What Foods Did You Eat Growing Up?

Fried chicken, rice and gravy and corn; chicken gumbo, chicken and dumplings, (wow... lots of chicken I guess), green beans with bacon grease! Good stuff and I rarely eat that now! I couldn't make gumbo if I had too! That's what mom used to hook up and boy is it good!

Anything you could count as a "big family dinner" and tonnes of casseroles... which can be super unhealthy and usually were

all i can remember is "YOU BETTER EAT ALL OF THAT FOOD GIRL! PEOPLE IN AFRICA ARE STARVING AND U WANNA THROW FOOD AWAY..." yea, even while full, i had to eat everything!

That and my mom use to make healthy meals too, but in big portions plus a cake/ cookies after every single dinner. Once in a while we would get fast food and they always kept chips.

We had a mix of junk and wholesome, we were poor so we didn't really have soda or chips very much, but we always had Kool-Aid, I don't think I ever drank water! We had Wonder bread and my mom made this snack that sounds really horrible now-it was frosting made with cocoa and powdered sugar and milk, spread on saltine crackers!
Dinners were like spaghetti and meatballs, tacos, fried chicken, steak and potatoes, roast, and we didn't really see a green salad, vegetables came out of a can and were usually green beans, corn, peas, or potatoes.

Interesting thread!!

I was very restricted to what I was allowed to eat growing up. My Mum didn't let us have junk and had 'homecooked' food. But the homecooked food wasn't necessarily any better for us, mainly due to the amount we were given. And everything was served with bread.

I also left home and binged. Like eating was going out of fashion and I would never see chocolate again. I am still like this to be honest. I am a real 'treat' eater.

With my daughter we don't ever refer to things as treats. She has sweets and crisps as well as meals made from scratch and fresh fruit. And she doesn't see the difference. She loves grapes more than biscuits. I hope this will give her a better attitude to food than I have. My husbands upbringing, foodwise, was similar to this approach and he is much better with his eating habits than me.

Everything in moderation is a valuable life lesson I think.

xxx

ahhh freakin casseroles..thats all we ate. And almost everything that is terrible for you. My mom (105 lbs soaking wet) ate all the time and always wanted us to eat when she did..some kind of bonding :ohwell:

I grew up with fast food, southern (fatty) foods, pizza, grilled cheese, fried bologna, vienna sausages, mac and cheese, cereal, anything little debbie and hostess, my mom baked when she was feeling down or depressed so the stuff was in the house all the time. Also we ate until we were stuffed (not till we were not longer hungry, but sick to our stomaches stuffed). I grew up with no healthy eating established, so it is really hard trying to eat healty now, I dont like healthy foods so I have to get used to it.

Crafty,

I ate much like you. We were not allowed to have soda in the house, sometimes if I went out to lunch with my parents I was allowed to get a coke (not at diner because of the caffeine). No bacon, no fried food, no veggies out of cans, no chips or any junk food.

For treats we had ice cream and cookies (the fancy pepperidge farm type) and homemade cakes (poppyseed and banana nut were the favorites), but it wasn't every day.

I also ate a ton of veggie based meals, lots of pastas, I don't ever remember eating anything ground-beef based. We went shopping at the farmer's market every Sunday for our week of fresh veggies. I always wanted to eat fast food when I was a kid, but by the time I was making my own money and was allowed to spend it on anything I wanted, I was not interested in it anymore.

Even when I was a baby, my parents didn't buy canned baby food, they made their own by blending up the food they had for dinner. Apparently I have loved eggplant my whole life =]

Something interesting that I have found is that my boyfriend was raised in the south and he has a whole different perception of food than I do. He thinks a meal is worthless without meat and chicken isn't worth eating unless its fried. When I serve him a full meal, he leaves the starch/carb and the veggies on the plate. He believes that "healthy" is synonymous with "gross". Its a day-in day-out struggle to cook a meal that both of us will eat, especially because I'm trying to cut down on beef in my diet and I'm definitely not going to eat fried chicken.

I believe that raising a kid to know how to eat is very important and I will raise my children the way I was raised, eating delicious healthy foods made from scratch.

all i can remember is "YOU BETTER EAT ALL OF THAT FOOD GIRL! PEOPLE IN AFRICA ARE STARVING AND U WANNA THROW FOOD AWAY..." yea, even while full, i had to eat everything!

LOL, my parents would tell me the same thing so I had to eat up everything on my plate even though I was full.

We ate at a lot of buffets. There was 7 of us in the house so when we ate out, we usually did that so everyone could get enough. When we ate at home (which was most of the time) we ate big family dinners: meat, veg, potato, bread and butter! We seldom ate casseroles, but we ate BIG!!! We also ate a lot of junk. If BK or McDonalds had sandwich specials, that was dinner. My step-dad was big into little debbies. We had swiss cake rolls in the house at all times. We only ever had diet pop though because both my parents were diabetic (even the swiss cake man). If we wanted any regular pop we had to buy it ourself. And, we were only aloud to have 2 pops a day.

Alot of my eating habits of today are linked to home when i was younger. VERY BAD!!!

Love this thread!!!

We ate a bunch of different things... but we did have to clean our plate... we got the Starving Children in China speech...

We ate everthing from from "masaka" - egg yolks beaten with sugar and a smidge of brandy which you put on toast... OMG - best thing ever!!!! Curry, fish head soup, tuna fish casseroles, home made chinese food dishes, lots of Macanese dishes - Portuguese from China- and lots of white rice!!!

Our whole family is not picky in what they eat, thanks to my parents broad cooking spectrum. I did the same with my kids and they will eat ANYTHING!

Oh! And we had to try everything once... if we didn't like it we didn't have to eat it again... we always ended up liking it!

hot dogs, ramen soups, balogna, and home made mexican food... we were poor so anything cheap is what we ate. and i know you don't have to be rich to eat right, but my mom was not educated on healthy eating, so neither was I. luckily she never wasted our food money on soda or candy, or sweets.. i think thats why i am not big on sweets.. i am soooo thankful for that!

Everything in my house was homemade. Not to say that it was healthy. I grew up in Texas so we had fried chicken, smothered steak, chicken fried steak, fried okra, collard greens, fish fries with hush puppies, casseroles with lots of cheese and a lot of mexican food. Every weekend we had a big breakfast with bisquits and gravy, bacon, sausage and eggs. Jeez, I'm making myself hungry! I don't remember ever eating a Happy Meal as a kid. We had snack food and soda but I don't think I ever had too much of it. We were really active kids and rode our bikes everywhere, swam in our pool and jumped on the trampoline all the time. I was never overweight until a couple of years ago. I can't believe we used to eat like that. My parents have really changed their lifestyle as well and are in great shape now. (they were both overweight back then)

we ate a lot of cheap food. Lots of pasta and beans. there were 7 kids in the family and only one income. My mom was a good cook and made dinners most nights. I started cooking when I was about 8. I really loved it and would try new things. We had to clean our plates as kids as well. Partly I think to teach us not to be picky about food and to be grateful for what we did have. I struggle with this with my own kids. I try now to serve them a lot less and let them finish off with a piece of fruit if they are still hungry. I don't want them to feel like they have to finish food if they are full. But i also know how kids are next thing you know they eat all thier meat and potatoes and veggies are left on the plate because they are "full" So it is a balance. Also since we never had treats since they cost to much. When ever my Mom wanted to give us something special or do something nice for us it ended up being food" treat" I think that has been one of the hardest habits for me to break. If I feel like doing something special I try really hard now for it not to be food related. Becuase I don't let my kids have sweets on a regular basis i am trying to find other ways to treat them and myself.

I was raised in the Philippines until I was around 7-8 years old. At that time, I was a really thin child because I played outdoors all the time and only came in for meals that I would then pick at (pb&j, apples and cheese, chicken, veggies, and rice, etc). But the closest fast food place (McDonalds) was a big distance away so we rarely had fast food and never ate out...ever. Then, we came back to the states and lived right next door to a convenience store that sold fried chicken and jo-jos (potatoes that have been cut in to about 4-5 wedges and then dipped in batter and fried with lots of delicious seasonings). And my mom let me eat those every day...sometimes up to 3 times a day.

To this day I still don't know why she allowed that except for the fact that I was a picky eater and the chicken and jojo's were really cheap. I also became obsessed with television (it was new to me since we only got a few channels in the Philippines) so I never played outside anymore. I went from being probably 10lbs underweight to about 20 lbs overweight. Which is a lot for a little kid. During that time, I was teased by all the other kids and I began my unhealthy obsession with weight loss.