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?

And personally I feel very nostalgic about butterscotch angel delight and arctic roll! Much more so than about homemade blackberry and apple crumble. Probably because I still eat the latter but not the former (and probably wouldn't really want to.

My childhood diet sounds exactly like yours. And I do still enjoy and cook those dishes sometimes.

I wouldn’t find waffles pizza fish fingers tasty or enjoyable.

My mum and mil cooked similar to your mum. We cook stirfrys, curries, stuffed tomatos, fish, risotto, paella and occasionally roasts, stews, pasta.

I am so sorry @Flauralaura .

Who are you to dictate what he thinks? A lot of us think our parents food was the best because it is what is family us, no one has the right to question that

Dh and I had very different food upbringings-
he was rural with parents who still live in the 70s so it was meat and 2 veg but all home grown veg and fruit, jams, lots of fruit crumbles etc. I was urban so was making and eating fajitas, sushi, dim sum etc 15 years before dh had heard of them (early 90s). His was arguably eating local and seasonal, mine was more diverse. We meet in the middle now and eat as much local and seasonal as we can but with recipes from all over the world.

Note to recent and new posters who think the OP is being unreasonable: the OP is feeling particularly vulnerable at the moment for good reason. Might be an idea to read all of OPs posts for context.

As far back as the 60s and 70s we had lovely home cooked food and it included foreign dishes (Thank you Elizabeth David and mother's early travel) like boeuf bougignon, spag bol (going to Soho for things like tomato puree and pasta sheets for ravioli and the chemist for olive oil), coq au vin, chicken Kievs (home-made; the rest of the chicken made a stew), curries, etc. Alongside roasts, chops, pies, casseroles and stews.

MIL put Bisto gravy on roast beef, lamb and pork - never good cuts and her nod to foreign was a Vesta Curry. It was conveniencenfood all the way, filling up on bread and marge, alongside grey Mince stew.

DH and his sisters recall their childhood food with horror.

DH readily agrees and infers that my mother, whilst a narcissistic cow, was a very good cook. At 86 she still is.

@Flauralaura I am sorry . Would you like to start a new thread to talk about her? It is a pain like no other. I know.

Not mine.

I was given garlic Kievs that were still frozen in the middle, with boiled-to-mush Broccoli.

Grim.

I'm a massive foodie as an adult and I cook a lot, self taught, Mum says she has no idea where I get it from. I agree...

It was perfectly obvious to me that you were starting a light hearted thread. But there are some posters on Mumsnet who would start a fight in an empty room. They just seem to come on here to snip and snipe at people and try to make them feel bad. It's why I rarely post on here anymore.

I've just seen your subsequent post. I'm so very sorry about your daughter x

I'm so sorry about your DD @Flauralaura 💐

"Better" and "more enjoyable" are two different things. You're setting your mothers against each other in two entirely different competitions.

Food isn't just nutrition it's memories and belonging and feeling loved. Don't dick on it!

Mine was a mixture of both.

Now I cook most things from scratch as I had an autistic DC who won’t eat junk food so I have to give them a varied healthy diet taking into account their food restrictions.