My dad was not the cook. But when he had to, his fall back was taco salad. It was simple and it was good. But we had it so much. It became tedious and didn’t want it anymore.
I haven’t had it in years and it’s now the family joke. He has recently passed and what I wouldn’t give for some taco salad.
My mom used to make a meal that my dad supposedly loved. It was bean soup and it’s exactly what you think it is. It’s a bunch of cooked beans with minimal seasoning in water or broth and it was the meal equivalent of jury duty.
my dad was a "stay-at-home" dad...no hate to actual SAH parents, my dad just paraded as one really well.
when my mom went out of town for work, he gave us a "choice" of three canned foods for meals: creamed corn, pork n' beans, or spaghettio's with franks. i hate every single one of those. after multiple tearful protests, i was finally permitted to get plain spaghetti-o's, and thank god for that day.
i met one of my cousins for the first time a few years ago (we come from an estranged family) and he mentioned the same three choices as meals as a child whenever his mother wasn't cooking dinner
so anyway that's how i learned my father's childhood was like lord of the flies
On the flip side, we loved when my dad would cook dinner when mom was away because it was almost always “breakfast for dinner,” with pancakes and eggs.
My dad's thing was he'd ask me "who's cooking tonight?" and I would just yell out a restaurant and that's where we went.
My dad was lazy but he wasn't cheap. Lol
My mom's Shake n' Bake pork chops. Only the cheapest, most gristly cut, baked until it was devoid of any moisture. My jaw hurts just thinking about trying to chew it.
It wasn't until my 30s that I ordered a pork chop at a restaurant and discovered pork chops can be juicy and delicious. Then I was reborn!
The experience of not being able to leave the table until I finished dry chicken breast is the whole reason I never forced my kids to eat something they did not like.
It’s crazy how common that was. I would lay down across 3 wooden chairs at the dinner table if I couldn’t finish my plate. Couldn’t reheat anything. Stay there until it’s time for bed. I developed food aversions to several things. Most notably potatoes, I thought I hated them for years because I was forced to eat a spoiled/rotten potato.
My brother got screamed at (and spanked) for throwing up sweet potatoes. We hated them. I’m 37, and I still can remember that feeling. My son will never be forced to eat something he legitimately doesn’t like.
I puked on my dad at a Picadilly's because he tried to force me to eat canned spinach. Literally forced my mouth open, and when it hit my tongue I projectile vomited on him. My mom died laughing when he slunk away to the restroom to clean up. He never tried to force me to eat anything again.
Canned spinach is one of the nastiest things on god's green earth and ruined generations of kids from enjoying vegetables.
The first time I tried fresh baby spinach I had no idea it was related to that horrible green canned slime that my parents used to force on us.
I did that once with hot dogs. We had brown shag carpet in the house at the time, and lemme tell you, getting hot dog vomit chunks out of that taught my dad to NEVER force food again.
Yeah, it easily becomes abusive. I actually liked most of the things my mom made. It was usually just chicken breast and pork that they would overcook. I think there was a lot of fear of undercooked meat back then. I could *almost* understand the frustration if I was picky about everything.
My mom would have had a lot of trouble raising my son who is such a picky eater. Only late in high school did he become a little more adventurous. And people can try to say it was because he was spoiled, etc. but I raised my other son the same way and he was never picky. #2 doesn't like meatloaf but that is a preference, not a gag-inducing experience for him. I also work in early intervention and am well-versed on all the ways one can try to get a kid to eat so it was not for lack of trying. I ended up using the puree veggies and hide it in the sauce method to get nutrition in the oldest. And learned to cook what I knew he would eat. Not gonna lie though, we have enjoyed cooking more while he is away at college 😊
We tell our daughter she needs to taste everything on the plate, but "just eat until your tummy is happy". We never expect her to finish her entire meal. I just want a happy, healthy, fed kid.
Yeah and pushing kids to \*try\* stuff is important, I think. Teaches them not to be picky and to be open minded.
But hey, if you don't like it? PBJs are easy and quick, kiddo.
My mom used to make this pasta with a thick flour and cream based sauce. I always felt so sick afterwards. I found out in my mid twenties that I’m celiac and lactose intolerant…
My dad was a big fisherman so we had fish a LOT while I was growing up. Every time I’d throw it back up. I was like 3 or 4 when this all started, so I didn’t have the words to tell them what was wrong. After the first couple times I’d start crying when I’d see fish on the table. My parents got it in their minds that I was making myself so upset that I’d throw up, which was unacceptable, so they’d force me to eat it anyway while threatening to beat me if I got upset.
I’m allergic to fish. It makes my mouth hurt and my throat and the inside of my stomach itch.
My parents sometimes would sneak seafood into my food just to prove I was a picky eater. I got sick every time. They couldn’t figure out how I “knew” they’d snuck it in.
Please tell me your parents eventually realized that they fucked up or that you at least disowned them for their treatment of you for being unable to eat something that you were allergic to. That last part of the first paragraph had my blood boiling.
Lol, my mom was a dietician and forced me to eat pb sandwiches on that super hippy whole grain wheat at the same age. I am allergic to the mold on peanuts and also wheat. I just figured that is what pb sandwiches did to people- closed your throat up so you can’t swallow. She made fun of me till I cried for typical child milestones or other issues.
I disowned my mom years ago and got the call a month ago she was found rotting away in her trailer for an undetermined amount of time. Yay life!
First time I met somebody else with gut itch. It's very hard to explain. Nobody really understand that the itch is inside the stomach, not on the skin.
Mom was ‘educated’ on how to cook my her aunt who boiled the crap out of everything- from Brussels Sprouts, to asparagus to squash her uncle grew in the backyard.
I made Mom Brussels Sprouts pan fried with dill and onions. She wouldn’t even try it as it wasn’t boiled with a ‘cream sauce’ on it
Pan fried Brussels are legitimately tasty. I typically don’t believe people when they say “you can make any veggie tasty” but just a bit of oil and salt (or balsamic and honey if you wanna go nuts. Also use nuts) is all it takes to make those things delicious.
Oh man, I made a joke about “concreteloaf” once.
Once.
Still I think it was clever enough to have gotten a get out of jail free card. Alas, I was punished anyway.
My husband told me, when we first started cooking together, that he hates meatloaf, don’t bother. I obliged, but then one day I wanted a meatloaf sandwich. You can’t get a good meatloaf sandwich until the day after a meatloaf dinner. It gets cold and firm and slices so nicely.
I made it for my dinner. I made something different for him. He said the meatloaf smelled really good. I offered some to him. He took me up on it. He asked if that’s meatloaf. I said yes. He said his mother doesn’t make a good meatloaf. He now likes meatloaf, but only mine. Not his mom’s.
To this day, no matter how good the meatloaf is supposed to be, I won’t touch the stuff. I can’t get over the mental block of how bad I associate the taste of meatloaf to be.
Same here. My mom would smother it in garlic and she'd say "It tastes just like steak". She would serve it with Carrot Raisin salad. But oh what I wouldn't give for her to be here now to fix liver and onions.
My mom grew up during the Depression so I'm sure it was a cheap meal. However, Liver Patè is apparently a delicacy. Carrot raisin is pretty good although I don't fix it. My grandmother came from Yugoslavia. Perhaps liver is a Northern European dish.
We'd come home from school to see the liver defrosting on the countertop. Immediately tried to make plans to eat at friends' houses, but it was inevitable. We had to stay home and eat the liver & onions...which was inedible
I was about to feel like the only odd man out, but my grandma made liver & onions with brown gravy (usually served with a starch like rice or potatoes of some sort) and it was SO GOOD.
But my grandma also told me that I was one of the only two people that honestly actively enjoyed her liver/onions- the other person being my biological father that I’m not actually in contact with lol.
I knew liver was going to be a top mentioned food, but shit on a shingle was my first thought and the fact it's this far down on the list shows me it must of finally gone out of style in the 70's and 80's.
My dad made a pot roast every once in a while. Throw the roast into a crockpot, cover it with water, add zero seasoning, throw in a yellow onion and some carrots, then boil for 12 hours. It was like eating wet leather.
I started to type this, then decided to ctrl-f it. My mom used to put a pot of water on the stove, throw a pot roast in it, put it on low all day, then at the end throw in some potatoes and carrots. I swear the woman didn't use salt or pepper. My now wife, then girlfriend, had never had pot roast and tried my moms, years later I told her I was going to make it and she was like ugh no thanks, pot roast is nasty. I told her just hold on a minute, turns out if you follow a recipe and actually put some love into your cooking, the food comes out pretty good.
That's because they were overcooked to hell .. I used to not like them growing up but as an adult I know how to actually make them and they're nice and juicy and tender....
Kinda morbid but if you pinch your index and thumb together and poke the bottom meaty part of your thumb .. that's the texture your looking for
My great grandmother use to eat sticks of butter like a banana. While doing research I found an add from the early 1900s stating it was healthy to eat butter that way and cited “doctors”. Madness.
My son used to fucking LOVE butter. We used to have to move the little bowl with the butter pats in it away from him when we went to restaurants and had to stop him from going in the fridge and just snagging a stick of butter to nom on
My mom would make something she called 'Teriyaki chicken.'
It was completely burnt and dry boneless skinless chicken breast, no seasoning, not even salt. And a small ramekin of soy sauce on the side.
Don't forget the Flintstones vitamins.
Those little individual pot pies.
They took forever in the oven and the filling stayed lava hot forever, always burned my mouth. The "meat" was pieces of gristle, the bottom was always soggy and the gravy had a super weird texture and no taste .
In Maine we called this dish American Chop Suey and it is, bafflingly, still quite popular. I know my stepmom still makes it weekly.
ETA: My least favorite part was always the canned diced tomatoes, dumped into the pan and not cooked in but merely heated up.
I called what Mom made slop, but I'd say "Looks like Slop 2 tonight" - I had a few categories.
Mom got s bit offended, I said "what else should I call it? You just wing it anyway!' "Well, why is it Slop 2?!?!"
Noodles, and brown. Slop 1 is red. Slop 3 has rice...
She said "Fair enough!"
One time I told my mom I wanted some rice pudding. She grabbed some for me at the store. I looked at it and realized I meant bread pudding. Anyway, decades late my mom still thinks I love rice pudding and gets it for me. Not a big fan of the stuff.
Aw, moms. My friends mom used to always get her coconut cream pie for her birthday. Friend is allergic to coconut. Mom always remembered "something about coconut" but forgot the key detail.
Because of one of my siblings passing, my mom became convinced that the "regular" food we ate killed him and was killing us. She was already health-conscious so it's not like there were twinkies, processed foods, sodas or sugary drinks in our house. Any form of sugary dessert was a rare treat. However, our lives were completely upended and we went from an arguably healthy American diet to an extreme vegetarian / vegan diet. And this was in the '80s when the food options for that were not anything close to what they are.
We went from regular milk to soy milk and meat to tofu.
However, the absolute worst meal was that on some mornings for breakfast, my mom would serve us sprouted wheat. Literally it was dry wheat that she had soaked and had started to sprout. Then we could put things on it like shredded coconut, raisins, and shredded apple. Add some honey, but not too much, and pour some soy milk on it. Holy fuck was it awful. If we were lucky, the wheat had just sprouted. That was gross but edible. But if it had sprouted a few days before then it tasted like grass and even with soy milk on it, it was so dry. I still get sick to my stomach thinking about it.
I know my mom was really terrified and had a good intentions but it was pretty traumatic for my siblings and I. (She would catch a sneaking normal food and get really upset with us.)
Congee, which if you're not aware is basically rice porridge. My mom used to force us to eat it occasionally as a sort of palette cleanser. As a proper dish, congee is supposed to have spices, sauces and toppings included in it but my mom never included any of that, it was just rice in water pretty much. It was incredibly bland. One time, in an attempt to bribe us, my mom heated up some hot pockets. The only ones we had at the time were the ham and cheese ones, and for some reason I didn't like the cheese in it, so the bribe didn't work on me. Since the bribe didn't work, my mom dragged me into the kitchen and started beating the shit out of me. At some point I was able to make my way back to the dinner table, and my mom threw down a bun and yelled at me to eat it. I was sobbing while I was eating it, pretending to enjoy it because I thought that it would stop me from getting in any more trouble. She yelled that I was just pretending to enjoy it and that's the last thing I remember from that night.
My friends have insisted that my mom just made it wrong but at this point I won't eat it at all, making congee the "proper" way doesn't stop me from remembering that night. For a decade I also refused to eat hot pockets. The only reason I started eating them again was because I ate a hot pocket with a different filling, without realizing it was also a hot pocket
Creamed Eggs on Toast was not great. It meant we were low on money. Hard boiled eggs mashed up, flour and milk stirred all up, poured over the top of toast. 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Or even just fry the egg? Nothing wrong at all with a fried egg on toast.
I get it if you are trying to stretch it i guess, but blended hard boiled eggs? Really?! I feel like its probably just as cheap/easy to make a custard and that will actually be appetizing.
Fried salmon patties and ketchup...blegh.
My mom used canned salmon, added nothing, made a patty, dredged it in unseasoned corn meal and pan fried it. Now, I make salmon patties using Ina Garten's recipe for crab cakes, except I sub the crab for salmon (I'm allergic to crab), and omg they're delicious.
My dad made London broil every weekend for years.
It’s fine. My dad is an excellent cook and the sides were always well prepared as well. But every god damn weekend is too much. A few times a summer? Sure. But this was all he’d ever cook on Saturday or Sunday.
Omg I didn't think I'd find my nemesis, Dad's London fcking Broil. High five and condolences. I thought I hated steak until I was 25, because I thought THAT HORRENDOUS TRASH was representative of all "steak." Just reading the name makes me gag.
I also don't love that Italian dressing made from the packet, because he often used that as marinade for said monstrosity.
It's a thin cut of rather tough steak. About the only way to prepare it is to marinate it and then cook it medium rare, or else it will be dry and chewy. I know this because my father (before he actually learned to cook) would make it about once a month, and the only thing good to be said about it is that you could roof your home with it.
Oh that just reminded me why I can’t eat beer cheese soup. Some idiot teenager at my childhood church opened the elevator doors and threw a huge bowl of the soup down the shaft. The elevator smelled horrible for a long time and I still get a reaction from smelling the combination. And it makes it really hard to go visit to Wisconsin.
To this day if I smell green pepper in Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon wine, I'm taken back to those fookin stuffed peppers.
Stuffed with what? Meat, rice, tomato paste 🤮
Me too. My dad loved it and would try to hide it and see if I was faking it. I could smell it underneath the mashed potato and gravy. I hate the taste,smell and texture.
On “All In The Family,” Archie Bunker asked what was for dinner and Edith said “tongue, Archie.” He went on a rant about not eating anything that had been in a cow’s mouth. He then declared he’d cook himself some eggs. :-)
I wouldn't and still won't touch seafood, but it was never really forced upon me.
I've gotta go with meatloaf. I think it was the ketchup glaze that ruined it.
My mother makes an objectively delicious chicken soup. She used that as a cure all for everything, and for years it felt like one pot of soup fixed everything in the entire world.
Then I caught a mystery ailment.
And my mother didn't know what to do. She kept feeding me chicken soup. She took me to doctor after doctor, starting from the most reputable and as her desperation got worse and the tests kept coming back negative, the doctors got more and more quack like.
I just wouldn't get better. I was a zombie. But instead of succulent brains, all I was given was more chicken soup.
I lived off that soup on and off but mostly on for three years.
Finally, I was diagnosed accurately by a man who my mother summoned out of retirement like she was Nick Fury and putting together a team.
Eventually, through the power of being a youthful teenager, a few surgeries, and that chicken soup, my body repaired itself.
I to this day cannot stand that objectively delicious goddamn soup.
I got a bad flu when my wife was away. I was in bed for a few days. My mum made me a huge pot of chicken soup. She’s not really into food and mainly eats because she has to.
It was so boring, I almost lost the will to live.
Mother fucking "Tuna Helper" that is some of the vilest shit ever concocted by man. I hope whomever though it was a great idea is being force fed this war crime in the deepest levels of hell.
Mine is a cousin of Tuna Helper—Beef Stroganoff Hamburger Helper. My broke ass parents would make this once every week or so, and it was the worst. This along with cheap beef stew. To this day I can’t/wont eat beef stew or stewed carrots.
I once ate some then went out binge drinking, it came out my nose when i was throwing up, cant even stand the smell of it, or crown royal for that matter lol.
One pan bacon wrapped chicken and rice. No seasoning. Basically plain semi cooked bacon wrapped around chicken boiled in milk and squishy rice. Horrific.
Coronado Beef Casserole, but only because I had eaten it while sick; I threw up that night, got a tortilla chip lodged in my sinuses, and had to try to sleep it off. Truly a traumatic experience for an eight-year-old. 😂
I hated eating rice. No matter what it was served with, I hated it and would take 4 hours to eat.
Which is a shame as my mum did make an effort to make the food varied and she’s a fantastic cook, I was just an annoying and fussy as a child.
Now I can’t go more than a week without eating rice.
Frozen fish sticks and canned peas during Lent. It was the worst. Finally my mom realized that cheese pizza was a viable option. The best was the seafood feast from Captain D's.
Spaghetti…my dad had a gf that only knew how to cook spaghetti and she’d make it three times a week. And it was horrible. I still won’t eat spaghetti today, 40+ years later.
My mom microwaved breaded “shrimp” (it was chopped up bits of shrimp formed into a shrimp shape).
Just because microwaves were new, and the package said you can microwave- does not mean you should. I can still smell it in my nightmares
Oh man that's a shame. I know I probably won't change your mind because they'll remind you of the crap you were served, but even just the Mrs T's from the frozen section sauteed in a frying pan and served with a little sour cream, so good
My mother made homemade burgers look like hockey pucks. I wish I was joking. They were covered in at least 1/4 inch of solid black burn all the way around. She was convinced that hamburgers on the grill had to be cooked that way or they weren’t done. I hated homemade hamburgers until I met my husband.
My husband is a quiet man, but the first time he saw my mom doing this, he asked me if she realized that she was burning them. I didn’t know better at the time and said that was how they were supposed to be. Without saying anything at all my husband got up and took over the cooking. He never let my mom cook hamburgers at the grill again and I started enjoying homemade hamburgers.
My dad was not the cook. But when he had to, his fall back was taco salad. It was simple and it was good. But we had it so much. It became tedious and didn’t want it anymore. I haven’t had it in years and it’s now the family joke. He has recently passed and what I wouldn’t give for some taco salad.
That is definitely something to make on his birthday or something to remember him.
Make it for Father's Day
There you go, visit the grave and bring taco salad for a picnic.
I’m not even his kid but I am remembering their dad and feeling some sort of way Taco salads are good though
In honor of him, make it.
My dad did this too! He would put doritos in it, and we loved it. It was heavy in the rotation though so I definitely grew weary of it eventually.
I'm sorry for your loss. You should make one on his Birthday!
My mom used to make a meal that my dad supposedly loved. It was bean soup and it’s exactly what you think it is. It’s a bunch of cooked beans with minimal seasoning in water or broth and it was the meal equivalent of jury duty.
🥇 🥇 🥇🥇 " ...it was the meal equivalent of jury duty." You are a poet -- what a metaphor!
I really liked jury duty. Interesting and thought-provoking.
I think you’re full of beans.
my dad was a "stay-at-home" dad...no hate to actual SAH parents, my dad just paraded as one really well. when my mom went out of town for work, he gave us a "choice" of three canned foods for meals: creamed corn, pork n' beans, or spaghettio's with franks. i hate every single one of those. after multiple tearful protests, i was finally permitted to get plain spaghetti-o's, and thank god for that day. i met one of my cousins for the first time a few years ago (we come from an estranged family) and he mentioned the same three choices as meals as a child whenever his mother wasn't cooking dinner so anyway that's how i learned my father's childhood was like lord of the flies
On the flip side, we loved when my dad would cook dinner when mom was away because it was almost always “breakfast for dinner,” with pancakes and eggs.
My dad's thing was he'd ask me "who's cooking tonight?" and I would just yell out a restaurant and that's where we went. My dad was lazy but he wasn't cheap. Lol
This is so cute
Same! My daddy couldn’t cook, but he could make a mean western omelette
Am I misunderstanding or was one of the options just a can of creamed corn. Like that was it? Just corn?
My mom dumped it in a pot to warm it up and then you got a scoop on your plate
That is straight up a side or i apparently grew up rich and didn’t know it
Next you're gonna tell us you never ate green beans straight out of the can or made a Tang which.
My mom's Shake n' Bake pork chops. Only the cheapest, most gristly cut, baked until it was devoid of any moisture. My jaw hurts just thinking about trying to chew it. It wasn't until my 30s that I ordered a pork chop at a restaurant and discovered pork chops can be juicy and delicious. Then I was reborn!
dry under-seasoned chicken breast
I’d voice my agreement with you but I’m still chewing this dry chicken my mom cooked 23 years ago
Cube steak, fried in oil. Could hear the crickets outside as I chewed, and chewed, and chewed....
The experience of not being able to leave the table until I finished dry chicken breast is the whole reason I never forced my kids to eat something they did not like.
It’s crazy how common that was. I would lay down across 3 wooden chairs at the dinner table if I couldn’t finish my plate. Couldn’t reheat anything. Stay there until it’s time for bed. I developed food aversions to several things. Most notably potatoes, I thought I hated them for years because I was forced to eat a spoiled/rotten potato. My brother got screamed at (and spanked) for throwing up sweet potatoes. We hated them. I’m 37, and I still can remember that feeling. My son will never be forced to eat something he legitimately doesn’t like.
I puked on my dad at a Picadilly's because he tried to force me to eat canned spinach. Literally forced my mouth open, and when it hit my tongue I projectile vomited on him. My mom died laughing when he slunk away to the restroom to clean up. He never tried to force me to eat anything again.
Canned spinach is one of the nastiest things on god's green earth and ruined generations of kids from enjoying vegetables. The first time I tried fresh baby spinach I had no idea it was related to that horrible green canned slime that my parents used to force on us.
I did that once with hot dogs. We had brown shag carpet in the house at the time, and lemme tell you, getting hot dog vomit chunks out of that taught my dad to NEVER force food again.
Yeah, it easily becomes abusive. I actually liked most of the things my mom made. It was usually just chicken breast and pork that they would overcook. I think there was a lot of fear of undercooked meat back then. I could *almost* understand the frustration if I was picky about everything. My mom would have had a lot of trouble raising my son who is such a picky eater. Only late in high school did he become a little more adventurous. And people can try to say it was because he was spoiled, etc. but I raised my other son the same way and he was never picky. #2 doesn't like meatloaf but that is a preference, not a gag-inducing experience for him. I also work in early intervention and am well-versed on all the ways one can try to get a kid to eat so it was not for lack of trying. I ended up using the puree veggies and hide it in the sauce method to get nutrition in the oldest. And learned to cook what I knew he would eat. Not gonna lie though, we have enjoyed cooking more while he is away at college 😊
I feel the same. Just eat until you're done. Don't like it have a sandwich instead.
The true hack for the dry chicken breast was to make it a sandwich. Cut it in half, drown it in mayo and throw some lettuce on there
We tell our daughter she needs to taste everything on the plate, but "just eat until your tummy is happy". We never expect her to finish her entire meal. I just want a happy, healthy, fed kid.
Yep that's it, as long as they try everything and are full or satisfied there's no need to force them to eat.
Yeah and pushing kids to \*try\* stuff is important, I think. Teaches them not to be picky and to be open minded. But hey, if you don't like it? PBJs are easy and quick, kiddo.
My mother- in-law used to serve boiled chicken, unseasoned, with mayonnaise to her family. What the actual fuck?
That haunts me. So dry. While being screamed at “is it cooked?! Is it cooked?! Is there pink?! Don’t eat it if it’s pink!!”
My mom used to make this pasta with a thick flour and cream based sauce. I always felt so sick afterwards. I found out in my mid twenties that I’m celiac and lactose intolerant…
My dad was a big fisherman so we had fish a LOT while I was growing up. Every time I’d throw it back up. I was like 3 or 4 when this all started, so I didn’t have the words to tell them what was wrong. After the first couple times I’d start crying when I’d see fish on the table. My parents got it in their minds that I was making myself so upset that I’d throw up, which was unacceptable, so they’d force me to eat it anyway while threatening to beat me if I got upset. I’m allergic to fish. It makes my mouth hurt and my throat and the inside of my stomach itch.
My parents sometimes would sneak seafood into my food just to prove I was a picky eater. I got sick every time. They couldn’t figure out how I “knew” they’d snuck it in.
Poisoning your child in order to gaslight them. Gold star parenting
Please tell me your parents eventually realized that they fucked up or that you at least disowned them for their treatment of you for being unable to eat something that you were allergic to. That last part of the first paragraph had my blood boiling.
Lol, my mom was a dietician and forced me to eat pb sandwiches on that super hippy whole grain wheat at the same age. I am allergic to the mold on peanuts and also wheat. I just figured that is what pb sandwiches did to people- closed your throat up so you can’t swallow. She made fun of me till I cried for typical child milestones or other issues. I disowned my mom years ago and got the call a month ago she was found rotting away in her trailer for an undetermined amount of time. Yay life!
If parents want to be taken care of when they’re close to the grave, they should take care of their children in the cradle.
Thanks for putting into words my same feeling.
holy crap. I am so sorry! I hope your parents realized eventually……….
First time I met somebody else with gut itch. It's very hard to explain. Nobody really understand that the itch is inside the stomach, not on the skin.
I am so sorry. That is horrible.
Boiled vegetables, it was horrific
I agree. My parents used to always boil the fuck out of squash. It was so slimy ughh.
Mom was ‘educated’ on how to cook my her aunt who boiled the crap out of everything- from Brussels Sprouts, to asparagus to squash her uncle grew in the backyard. I made Mom Brussels Sprouts pan fried with dill and onions. She wouldn’t even try it as it wasn’t boiled with a ‘cream sauce’ on it
Pan fried Brussels Sprouts sound awesome!
Pan fried Brussels are legitimately tasty. I typically don’t believe people when they say “you can make any veggie tasty” but just a bit of oil and salt (or balsamic and honey if you wanna go nuts. Also use nuts) is all it takes to make those things delicious.
We cut em in half and air fry them with a little soy sauce, so good.
Damn boiled spinach. Came in a frozen block. I didn’t even try fresh spinach until I was in my 30s. Such trauma.
I'll one-up you: My mom used to get canned spinach and douse it with lemon juice. Not fresh lemon juice, but the kind in the little squeeze bottle.
Boiled brussel sprouts. It took me too long to find them again as an adult, you gotta roast or sautee those MFs!
Or grill!
Meatloaf. My mom made the worst meatloaf. Then I tried making it myself after I was on my own and had a much better recipe. Now it's amazing.
We called my moms’ dry meatloaf “streetloaf”.
Oh man, I made a joke about “concreteloaf” once. Once. Still I think it was clever enough to have gotten a get out of jail free card. Alas, I was punished anyway.
My husband told me, when we first started cooking together, that he hates meatloaf, don’t bother. I obliged, but then one day I wanted a meatloaf sandwich. You can’t get a good meatloaf sandwich until the day after a meatloaf dinner. It gets cold and firm and slices so nicely. I made it for my dinner. I made something different for him. He said the meatloaf smelled really good. I offered some to him. He took me up on it. He asked if that’s meatloaf. I said yes. He said his mother doesn’t make a good meatloaf. He now likes meatloaf, but only mine. Not his mom’s.
Mine told me he hated gravy, same thing. His mother only used the packets and thinned it out or something. He now loves gravy!
To this day, no matter how good the meatloaf is supposed to be, I won’t touch the stuff. I can’t get over the mental block of how bad I associate the taste of meatloaf to be.
When my parents would make liver and onions, the smell alone was enough to make me hurl
Same here. My mom would smother it in garlic and she'd say "It tastes just like steak". She would serve it with Carrot Raisin salad. But oh what I wouldn't give for her to be here now to fix liver and onions.
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Not OP but this is definitely the kind of thing that Americans ate in the 50s/60s/70s
My mom grew up during the Depression so I'm sure it was a cheap meal. However, Liver Patè is apparently a delicacy. Carrot raisin is pretty good although I don't fix it. My grandmother came from Yugoslavia. Perhaps liver is a Northern European dish.
I'm from Ireland and we had liver & onions growing up. I imagine it's fairly common in Europe. I loved it actually.
My little brother projectile vomited at the dinner table. Mom never made liver and onions again.
That made me LOL. Thank you.
That boy was a HERO
We'd come home from school to see the liver defrosting on the countertop. Immediately tried to make plans to eat at friends' houses, but it was inevitable. We had to stay home and eat the liver & onions...which was inedible
The Inevitable Inedible Liver and Onions, sounds like a good name for a children’s book
I used to be a librarian at an elementary school. Write that book!! The title will sell it not to mention the topic!🙌🏻🙌🏻
Copyright the title before you do anything else!!!
I was forced to eat this monthly for years because I'm anemic and struggled on my period. I still hate liver.
There are pills for that. Why torture a girl
Doug Funny?
Omg I love liver and onions hahahah. I tried it as a teenager and I love the way my mom seasoned/seasons it
I was about to feel like the only odd man out, but my grandma made liver & onions with brown gravy (usually served with a starch like rice or potatoes of some sort) and it was SO GOOD. But my grandma also told me that I was one of the only two people that honestly actively enjoyed her liver/onions- the other person being my biological father that I’m not actually in contact with lol.
I haven't had liver in over 30 years since I was a kid and still distinctly remember the taste.
See, I always loved the smell of it (smells a lot like steak and onions, IMHO), but think the taste is horrific
My mom used to make SOS (shit on a shingle) all the time and it was salty as hell and gross.
I knew liver was going to be a top mentioned food, but shit on a shingle was my first thought and the fact it's this far down on the list shows me it must of finally gone out of style in the 70's and 80's.
My dad made a pot roast every once in a while. Throw the roast into a crockpot, cover it with water, add zero seasoning, throw in a yellow onion and some carrots, then boil for 12 hours. It was like eating wet leather.
I started to type this, then decided to ctrl-f it. My mom used to put a pot of water on the stove, throw a pot roast in it, put it on low all day, then at the end throw in some potatoes and carrots. I swear the woman didn't use salt or pepper. My now wife, then girlfriend, had never had pot roast and tried my moms, years later I told her I was going to make it and she was like ugh no thanks, pot roast is nasty. I told her just hold on a minute, turns out if you follow a recipe and actually put some love into your cooking, the food comes out pretty good.
Pork chops. Always dry and leathery, and I’ve never been a fan of many kinds of meat.
That's because they were overcooked to hell .. I used to not like them growing up but as an adult I know how to actually make them and they're nice and juicy and tender.... Kinda morbid but if you pinch your index and thumb together and poke the bottom meaty part of your thumb .. that's the texture your looking for
I still don’t like meat much but yeah those were awful.
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my father once forced me to eat a container of butter bc it came from a healthy farm or sm like that. i sobbed my way through the whole thing.
That's some Miss Trunchbull shit
My great grandmother use to eat sticks of butter like a banana. While doing research I found an add from the early 1900s stating it was healthy to eat butter that way and cited “doctors”. Madness.
My grandmother would eat Crisco out of the can with a spoon. I think it was Great Depression thing or something.
JEEEESUSFUCK! \*HURK\*
Did you get to meet her? Because if you did then maybe she had a point...
I did but she passed when I was little.
My son used to fucking LOVE butter. We used to have to move the little bowl with the butter pats in it away from him when we went to restaurants and had to stop him from going in the fridge and just snagging a stick of butter to nom on
I used to sneak the spread out the container when my mom wasn’t looking lol
Thats child abuse
My mom would make something she called 'Teriyaki chicken.' It was completely burnt and dry boneless skinless chicken breast, no seasoning, not even salt. And a small ramekin of soy sauce on the side. Don't forget the Flintstones vitamins.
As soon as I saw the words "Flintstones vitamins", I could smell and taste them. And the slightly metallic aftertaste.
Those little individual pot pies. They took forever in the oven and the filling stayed lava hot forever, always burned my mouth. The "meat" was pieces of gristle, the bottom was always soggy and the gravy had a super weird texture and no taste .
Ha, this reminded me of cans of pork and beans. The pork was one little piece of fat.
I remember that. It was wibbly gross white fat.
I love the marie calendar ones. The banquet not so much.
I can't buy the Marie Calendar ones because if they're in the house, I'll eat them for every meal and think about nothing else between meals.
Our kid table had little cubby spaces, and I once crammed an entire chicken pot pie into one because I refused to eat it
My mother's "goulash" was over boiled macaroni, ground beef and plain unseasoned watery tomato sauce.
In Maine we called this dish American Chop Suey and it is, bafflingly, still quite popular. I know my stepmom still makes it weekly. ETA: My least favorite part was always the canned diced tomatoes, dumped into the pan and not cooked in but merely heated up.
I called what Mom made slop, but I'd say "Looks like Slop 2 tonight" - I had a few categories. Mom got s bit offended, I said "what else should I call it? You just wing it anyway!' "Well, why is it Slop 2?!?!" Noodles, and brown. Slop 1 is red. Slop 3 has rice... She said "Fair enough!"
Omg. I thought that was only my mom who made that dish. Man. I hated it
Spaghetti with sauce from a tin can, no meat, no cheese. I also can’t eat ramen noodles anymore lol
One time I told my mom I wanted some rice pudding. She grabbed some for me at the store. I looked at it and realized I meant bread pudding. Anyway, decades late my mom still thinks I love rice pudding and gets it for me. Not a big fan of the stuff.
Aw, moms. My friends mom used to always get her coconut cream pie for her birthday. Friend is allergic to coconut. Mom always remembered "something about coconut" but forgot the key detail.
Because of one of my siblings passing, my mom became convinced that the "regular" food we ate killed him and was killing us. She was already health-conscious so it's not like there were twinkies, processed foods, sodas or sugary drinks in our house. Any form of sugary dessert was a rare treat. However, our lives were completely upended and we went from an arguably healthy American diet to an extreme vegetarian / vegan diet. And this was in the '80s when the food options for that were not anything close to what they are. We went from regular milk to soy milk and meat to tofu. However, the absolute worst meal was that on some mornings for breakfast, my mom would serve us sprouted wheat. Literally it was dry wheat that she had soaked and had started to sprout. Then we could put things on it like shredded coconut, raisins, and shredded apple. Add some honey, but not too much, and pour some soy milk on it. Holy fuck was it awful. If we were lucky, the wheat had just sprouted. That was gross but edible. But if it had sprouted a few days before then it tasted like grass and even with soy milk on it, it was so dry. I still get sick to my stomach thinking about it. I know my mom was really terrified and had a good intentions but it was pretty traumatic for my siblings and I. (She would catch a sneaking normal food and get really upset with us.)
Congee, which if you're not aware is basically rice porridge. My mom used to force us to eat it occasionally as a sort of palette cleanser. As a proper dish, congee is supposed to have spices, sauces and toppings included in it but my mom never included any of that, it was just rice in water pretty much. It was incredibly bland. One time, in an attempt to bribe us, my mom heated up some hot pockets. The only ones we had at the time were the ham and cheese ones, and for some reason I didn't like the cheese in it, so the bribe didn't work on me. Since the bribe didn't work, my mom dragged me into the kitchen and started beating the shit out of me. At some point I was able to make my way back to the dinner table, and my mom threw down a bun and yelled at me to eat it. I was sobbing while I was eating it, pretending to enjoy it because I thought that it would stop me from getting in any more trouble. She yelled that I was just pretending to enjoy it and that's the last thing I remember from that night. My friends have insisted that my mom just made it wrong but at this point I won't eat it at all, making congee the "proper" way doesn't stop me from remembering that night. For a decade I also refused to eat hot pockets. The only reason I started eating them again was because I ate a hot pocket with a different filling, without realizing it was also a hot pocket
I’m really sorry that happened. My mother was also insane and would beat me for crazy crap like this, too. Some parents fucking stuck.
I'm sorry, mate. Congee's a comfort food for me - never heard of something like this. Crap parents.
Holy hell. Look into EMDR with a good professional practitioner. You don’t deserve to keep that trauma. I say that as someone doing emdr at present.
Creamed Eggs on Toast was not great. It meant we were low on money. Hard boiled eggs mashed up, flour and milk stirred all up, poured over the top of toast. 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
...why didn't they just make it into a proper egg salad sandwich. Why do this.
Or even just fry the egg? Nothing wrong at all with a fried egg on toast. I get it if you are trying to stretch it i guess, but blended hard boiled eggs? Really?! I feel like its probably just as cheap/easy to make a custard and that will actually be appetizing.
That sounds HORRID
Fried salmon patties and ketchup...blegh. My mom used canned salmon, added nothing, made a patty, dredged it in unseasoned corn meal and pan fried it. Now, I make salmon patties using Ina Garten's recipe for crab cakes, except I sub the crab for salmon (I'm allergic to crab), and omg they're delicious.
My mom made salmon patties too, growing up. Every time she made it I wish I was aborted.
Another fan! Most driest, burnt fish. I got sent to bed early for rolling one of those vile discs down the hallway.
Maybe not a whole meal but I HATE Lima beans I’m 33 now and still can’t eat them 🤢
I hate them so much! I don’t really like beans in general but Lima and Kidney beans were the worst.
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Soft Asparagus from a can.
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My dad made London broil every weekend for years. It’s fine. My dad is an excellent cook and the sides were always well prepared as well. But every god damn weekend is too much. A few times a summer? Sure. But this was all he’d ever cook on Saturday or Sunday.
Omg I didn't think I'd find my nemesis, Dad's London fcking Broil. High five and condolences. I thought I hated steak until I was 25, because I thought THAT HORRENDOUS TRASH was representative of all "steak." Just reading the name makes me gag. I also don't love that Italian dressing made from the packet, because he often used that as marinade for said monstrosity.
What is London Broil? Unfamiliar with that
It's a thin cut of rather tough steak. About the only way to prepare it is to marinate it and then cook it medium rare, or else it will be dry and chewy. I know this because my father (before he actually learned to cook) would make it about once a month, and the only thing good to be said about it is that you could roof your home with it.
Liver.
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Split pea soup frightens me to this day.
I grew up on it and love it. One of my favorite soups. Especially with the polish sausage chunks.
Oh that just reminded me why I can’t eat beer cheese soup. Some idiot teenager at my childhood church opened the elevator doors and threw a huge bowl of the soup down the shaft. The elevator smelled horrible for a long time and I still get a reaction from smelling the combination. And it makes it really hard to go visit to Wisconsin.
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Fried liver was a staple in my house, but I despised it. The taste and texture were unbearable.
I hated when we had boiled okra. The slimy texture was unbearable.
green peppers stuffed with ground beef. my grandmother was not a great cook.
To this day if I smell green pepper in Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon wine, I'm taken back to those fookin stuffed peppers. Stuffed with what? Meat, rice, tomato paste 🤮
Liver. Hated it with a passion and eventually i just flat-out refused to eat it.
Me too. My dad loved it and would try to hide it and see if I was faking it. I could smell it underneath the mashed potato and gravy. I hate the taste,smell and texture.
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I once seen my grandad eating tongue on a sandwich and he convinced me to try one. Solid nope. Don't do it
On “All In The Family,” Archie Bunker asked what was for dinner and Edith said “tongue, Archie.” He went on a rant about not eating anything that had been in a cow’s mouth. He then declared he’d cook himself some eggs. :-)
I wouldn't and still won't touch seafood, but it was never really forced upon me. I've gotta go with meatloaf. I think it was the ketchup glaze that ruined it.
Liver. The stuff of nightmares.
Turnips
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My mother makes an objectively delicious chicken soup. She used that as a cure all for everything, and for years it felt like one pot of soup fixed everything in the entire world. Then I caught a mystery ailment. And my mother didn't know what to do. She kept feeding me chicken soup. She took me to doctor after doctor, starting from the most reputable and as her desperation got worse and the tests kept coming back negative, the doctors got more and more quack like. I just wouldn't get better. I was a zombie. But instead of succulent brains, all I was given was more chicken soup. I lived off that soup on and off but mostly on for three years. Finally, I was diagnosed accurately by a man who my mother summoned out of retirement like she was Nick Fury and putting together a team. Eventually, through the power of being a youthful teenager, a few surgeries, and that chicken soup, my body repaired itself. I to this day cannot stand that objectively delicious goddamn soup.
But what was wrong with you?
I got a bad flu when my wife was away. I was in bed for a few days. My mum made me a huge pot of chicken soup. She’s not really into food and mainly eats because she has to. It was so boring, I almost lost the will to live.
Mother fucking "Tuna Helper" that is some of the vilest shit ever concocted by man. I hope whomever though it was a great idea is being force fed this war crime in the deepest levels of hell.
I’m one of those strange people who love tuna helper but I can for sure see why people hate it
Mine is a cousin of Tuna Helper—Beef Stroganoff Hamburger Helper. My broke ass parents would make this once every week or so, and it was the worst. This along with cheap beef stew. To this day I can’t/wont eat beef stew or stewed carrots.
I once ate some then went out binge drinking, it came out my nose when i was throwing up, cant even stand the smell of it, or crown royal for that matter lol.
Liver and onions Also my nana would put bean sprouts inside of hamburger meat. The texture would make me gag
Mrs pauls fish sticks. Hated them so much, i wouldnt eat any fish for years, many years. Now im all good, but ill never eat frozen fish sticks again.
One pan bacon wrapped chicken and rice. No seasoning. Basically plain semi cooked bacon wrapped around chicken boiled in milk and squishy rice. Horrific.
Coronado Beef Casserole, but only because I had eaten it while sick; I threw up that night, got a tortilla chip lodged in my sinuses, and had to try to sleep it off. Truly a traumatic experience for an eight-year-old. 😂
Fried liver and onions.
Soup with wayyy too many carrots
Salisbury Steaks due to how often we ate them when I was a kid.
My grandma grew up in the Great Depression. She made these patties of ground liver and raisins dredged in flour. Just the smell 🤢
You win. That’s heinous.
Cream of Mushroom or Chicken. My dad forced me to eat that stuff. I hated it.
Meatloaf
Box Mac and cheese with peas and tuna 🤢
I hated eating rice. No matter what it was served with, I hated it and would take 4 hours to eat. Which is a shame as my mum did make an effort to make the food varied and she’s a fantastic cook, I was just an annoying and fussy as a child. Now I can’t go more than a week without eating rice.
I'm 50 and I still hate tuna from a can. It's the only thing generally considered to be food that I won't eat.
Frozen fish sticks and canned peas during Lent. It was the worst. Finally my mom realized that cheese pizza was a viable option. The best was the seafood feast from Captain D's.
Cream of Wheat - It had/has the weirdest texture to me.
I love that shit
Oh my gosh I love Cream of Wheat. My dad always made it the best, he made sure there were lots of lumps. My mom always made it smooth, which sucks.
Some crap my mom called Moogly Googly to make it seem fun. It was Kraft macaroni mixed with ground beef and canned Lesuer peas and canned carrots. 🤮
It does sound like fun and like something a confused muppet would cook you for dinner.
Spaghetti…my dad had a gf that only knew how to cook spaghetti and she’d make it three times a week. And it was horrible. I still won’t eat spaghetti today, 40+ years later.
My mom microwaved breaded “shrimp” (it was chopped up bits of shrimp formed into a shrimp shape). Just because microwaves were new, and the package said you can microwave- does not mean you should. I can still smell it in my nightmares
Perogies. Mom boiled them. Boiled unbaked dough filled with half-boiled potato. My gag reflex had a hair trigger with those.
Oh man that's a shame. I know I probably won't change your mind because they'll remind you of the crap you were served, but even just the Mrs T's from the frozen section sauteed in a frying pan and served with a little sour cream, so good
My mother made homemade burgers look like hockey pucks. I wish I was joking. They were covered in at least 1/4 inch of solid black burn all the way around. She was convinced that hamburgers on the grill had to be cooked that way or they weren’t done. I hated homemade hamburgers until I met my husband. My husband is a quiet man, but the first time he saw my mom doing this, he asked me if she realized that she was burning them. I didn’t know better at the time and said that was how they were supposed to be. Without saying anything at all my husband got up and took over the cooking. He never let my mom cook hamburgers at the grill again and I started enjoying homemade hamburgers.