Working Moms

s/o re meals/cooking - what did your mom (or dad) cook when you were a kid?

In some ways, I think I lucked out that my mom was a little bit of bad cook and working mom b/c she made lots hamburger helper type stuff/add a can of soup, etc. so she didn't set the bar very high for me in terms of cooking.  But, I also think b/c that's my frame of reference for family meals, I always fall back on it.

Just kinda curious what other people's parents made and if your mom worked or not. 

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Re: s/o re meals/cooking - what did your mom (or dad) cook when you were a kid?

  • My mom rarely cooked... and yes, she worked...

    I rarely cooked either until about 8 months ago when I started pinterest.  Now my husband almost has to fight me to be able to cook every once in a while lol... 

    ETA: My dad was the cook of the family... and we had a pretty wide range of variety, but my favorites were honey baked ham, pork chops, and chili. 

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  • Good question. My mom was a SAHM and did a good job of always having a "balanced" meal, and staying within a budget. Canned grean beans and hamburger hotdish were a staple. We had a decent variety, but it was all very basic: hamburger, pork chops, chicken drummies. I admire her ability to make us kids eat what was put in front of us; I'm much more lax with DS and he's becoming a bit picky.

    I'm trying to reinvent what I make at home. DS is 4.5 and I still usually make him his own meal and then DH and I eat after he's in bed. He's still eating lots of "kid" food- hotdogs, chicken nuggets. I just never have time to cook when I get home from work. I've heard of families who have a schedule for meals: Fridays are pizza, Mondays are spaghetti, etc. I'd actually like to do this. I think it would be easier to shop and I could prepare things on the weekend and reheat at night.

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  • Haha...that's my mom too. She started working later in our childhood...so work wasn't an excuse. She honestly thinks that if it's homemade it's healthy. I grew up in NM...so typical meals include something fried...but they were "healthy" because she made them. :) It has been a struggle expanding my limited culinary skills. I rely on steamable vegetables and lean cuts of meat I typically have my husband grill...because if I cook it I do it until it's leather. Apparently I can make a mean potato in any form...only problem is we try to limit potatoes. I'm trying. I go on www.allrecipes.com a lot and get recipes from there...so far successfully, because I only choose things that seem easy enough where I'll actually do them, and with ingredients I know we'll like. I also trick us into thinking we're having a fancy slaved over meal by buying fresh tortellini, meatloaf, stuffed peppers, or other ready made meals or sides from Sprouts and Whole Foods. I love baking, but cooking is another animal.
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  • imageMirandaHobbes:

    Good question. My mom was a SAHM and did a good job of always having a "balanced" meal, and staying within a budget. Canned grean beans and hamburger hotdish were a staple. We had a decent variety, but it was all very basic: hamburger, pork chops, chicken drummies. I admire her ability to make us kids eat what was put in front of us; I'm much more lax with DS and he's becoming a bit picky.

    I'm trying to reinvent what I make at home. DS is 4.5 and I still usually make him his own meal and then DH and I eat after he's in bed. He's still eating lots of "kid" food- hotdogs, chicken nuggets. I just never have time to cook when I get home from work. I've heard of families who have a schedule for meals: Fridays are pizza, Mondays are spaghetti, etc. I'd actually like to do this. I think it would be easier to shop and I could prepare things on the weekend and reheat at night.

    Mine too...:)

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  • When we were little my mom SAH so she cooked what I consider "Sunday dinners" every day - roast, chicken, pork loin, vegetables, rolls, etc.

    When she went back to work, my dad cooked because he got home earlier. We had easier meals - soup, baked potatoes, grilled cheese, rotisserie chicken, BBQ, pasta.

    I am somewhere in between the two. I do a lot of pasta, chicken, and crockpot meals. We don't ever eat out of a can or box and a freezer rarely, but I certainly don't cook hearty, homemade meals every night.

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  • My mom cooked every night.  Twice a year we'd get KFC takeout.  She was a working mom and the primary wage earner in the household.

    Meals were meat, veg, potato.  Stews used up leftovers and were served with regularity.  I can clearly remember her grinding her own beef to make meatloaf.  We sat at the dinner table every night.  It was the 70s-80s.

    Compared to her, I fail at family meals.

    promised myself I'd retire when I turned gold, and yet here I am
  • My mom stayed home with us until I was in HS and my brother was in grammar school, but she did go to school at night during part of this time.  She cooked us "home cooked" meals every night of our lives, give or take. 

    She's Colombian and my dad is Mexican and he's very picky about his meals.  He also comes from a time and place where women just cooked for their husbands so he never cooked in our house.  So we ate traditional mexican/south american meals every night.  A lot of white rice, beans, meat, stews, salsas, etc.  

    We never ate hamburger helper type foods and rarely ate out on week days.  We did eat out on weekends a LOT.  It's my parent's "thing".  My dad has always said that when you die you don't take your riches with you but take your experiences.  Or something like that, and food is really important in our house.  In fact my husband was appalled at how much $ my parents spent eating out, but it's just what they do. 

    Anyway back to the original question yeah I suck compared to my mom she always had real food for us and it was damn good.  I do my best but will never be able to cook like her.  Although she also grew up cooking and had 6 brothers and sisters and a cook in the house and everything helped out.  I feel like her generation of women in Colombia just knew how to do sh**. 

  • My mom was "working" in that she had five of us and occasionally worked weekends, which is a hell of lot harder than my full time two kids gig...but anywhoo..my mom cooked every night--meat, potato, veg and milk pretty much every night.  Sometimes, spaghetti and sometimes grilled cheese or mac and cheese.  Ironically, my father is a trained chef (CIA) and when he cooked fancier stuff, we shamefully never appreciated it! 
  • Someone on Parenting the other day asked "Do you cook or do you make food?" I make food and so did my mom (although, I "make" better than she did lol).  We did the hamburger helper thing, supremely dry pork chops, equally dry chicken various ways, mealoaf, etc.  We almost always did boxed potatoes, which I also use but I shake it up and also make rice, rolls and actual potatoes/sweet potatoes.  Her veggies were strictly canned or frozen and I've got to say, we rarely eat those.  I was amazed at how much better veggies tasted when they were fresh and sauteed or roasted.

    On Christmas I made brussels sprouts and almost forced one down my brother's throat.  They were pan seared with garlic and he about fell off his chair.  My mother only ever made the boiled.  No seasoning.  No wonder they were nasty lol 

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  • My mom is a really good cook. She was SAH and felt like part of her "job" was to cook restaurant quality meals at home on a daily basis and pack up the leftovers so my dad would have a perfect lunch the next day. She would make things like coq au vin and bouillabaisse on a nightly basis.

    When my parents ask me what I planned for dinner tonight for H, I can feel them cringing though the phone when I say "uh, leftover pizza". Embarrassed

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  • My mom was a chef for a good 5 years, which meant she basically wanted nothing to do with cooking when she got home. :P We had a lot of stuff like pasta + ground beef + prego or similar things, or picked up takeout. When she did cook more it was usually traditional Greek food. I started cooking at a  young age, so I also did some of the dinners. My parents were divorced.

    I lived with my grandparents till I was 10, and my grandma cooked every day, traditional from scratch/Greek food.  

  • Both parents worked. Dad traveled something like 75% of the time. 

    Dad made awesome weekend dinners. Saturdays were stuff on the grill usually. Sundays were always like pot roast or chicken and dumplings.

    We ate a lot of leftovers. When we were under 10, we did kids eat free at a local place on Tuesday nights.

    Fridays were always pizza nights.

    My mom can make tuna casserole (gross), spaghetti and jar sauce, and mac and cheese. So we ate a lot of that other than leftovers.

    MIL was an outstanding cook and I have grown up to love to cook, so luckily I come in somewhere between my mom and dad/MIL!  

  • My mom SAH until my youngest brother was in HS. She cooked every night. We didn't have anything fancy, meatloaf, Salisbury steak, pasta, chicken, pork chops, steak always with a veggie and starch. Veggies always from a can. Never had hamburger helper until i met my H. I still love her food! 

    Lillian April 17, 2012
  • My mom worked at home (running a family child care) until I was 15.  She made dinner almost every night - mostly meat, veg, starch.  Classics were things like shake n' bake, pork chops, London broil, American chop suey, chicken cacciatore...

    What I didn't appreciate enough growing up was the fact that my dad was a huge gardener, and even though we lived in the 'burbs, we had a big vegetable garden.  All of the veggies we ate in the summer and most the rest of the year were from the garden.  My mom made her own tomato sauce from scratch and froze green beans, carrots, corn, etc.  We also grew strawberries, blueberries, and apples.

    I was a picky eater and absolutely hated weeding or any other garden-related chore.  Of course now I realize how appreciative I should have been!

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  • my mom always cooked a big sunday dinner (meat, potatos, veggie).  we had those leftovers during the week.  my dad was in charge of weekday cooking...he made a lot of homemade hamburger helper type meals over pasta and broiled chicken.the meals were usually pretty plain (possible our request as kids)..during the spring/summer we had a lot of hotdogs and hamburgers...

    I cook 90% vegetarian and I think I am a pretty good cook. I had a few years hanging out with my dh's noni before she passed, which helped me pick up a few tips and tricks (she was a good cook and a fabulous woman)

  • My mom SAH, and is an excellent cook.  We're Chinese, and it was always 4-5 different dishes for dinner.  I'm used to that type of food, so that's what I try to make, but I'm lucky if I get out 1-2 dishes.  And we eat leftovers a lot.  I don't remember ever eating leftovers when I was young.
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    My mom learned to cook from her MIL who was a very very good cook. My paternal grandma was from Poland, so my mom learned how to make a lot of traditional Polish (stuffen cabbage, polish meat balls, various roasts) and other eastern European foods. She was a SAHM and we often had dinner guests. My mom didn't like seafood, so it was beef, pork, veal and chicken.  I don't ever remember having had hamburger helper as a child. Dinners always includes a veggie and starch with meat.

    Now as a WAH mom of 3 (ages 7, 4 and 1), I do a combination of making food and cooking food. I try to avoid prepacked because I know it's not healthy, but I personnally love the enchilada hamburger helper Stick out tongue I do a fair amount of planning each week so that I can make food (e..g recipes off pintrest, collecting slow cooker recipes, etc). I also try as much as possible to cook once, eat twice (so we have leftovers at least 2 times a week).

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • My grandmother is a true Italian mother. She stayed home and cooked huge meals every night for her family of 9. This gene skipped my mother. Bless her heart but it did. She worked the majority of my childhood. She had her staples that she would make regularly but as I got older and it became harder to round everyone up for dinner at the same time, she did a lot of Hamburger Helper type meals. 

    This had two different effects on my siblings and I. My sister and I are hot messes in the kitchen. My brother is a 5 star executive chef at a fancy hotel downtown. Hahahaha 

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  • My mom was a single mom so she worked but she was a very good cook so we didnt have a microwave and never ever ate anything frozen...I give her credit for that except she never taught me how to cook. I mean she was so good that later in life when my youngest sister started kindergarten she opened a restaurant yet the running joke is that she asked me to mash pinto beans for her and i tried to do them raw....true story but it sucks because I cant cook to save my life. Also she now will cook for DD when i bring her by a few times a week and DD eats it up but wont eat what I make :(
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  • My Mom stayed home or worked only part time, and she was/is an amazing cook! And I am super lucky, because I learned from her, and I am a pretty darn good cook, too! We were so spoiled - we would come home from school/sports to homemade apple pie, homemade bread, lots of yummy stuff like lasagna and roast chicken and lots of stuff from her garden! We sure did eat well! And my family eats well, now, too!
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  • Both of my parents worked FT and my mom went to school in the evenings and weekends. My dad did a lot of boxed meals during those years.

    My DH works 2 jobs (one of which is at night). So, nights are pretty hectic with it being just me and the girls. While I don't do a lot of boxed meals, we usually make 1 or 2 meals during the week that are easy and fast to reheat for dinner.

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  • My DH and I grew up totally opposite as far as food goes - his mom made basically 7 meals in rotation, just was the way she was raised, she never learned to cook more than that. My dad, on the other hand, would get out the cookbooks every Saturday and choose a variety of meals for the week, with a variety of proteins, ethnicities, etc., and we almost never had the same meal twice within a month or two. (Sidenote: my dad did the meal planning and my mom did almost all the cooking. That would drive me crazy but it seems to work out for them). I think this was a great way to eat, but it did give me the family reputation for being picky, because I didn't like things like falafels and beef stroganoff (I used to hate mushrooms). I wanted pizza every Friday like "normal people" ate. 

    DH & I eat more like my family, but sometimes he comments that we don't have enough "family favorites" - he says a lot of times we'll have a really good meal but then we never have it again, and he would like to. 

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  • My mom was a SAHM for the most part and she'd always cook and we'd always have a meat, veg, and carb at dinner.  I appreciate growing up in a household where we would all sit down for dinner every night, but when I first got married and later had DS, I think she had unrealistic expectations about me serving a fresh dinner at 5:00 every night.  Now that I've gotten better about meal planning, freezing meals, crock pot meals, etc. I think that she admires the fact that I can work and still cook dinner and will even try and modify some of her meals for me to make and freeze or make in my crock pot.
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  • Mom worked from 3pm - 11pm as a nurse, so she didn't usually cook our dinners.  Instead, she would leave meat thawing in the sink and a note about what (canned) vegetables to have with it.  Dad, when he got home, would decide how to prepare the beef/pork/whatever.  Sometimes she left a note to heat up frozen fish sticks & french fries, or $ for a pizza (very rare).

    On days off she liked to do a pot roast or something in the electric skillet.

  • My parents both worked and my mom hated to cook, so my dad did the cooking until I was about 11. (He moved for work and they divorced.) At that point, my sister or mom would cook and when she went to college, I would help with the cooking.

    I don't really remember what we ate when I was a kid, but I do remember macaroni, canned tomatoes and ground beef. My mom rarely bought hamburger helper because my sister and I didn't like the fake potatoes - ha. I think we also had a lot of barbeque stuff - I'd barbeque before my mom got home (after my dad left).

    When I was a teen, my mom became diabetic - we had a lot of salads and chicken and occasionally ground beef. A typical dinner would be salad, lemon chicken and rice pilaf. That's probably why I am not so into salad.

    Since we pretty much eat vegetarian at home, I don't really cook what my mom did. I have a few recipes that I have modified to be vegetarian, but that's about it.

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  • My mom worked but cooked dinner every night.  As a teacher though she got home no later than 4:00 so she had a little more time to make dinner than I think a lot of people do.

    She had a rotating set of things she would make, and the meals were always the same.  So, if she made pork chops we would have applesauce and au gratin potatoes with it.  If she made spaghetti we had garlic bread and a salad.  If she made stead we had salad and baked potatoes.  Every Saturday we had hamburgers and every Sunday we had fried chicken with mashed potatoes and corn.  There were a few things that came around less frequently like cornish hens, beef stroganoff, and things like chop suey (so gross!).

    My dad didn't believe that hamburger helper type meals were "real" meals so if we had those it was on Friday nights because that was the night my mother sort of took off from making anything even a little bit complicated.

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  • My mom worked nights and dad worked days so dad cooked dinner....he wasnt a bad cook my mom was better a lunch and breakfast foods dad was better at dinners BUT I do remember a time I guess dad was getting lazy for a bit and every night M-F for like a month or so we had those cheap banquet microwave dinners. but they never experimented or used a cook book so it always seemed like we ate the same stuff over and over.......I try to avoid that now and use my oldies but goodies and throw in a few new recipes.
  • My mom worked, and seldom cooked. When she did it wasn't great. My favorite homemade meal growing up was a pork chop with potato spuds. Mashed potatoes from a box... Yuck. We went out to eat a lot or ordered pizza since it was just the two of us.
    Now my grandmother helped raise me and I try to cook like she did. I can't cook everyday but I try to make her dishes often. Chicken soup, fried steak, real mashed potatoes, beans with rice, shredded beef. I cook other stuff too and hope my kids will like my food.
  • My Mom was crazy amazing, she worked full time and still made home cooked, from scratch Protein, starch and veggie meals for us every night. I cook somewhat but I just married a gormeut chef so I do not do most of the cooking, LOL
  • My mom was a single mom and worked long hours.  We ate shake n bake chicken probably 5 nights/week.  With that we had either rice or potatoes and a vegetable.  She never tried to make much else. 

    I try hard to cook different things for our family.  It's not crazy adventurous, but it's nice to not eat the same thing all the time.  When there's not much time, I do fall back on what my mom cooked.  Minus the shake n bake, we'll have chicken, potatoes or rice and a vegetable.  I do try to make it 'better' than my mom used too.  It wasn't horrible, but it got to be extremely boring.

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  • I am also Chinese.  My mom worked part-time, and she did all the cooking.  When I was a kid, my mom could make elaborate Chinese meals.  For example,she made breads like bao zi (buns stuffed with pork or vegetables), steamed green onion breads, etc.  Now my mom is much older and she's lost a lot of her cooking skills.

    I love to cook, but I rarely make Asian foods.  I cook and bake better than my mother did.

  • My mom was never a great cook. We ate a lot of boxed meals and frozen foods. My dad on the other hand was a great cook but worked a lot so only made dinner once a week or so. I was really picky (sensory issues when it comes to food) and one day my mom got fed up with my complaining and said if I didn't like it I could fend for myself (I was about 12). From then on I started cooking all my own meals and then started cooking for the rest of the family. I love cooking and prefer to make things from scratch as much as I can. I guess I'm still rebelling from all the boxed foods. 
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  • My mom was a SAHM until I was a teenager. We belonged to some sort of frozen meat club and had a freezer just for meet. Our side dishes would be something processed from a box and a can of vegis (sometimes).

    She joined the workforce when I was a teen (also got a divorce) so she bought us kids McD's every.night. We loved it and surprisingly I was thin. I wish I still had my teenage metabolism. So nothing healthy. 

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  • My mom worked and made simple food but always included a veggie and protein. I never minded the way we ate. I used to cook that way too but DH is stunningly picky. His family always included one woman staying at home full time and cooking very involved Latin American meals. I have completely stopped cooking because he was such a jerk about my average American dinners. Now he cooks or we order out or eat frozen pizza.
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  • imagehocus:

    We had a home cooked meal 95% of the time. My mom worked most of my childhood.  I remember a fair amount of stews, meatloaf, casseroles, tacos, spaghetti, etc. I make about 50% of what my mom did. I never liked stew and so I never make it. I gain weight if I eat to muhc pasta so I make it rarely. I do make tacos all the time though.

    This is pretty similar to me.  I make a lot of the same things my mom (and occasionally dad) cooked.  We did eat out, usually on Friday, which is the same for us.  Both of my parents worked very demanding FT jobs while raising 5 kids. Dinner time was our family time.  My parents frequently worked after dinner and on the weekends.  With my own kids its very important to me to sit down and eat dinner together.  I've relaxed my standards on what I serve though - nothing too fancy and the more I can do ahead the better!  Regular staples are lasagna, spaghetti, brats, BLTs, tacos, etc.  I used to do complicated recipes on the weekend but now I save the fancy stuff for date night out with hubby...and let someone else do the cooking.  :-)

  • My mom worked for my dad so she worked like 8:30 to 3. She still only cooked about 3 days a week max.

    We never ate hamburger helper stuff, dad wanted meat and potatoes so it was things like minute steak, pork chops, roast, sloppy joes, or spaghetti.

    I started cooking simple things and just keep finding more simple recipes that my picky DH will eat.

    I generally brown all my hamburger for the week over the weekend and freeze it in recipe portions. It takes longer for the oven to preheat than it takes for me to layer a lasagna if the meat is already cooked.

    I try to double recipes often too so there is always food in my freezer. Taco meat, sloppy joes, spaghetti sauce, veggie soup, chili, pulled pork, and grilled chicken freeze well and are easy to turn into super fast meals after work. It only takes minutes to throw together a casserole if the meat is pre cooked and then I ignore it while it is in the oven.

    I also like to make big recipes that make great leftovers. A pan of enchiladas goes into several meals in my house. Same with casseroles or homemade pizza.
  • My mother worked. She's a great cook but also did all the cooking for her younger siblings as a kid, so she got burnt out. Especially with a stressful job. So as soon as I was old enough to stay home after school, I was old enough to make dinner. We started with really simple things, but all through junior high and high school, that was my job after school. Which of course was great prep for being on my own. And then she'd do big meals on the weekend.
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  • Both of my parents were teachers and both cooked meals in our family. There was usually a hamburger helper, or something easy, like omelets or grilled cheese, but they also had a slew of good but quick recipes.
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  • My mom was a SAHM and her meals were always well balanced with veggies and meats. She made broccoli and cheese casserole, hawaiian chicken, spagetti, tacos, and burritos. We had boxed dinners and crock pot dinners, too. I am sure there were more dishes but she was good at it.

    My dad worked but he was a good cook as well. I think he cooked on the weekends. He made egg rolls, gorditas and tortillas. He baked bread, too.

    And there were times my parents cooked together.

    This post is making me hungry!

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  • My grandmother cooked meals nightly, and we hardly ever went out for dinner. Obviously she stayed at home with us.


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