What kinds of food were you fed growing up?

i had all homemade foods, my father was a grill chef and did not believe real food came from a box. My grandparents owned a seafood restaurant that I ate at all the time. I know I ate more shrimp in my day that I will ever eat again. Steamed flounder, Ribeye, Hamburger steaks, homemade coleslaw. Every Sunday we ate at my grandmothers house. Again everything homemade from pot roast, to Chicken being grilled over a large pit fire outside, and my dads family all were raised on the dairy farm a few hundred acres so we had fresh corn, cows milk, watermelon, eggs, and we sent the pigs out to get fresh pork.
I am a true born bred and raised in the South Girl...
All this family time and cooking is the reason why I am a Chef today

My mother is 2nd generation off the boat from Italy, my grandparents right from Italy in their teens. NOTHING in my house growing up was processed or prepackaged. Our "treat" was 1 box of sugar cereal. Everything else was prepared fresh, from unprocessed food. And they ate some pretty out of the ordinary things. I didn't know what Kraft Mac & Cheese was until I moved out when I was 18. .

Childhood food memories... lasagna, lots of pasta in general, lots of fish, meat, veggies and fruit.. simple dishes made into a meal. Grew up on things like calamari, octopus, artichokes, capers, spinach, and all sorts of things. I am thankful for this to this day since I attribute it to the fact that I will eat nearly anything, there are only a handful of things I don't like (beets and cottage cheese are the only things I can think of right now). As a result, I do the same thing in my adult like.. many things are unprocessed and meals are cooked from whole, clean foods

BUT... having the heavy Italian background.. I do LOVE cheese and bread, and wine.. in fact those would be my "desert island staples". :laugh:

usually had cereal like grapenuts or wheaties or some eggo waffles for breakfasts on school days. on weekends it was mom doing pancakes and eggs or omelets with cheese and bacon or sausage

lunch was sandwich, fruit snacks, crackers and a juice box mostly at school, my parents wanted me to take lunch and I was happy with that school food was vile...if i was home for lunch it was a can of campbells soup or spaghetti o's

dinner was stuff like mac and cheese and bbq chicken and a canned veggie, lots of meat veggie and side betty crocker kinda stuff or just simple recipes like chili, casseroles, burgers or steaks and fries.

we had wendys, mcdonalds and pizza sometimes and I was encouraged to drink juice and water, we didn't have soda in the house til I was in like 5th grade.

snacks were fruit stuff, fresh or dried or fruit snacks and things like toast or yogurt or cookies.

My mom is normally weighted and my dad was a big guy back then and diabetic but mostly a non compliant one who was really picky.

My parents were never home, and my mom didn't cook anyways so there was alot of frozen dinners, mac n cheese, cookies, chips, pop, PB&J, sugary juices, what ever junk was easiest...

Wow...seeing all these responses makes me way more conscious for my future kids foods! My mom is an RD, so growing up, we always had healthier options. Did have the doritos and cheese spead, but mostly healthy.

I'm apparently older than most of the members answering this question. My 2 sisters and I were adopted by an aunt and uncle when our birth mother died when I was 4 years old. This was in 1943 while WWII was going on. Their 2 sons were grown and then all of a sudden, when food was being rationed, they had 3 young girls to raise. For breakfast we would have biscuits & gravy most mornings (can't stand white gravy now .. yuck); for school lunch we would have white bread with peanut butter and Miracle Whip (can't stand Miracle Whip now); for supper we would have pinto beans, fried potatoes and cornbread. Sometimes we would have tomatoes or green beans out of the garden. Meat was a luxury that we only had on Sunday dinners. If we had fried chicken or roast beef or hamburger we knew it was a special occasion. Very starchy and fatty foods .. but it was all they could afford. It set a pattern that is really hard to change.

I always threw 3/4's of my lunches in the garbage, lol. Ours usually consisted of a sandwich (usually some kind of lunch meat), one treat (pudding, cookie etc), a piece of fruit and a juice box! The sandwich and fruit almost always went in the garbage!

My mom was always concerned about our health (sadly it took me too long to learn that lesson...) so my usual lunch was a sandwich on whole wheat or homemade wheat bread with turkey, lettuce, and tomato. A juice box or water for the drink, and fruit, granola, raisins, carrots sticks, etc on the side. No one ever wanted my lunch! Everyone in my house always loved and ate lots of vegetables, and I remember my friends thinking that that was odd since few of them "liked" any.

raw hot dogs

I was queen of the raw hot dogs all during my single years!

haha awesome...my b/f saw me eat one and just about died lol I didn't think it was unusual until he said something about it. I know I'm not the only one around me that does it lol but I guess to some it could be weird lol apparently.

and in high school, I ate from the concession stand. Mountain Dew and a bag of chips. Yikes.

I'm the youngest of six, and we always had a lot of food. Mostly good wholesome home cooked meals. Mom & Dad shared the cooking chores. My Dad was the ultimate Meat & Potatoes kind of guy, but we had lots of veggies, too. I always preferred raw to cooked, so Mom would always leave some carrots or green beans uncooked for me to nibble. We never had a salad before a meal, but we'd have it as a side. Pizza once in a great while, but we all liked my Dad's homemade pizza best. Except Mom, who thought the sauce was "too spicy" and would scrape most of it off. On the rare occasion we'd get McDonalds, we'd get it to go and eat it at home, and my folks would make the fries at home with fresh cut potatoes. Less grease and less salt, but it's not like we knew or cared then!

Nestle Quik at breakfast every day. It was a ritual I shared with my Dad. Usually cereal, sometimes pancakes or scrambled eggs or blueberry muffins.

For school lunch, I'd usually take a sandwich or occasionally Spaghettios or Mini Ravioli in a thermos. More Nestle Quik. And a Tastykake or Little Debbie or Drakes treat. But best of all was when Mom made cupcakes and put on in the lunch. Mmmmm!

My childhood rocked!