Childhood dinners that made your heart sink?

[Harveypuss]

A lighthearted post!

Do you remember any childhood meals, that when you asked your mum (or dad) "what's for dinner?", their answer made your heart sink?!

Mine was Lamb's hearts. My Mum cooked these often, presumably it was a culinary delight and was probably cheap, but I hated them (this was back in the late 70s so you ate what was given or went hungry). I don't know what she did with them, but they were as tough as old boots and really chewy. I'm sure offal like that is probably quite delicious in some top-end restaurant but dear Mum didn't cook it like that! I'm in my 50s now and I've only just told her I hated that meal. She was mortified!

We have this with our son now, aged 17. He hates pasta and when we have a family pasta meal, I cook him something different. He's off to Uni next year, so don't know how he's going to manage as I'm told all students live of pasta as it's really cheap...!

What was your least favourite childhood meal...?

Liver - bloody awful rank shoe leather.

Pilchard sandwiches, I am at a loss as to why you would force a small child to eat that. Soggy disgusting mess of a packed lunch hell. I used to sob my way through primary school lunch breaks until I realised I could just chuck them away on my way to school.

Boiled chicken, I still can't stand the smell. In fact boiled things generally, or pressure cooked. Stringy grey meat, veg that tasted of cabbage because it all went in the same pot as the ever present cabbage.

I was so skinny as a child with major anxiety around having to force down disgusting meals. Learning to cook with Italian, Greek and Lebanese housemates at university was life changing.

Spaghetti Bolognese. I actually really like it now, but as a child I just didn't like the way my mum made it.

I was once invited round to a school friend's house for tea. His mother was notoriously ...snooty. A real Hyacinth Bucket type. I was under strict instructions to behave myself. And guess what arrived at the table for tea - spag bol. I had to be ever so polite and eat it all gratefully.

I like my mum's cooking so nothing much at home, except sometimes the sight of boiled potatoes and frozen mixed veg can be not very inspiring - however as a busy parent now I realise that sometimes utilitarian meals do need to happen!

However school dinners at juniors were a different matter. Semolina. Yuck. Flabby fish in batter with dry mash. Even a plain meal at home would have gravy or a pool of butter on top of the potaoes. An ice-cream scoop of lumpy, lukewarm mash is not edible.

Boiled or poached eggs. I like the yolk, but egg white is basically mucus - WHY would you eat it? Makes me gag to this day.

My grandma had a legendary pudding called Pipes. It was macaroni in custard, often with added soggy bananas.

I recreated some of mother's recipes recently (out of boredom) for DP to try. He'll eat pretty much anything.

Spaghetti bolognese, ie mince, onions and a tin of tomatoes drowned in dry sherry. 'Curry' - more mince and onions, mixed up with some raisins and curry powder. She'd make them for lunch during a heatwave, just in case we weren't stifled enough.

He agreed they were awful.

He ate them though.

I also used to hate luncheon meat sandwiches and boiled eggs which had been standing around yuck

I'm glad it wasn't just me with a DM who wouldn't/couldn't try to make food nice.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s. I'd have given anything to have things like chicken nuggets, burgers, chips etc like other kids. Friends never wanted to come to my house because the food was so awful.

No salt, pepper, seasoning, sauce etc ever and everything was boiled and dry. Boiled mince with dry boiled potatoes and nothing else, boiled chicken with boiled potatoes and nothing else, dry pasta that was all stuck together. My heart used to sink on the way home from school knowing I'd have to force down the food as I was so scared of my DM. I was never allowed "kids food" or any sort of "junk food," or anything tasty for that matter! Everyone else said the school dinners were bad, but I was so grateful for them and really enjoyed them. I even ate the stuff other kids didn't want!

It's no surprise that as soon as I was an adult, I discovered an incredible love of burgers, pizza, salt, condiments and for many years lived on the tasty junk food I was never allowed. I couldn't believe foods could have so much flavour! Even now I feel a bit excited when I get a McDonald's! I do enjoy cooking, I take a lot of pride in it and I'm probably a bit of an obsessive perfectionist in wanting to make sure anyone I serve food to actually enjoys it.

Pork chops
Steak and kidney pie
And, a classic dish- sweet and sour sausages! Sausage casserole in tinned sweet and sour sauce.

Liver
Tripe and onions
Potted Hoch

Honestly, my children don't even appreciate the child-friendly delicious food I cook!

One of my schools used to serve some real nasty stuff for lunch in the 90's. Things like artificial sloppy mashed pot that they would put out with a huge metal ladle and it 'splatted' out on your prison like tray! There was alot of beige and stodge and not a colour in sight! Puddings were also stodge and artificial. Gosh if only there was a jamie oliver back then to sort it out!

'Honestly, my children don't even appreciate the child-friendly delicious food I cook!'

Exactly my eldest hasn't a clue of the horrors of what i was fed at times! I would have loved his menu of today!

Liver and onions
Stuffed marrow

Fish, boiled potatoes and peas. The fish was always full of tiny white bones that were really hard to see in the white fish, it was very traumatic. I've always hated peas and boiled potatoes are awful. Last time my mum served that up t me I was probably about 9/10 and she wouldn't let me leave the table until I'd eaten it, I was there for hours. I've never eaten fish since, still can't get over the feeling of fish bones sticking in my throat.

Ooh this is fascinating reading other people's dreaded childhood meals.

Mine were...

Lamb chops - There were only about two bites of meat on them and I was a greedy child.

Gammon steak - Flabby and salty. Yuck.

Having said that my Mum was a decent cook otherwise and we were well fed with good home cooked meals. She was a great baker and her cakes and pies were divine.

Nettle (stinging nettles from the garden) and lentil dahl

@Pixiekinfurthefirst

Liver and onions Stuffed marrow

How could I miss off stuffed marrow, a monstrosity that is far worse than the any of the individual components. How do you make grey flavourless mince more grey and flavourless.... stick it in a watery flavourless vegetable.

Faggots in gravy. Yuck!

Fried cod roe. Yuck!

Liver and onions

Anything with kidney

Creamed spinach

Mashed swede, butter beans, marrowfat peas (that had to be soaked overnight then boiled to within an inch of their lives). I realise now that these all had one thing in common: they were cheap.

The other thing I recall not-very-fondly from my childhood is bread & butter. It was compulsory at every meal, but I hated it. It wasn't until I was about 12 that I realised why: the bread was always at least two or three days old. A fresh loaf was never cut into on the day it was bought - it always had to go to the back of the queue and wait until the older bread had been eaten. By the time it got to the front of the queue it was verging on stale.

Tuna bake. I hated/hate tuna but every week my mum "forgot" this fact

Not at home but school dinners. If we had soup we then had salad and no pudding. I hated it.

Vegetable soup still can’t stand it
Went through a few years of hating pasta it was actually I think it was actually the beginning of my eating disorder I can remember feeling like I couldn’t breath trying to swallow it.

Weirdly I loved my mums liver, bacon and onions still do

Liver here too, also kidneys although I did like lambs heart. I can’t remember how my mother prepared it but I was good.

I still can’t bare the smell of liver. DH loves it but I can’t cook it, so it’s either a ready meal or he goes without.

Caravan stew.

This was a concoction made when we went camping. Mince cooked in oil with tinned peas stirred through it. With a clice of bread and butter.

My mother was also very very partial to a white bread and (cold) boiled lamb brain sandwich with some salad cream.

She is actually an excellent cook. Dad was even better. So I am lucky to not have alot of bad food-related memories! The above two .... ugh.