14 Classic Foods Boomers Grew Up Eating For Sunday Dinner

Born between 1946 and 1964, many baby boomers grew up in families that prioritized Sunday dinners. Whether extended family members and friends came over to share the feast or the gathering was limited to immediate family, Sunday dinners were a special event. These were meals that frequently took hours to prepare (think fried chicken and pot roast). Sunday dinner was typically served in the early afternoon, while many were still wearing their Sunday best after church.

It wasn't just about the food and the socializing — the presentation mattered, too. In some families, Sunday dinner was an occasion fit for the "good china" that may have sat on display in a dining room hutch during the rest of the week. Whether you grew up gathering around the table with friends and family every Sunday afternoon for dinner like clockwork or you're thinking about beginning a Sunday dinner tradition in your own household, take a look at these tried-and-true Sunday dishes that boomers grew up enjoying.

There's nothing quite like a simple, classic fried chicken recipe to make you look forward to Sunday dinner. Many boomers remember fried chicken as a staple on the Sunday dinner table, whether it was coated in crushed cornflakes or seasoned flour. Sometimes, leftover fried chicken was chilled and enjoyed cold at picnics over the next few days.

Vegetables, perfectly tender beef, and a dinner table full of family and friends — what could be better? Many boomers fondly remember pot roast as a go-to choice for a Sunday afternoon meal. With the roast cooking low and slow in the oven, home cooks could go about their Sunday business, and come back to a table-ready dinner.

Roast beef Sunday dinners seem to have roots across the pond, with one theory tracing the tradition all the way back to 1485. While accounts of how the Sunday roast tradition began vary, one thing is for sure: This tradition has stood the test of time, and many boomers remember gathering around the Sunday dinner table to enjoy one slice of velvety-tender roast beef after another.

If you grew up with boomer parents, there's a good chance meatloaf was a standard meal on the dinner rotation, including on Sundays. While meatloaf sometimes gets a bad rap, it can be delicious when made well. One way to make next-day meatloaf even better: try pan-frying slices before adding them to a sandwich to get a perfectly browned surface.

Parents raising boomer children grew up in a time when chicken wasn't necessarily a part of everyday meals. It was more expensive than beef, and was considered something of a luxury. By the 1950s, advances in poultry production made chicken more affordable, but roast chicken still held a special place on many Sunday dinner tables.

For boomers in Italian-American families, Sunday dinners often consisted of spaghetti and homemade bread. Large batches of spaghetti (often topped with Sunday sauce, known as Sunday gravy in many families) made it easy to feed a crowd, and some boomers even remember bringing all of their friends over to the house to load up on the good stuff.

Lamb isn't as common on American dinner tables today as it was in the 1950s, when the average person consumed more than 4 pounds of lamb and mutton per year. Lamb consumption increased a bit in the early '60s before dipping toward the end of the decade as beef and poultry consumption increased. The dish was traditionally served with a bright green mint sauce or mint jelly.

Pork roast was another hearty, old-school Sunday dinner that boomers remember fondly. Like many of the dinners on our list, a pork roast could slow-cook in the oven for hours, making it a convenient choice for families who wanted a hearty meal ready for Sunday afternoon.

For Sunday dinners, a big pot of macaroni and meatballs made it easy to feed the whole family. Many Italian-American households referred to a variety of pasta types as macaroni, so the type of pasta used in this dish could vary from one home cook to another, but hearty meatballs were the star of the show.

Salty, savory, and packed with flavor, collard greens are a long-standing staple of Southern soul food with deep roots in African-American culture. Collard greens are typically slow-simmered and often served alongside a slice of cornbread, perfect for soaking up the flavorful cooking liquid, known as potlikker.

With crispy, buttery bread crumbs on top and creamy, savory cheese and noodles on the bottom, mac and cheese is a favorite today — and boomers loved it as part of Sunday dinner as well. The old-school version of the stuff was sometimes topped with Ritz crackers for a buttery crunch.

Potato salad is a hearty, versatile side dish that went well with warmer-weather Sunday dinners. It's also a great way to use up ingredients already in the fridge, as home cooks could add chopped onions, celery, hard-boiled eggs, fresh herbs, and other ingredients they had on hand.

When we think about getting the family together around the dinner table for a special occasion, mashed potatoes are often a part of the lineup — and this was no different for Sunday dinners decades ago. For home chefs who prepared their mashed potatoes by hand, getting that perfectly smooth, creamy consistency took some serious elbow grease.

Yorkshire puddings (which are different from popovers) are surprisingly simple to make, and they were a traditional side served with dinners enjoyed by boomers with British roots. Light, airy, and perfectly crunchy, these hollow delights were especially delicious when served alongside pot roast, lamb, or roast beef.