12 Delicious Inexpensive Childhood Food Recipes

YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT EATING DOESN’T HAVE TO BE FANCY JUST MEMORABLE.

Childhood food recipes will either be amazing or something to forget but for those you love why not share them with your family. Saving money on food products is the pinnacle of our monthly budget so we work extra hard to make sure we are getting the biggest bang for our buck.

Having a toddler in our house that is a picky eater we find that he doesn’t mind tucking into food recipes that are simple to make and inexpensive. Best of all most of the food recipes that he does enjoy are classics from when Mrs. CBB and I were kids. One of his favourite foods is grilled cheese with bacon. He also loves French Toast with Syrup. Easy, Cheap and filling.

Food recipes that come to mind when you think of your childhood are likely those that you love because we tend to forget about food recipes that just didn’t sit right. I can easily recall a plate of fried liver and onions and suddenly feeling ill. I never liked liver and never will. I don’t often talk or think about it either.

Those were the days

Money was tight back in the 70’s and 80’s and it is even tighter today where a minimum wage earner will struggle to find a 2 bedroom apartment that is affordable. It’s just not happening unless you get lucky but even then there are bills to pay no matter if you rent or own. It can be a struggle to keep up and when cost-cutting comes into effect one of the first targeted budget categories is the food budget.

Related: How much should my food budget be?

When you slice and dice your grocery budget to fit the needs of your financial situation you may find that being creative in the kitchen is critical. I know that many of us go to restaurants to enjoy food prepared by someone else but most of all it has to do with flavour and food styling.

Eat with your eyes

If we like what we smell and enjoy what we see then we will most likely eat it all up. The same goes when preparing meals at home and by using food styling techniques to jazz up your meals using food recipes from your childhood is a great way to add a twist on traditions that your children can pass on to their own.

Food Recipes and resources

These days we have Pinterest as one of the leading recipe hubs on the internet and where most people go for food recipes and inspiration. I never thought I’d join the bandwagon but here I am years into my Pinterest account and still love the incredible food recipes created all over the world.

Since starting The Free Recipe Depot Facebook page a few years ago I now have just over 3000 followers who want to learn more about cultural food recipes. Since I feature food recipes from all over the world I started to wonder what people ate as a child that they still prepare today. Was it expensive to make or did their parents put emphasis on getting more for their money when preparing meals? <<< For most people this hasn’t changed.

Childhood Food Memories

I can remember getting up in the morning and having toast with butter and mar-mite with a glass of cold milk or my mum would make me beans on toast with eggs. It was more about stretching the food budget by using what we had in the pantry limiting meat as it was very pricey unless it was mince beef.

On very rare occasions my mum would make bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast, breakfast sausages and beans or a bowl of cereal (boring). We had a fruit tree in our back garden where we were able to harvest pears which was our family go-to fruit.

Coming home for lunch was awesome since we didn’t live far from the school but most times I’d rather stay with my mates and play outside. After a heavy morning of learning it was nice to open my lunch box to find classics such as ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with butter on both sides, fruits and a drink. There were hardly any sugary snacks unless my mum made something special that week.

On occasion I’d get a flask of homemade chicken noodle soup in the Fall when the weather started to dip along with some bread and butter. I loved homemade soup of any description but chicken noodle, tomato beef and cream of mushroom were favourites in our house.

Whenever my mum made soup at home we’d get cheese toasties a.k.a grilled cheese but she makes it under the broiler in the oven. She still does this today! It is one of my favourite food recipes that I recall made my tummy happy and put a smile on my face. Other sandwich classics such as tuna salad, egg salad and roast-beef with cheese are still sandwiches we serve in our house today.

The classic Sunday dinner of roast beef with all the fixings was almost a weekly occurrence but only when my mum would find a deal on a roast. Buying a roast is less expensive than it is to purchase deli meats which we’d have on occasion for our sandwiches.

Potatoes were cheap back then so it wasn’t uncommon to find some form of potato on the table. Our family favourite was mashed potatoes loaded with butter or chips (french fries). You’ll still find that potatoes are a huge staple for many families because of the cost. You can buy a 5lb bag for $1.67 on sale or grow your own potatoes for even less.

Finding Food Sources

When I sat with Mrs. CBB and asked her about food recipes her mum and dad would prepare she was exposed to different meals than I was given that she lived in Canada. Her parents come from a European background so it wasn’t uncommon for her to have cheese, bacon, peameal bacon, ham, sausages, eggs and a tomato salad for breakfast.

Most of the meals she ate focused on the heavier being during the day with a lighter meal and snacks during the evening hours. Her parents were not rich or even in a position to buy expensive products but they did their best to buy quality foods that the entire family enjoyed.

Her father was an avid hunter so it was not a shock to find all sorts of meat in the freezer. Crossing over to fishing was his next hobby so they were always set with meat and fish as protein sources year-round. With a massive garden to top their food sources off they spent very little at the grocery store.

Lunch would be packed as school was too far of a walk home which typically consisted of a salami and cheese, ham and cheese, rapini or peanut butter and honey sandwich. She would always have fruit and a fruit drink or water. Sometimes she’d find chips or crackers but not often since it was something her parents bought on a regular occasion.

Dinner might include stir-fried wild chicken mushrooms her father had foraged along with asparagus grown in the wild, fried potatoes with green peppers and a tomato salad. The acidic salads were important as her father liked to cleanse his palate after eating. They rarely if ever ate out at restaurants and when they did it was always Chinese buffet.

Other classic food recipes that her mum made were pasta Bolognese, pasta fritata, no-bake cherry cheesecake, homemade pies (Blueberry, Apple and Cherry). In there back garden you would also find a peach and pear tree along with apples, figs and plums.

Almost always Mrs. CBB was around her parents when they were cooking and participated in foraging, gardening and picking fruits and vegetables at the farm. She also was lucky to see how animals were processed with care rather than what we don’t see behind the scenes in the meat and poultry industry. All things grass-fed and organic was what her family was and still is about. Everything is done old-school which offered her many food memories from growing, picking to cooking.

Almost all the food recipes that we both remember and love were homemade and included as much as possible organic fruits, vegetables, meats and fish. There were recipe books, cookbooks but no Pinterest. Cooking shows were far and few so keeping meals simple and classic to our cultural background made sense.

Food Exploration and Experience

Today you’ll find that families tend to explore more where they have recipes online and an abundance of food cooking programs. We are able to live food through technology which encourages creativity in the kitchen which may throw classic recipes on the back-burner for modern cuisine.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with experimenting with food as we do it at least once a week but continuing with tradition and food recipes from the past will never die. Our parents worked very hard as I’m sure yours did to put food on the table. It’s those meals that stick with us forever and any experiences we learned along the way can be transferred to our children.

We take our son foraging, gardening and explore farms where he can find chickens, eggs, cows and milking cows, feeding goats etc. Nature is not only romantic and fruitful, it’s life for all of us. I wanted to take the time to talk about those food recipes that our parents made that didn’t cost a fortune and helped stretch the food that they were able to buy at the grocery store.

When I asked my fans about their favourite food recipes it was clear everyone still enjoys the simplicity of food as it was served to them as a child.

Keep in mind the next time you are putting a meal plan to incorporate food recipes that you want to pass on to your children from your memories in the kitchen. Take time to explore nature, grow food, forage and learn about how food was hunted and refined.

Trips to local farms and processing facilities that allow tours are a great way for kids to see how food is handled first-hand. Food knowledge is the key to success in the kitchen especially when you can take simple ingredients and make a meal out of them without digging too deep into your pocket.

12 Inexpensive Delicious Childhood Food Recipes

• Beef Goulash
• Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
• Peanut Butter, Honey and Banana Sandwiches
• Rapini (Broccoli Rabe) Sandwich
• Pasta Frittata

• Meatballs and Sauce
• Toad In A Hole
• Quiche
• Ricotta Ball Soup

• Beans on Toast
• Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
• Sloppy Joe

Childhood Food Memories From the Readers

When I was a kid, my mom would take 1 side of a hamburger bun, some pork and beans, 1/2 slice of bacon and 1/2 slice of cheese. She would put it in the oven and basically heat up the pork and beans and melt the cheese. I don’t know what it would be called.

For supper, my mom would make turtles which is 1/2 cleaned out acorn squash, ground beef mixture inside the hallowed out section and put it in the oven to cook. When I was young, my dad’s housekeeper would make french toast which I could eat with my hands– Della Ferguson

Roast beef and homegrown carrots and potatoes.
Peanut butter and honey sandwiches for EVERY packed school lunch…year after year.
Recipe is pretty simple…slap peanut butter on a slice of bread…slap honey on another slice if bread…slap the 2 pieces of bread together– Catherine V. Robinson

Boiled cod with boiled potatoes and vegetables, every, I mean, every Friday dinner…..as I recall. And the cod was not removed of bones. I learnt to dislike fish growing up, but later in adulthood I grew to enjoy fish and still do.- Barry Robinson

As a kid my fave meal was when Kraft Dinner, corn and fries were put all on the same plate. My kids love it too. – Tracey Miller

My mom used to make baked chicken legs rolled in BBQ potato chips when my dad was out-of-town working. Leftovers in our school lunch was the best!!– Pat C. Cuilka

One of my fav meals as a kid that comes to mind is pork chops with mushroom soup and used that gravy over potatoes.- Samantha Joan

My grandmother and my mom made creamed chicken served over mashed potatoes. Chicken cooked in that scary pressure cooker, shredded, a sauce of some kind, not white or brown, between and so good.– Pat Stiller

The first thing that came to mind was fried potatoes, which were just a potato chopped up and fried in butter so just one side developed a crust. We usually had that with fried bologna or scrambled bacon in a gravy sauce. My other favourite was homemade corn chowder.– Thad

Grilled cheese and tomato soup was a common comfort food at home. My mother also made corn fritters fried in deep oil and served with maple syrup. I’ve lost the recipe but I know it had a can of creamed corn. She also made potatoes fried in butter with bread cubes, so yummy. That came her Scottish mother who raised 8 kids. I tried them on hubby once and he thought that was just weird! – Bonnie Brown

Grilled cheese onion tomato soup– David Mackie

Mac and Cheese (homemade), Sloppy Joes and Fish and Chips with lots of ketchup. – Colleen Kleinsteuber

On a busy wash day when us kids came home from school for lunch I could always count on fried oatmeal or hash brown potatoes with homemade croutons in them to stretch the potatoes out more. Mom might even throw leftover vegetables in with the potatoes too. I especially loved the croutons– Louise Guillon

The meal I remember most as a kid was my dads chicken fried rice because we ate it so much but I also remember his homemade pizza.- Natasha Wiesenberg

What we’ve learned is that although it’s nice to create new food recipes it’s important to remember the classic recipes that we grew up with to pass along tradition to our children.

Discussion Question: What are some of your favourite Childhood Food Recipes that you still enjoy today?

October Grocery Game Challenge

Join in the 2017 Grocery Game Challenge (GGC) fun and post your grocery shop in the comment section of each GGC blog post. Here are The Grocery Game Challenge rules to get you started and where you’ll also find a link for the 2017 GGC schedule. Please feel free to download, save and even print the schedule.

Post your shop and you can be next.

September GGC Winner-  Congrats to DEE Ballot #6

New monthly prize: See the Grocery Game Rules

• The Ultimate Guide For Buying Real Food

2017 Grocery Shop Results

Yearly grocery budget for two + 1 Toddler 2017: $3180 or $265/month (The above total does not include the stockpile budget of $300/year or $25/month.Points Overview (add any other sections you need to show us your savings)

• Total Grocery Budget for this Month: $265
  
• Total Grocery Budget with any carry-overs $265
  
• Total Gift Cards used to date: $0
• Total Rewards Points redeemed this week: $0
• Total Rewards Points used to date: $0
• PC Points Plus Earned to date: 646,000
  
• Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) to date $0
• Shoppers Optimum: 983,000 O.M.G

Coupon Apps (add any other apps you use to save money)

• Zweet to cash out : $18.25… no idea where the money went but it seems we have $0.
  
• Checkout51 to cash out : $24.50 we cashed out so we’re back at O.
  

Our Grocery Shop This Week

Metro

• 12 x Selection Bacon $1.88 $22.56
• 12 x Natrel Butter $2.88  $34.56

Total Out-of-pocket $57.12

All totals below already have tax factored into them.

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