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Old fashioned, simple meals.

123 replies

PollyPocketLucyLocket · 11/02/2020 17:03

Inspired by the Ploughman's lunch thread. What meals do you miss?

I remember my mum making lovely simple dinners when we were little. Or sitting in the pub garden eating chicken in basket.

pinching all the decent ideas for my meal plans

OP posts:
IHaveBrilloHair · 12/02/2020 12:42

I still buy tongue, I love it.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 12/02/2020 12:46

Mince with boiled or mashed potatoes and peas was a favourite of a dd. My Dh still really likes it. Nowadays I often make a really big batch of a semi-veggie version, with red lentils, carrots, celery and mushrooms chopped small, maybe some baked beans, and a good slug of Worcester sauce.
I freeze most of it, nice easy meals ready to go.

Another is a cauliflower/macaroni cheese combo - I’m making this tonight. Lots of very cheesy sauce, cauliflower al dente, pasta, extra cheese and breadcrumbs on top, whack under the grill.

Skyejuly · 12/02/2020 12:58

Sometimes it's not the same when you cook it yourself. Oh I miss my grandparents and going their for tea!

Typical meals at my hand were:

Rice krispies with a glass of pure orange

Bread in middle of table regardless of meal
Quiche with salad
Boiled eggs
Mushroom pie
Beans and sausage on toast
Egg and chips

We never did eat much meat.

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DoAsYouWouldBeMumBy · 12/02/2020 13:05

We call it a pan loaf, not a pain loaf 😂 Autocorrect gone all French there 🤩

inwood · 12/02/2020 13:06

We still eat most of this occasionally.

My mums best dinners were:

Shepherds pie
Macaroni cheese
Ham and colcannon

AdaColeman · 12/02/2020 13:32

Dahl is lentil
Dahl can be made from any legume, pea, bean or lentil. Try chickpea or fava bean dahl for example.
Apologies though for not including "lighthearted" or Wink in my original post!

Grumpbum123 · 12/02/2020 13:46

Proper chips
Boiled potatoes with my nans beef stew
Fridays ham, beans and freshly cooked chips

I think it’s all about the potatoes!!

Grumpbum123 · 12/02/2020 13:48

Somehow when I replicate meals from my childhood they never taste the same

TwentyViginti · 12/02/2020 14:04

@Bloodybridget same here! I embraced all the food fads of each decade when younger, but now prefer the traditional meals I would've labelled 'boring' back in the day!

Graphista · 12/02/2020 14:22

Good idea for a thread, also helpful to mners trying to meal plan to get ideas.

Generally I didn’t much enjoy food growing up, as it was very much “meat and 2 veg” usually with one of the veg being boiled potatoes which are the most unappetising, bland, boring food ever! But also because I don’t and never have liked red meat (I’m veggie over 30 years now but I did used to like chicken and fish it was red meat I hated) and we had it a lot, mostly in the form of mince which was gross! (Poor family, mince is cheap and easily bulked out).

However - all that said there were dishes I did enjoy

Sausage and mash (good quality pork sausages, dad was quite fussy about this)

Macaroni cheese - my mum does make a lovely mac cheese which she makes with sautéed onion and mustard included.

Egg and chips - often on Saturdays as mum worked retail and pub jobs so as to work around dads job and dad often had us on Saturdays and he isn’t the best cook but he did a cracking job of this. Eggs always cooked perfectly whites cooked through but yolk still runny to dip the chips in.

Fish fingers, chips and baked beans - another Saturday dad one it being the 70’s and frozen food booming. Plus he fried the fish fingers which yes I know it’s not healthy but they did taste better!

Corned beef hash - a midweek boost

Chicken casserole - weirdly I’ve never asked for the recipe must get on that as could do it with quorn pieces

@hoik we called that “Chucky eggs” and yes we tended to get that when we were ill. Partly “it binds you” so supposedly good for diarrhoea but also just light and tasty and nutritious if otherwise ill

Weirdly I also loved steak and kidney pudding. One of the few red meat things I liked.

Cod in parsley sauce or scampi or peppered mackerel... I miss fish veggie “fish” fingers are ok but there’s really no veggie alternatives as yet.

Chicken Kiev

Creamed mushrooms on toast or even over chicken or pasta

“Also I don't I trust myself with a chip fryer.” Yea I’d be too nervous with something like that I won’t even have a “safety” fryer as I’ve known people have these and they’ve started fires.

I cook veggie versions of as much as I can.

Also true that even when I try and copy some of my parents dishes they just don’t come out the same and none of us can figure out why cos I follow instructions to the letter. I’ve tried MANY times to do mums mac n cheese and it just doesn’t taste quite the same. At one point we thought because I use lower fat milk and she uses blue milk but I got a pint of blue to try one time and it STILL didn’t taste right!

@bloodybridget - I used to think my grandparent and ex in laws (older than my parents) were unnecessarily fussy in erring towards old fashioned plainer foods...now I’m older myself and can’t tolerate spicy, strong pickles etc too well myself I understand.

“Just remembered angel delight and fish paste sandwiches, wonder if they taste as good now..” don’t bother with the angel delight @helpmedrranj I tried it off the back of a similar thread couple years back and the lack of sugar and addition of artificial flavourings in attempts to make up for lack of sugar means it tastes rotten now!

@mbosnz ooh fish pie yes! Would love a veggie version

BillywigSting · 12/02/2020 14:32

A friend of mine from Glasgow made rumbledethumps with bacon once.

It has become a once weekly staple in our house ever since. It's a bit like colcannon but better

BillywigSting · 12/02/2020 14:37

Also I had heinz tomato soup with a plain cheese sandwich on cheap white bread for lunch yesterday and it tasted just like Saturday afternoon in 1997. Pure nostalgia.

Lipz · 12/02/2020 14:40

I cook 90% of these. The thing I really miss and can't seem to get it anywhere is tripe. Absolutely loved this with boiled sausages, onion in milk.

ODFOx · 12/02/2020 14:44

Cabbage is my go-to value filler so we often have: colcannon, buttered cabbage or bubble and squeak. Served with gravy and chops or sausages or roasted chicken thighs.
My DC (well, teens) don't know this is 'war food' as it's what they know.
Also beans on toast, boiled egg and soldiers, smoked haddock and poached egg done in the same water with brown bread and butter.

Tartyflette · 12/02/2020 15:02

My late mum was a dab hand at 'good, plain cooking', like steak and kidney pudding with boiled potatoes and brussels, savoury mince plate pie, steak and kidney pie(home made pastry) Irish stew with pearl barley, carrots, onions, turnips and potatoes, toad in the hole/chop toad, even home made Cornish pasties!.

Then there was her steamed jam or syrup sponges, spotted dick and jam roly-poly. I still miss her light fruit cake, like a Manor House cake but better.
She taught me how to cook without me even realising it. I still use her recipe for steak and kidney pudding, it's a once-a-year treat for us.
She had a Good Housekeeping cookery book with photos as a young bride in the early 50s and i managed to find a copy on eBay for a tenner recently. Instant nostalgia. I recognised loads of the recipes.

Tartyflette · 12/02/2020 15:10

Lipz my mum used to cook this too, served up with buttery mash and a good shake of vinegar!
These days we buy vacuum packs of cooked 'tripes mode de Caen' in french supermarkets. And we've just come back from Spain where a little dish of 'callos' (tripe) in smoky paprika sauce was a common tapa.

HelpMeDrRanj · 12/02/2020 16:24

@Shockers haha thankfully not together 😂 I like sweet and savoury but chocolate and fish is just a step too far!

@Graphista that's disappointing, sweeteners just aren't the same. May have to stick to ice cream Grin

feelingverylazytoday · 12/02/2020 16:35

I still eat simple meals. I don't eat meat anymore, so substitute vegetarian sausages/pies, etc. My current favourites -
Bubble and squeak with a fried egg.
Sausage, mash, fried onions, peas, yorkshire and gravy.
Cream of tomato soup with a cheese toastie to dip.
Beans on toast with a fried egg on top.
Pan haggerty.
Yellow split pea soup/stew.
Cheese and onion pasty with baked beans.
Tinned tuna or mackerel, salad and new potatoes.
Omelette, new potatoes and peas or salad.
Porridge for breakfast.
Toast and marmalade or a jam sandwich if I feel peckish in the evening.

I really can't be arsed following recipes with hundreds of ingredients. Once I went back to simple cooking my weight stabilised and I started saving money.

PrincessHoneysuckle · 12/02/2020 16:42

Cold Corned beef with salad and piping hot chips.

Steak pie,mash,peas and gravy.

Gammon,mash/boiled potatoes,cabbage and white sauce

Graphista · 12/02/2020 17:59

“that's disappointing, sweeteners just aren't the same. May have to stick to ice cream” it was heartbreaking such a shame.

Funny how we ate real sugar and full fat milk etc back then but weren’t fat & unhealthy whereas now we’re all sugar free and low fat in our diet and as a nation obese and sick.

But portion sizes were much smaller then. I've mentioned on here before but my mums dinner service somehow still going since the 70's despite many house moves and 3 clumsy kids and a clumsy husband and now 6 clumsy grandchildren! Is much smaller than my and my siblings modern ones her dinner plates are a tiny bit bigger than my side plates. I think I have a 70's dimension kitchen too as my cupboards won't close fully with the dinner plates in.

sueelleker · 12/02/2020 18:10

I had sausage, mash and peas (with loads of gravy!) the other night. The weather was so cold, I felt in need of something comforting.

sueelleker · 12/02/2020 18:13

Tartyflette
I've got a Good Housekeeping step-by-step cookbook with pictures. It's got a great recipe for Italian Ham and Cheese pie.

PollyPocketLucyLocket · 12/02/2020 19:05

Wasn't expecting so many replies Smile
Off to read them all now, though I'd love the Italian ham & cheese pie recipe please @sueelleker

OP posts:
PollyPocketLucyLocket · 12/02/2020 19:12

See lots of fishfingers, corned beef, chips on here.

@feelingverylazytoday - interesting about your weight being more stable. Would you say you lost weight too, once you'd simplified your meals?

OP posts:
PollyPocketLucyLocket · 12/02/2020 19:14

Would love to get an old fashioned cook book with these in. Does anyone know of any in publish still? Or maybe a PDF / kindle version?

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