What did you eat as an 80s and 90s child?

[Foodfan]

If you were a child in the 80s and 90s, what was your diet like?

im wondering if mine was typical for children in the 80s and 90s or my parents were just not very adventurous!

salad wise we tended to only have lettuce, tomato and cucumber. That was always what salad was.
I think the other vegetables I was given were peas and carrots (plus sprouts at Christmas!)

Meals wise I remember having sandwiches, toast, porridge, toasties, shepherds pie, sausages, chicken nuggets and chips, pizza etc.

I remember that my mum was always slim but always on a diet and seemed to live in grapefruit and ryvitas!

We also had things like baked beans, spaghetti hoops etc too but I didn’t even know there were foods in the world such as salmon or curry etc until my teens!

Was this a typical 1990s diet? If not, what sorts of things did you eat and were the norm in your house growing up?

What have you done differently to your parents with your own children?

Born 1981. Breakfast was cornflakes or toast. Lunch was sandwiches. Dinners were stew, liver and onions, chicken kievs, anything in breadcrumbs, gino ginelli pizzas,crispy pancakes. My mother was a terrible cook and not interested in food so a lot of processed food.

Lots of vegetables, usually those in season so forced to eat courgettes and B-road beans etc.

We had things like egg and chips as a treat, never really had cooked breakfasts, only had brown bread. However we would have lots of poor people type meals, things boiled in tinned tomatoes and soups/stews.

My dad would make soufflé sometimes (hated that) and lots of macaroni cheese. His speciality quick meal was burnt pizza. I never liked it much when my dad cooked.

we didn’t have puddings and I don’t make them for my son now. It always amazes me when I find out that my son’s friends’ parents offer a pudding after a main meal.

I went to university in the mid 90s and had never had any Indian, Chinese, Thai etc food. I’d had pizza from Pizza Hut, and spaghetti bolognese (homemade, not great) but no other Italian food.

We ate meat/fish, some type of potatoes and two veg. Pretty much every day.

Had too google the biscuits. They were called spooks

Some kind of meat (pork chops, chicken breast etc) with either chips or boiled potatoes and veg. Sausages and chips, fish fingers and chips. Like you I never had a curry until late teens and didn't try pasta until my 20's

roast on a Sunday
Leftovers on a Monday
Always fish on a Friday, either caught and put in the freezer or from a fish shop
home made sausages
ham hock in a pressure cooker with parsley sauce
liver and bacon
shepherds pie
chicken casserole
a bought pizza every few weeks
cold meats and salads
tinned soups/sardines on toast/crackers and cheese

home made rice pudding/apple pie/trifles
home made sponge puddings
Fruit flans, meringues, home made brandy snaps and cream,
the odd Vienetta

Wide range of home grown vegetables and soft fruits
home made cakes and pastries

Loads of veg as we grew our own and no processed food though I remember seeing those chicken drumstick shapes on school lunches (we had packed lunch).
Meals I remember (probably because I liked them) were chilli, lamb and spinach stew, chicken Kiev, shepherd's pie, seafood risotto, lasagne, salmon parcels, and plenty of other great meat/fish and veg/salad combos. We used to go out for curries as a treat but didn't cook them often. Thinking about this, what I miss most is aga toast though

Born in 1971. We had chop and chips, crispy pancakes and chips, braising steak and chips, mince and onions and chips, egg and chips, corned beef hash, sausages and bacon. I had chicken soup and my sister had oxtail. My mum wasn't one for cooking. Sunday roast once a fortnight at my nannas. When i got older spag bol and curry was added to the menu. My dad made that. Chippy on a friday. Packed lunch every day for school was a cheese butty and united biscuit. Sister got jam.

Roast on Sundays- always.

Oven chips, pizza, fishfingers, turkey burgers, chicken nuggets. Always oven food. Sometimes Shepard's pie or stew.

Tinned soup or spaghetti or pot noodles for lunch.

Never fed salad, pasta meals, anything exciting!

DC rarely gets oven food and no pot noodles!

I forgot about sardines on toast and also baked Alaska.

This was exactly our diet, minus the curries. My parents still don't get Indian food to this day.

Nothing very exciting...I remember eating....
Fish fingers chips and peas
Pork chops with mash/veg
Roast dinners
Findus crispy pancakes
Mr brains faggots
Then when I got to my teens we would have spag Bol made with a tin of home pride sauce or a sachet.

Never had a curry until I bought a vesta dried one for myself!

As an 80s child/90s teen my parents were vegetarian and we ate all sorts: curries, lots of lentils and beans, all sorts of veg, various (disgusting) early meat substitutes, lots of omelettes with salad, stir-frys, vegetarian quiches and pies, things on toast etc etc.
My parents didn't really approve of ready meals, oven stuff, sweets, crisps etc so we rarely had them except fish and chips occasionally as a treat, and I had the odd frozen dinosaur foot pizza.

Breakfast was coco pops

Lunch was a sandwich, tinned spaghetti hoops or ravioli or a hotdog

DM doesn't like cooking and is a really fussy eater. She did a nice roast most Sundays though, and cooked from scratch probably one other night a week, typically spag bol, beef stew or shepherds pie.

Other dinners were boil in the bag fish in parsley sauce, chicken curry with sauce from a jar, burger with boiled potatoes, peas and gravy (no bun, mum doesn't like sausages), fish fingers and chips, Chicago Town microwave pizza, lots of takeaways.

Salad was lettuce, cucumber and tomato with salad cream. In summer that was often a meal, with rolled up ham, a chunk of cheese and some little gherkins.

DF has never cooked anything more complex than cheese on toast. He thinks it's amazing that my DH can cook!

I'm now vegan, DH & DC aren't, but we're all fairly adventurous, eat a ton of fruit and veg and mostly cook from scratch.

Born 1977.
We always had a Sunday roast. On Monday,.we usually had left over meat with chips (initially made in the chip pan but late 80s we started having oven chips.)
Other meals I remember:

Stew and dumplings
Shepherds pie
Fish pie
Homemade steak and kidney or chicken and mushroom pie
Liver, bacon, mash and beans (disgusting)
Findus crispy pancakes
Potato waffles
Pork/lamb chops with mash and veg

Salad was always Round lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes. Iceberg lettuce seemed quite glamorous!! Sometimes we might have cress or grated carrot on it too.

Dessert would be fruit, ski or munch bunch yogurts, super mousses from the freezer shop, Angel delight or vanilla or neopolitan ice cream.

Similar in our house, although was had celery aswell as the items you mentioned.
we had roast dinnner every Sunday at my nans house, so veggies were usually cabbage ( she’s Irish) carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, peas and sweetcorn.
we pretty much lived on
spag bol,
shepherds pie,
cheese roasties,
pizza fingers,
smilies
turkey dinosaurs,
minced pancakes
beans
spaghetti
stew
biryani & tandoori chicken (other grandparents are Indian, so made it and taught my mum)
nuggets
sausages, mash and beans

for lunch we’d have the usual lunchbox fillings with either
corned beef and pickle or paste sandwiches
we maybe had kfc, Pizza Hut or McDonald’s once a month and steak was a once every 2 month occasion.

We ate a lot of curries being Indian
Mainly vegetarian foods
Veg pasta
Veg pie
If we did have meat it was chicken drumsticks or lamb
Breakfast fry ups
Lots of pizza and chippy takeaways, as well as frozen foods

I'm a bit older, too.

Every Sunday was a roast, lika a pp 4 meats in rotation, cold on a Monday and then either curry or rissoles on a Tuesday - the rissoles were minced meat, a little Branston pickle, sage and onion stuffing (Paxo) and then egg and breadcrumbed before being deep.fried in dripping.
Fridays were always fish and chips as the fish man used to have his pony and cart on a wide section of pavement in front of the synagogue. DM said it saved her thinking of what to have.
Cumberland sausage and bubble and squeak, Goblin tinned hamburgers, scouse cooked in a special earthenware pot, chops both pork and lamb, liver and onions.

After Fanny Craddock did her programme we started having omelettes, which were a novelty.
Salads were lettuce, toms and cucumber, never cress or radishes. In winter these became grated cabbage, chicory and tomato, always dressed with olive oil and vinegar and eaten with salad cream.

We only ever had pink salmon as red was too dear. Tinned, never fresh.
About the time we started having omelettes, we also got a pepper mill.

Steak was a treat for birthdays, and occasionally grilled trout.

Also used to have pasta in a dish like neapolitan cheese - macaroni, with tinned tomatoes, condensed tomato soup and onions all reduced down, then covered with cheese slices before being browned in the oven.

Bacon was always streaky, never back bacon, as streaky was cheaper. Long back was only bought at Christmas to cover the turkey.

Portions were smaller - in the 70s 8oz of mince was enough for 4 people in a recipe.

Pastry both shortcrust and flaky, but never puff, was home made.
Cakes, of which there was always one on the go, were made with Echo margarine not butter.

Jam was made, not bought, as well as marmelade, the only exception being Rose's lime marmelade.

Oh and smash mash 'potato'

I was born in the 70s & my mum was out a great cook & my dad didn't cook at all
My grandmother was a decent plain cook & I preferred her food. She also baked v simple things but I loved that.

Breakfast in my house was usually cornflakes or toast. Tea or hot chocolate.

Lunches were things like ham sandwich, tomato sandwich, egg sandwich. Packet soup, vegetable or oxtail (which I hated but my mother favoured) served with a bread roll or white sliced pan & butter
Cheese (which I didn't like) was a processed block which today most closely resembles unsliced easy singles.

Sandwiches featured a Iot. Sometimes they were just jam & butter or maybe a banana. My mother loved tinned salmon too.

Dinners were very very plain. Boiled potatoes, tinned peas, fried lamb or pork chops served with instant gravy.

Fried egg, baked beans & lumpy grey 'mashed potatoes ' without any butter / cream etc was a dinner that featured & I hated it

Fried white fish, boiled potatoes & peas

Boiled ham & cabbage & yup. Boiled potatoes again

Stew which lacked any herbs etc so v plain & dull

She did make a few nice things - roast chicken & roast potatoes & stuffing was a highlight

Fried leftover potato slices with a fried egg. Loved that..

My mother has an unbelievable sweet tooth so we had dessert most nights but stuff like stewed apples & custard, Swiss roll (bought ) with custard, creamed rice, tinned fruit with runny cream etc

We never ever had rice, pasta, garlic, spices, herbs, curry, pizza etc till I was grown up

Born 1980 not in UK

Most of our vegetables were home grown - potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower, silverbeet, peas, iceberg lettuce, tomato, cucumber, swede

Monday was always leftover roast meat from Sunday roast at lunchtime. We used to dread cold lamb roast with all the white fat. Mostly served with salad of finely chopped lettuce, tomato, cucumber, grated carrot and cheddar cheese arranged on top. Dressed with a "mayonnaise" made with sweetened condensed milk and malt vinegar.

The rest of the time over boiled or disintegrating steamed veg, all salted and mashed or boiled potato with a different meat each night.

Occasionally liver and bacon, stew/casseroles with dumplings and mashed potato. Mince in a pot - mince boiled for hours in water with salt and pepper ("to give it some flavour!"), some cornflour to thicken the gravy and some frozen mixed veg chucked in at the end.

Very rarely (for a change) curried sausages even though Dad hated curry. Recipe was boiled sausages, sultanas, pieces of carrot in a sauce made with yellow curry powder that was bought in the 1970s. Add cornflour to thicken.

Pudding every night. Often a home cooked apple crumble, custard, meringue, golden syrup dumplings served with heaps of ice cream, double cream, canned cream etc on top.

Squash or fizzy drinks with every meal. Hardly any water.

Mum got up early and made 4-6 baked goods every Saturday before anyone else got up for the week. Cakes, slices, biscuits etc.

If Mum couldn't be bothered to cook then we had fish and chips with half a loaf of white bread. Never brown bread. Sometimes Chinese from the same fish and chip shop. No other takeaways of any description.

Packed lunch was always a meat sandwich of some sort. A piece of fruit and a piece of baking.

Lunches at home were often eggs, filled rolls, cream buns, gammon steak.

Mum is a great baker but not such a good cook. Spices are only used in baking. Most of them are 20 years old. They never add herbs to anything.

Our kids a wide range of different foods and enjoy sushi, curries, seafood, pasta, and rice dishes. They have a lot less sugar and mainly drink water or milk.

🤢 I remember cod in parsley sauce, fray bentos pies, corn beef hash, plain boiled potatoes (that were never properly cooked) with meat & 2 veg type meals, tinned ravioli and tinned macaroni cheese - on toast?! cauliflower cheese as an actual main meal rather than a side, that was made with powdered cheese sauce and bits of bacon in if we were lucky. Vile!
Those were the worst things that stick in my mind but we would eat things like spag bol, curry etc too.

I didn't eat an avocado or an olive until I was an adult.
Yes, salad was lettuce tomato and cucumber. Peppers were a later addition, and maybe a spring onion. Celery was cut into sticks and put on the table in a glass of water, but only for a party tea.
Meals were mostly meat and 2 veg - sausages, pies and pasties, cottage pie, stew, gammon. Peas, carrots and cabbage, runner beans from the garden.
Spag Bol was quite exotic!
Proper puddings though, and a cake on Sunday.

Salad was always on a flat plate and usually reserved for Xmas 'tea' (later in the day) or Easter - back when Easter was a thing.

Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, slice or two of boiled ham, sliced hard boiled eggs and the obligatory Heinz salad cream (other salad creams were not available 😂)

Oh and bread and butter as required. Rathbones sliced white always 🍞