stuffed peppers are the bain of my existence to this day.  

 

And salmon....never raw (I would have preferred that), always hockey puck.  I finally started eating it again a few years ago, but I'm really particular about it. 

[Annie G]

Annie G - look at my post just above yours. You must be my long lost sister...lol. Liver and chipped beef on toast were the torture devices of choice growing up at my house too.

 

 

I grew up in Atlanta but my parents were from Pennsylvania and NOBODY ate those two items....never even heard of them. So I'm glad to know someone else who suffered. g 

[Lisbeth]

Tuna casserole. Hot dogs. Chicken and dumplings made with canned biscuits. Fried bologna. Bologna in general. Koolaid. Vienna sausage. Really dense cornbread. Fakey desserts (like Little Debbies. Ugh!!)

[Susan C.]

Cheez Whiz

Velveeta

canned cream of anything soup

 

 

Just typing that out made me throw up a little.  :ack2:

 

 

Chipped beef on toast ---bleh.

 

 

 

OMG memories....

 

Salmon loaf (from a can) with cream of mushroom soup as gravy

Tuna casserole w/cream of mushroom soup

 

I had a tummy ache my entire childhood!

[DawnM]

My mother eats canned/tinned meat, particularly Vienna Sausages.

 

YUCK!  I can't stand it.

 

I don't like anything tuna either.

 

You all are reminding me of other things as well.

My mom put Cheez Whiz on everything.

 

She also did the chipped beef sandwiches AND cooked with corned beef hash.  

 

UGH.

[ScoutTN]

My mom is a good cook so not a long list.

 

The infamous, despised tuna casserole.

Frozen pot pies.

My mom's meatloaf or stuffed peppers. (Mine are good!)

 

Dh's family will eat canned veggies and likes many veggies cooked to death. No mushy veggies in my house!

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I like almost every thing my grandmother/woman who raised me cooked; except liver and eggplant. :ack2:  It's my MIL's recipes that aren't appreciated in this house.

[Farrar]

My mother is a fab cook and she always had fresh food...  That said,...  there was this salad that makes me want to gag when I think about it.  Layer salad, peas, chopped veggies, Parmesan, some mayonnaise based thing...  ack, I'm feeling ill just thinking about it.  I can't even say now what's so gross about it...  it just was really nasty.

[happi duck]

This thread makes me appreciate my culinary upbringing! Mom and dad were both good cooks! The couple gross things were just trying something new and were never repeated. We didn't eat much meat and were pretty much vegetarian during the summer because we ate from the garden.

 

One of the one time disasters was glazed spam and another was leutifisk...the cat wouldn't even go near it!

[kiana]

OMGOSH!!!!!!!!! We love that stuff. Funny story when my son was young he started calling it cat food so it just turned into cat food as the next two grew up. We were in the store and the nice cashier lady was asking my daughter about being a chef she was wearing her apron and chef hat everywhere back then anyway, my daughter pipes out with the bestest thing she can cook was cat food sandwiches!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: The look on the cashiers face was PRICELESS

 

 

We had one specific dish (something involving cheese and tuna over rice) that we called Cat Barf because of the way it looked.

 

It actually tasted good, but it DID raise eyebrows at the grocery when someone said "Oh, mom, can we have cat barf for dinner tonight again?"

[Word Nerd]

I like tuna casserole.

[kiana]

I feel like such a pariah now because I like tuna casserole. At least, I like my mother's.

[skeeterbug]

Pork chops. I ate so many pork chops as a child that I've never even purchased one as an adult.

[bluemongoose]

hamburger helper

rice a roni

tuna fish casserole

beef stroganoff

even worse hamburger helper beef stroganoff

broccoli salad

ambrosia

taco salad

Dads goulash (every leftover in the fridge mixed together)

coleslaw

 

From one of my former step mothers

spam crockpot dish. You layer spam, potato slices, and Velveeta cheese over and over till it fills the pot. Cook all day. Gag all dinner.

 

 

[Slartibartfast]

 

My mom put Cheez Whiz on everything.

 

 

I had forgotten about Cheez Whiz. :(

 

I think my sisters and I used to make sandwiches with it? I recall it being more of a "kids making food" thing than something my mom prepared.

 

Ugh!

[Jenny in Florida]

Well, my mother didn't so much cook as "assemble" meals by "dressing up" lots of packaged foods.

 

Canned pork and beans got added brown sugar, dehydrated onion flakes and bacon bits. On a special occasion, instead of bacon bits, the beans would be poured into a pan, draped with bacon and then put under the broiler until the bacon was crisp.

 

Cakes were made from mixes.

 

Breakfast was cold cereal (Apple Jacks, usually) or something made with Bisquick. 

 

Lunches at home were Chef Boyardee canned ravioli or Kraft macaroni and cheese.

 

Thanksgiving dinner was a small turkey with Stove Top stuffing, candied yams from a can topped with marshmallows, instant mashed potatoes, brown-and-serve rolls and a frozen pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream from a spray can.

 

Open-faced hot roast beef sandwiches were made with those plastic bags of meat in sauce that you heated up by boiling the whole bag. Does anyone else remember those? You then toasted a couple of slices of white bread or a hamburger bun, plopped some reconstituted instant mashed potatoes on each slice, cut open the bag 'o' beef and poured it on top.

 

I will admit to making pasta every few weeks by "dressing up" a jar of marinara sauce. And I do keep a box of potato flakes on hand that I use to smooth out my home-made mashed potatoes. But those meals are not the backbone of our menu the way they were in my childhood. Our meals are sometimes very simple, but they are made up primarily of ingredients, rather than products.

 

Also, I became a vegetarian in my young adulthood and have gradually transitioned to veganism. So, things like fried Spam and Vienna sausages never grace my table. Nor does any form of "Jello salad." ("Green goddess" was a regular feature of dinners at my grandmother's house.)

 

 

[OnTheBrink]

When I was very young, we were pretty poor. My dad was going to school and we lived in married-student housing and were on food stamps. Things we ate that I won't touch again:

 

Vienna sausages with American cheese slices and canned fruit cocktail. 

 

Meatloaf made with some... I don't know what it was. It looked like Grapenuts but it was some sort of filler. GAG. 

 

Fried bologna.

 

Pimento cheese (Massive GAG).

 

Salmon cakes made with canned salmon. She didn't bother to remove the bones. (shudder). 

 

Spam. 

 

Canned prunes.

 

 

Once my dad finished school, my mother went back, so she didn't cook anything, hardly. If we wanted a meal, it was a TV dinner, frozen pizza or hamburger helper. I don't mind frozen pizzas, but we don't buy TV dinners or hamburger helper.  On the rare events she did grace us with a meal, it was awful. She'd make beef "stew" that was watery and unseasoned. The meat was chewy. She refused to use any salt or garlic or anything and she'd have a FIT if we didn't eat it. She'd make eggs with no butter, just spray Pam. No salt. No seasoning. I think she did it on purpose, "Look, I COOKED for you and you don't LIKE it? I'm SO hurt!" Bah.

[*Lulu*]

Um, everything. No, really.

 

 

I had to learn to cook when I moved out. My idea of cooking was opening boxes and cans. That's all my mom can do. I had NO idea that mashed potatoes did not come from a box until I met my husband.

This is my mom and sister's way of cooking.

 

I had some dishes I hated before I ever moved out (beef stroganoff, liver, and meatloaf are all equally nasty to me) and other dishes I learned were so much better made fresh and box free (homemade mashed potatoes, biscuits, pancakes, and macaroni and cheese are now yummy in my book).

 

My family tells me my scratch cooking is not any better than the box, so why waste the effort.

 

DH says they are crazy and to save the good stuff for home where it is appreciated!

[mamaraby]

Anything made by my MIL or her family. I will make "mashed potatoes and noodles" for my dh on *very* rare occasions (like once a decade) because I love him, but I still don't get it and will pass on eating it myself. Seriously? Chicken noodle soup served over mashed potatoes. Nope. Don't get it.

 

My dad's meatloaf. I really liked my dad's chili when I was growing up, but I have my own now and vastly prefer it.

 

Also, didn't grow up with it, but we've had a few dinners with my sister's in-laws. I prefer to avoid her MIL's food as well.

[Word Nerd]

Anything made by my MIL or her family. I will make "mashed potatoes and noodles" for my dh on *very* rare occasions (like once a decade) because I love him, but I still don't get it and will pass on eating it myself. Seriously? Chicken noodle soup served over mashed potatoes. Nope. Don't get it.

 

Yum! Homemade chicken and noodles (they are thicker than noodles in a soup) over mashed potatoes is my favorite of Grandma B's dishes.

[mamaraby]

Yum! Homemade chicken and noodles (they are thicker than noodles in a soup) over mashed potatoes is my favorite of Grandma B's dishes.

Yeah, sorry. Still don't get it. My dh's version used bullion cubes, but even with a better homemade version, it's still not something I'd ever eat. I'm afraid it's one or the other for me. Never together. :0)

[Joyofsixreboot]

I refuse to spend hours snapping green beans. Frozen from the store will do. My grandmother made " perfection salad". Lime jello with shredded coleslaw in it. Just nooooooo!!! Chicken and noodles on mashed potatoes though are a God-given Hoosier right and I make them at least once a month. Yummy!

[BarbecueMom]

Chicken and noodles on mashed potatoes though are a God-given Hoosier right and I make them at least once a month. Yummy!

Agreed! I use real potatoes, homemade GF egg noodles, and broth and chicken from a rotisserie chicken to make mine. I don't think I'd like it if it was a Campbell's soup dumped over potato flakes kind of thing. Or with some weird spices in it.

 

I grew up in central Illinois and remember someone thinking this meal is a regional thing.

[Audrey]

My mother made a decent tuna casserole.  She didn't use the canned soup. 

 

 

My mom made a good one, too.  She called it Tuna Wiggle and it had those wide, floppy egg noodles in it, peas, carrots, celery and a cream sauce (no canned cream of crap soup), topped with cheddar and saltine crumbs.  It was good, but I've never made it for my family.  My dh won't eat canned tuna.

[Slartibartfast]

Yum! Homemade chicken and noodles (they are thicker than noodles in a soup) over mashed potatoes is my favorite of Grandma B's dishes.

 

I would eat that.

[Annie G]

Agreed! I use real potatoes, homemade GF egg noodles, and broth and chicken from a rotisserie chicken to make mine. I don't think I'd like it if it was a Campbell's soup dumped over potato flakes kind of thing. Or with some weird spices in it.

 

I grew up in central Illinois and remember someone thinking this meal is a regional thing.

 

 

My mom made this my whole life and I thought it was from her German heritage until I was an adult and she told me my dad's mom taught her.  Mom and Dad were born and raised in Pennsylvania and I thought it was regional to that area until I had the same dish at an Amish restaurant in central Illinois a few years ago!

[Lady Marmalade]

How do you stabilize whip cream?  Mom and I have always love it.  If we had leftover that went flat we either poured it over berries or re-whipped it.  Now I have a Whip-It instead.

 

One way is to use powdered sugar to sweeten it.  The added cornstarch in the powdered sugar is just enough to get the whipped cream to last for a few days in the fridge.

 

Another way is to use unflavored gelatin, but that method is a little tedious, and I have had batches of whipped cream where the gelatin doesn't cooperate and makes the cream gritty.

 

But for never-fail whipped cream that is stabilized enough to even use as a decoration for cake or pie, you just can't beat a product called "Whip-It" by Dr. Oetker. I find it in a box on the very top shelf by the tapioca at my grocery store.  It's sometimes by the instant pudding, but for some reason one of my stores has the tapioca by the bottled lemon/lime juices, and that's where I find it.   

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

La Choy canned chow mein.

 

Ewww

[LizzyBee]

I don't cook steak until it's like shoe leather.

I like squash, but I don't fry it on high heat and smoke up the house like my mom did.

I don't cook spaghetti in tomato juice.

 

Other than that, I cook a lot of things like my mom.  She was a good cook when she was younger.

[shukriyya]

To add to the tuna casserole variation...my mom layered canned tuna, cream of mushroom soup and potato chips, lather, rinse, repeat until it filled the pan then she baked it. We never had the noodle version.

 

My diet has changed completely and irrevocably since living at home so the list would be too long to write out here ;)

[HRAAB]

Cheez Whiz

Cool Whip

Spam

 

Never, ever.

[Annie G]

One way is to use powdered sugar to sweeten it.  The added cornstarch in the powdered sugar is just enough to get the whipped cream to last for a few days in the fridge.

 

Another way is to use unflavored gelatin, but that method is a little tedious, and I have had batches of whipped cream where the gelatin doesn't cooperate and makes the cream gritty.

 

But for never-fail whipped cream that is stabilized enough to even use as a decoration for cake or pie, you just can't beat a product called "Whip-It" by Dr. Oetker. I find it in a box on the very top shelf by the tapioca at my grocery store.  It's sometimes by the instant pudding, but for some reason one of my stores has the tapioca by the bottled lemon/lime juices, and that's where I find it.   

 

 

Whip It changed my life. Before I found that, I was using unflavored gelatin and when the gelatin was softening, I was gagging at the smell.  Now I looove whipped cream. And I have the thighs to prove it. 

[countrygal]

Refrigerator biscuits in the twist cans. Artificial butter flavor ... that's suppose to taste like something other than chemicals??

 

I'm also with the NO cheese whiz and cool whip.

 

American cheese. (Plastic??)

[Storygirl]

My mom made this my whole life and I thought it was from her German heritage until I was an adult and she told me my dad's mom taught her.  Mom and Dad were born and raised in Pennsylvania and I thought it was regional to that area until I had the same dish at an Amish restaurant in central Illinois a few years ago!

 

You probably weren't wrong. There are also many Amish in Pennsylvania. In fact, the Amish may be referred to as "Pennsylvania Dutch," where the word "Dutch" is really a variant of "Deutsch," which means German. So the Amish, the Germans, and Pennsylvania all relate.

[Storygirl]

So, dare I admit that I am making beef stroganoff for supper tomorrow?  And it's going to be fabulous!

[Catherine]

Chicken gizzards. Gag.

[stripe]

When I was a kid, my mom was in her soy phase. I can vividly remember the taste of mint chocolate soy milk. (Shudder) I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with that, and carob freaks me out. What is supposed to be so great about that, again?? I am so glad chocolate is now some sort of health food.

 

My grandma, on the other hand, loves prepared foods. My kids really enjoyed watching her with her bottle of aerosol whipped cream.

[Jenn121]

My mom was a good cook but my mil overcooks everything. I remember the first time I cooked him broccoli. My mom steamed her veggies before it was popular and I credit that with why I will eat so many veggies. So the first meal I made for him I steam the broccoli just right, tender and just that perfect bright green hue and he took a bite and timidly said, "Umm I think that this is under done?" I looked at him like he had two heads.

 

We laughed eventually when we figured out his mom's would boil the canned veggies and would often forget them. The smoke detector was often the oven timer.

[Mothersweets]

Dad's recipe for spaghetti and sauce:

Pour a can of stewed tomatoes over spaghetti noodles.

 

Recipe for steak:

Cook it until it is like shoe leather. Or boil it. (I kid you not.)

 

Growing up, I never understood why people loved spaghetti or got excited about a steak dinner.

 

I didn't gain an appreciation for either of these until I moved out. Now I love them both, but don't use the "family recipes." 

 

Me, too! I never understood the steak love until I was an adult. It was a shame, too, because I know my dad bought good quality steak.

[AMJ]

One way is to use powdered sugar to sweeten it.  The added cornstarch in the powdered sugar is just enough to get the whipped cream to last for a few days in the fridge.

 

Another way is to use unflavored gelatin, but that method is a little tedious, and I have had batches of whipped cream where the gelatin doesn't cooperate and makes the cream gritty.

 

But for never-fail whipped cream that is stabilized enough to even use as a decoration for cake or pie, you just can't beat a product called "Whip-It" by Dr. Oetker. I find it in a box on the very top shelf by the tapioca at my grocery store.  It's sometimes by the instant pudding, but for some reason one of my stores has the tapioca by the bottled lemon/lime juices, and that's where I find it.   

 

Okay, your Whip-It is different from my Whip-It.  Mine is a bottle, much like make-your-own Reddi-Whip.

 

So that's why the whip cream Mom and I made always fell -- we never sweetened it at all.  Come to think of it, plain cream in the Whip-It also takes a lot more shaking than sweetened cream.  Thanks!  Now I'll have to play with proportions to find out how little sugar I can get away with.

[Dory]

My mom made a peanut butter tomato soup that I shudder still every time I think of it. I always hated her macaroni goulash with the giant chunks of onion and giant stewed tomatos (sorry mom I know you were just trying to stretch the food out).

[Heidi]

Canned pear halves filled with mayonnaise and sprinkled with cheddar cheese.

[BlessedMom]

Liver & onions

Powdered Milk

[Miss Peregrine]

Canned pear halves filled with mayonnaise and sprinkled with cheddar cheese.

Barf-o-rama. For real?

[rebbyribs]

Salad made with iceberg lettuce and topped with "Pink Dressing" (a mix of ketchup and mayo).

Fried eggplant - I like eggplant, but my parents would bread and fry it so that the eggplant ended up covered in burnt breadcrumbs and barely cooked inside,

Scalloped potatoes from a box.  I've tried making them from scratch and don't like them much better though - I'm not sure why because potatoes and dairy products are usually right up my alley.

[Shamzanne]

"Favorite Family Stew" thickened with tapioca and made in the microwave

 

There were a few things I loved as a kid but when I realized what the ingredients were I will no longer make them: Enchilada Casserole with several "cream of" soups, Impossible Mexican Pie made with Bisquick, and my favorite, Deviled Ham sandwiches. When I first started doing the shopping I realized Deviled Ham was in the same section as Potted Meat Food Product and Pig's Feet, and was horrified that my mother served it to us.

 

My mom isn't a terrible cook. My mother in law, however, makes the most disgusting food. Meatloaf is unseasoned with rice in it. She serves broccoli with cheese whiz on it for holidays. Fat free hot dogs served cold, because that is the way they like them. She once tried to be "fancy" and put taco seasoning in Kraft mac and cheese. For breakfast, microwaveable Jimmy Dean sandwiches. Her "taco salad" has canned tuna in it. The worst, however, was one long car trip I took with the family before I married in. She was thrilled because she found a case of vienna sausages at Costco and we wouldn't have to stop for meals. Barf. I had to scrounge meals at gas stations.

[Jasperstone]

Liver & onions

Powdered Milk

 

I was just about to post- LIVER!!! I still remember dry reaching  :drool:  when made to eat that stuff!

[Cammie]

OMG, you guys have me in stitches.  First, let me say that my mom was a great cook and so there is not much from my childhood I would put on this list.

 

HOWEVER, I am a TERRIBLE cook and I really can sympathize with all your mothers who thought they could dress up a canned or boxed meal!!!  Now I am traumatized by what my kids might right about me in the future!

 

Honestly, moving to India and being able to have a person who cooks for us (real food, chopping and mixing and steaming and everything!) was a big deal for me!  At least my kids have had real food for 8 years...I am worried about what I will do when we move back to the US!

[wintermom]

Liver & Onions

 

Canned peas

 

Swanson pot pies

 

TV Dinners

 

Did we have the same parents? And to think that the TV dinners were a "treat!"

 

Also:

 

Cheese Whiz and processed cheese slices

 

Scrambled eggs with sugar added instead of salt (that's just an unexpected blah!)