What was your childhood diet?

Any

Both my parents worked in hospitality and worked long and irregular hours.
We were fed on mixture of restaurant food (when we were around their work), homemade food, usually soops and stews and what we could make ourselves. That involved lots of spaghetti with ketchup and frankfurter saussages, milk soup (hot milk with noodles), porridge or cold buffet for dinner (bread with choice of salami, vegetables, cheese, boiled eggs etc).
But in those days we did get 3 course hot meal at school for lunch.
At the weekends my parents always either made at home, or prepared at work homemade stew dinners for us.
We did also get snack money (lunch not till 1-3pm depending on end of lessons), which involved a fresh bread roll with cheese triangle and the rest spent on sweets!!:-)):rotfl:

We were brought up on a lots of vegetables though. Everything involved vegetables. If you have sandwich with ham - tomatoes on side, cucumber on side, sliced pepper on side. Or whole salads. Each plate of anything with grilled chicken breast or pork loin involved whole edge of plate decorated with peas, slice of tomato, cucumber, some carrot, some sweetcorn etc..(like you do in restaurants:-)) Stews had vegetables already in them.
I was brought up to eat pretty much anything. The only thing I made problems with as a child, and I still do as adult, is fresh onion. I just don't get it. I find the taste and the crunch unpleasant.

Lagoon

The late 80s/early 90s were clearly the era of the deep fat fryer...

allybee101

I don't think we had a deep fat fryer and I was born in '82. I remember upside down sponge pudding with custard, toad in the hole etc.

Sunday night dinner is a really strong memory for me. We would have an early bath then get in our pyjamams and tea would be scotch pancakes, or crumpets or toasted cheese sandwiches. We'd have them in front of the tv watching Last of the Summer Wine. Never realised it was because they were v cheap and Mum could fill us up on them for mere pennies.
Looking back I realise there was a lot of meal planning going on to stretch food. We had a mix of homemade and frozen stuff - depended how busy mum was. Bernard Matthews turkey drummers and turkey burgers. We also used to have the round turkey roast.

CompBunny

Late 80's here...

Growing up, Mum didn't work at all until I was about 8 and even then it was part time. My brother needed a lot of extra care so she needed to be at home as much as possible!

Breakfasts: All sitting at the table together, a selection of cereals, toast, fruit. We were allowed to add sugar to our cereal on a saturday only as a treat!

Lunches - packed lunches during the week with sandwiches or rice salad, fruit, cherry toms, a chocolate bar (penguin, club, trio, gold bars....the usual suspects!), chicken leg, a slice of ham or cheese and sometimes some homemade cake. Oh, and either a carton of orange juice or a flask of milkshake if Mum had decided I wasn't getting enough calcium that week
At the weekends it would be jacket potatoes, fry up, salads, baked beans etc.
ALWAYS a 3 course roast on sunday lunch, with our Grandparents as guests, after she had taught sunday school and ferried the elderly congregation home! No idea how she managed to do all of this, because we usually went to the swimming pool before church too!

Dinner - always accompanied by a big communal bowl of salad
Meat, potatoes and 2 veg
Fish fingers, potatoes and veg
Casseroles
Sausage and mash
Spaghetti - plain with cheese!
Pies/quiches, hm
Curry with rice, sauce from a jar usually
Once we were older, frozen pizza...
Usually a homemade pudding
Buffet style with meats and salads at the weekend, crumpets for a treat.

I was really lucky that Mum was around to cook good and healthy things for us. The majority of our meals were healthy, although there was never a shortage of homemade cakes and puddings to indulge in.

When I got to high school and managed to negotiate school dinners twice a week, I used to spend my £1.50 dinner money on 15 Taz bars from the tuck van thinking it was a better option than mums lovingly made lunches!

CCP

bearcub wrote: »

It would be very interesting if my DD1 posts on this thread (she posts regularly elsewhere on MSE), as she was born in the 80s. I think she'd say she had a pretty good diet.

Sorry, it's taken me a few days to get round to reading this thread!

I would agree that we had a good diet, despite my DM's general lack of enjoyment of cooking - this might be a good place to say thank you! :T I really enjoyed the home cooked meals we had as kids, and still cook some of the same things now - chicken casserole made with chicken legs, a tin of veg soup, extra veg, and topped with dumplings is still a favourite. :drool: (Note to self - chicken soup casserole must be on next week's meal plan! )

The one thing I never enjoyed was my dad's roast beef, as he likes it very well-done: I didn't realise until I was nearly an adult that beef could be served any other way and that I actually enjoyed it if it was taken out of the oven before it was cremated. (I should add that my dad is an excellent cook and this is our only real point of disagreement - sorry, dad! )

Of course, like most kids I was a contrary creature and was secretly rather jealous of my friends who regularly ate convenience foods like crispy pancakes and turkey drummers - at one point I convinced my mum to let me have school dinners just so I could have them too (which says a lot about 80s school dinners, really!). A few years ago I bought myself some turkey drummers, of which I have fond memories, and was disappointed but not particularly surprised to find that they're disgusting - they definitely taste better in my memories, which is where they're staying from now on! :rotfl:

CCP

Just working my way through this thread (quiet afternoon at work )

glitterkitty wrote: »

I do remember this one pudding my mum used to get me, but no-one can remember it! It came in a box, and there was this powder that you mixed with hot water and it was lemon. It made a sort of thick lemon custard. Then there was a crumble to sprinkle on the top. It was really lovely, but I can't remember what it was called! Does anyone know what I'm talking about?!

I remember that stuff - I hadn't thought about it in years! I remember it being delicious (although, like the turkey drummers, it would probably be revolting to my adult tastebuds! ) - was it called 'magic pudding' or something like that?

[STRIKE]G00gle time, I think...[/STRIKE]

no need:

pigpen wrote: »

http://www.childofthe1980s.com/2008/11/28/birds-instant-hot-crunch-puddings/

They did banana (which was my favourite) butterscotch, lemon and chocolate.

That's the stuff! I liked the lemon one best as I recall.

Make-it-3

Another 70's child, SAHM working class family. Very similar experiences. Mum cooked if you could call it that. You knew the day of the week by what we had. Meat was cheap cuts, I remember lots of gristle. We had powdered custard every day either with crumble, shop bought cake or a spoonful of jam in it.

I had school dinners for a while, lets not dredge up those tortured memories, but I think school reported I wasn't eating them and I switch to packed lunches. Ham, cheese or fish paste sandwich, squash and Penguin/Club/Trio biscuit.

Our main meal week was:

Sun: lamb, beef or chicken on strict rotation with potatoes and overboiled veg which I always refused.

Mon: leftovers - made into shepherds/cottage pie if it was lamb or beef. Or cold chicken potatoes, beetroot and pickled onions

Tues: Sausages, beans and mash

Wed: Stew made with stewing beef - yuck

Thurs: Beef burgers

Fri: Fish fingers with chip shop chips (my favourite day)

Sat: Mixed grill

No foreign muck - was an adult by the time I had pasta, McDonalds, curry, Chinese etc. We didn't really get on the 70's convenience food bandwagon as my my mum thought they were expensive and we didn't have a freezer. My sister liked Smash potatoe but I thought it was vile, ditto AngelDelight. But I liked the boxed Birds Trifles.

What do my parents have now - exactly the same :eek:

Me - who would have thought - mostly vegetarian. Discovered vegetables didn't have to be a side dish boiled to death and I've been put off meat by all that chewy childhood stuff. I eat a huge range of foods from around the world. I feel really limited when mum comes for lunch as she won't try anything new fangled.

laineygirl

I was born in 1950 so when I was little things were still on ration. We were lucky because all my uncles worked at either the fruit market or the fish and meat market so when there were bananas or fruit on ration I'd get one. I had my first piece of fresh pineapple from them. We'd get extra eggs as well (they were cracked.. honest) and some thing called scragg end which was lovely slow cooked. Tongue, beast cheek, sweetbreads (which was considered poor mans food back then and is now a pricy delicacy) calves liver that cost pennies and is now astronomical in price, all these made beautiful meals. My grandad used to 'poach' rabbits and 'find' the occasional pheasant and I once walked into my grandmas to see a deer Hanging down from the clothes airer with her, carving knife in hand, ready to 'butcher the carcass'. During the war 4 houses, my grandmas and next door and the 2 houses at the bottom of the garden had made a pigsty and kept a 'secret pig' which they all fed scraps to and then shared the meat when it was killed. I had my first taste of black pudding made from one of the pigs they kept, it was lovely. It wasn't till years later I found out just what it was made of. They still kept one which they shared right up to 1958.Where the replacement pig came from each year I never knew. All a bit hush hush. but the bacon and meat were lovely, more fatty than todays but oh the taste....
When my mum and dad got their own house and we moved away from Grandmas my mum had a set weekly menu. if it was Tuesday you knew exactly what was for tea, as for any other days the only change was with the seasons and depended on what was growing. All my uncles had greehouses and allotments and all grew veg and fruit and everyone shared them.
Sunday was the roast.. Special occasions CHICKEN. They weren't as available as now and cost as much as lamb does today.Beef and lamb joints were the norm with roast and mashed potatoes and 2 green veg and carrots. Jam or chocolate sponge or apple or rhubarb pie or crumble all with custard.
Tea was boiled ham sandwiches with a little salad or in winter, boiled egg and soldiers or poached eggs on toast and jelly and blancmange.
Monday was left over meat or eggs with bubble and squeak or chips.
Tuesday was my dads steak night. He had steak we had liver and/or sausage with mash and green beans or cauli and onion gravy.
Wednesday was meat and potato pie with bakewell tart or/and treacle tart made for pudding then what was left was put in tin to have through the week.
Thursday was stew and dumplings with mash and greens.
Friday was gammon or liver and egg with cireo tinned tomatoes (which tasted completely differently to what they do today) and mushroom stalks.
Saturday dinner was fish and chips with mushy peas from the chip shop before my dad went to the match and then for tea it was pork pie and pickles with crusty bread and butter sometimes with a wedge of cheese and a victoria sandwich or scones for afters.
All in all, after rationing finished, I think we ate very well . Everything was made from scratch as my mum didn't work. My dad was a roll turner in the steelworks which even in the 50's was a well paid job. It was good wholesome food. The only thing I didn't have were apples. My first one, when I was little and were few and far between was given as a treat. I bit into it and there was this caterpillar wriggling around. I've never eaten one since.
My dads nearly 90 now and still eats well cooking all his own food. He uses garlic, spices and herbs and is not adverse to getting the cookery books out and having a go. He made our Christmas cake this year to my grandmas recipe and it was lovely. He's invited to come to us any time and usually comes for Sunday dinner but the rest of the time he does it himself and still follows what we used to have when I was growing up so if its Thursday its stew and dumplings......

missusP

B 1980. Single mum with 3 kids, I think we were very poor. Sometimes we would get a bowl of custard for dinner, which we found exciting but I guess there was no food left.
It seems our mum picked a meal and decided to feed us that for 3/4 days a week for a year or so, then change it. So we might eat boiled potatoes, spag hoops and cold corned beef (which my husband thinks is what made me a veggie) most days of the week, another year was pasta with mince. I didnt know this was strange until a school friend commented on it. Fridays was always chip night from the chippy (and the only night we ate in front of the TV), Sunday's started as roast but progressed into homemade pizza or veg lasagne (I never liked meat).
We lived in a diverse neighbourhood so we had friends who made fried dumplings and patties for us and curries. My husband had never eaten carribean food till he met little english me.
Mum was very good at baking so cakes were homemade though not a reg thing, we had pudding about once a week but we had 2 biscuits before bed every night.
Breakfast was half a slice of toast and cereal with the tiniest amount of milk (not for drinking) which was heated up in winter, resulting in soggy cereal. I started cooking porridge as a teenager and hated ready brek when my mum bought it for us. Still hate the very thought of it. Never had a fry up until I was much older.
We had free school meals until we no longer qualified so we had a packed lunch which got smaller as time went on until I was lunching on a mayo sandwich and a choc bar I bought myself with paper round money.
Mcdonalds was a very rare treat and we actually had it as dinner. I can't imagine eating junk food as an evening meal now! I enjoy chips but couldn't last more than a couple of days on convinience food now.
I taught myself to cook and enjoy making things right from scratch when I have time, baked bread, lemon curd, fresh pasta ect. We eat quite healthy and a variety of veg. We dont have a garden/time to grow veg but I would love to.
I also meal plan and never repeat a meal in a fortnight. Probably from eating the same food over and over....

marleyboy

My childhood meals consisted of; Bacon-ribs & cabbage (yuk), Stew (with homegrown veg), Corned Beef Ash, Bangers n mash and Pobs (bread, Milk & sugar). Breakfasts was either toast, cereals (with milk & water) or Porridge.

I grew up hating my veg, as a result of eating not quite ripe homegrown vegetables. Nowadays meals are varied except I wont do ping meals or boil n the bag.