The FastDay Forum

It got me thinking tonight.. a rare occurrence, let me tell you!

Do you remember when food came as...well... food?

No calorie counts, no carbs to consider, no sodium to worry about, no fibre to digest (well they were all in there, we just didn't know about them... or care!).
Then came numbers... BMIs, when we found we were all overweight, instead of the slim young things we thought we were. Slimming world, weight watchers, diet pills....fast forward (no pun intended) 5 2, liquid fasting, low carbing....

So, take me back please to...

Lemon meringue pie.

Mum's crisp pastry base, fat filling of sweetened condensed milk with uncooked egg and lemon and peaky meringue topping. Heaven. Especially with a dollop of double cream.
Another slice... yes please...

What's your 'remember that' moment?
Fill your boots... ooops, meant fill this tent with goodies of bygone eras...no need to worry about those calories!!!

Ooh,You do get some great ideas P! X
i've been taken back to..
My Nan...a right old battleaxe..we did all her " messages" ( shopping) which was a lorra lorra ingredients...
By age eleven,my elongated arms were scraping the floor from the heavy grocery bags..
she always used to say as she handed you a massively long shopping list and half a crown,
" And don't get run over...coz you'll have my change..."
Nans always wore the obligatory Grandma Gear - a wrap round pinny.
No Nans worried about weight.. TDEE? They wdnt have had a clue but would have still given you a clip round the earhole for mentioning it!
My Nan didnt like sharing her chocs or sweets and endearingly kept them stuffed down the side of her armchair..Rustling and chewing while we all watched The Beverley Hillbillies..Father Knows Best ..Emergency Ward Ten..
She drew the line at the Tiller Girls highkicking on Sunday Night at the London Palladium and held the Catholic Herald in front of her bachelor sons face,til they'd kicked their way offstage..( bachelor son was in his late forties at this time)
Hungry now Penns coz you reminded me about condensed milk,...mmmm,we called it conny onny...
What about...Dripping on toast!! Rice pud with skin on top! Food glorious food!

My mom made pot roast when I was a kid. It was so tender it just fell apart when it was sliced. I haven't eaten red meat for decades, but when I think of that pot roast, my mouth waters.

[Debs]

Funny how the conversation always comes back to food.
Just saying.....!!

@CandiceMarie, 'conny onny butties' were a real sweet treat in my childhood! My gran seemed to cook everything fried in lard but it all tasted so good back then!
Favourite foody memories would include milk puddings, corned beef hash,steak and kidney pudding in suet crust pastry. Roast chicken was a rare Sunday lunch treat!

[Debs]

See, I told you
My granny made pastry from lard and I absolutely hated it, and my mum would scrape the top of the cold fat from the roast potatoes and eat it with bread, uurrggghhhh!! She did make a good rice pudding with a thick skin on though! The other 'orrible thing we had was a sage and onion suet pudding, involving a flour and suet rolled pudding with bacon, onion and dried sage in and steamed. Only my dad liked it, but the rest of us were made to eat it!! Culinary child abuse!!!
Anyone remember Vesta curries? The height of decadence!!!

Twisties on a buttered roll followed by a vanilla slice - the perfect school lunch.

Twisties on a buttered roll followed by a vanilla slice - the perfect school lunch.

You've got me there @Wineoclock, what are 'twisties'

Twisties are a snack sold in packets like crisps. Bright orange cheese flavored crispy twists. I'm sure they contain only chemicals and calories but they are very yummy.

I remember the suet puddings @Debs, not only sage and onion but we also had bacon puddings made with suet and jam puddings too. I used to eat everything (we had to) but they weren't my favourite.

I seem to have more memories of foods I didn't like than those that I did - jam doughnuts I hated, and winkles and whelks - we had to pick them from the rocky shore and bring them home in buckets, the poor things used to climb up the sides of the bucket on the way home, I still can't forget the awful smell and the screaming noise when they were boiled alive. That might be the reason I'm a vegetarian now.

I used to love toasting bread on an open fire, always burning my fingers on the toasting fork but we had to use margarine instead of butter so that rather spoiled the toast, we didn't know any different though. One of my favourite foods was trifle which we had on special occasions, and I liked sugar sandwiches - money was tight and it was after the war when food was rationed. Instead of sweets and chocolate my mum used to give us a little home made packets of sugar and cocoa.

Vesta curries, @Debs, that takes me back. They were a treat! My father used to prepare them.

My faves include all the puddings my mum used to make - esp bread and butter pudding, suet pudding, and rice pudding (which she still makes for me every time I visit...). We had puddings most nights and never had any weight issues when we were young - possibly because we rarely ate packaged processed foods, and only snacked on apples and oranges (from the garden). And we only had chocolate once a week on a Sunday night as a treat - I think a Family block only had 24 squares then, and the 4 of us would have 6 squares each.

How times have changed.

[Debs]

Actually, come to think of it, that's true coffee time! My mum's cooking was good old fashioned stodgy, but we knew no better then. I had my first pasta at the age of 18!!! Everything was considered 'foreign'!

I must admit Penny, I make a fine lemon meringue pie these days!!

I'm still waiting for someone to remember tinned trifle though for my friend!!!

True sassy, none of us were overweight despite all of that, and we were always outside playing.

I must admit Penny, I make a fine lemon meringue pie these days!!

I'm on my way.....

And yes, I was remembering Vesta curries this morning - and the Chow mien with the crispy noodles. I thought they were the height of sophistication!
But they probably did influence my more adventurous taste buds!

Mum used to make Dad a dish of melted cheese and tomatoes, with a few bits of pasta in it, which looked like an accident on a plate... bleugh...

Memories of home made meat & potato pie I could just eat a portion now!!
You know what I think I've seen Vesta meals in B&M stores just before xmas so would you fancy one now?

There were no fast food restaurants when I was growing up, and it was too expensive to take us all out to eat. We ate a lot of home-cooked meals! If we didn't like something, we had to eat some of it, no matter what, though my mom did learn to make salads without raw onions for my bother and me!

Favorite meals had to be the holidays with turkey and the fixings and pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas or ham at Easter. We were allowed to have soda for holidays, too!