When I was a child, food was definitely less varied. We ate sausages, shepherd's pie, basic salad with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, with a tin of John West salmon. The only dressing was salad cream.
Friday was always fish and chips, and we ate lots of Vesta meals - I remember their chicken curry very well. An actual chicken was a treat, reserved for Christmas, unless you were 'posh' like one of our neighbours, and had a turkey.
Vegetables were always potatoes (no pasta back then), cabbage, cauliflower, carrots and peas.
Among the desserts were rice pudding, lemon meringue pie made from a packet and jam sponge with Birds custard.
We have so much choice today and there is so much emphasis on 'healthy eating' that didn't exist when I was young. The only thing I remember is 'eat up your cabbage, it's good for you.' Plus the annoying 'eat it up - think of the poor starving children in Africa.' I always wanted, but never dared, to point out that whether I ate it or not, it wouldn't affect the starving children anywhere.
I used to spend at least some of my pocket money on 'pick n' mix' from Woolworths, and I'm sure children used to eat far more sweets than they do today. Some of my favourites were Spangles, Rowntrees fruit pastels, wagon wheels, coconut mushrooms, love hearts and jelly babies.
Other snacks were biscuits and crisps. They were plain, and came with the tiny blue twists of salt that you shook over them. I vaguely remember cheese n' onion flavour being a real novelty.
Amazingly, I wasn't overweight in those days. I seem to eat far less today and yet I still can't shift the pounds.
What are your memories of food in the past?