What did your parents cook?

[FallenPixels]

When I was a kid, my mum worked (as a teacher so she was home at the same time as us), but always cooked a home cooked meal every night, she was absolutely shocked last week at my sister using frozen mashed potato when she was cooking in the oven for 30 mins anyway and could boil potatoes in that time.

So.... what did your parents cook when you were a child, did they use processed food, what is your I have never eaten / didn't have until I was an adult food.

I remember coming home, and the kitchen would be steamy hot from cooking, usually a stew, spaghetti with meat sauce, something fairly easy and non time consuming so she could do her paperwork. On weekends, we always had a sit down Sunday Dinner and you were in trouble if you were not home on time for it.

I still haven't tried Kraft Dinner, we grew up fighting over who would grate the cheese, stir the flour in etc for cheese sauce, I always make my own - just the look of that pile of plastic to me....

[TudorChick]

we were working class,so it was usually something easy like hamburger with potatoes and mushroom soup sauce,spaghetti,shake and bake chicken,stews,hot dogs and sauerkraut,ham,roast,burgers and steaks in the summer,alot of iceberg salads...

[bargain_hunter_lola]

lots of BBQ items when my dad had to cook. lol. Mom made a bunch of stuff.

Never ate Sheppards Pie until I was an adult though, not sure why but my parents didn't make it.

Just tried Hamburger Helper for the first time last week and hated it. Like REALLY hated it. lol

[MrsSunshine]

im like you. my mom cooked everything from scratch. we always had a 'square' meal. salad, vegetable, ,meat etc, starch. every dinner. there was always something yummy to eat. cakes/cookies/squares were also from scratch. my mom use to decorate cakes for a living. she was good at it. even now i've learned many recipes from her. and try a few of my own. im slightly more a package girl for baking where as hubby always does that from scratch.

[FallenPixels]

Never ate Sheppards Pie until I was an adult though, not sure why but my parents didn't make it.

Just tried Hamburger Helper for the first time last week and hated it. Like REALLY hated it. lol

Same, I find them sooooo salty, but we had Sheppards Pie a lot as kids, sometimes variations of it (Gardener's pie with veggies, Italian Sheppard's Pie with a tomato meat sauce etc)

[Miss_April]

Exactly the same FP

[sweet sparrow]

My parents owned a restaurant so I ate whatever I wanted for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The only times I ate processed foods were at school, even though it was ten minutes away. I found it too stressful to run home and then make it back for afternoon class though.

Unfortunately, my parents fed me almost constantly and I've never grown out of that habit. People tell me I'm always eating. Wherever I go, I always pack snacks and end up taking a huge bag of food to people's houses because I always get hungry and I don't want to ask for food.

Even meeting foreign co-workers, they seem to know about my eating habits before they know my name. And they all want to watch me eat, which is even worse....

[VeeVee]

My mom worked full time and became a single mother with 2 kids ages 6 and 16 but we never had boxed food. I never had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich until I was 12 and cheese whiz until I was 13, I had it at a friends house and I thought I had gone to heaven and died lol
My mom was an Italian chef so we had lots of yummy homemade food. When she was short on time we would have fried liver with onions or rye bread with liver wurst patte (which I still LOVE)

[glowworm2k]

When I was growing up, we didn't have a lot, but there was a lot of homemade soup and tomato sauce, meats bought at a farmers' market (they used to be way cheaper than the grocery store - before we had "discount" grocery stores), potatoes (always baked in the oven, Mom hated the idea of microwaved potatoes once we finally got a microwave, lol), rice, carrots, peas, and whatever other veggies Mom thought fit to cook. Very little - if anything - came out of a box. I remember my mom didn't think her MIL was a good cook because she used instant mashed potatoes, lol.

I remember being ridiculously poor as a first year university student living in my own apartment for the first time. At that time, I ate things I'd never eaten (but now wouldn't unless I was truly desperate), like chicken wieners, ramen noodles (can't. say. enough. how much I loathe these!), hamburger helper, pre-made frozen chili and lasagna, and soup from a packet.

A few weird ones I never tried until adulthood but now completely love:
cabbage (dad hated it, but I love it now and have it as a staple in my house)
parsnips
winter squash
omelettes, french toast, quiche, scrambled eggs (Dad was allergic to eggs; Mom would only ever cook them hard-boiled)

Mentioning the eggs reminds me of when I was 17 or 18 and cooking for myself. I thought I'd experiment, so cooked some mushrooms, onion and green pepper in a pan, then cracked an egg or two in and mixed it all up. I grated some cheese onto this new marvelous concoction and then sandwiched it between two slices of toast. YUM!

I was so proud of myself that I called up my boyfriend at the time (this was before everybody had the internet) and said, "guess what?!? I just made the most awesome meal ever!!!" His response? "Congratulations. You just 'invented' the western sandwich. Do you want to go to the movies tomorrow?"

[FallenPixels]

I would probably get a slap on the head if I microwaved 'baked' potatoes at home too LOL

I had the same issue with eggs, my sister is allergic to them, so we had ice cream cakes etc, I tried eggs when I was living on my own, but only grew to like them recently, and I still gag even thinking of eating them hard boiled

[sweet sparrow]

I remember my mom didn't think her MIL was a good cook because she used instant mashed potatoes, lol.

I remember the first time I saw a box of potatoes at MIL's house. I had to grab the box and shake it, open it, sniff it... "Really? Potatoes come in a box?!?"

I thought I'd experiment, so cooked some mushrooms, onion and green pepper in a pan, then cracked an egg or two in and mixed it all up. I grated some cheese onto this new marvelous concoction and then sandwiched it between two slices of toast. YUM!

Mmmm!!! I used to make those for myself as well with the entire onion! I hated the taste of raw onion, so I had to cut up and pre-cook all the onion first. Sooo good. I think I had that for lunch almost every day!

Now I want one!

[Jody22002]

I had a different sort of childhood. Bounced around a lot. Started off with a bio mom who wasn't great about feeding us. I have really vivid memories of eating sugar cubes for dinner. Ick. Eventually, we were put into the system and then went to live with my dad(men didn't get custody back then!). He had 5 kids and 2 grandkids to feed and he was a working single parent so lots of processed food. Refried KD. Macaroni and Tomatoes(can't eat it now to save my life). I was eventually adopted by a woman who cannot, even to this day, cook. She cooked the Christmas turkey in the microwave....lol. Sweet n Sour Brussel Sprouts was one of her favorite dishes to make. Ewwwww. My dad eventually married her and he became a vegan and I swear, it is just so she doesn't cook his dinner.

[marstec]

My parents always made meals from scratch, and it always healthful. We never had the "common" staples in our house (like my friends) such as Kraft Dinner, Hamburger Helper, Koolaid, Tang, etc. They didn't do much baking though. My father had quite the sweet tooth, so he was forever bringing home donuts and pastries from the grocery store.

Now that I have my own household, I make everything from scratch and I also bake. My children crave the store-bought stuff because that is what their friends eat.

[Patty Smyth]

My mom didn't cook lol.

[DH666]

My mom made almost everything from scratch. We would occasionally have Kraft Dinner as a treat or Campbell's soup. She also baked goodies. I remember making pulled taffy (or as we called it in French, "la tire", which literally means pull). To this day I still have a really sweet tooth, although I can only have a little bit of candy as I am now diabetic.

Since we all ate what dad liked, I did not have much diversity in my diet. It was more of a French Canadian meat and potato diet. To this day I hate boiled potatoes and will only eat mashed if there are raw onions in it and lots of gravy.

I started experimenting with different ethnic foods once I moved out of my small town to Toronto and then Montreal and I love most of them. I never had tzatziki until I met Patty and I love that stuff. I like most foods with a few exceptions: Cucumber and melons are some, and I don't like curry because of the texture, not the flavour.