Awful meals your parents made as a child - lighthearted

[Workinghardeveryday]

I remember my mum used to put half a tomato on any meal that didn’t have veg, I hated it, still do.

Bread and butter pudding made with skimmed powdered milk, absolutely disgusting!!

Tuna sandwiches in my packed lunch that had not been drained properly, so all the bread was wet and soggy - everyday!

Do you have any to share

Kidney and bacon - it was kind of a stew but with the fatty flaccid part of the bacon included 🤢

Casserole with thin grey liquid and random kidneys floating on top.

Liver or smoked haddock with mash and peas. I used to hide it under leftover mash 🤢

They just used to make things too spicy sometimes and wonder why the 8 year olds were complaining.

Those suspiciously rectangular pieces of fish that came boil-in-the-bag in a horrid white parsley sauce.

Urgh, turns my stomach even now just thinking of them. Put me off fish for years.

Broad beans out the garden. Hated them. Still do.

She used to cook all the veg together so they all tasted like broad beans and make the gravy with the veg water so that tasted of them too 🤢🤢

And back then sausages as they were invariably gristly. 🤢🤢

Stew and dumplings

Tins of meatballs

Stuffed marrow. Stuffed with chopped bacon, mushrooms, anything else that ‘needed eating’, and topped with cheese and breadcrumbs. It was revolting.

Boiled chicken with boiled potatoes and tinned vegetables. My mum resented having to feed us, she kept everything as basic as possible. My dad was the better cook, curries and so on, but he was away with work a lot.

My Gran used to boil ordinary long grain rice in unsalted water until it was stodgy and then give it to me for ‘afters’ with a spoon of golden syrup ora dollop of jam - the texture was horrible.

Pork chops, chips and peas.

The most boring food a person can be given!

Liver and swede 🤢

My gran bought frozen runner beans, kept them in the pantry for a few days then cooked them. We had no fridge.
She had no sense of smell or taste and despite being a wonderful cook (in service cooking when she was younger) she would often serve up custard with sour milk. Makes me heave even now thinking about it.

My Mum got a microwave. It was the late 80’s, early 90’s thing to have (bit like todays air fryer.. 😂) EVERYTHING was then cooked in the microwave. Chicken drumsticks, fairy cakes 🤢

Hands down all of these beat mine 🤢.

Did remind me of liver though, absolutely hated it, only ever got it if I was super naughty 😂

Stuffed hearts. It was truly awful. The taste is so strong, and the idea of it so rank (yes I am a meat eating hypocrite). They did it because they were skint.

😱

Mum died young so sister brought us up. She was an awful cook but tried.

We ate some dreadful things (well didn’t actually manage to eat them). A stuffed marrow - that she left the inside seeds in. A whiskey cake with sponge fingers. Loads of offal, heart etc cause it was cheap. Once made lemonade that kept exploding.

She was wonderful though to give up her teenage years for us.

Broth

Witches' food apparently

The only things that stick in my mind were school dinners that I've never been able to eat before or since. One was pigs liver, usually with mushy peas. The other was beef olives. It was a take it or leave it.

My mum was a brilliant cook, she made it look so easy.

A stuffed marrow - that she left the inside seeds in. A whiskey cake with sponge fingers. Loads of offal, heart etc cause it was cheap. Once made lemonade that kept exploding.

^

Sounds like a roald dahl book!😂

This one isn’t awful exactly but the memory of it makes me sad.

We were poor growing up. My mother used to make crumpet pizzas — she’d spread Safeway value tomato ketchup on a crumpet and sprinkle grated cheese on top, then grill it.

They were absolutely horrible but it was more that she made them because she knew we wanted pizza. Even as a kid it was complex, emotionally; I knew she was trying and doing her best, but it was still revolting, which made it even worse. For these reasons I dreaded ‘pizza night’.

Half a baked potato with a teeny tiny scraping of butter and lots of salt. For tea after school. With nothing else. Eaten with a teaspoon.

Porridge made with water and salt, and again, nothing else - no milk or sugar or anything nice.

Hearts are delicious.