What dinners did your parents cook for you when you were growing up?

[Kokolums]

Here's my mom's rotation:

1. meat loaf (best meat loaf ever I have the recipe)
2. perogis
3. pot roast
4. pork chops
5. shake and bake chicken breasts and legs.
6. hamburger helper
7. chopped steak
8. spaghetti with amazing homemade meatballs (she dropped them raw into the sauce and let them simmer)
9. THICK hamburgers.
10. BLTs
11. stuffed peppers
12. stuffed cabbage
13. homemade chicken soup

I think that's it.

She also made an amazing home fries (got that recipe too)

She never made fish because my dad hated fish.

[Darsithis]

I don't remember a ton of what my aunt and uncle would cook when I was a kid (3 - 11), but some specific ones:

1 - Ham and mac & cheese was a common one, using a ham steak
1 - Tuna fish and mac & cheese (which I still love today!)

For my parents (12 - 13)

1 - Tuna fish casserole
2 - Mac Surprise (beef and elbow macaroni)

Group/foster homes (13 - 18)

It varied. One particular house was super fond of eggplant shepard's pie. God, I hated that stuff so much. At Campbell house we got to switch off on cooking and so some people favored fried chicken a lot

[Elegiac]

Varied a lot because they liked to experiment, but the more regular ones were:

- Beef Vindaloo
- Tikka Masala
- Spaghetti Bolognese (sans the spaghetti sometimes for a great chili)
- Satay Chicken
- Stir Fry

[Netherspark]

Crap, junk food, flavourless meat and anything that can be boiled in a cast iron pot.

[TonyMonktana]

Jambalaya
Gumbo
Dirty Rice
Chicken rice & gravy
Red beans & rice
Spaghetti
Pot Roast
Crab Rice
Pizza
Catfish
'Meatloaf
Salmon
Breakfast

[Felicia]

My mom cooked a lot, and so did my grandma. My dad's also big on grilling... most notably.

Enchiladas.
King Ranch Chicken (like lasagna, except with chicken/cheese/tortillas/rotel)
Chicken fried steak.
Pot roast.
Pork shoulders.
Tamales.
Breakfast tacos.

That's just a small list, and off the top of my head. I had a varied diet when growing up :P EXCEPT when I was first diagnosed with Type I Diabetes back in 96 (I was 8)... for a year... I had nothing but ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch at school, carefully measured out cereal, and very bland dinners. Because my parents were afraid to feed me anything else. I don't eat like anymore, of course. But I still won't eat ham and cheese sandwiches to this day (I'll be 28 in June).

For the record... Type I Diabetics can eat anything we want just as long as we take insulin for it. I eat a snicker bar which is like... 35 carbs. I take 3 units of Novolog to counteract. Caused by an autoimmune disorder, not eating a lot. That 3 units is actually a bit much for 35 carbs (for me anyway). Since I have high insulin sensitivity. Type 2s are generally insulin resistant.

[Dread Pirate Phayde]

Fish sticks
Tuna casserole
Spaghetti
Pork chops
Chicken
On special occasions things like lasagna, homemade pizza and fish frys.

[Dystemper]

Pork chops and apple sauce.
MEatloaf and Mac'ncheese.
Goulash
Chicken and dumplings
biscuits and gravy or Creamed chipped beef
Burgers, hot dogs
Liver and onions
Beef stew or soup
BBQ pork
lots of Spaghetti

- - - Updated - - -

Pork chops and apple sauce.
MEatloaf and Mac'ncheese.
Goulash
Chicken and dumplings
biscuits and gravy or Creamed chipped beef
Burgers, hot dogs
Liver and onions
Beef stew or soup
BBQ pork
lots of Spaghetti

Oh and cottage pie

- - - Updated - - -

Pork chops and apple sauce.
MEatloaf and Mac'ncheese.
Goulash
Chicken and dumplings
biscuits and gravy or Creamed chipped beef
Burgers, hot dogs
Liver and onions
Beef stew or soup
BBQ pork
lots of Spaghetti

Oh and cottage pie

[Fencers]

Varied a lot. The most common meals my mom made were breakfast related.

Scrambled eggs & peppers or omelets on weekdays, hashbrowns and smoked sausage &/or bacon w/ pancakes on the weekends. Mom usually made breakfast once or twice a week and every weekend.

Dinner was pretty varied though. Various pastas, meats, grains, meats, etc. What was more common was for my mom to make our 'favorites'. Which was actually quite a lot of different things as I had two sisters and my dad hassling my mom to cook this or that dish.

My oldest sister really loved lasagna. It was probably the most common recurring meal. In part because it was easy and partly because my older sister got whatever she wanted most days. She will not admit this, natch.

Dad liked gumbo and steak fajitas a lot. Gumbo was pretty common. I dislike gumbo actually. Well, it's more like I am sick of gumbo from my childhood. From time to time, my did cooked and it was pretty good. Mostly stuff from his childhood like paella, oxtails, morcilla & rice, etc.

Youngest sister loved pancakes. She would request them for dinner often. Eh. My older sister and I are somewhat older and we didn't mind finding our own dinner by that point. But she also request chicken Alfredo a lot too.

I would request tacos a lot when I was really young. Steak tacos. As I got older I would have periods of time where I was "obsessed" by a certain cuisine. Like I would want to try Indian food and my mom would join me in trying to figure out how to make these dishes, etc.

I took a lot of queues from my mother in the end. She was a stay at home mom for years & years and she did love cooking. Similarly, I initially wanted to pursue culinary arts in college, went to cooking school and eventually got a job in the food service industry. It sucked.

As luck would have it, I got burned out and decided to be a stay-home wife for a few years and my passion for cooking was really sparked. Or re-sparked, so to speak.

So I guess my mom's penchant for buying cookbooks and making different meals partly to entertain herself and partly to challenge herself filtered down to me- only becoming obvious to me years later in life.

[Demona3]

My mom was Mexican, so we had a LOT of mexican dishes. Some nights, we would get lucky and actually have steak or pork chops.

I think my mom burned off my taste buds years ago.

[frogger237]

1. Spaghetti
2. Steak
3. Veggie pizza
4. Pizza boats
5. Turkey (mainly for holidays)
6. Pot Pie
7. Stew
8. Lasagna
9. Meat Loaf
10. Tacos
11. Taco Salad
12. Helpers
13. Hot Dogs & mac and cheese
14. Roasts
15. Pork Chops
16. Chicken
17. Ham
18. Eggs
19. Waffles/pancakes
20. Tater tot hotdish

Hated foods
1. Reuben sandwich
2. Grilled Cheese and tomato soup

[Goondicker]

I won't list them all, as I was fortunate enough to grow up with a mom who liked to cook a large variety. But my favorite meal, hands down, was:

Fried pork chops with mashed potatos, corn, and green beans.

Y'all ain't got nothin' on my momma's fried pork chops.

[Drekker17]

Since my sister often cooked dinner too I'll include her (learned these from mom anyway)
1. Stir fry and rice
2. Mushroom rice casserole thing
3. Broccoli chicken casserole
4. Tacos (American style)
5. Burrito
6. Spaghetti

Dad:
1. Buffalo Hot Wings
2. Steak and Potato, with whatever vegetable side
3. Hamburgers and fries (made not just bought at Mickey Ds)
4. Bratwurst and whatever
5. Schnitzel
6. Tacos (more traditional Style)
7. Enchiladas
8. Basically anything that can be grilled.

Mom
1. Pho
2. Chicken soup
3. Egg rolls, lettuce and nuc mom
4. Noodle Bowls
5. Spring rolls
6. Baked Spaghetti
7. Stew usually with beef, potato, carrot
8. Banh Xeo
9. Shepherds pie
10. Chicken salad sandwich
11. Vietnamese Salad

Days I had to cook was when we had macaroni and cheese, tomato soup, or sandwiches, haha.

[Theodarzna]

Merlot burgers, Merlot steak with brown sugar, Beer marinated chicken with brown sugar and honey, rice, potatoes, homemade bread, tomales, tacos, Pico De Gallo, general mexican food goodness.

[slayer1919]

hot dogs and those nasty frozen dinners

[Ciddy]

Mom always did most of the cooking. My favorite (to this day) is her beef pot roast + mashed potatoes + homemade biscuits. Any kind of breakfast she makes is awesome too.

Dad...cooking never really has been his thing. But he worked his ass off and made sure we had food to cook, so yeah.

[Immitis]

tv dinners

[Jotaux]

Kraft Dinner

[chazus]

I was a latch-key kid, so meals were either something I made from a can, or TV Dinners. We'd probably get an actual home cooked meal twice a week.

These days I cook my own food and avoid premade dinners almost entirely, unless extenuating circumstances.