To think my mum's food was better than his mum's?

[Flauralaura]

So, my mum was a very traditional, old school cook. We grew up on stews, roasts, vegetable soups, mince and potatoes, lots of basic fresh veg like cabbage and carrots, cheap/quick tea nights were scrambled egg or toasted cheese sandwiches, rice pudding, apple crumble for deserts, all fairly stodgy and hardly any of which I would make for my family now, although I have fond memories. MIL apparently never cooked anything from scratch, it was all beige food out of the freezer, nuggets, fish fingers, chips, waffles, frozen pizza and lasagne , and the only veg hubby ever encountered as a child was frozen peas. We don't eat like that now either, but hubby is convinced his childhood diet was much more enjoyable! What sort of meals did your parents make for you back in the day, and am I being unreasonable to think my childhood diet was healthier and more enjoyable?

Beige food is definitely not my idea of enjoyable

It's extremely weird to be competitive about someone's childhood memories and/or views of their mum.

*'ActDottie · Today 17:42

Beige food is definitely not my idea of enjoyable'*

It's not about what you find enjoyable now, it's as a child. I wouldn't find it enjoyable now either.

His Mum didn't cook, she bunged frozen food in the oven, no cooking skills required. Your Mum was obviously so much better.

There’s an old saying “The best cook was my mum”
Most people think that of their mothers cooking , obviously there are exceptions to this.
My mum was a traditional cook like yours: roasts, stews, soups, savoury pies, pastries, quiches, (we called them cheese pies) she could make meal out of anything and stretch a roast to last three meals. (I think she invented the mumsnet chicken long before Mumsnet did.)

I don’t particularly like cooking, I can’t get a beef joint right or cook a steak to save my life.

But we're talking about what's enjoyable to a child.

My parents served super healthy meals and I always loved going to a friends house and being given things like potato smileys and nuggets!

It seems that old vibe of "my dads bigger than your dad" was only in my head then! Really the lightest- hearted thread! I enjoyed and survived my mum's food, DH enjoyed and survived his too, we love and appreciate both our mums and the fact that they fed us. We eat differently these days because we live in different times, but still sometimes enjoy meals from both their approaches. I was interested to hear how other people ate as they were growing up and I thank those of you who contributed their memories.

OP your opening post doesn’t sound light hearted in the slightest! Reread it back and remember your on mumsnet 😅😂

I think you’re probably a bit younger than me OP but I had a similar diet.

I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s in a mining town in the north and although my mum worked f/t, she also cooked traditional English dinners with puddings every single evening, as that’s what my dad expected. I’d help with peeling spuds and carrots or making a crumble topping. The meat was cheap cuts that were stewed to death usually or things like sausages, liver or occasionally a small joint of pork. I think chicken was relatively expensive?

They both served in WW2 and consequently they were both wary of ‘foreign’ foods so we never ate what I’d now consider fairly ordinary stuff like pasta or rice based dishes and I don’t think any of my friends did either?

It wasn’t until I’d left home before I tried a Pizza, Chinese or Indian takeaway. A takeaway back then was either the Friday or Saturday night fish and chip supper, or chips with mushy peas and sharing a battered fish for mum and the kids. Dad had a whole fish to himself.

In the seventies where I lived, you either ate a variety of meat and two veg type meals with gravy or you had the new canned and frozen convenience foods. We didn’t own a freezer. Several friends had mums who opened a tin and stuck the contents in a saucepan and heated it on the gas hob and divvied the contents between the kids with slices of bread and butter. Can’t say I was envious of them. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Obviously, I know there were families who had foreign holidays and were exposed to alternative cuisines but not in my immediate neighbourhood. If you got a week in Skeggy or at Butlins, you were doing really well. 😂

@Flakey99 - ha I came from a midlands mining town and yep that was exactly the case. My mum actually cooked but many of my friends dads had stuff like tins of fray bentos beef poured over mash potatoes with tinned carrots

I'm sorry I didn't get the tone right. It was just supposed to be a bit of fun remembering my lovely mum and my lovely MIL and the lovely way they fed us !

The thread title is bizarre. Are you seven?

Ah just read your updates. That makes more sense!

He said ‘enjoyable’ not healthier !!!

You know your mum cooked healthier without asking here

If your childhood diet was healthier and more enjoyable, why do you say that you don't eat at all like that now?

It’s actually an interesting topic @Flauralaura . I was brought up in the 60/70s and in the early days mothers had no choice but to cook from scratch and usually shop daily. An utter grind.

Then I clearly remember the opening of Bejam the frozen food store. My parents invested in a massive chest freezer and yes, we were served quite a lot of fish fingers. Also came the advent of sugary cereals, ski yoghurts, squash, Angel delight and so much more. For a working mother of 4 it was a gift.

My mother did also cook real food but the ability of the frozen food to reduce the drudgery was very real. There was zero information on any drawbacks, few kids were overweight and we were all healthy.

So it’s an evolving piece of social history. The real shockers came later. I wouldn’t eat or feed my family on some of that stuff now but at the time it was close to miraculous.

Well your mums was certainly much healthier.

Oh come fish finger butties are the food of the gods

My mum was a good basic cook and we had a lot of cheap home made food - including the 4 meal chicken!

She used to jazz up food to disguise it's basic roots - volcano potatoes or sandwiches like the queen for example.

When she started teaching full time it did switch to more freezer based food

I do a mix of both depending on work - if I'm busy and rushing in late it's basics (chicken nuggets or an omelette) but I can also cook if needed (3 kids 2 a uni and when home they work different work patterns so it's hard to cook a bit sit down meal!)

My mum and dad make good food. 90% homemade. Veg from the garden. Good comfort food. Dad probably cooks more and he makes a mean curry. Mum makes the best soup ever though. I was an only child and we all ate the same thing. I hold childhood meals in a feeling of nostalgia.

My DP grew up in a family who did less homemade meals. And as 1 of 5 kids, they ate a ‘kids meal’ then his parents had an ‘adult meal’ later. I just asked him if he feels nostalgic about his meals growing up and he said no. It was just food - it was whatever could be cooked for 5 kids, that they would all eat, so never anything interesting. Lots of tuna pasta, oven meals, etc.

I've found them at Sainsbury's and Iceland. I love the minced beef ones.

Just to say, I'm going through the most horrendously shit time in my life atm and just posted this for a bit of a cheery up. Thanks for the pile on
people - it's really helped.

@Flauralaura, there are lots of nice posts too, and people enjoying reminiscing about food from their childhoods. Some people took you the wrong way but MN is a huge site with so many posters - misinterpretations and differences of opinion often occur.

I didn’t find your post sneery and realised that it was lighthearted. I’m so sorry you’re going through an awful time 💐

I know it's ridiculous to say this here but my daughter died and I'm just trying to find silly things to talk about

Oh my goodness @Flauralaura, that is absolutely devastating. I’m so very sorry for your loss. I’m sure posters would like to hear about your daughter if you feel like talking about her.

If not, we can talk about food again. 💐

I'd much rather have your mum's food!
But my kids (now about 20) went to a childminder and some of her meals were like your MILs, whereas I cooked much more from scratch. They recognized quite early on that I was a better cook - but there were still certain meals from the childminders that they always wanted me to do like hers!