Favorite meals as a kid?

[sneakerd]

Chipped beef on toast with a glass of milk and Fritos on the side. Used to ride my bike home from school every day for lunch. PBJs were another staple.

[blacklabel]

You had the yellow gravy to? Good stuff. That reminds me of Salisbury steak, except they used brown gravy for that. Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and a home made roll, great meal!

Salisbury steak and rice was another go to for dinner for us.

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[BushMasterBoy]

BBQ pork spare ribs made by my dad. It really didn't matter to me what it came with, but usually corn on the cob and baked potato.

[sneakerd]

I hate that. Everybody I know BBQ'ed with their Dads when they were kids. They grew up BBQing and smoking meats and butchering their own from the kill. My Dad was the best man I've ever known. But he couldn't cook for shit. Used to roll out the dirty, cobwebby nasty old grill once a frikking year. Either the 4th or Mem'l day- but not both. Throw some burgers on there. That was it. Pretty sure they sucked too. To this day cooking meat is all guesswork for me. I don't know if it's going to be good until I take a bite. Moving in a month, after I move, I'm getting a smoker. I keep trying.

[rondog]

My dad wasn't a griller either. Mom usually did the steaks under the broiler. They didn't season them either. I make a damn sight better steak than they did, we didn't eat much steak. Now pot roasts are another story!

[Grant H.]

Dad could make about 3 meals, otherwise it was mom or Mac and Cheese.

My favorite meal as a kid was "picnic night", usually a Friday night. We'd make popcorn, guacamole, get out the salsa and chips, crackers and cheese, etc and have a "picnic" with a rented movie.

Basically just finger foods of all kinds in picnic form on the floor in the family room.

[Sawin]

Cheesy chicken crescent rolls.

[Aloha_Shooter]

It occurs to me that when I was 6 or 7 and didn't know any better, Ortega -- or even Jack in the Box -- tacos were the best! There was just something about the taco meat seasonings combined with fresh cool chopped lettuce and tomatoes and the crispy shells. I had a few weeks where I had to wear an eye patch and Mom brought lunch to school for me everyday ... Jack-in-the-Box tacos or Roy Rogers' hamburgers were just the best damned thing ever.

[ChadAmberg]

Hot dog stew was our go to meal growing up...

[Gman]

I was blessed with a Mom who was an incredible cook-too many favorites to list mmmm

My mom was the same way.

We didn't have money, so mom was incredible at stretching that food budget. When I was a kid, you didn't just buy spaghetti sauce in a jar. She would make it from scratch, and it was awesome. She'd make a big batch and we'd have spaghetti for a couple of nights that week. The remainder was put in the freezer...to come out some other time and become a soup base. A big batch of soup had leftovers and went into the freezer...to come out some other time and become a base for another batch of soup. I swear I had soup that might have had some origins going back years....and it was all awesomely good! Mom's soups were like liquid steroids...could heal whatever ailed ya. To this day, she can throw a soup together in no time...and it's a full course gourmet meal in a bowl.

I loved it when she made tacos and pan fried the corn tortillas for the shells. Tacos were my favorite meal.

I found it fun when we would occasionally have 'breakfast' for supper. I love a big breakfast, and that just wasn't possible on most weekdays. Weekday breakfasts were usually Cream of Wheat or Malt-O-Meal and off to school.

Her meatloaf was incredible...and I still can't duplicate it.

We had fish sticks more times than I could count.

The one thing I don't miss was tuna casserole. It was good when I ate it, and a can of tuna for the protein source went a long way...but we had it often.

Someone mentioned school cafeteria food. I was so tired of cold sack lunches when I was in middle school that I worked in the cafeteria for part of the lunch period so that I could get a free hot lunch. Scraping plates into a slop bucket for pig feed was no big deal for a hot lunch. I don't know how they did it, but the flavor of the beef tips over noodles still sticks with me...was wholesome food and you could tell it was made with care.

ETA: I see folks talk about grilling with their dad. I took an early interest in grilling and pretty much took over for my dad early in life. He traveled a lot with his job. He would also get distracted and burn the food...and I wasn't having any of that. I did the grilling and mom would offer advice, and I just learned along the way.

ETA: How could I forget mom's homemade southern fried chicken?! She soaks it in buttermilk beforehand and it always comes out juicy and tasty.