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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what you ate in the 90s?

263 replies

Caligal · 16/07/2021 01:37

What was your daily diet then like compared to now? Whether you were a kid, a teen or an adult. I’m curious how different it was to today....

OP posts:
hattmancockk · 16/07/2021 09:52

Eggy bread
Liver
Deep fried potato croquettes
Cola cubes
Cornflakes with loads of sugar
Carrots with mud still on

comebacksunshines · 16/07/2021 09:52

Agree with poster that said some of these diets sound 70's and 80's
Findus crispy pancakes
potato waffles
Ready brek
Fish Fingers
Caramac
Micro Chips
My 70's / 80's childhood. Surprised it was still being served up in 90's.
I think the EU Market opened up more in the 90's, meaning more 'foreign' foods were coming in.

StevieNix · 16/07/2021 09:55

I was a kid in the 90’s so for me it was either microwave meals (birds eye roast turkey dinner was a particular favourite) beige oven food (turkey twizzlers, mini Kiev’s, findus pancakes)

Or if it was a home cooked meal it usually featured grey mince beef (mince beef and onions with boiled potatoes, mince beef stew, stuffed marrow, mince curry and rice, chilli con carne, cottage pie, bolognese but with boiled potatoes not pasta for some reason)
My all time favourite meal in the 90’s was Richmond sausages, mash, tinned green beans and thick bisto gravy or bbq chicken griddles from birds eye with chicken super noodles.

Although my diet was unhealthy I wasn’t allowed to snack and I didn’t get to pick my dinner I got given what the family was having. I was a very skinny child despite eating a lot of processed food lol

ExConstance · 16/07/2021 10:00

An awful lot of meat. I'm vegetarian - nearly Vegan now.

MsMiaWallace · 16/07/2021 10:02

I remember the food was just loadsa beige & crap!
Bread & butter with lots of meals too

EL8888 · 16/07/2021 10:05

I’m grimacing at the Sunny D and Chicken Tonight as l never liked either!

EL8888 · 16/07/2021 10:07

I had a half forgotten about the glass of juice as a starter but hadn’t about the bread and butter obsession at every meal. Was that just a northern thing? -l grew up in the north

RampantIvy · 16/07/2021 10:07

If this thread is representative of how people ate it is no wonder we have an obesity problem.

Fairyxdance · 16/07/2021 10:07

Weetabix or rice crispsies.

School lunch was cheese or ham sandwich or whatever. Penguin chocolate bar. Packet of crisps. Flask of squash.

Tea. Mum would make Sheppard's pie, bolognaise, stew, stuffed marrow, roast dinners, pasta, salads, chops, chips and whatever.

Snack we had a couple of biscuits.

Overall sounds unhealthy but we were not allowed big snacks as you can see.

MotionActivatedDog · 16/07/2021 10:08

Do you still struggle with food? I was/am similar and though I’m a lot better I’m always keen to find new strategies that might help. I’ve seen a few dieticians over the years but they’ve all been crap

Yes I do still struggle. I eat a much wider variety of food- started in my teens when I started going out with friends and didn’t want to look like a weirdo. However I have a real mental block when it comes to food. I’d rather not have to eat at all. I don’t enjoy anything about food or eating. I’ve been to a hypnotherapist which was totally unsuccessful. And I’ve tried at various times to cook new dishes but I don’t even understand much of the terminology. It’s like a foreign language. Im so switched off from anything to do with food. Id happily eat toast for all my meals if it wasn’t for my children.

Caligal · 16/07/2021 10:08

My mum put everything in the electric fryer that replaced those old fashioned chips pans. You name it, bacon, tinned potatoes, they went in the fryer to get deep fried Hmm

Nutrition wasn’t really considered at all in our house, it was all about cost, we lived pay day to pay day. However there was always salad and fruit, not that I ate a lot of it growing up. Veg was limited to tinned peas and carrots and maybe a bit of cabbage now and then.

My mom grew up often hungry so developed an attitude of wanting the fridge and freezers and cupboards full at all times - and always with the cheapest food. In her eyes, it was food and you wouldn’t be hungry, why pay more? So a lot of Asda smart price 25p cheese spreads etc - my family shopped at Aldi before it was known as cost effective and normal - it was known as the place where poor people shopped and I remember being embarrassed when my friends saw my parents come home with Aldi shopping bags one time!!

My mom did make a decent roast, and my dad made lovely fry ups (absolutely swimming in grease) we had takeaway Indian and Chinese curries sometimes and at school in the 90s (aged 11-16 for me) I loved the cheese and potato pie (potato not pastry) and the lamb burgers (random)

Weekdays at home a lot of frozen food or things like liver, pork chops and occasionally steak. Never had mince, we had spaghetti and meatballs with Campbell’s tinned meatballs Grin my parents would buy ocean sticks (those fake crab sticks) covered in vinegar from the “fish man” at the pub!

I used to drink Oasis from a glass bottle on my walk to school from the corner shop every morning, eat a Kiwi for breakfast when I got to school!

All very random haha but it was a simpler time, I’m a massive foodie now and eat anything and everything pretty much.

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Member984815 · 16/07/2021 10:12

Anything that was put in front of me . Crispy pancakes, Bolognese, curry , stew cabbage and bacon, lasagna. Lots and lots of chips .

Winterfairy23 · 16/07/2021 10:14

Supernoodles, findus microwave lasagne and macaroni cheese, microwave chicken korma, chicken kievs, pepperami, microwave pizzas, 10p crisps, sunny delight.

I was a child in the 90s and grew up eating rubbish as I was a fussy eater. Now I eat healthily as an adult and I’m not fussy with food at all. I can’t remember the last time I had any of the above! 😬

Fairyxdance · 16/07/2021 10:14

@MsMiaWallace

Yes bread and butter featured in every meal with us too.

Caligal · 16/07/2021 10:14

Oh yes I forgot bread and butter with everything too! Every dinner

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Fairyxdance · 16/07/2021 10:17

@Caligal

Oh god yes Aldi. We went once and I'll always remember my dad cracked Jokes about the disgusting 8p beans lol.

We lived in a farm for 18 months and my dad could never leave apart from one Sunday a month. He could drive to the village and that was it. So we'd go shopping once a month and the rest of the year we had to go to the village coop got bits and pieces. I think the Aldi try was never repeated lol

Fairyxdance · 16/07/2021 10:18

The rest of the month sorry

dentydown · 16/07/2021 10:24

It was potato carrots peas and then something shop bought like a pie. I longed for “fancy” spag Bol or pasta (foreign muck). Fruit was always “too expensive” and eating out was always spud-u-like.

Lavender24 · 16/07/2021 10:26

I was born in 1991 and we ate things like alphabettis, potato waffles, chicken dippers, fish fingers, tinned soup. Oh and the typical packed lunch of Dairylea sandwiches, crisps, choc biscuit and a yoghurt. Sunday dinner at my Grandparents' once a week. My Mam didn't have a lot of money when she and my Dad separated and we were quite fussy kids anyway.

I'm vegan now and eat a mainly whole food plant based diet with a bit of junk thrown in. Lots of home made soups, stir fries, fruit, nuts etc. Some mock meats and bags of sweets too. I can't resist Fruit Pastilles and Starburst!

DinosaurFineosaur · 16/07/2021 10:27

Was 12-22 in the 90s. My parents have always been advocates of cooking from scratch so we never really did processed food. Day-to-day, our meals weren't too different from now - quite a lot of pasta and curries as well as shepherd pie and general meat and two veg dishes (lamb chops seemed to feature a lot) - I eat far more veggie dishes now. Every meal back then came with meat or fish as a component and definitely no pulses.

Caeser salads became a big thing in the 90s, both to have in a restaurant and at home. At least one night per week would be a prepared Ceaser salad (bag of lettuce which came with dressing, croutons and parmesan shavings) to which we would add chicken or salmon.

Tex Mex was also huge in the 90s. I must have eaten so many tortilla chips, guacamole and burritos in that decade. I remember the excitement of getting Old El Paso kits at home too and making chilli with crunchy tacos. Lots of other American-themed food too - jambalya, cajun-spiced everything, blackened everything...

I remember pesto arriving from nowhere and being a huge deal. Mum bought a couple of jars from the supermarket and seeing that the serving suggestions included potatoes, loaded up some baked potatoes by pretty much emptying a full jar on the top of each. We thought it was disgusting and binned it. Not long after that though, I was with friends who go really excited about ready made pasta salad pots with pesto and pine nuts in the supermarket. I didn't want to seem like a luddite next to them so I bought one too and thought it was amazing. Persuaded mum to give pesto another try after that. I think though, the concept of having a relatively dry pasta which was just coated with pesto, or any type of sauce, was completely alien. Until that point our pasta dishes had been a 70/30 ratio in favour of sauce.

I think one of the biggest changes is that foodstuffs which were posh then, have now become commonplace. Pesto is an example, feta another, and also creme-fraiche. I remember Delia suggesting stirring creme-fraiche through mashed potato and it was life changing. Similarly, mixing it with some lemon juice and serving on the side of a salmon fillet with a few snipped chives - this was the epitome of poshness.

There was also a lot of strange recipes happening in the name of diet and health. Mum would make Thai curries, for example, but coconut milk was a huge no-no so she would mix skimmed milk with a spoonful of malibu. Avocados, bananas and nuts were also out due to fat content.

LemonRoses · 16/07/2021 10:30

are e sure we’re talking he 90s here?
I can’t think of any families who ate some of these things as their regular diet. Can't think my children were ever offered bread and butter when they went to friends houses for lunch or supper. Where was this happening? Feels like a post war time warp.

BiddyPop · 16/07/2021 10:35

I was in uni in early 90s so lots of bacon sandwiches or mac'n'cheese with bacon using bacon pieces (10p/lb from specialist bacon butcher). The bits that came off the edge of the slicer or the end chunk too small to cut etc.

I had a lot of pasta and rice meals, with sauces made from scratch (tin of tomatoes, onion, garlic, dried herbs for spag Bol sauce/ onion, garlic, medium curry powder, water for a curry etc).

Sunday roast when at home. But not when away generally.

Lots of chicken wings roasted for a dinner, with roast potatoes that night, and meat stripped from leftover wings for a sweet'n'sour (from a jar) the following night.

Plenty of veg added to my sauces - but not as much as nowadays.

Hegartyhell · 16/07/2021 10:36

I had to eat meat with every dinner or it didn't feel like a meal. Now we only eat meat a couple of times a week and the less I eat the more I dislike it. Apart from steak and lamb roast dinner. Still love those!

ahoyshipmates · 16/07/2021 10:38

Not really all that much different from any other decade really, but as another pp says, Greek food v popular.

Caligal · 16/07/2021 10:42

I can assure you in a lot of families there was always bread and butter on the table at mealtimes in the 90s!

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