Were there food items that your parents wouldn’t buy when you were little, but when you got married or moved out you went crazy buying those things for yourself?

[marbel]

1 hour ago, teachermom2834 said:

It is funny (sad really 😟) the psychological impacts our food culture growing up can have on us for years to come. Both of my parents grew up poor but had totally different reactions to it. My mom would eat anything and would not throw anything away. My dad refused leftovers and had foods he wouldn’t eat because he associated them with being poor.  
 

I was in college before I ever had beans or rice because these weren’t things my dad would eat (but my family could have used some budget stretchers!). I love both beans and rice. I learned to make good use of leftovers (but unlike my mom I am picky about using them right away). My dad has been at my house and seen me or heard about me heating up leftovers for my family and snarled that I could do better for my family than that. So very strange! 
 

 

 

My parents were both poor growing up (great depression kids) and also had somewhat different reactions.

My mother was frugal to the point of self-deprivation in my view. Never new clothes or books, always from the thrift store. Saved everything that might be reused, but not in a hoarding sort of way. She died with very few possessions but she was not destitute nor was she living in poverty (nice independent living apartment). She had money but could not spend it.

My father was also frugal but he liked new clothes, liked to eat out, liked nice cars. I think my mother's frugality sometimes bothered him. But he was also thrifty in his way! I have a few strong memories of this. Once, when an aunt was visiting, he was clipping coupons out of the Sunday paper. She commented that she was happy her daughter was successful and in a high-paying profession and would never need to clip coupons. He was very open with his opinion that this was a stupid attitude. He saw no reason not to save $$ when it was easy and convenient. But he also didn't deny himself. 

I am sure we ate leftovers and I doubt my father complained. As a snack he ate something he called "poor man's pizza" which was saltine with ketchup on it, maybe a smidge of cheese? Not something I would find delicious. I'm sure he would be amazed at the variety of crackers to be found in my kitchen. Not to mention cheeses in the fridge... 

Edited August 31, 2022 by marbel

[Indigo Blue]

I don’t understand the mindset that leftovers are somehow bad. My husband’s business partner won’t eat any food if it’s from the day before. I can’t imagine making a home cooked meal and him expecting me to toss it the next day and make another meal. I was just wondering how I’d approach something like that. Maybe say, well, I’m gonna eat this leftover dish each night until it’s gone. You’re welcome to make yourself anything you want until I’m out of food?? Because I just wouldn’t be dumping it in the trash. 

[lynn]

Not that we didn't have it but I was happy to make the blue box Kraft mac and cheese and have as much as I wanted and not divide the one box by 7.  The other thing is buying good ice cream, in a flavor I wanted.  Also, grapes and cherries.  Mom only bought grapes  at Thanksgiving and I don't ever remember her buying cherries.

[teachermom2834]

11 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

I don’t understand the mindset that leftovers are somehow bad. My husband’s business partner won’t eat any food if it’s from the day before. I can’t imagine making a home cooked meal and him expecting me to toss it the next day and make another meal. I was just wondering how I’d approach something like that. Maybe say, well, I’m gonna eat this leftover dish each night until it’s gone. You’re welcome to make yourself anything you want until I’m out of food?? Because I just wouldn’t be dumping it in the trash. 

My mom would save the leftovers and eat them for lunches I guess but not serve them to my dad. My neighbors are the same way. They have given me leftover pizza because their kids won’t eat it. 

[Indigo Blue]

3 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

My mom would save the leftovers and eat them for lunches I guess but not serve them to my dad. My neighbors are the same way. They have given me leftover pizza because their kids won’t eat it. 

And I can see how sometimes certain things just don’t taste good the next day….

I think it would be hard if my husband would never eat anything unless it was made that very day. I don’t know how his wife works around it. 

[teachermom2834]

1 minute ago, Indigo Blue said:

And I can see how sometimes certain things just don’t taste good the next day….

I think it would be hard if my husband would never eat anything unless it was made that very day. I don’t know how his wife works around it. 

Well getting way off topic now but my dad was super difficult in a lot of ways. He won’t eat anything that has been in the freezer either. 
 

He’ll eat in restaurants though. I decided it was just easier not to inform him that his fish from Applebees had been frozen at some point. Lol. So the leftovers was probably the least of the issues to work around. 

[Spryte]

I can’t think of any foods that my parents wouldn’t buy, growing up. One of our houses was pretty far out in the country, and at that house we didn’t have access to pizza delivery — so pizza or take out was a pretty big treat. Once in a while, my father would bring home take out from the city — Thai or something like that, usually, or he’d pick up pizza on the way home. So, for me, it wasn’t so much a particular food, but more the concept of food delivery that was special. 

Ironically, I have kids now who can eat at very few restaurants, and there are almost zero safe delivery choices for them despite a plethora delivery options here. So ordering out isn’t really a great option now, either! (Alas!)

[BlsdMama]

Fake mashed potatoes!

 

 My mom would never have bought these or used them. I didn’t even know they existed before I got married, but after I knew? Mashed potatoes constantly for about a year! 😝 

[Indigo Blue]

1 minute ago, BlsdMama said:

Fake mashed potatoes!

 

 My mom would never have bought these or used them. I didn’t even know they existed before I got married, but after I knew? Mashed potatoes constantly for about a year! 😝 

Fake mashed potatoes are good! Haven’t had them in years, though. 

[SKL]

No.  If my folks didn't buy something, it was either because it was too expensive, or because nobody in our house liked it.  When I launched, I was broke, and I was more than happy with "comfort food" like whatever I had growing up.

People did mock me since one of my favorite foods was Kraft mac'n'cheese.  (I did try generic, but it tasted funny.)  Now I buy organic boxed mac'n'cheese.  😛  So I've moved up in the world.  Though most of the time, my menu is "other people's leftovers."

[ktgrok]

Regarding peanut butter, I also prefer crunchy. One day I asked my dad why he bought creamy instead, since we like crunchy better. He said, "Because the creamy lasts longer." Well, it lasted longer because we didn't like it that much so we didn't eat it often, lol. I think that was his plan...

 

[ktgrok]

On the flip side, we ate cheerios (the plain, not the honey nut) pretty much EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE from toddler to adult. I have never eaten a bowl since I moved out, lol. I never will. 

[Elizabeth86]

11 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

On the flip side, we ate cheerios (the plain, not the honey nut) pretty much EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE from toddler to adult. I have never eaten a bowl since I moved out, lol. I never will. 

I’d say not. 😂I was probably about 6 or 7 before I ever had cereal because my mom made a homemade country breakfast every dang day before that. I’m talking biscuits, sausage, eggs, gravy, pancakes the whole dang thing. 

[Sweets]

My sister and I ate relatively normally while growing up. My mom was not too stringent on healthy foods, so we had a good mixture of junk vs healthy food. Funny, I still relate bananas with grocery shopping. We would come home from school, and if there were bananas on the counter, then Mom had gone grocery shopping! She only shopped ONCE a month, so the bananas were really a treat. My mom froze a lot of foods, like breads and milk, so that during her month between shopping trips she would just pull stuff out of the freezer. No fresh foods though until grocery shopping day. Me - I go to the grocery store or produce stands about twice a week. I love fresh fruits. My husband absolutely forbids me to freeze milk (says it tastes gross), so we also get that from the store. 

My mom was also a big scheduler and never deviated. Sundays was pot roast and potatoes and carrots, Monday was Polish sausage and sauerkraut, Taco Tuesday, Wednesday was butter beans and ham, Thursday was fried chicken and mashed potatoes, Friday was frozen pizzas, Saturday was sandwiches or if we were lucky out to eat, which was rare. (I can still remember this schedule after all these years and I'm 62!) These were Mom's favorite dishes, and after I got married and left home, I NEVER ever fixed butter beans. I hate them. My sister still cooks Polish sausage and sauerkraut and butter beans and ham, but not on schedule!, and my husband will go to her house to eat because he loves those dishes. I never scheduled my meals to that point although I did do menu planning for supper when my boys were younger so I at least didn't have to stress about meals. But now that we are empty nesters, sort of, we just eat what we feel like! We don't eat out much anymore.

The week I keep my granddaughter though we are back to the pizzas, spaghetti, and Mexican foods that her dad (my son) loved to eat growing up. When it's just my husband and I, we eat a lot of salads in the summer and soups in the winter. 

[teachermom2834]

I was very much a rule follower and still am and I never did rebel growing up even though I was pretty unhappy. To this day I still think I do things to rebel against strict food edicts. We ate a ton of pizza and it was always with sausage and pepperoni. Always. No deviation ever. Still is if we eat with my family. But if I am in charge dang it I am going to put some onions on that pizza just to show ‘em. Or maybe I can be really crazy and put something else on it…like meatball? Or ham? Wow that would really show them they can’t control me! Lol.

And just watch me put meat in my pasta sauce just to rebel. I’ll do it! 😂😂😂

[regentrude]

2 hours ago, Indigo Blue said:

I don’t understand the mindset that leftovers are somehow bad. My husband’s business partner won’t eat any food if it’s from the day before. I can’t imagine making a home cooked meal and him expecting me to toss it the next day and make another meal. I was just wondering how I’d approach something like that. Maybe say, well, I’m gonna eat this leftover dish each night until it’s gone. You’re welcome to make yourself anything you want until I’m out of food?? Because I just wouldn’t be dumping it in the trash. 

I grew up with a grandmother and mother who lived through post-war famine. No food was ever thrown away. That would have been a grave sin.

The label "leftover" wasn't a thing- everyone was happy that there were yummy things from lunch (the main meal) that could be warmed up to augment the bread-and-cheese dinner. 

[ktgrok]

9 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

I was very much a rule follower and still am and I never did rebel growing up even though I was pretty unhappy. To this day I still think I do things to rebel against strict food edicts. We ate a ton of pizza and it was always with sausage and pepperoni. Always. No deviation ever. Still is if we eat with my family. But if I am in charge dang it I am going to put some onions on that pizza just to show ‘em. Or maybe I can be really crazy and put something else on it…like meatball? Or ham? Wow that would really show them they can’t control me! Lol.

And just watch me put meat in my pasta sauce just to rebel. I’ll do it! 😂😂😂

Interesting! I also did not rebel - very much a rule follower growing up. But food is also where I rebel the most now- it is why a lot of diet plans, like say weight watchers, don't work for me because I start purposely rebelling against the rules. (yes, I KNOW that is dumb! I KNOW it only hurts myself. I still do it!) If I want to change a habit I have to sneak up on myself about it, lol. 

[regentrude]

I grew up in a country with enough to eat but severely limited food choices compared to the US. My grandmother cooked very well, lots of veggies. As an adult,  I greatly expanded my culinary repertoire to things that didn't exist in my youth.

There were no ethnic restaurants. I didn't have Chinese, Indian, or pizza until I was in my mid-twenties. I had never had broccoli, bell peppers,  avocado, zucchini, sweet potatoes.... the list is long.

[Jaybee]

20 hours ago, Catwoman said:

We always had pretty much whatever we wanted to eat when I was growing up, so I can't think of anything I wanted but wasn't allowed to have. I have raised my son the same way. 

Same. I have probably added more variety of foods, especially ethnic foods and more variety of vegetables. There were limits on things or we would have gobbled everything up, and I have had to set limits sometimes with my kids, or some would eat it all and some wouldn't get any. But nothing was really off limits. My mom never bought spinach until she discovered spinach and strawberry salad though, because she hated spinach the way it was served when she was a child. Occasionally, we would talk her into buying a sugary cereal like Lucky Charms or something, but then we would end up not eating it, so she'd get aggravated with us, because "You never eat it when I buy it. Are you going to eat it this time?" 

[Jaybee]

Also, there are just lots more kinds of foods available now than there were before. My parents grew up in the Depression. While I don't believe either ever went hungry, there were certainly limited food choices. So my mom said that she decided she would always keep candy on hand when she grew up.🤣 But then she had four greedy children, so she had to hide her stash if she wanted any after the first day or so. I do like sweets, but have never really liked sweet cereals, except that I do appreciate a bowl of chocos now and then with very cold milk. Not for breakfast, but for a snack. In reality, I never buy them, but did as an occasional treat when my kids were younger.

A not-so-great side effect of my mom's upbringing is that when we were babies, she would mix up baby cereal, and even if we were showing signs that we were full, she would shovel it in until we finished the bowl. I discovered this when I had my own babies and watched her feed one or two. That explained a lot--my very chubby legs with rolls as a toddler (not just normal toddler/baby rolls) and my subsequent battles with weight all my life. It isn't all on her, of course, but I do feel like it began there.

[Selkie]

No, I didn't go crazy over any foods, but I had already been feeding myself for a number of years when I moved out at 18. I was the caboose child in a family that was a real mess - bitterly unhappy marriage, alcoholism - and by the time I came along, my family had given up on eating meals together, even on holidays. Cooking didn't happen often, either.

We always had basic grocery items, and once I was around ten or so, my food choices were left entirely up to me. I mostly lived on things like sandwiches, cereal, and salads. My parents were big meat eaters and I was vegetarian from a young age, but I always found plenty of other things to eat. I worked at a restaurant in high school and ate some of my meals there.

When I taught myself to cook as a young adult, it opened up a whole new world of foods to me.

Side note: What I was really excited about when I moved out was buying an air conditioner. My parents had a thing against a/c, and our house was always sweltering in summer. Having my own comfortably cool apartment was pure bliss!

[wintermom]

I can't think of any food items I went crazy over after moving out on my own. We had a mix of healthy and junky foods - and far too much candy, though I sure wasn't complaining at the time. 😉 

I do remember being curious as a kid about some foods that were advertized in comic books, but weren't available in Canada. Things like Twinkies and Wonder Bread. When I eventually travelled to the US and had an opportunity to try them, I wasn't too impressed. Some things look better in a photo than they actually taste.

I did go crazy eating some amazing foods when I lived in Norway as a young adult, though. Man do they have delicious chocolate and ice cream, whole grain bread, not-overly-sweet cakes and buns, and brown cheese! 

[Miss Tick]

15 minutes ago, Selkie said:

Side note: What I was really excited about when I moved out was buying an air conditioner. My parents had a thing against a/c, and our house was always sweltering in summer. Having my own comfortably cool apartment was pure bliss!

Huh, I had forgotten how glad I was to be able to point the fan at *me* as I feel asleep, rather than out the window. 😄

[Indigo Blue]

We were comfortable growing up, but we were slightly “house poor”. We lived in a house that was more expensive than we should have been in, so there was less for food and clothes. My mom did cook most meals at home. It wasn’t a huge variety, and a lot of it was boxed foods but also some fresh. There was even less for clothes than food. But I do remember asking my mom “will you buy crunchy peanut butter this time?” And she’d come home and it would be smooth. It was perplexing, but I never asked her why. I just thought, “Oh, well.”

I had to eat some crunchy peanut butter today because of this thread. 
 

I remember she used to buy those little tiny boxes of variety pack cereal. We’d eat the good ones first, and Raisin Bran was always left for last. 

[marbel]

32 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

I remember she used to buy those little tiny boxes of variety pack cereal. We’d eat the good ones first, and Raisin Bran was always left for last.

We had those when we went camping. I adored them. We only got them for camping though, because of the cost. My mother also had a thing against excess packaging.  So those little cereal boxes were a special thing.

I've never bought them for my kids for the same reasons my mom didn't, and we haven't camped in a long time, but if we stay at a hotel that has them at the included-in-the-price breakfast, my kids always get one to take in the car. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

4 hours ago, Elizabeth86 said:

I’d say not. 😂I was probably about 6 or 7 before I ever had cereal because my mom made a homemade country breakfast every dang day before that. I’m talking biscuits, sausage, eggs, gravy, pancakes the whole dang thing. 

Your mom needs to write a cookbook already.

[Elizabeth86]

2 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle said:

Your mom needs to write a cookbook already.

She is!

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

Just now, Elizabeth86 said:

She is!

No way!!! I’m excited.  It’s 5:30 pm and I’m still trying to figure out what to make for dinner because DH is not picking up on the take out hints.

[Elizabeth86]

2 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle said:

No way!!! I’m excited.  It’s 5:30 pm and I’m still trying to figure out what to make for dinner because DH is not picking up on the take out hints.

Today we are celebrating my dad’s birthday, so we had dinner at mom’s. 🤣 I think it won’t be out for like 6 months or something.

[Lady Florida.]

I don't really drink soda anymore except occasionally when eating out. However, we weren't allowed to have soda in the house or even order it out. The one exception was pizza because for some reason my mom liked soda with pizza so she let us have the treat then. We didn't get pizza often so it really was a rare treat. When I first went out on my own I always bought soda to keep at home. Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, gingerale, root beer, you name it. I switched it up and bought different flavors but I always had some available. By the time I met dh I was over it but yeah, I did go kind of crazy for soda in my 20s.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Lady Florida.

[KungFuPanda]

15 hours ago, KidsHappen said:

No, if anything I changed to a much healthier diet when I left home and kept things pretty healthy for my kids until the pre-teen/teen years. Around that time my hubby and I bought a box of twinkies for the kids to try and they thought we were trying to poison them. Some of them got into a soda and/or coffee habit as teenagers and the once monthly chocolate crawl began.  

I got al nostalgic and bought a box of twinkies for my kids when they were in their teens.  (Despite all the homemade food, we were allowed to have the occasional lunch cake in our lunch boxes) I missed the Little Debbie window with my kids.  They did not care for the twinkie and I was left wondering if it always tasted that chemically because I know I used to like them.

[Clarita]

Vienna sausages. They were always a "treat" growing up. That was a mistake, they're so weird in taste and texture. Both my husband and I are now wondering whether they were a treat because our parents were cheap or they just didn't like them.  

[Indigo Blue]

35 minutes ago, Clarita said:

Vienna sausages. They were always a "treat" growing up. That was a mistake, they're so weird in taste and texture. Both my husband and I are now wondering whether they were a treat because our parents were cheap or they just didn't like them.  

My older brother used to drink the slimy liquid that came packed in the can.🤢

[Indigo Blue]

Also is it a southern thing to pronounce Vienna sausages as vieenie weenies? Or were we the only ones? I really thought that’s how it was pronounced. Vi as in rhymes with eye, then eenie as in rhymes with meanie. 

[Elizabeth86]

16 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Also is it a southern thing to pronounce Vienna sausages as vieenie weenies? Or were we the only ones? I really thought that’s how it was pronounced. Vi as in rhymes with eye, then eenie as in rhymes with meanie. 

We do too!

[Janeway]

Oddly, no. I mean, my parents were a bit short on the buying of fruits and we always have fresh fruit and veggies in the house. They did not refuse to buy them, but in the 70's and 80's, produce were often either straight from the garden, or canned. Most about what I do not consume that they wanted me to. I hate steak. I cannot stand garden tomatoes. I know there was Rhubarb around, but no one offered me any. I should probably try that. I guess if they put it in pie, it must not taste as bad as I assumed based on looks. I will NOT eat pork..blechy.