What family dinners did you grow up with?

[ValkyrieAssassin]

Both my parents were excellent cooks. And I and my sister relished food in a very big way so I expect it was quite satisfying to cook for us. For context i was born in 1973 and Dsis in 1976. I am not from the UK which makes a difference I think because meat was cheap when I was growing up. Not particularly well off- thoroughly middle class as both parents were teachers (DM part time from when I was born).

Our fairly regular family meals

• french onion soup
• pumpkin soup
• chicken noodle soup
• minestrone with homemade meatballs
• spanakopita
• beef wellington (every single birthday)
• chicken schnitzel with apple sauce, mash and peas
• beef filet on mustard crouton with brandy cream sauce
• semolina gnocchi with spicy tomato basil sauce
• pumpkin gnocchi (homemade) with sage cream sauce
• rissoles with mushroom gravy
• sausages and mash
• seafood pancakes
• chicken and veg pancakes
• bacon and sweetcorn chowder
• homemade asparagus soup (my mother was a Delia Smith devotee)

Most of this I would never cook in a regular week. It's mainly pasta, tacos, pasta and easy because I have children with a range of SEN that makes eating generally difficult for them.

I am feeling nostalgic this afternoon and am curious what sorts of dishes you had while growing up, and if you make them now for your own family or not.

My mum was an excellent cook but we were pretty poor whilst I was young.

We nearly always had a pudding; crumble, apple pie, baked apple, angel delight!

We were often given game as we lived quite rurally.

I guess the unusual dinner for where we lived ( south east) was pan haggerty. Used to love it.

Spag bol
Risotto
Lasagne
Roasts
Irish stew
Felafel
Macaroni cheese
Spicy chick pea stew
Home made fish n chips
Home made chicken goujons
Tuna salad / niçoise
Quiche
Fish cakes
Stuffed peppers
Mash & sausage

Fish pie
Chilly con carne

Lots of stews which I hated (coq au vin/Riesling, boeuf bourguignon, etc.). I went vegetarian at 13 and then cooked for myself! We used to have mussels a lot which I loved, in fact it was mussels that took me out of my vegetarian era in my 20s!!

Oh, and omelettes, they were a staple for a quick lunch.

Ratatouille
Cauliflower cheese
Fish fingers, potato waffles and baked beans

Repeat.

I do not cook any of the above

Born in 1977

Mum cooked everything from scratch,no jars of sauce or anything.

Spaghetti bolognese
Chilli con carne rice, pitta
Quiche, jackets, salad
Shepherds pie
Sweet and sour chicken and rice
Chicken curry (raisins!!)
Roasts.
Cod in parsley sauce, mash, veg.
Steak and kidney pie , other pie variations
Omelette.

Hmm 80's child here, we had...
Stew and dumplings
Pasties
Sausage, beans and mash.
Chicken casserole
Spanish omelette
Bacon hot pot
Pasta bolognaise
Turkey burgers with cheese
Findus crispy pancakes and oven chips

I was born in the 80's

Grew up on "yellow" freezer food
Turkey jetters/fish fingers/crispy pancakes all served with oven chips/potato waffles or those alphabet potato things
Or tinned chicken in a white sauce
Or Pasta with a ton of condensed soup

The only veg I tried before buying my own house was peas, carrots & cauliflower in cheese sauce!

Stews, hot pot, meat &veg, and from early 80's spag Bol.

Pretty bland

We had a lot of "chops"
Ugh

Born in the 60s
Roast
Cold meat, chips & gravy (Monday!)
Spag bol
Curry (raisins!)
Beef casserole
Chicken casserole made with condensed soup
Lamb chops/pork chops
Toad in the hole
Liver & bacon
When we got a freezer we kept things like fish in butter sauce or parsley sauce, crispy pancakes, fundus burgers.

Seventies kid.

Fish fingers, or sometimes cod balls
Chops
Mince
Stew
Huge pan of vegetable soup.
Cheese & potato pie
Cooked ham and chips
Fray Bentos tinned pie
In summer, a typical 70s salad, with the addition of new potatoes, and cream cheese to eat with spring onions.
Roast dinner. I thought nobody else on earth could make gravy as good as my mum's. I haven't eaten meat for over forty years, and I'm not sure I wasn't right about that.
The vegetables were boiled to fuck, mind you.

At some point we began branching out and had the odd Vesta curry or chow mein, always with chips on the side. Then mushrooms or meat cooked in a tinned curry sauce. Very exotic. Pasta and noodles came into being around 1980, as far as our house was concerned.

Rasher Pudding,bloody lovely 🤤

Forgot about the stews and dumplings!
Liver and bacon
Sausage, mash, onion gravy.
Toad I'm the hole.

Turkey burgers and chips.
roast dinners.
Burnt toast.
the odd tin of soup if I was sick.
that’s about it. My kids have a way more varied palate than me. They eat pretty much everything with my son avoiding the odd vegetable when he can’t cope with the texture.
I also eat a way more varied diet now then when I was a child.

Apologies I may have forgotten the odd spaghetti bolognaise 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Spaghetti bolognaise
vesta paella
vesta Chinese curry
sweet and sour chicken out of a jar
findus crispy pancakes
corned beef hash
boil in the bag fish in parsley sauce with potatoes
shepherds pie
roast on Sundays
liver and onions with mash

I only liked the first three!

Whatever went with a can of homepride sauce. Curry, beef in red wine, chicken supreme sort of meals with mashed potatoes and veg. Mum was a very ahem predictable cook... and if we said we liked something, we had it three or four times a week so we were careful saying very much. The only things Mum did from scratch was corned beef hash, stovies (she came from north of the border), and a roast dinner. She also did an epic cheese and potato pie.

The funny thing is that that my Dad was a very proficient cook and yet he never went near the kitchen when they lived together.

Child of the 70’s, Mum cooked everything.

Roast dinners
Spag bol with chips
Eggs, chips & beans
Pork chops, mash & veg
Liver and bacon 🤢
Sausage, onions, mash and peas
On weeks when skint I vaguely remember something Mum called mince with everything in it (mince, carrots, onions, peas, potatoes)

80s child and recognise a lot of the above.

Used to have this potato bake which was sliced potatoes, tin of Campbells condensed mushroom soup poured over, bacon, cheese and breadcrumbs on top. Bloody lovely.

Weird savoury jelly with bits of celery in and cottage cheese on top, although that was more my grandmas type of food. My other grandma would make a curry that I think was basically boiled chicken, curry powder and raisins. And so much baked rice pudding with the skin on that I couldn't touch it again until I was in my 30s.

Oh and sliced chopped pork from Hinton's which had a smiley face in it!

80s/early 90s kid - non U.K.

Soups (with small pasta, milk/yogurt based)
Beans (stews or soups)
Cabbage casserole
Fried eggs with paprika
Heated/ cooked salami type sausages
Cheesy filo pastry savoury bake
Fried homemade pitta bread for breakfast
Eggy bread
Roasts - lamb, beef, chicken, trout (with all the bones)
Chips was my favourite but we only had it if my older sister cooked it. Mum almost never cooked potatoes.
Tomato and onion salad with everything during tomato season.
Lots of pickles, seasonal veg and fruit.
We were made to eat lots of bread though - we had to eat it with everything!

Klops with tomato sauce, mash and red cabbage.
Smoked sausage with sauerkraut and boiled potatoes.
Macaroni cheese with onions and bacon.
Spaghetti bolognese
Salad with cold meat
Roast chicken
Quiche and salad
Stuffed cabbage
Stuffed peppers
Goulash
Chicken Paprikas
Lots of soups with soup pasta that my great aunt sent over from Hungary.

Born in 1976
liver and onions with mash (hated that)
breaded fish, peas, new potatoes
spaghetti bolognaise
pilau rice (sort of a curried rice had sultanas in)
quiche (had a special quiche dish with the recipe on)
beef casserole
chilli con carne

roast for Sunday lunch, usually chicken
sunday tea was crumpets, muffins ham, cheese pickles cake tea (loved that)

puddings, angel delight, yogurt (ski), apple crumble, summer pudding, bread and butter pudding, a Sara lee freezer pudding (Black Forest gateaux, cheesecake), fruit salad

moving into 90’s pasta bake, lasagne, stir fries, quorn,