What were the least favorite things your parents would have you eat growing up?

[Moliphino]

Sliced tomatoes. DM would slice off a big round of beefsteak tomato and we'd have to finish it or we couldn't leave the table. Not sure that that was supposed to accomplish, but I will not eat fresh tomatoes to this day.

I probably would've vomited. Fresh tomatoes are so gross.

 

[design_mom]

My mother never served liver, so that's not on my list (but probably would be if it had been served.)

But I still have nightmares about tuna-noodle casserole (a Fridays during Lent staple.) I was also not a fan of scalloped potatoes and ham.

p.s. I would happily eat sliced tomatoes though... a garden fresh summer meal: sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, and corn on the cob!

 

[dizneegirl]

Quiche.

 

[DDuckSouthBend]

Liver

 

[disneyseniors]

Liver

Nothing! I would eat anything, like right Now, LOL.

 

[PAsFab5]

Liver - with onions. Thank goodness I like onions, and the dog ate the liver under the table!
American chop suey makes me gag. Hated having that for supper. Dog got a lot of that too!

So happy to find another person who fed their dinners to the dogs as a kid I had a complex plan-I lined my pockets with napkins then did a equal split of food between the dog and both pockets. After dinner I flushed the napkins and food down the toilet

 

[PAsFab5]

Chicken croquettes…I’m not sure if mom made these or they were frozen? Either way it was like wet dog food in a ball and breaded it was terrible.

 

[chrisney]

Stewed tomatoes. Harvard beets. Did a lot of cheek stuffing and bathroom visits. Once my mother caught on and made me swallow…that was the only time. I have a gag reaction, and… the other thing was spam. She tried that once and no one would eat it!

Liver

 

[texaslover]

Fried chicken livers. My dad loved them so she would make them once or twice a month. My brother and I would chop them up reeeeeeeeealy small and pour ketchup all over them to get them down.

 

[AnnaS]

The only thing I can think of that my dad loved and I would not eat or try was barbecued intestines - stigghioli.

 

[2letterwords]

Liver here too, with onions. No thanks.

 

[tazdev3225]

Raw onions in macaroni salad with tuna fish. EVERY Friday night and Wednesday in Lent. I still hate raw onions like that yet love them on a burger or a hot dog.

My mom was really old school and if we didn't finish something at dinner, we got nothing else to eat and that was our breakfast, lunch and dinner til we ate whatever it was, and COLD!!! I decided I didn't like pea soup when I was about 5. Cold pea soup stuck to the spoon like a gross taffy made me realize she was serious. I loved pea soup after that. Thankfully she relented on the onions, I think because my dad made her do it. I wasn't really a picky eater.

My one brother hated eggplant, and she never forced him to eat it. My youngest brother was really picky when he was little. She catered to him, still does in fact. We were lucky she has a condition that makes her store to much iron in her blood, so she stopped making liver and onions because she can't have it. When I got old enough to make my own money, I bought dinner when I didn't like what she was having.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I actually liked liver and onions, although my siblings hated it.

I hated sweet potatoes, but thankfully that was only a holiday thing and my Granny would rescue me so I didn't have to eat them.

The worst for me was chili made with stewed tomatoes. I loathed the texture of the tomatoes.

 

[tvguy]

I can't say there was anything I hated, but I grew very tired of chicken during the beef boycott of 1973. My mom did start trying some meatless options instead because I think she was getting tired of chicken. My wife loves chicken and is well aware that even 50 years later, if my choice for dinner is chicken, or something else, something else is going to win every time not matter what it is.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

Kielbasa and Kraft mac and cheese. That was my Mom’s go-to dinner when she didn’t have anything planned, so we ate it a lot. I didn’t like it at all as a kid, but I don’t mind it now. Also, fresh tomatoes in the summer. I hated them as a kid and still won’t eat them today.

 

[John VN]

..................................

p.s. I would happily eat sliced tomatoes though... a garden fresh summer meal: sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, and corn on the cob!

^^^^ Freshly picked from our back yard New Jersey Garden ^^^^

Sandpaper on the tongue liver was the worst

 

[ronandannette]

Raw onions in macaroni salad with tuna fish. EVERY Friday night and Wednesday in Lent. I still hate raw onions like that yet love them on a burger or a hot dog.

My mom was really old school and if we didn't finish something at dinner, we got nothing else to eat and that was our breakfast, lunch and dinner til we ate whatever it was, and COLD!!! I decided I didn't like pea soup when I was about 5. Cold pea soup stuck to the spoon like a gross taffy made me realize she was serious. I loved pea soup after that. Thankfully she relented on the onions, I think because my dad made her do it. I wasn't really a picky eater.

My one brother hated eggplant, and she never forced him to eat it. My youngest brother was really picky when he was little. She catered to him, still does in fact. We were lucky she has a condition that makes her store to much iron in her blood, so she stopped making liver and onions because she can't have it. When I got old enough to make my own money, I bought dinner when I didn't like what she was having.

My DH was raised this way - not just because his mother was authoritarian but because they were extremely poor. His dad was an army private, there were 6 kids to feed and they lived mostly on urban military bases where there was no ability to grow a garden or raise livestock. His dad ate at least two meals a day in the mess hall but the family was left to struggle on whatever his mom could afford at the commissary, and not being a skilled cook, she'd just cook it up in big batches of "yuck" that they either ate or went without. All six of the kids were underweight and malnourished, which led to quite a few lasting health issues.

When I truly grasped the horror of his childhood food insecurity, which was almost unthinkable compared to my own upbringing, I quickly purposed early in our marriage to cater to his food preferences. I simply don't cook anything he doesn't like or want and I never serve him left-overs. Luckily, our DS was never a picky eater and if our rule of "try a bite" didn't engage him in something, he was welcome to just eat whatever else was on the table or opt out until the next meal. It was never dramatic.

 

[goofyernmost]

beef tongue

Growing up the food that always gagged me was Salmon Wiggle. Back in those days or perhaps because they couldn't afford any better it was made with canned Salmon which contained many soft (edible ) bones which never made it down my throat. Just thinking of it still comes close to gagging me some 70 years later.

Now for beef tongue, that didn't happen until after I was married and it was one of my wife's favorite foods. I, like the loving husband I was, really made an effort to like it. It wasn't that it was difficult to look at without imagining where it had been, it was more the texture, a lot like liver (also not one of my favorites, but no one tried to get me to eat that). I finally had to risk a conflict by trying to find the right words to tell my wife that I didn't really like it. To my relief she took it OK and I never saw another ginormous beef tongue for the rest of our 29 year marriage. Hmmm! I wonder if that is why she left?

Jump ahead a lot of years and I am now living in North Carolina the hog capital of the world and went into a pork specialty store and the first thing I see, all packaged up like you would see hamburg, was a pig FACE starring up at me. Since that day I have tried to imagine who would want a pigs face for lunch. I'm not really sure I want to know.

 

[tazdev3225]

My DH was raised this way - not just because his mother was authoritarian but because they were extremely poor. His dad was an army private, there were 6 kids to feed and they lived mostly on urban military bases where there was no ability to grow a garden or raise livestock. His dad ate at least two meals a day in the mess hall but the family was left to struggle on whatever his mom could afford at the commissary, and not being a skilled cook, she'd just cook it up in big batches of "yuck" that they either ate or went without. All six of the kids were underweight and malnourished, which led to quite a few lasting health issues.

When I truly grasped the horror of his childhood food insecurity, which was almost unthinkable compared to my own upbringing, I quickly purposed early in our marriage to cater to his food preferences. I simply don't cook anything he doesn't like or want and I never serve him left-overs. Luckily, our DS was never a picky eater and if our rule of "try a bite" didn't engage him in something, he was welcome to just eat whatever else was on the table or opt out until the next meal. It was never dramatic.

I really understand that. We weren't poor but money was tight. My dad was going to night school and worked 2 jobs on top of it so mom was inventive. She made a macaroni and cheese casserole with spam and stewed tomatoes in it. It was edible, barely. Funny thing is my picky eater brother still loves it.

I used the try a bite on my kids but never forced them to eat anything beyond the bite. My middle child is the pickiest eater I have ever seen but as long as she could smother her food in ketchup she would eat. I went through a large bottle of it every 2 weeks. She married a picky eater so I am always amazed to see my grandkids try new things.

My husband was raised on TV dinners and after 40+ years with me he has learned to like a lot of things he never knew existed, like vegetables. It's amazing how food issues can be traced to childhood horrors. My mom hasn't changed and I have a hard time at Thanksgiving when they all gang up on my nephews over Brussels Sprouts. He detests them and my mom and brothers all yell at him through the meal. One of those things I never forced my kids to eat. We always had them sneak the vegies on to my plate.

 

[Lilsia]

Kielbasa and Kraft mac and cheese. That was my Mom’s go-to dinner when she didn’t have anything planned, so we ate it a lot. I didn’t like it at all as a kid, but I don’t mind it now. Also, fresh tomatoes in the summer. I hated them as a kid and still won’t eat them today.

This offends me as a Polish person. Kielbasa indeed, harumph. LOL