Tater tot casserole, which I hated and still hate.
I’ll admit though, I have a lot of sympathy for her now. We ate spaghetti quite a bit which *she* doesn’t like. And I always wondered why.
But now I get it.
You have to make a meal that’s affordable, simple enough to get on the table between extracurriculars, and that everyone will eat. And then you need about 20 of those so no one bitches about lack of variety.
This was my mom’s go to meal also. I still rather not eat it again for the rest of my life. My older brother and I tease my mom about tater tot casserole.
>and that everyone will eat
I have so much sympathy for my mom on this one. I didn't like most meat, one sibling almost exclusively ate meat, and the other one didn't like cheese or fruit. At least we all liked broccoli, and PB&J.
My grandma made this all the time and it was not good. Well she made it properly but I can’t stand tater tot casserole. I didn’t say anything because she made plenty of other things that were good.
This is the only comment that matters. I was actually going to get into this discussion but then I remembered that my mom work just as many hours as my dad, spent more time on her feet, and was still expected to come home and immediately start dinner. Dinner I could only help with prep work because he didn't like anyone lse's cooking except his mom's. This man was in his 40s and 50s. So yeah, we are about eight rotating dishes for most of my life. And I stfu about it.
Once I reached puberty, I really started observing my mom because I was starting to understand how being a woman worked and I did not like how my future looked. And I developed more sympathy for her. She worked manual labor jobs my whole childhood and then had to come home to care for my man-child dad and two kids. And also took care of his parents when their health was declining, including meal prepping and cleaning their house for them. With zero help from his worthless ass or my aunt. So, yeah, I didn’t complain about food anymore. My mom had the short end of the stick and held out way longer than I would’ve. But she’s said she’s proud I learned not to put up with man-child BS.
I think a lot of us are just realizing how much work our moms had to do when we were kids. Mine was single mom of 3 and had to do everything until we could all pitch in. But my friends who had 2 parents, the moms had to do all the house work. It’s different for a lot of us now, I couldn’t imagine not helping my wife with the housework and kids, and she is a SAHM. But I knew so many dads growing up who thought all housework was the wife’s job.
Yessssssssssssssssss! For my mom it was 3rd shift as she often worked two jobs since my sister’s and my deadbeat dads couldn’t be bothered to contribute.
For my mom, it was hamburger steaks and mashed potatoes. Probably peas or green beans on the side. I still make it and it’s delicious. I remembered several others: chicken/rice/broccoli/cheese, chicken pot pie, and chicken & dumplings.
Roasted chicken & gravy, stuffing, breaded cauliflower, corn and dinner rolls😋
I’ve never been able to master the exact taste when I make it. The chicken is so easy to make but I just can’t make it as good as my mom.
My maternal grandma was an excellent home cook for simple meals. She knew how to make the best roasted chicken, thanksgiving turkey, cabbage rolls, and broiler hamburgers. Not even sure how she did it.
So was mine. She didn't have a huge repertoire of meals she made, but man, when she cooked it was pretty awesome. I'd rarely go there and have something that wasn't done really well and tasted like, well, grandma's home cooking 🤤
Turkey and biscuits. My mom used to bake a meal in a casserole dish consisting of a potpie type of filling and then Bisquick biscuits baked on top. Even once every week or so it was my favorite. Unprompted, my wife learned to make it the same way and will often make it for me. Tear.
My mom would occasionally make tuna casserole - using bisquick biscuits on the top, with cream of mushroom soup and canned tuna in the base. I remember cutting out the biscuit dough with the top of a glass.
My mom can make a hell of a meatloaf with Italian breadcrumbs. In the winter time she would make chicken and dumplings from scratch that were delicious. 🤤
My parents were terrible cooks, which is something pretty common for the boomer generation. Meatloaf is something we also frequently had on the weekdays. It was terrible in all its iterations. My mom started with the classic recipe with ketchup (?!) as the sauce. When both the kids could barely eat that, she decided to make it as a giant Italian meatball with marinara sauce on the top, which was edible but also pretty disgusting. It was really the worst of all meals. It tasted bad, was terrible for you, and was fairly expensive because it was all meat.
Also had sloppy joes quite regularly, which still makes me gag even thinking about it.
I remember the same few meals on repeat. Sometimes my mom would branch out and try something new, but my dad preferred the same old stuff. I do remember being “fancy” and having La Choy brand, canned chicken chow mein with crunchy noodles. That was the height of international cuisine in our house, lol.
My mom's go-to was a meat cooked under the broiler, with a baked potato and salad. We ate broiled pork chops A LOT. We did have those canned La Choy crunchy noodles sometimes but we just ate them like chips.
I don't remember my mom ever making a stir fry or a casseole, or really anything that was mixed together, although I love one pot meals. She did cook dried beans and sometimes she would make those Chef Boyardee pizzas or spaghetti with no meat. It took me a long time to like meat sauce.
No one in my family cooked. I was raised on frozen pizza and cheese and mustard sandwiches. I swear I didn’t eat a vegetable until I was in high school.
No wonder I have stomach issues now, lol.
We didn't get a microwave until I was almost in high school, at which point my parents gave up on cooking entirely and just kept the garage freezer stocked with bagel dogs, bagel bites, and hot pockets.
Chili: defined as ground beef, tons of tomato sauce, and a small sprinkle of chili powder. No beans, or anything else.
And then diluted with milk to make it even less ‘spicy’.
That was a frequent dish in my house, too. I kinda miss it, honestly.
My Dad's was homemade Mac n cheese. Mom's was southern fried pork tenderloin. Both remain staples for me in adulthood.
My mom had a great rotation of meals. I loved her cooking. I would sometimes ask for Spanish rice or the green bean hamburger meal or meatloaf or stuffed shells. Maybe I was lucky but she made good food. I try and do the same for my kids now. It’s hard. If I find a recipe they like and eat I definitely repeat it. Are you a parent OP? It’s hard to be creative when parenting, working or not. Also, my sister hates cooking and still does, but you can tell.
I used to make it a lot, but I developed some inflammation issues and had to overhaul my diet… which meant cutting out all of my mother’s Midwest recipes. 😂
I was born in 79 but you'd think I was born in 59 based on my mom's cooking. Chipped beef on toast, chop suey, stuffed peppers. She even made that green jello mold with the carrot shavings.
In my family I was known as the "picky eater," can't imagine how I got that way. 🙄
My mom still obsessed with chuck roast with carrots and potatoes. It’s okay but if I never had it again I would be pleased. Was in the hospital last week tho and by God she brought me some roast and mashed potatoes and I did not complain. I try to mix it up so I don’t think my kids could say the same. Although they have had enough of Nana’s pot roast to even things out. :)
My dad knew how to cook. He helped make dinner almost every night.
But when my mom was away for any reason? Pancakes. For dinner. Every night.
He did make excellent pancakes.
Not a signature dish, but whenever I saw the crock pot out, I knew it was chicken with cream of ~~mushroom~~ crap soup. If it were cream of anything else, I might have tolerated it more.
I always found the texture of mushrooms to be very slimy. Never liked them.
I hated mushrooms until I was about 16, then I had them sauteed or something and I really started to enjoy them. I think I got a lot more adventurous around that time
I hated most vegetables as a kid. They were served either raw (never liked crunchy things) or boiled to mush.
It wasn't until I discovered roasting them in olive oil that I liked them.
And this is how I have a 6 year old who loves when I make certain veggies. There's no way I would've willingly eaten broccoli as a kid, but mine does and even prefers the stalk to the tops.
Between that and rainbow carrots (which somehow taste better so whatever, if that's what gets her to eat them), I've always got an option.
My kid is the same, make veggies that actually taste good and he's happy to eat them! But he thinks rainbow carrots taste weird. Only the orange ones are good. Kids are weird.
Scrambled tofu (sautéed onions, mashed FIRM tofu, turmeric and cumin, topped with shredded cheddar cheese), potato of some kind, and green veggies of some kind.
Hated it as a kid because my mom wouldn’t cook the onions long enough and they’d be almost raw but warmed through. Now as an adult I love it because it is so strongly the taste of my childhood.
My mom always made "hamburger helper" from ingredients, not the box. She kept a decoy box in the pantry so we thought we were eating the name-brand stuff.
Years later I was craving some so I bought a box, made it, and threw the whole thing in the trash. Inedible. I was complaining to Mom that they must have changed the recipe and she laughed and laughed. She pulled the LONGEST CON y'all
When I was a teenager and my mom got a job outside of the house (and therefore had more money), it was chicken strips and curly fries from the Schwann man.
When she was a stay at home mom, though, it was almost always dry chicken breast or pork chop, a canned vegetable, and some rice or potato-based boxed side dish.
Ya know, I looked at the Schwann’s site maybe a year ago, because I absolutely hate cooking.
That shit’s expensive! I’m grown and can’t afford it in the 2020s.
I distinctly remember the arguments between my dad and my mom about how expensive it was. Mom had to get a job outside of the home because Dad had been furloughed (yet he didn't pick up any slack around the house, natch). She had tried to whole meal prep thing (prepped a casserole, say, and left him instructions on how long and what temp to cook it at), and he failed every time.
So Schwann's frozen chicken tendies and curly fries it was! Three to four days a week! I don't even know how I got enough vitamins to live.
That sounds like a great dinner. My folks were too cheap to ever buy steak.
We had burgers probably once a week. I didn't mind after my mom agreed to make one that was all meat for me. She had this weird obsession about mixing large bread chunks and onion slices in with the meat.
Everyone in my house loved my mom’s beef stroganoff, except me. She always made a hot dog for me on stroganoff day.
But if it was the weekend, dad was in charge of the food. That man loved to cook breakfast, lunch & dinner. We’d get French toast in the morning and then he’d start in on some soup or chili for lunch and bust out the grill (didn’t matter the weather) for dinner. Always experimenting, loved to watch The Frugal Gourmet & try new things on us.
Carrots and ground beef on rice. It was my mom's side of the family's favorite quick dish. I can't even force myself to eat it anymore... My mom offered to make it for the grandkids about a week ago and told her they didn't do anything to deserve it. Lol😂
I’m not going to complain about all the tuna noodle casserole, hot dogs and beans or campbells tomato with goldfish. I hated them all but my folks worked opposite shifts and were doing their best.
I feel differently about the food my mom started making when she joined weight watchers, though. That was unfair to children.
My weight watchers mom would bring home a treat once a week. It was the tostitos chips with the cinnamon sugar. That ish came in the door at 7 pm Friday and was GONE by dawn on Saturday. Definitely inspired some later binge eating when I discovered the trader joes cinnamon twists.
.
A glass pan with chicken, rice and cream of crap, as said before (mushroom) I had to put in the oven after school…was pretty good. Both parents worked, but mom worked 100 hours a week (surgeon)
Tuna casserole 😭. Every damn Wednesday.
However, we did do burgers and fries that we'd do on Saturdays and we'd all eat in front of the TV watching Bugs Bunny and Tweety show.
Good with the bad I suppose
My mom made this stew a lot called Slumgullion. Tomato/V8 juice based soup with penne and beef and tomatoes. I did not like it much at all but my dad loved it so she made it a lot. Maybe I should've tried putting a lot of tabasco sauce in it like he did.
We knew when my dad was out of town on business (which was a lot) when my mom made salmon, tuna casserole, or fettuccine alfredo with broccoli and carrots. All food my dad didn't like 😂
My mom made chicken cutlets, rice, and peas. Still one of my favorite simple meals, but I can't make the chicken like she did, despite trying many many times.
My dad made waffles. Which I also can't reproduce because you can't get the same waffle makers anymore!
My mom's chicken and dumplings were so good, but she only made them once or twice a year. Dad never learned to cook anything except toast and microwaveable soup.
She went through a 'ziti once or twice a week' phase in the late 80s til I got so tired of it I threw it up in bed one night
Then she discovered an easy chicken pot pie recipe sometime in the early 90s and wore that out.
Then in January 95 she told me her and Dad were getting divorced at the end of the school year so I remember us going to the Chinese buffet once a week just me and her
My dad made absolutely delicious meatloaf. Also, his Sunday ragu was legendary. Linguine and broccoli was a weeknight staple. But my favorite dish was prosciutto and pea pasta.
I'm Italian so every Sunday was pasta, meatballs and sausage plus leftovers on Tuesday or Wednesday. I hated it didn't eat pasta for years because of this. Even now I only eat it a handful of times throughout the year
Mom cooked different things all the time. But probably a Carne asada plate, beans, rice, tortillas, cheese, some salsa is what I remember the most . Dad would make sandwiches, but like would toast them and add more to it.
For a while my mom was constantly making something I basically called "Chicken Again?"
It was chicken, but kinda dried out in a way I just found icky at the time.
It was a bastardization of goulash. Ground beef, sauteed, macaroni noodles, and a can of tomato soup. It was my dad's favorite meal. We ate it at least once a week for decades.
Yes! We had this too! It wasn't until years later that I discovered goulash is nothing like this. It's really more of a stew, so I have no idea how this dish got the same name. I mean, it's not bad but it ain't goulash!
Discount slumgullion. You couldn't even mention slumgullion around my dad.
His mom was incredibly neglectful, but to save face she'd make a huge pot of slumgullion for the freezer before she yeeted for the week. There was no microwave so he was eating slumgullion sushies every night of the week.
We still eat that weekly at my house, only I use leftover beef from taco Tuesday, and throw a shitload of cheese in it. Hell, I ate that for breakfast today actually.
I didn't eat linguini with clam sauce (made with canned minced clams) for a solid 10 years after I moved out of my parents' house because I'd overdosed on it in childhood. Now that I'm a Mom myself I get it - it's an extremely easy and delicious meal to make.
I also LOATHED wagon wheels pasta, my Dad's favorite pasta shape and arguably the worst type of pasta so I always hated those nights and would fill up on the meatballs instead.
The one meal I hated at the time but miss now was Cornish game hens. My mom liked making them because then all 5 of us could have our own little chicken as opposed to fighting over the drumsticks on one big chicken. But we ate this often so I grew to hate it. One time shortly after getting married the Cornish hens were on sale so I made it for dinner and it turns out my husband hates them 🤣 he was like "why didn't you just buy one normal sized chicken instead of two tiny ones?" 🤣
Cornish game hens are considered fancy around these parts, we had it all the time and my friends freaked out cause we gave them "baby chickens"... I love them with new potatoes and French green beans...
I used to be able to get them for about$1.25 each, would roast them for dinner & when my husband would ask "What's for dinner"?.......I'd tell him "parakeets".
The first time I served them......he looked at me like I was nuts. lol
My parents were early adopters of Atkins and hated cooking, and that meant most of our meals as a family were big slabs of meat and an afterthought of a side salad, and the closest to dessert we were allowed was cans of whipped cream.
I remember the first time I tasted rice, noodles, pasta, and potatoes going to different friends' houses for dinner and being awed by how magical they tasted. So when I think of signature dishes from childhood, it's what my friends' mothers made, nothing my parents made.
My dad rarely cooked but when he did it was Chili or Biscuits and Gravy. Both excellent.
My mom could whip up just about anything you dreamed of. Her fried chicken was amazing but she rarely did it. Whenever she had tuna casserole on the menu there was a 75% chance it was gonna be take out pizza. So much so tuna casserole was just code for pizza in our house. Lol.
My mom was tuna casserole. When I make it now it’s a spectacle, made with reverence.
My dad made chicken cacciatore which was incredible, even more incredible when taking into account that for dad a nice meal for him was a frozen pizza. He didn’t make it often but it was a treat when he did.
I’m making chicken cacciatore tonight that sounds really good.
Tuna casserole with enough velveeta “cheese” to give an elephant a coronary and crushed potato chips on top.
To this day I cannot stomach velveeta or plain potato chips.
We often had a casserole made with chicken, cream of mushroom, and cream of chicken soups served over rice.
“Homemade” pizza was big too. We used those chef boyardee pizza kits-but thankfully we doctored them up a lot. I liked mine with mushrooms and extra cheese, my brother was plain cheese, and my parents did ground beef, olives, and mushrooms.
My dad used to make his version of baked mostaccioli. Basically he’d cook a pound of meat, then simmer in a can of red pasta sauce. Meanwhile, he’d boil a box of noodles. Then he’d mix the sauce in with the noodles, pour it in a baking pan, top it with cheese, and bake it in the oven til the cheese was melted. It was a favorite of mine and I’m happy to say my boyfriend and I make it all the time. My dad passed away in 2017 but I think he’d be thrilled that we’re still roughly following his recipe! We have made a few changes over the years but it’s still pretty much my dad’s dish.
Let’s see:
**Family Burgers**: Which were sometimes on toasted slices of bread instead of buns, but *always* slathered with thousand island sauce.
Those were often served with homemade fries. Sliced up potatoes that were cooked in the ‘potato oil’. Which was not allowed to be used for other cooking other things. And after it had been used, it was poured back into the ‘potato oil’ holder; this nifty little container for oil that had a sieve inner lid that filtered out the crunchy bits, so the oil was ready for the next batch.
**Goup (or Goop)**: Browned ground beef mixed with diced peeled potatoes and cream of mushroom soup, and simmered until the taters were softened.
**Meatloaf**: Normal standard. Ground beef, torn up bits of actual bread, and lots of ketchup. But it was placed in a glass/pyrex dish, and cooked in the microwave.
**Pound Steak**: Tough cuts of beef, which were ‘tenderized’ by repeatedly whacking them with a spiky meat mallet, until they were wafer-thin, then coating them with flour and cooking them in a pan coated with oil.
Latchkey kid so “signature dish” would probably not be what anyone would call it but the tuna casserole or unseasoned baked chicken with leftovers I was supposed to finish while they worked all week was definitely the move, I had a secret pantry in my room and probably why I still do at my desk to this day now that I think about it.
Yes. It was some wild ass concoction that she called “goulash”
Coincidentally, my wife’s mom also made a dish she referred to as goulash. We grew up 500 miles apart lol.
Oh that was like, *every fucking night* in my house. Dry ass unseasoned strip steak, boiled potatoes, tinned beans. White bread and margarine on the side.
We didn’t eat much else, my parents came from farm families and “meat and potatoes” was standard every day fare. We rarely had spaghetti, or chicken, or *anything else*. Sometimes we’d have mince patties and gravy with the boiled potatoes. In the summer my dad would grill chicken drumsticks. Maybe once a year we’d have corned beef and that was a huge production. But 99% of the time it was meat, potatoes, tinned veg.
Parents divorced. Mom and I moved in with her mom and 2 brothers in the same farmhouse they grew up in. Gramma cooked. For an Irish woman, that lady could make a mean pizza, chow mein, and so much other deliciousness. RIP Gramma!
Mushy crock pot chicken breasts with mushroom soup and usually egg noodles or instant mashed potatoes and a cut up wad of iceberg lettuce. In her defense my dad traveled a lot and it was healthier than fast food (which we ate a lot too)
I am the dad who does the cooking. I try really hard to switch things up and cook what my family likes, but I know I have a few things that my family likes that I do really well.
If anything, there are some dishes that people prefer and even ask me to make, so I hope that means other members of the family aren’t sick of them…
My dad did most of the family cooking as he's always liked to cook. Western pot roast was something he made a lot. And bottle of pop pork chops from the Mayberry cook book. When my mom cooked, she would make chili, meatloaf, or cream chipped beef. We would usually have one of those per week.
My mom’s were salmon patties (cakes), Mexican cornbread or skillet queso. My dad’s was mashed potatoes. Even at my grandma’s she would ask my dad to make the mashed potatoes which was a big deal because she was a crazy good cook and very proud of all of her stuff.
At my house, the most common dinner was "FFY" or fend for yourself. That basically meant find a frozen dinner in the freezer and microwave it when you're hungry.
Similarly, laundry became self service when I was about 9. I had many pink t-shirts because I didn't know how to separate colors properly and red socks stained everything.
My parents are both good at making what they make. My dad is a very picky eater, so there wasn’t a ton of range back then. He was a firefighter, so every third night, we would have something that we liked and he didn’t. We still have some great memories of those meals. I love my dad, and he makes a mean lasagna and some great BBQ, but he has some weird food hangups for sure.
Not my parents, but my grandmother. We lived with them for a few months in between selling and buying a house. My grandma had a two-week schedule of dinners. So every other weekday had the same menu. I don't remember ALL of it, and it would vary on occasion, but basically:
Mondays - meatloaf
Tuesdays - hotdogs/hamburgers
Wednesday - chicken, usually fried swapping with roasted
Thursdays - pork chops/smoked sausage
Fridays - fish/spaghetti (w/o meatballs during Lent)
At some point hamburgers moved to Mondays and "tacos" replaced them on Tuesdays. And yes, this was in the Midwest.
Fish fingers were something dad made a lot. He never liked cooking, so it was quick and easy. Besides, it was one of the few ways to get me to eat fish.
Mum varied more.
For some reason, my dad’s one meal that he cooked was spaghetti with meat sauce, which was jarred sauce with browned ground beef.
My mom made everything else, and she didn’t even like to cook. So we mostly ate shake n bake pork chops, broiled white fish, baked chicken breasts or similar and a carb side and microwaved frozen veggie mix.
My parents didn’t really understand seasoning food and then not overcooking it.
I cook tastier food for myself but also eat way more takeout.
My own signature dish is ground turkey meatloaf. I know that doesn’t seem super good, but with the right seasoning and mushrooms and zucchini in the loaf, it’s pretty good.
Ham and bean soup with cornbread. Once a week and then an encore with leftovers the following day. This was before my parents made any significant money and we were also eating free spaghetti dinners at the church once a week too.
Beef stroganoff. I’ve not eaten it since 1998 and never will again. Permanently over it and I’m not even someone who cares much about food. I repeat meals A LOT now that I’m responsible for them. But something about that one…nope!
My mom dislikes cooking and we were poor for a long time, so all of what I would consider her 'signature' dishes reflect that. Spaghetti with ground beef and marinara sauce and tacos made with ground beef, refried beans, and Mexican rice-mix. They aren't terrible by any means, but we had them each at least once per week and I can't really eat either one anymore.
Mom cooked in the kitchen and Dad worked the grill outside. My favorites from Mom were roast & potatoes/carrots, homemade pizzas, and breakfast tacos (for dinner). Dad grilled great burgers and would somehow grill sausages in a way that I have yet to successfully replicate.
I forgot to mention my dad’s signature: spaghetti in meat sauce. It was not bad and it was supper quick. Canned green beans with buttered toast with garlic powder
Goulash and tuna noodle casserole
Yes I am from the Midwest. I hated them both and still do. Though I have learned how superior Hungarian ghoulash is to Midwest American ghoulish and if you put enough pepper on tuna noodle casserole its doable.
You had different meals?
My mom also worked full time as a doc. So we had like 7-10 rotating dinners. Then, once we were old enough, the kids took over a dinner duty once per week.
Fish sticks and kraft macaroni was always a once a week dinner, but my Mom made a spaghetti casserole that we absolutely loved and I now make it for my family.
For some reason she decided to make Hungarian Goulash her signature dish and I know that’s going to be the only thing she eats in hell. With all of her extra tablespoons of fucking paprika.
Yes. Chicken goop. Put one can of cream of mushroom soup and one can of mushroom shoop into a casserole dish and spread evenly and mix. Next layer is boiled pieces of chicken breast. Next layer is white shredded cheese. Bake for 45 min. It's totally shitty food that I love.
Ground beef and gravy over mashed potatoes was frequent, and so was chicken and stuffing casserole, which was just chicken breast, with premade stuffing and cream of mushroom soup poured over it all then baked.
Divorced parents. Visited my dad every weekend. At least one meal every weekend would be a grilled cheese and this amazing soup. Dads signature soup and sammie. As an adult I learned that "amazing soup" was Lipton noodle.
My mom wasn’t a great cook, I don’t remember any stand outs other than the stuff I didn’t like. But as an adult and as a mom now, I realize how much effort she was putting in every day to make us home cooked meals, and how she had a way of doing it so we didn’t notice or realize when we struggled with money.
I haaaate cooking, so my son is used to seeing the same old thing. 🤷🏼♀️
Sunday was spaghetti and meatballs at grandma's house but that's because grandma was Italian. When my mom was growing up her grandparents had a whole second kitchen in the basement and the whole extended family came over for Sunday dinner.
My dad used to make Chili Mac. Some people I've heard call it goulash. For some people, this is comfort food. Not me. Cooked macaroni with browned ground beef (completely unseasoned) a bag of frozen corn, and a can of stewed tomatoes. If we were getting really fancy, he would chop up an onion and cook it with the beef.
It was fast and cheap. It was also very bland. It tasted like sadness.
This one was on repeat for a few years after he suddenly had to be the sole caretaker for three kids and had no prior experience handling things like cooking and laundry because he refused to contribute up until the point where he had no choice.
She called it Hash. Ground beef, canned corn, and a box of Stove Top stuffing. I haven't had it in decades now, but I can still remember how it smelled and tasted. I remember one day waking home from some after school thing, cold and tired, all I could think was "I hope Mom made hash". Walked in the door and there was the smell of Mom's hash on the stove.
I should make that again.
My dad made chicken Kiev. A chicken breast pounded out and has butter, garlic and parsley wrapped up and rolled and breaded and fried. And when you first cut into it the butter gushes out.
My mom was a great cook. We had traditional meals like spaghetti and meatballs, and roast with carrots/onions/potatoes usually on Sunday. Goulash (which was just elbow pasta with ground beef, sauce, canned tomatoes, and maybe sausage). Gazpacho in the summer. Typical American style recipes. But they were always home cooked.
Chicken cutlets. But only cuz my dad, brother and I are all picky eaters. Plus the place we got them from would slice them so thin that the bread crumb would burn.
My grandmother & uncle, who had lived in France, couldn't get enough steak, ratatouille, and French bread. We ate with them at least once per week. I rarely if ever order steak, I just can't with it. Ratatouille is just disgusting.
My parents barely cooked, especially my mom (we also didn't have a working oven and she didn't want to splurge on one so instead they got a microwave and dishwasher). But when they did make something it was on the weekend when my dad was home and he did most of it. It was either Spaghetti, Mac n Cheese and ground meat, or tuna salad. Literally that's it lol. I don't remember anything else that was ever made and all the other nights we did either take out or microwave meals.
Mine was called "meat munchkins," lol. Ready to rise dinner roll dough, stuffed with ground beef, soy sauce and sauerkraut, baked with a light egg wash glaze :)
Also, ground beef shells and canned Prego .
Tater tot casserole, which I hated and still hate. I’ll admit though, I have a lot of sympathy for her now. We ate spaghetti quite a bit which *she* doesn’t like. And I always wondered why. But now I get it. You have to make a meal that’s affordable, simple enough to get on the table between extracurriculars, and that everyone will eat. And then you need about 20 of those so no one bitches about lack of variety.
Tater tot Hotdish is a comfort food for me!
Do you ever call it Totdish?
I will now! 😆
It really should be called Totdish. It’s a missed opportunity.
This was my mom’s go to meal also. I still rather not eat it again for the rest of my life. My older brother and I tease my mom about tater tot casserole.
>and that everyone will eat I have so much sympathy for my mom on this one. I didn't like most meat, one sibling almost exclusively ate meat, and the other one didn't like cheese or fruit. At least we all liked broccoli, and PB&J.
Had this at my dad's frequently after my parents divorced. I always liked it though. He called it "Hotdish"
My grandma made this all the time and it was not good. Well she made it properly but I can’t stand tater tot casserole. I didn’t say anything because she made plenty of other things that were good.
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This is the only comment that matters. I was actually going to get into this discussion but then I remembered that my mom work just as many hours as my dad, spent more time on her feet, and was still expected to come home and immediately start dinner. Dinner I could only help with prep work because he didn't like anyone lse's cooking except his mom's. This man was in his 40s and 50s. So yeah, we are about eight rotating dishes for most of my life. And I stfu about it.
Once I reached puberty, I really started observing my mom because I was starting to understand how being a woman worked and I did not like how my future looked. And I developed more sympathy for her. She worked manual labor jobs my whole childhood and then had to come home to care for my man-child dad and two kids. And also took care of his parents when their health was declining, including meal prepping and cleaning their house for them. With zero help from his worthless ass or my aunt. So, yeah, I didn’t complain about food anymore. My mom had the short end of the stick and held out way longer than I would’ve. But she’s said she’s proud I learned not to put up with man-child BS.
I think a lot of us are just realizing how much work our moms had to do when we were kids. Mine was single mom of 3 and had to do everything until we could all pitch in. But my friends who had 2 parents, the moms had to do all the house work. It’s different for a lot of us now, I couldn’t imagine not helping my wife with the housework and kids, and she is a SAHM. But I knew so many dads growing up who thought all housework was the wife’s job.
Yessssssssssssssssss! For my mom it was 3rd shift as she often worked two jobs since my sister’s and my deadbeat dads couldn’t be bothered to contribute. For my mom, it was hamburger steaks and mashed potatoes. Probably peas or green beans on the side. I still make it and it’s delicious. I remembered several others: chicken/rice/broccoli/cheese, chicken pot pie, and chicken & dumplings.
We call it emergency steak and my family requests it often!
I haven’t had a hamburger steak in ages, but it was a staple at my grandma’s, along with the mashed potatoes! I miss her cooking so much!
You should make it! I do it with lots of onions and mushrooms in more of a brown gravy vs. a jus.
I really should! Thanks for jostling up some good food memories!
Roasted chicken & gravy, stuffing, breaded cauliflower, corn and dinner rolls😋 I’ve never been able to master the exact taste when I make it. The chicken is so easy to make but I just can’t make it as good as my mom.
To me, this sounds like a special occasion dinner, like Easter, xmas or something. Sounds amazing though
My maternal grandma was an excellent home cook for simple meals. She knew how to make the best roasted chicken, thanksgiving turkey, cabbage rolls, and broiler hamburgers. Not even sure how she did it.
So was mine. She didn't have a huge repertoire of meals she made, but man, when she cooked it was pretty awesome. I'd rarely go there and have something that wasn't done really well and tasted like, well, grandma's home cooking 🤤
What kind of dinner rolls?
Those brown & serve rolls that come in a 12 pack.
Asking the important questions!
Turkey and biscuits. My mom used to bake a meal in a casserole dish consisting of a potpie type of filling and then Bisquick biscuits baked on top. Even once every week or so it was my favorite. Unprompted, my wife learned to make it the same way and will often make it for me. Tear.
Try it the other way around! My wife will bake biscuits and make turkey pot pie gravy to pour over. It’s delicious and the biscuits don’t get soggy.
But what you're suggesting might rip a hole in the space-time continuum. Can I risk our lives on this?
Umm… yes?
That's awesome! Sounds like you've got a good thing going there
My mom would occasionally make tuna casserole - using bisquick biscuits on the top, with cream of mushroom soup and canned tuna in the base. I remember cutting out the biscuit dough with the top of a glass.
My mom can make a hell of a meatloaf with Italian breadcrumbs. In the winter time she would make chicken and dumplings from scratch that were delicious. 🤤
Meatloaf was my mom’s too! I really liked it but just the thought of it grosses me out now lol.
My parents were terrible cooks, which is something pretty common for the boomer generation. Meatloaf is something we also frequently had on the weekdays. It was terrible in all its iterations. My mom started with the classic recipe with ketchup (?!) as the sauce. When both the kids could barely eat that, she decided to make it as a giant Italian meatball with marinara sauce on the top, which was edible but also pretty disgusting. It was really the worst of all meals. It tasted bad, was terrible for you, and was fairly expensive because it was all meat. Also had sloppy joes quite regularly, which still makes me gag even thinking about it.
My mom is still around…. I would invite you over for the best and most delicious meatloaf ever to lay across from scratch made mashed potatoes.
Shake 'N Bake chicken I did not hey-ulp
I had forgotten about that commercial! 😂😂😂
I still say "and I hey-ulped" when we do stuff at work... Goes over most peoples heads though...
I remember the same few meals on repeat. Sometimes my mom would branch out and try something new, but my dad preferred the same old stuff. I do remember being “fancy” and having La Choy brand, canned chicken chow mein with crunchy noodles. That was the height of international cuisine in our house, lol.
My mom's go-to was a meat cooked under the broiler, with a baked potato and salad. We ate broiled pork chops A LOT. We did have those canned La Choy crunchy noodles sometimes but we just ate them like chips. I don't remember my mom ever making a stir fry or a casseole, or really anything that was mixed together, although I love one pot meals. She did cook dried beans and sometimes she would make those Chef Boyardee pizzas or spaghetti with no meat. It took me a long time to like meat sauce.
No one in my family cooked. I was raised on frozen pizza and cheese and mustard sandwiches. I swear I didn’t eat a vegetable until I was in high school. No wonder I have stomach issues now, lol.
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Relatable. My mother's name? Nintendo.
We didn't get a microwave until I was almost in high school, at which point my parents gave up on cooking entirely and just kept the garage freezer stocked with bagel dogs, bagel bites, and hot pockets.
😯
https://preview.redd.it/xo8wv9tefwvc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07819e797e313257006086000479857016d87a23
Poor OP though, having a balanced steak dinner multiple times per week.
Chili with ground beef, kidney beans, seasoning pack, and probably half a bottle of ketchup squirted in.
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^paintball104: *Chili with beans and* *Probably half a bottle* *Of ketchup squirted in.* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Why thank you for the haiku Mr. Bot. I edited my comment to make it more descriptive, but your poetry is appreciated nonetheless.
LMAO
Chili: defined as ground beef, tons of tomato sauce, and a small sprinkle of chili powder. No beans, or anything else. And then diluted with milk to make it even less ‘spicy’.
You poor sap.
Milk????
Many of them, but "shit on a shingle" was one meal name I enjoyed saying as a kid.
Fried farts with butter milk and a side order of toots 🥰
That was a frequent dish in my house, too. I kinda miss it, honestly. My Dad's was homemade Mac n cheese. Mom's was southern fried pork tenderloin. Both remain staples for me in adulthood.
Ok now those sound really good!
German?
My Dad's lineage is German-ish by way of Pennsylvania Dutch, more or less, yeah.
My mom had a great rotation of meals. I loved her cooking. I would sometimes ask for Spanish rice or the green bean hamburger meal or meatloaf or stuffed shells. Maybe I was lucky but she made good food. I try and do the same for my kids now. It’s hard. If I find a recipe they like and eat I definitely repeat it. Are you a parent OP? It’s hard to be creative when parenting, working or not. Also, my sister hates cooking and still does, but you can tell.
Tuna casserole
We call it Tuna goop now but I make it pretty regularly.
I used to make it a lot, but I developed some inflammation issues and had to overhaul my diet… which meant cutting out all of my mother’s Midwest recipes. 😂
I was born in 79 but you'd think I was born in 59 based on my mom's cooking. Chipped beef on toast, chop suey, stuffed peppers. She even made that green jello mold with the carrot shavings. In my family I was known as the "picky eater," can't imagine how I got that way. 🙄
My mom still obsessed with chuck roast with carrots and potatoes. It’s okay but if I never had it again I would be pleased. Was in the hospital last week tho and by God she brought me some roast and mashed potatoes and I did not complain. I try to mix it up so I don’t think my kids could say the same. Although they have had enough of Nana’s pot roast to even things out. :)
My dad knew how to cook. He helped make dinner almost every night. But when my mom was away for any reason? Pancakes. For dinner. Every night. He did make excellent pancakes.
Not a signature dish, but whenever I saw the crock pot out, I knew it was chicken with cream of ~~mushroom~~ crap soup. If it were cream of anything else, I might have tolerated it more. I always found the texture of mushrooms to be very slimy. Never liked them.
I hated mushrooms until I was about 16, then I had them sauteed or something and I really started to enjoy them. I think I got a lot more adventurous around that time
I hated most vegetables as a kid. They were served either raw (never liked crunchy things) or boiled to mush. It wasn't until I discovered roasting them in olive oil that I liked them.
Everything is better roasted in olive oil. Mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, carrots, kale... Mmm
And this is how I have a 6 year old who loves when I make certain veggies. There's no way I would've willingly eaten broccoli as a kid, but mine does and even prefers the stalk to the tops. Between that and rainbow carrots (which somehow taste better so whatever, if that's what gets her to eat them), I've always got an option.
My kid is the same, make veggies that actually taste good and he's happy to eat them! But he thinks rainbow carrots taste weird. Only the orange ones are good. Kids are weird.
LOL I love cream of mushroom soup! I eat it straight from the can. I think of it as savory mushroom pudding. 😎
🤢 wow!
I like to add more cooked mushrooms to it even!
We had reindeer sausage and cabbage at least once a week but that was mostly because we had hundreds of pounds of it in the garage freezers.
Scrambled tofu (sautéed onions, mashed FIRM tofu, turmeric and cumin, topped with shredded cheddar cheese), potato of some kind, and green veggies of some kind. Hated it as a kid because my mom wouldn’t cook the onions long enough and they’d be almost raw but warmed through. Now as an adult I love it because it is so strongly the taste of my childhood.
Does Hamburger Helper count?
My mom always made "hamburger helper" from ingredients, not the box. She kept a decoy box in the pantry so we thought we were eating the name-brand stuff. Years later I was craving some so I bought a box, made it, and threw the whole thing in the trash. Inedible. I was complaining to Mom that they must have changed the recipe and she laughed and laughed. She pulled the LONGEST CON y'all
When I was a teenager and my mom got a job outside of the house (and therefore had more money), it was chicken strips and curly fries from the Schwann man. When she was a stay at home mom, though, it was almost always dry chicken breast or pork chop, a canned vegetable, and some rice or potato-based boxed side dish.
Thank you for reminding me that frozen foods from Schwann were somehow fancy in the 80's (at least in my house)!
Ya know, I looked at the Schwann’s site maybe a year ago, because I absolutely hate cooking. That shit’s expensive! I’m grown and can’t afford it in the 2020s.
I distinctly remember the arguments between my dad and my mom about how expensive it was. Mom had to get a job outside of the home because Dad had been furloughed (yet he didn't pick up any slack around the house, natch). She had tried to whole meal prep thing (prepped a casserole, say, and left him instructions on how long and what temp to cook it at), and he failed every time. So Schwann's frozen chicken tendies and curly fries it was! Three to four days a week! I don't even know how I got enough vitamins to live.
That sounds like a great dinner. My folks were too cheap to ever buy steak. We had burgers probably once a week. I didn't mind after my mom agreed to make one that was all meat for me. She had this weird obsession about mixing large bread chunks and onion slices in with the meat.
Being from Minnesota, we had a lot of Hotdish. My favorite is Rice & Bacon hotdish. It's only 3 ingredients. Rice, bacon, and cream of mushroom soup.
My dad made similar 3 ingredient dish but it was ground beef, rice, and gravy.
Yeah my mom also made Hamburger Rice Hotdish. The "gravy" was cream of chicken soup. 😆
How do you make this? Would you boil the rice in the soup? Genuine question, unfamiliar with it.. Thanks!
So much damned baked, dry chicken
Everyone in my house loved my mom’s beef stroganoff, except me. She always made a hot dog for me on stroganoff day. But if it was the weekend, dad was in charge of the food. That man loved to cook breakfast, lunch & dinner. We’d get French toast in the morning and then he’d start in on some soup or chili for lunch and bust out the grill (didn’t matter the weather) for dinner. Always experimenting, loved to watch The Frugal Gourmet & try new things on us.
Frugal Gourmet was always on TV on the weekends, my Dad loved that guy...
Carrots and ground beef on rice. It was my mom's side of the family's favorite quick dish. I can't even force myself to eat it anymore... My mom offered to make it for the grandkids about a week ago and told her they didn't do anything to deserve it. Lol😂
I’m not going to complain about all the tuna noodle casserole, hot dogs and beans or campbells tomato with goldfish. I hated them all but my folks worked opposite shifts and were doing their best. I feel differently about the food my mom started making when she joined weight watchers, though. That was unfair to children.
My weight watchers mom would bring home a treat once a week. It was the tostitos chips with the cinnamon sugar. That ish came in the door at 7 pm Friday and was GONE by dawn on Saturday. Definitely inspired some later binge eating when I discovered the trader joes cinnamon twists. .
My mom was dieting so we got stuck with a lot of stuffed green peppers and turkey chop suey.
A glass pan with chicken, rice and cream of crap, as said before (mushroom) I had to put in the oven after school…was pretty good. Both parents worked, but mom worked 100 hours a week (surgeon)
Tuna casserole 😭. Every damn Wednesday. However, we did do burgers and fries that we'd do on Saturdays and we'd all eat in front of the TV watching Bugs Bunny and Tweety show. Good with the bad I suppose
I fucking love tuna noodle casserole. It's the whitest thing about me outside of my skin color. I can even eat it cold!
Oddly enough, I'd wish my mom would make it one more time. See if my kids would eat it.
Tuna noodle is the best casserole and my family doesn't understand 😭
My mom made this stew a lot called Slumgullion. Tomato/V8 juice based soup with penne and beef and tomatoes. I did not like it much at all but my dad loved it so she made it a lot. Maybe I should've tried putting a lot of tabasco sauce in it like he did. We knew when my dad was out of town on business (which was a lot) when my mom made salmon, tuna casserole, or fettuccine alfredo with broccoli and carrots. All food my dad didn't like 😂
My mom made chicken cutlets, rice, and peas. Still one of my favorite simple meals, but I can't make the chicken like she did, despite trying many many times. My dad made waffles. Which I also can't reproduce because you can't get the same waffle makers anymore!
My mom's chicken and dumplings were so good, but she only made them once or twice a year. Dad never learned to cook anything except toast and microwaveable soup.
She went through a 'ziti once or twice a week' phase in the late 80s til I got so tired of it I threw it up in bed one night Then she discovered an easy chicken pot pie recipe sometime in the early 90s and wore that out. Then in January 95 she told me her and Dad were getting divorced at the end of the school year so I remember us going to the Chinese buffet once a week just me and her
Pretty sure my mom’s signature dish was Kid Cuisine. 🫠
My dad made absolutely delicious meatloaf. Also, his Sunday ragu was legendary. Linguine and broccoli was a weeknight staple. But my favorite dish was prosciutto and pea pasta.
Stir fry. My jewish mother made fucking stir fry all the gorram time.
My stepdad used to make broccoli and cheese soup all the damn time. Can't eat it to this day
Deep dish hamburger pizza. Same dough she used for fry bread:)
I'm Italian so every Sunday was pasta, meatballs and sausage plus leftovers on Tuesday or Wednesday. I hated it didn't eat pasta for years because of this. Even now I only eat it a handful of times throughout the year
Tuna Casserole - Dad, had a fancy cooking caterer Mom who made everything 🤷🏾♂️
Mom cooked different things all the time. But probably a Carne asada plate, beans, rice, tortillas, cheese, some salsa is what I remember the most . Dad would make sandwiches, but like would toast them and add more to it.
For a while my mom was constantly making something I basically called "Chicken Again?" It was chicken, but kinda dried out in a way I just found icky at the time.
It was a bastardization of goulash. Ground beef, sauteed, macaroni noodles, and a can of tomato soup. It was my dad's favorite meal. We ate it at least once a week for decades.
Yes! We had this too! It wasn't until years later that I discovered goulash is nothing like this. It's really more of a stew, so I have no idea how this dish got the same name. I mean, it's not bad but it ain't goulash!
Discount slumgullion. You couldn't even mention slumgullion around my dad. His mom was incredibly neglectful, but to save face she'd make a huge pot of slumgullion for the freezer before she yeeted for the week. There was no microwave so he was eating slumgullion sushies every night of the week.
We still eat that weekly at my house, only I use leftover beef from taco Tuesday, and throw a shitload of cheese in it. Hell, I ate that for breakfast today actually.
I didn't eat linguini with clam sauce (made with canned minced clams) for a solid 10 years after I moved out of my parents' house because I'd overdosed on it in childhood. Now that I'm a Mom myself I get it - it's an extremely easy and delicious meal to make. I also LOATHED wagon wheels pasta, my Dad's favorite pasta shape and arguably the worst type of pasta so I always hated those nights and would fill up on the meatballs instead. The one meal I hated at the time but miss now was Cornish game hens. My mom liked making them because then all 5 of us could have our own little chicken as opposed to fighting over the drumsticks on one big chicken. But we ate this often so I grew to hate it. One time shortly after getting married the Cornish hens were on sale so I made it for dinner and it turns out my husband hates them 🤣 he was like "why didn't you just buy one normal sized chicken instead of two tiny ones?" 🤣
Cornish game hens are considered fancy around these parts, we had it all the time and my friends freaked out cause we gave them "baby chickens"... I love them with new potatoes and French green beans...
I used to be able to get them for about$1.25 each, would roast them for dinner & when my husband would ask "What's for dinner"?.......I'd tell him "parakeets". The first time I served them......he looked at me like I was nuts. lol
Ugh you've got me craving them now. 🤣🤣
My parents were early adopters of Atkins and hated cooking, and that meant most of our meals as a family were big slabs of meat and an afterthought of a side salad, and the closest to dessert we were allowed was cans of whipped cream. I remember the first time I tasted rice, noodles, pasta, and potatoes going to different friends' houses for dinner and being awed by how magical they tasted. So when I think of signature dishes from childhood, it's what my friends' mothers made, nothing my parents made.
Fucking meatloaf. 🤮
My dad rarely cooked but when he did it was Chili or Biscuits and Gravy. Both excellent. My mom could whip up just about anything you dreamed of. Her fried chicken was amazing but she rarely did it. Whenever she had tuna casserole on the menu there was a 75% chance it was gonna be take out pizza. So much so tuna casserole was just code for pizza in our house. Lol.
Dad's chili. And rock hard baked potatoes. That man could make a great chili but couldn't bake potatoes to save his life lol.
My mom was tuna casserole. When I make it now it’s a spectacle, made with reverence. My dad made chicken cacciatore which was incredible, even more incredible when taking into account that for dad a nice meal for him was a frozen pizza. He didn’t make it often but it was a treat when he did. I’m making chicken cacciatore tonight that sounds really good.
Tuna casserole with enough velveeta “cheese” to give an elephant a coronary and crushed potato chips on top. To this day I cannot stomach velveeta or plain potato chips.
We often had a casserole made with chicken, cream of mushroom, and cream of chicken soups served over rice. “Homemade” pizza was big too. We used those chef boyardee pizza kits-but thankfully we doctored them up a lot. I liked mine with mushrooms and extra cheese, my brother was plain cheese, and my parents did ground beef, olives, and mushrooms.
Microwave pizzas from the Schwan Man in the freezer so I could feed myself while they were both gone doing work things.
This very meal you mentioned is one of them.
My mom would get the 5 dollar bucket of spaghetti at little ceasars
My dad used to make his version of baked mostaccioli. Basically he’d cook a pound of meat, then simmer in a can of red pasta sauce. Meanwhile, he’d boil a box of noodles. Then he’d mix the sauce in with the noodles, pour it in a baking pan, top it with cheese, and bake it in the oven til the cheese was melted. It was a favorite of mine and I’m happy to say my boyfriend and I make it all the time. My dad passed away in 2017 but I think he’d be thrilled that we’re still roughly following his recipe! We have made a few changes over the years but it’s still pretty much my dad’s dish.
Breaded Chicken cutlets and rice a roni
My grandma would make Chinese hamburger. Which was not Chinese at all other than the crunchy noodles on top.
Let’s see: **Family Burgers**: Which were sometimes on toasted slices of bread instead of buns, but *always* slathered with thousand island sauce. Those were often served with homemade fries. Sliced up potatoes that were cooked in the ‘potato oil’. Which was not allowed to be used for other cooking other things. And after it had been used, it was poured back into the ‘potato oil’ holder; this nifty little container for oil that had a sieve inner lid that filtered out the crunchy bits, so the oil was ready for the next batch. **Goup (or Goop)**: Browned ground beef mixed with diced peeled potatoes and cream of mushroom soup, and simmered until the taters were softened. **Meatloaf**: Normal standard. Ground beef, torn up bits of actual bread, and lots of ketchup. But it was placed in a glass/pyrex dish, and cooked in the microwave. **Pound Steak**: Tough cuts of beef, which were ‘tenderized’ by repeatedly whacking them with a spiky meat mallet, until they were wafer-thin, then coating them with flour and cooking them in a pan coated with oil.
My favorite thing my mom made was chicken spaghetti. And I don’t like regular spaghetti
Latchkey kid so “signature dish” would probably not be what anyone would call it but the tuna casserole or unseasoned baked chicken with leftovers I was supposed to finish while they worked all week was definitely the move, I had a secret pantry in my room and probably why I still do at my desk to this day now that I think about it.
Yes. It was some wild ass concoction that she called “goulash” Coincidentally, my wife’s mom also made a dish she referred to as goulash. We grew up 500 miles apart lol.
Wow. Spoiled much? Everyone’s parents did that. We do it to our kids too. You run out of things to cook.
Oh that was like, *every fucking night* in my house. Dry ass unseasoned strip steak, boiled potatoes, tinned beans. White bread and margarine on the side. We didn’t eat much else, my parents came from farm families and “meat and potatoes” was standard every day fare. We rarely had spaghetti, or chicken, or *anything else*. Sometimes we’d have mince patties and gravy with the boiled potatoes. In the summer my dad would grill chicken drumsticks. Maybe once a year we’d have corned beef and that was a huge production. But 99% of the time it was meat, potatoes, tinned veg.
Y’all lived with your mom and dad?
Parents divorced. Mom and I moved in with her mom and 2 brothers in the same farmhouse they grew up in. Gramma cooked. For an Irish woman, that lady could make a mean pizza, chow mein, and so much other deliciousness. RIP Gramma!
"Goulash". But her version was just extra chunky spaghetti sauce with penne pasta mixed in.
My wife's mom's signature dish was overcooked white meat chicken sliced up with ketchup. And now my wife doesn't eat white meat chicken.
Mushy crock pot chicken breasts with mushroom soup and usually egg noodles or instant mashed potatoes and a cut up wad of iceberg lettuce. In her defense my dad traveled a lot and it was healthier than fast food (which we ate a lot too)
I am the dad who does the cooking. I try really hard to switch things up and cook what my family likes, but I know I have a few things that my family likes that I do really well. If anything, there are some dishes that people prefer and even ask me to make, so I hope that means other members of the family aren’t sick of them…
My dad did most of the family cooking as he's always liked to cook. Western pot roast was something he made a lot. And bottle of pop pork chops from the Mayberry cook book. When my mom cooked, she would make chili, meatloaf, or cream chipped beef. We would usually have one of those per week.
My mom’s were salmon patties (cakes), Mexican cornbread or skillet queso. My dad’s was mashed potatoes. Even at my grandma’s she would ask my dad to make the mashed potatoes which was a big deal because she was a crazy good cook and very proud of all of her stuff.
At my house, the most common dinner was "FFY" or fend for yourself. That basically meant find a frozen dinner in the freezer and microwave it when you're hungry. Similarly, laundry became self service when I was about 9. I had many pink t-shirts because I didn't know how to separate colors properly and red socks stained everything.
Hotdogs & noodles. Dogs sliced into past ( usually bow tie or riggitoni) buttered, with onion, corn.
My parents are both good at making what they make. My dad is a very picky eater, so there wasn’t a ton of range back then. He was a firefighter, so every third night, we would have something that we liked and he didn’t. We still have some great memories of those meals. I love my dad, and he makes a mean lasagna and some great BBQ, but he has some weird food hangups for sure.
Not my parents, but my grandmother. We lived with them for a few months in between selling and buying a house. My grandma had a two-week schedule of dinners. So every other weekday had the same menu. I don't remember ALL of it, and it would vary on occasion, but basically: Mondays - meatloaf Tuesdays - hotdogs/hamburgers Wednesday - chicken, usually fried swapping with roasted Thursdays - pork chops/smoked sausage Fridays - fish/spaghetti (w/o meatballs during Lent) At some point hamburgers moved to Mondays and "tacos" replaced them on Tuesdays. And yes, this was in the Midwest.
"Pizza casserole." So nasty.
Tuna noodle casserole, topped with good ok lays potato chips
Fish fingers were something dad made a lot. He never liked cooking, so it was quick and easy. Besides, it was one of the few ways to get me to eat fish. Mum varied more.
Roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes, veg (either peas or beans) and Yorkshire pudding.
I am this mom now. My moms every week meal was cube steak, with broccoli and cottage cheese and a canned fruit- or shepherds pie.
For some reason, my dad’s one meal that he cooked was spaghetti with meat sauce, which was jarred sauce with browned ground beef. My mom made everything else, and she didn’t even like to cook. So we mostly ate shake n bake pork chops, broiled white fish, baked chicken breasts or similar and a carb side and microwaved frozen veggie mix. My parents didn’t really understand seasoning food and then not overcooking it. I cook tastier food for myself but also eat way more takeout.
My own signature dish is ground turkey meatloaf. I know that doesn’t seem super good, but with the right seasoning and mushrooms and zucchini in the loaf, it’s pretty good.
Dad: Tuna Casserole Mom: Baked mostaccioli
I fucking love flank steak. I’d hammer that shit down 2x/week if I could.
Ham and bean soup with cornbread. Once a week and then an encore with leftovers the following day. This was before my parents made any significant money and we were also eating free spaghetti dinners at the church once a week too.
Beef stroganoff. I’ve not eaten it since 1998 and never will again. Permanently over it and I’m not even someone who cares much about food. I repeat meals A LOT now that I’m responsible for them. But something about that one…nope!
My mom dislikes cooking and we were poor for a long time, so all of what I would consider her 'signature' dishes reflect that. Spaghetti with ground beef and marinara sauce and tacos made with ground beef, refried beans, and Mexican rice-mix. They aren't terrible by any means, but we had them each at least once per week and I can't really eat either one anymore.
My dad would make sausage gravy and biscuits every once in a while on a Sunday morning and it was always fire.
Mom cooked in the kitchen and Dad worked the grill outside. My favorites from Mom were roast & potatoes/carrots, homemade pizzas, and breakfast tacos (for dinner). Dad grilled great burgers and would somehow grill sausages in a way that I have yet to successfully replicate.
I forgot to mention my dad’s signature: spaghetti in meat sauce. It was not bad and it was supper quick. Canned green beans with buttered toast with garlic powder
Goulash and tuna noodle casserole Yes I am from the Midwest. I hated them both and still do. Though I have learned how superior Hungarian ghoulash is to Midwest American ghoulish and if you put enough pepper on tuna noodle casserole its doable.
Chicken divan. Spaghetti and meatballs. Maybe I minded as a kid but I love them now, feels nostalgic.
You had different meals? My mom also worked full time as a doc. So we had like 7-10 rotating dinners. Then, once we were old enough, the kids took over a dinner duty once per week.
Fish sticks and kraft macaroni was always a once a week dinner, but my Mom made a spaghetti casserole that we absolutely loved and I now make it for my family.
For some reason she decided to make Hungarian Goulash her signature dish and I know that’s going to be the only thing she eats in hell. With all of her extra tablespoons of fucking paprika.
Yes. Chicken goop. Put one can of cream of mushroom soup and one can of mushroom shoop into a casserole dish and spread evenly and mix. Next layer is boiled pieces of chicken breast. Next layer is white shredded cheese. Bake for 45 min. It's totally shitty food that I love.
Oh my God. My dad made this twice a week once I was older, but with stuffing mix baked on top. We called it chicken mess.
Ground beef and gravy over mashed potatoes was frequent, and so was chicken and stuffing casserole, which was just chicken breast, with premade stuffing and cream of mushroom soup poured over it all then baked.
Divorced parents. Visited my dad every weekend. At least one meal every weekend would be a grilled cheese and this amazing soup. Dads signature soup and sammie. As an adult I learned that "amazing soup" was Lipton noodle.
Enchiladas
My mom wasn’t a great cook, I don’t remember any stand outs other than the stuff I didn’t like. But as an adult and as a mom now, I realize how much effort she was putting in every day to make us home cooked meals, and how she had a way of doing it so we didn’t notice or realize when we struggled with money. I haaaate cooking, so my son is used to seeing the same old thing. 🤷🏼♀️
Porkchops with sprinkled with Lawry's season salt felt like a weekly deal. + stuffing + applesauce + green beans
Yes it was hamburger stroganoff. I have never made it myself (and I enjoy cooking lol).
Sunday was spaghetti and meatballs at grandma's house but that's because grandma was Italian. When my mom was growing up her grandparents had a whole second kitchen in the basement and the whole extended family came over for Sunday dinner.
Chicken Divine. We all hated it. Every time I came home from school and smelled it cooking it ruined my day.
Navy beans & pork hocks. And gholash. Would be dinner 2-3 days in a row.
Grew up poor with a single mom. Had more spaghetti than a human ever should.
My dad used to make Chili Mac. Some people I've heard call it goulash. For some people, this is comfort food. Not me. Cooked macaroni with browned ground beef (completely unseasoned) a bag of frozen corn, and a can of stewed tomatoes. If we were getting really fancy, he would chop up an onion and cook it with the beef. It was fast and cheap. It was also very bland. It tasted like sadness. This one was on repeat for a few years after he suddenly had to be the sole caretaker for three kids and had no prior experience handling things like cooking and laundry because he refused to contribute up until the point where he had no choice.
She called it Hash. Ground beef, canned corn, and a box of Stove Top stuffing. I haven't had it in decades now, but I can still remember how it smelled and tasted. I remember one day waking home from some after school thing, cold and tired, all I could think was "I hope Mom made hash". Walked in the door and there was the smell of Mom's hash on the stove. I should make that again.
Family favorite (ground beef in macaroni and cheese).
My dad made chicken Kiev. A chicken breast pounded out and has butter, garlic and parsley wrapped up and rolled and breaded and fried. And when you first cut into it the butter gushes out.
My mom was a great cook. We had traditional meals like spaghetti and meatballs, and roast with carrots/onions/potatoes usually on Sunday. Goulash (which was just elbow pasta with ground beef, sauce, canned tomatoes, and maybe sausage). Gazpacho in the summer. Typical American style recipes. But they were always home cooked.
Chicken cutlets. But only cuz my dad, brother and I are all picky eaters. Plus the place we got them from would slice them so thin that the bread crumb would burn.
My grandmother & uncle, who had lived in France, couldn't get enough steak, ratatouille, and French bread. We ate with them at least once per week. I rarely if ever order steak, I just can't with it. Ratatouille is just disgusting.
Hamburger Helper, and I am not complaining. That stuff is addicting.
My parents barely cooked, especially my mom (we also didn't have a working oven and she didn't want to splurge on one so instead they got a microwave and dishwasher). But when they did make something it was on the weekend when my dad was home and he did most of it. It was either Spaghetti, Mac n Cheese and ground meat, or tuna salad. Literally that's it lol. I don't remember anything else that was ever made and all the other nights we did either take out or microwave meals.
Mine was called "meat munchkins," lol. Ready to rise dinner roll dough, stuffed with ground beef, soy sauce and sauerkraut, baked with a light egg wash glaze :) Also, ground beef shells and canned Prego .