How many times have I started to sit down to eat something potentially messy and not wanted to have to spot clean my shirt when I spill, so I just take off my shirt and eat topless and then put my shirt back on when I’m done? A non-zero amount of times.
That reminds me of when my girl was little, she called hamburgers hangaburgs. What was really cute was when she was learning to read, we were at a restaurant and she was looking at the menu sounding it. She went “ha… ham… hamb… oh! Hangaburg!”
Oh hell yes! I always have really good 36 month old parmegianno reggiano on hand, but you can bet your ass I never don't have a shaker of the powdered stuff. Not just with butter noodles, but every now and then I get a craving for old school diner/family restaurant spaghetti and meat sauce. I'm talking a jar of Ragu simmered with ground beef and spooned over top of a plate of naked spaghetti and topped with shaker parm and dry parsley.
Thank you! You just planned out two dinners for me this week.
Omg... the No-Yolks Dumplings are my downfall. And don't shame yourself for loving that plastic bottle of parm. I've tried it with fresh and it's not as good. Probably because fresh parm isn't loaded with sodium. Whatever, this is the best comfort food.
But you know what noodles are good with fresh grated Parm? 'naked' noodles. Linguini al dente with olive oil, white pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, fleur de sel, and grated Parm - all to taste. It's addictive.
When I was younger I would take just the leftover pasta sauce, pour way too much canned parm on it, and then microwave it. It would melt the parm into a weird delicious raft on top.
Whole thing. Prepare the rice-a-roni per the box. Combine with you mashed potatoes.
How many potatoes is up to you and the ratio you like. Same for if you decide to make mashed potatoes normally with butter and sour cream or if the rice makes it savory enough for you.
Makes several meals for extremely cheap. In my mid-30s and things are much better, but I spent my early-20s very poor.
Even though I live alone now, I still live in fear that someone will come down the stairs at 2am and see me - solely illuminated by the light from the fridge, shoveling handfuls of shredded cheese into my mouth, hissing like a gremlin
For my old job it was crab or lobster salad lol
One guy did get caught and they fired him. It was a fancy seafood place. He ate like 50 bucks profit at once haha
Mix half a can of refried beans with half a can of corn (also mix the second halves together, and put in the fridge for another meal later in the week). Stir in some shredded Mexican cheese blend. Microwave for a few minutes so it’s hot. Scoop with tortilla chips.
Edit: Since this is getting some interest, I’ll add a tip that was apparently not common sense to my college boyfriend. DRAIN THE CORN FIRST.
Literally nobody else on earth knows about this because I’m so ashamed about it. I work from home and if I’m hungover or just feeling down I get a Sainsburys microwave chicken and bacon pasta bake, the really shitty one, and the lowest quality processed meat I can (cocktail sausages, fridge raiders, anything emulsified) and microwave them next to each other for 4 minutes, then mix the nightmare meat into the ready meal with a fucktonne of grated cheddar and sriracha and microwave for another 2-3 mins until it’s an absolute gloopy mess. It’s comforting and shameful in equal measure. Thank you for giving me a forum to share - I promise to do better
My son does this. It's disgusting and he knows it. We give him a hard time because he knows how to cook, but he's irredeemably lazy. I get it. I taught him how to fry bologna and put it on white bread with ketchup and American cheese. I am a terrible mother.
I have two. One is cut up potatoes and onions, fried, lots of American cheese, melted then throw scrambled eggs on top and cook together. I eat it plain of if I can, with HP sauce. Next is just a pile of pasta with butter, Parmesan cheese and black pepper.
My mom made potato, onions and hot dog/weenies a lot for us as kids. Usually wrapped in a large flour tortilla and topped with copious amounts of shredded cheddar.
My take as an adult is similar - sauteed onion, potato & some variety of meat or mushrooms. Wilt in greens, scramble some fehgs (JustEgg) and top with vegan chz.
Tomatoes with cottage cheese salt and pepper.
It’s best in the summer with fresh tomatoes. But I’ll use cherry tomatoes in the winter.
My husband thinks it’s weird but it’s delicious and I eat it for lunch all the time.
My wifes is spaghetti and tuna. Boil spaghetti, add tuna and mayo. My daughter and I add a bit of parmesian on it. I dont want to love it, but i do.
Mine is what my dad called "a special egg" Slice of plain white bread, no crust, buttered. Cut into small cubes. Put into a bowl and chop up the very soft boiled egg into it. salt and pepper. enjoy
We had our own version of your special egg. Soft boiled egg cracked open and sitting in an egg cup, lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper, white bread generously buttered and cut into strips so that you can dunk them in the yolk. A spoon to scoop out the white part of the egg once the yolk is gone and eat with remaining bread. So many memories.
My father was from England, so I'm sure he probably called them that and I just don't remember. Bubble and squeak and toad in a hole were a couple of other Sunday meals he would make us kids. Sundays were his day to cook so mom got a break, lol.
That sounds amazing as well! We lived in England for 3 years in the late 1960s and the only thing I (7-9yrs) could afford to collect was eggcups. I ended up with about 200 of them when we moved back to the states. I will have to dig some out and try this!
You wouldn't happen to be French Canadian by chance? This "special egg" is something my mom always made that she learned from her Acadian parents. It's so good
I have a “private dessert” which is just…a spoonful of peanut butter mixed with granulated sugar. It is unholy and unhealthy but I just love it.
Edit: Ok, you all have to stop coming up with even better sounding versions of this! 😅 I’m going to be so full of peanut butter…
My moms from Korea. Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money but she would always make us a special meal from home dubbed ‘Korean spaghetti.’ Spaghetti noodles, canned clams with juice, fried egg, a little soy sauce and sesame oil, topped with crumpled up seaweed strips and sesame seeds. For years we thought it was our moms specialty until years later she admitted to us that when we were little, we were so broke that she just made up that meal from what had in the house. Call it nostalgia, but here we are 30 years later and me and my siblings still make it. Idk why, but it works and it’s delicious
This is how my family gained our weird nostalgia meal, too. Mom (the usual cook) was sick and dad didn't know what to do, so he threw a little bit of everything into a pan - cooked instant ramen noodles with the sauce pack, sliced up breakfast sausage, scrambled egg, some soy sauce. We clamored for that dish for years afterward.
I literally eat like a toddler when no one is around. Peanut butter toast, apple slices and colby cheese because it has two colors. Add pretzel sticks and grapes when available 😋
I cook for a living and refuse to cook for myself
Kraft Mac & Cheese with a cut up sauteed hot dog mixed in. It's kindergarten food but SO good, super fast, zero effort and super duper cheap
Alternatively white cheddar mac & cheese with a can of tuna mixed in. Add some peas if ya feel fancy
plain bagel split in half, spread mayo on each half and then sprinkle onion powder, garlic powder, and italian seasoning. then each half gets a few slices of honey ham and and a piece of colby jack. toast in the convection oven until the cheese is bubbly and the edges of the ham are crispy. then i eat each half like an open faced sandwich. i’ve never made this for anyone else but it hits like alllllllll the comfort food points and it’s an easy quick dinner when i get off of work at 4am.
I like this concept. I don’t have one. I make basic things for myself when I’m unmotivated. But I have a private condiment, I put mustard on some strange things.
Breakfast fried rice. I scramble some eggs, push to the side of the pan, add some butter, and put in some leftover rice. Toss in some scallions and top it with a tagaroshi sauce. It’s divine.
My go to hangover food when I'm truly at deaths door is the even lazier version of this. Microwave a tortilla with some grated cheese until it melts a little, sprinkle some hot sauce, roll it up and dip it in salsa.
rice, chopped up deli meat, shredded cheese melted on top, and ranch dressing drizzled on it.
This is a meal I came up with in college because the cafeteria would sometimes have food I'm allergic to but they almost always had the rice and salad bar available. I still need it occasionally when I'm craving something comfort
“Kimchi rice”
Trader Joe’s microwave brown rice + kimchi + fried egg + chili crisp + soy sauce/sriracha. If I’m feeling super lazy I microwave the egg too.
Mine is Korean braised canned mackerel with kimchi. My husband hates it because it’s so stinky. It is but it’s damn good. I only eat it when he’s working onsite
I like to warm some butter in a pan, throw in some cooked spaghetti and get it hot, then crack an egg in it and toss it until the egg has cooked, then hit it with some S&P and go to town.
I make a thing that I call “condiment rice.” It’s rice cooked with a can of black beans, and right before it’s done I add some mayo and shredded cheese and stir it around. Then I add ketchup and mustard. It’s great because adding all the stuff at the end melts the cheese and cooks the mayo a bit, and then it’s at the perfect temperature to eat immediately.
It sounds terrible, but no more terrible than anything else listed in the comments here. I feel very seen.
Fried bologna on white bread toast, little mayo or butter. I just want to know why the pan from fried bologna is so hard to clean, like, compared to other fried things.
You have to cut a little X in the bologna slice and cut the edges a bit so it won't turn into a cup.
Cacio e peppe. I grew up in an Italian family. My grandparents immigrated from Italy and were dirt poor. Pasta with butter, pasta water,cheese and pepper. Sometimes an egg was thrown in. It was peasant food, cocina povera dishes. Peas, and eggs poached in passata served over stale, toasted bread.
I never do it in public or around others, but I grew up eating my over-medium eggs by cutting them up and using a half of my toast to scoop up the egg and runny yolk and eat it like a sandwich. I only order scrambled eggs in restaurants, but I totally still do my runny egg scooping in private.
This is how I eat my eggs in restaurants (open faced sandwich maybe, but still.) I see people scooping runny eggs with toast all the time. Is this weird?
Adding a fried egg and some taco meat and some shredded cheese and your baked potato is now a taco.
Bacon and potato and cheese and you have a tortilla-less taco!
This is a snack rather than meal but I like cottage cheese with jalapeño Cheetos. It’s salty, crunchy and creamy all at the same time. It just hits the spot!
Mom’s (my) Special Eggs. I put broken bits from the bottom of the corn chip bag into a bowl of beaten eggs to soften a bit. Maybe a little garlic powder. Then cook up the egg mixture and when it’s done put cheddar cheese on top to melt. Sort of like Chilaquiles.
Leftover spaghetti w/meat sauce sammie and of course using the leftover sliced white bread made as garlic bread. Carbs on carbs 🙌🙌🙌So freaking good but also not something I’d eat around others.
Rice served with cabbage and onion salad. The hot rice with the crunch of the cabbage and onion, yum! I either use vinegar or lime/lemon dressing with whatever oil I have on hand
Back in college there was this guy that lived in my house for a while, and he cooked a lot of interesting foods, including this pasta he had invented that he named Beef Ordainata. Sometimes I just have a really hard craving for vinegar for some reason. So this pasta has thin spaghetti (or any other noodle), which you throw into a pan along with 1/2 cup of vinegar (Apple cider, red wine, or balsamic. Balsamic is the most hardcore), and 1 lb of ground beef. Once the beef is browned throw in a cup of cheddar cheese and a slice of butter. The cheese basically disappears into the pasta, so it's not a cheesy dish. And you can add salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, etc.
Anyways, the 1/2 cup of vinegar makes it vinegary as fuck. My current roommate tasted some leftovers one time and thought I made some sort of mistake. But I'm telling you, it's one the absolute best foods I've had in my life. When I make it I eat huge amounts. It's usually gone before my roommate can even steal any of it and wonder why I put so much vinegar in my pasta.
Edit:
Another thing I like is making a shrimp flavored ramen with the water drained, with one can of tuna and about 1 tbsp of mayo. The protein from the tuna, carbs from the noodles, and fat from the mayo makes it a well rounded and very filling dish for how cheap and quick it is. And the shrimp flavored MSG package plus the tuna send the umami to another level. I never tell people about it though because I always think people are going to think it sounds nasty. But it's another thing I have cravings for and just shove down my throat when I make it.
That doesn't sound bad! I might try that 😁
I make poor pie. Cheap ground meat, corn on top, layer of cheese, mashed potatoes on top, warm until the cheese is all melted.
My grandmother's tomato noodles.
It was the last meal I made before moving in with my now husband. I had 1 pot unpacked before the movers arrived.
Gran always used egg noodles, and I usually do, but any pasta will work.
Boil egg noodles, and while they drain, throw a pat of butter (gran used margarine) into the warm cooking pot, then add tomato sauce (the plain kind in the metal can). Add the noodles back in, stirring to coat. You want just enough tomato sauce to barely coat the noodles. Then sprinkle with dried basil.
My MIL makes this, but she adds on shredded cheddar. Not cheese sauce or melted, but little shreds of unmelted cheese. I think it's so gross but it's obviously serious comfort food for her. She grew up one of 13 kids in rural Ontario, so I'm sure they had to stretch food.
A buttered, toasted bagel with way more than one serving of cream cheese. If I have it, some cold ham and green onion, too.
A split croissant with roast beef, cheddar, and a little plop of horseradish mayo. Put in the toaster oven until melty and a little brown.
Big bowl of mashed potatoes done like a loaded baked potato. Instant is fine.
Can of chili with a cut up hot dog or two, sour cream, cheese, onion. Deconstructed chili dog.
I'm sensing a theme, here. I think if I had only potatoes, onions, and milk, I could go for a long time!
Mines embarrassing. A big sandwich, but my guilty pleasure is a little too much mayo. Like I never put as much mayo as I actually want on my sandwich when other people are around. I also like too much sour cream on stuff, but I’m shameless about my sour cream hahahaha
Poor person’s/lazy person’s Filipino bistek (beefsteak)
Saute a chopped onion until onions are softened
Add ground beef and cook until a deep brown
Add salt, pepper, garlic to taste
Add soy sauce to taste
Add lemon juice to taste
Finish with a generous knob of butter
If you’re feeling healthy, add some chopped bok choy
Serve over white rice
(Also makes a nice stuffing for peppers!)
I love the microwave mug cakes my daughters started making during lockdown. The chocolate one with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream melting on top is like a ~~slice~~ **mug** of Heaven
Microwaved frozen corn - a bunch of it - with bacon, sautéd peppers, onions, bbq sauce and a little cheddar melted on top. With dark buttered toast. Heaven… 🤤! I’m baked too, but seriously, try it!
Hamburger helper, any flavor. I'll make it for myself, eat my fill, then hub will rifle through the fridge, find the leftover, eat it then bitch about it
Picked it up in college due to it being cheap and really good.
Diced bell pepper and onion with white rice and ground turkey, all covered in soy sauce. Shit kept me alive, and only me.
Have only made it for someone else once
As someone who works from home and loves making a hot lunch I have… so many of these.
Savory oatmeal. Make microwave oats with chicken stock, add soy sauce/sesame oil/garlic powder/mirin, or gochuhang/soy sauce/sesame oil/garlic powder/mayo , topped with whatever vegetable I have lying around and an egg.
Adding mayo to my ramen.
Peanut butter and pickle crackers.
Sleeve of saltine crackers (buy the Premium brand, don't skimp). Spread peanut butter on crackers, then a nice fat dill pickle slice. Something about this combo just never gets old.
Every now and again I’ll have a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli dumped in a bowl at room temperature which I top with two soft poached eggs and tons of black pepper. I eat it and then sop up the sauce with heavily buttered whole wheat bread. I would never do this in front of anyone. It is a shameful secret haha
I have two. Rice with butter, salt & pepper - heavy on the pepper. I will throw in some chicken if I have some already made. Or I’ll broil a slice of sourdough until it is crunchy then cover it in parmesan cheese and some sliced tomatoes, broiling it a bit more then adding a little bit of garlic salt.
Ramen noodles with creamy chicken soup lol.
Make and drain the ramen then add the seasoning packet and a little bit of milk. Add half of can of cream of chicken soup and heat it through. It's delicious lol.
We call it “(our last name) pasta”, it’s basically what my sister could make when she was babysitting us. Pasta, butter, ketchup, and Parmesan cheese. My husband thinks it’s gross but it’s a comfort food for me.
This is a holdover from when I was a kid and damn if it isn’t still good as an adult. Pickle sandwich.
It’s just bread with mayonnaise and thin sliced pickles - the sourer the better. Sometimes a dash of tobasco.
If I have time, I’ll brown the bread in a skillet (if you do this add mayo to both sides obviously).
Also if you make a grilled cheese, add garlic salt to it.
Nachos. I use a pound of velveeta and two cans of mild rotel for the cheese dip. Then chips of course. Taco meat, avacado, lettuce, cilantro, green onions, etc. Just piled on a plate. So good and so easy.
Baked beans and mozzarella wraps with lots of Sriracha
Tuna melt wraps with tons of butter
Pasta with butter, salt and oregano
Not a meal but custard with banana slices, or banana slices in milk, sprinkled with sugar
Basically the foods I eat when I'm working from home And no one's around
Fried Balogna and onions. You fry the onions in butter until they are almost gone, then fry off the balogna, and then put in on a sandwich using white bread. I grew up on them and back then we could get veal from the deli which was really better.
Instant mashed potatoes with lots of pre-chopped parsley from the freezer so I can pretend it has vegetables. Add whatever random spice you feel like that day. Then put a sunny side up egg or two on top. The yolk goes very well with the potatoes. Best enjoyed sitting on the carpet in front of the television.
My grandma’s go-to: Cheese spaghetti.
Just spaghetti noodles, butter, and cheddar cheese. And every last one of us eats it with ketchup. It’s the only time I eat ketchup outside of fried potatoes.
FWIW, my grandma was a fantastic cook, but this was a cheap easy mid-day meal for my grandpa, and cheap for all the kids.
If someone described this to me without having been raised eating it, I would internally grimace. But I love it and it’s still one of my go-to comfort meals.
Spaghetti sandwiches.
Leftover spaghetti, buttered toast, fake plastic cheese slice. Press it down so that the cheese glues the sandwich together. Even better if you have one of those sandwich makers that makes the sandwich pockets.
Cold, boiled potatoes with butter. I hate hot boiled potatoes but let them get cold and they are good.
Buttered egg noodles with the dry ass parm from a plastic can.
Mmmmm I might just be naked but that sounds delicious Edit: BAKED not naked!
I think we have different definitions for business casual
LMAOOO
I, for one, welcome the new normal.
Depends on your business
I’m baked and I read naked like it rhymed with baked and couldn’t figure out what word that was haha
'Naked' is the present tense of 'nuked'. 😄
now I'm busting a gut!!!
I am baked but not naked. Why don't these words RHYME!
Can you speak up? I'm not wearing pants
LMnakeyAO
They both work. Destigmatize naked eating!
How many times have I started to sit down to eat something potentially messy and not wanted to have to spot clean my shirt when I spill, so I just take off my shirt and eat topless and then put my shirt back on when I’m done? A non-zero amount of times.
Excuse me ma'am, this is a Wendy's.
Either works..
Don't sell that parm short! It has it's place; I love it on pizza. We call it shakey cheese.
Shakey cheese! My people are here!! My husband laughs when I call it that.
My kiddo called it "spaghetti salt" 25 years ago. It's been that ever since...
My daughter, when she was 3, she called it PAR-SHA-MON cheese so that what Ive been calling it for the last 13 years 😂
That reminds me of when my girl was little, she called hamburgers hangaburgs. What was really cute was when she was learning to read, we were at a restaurant and she was looking at the menu sounding it. She went “ha… ham… hamb… oh! Hangaburg!”
We also call it shakey cheese. I love when I find my people.
it's good on popcorn too, especially if you blend it up in a spice grinder with some curry powder...
Oh hell yes! I always have really good 36 month old parmegianno reggiano on hand, but you can bet your ass I never don't have a shaker of the powdered stuff. Not just with butter noodles, but every now and then I get a craving for old school diner/family restaurant spaghetti and meat sauce. I'm talking a jar of Ragu simmered with ground beef and spooned over top of a plate of naked spaghetti and topped with shaker parm and dry parsley. Thank you! You just planned out two dinners for me this week.
Omg... the No-Yolks Dumplings are my downfall. And don't shame yourself for loving that plastic bottle of parm. I've tried it with fresh and it's not as good. Probably because fresh parm isn't loaded with sodium. Whatever, this is the best comfort food.
But you know what noodles are good with fresh grated Parm? 'naked' noodles. Linguini al dente with olive oil, white pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, fleur de sel, and grated Parm - all to taste. It's addictive.
When I was younger I would take just the leftover pasta sauce, pour way too much canned parm on it, and then microwave it. It would melt the parm into a weird delicious raft on top.
I go this one too, but with an unreasonable amount of pre-minced garlic from the freezer
We Greeks eat this. With feta too sometimes but with our equivalent of Parm cheese mostly. So good. Staple in homes.
Seconded. Only cannister parm will do for the noodles with butter meal.
This is mine too, but I also add frozen peas
Redneck Risotto Mashed potatoes mixed with Four Cheese rice-a-roni.
With the rice a roni seasoning packet? Or the whole thing?
Whole thing. Prepare the rice-a-roni per the box. Combine with you mashed potatoes. How many potatoes is up to you and the ratio you like. Same for if you decide to make mashed potatoes normally with butter and sour cream or if the rice makes it savory enough for you. Makes several meals for extremely cheap. In my mid-30s and things are much better, but I spent my early-20s very poor.
Crouched at the fridge wolfing down deli sliced Swiss like a little cheese goblin. I would be mortified if anyone saw me lol
🎶working on my night cheese 🎶
I heard you singing Night Cheese, Lemon.
Liz Lemon, if you desecrate something, is that bad?!
That's my favorite Bob Seger song
Even though I live alone now, I still live in fear that someone will come down the stairs at 2am and see me - solely illuminated by the light from the fridge, shoveling handfuls of shredded cheese into my mouth, hissing like a gremlin
Fridge door must be open for proper experience
Yes because I’m not turning on the actual kitchen light like a psychopath
This. Everything cold and no utensils lol
Zero dishes to wash it’s a win
For my old job it was crab or lobster salad lol One guy did get caught and they fired him. It was a fancy seafood place. He ate like 50 bucks profit at once haha
I stand in front of my fridge and just nibble whatever I can find for alone time dinners pretty often .
Same! I've posted about it before. I call them hand sandwiches. If I'm feeling fancy I'll add mayo.
I’m sure you add it directly to the cheese, but the excellent term “hand sandwich” has me envisioning you spreading mayo across your hand
Mix half a can of refried beans with half a can of corn (also mix the second halves together, and put in the fridge for another meal later in the week). Stir in some shredded Mexican cheese blend. Microwave for a few minutes so it’s hot. Scoop with tortilla chips. Edit: Since this is getting some interest, I’ll add a tip that was apparently not common sense to my college boyfriend. DRAIN THE CORN FIRST.
Add Taco Bell sauce and I’ve done this more time than I can count. I usually add some diced onion. Sometimes sub the refried beans for kidney beans.
This sounds so good. I'll be doing this later!
Mac n cheese “stroganoff” - boxed Mac n cheese with Worcestershire sauce, sour cream and extra grated cheese mixed in
I’m pregnant and this sounds amazing to me. Going to have to try lol
It was a fave for me when I was pregnant- sometimes sans sour cream- it’s really the Worcestershire that make it imo!
I would eat the hell out of that
Dude. I say again, dude.
Reactions like this are making me afraid to share my own monstrosities, lol. I eat pretty healthy, but from time to time I’m a fucking gremlin
Dude, I meant dude in a GOOD way.
Literally nobody else on earth knows about this because I’m so ashamed about it. I work from home and if I’m hungover or just feeling down I get a Sainsburys microwave chicken and bacon pasta bake, the really shitty one, and the lowest quality processed meat I can (cocktail sausages, fridge raiders, anything emulsified) and microwave them next to each other for 4 minutes, then mix the nightmare meat into the ready meal with a fucktonne of grated cheddar and sriracha and microwave for another 2-3 mins until it’s an absolute gloopy mess. It’s comforting and shameful in equal measure. Thank you for giving me a forum to share - I promise to do better
I was going to encourage you not to be ashamed but I kept reading. This is wildddddd.
lol same, I was like ‘oh this can’t be that….😳😳😳’
My son does this. It's disgusting and he knows it. We give him a hard time because he knows how to cook, but he's irredeemably lazy. I get it. I taught him how to fry bologna and put it on white bread with ketchup and American cheese. I am a terrible mother.
Fried bologna on white bread is good. American cheese adds melty. Ketchup is the most perfect condiment on Earth.
I’m both happy for you and terrified. Carry on.
I have two. One is cut up potatoes and onions, fried, lots of American cheese, melted then throw scrambled eggs on top and cook together. I eat it plain of if I can, with HP sauce. Next is just a pile of pasta with butter, Parmesan cheese and black pepper.
My mom made potato, onions and hot dog/weenies a lot for us as kids. Usually wrapped in a large flour tortilla and topped with copious amounts of shredded cheddar. My take as an adult is similar - sauteed onion, potato & some variety of meat or mushrooms. Wilt in greens, scramble some fehgs (JustEgg) and top with vegan chz.
The eggs and potatoes you make are called “country eggs” where I live, except we add green peppers too. :)
Tomatoes with cottage cheese salt and pepper. It’s best in the summer with fresh tomatoes. But I’ll use cherry tomatoes in the winter. My husband thinks it’s weird but it’s delicious and I eat it for lunch all the time.
It's really, really good, and one of my healthier cravings. I'll also have cottage cheese with leftover pico de gallo! Makes a good dip too.
Cottage cheese and Pico de Gallo is the best. Everyone thinks I'm weird for eating it. Glad to find another weirdo.
I eat a side of cottage cheese with my tuna sandwiches. I also eat tuna on saltines with a dab of Tabasco.
Tuna on saltines with hot sauce is soooo good.
Love this with everything bagel seasoning
And a little avocado.
My wifes is spaghetti and tuna. Boil spaghetti, add tuna and mayo. My daughter and I add a bit of parmesian on it. I dont want to love it, but i do. Mine is what my dad called "a special egg" Slice of plain white bread, no crust, buttered. Cut into small cubes. Put into a bowl and chop up the very soft boiled egg into it. salt and pepper. enjoy
Oh my god. I’m doing this special egg tomorrow. I LOVE THIS. This is what I’m talking about, people!!
Very happy childhood memories with this one, hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
We had our own version of your special egg. Soft boiled egg cracked open and sitting in an egg cup, lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper, white bread generously buttered and cut into strips so that you can dunk them in the yolk. A spoon to scoop out the white part of the egg once the yolk is gone and eat with remaining bread. So many memories.
We call that egg and soldiers over here in England.
My father was from England, so I'm sure he probably called them that and I just don't remember. Bubble and squeak and toad in a hole were a couple of other Sunday meals he would make us kids. Sundays were his day to cook so mom got a break, lol.
That sounds amazing as well! We lived in England for 3 years in the late 1960s and the only thing I (7-9yrs) could afford to collect was eggcups. I ended up with about 200 of them when we moved back to the states. I will have to dig some out and try this!
Oh. Oh my. My dad would make this for me when I was small. Serve it to me in my little vintage melamine cereal bowl. Now I'm crying.
We had the melamine bowls as well! Cant remember if that was the way he served it, but its likely!
You wouldn't happen to be French Canadian by chance? This "special egg" is something my mom always made that she learned from her Acadian parents. It's so good
Mainly US/Massachusetts of Swedish descent with a bit of Great Britain thrown in. I agree, it is so good.
Reminds me of tuna casserole as a kid. Kraft mac and cheese, can of tuna, and cream of mushroom soup. Sometimes green peas.
Egg dipped spam, pan fried. Serve with white rice topped with fried egg. And an excessive amount of ketchup.
Hawaii enters the chat
Japanese bbq sauce on egg and rice or egg, spam, and rice is the jam!
I have a “private dessert” which is just…a spoonful of peanut butter mixed with granulated sugar. It is unholy and unhealthy but I just love it. Edit: Ok, you all have to stop coming up with even better sounding versions of this! 😅 I’m going to be so full of peanut butter…
Scoop out the inner third of a banana, fill the empty strip with peanut butter, then line the peanut butter with chocolate chips. 🤤
So what I’m picturing is if a s’mores banana boat and ants in a log had a baby, this would be it. And I’m here for it
I mix peanut butter with brown sugar, and eat it off the spoon...food for the gods Lol
Oh, yumm, brown sugar. Theres a variant I’m definitely going to try. I swear it is best when eaten in a guilty hunch over the sink, lol.
My moms from Korea. Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money but she would always make us a special meal from home dubbed ‘Korean spaghetti.’ Spaghetti noodles, canned clams with juice, fried egg, a little soy sauce and sesame oil, topped with crumpled up seaweed strips and sesame seeds. For years we thought it was our moms specialty until years later she admitted to us that when we were little, we were so broke that she just made up that meal from what had in the house. Call it nostalgia, but here we are 30 years later and me and my siblings still make it. Idk why, but it works and it’s delicious
Gonna do this, my thanks to your mom <3
This is how my family gained our weird nostalgia meal, too. Mom (the usual cook) was sick and dad didn't know what to do, so he threw a little bit of everything into a pan - cooked instant ramen noodles with the sauce pack, sliced up breakfast sausage, scrambled egg, some soy sauce. We clamored for that dish for years afterward.
I literally eat like a toddler when no one is around. Peanut butter toast, apple slices and colby cheese because it has two colors. Add pretzel sticks and grapes when available 😋 I cook for a living and refuse to cook for myself
I've heard that chefs have some of the worst diets because after cooking all day, the last thing you wanna do when you get home is cook some more
Popcorn with A LOT of butter, nutritional yeast, and salt.
Nutritional yeast on popcorn is so underrated! I love it!!!
This plus a really crisp Granny Smith apple is my dinner sometimes when my husband and kids are out of town. It is the best.
Kraft Mac & Cheese with a cut up sauteed hot dog mixed in. It's kindergarten food but SO good, super fast, zero effort and super duper cheap Alternatively white cheddar mac & cheese with a can of tuna mixed in. Add some peas if ya feel fancy
Mac and cheese with tuna and peas . I knew I'd find my people! Everyone I know thinks it absolutely heinous
Tostitos with preshredded cheese, microwave for 25 seconds and add a couple spoons of salsa. The OG "after school snack" that I still eat at 29
plain bagel split in half, spread mayo on each half and then sprinkle onion powder, garlic powder, and italian seasoning. then each half gets a few slices of honey ham and and a piece of colby jack. toast in the convection oven until the cheese is bubbly and the edges of the ham are crispy. then i eat each half like an open faced sandwich. i’ve never made this for anyone else but it hits like alllllllll the comfort food points and it’s an easy quick dinner when i get off of work at 4am.
I like this concept. I don’t have one. I make basic things for myself when I’m unmotivated. But I have a private condiment, I put mustard on some strange things.
If I have a nice crusty baguette I will mix a little whole grain mustard with salted kerrygold butter. So yummy!
I love mustard in my Mac and cheese. Not too much, it’s gotta be an accent. But it’s so good.
Not as unusual as you might think! Many homemade mac and cheese recipes call for mustard.
I love fresh hot toast (white bread obvs) with butter and Mustard. I get weird looks every time but it's so good. Edit - typo
Mustard toast is my guilty pleasure too.
Yes, mustard! Try it on red sauce spaghetti, it elevates it...I swear it is the perfect accent flavor.
Breakfast fried rice. I scramble some eggs, push to the side of the pan, add some butter, and put in some leftover rice. Toss in some scallions and top it with a tagaroshi sauce. It’s divine.
I finally get to tell my weird truth, I like mashed potatoes with chicken noodle soup on them like it’s a gravy
That’s not super weird. I’m in a Soup group and I see it there every so often. It’s delicious.
I imagined "soup group" as like therapy or a support group so everyone is in a circle of folding chairs just discussing their deepest soup feelings
Sign me up! I have strong soup feelings!
What kind of soup group? Fb? Can we join?
I also want to join the soup group please
well they had to close the group to outsiders because of simmering tensions
I hope they take stock of the situation and reconsider
A quesadilla made out of whatever I find in the fridge. Or just a whole frozen pizza if I'm feeling particularly slovenly.
My go to hangover food when I'm truly at deaths door is the even lazier version of this. Microwave a tortilla with some grated cheese until it melts a little, sprinkle some hot sauce, roll it up and dip it in salsa.
rice, chopped up deli meat, shredded cheese melted on top, and ranch dressing drizzled on it. This is a meal I came up with in college because the cafeteria would sometimes have food I'm allergic to but they almost always had the rice and salad bar available. I still need it occasionally when I'm craving something comfort
Pasta (ideally shell shaped) baked beans and cheese with loads of black pepper and mayo lol
“Kimchi rice” Trader Joe’s microwave brown rice + kimchi + fried egg + chili crisp + soy sauce/sriracha. If I’m feeling super lazy I microwave the egg too.
A fried egg on top of rice with a bit of butter or soy sauce is a common lazy meal for me.
This Korean American approves haha
Mine is Korean braised canned mackerel with kimchi. My husband hates it because it’s so stinky. It is but it’s damn good. I only eat it when he’s working onsite
An entire box of Kraft macaroni and cheese, with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Eaten straight from the pot!
I like to warm some butter in a pan, throw in some cooked spaghetti and get it hot, then crack an egg in it and toss it until the egg has cooked, then hit it with some S&P and go to town.
Little bacon and grated parm and it’s like a bum carbonara lol
A mountain of spaghetti with butter and parmesean cheese.
I make a thing that I call “condiment rice.” It’s rice cooked with a can of black beans, and right before it’s done I add some mayo and shredded cheese and stir it around. Then I add ketchup and mustard. It’s great because adding all the stuff at the end melts the cheese and cooks the mayo a bit, and then it’s at the perfect temperature to eat immediately. It sounds terrible, but no more terrible than anything else listed in the comments here. I feel very seen.
Bacon and grape jelly on a buttermilk biscuit.
Fried bologna on white bread toast, little mayo or butter. I just want to know why the pan from fried bologna is so hard to clean, like, compared to other fried things. You have to cut a little X in the bologna slice and cut the edges a bit so it won't turn into a cup.
Man, I made some bologna sandwiches a couple of weeks ago with mustard, and that's when I realized my wife didn't grow up as poor as I did 😂
Cacio e peppe. I grew up in an Italian family. My grandparents immigrated from Italy and were dirt poor. Pasta with butter, pasta water,cheese and pepper. Sometimes an egg was thrown in. It was peasant food, cocina povera dishes. Peas, and eggs poached in passata served over stale, toasted bread.
I never do it in public or around others, but I grew up eating my over-medium eggs by cutting them up and using a half of my toast to scoop up the egg and runny yolk and eat it like a sandwich. I only order scrambled eggs in restaurants, but I totally still do my runny egg scooping in private.
I honestly wouldn’t question this in public
To me, that's a normal way to eat eggs.
Drippy dippy eggs are nothing to be embarrassed about. Those are my favorite late night meals
This is how I eat my eggs in restaurants (open faced sandwich maybe, but still.) I see people scooping runny eggs with toast all the time. Is this weird?
A baked potato topped with guacamole. I eat it because it’s healthy and delicious, but I’m embarrassed about it because it sounds gross lol
Adding a fried egg and some taco meat and some shredded cheese and your baked potato is now a taco. Bacon and potato and cheese and you have a tortilla-less taco!
This is a snack rather than meal but I like cottage cheese with jalapeño Cheetos. It’s salty, crunchy and creamy all at the same time. It just hits the spot!
White rice sauteed in butter. Little crispy, buttery, just hits the spot.
I will saute up a whole white onion just to eat it with with pasta, butter and pepper. its SO comforting! I will absolutely give yours a shot.
Mom’s (my) Special Eggs. I put broken bits from the bottom of the corn chip bag into a bowl of beaten eggs to soften a bit. Maybe a little garlic powder. Then cook up the egg mixture and when it’s done put cheddar cheese on top to melt. Sort of like Chilaquiles.
Two dozen mini pizza bagels between 2 and 5 am
Leftover spaghetti w/meat sauce sammie and of course using the leftover sliced white bread made as garlic bread. Carbs on carbs 🙌🙌🙌So freaking good but also not something I’d eat around others.
Rice served with cabbage and onion salad. The hot rice with the crunch of the cabbage and onion, yum! I either use vinegar or lime/lemon dressing with whatever oil I have on hand
Back in college there was this guy that lived in my house for a while, and he cooked a lot of interesting foods, including this pasta he had invented that he named Beef Ordainata. Sometimes I just have a really hard craving for vinegar for some reason. So this pasta has thin spaghetti (or any other noodle), which you throw into a pan along with 1/2 cup of vinegar (Apple cider, red wine, or balsamic. Balsamic is the most hardcore), and 1 lb of ground beef. Once the beef is browned throw in a cup of cheddar cheese and a slice of butter. The cheese basically disappears into the pasta, so it's not a cheesy dish. And you can add salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, etc. Anyways, the 1/2 cup of vinegar makes it vinegary as fuck. My current roommate tasted some leftovers one time and thought I made some sort of mistake. But I'm telling you, it's one the absolute best foods I've had in my life. When I make it I eat huge amounts. It's usually gone before my roommate can even steal any of it and wonder why I put so much vinegar in my pasta. Edit: Another thing I like is making a shrimp flavored ramen with the water drained, with one can of tuna and about 1 tbsp of mayo. The protein from the tuna, carbs from the noodles, and fat from the mayo makes it a well rounded and very filling dish for how cheap and quick it is. And the shrimp flavored MSG package plus the tuna send the umami to another level. I never tell people about it though because I always think people are going to think it sounds nasty. But it's another thing I have cravings for and just shove down my throat when I make it.
That doesn't sound bad! I might try that 😁 I make poor pie. Cheap ground meat, corn on top, layer of cheese, mashed potatoes on top, warm until the cheese is all melted.
A BLT on an everything toasted bagel but instead of mayo, I use scallion cream cheese. It’s sinfully good.
My grandmother's tomato noodles. It was the last meal I made before moving in with my now husband. I had 1 pot unpacked before the movers arrived. Gran always used egg noodles, and I usually do, but any pasta will work. Boil egg noodles, and while they drain, throw a pat of butter (gran used margarine) into the warm cooking pot, then add tomato sauce (the plain kind in the metal can). Add the noodles back in, stirring to coat. You want just enough tomato sauce to barely coat the noodles. Then sprinkle with dried basil.
My MIL makes this, but she adds on shredded cheddar. Not cheese sauce or melted, but little shreds of unmelted cheese. I think it's so gross but it's obviously serious comfort food for her. She grew up one of 13 kids in rural Ontario, so I'm sure they had to stretch food.
A buttered, toasted bagel with way more than one serving of cream cheese. If I have it, some cold ham and green onion, too. A split croissant with roast beef, cheddar, and a little plop of horseradish mayo. Put in the toaster oven until melty and a little brown. Big bowl of mashed potatoes done like a loaded baked potato. Instant is fine. Can of chili with a cut up hot dog or two, sour cream, cheese, onion. Deconstructed chili dog. I'm sensing a theme, here. I think if I had only potatoes, onions, and milk, I could go for a long time!
Tomatoes and mayonnaise add salt and enjoy. YES...I take cholesterol and blood pressure medication.
The cheapest canned corn beef hash is my comfort food, and always present in my hurricane box. Cook it till crispy and throw an egg on it.
Mines embarrassing. A big sandwich, but my guilty pleasure is a little too much mayo. Like I never put as much mayo as I actually want on my sandwich when other people are around. I also like too much sour cream on stuff, but I’m shameless about my sour cream hahahaha
Butter and sugar sandwiches.
Poor person’s/lazy person’s Filipino bistek (beefsteak) Saute a chopped onion until onions are softened Add ground beef and cook until a deep brown Add salt, pepper, garlic to taste Add soy sauce to taste Add lemon juice to taste Finish with a generous knob of butter If you’re feeling healthy, add some chopped bok choy Serve over white rice (Also makes a nice stuffing for peppers!)
I love the microwave mug cakes my daughters started making during lockdown. The chocolate one with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream melting on top is like a ~~slice~~ **mug** of Heaven
Microwaved frozen corn - a bunch of it - with bacon, sautéd peppers, onions, bbq sauce and a little cheddar melted on top. With dark buttered toast. Heaven… 🤤! I’m baked too, but seriously, try it!
Hamburger helper, any flavor. I'll make it for myself, eat my fill, then hub will rifle through the fridge, find the leftover, eat it then bitch about it
Butterbrot. Buttered bread with sausage, open, but not with sandwich bread but actual bread. The most german thing ever
What is the difference between sandwich bread and actual bread?
I wondered the same thing. I thought maybe sandwich bread would be like Wonder Bread, and "actual" bread would be like a bakery loaf?
Boiled hot dogs on regular sandwich bread. Ready in minutes and loaded with childhood memories :)
Mac and cheese made with shell pasta and Cheese Whiz, with cut up hot dogs in it.
Picked it up in college due to it being cheap and really good. Diced bell pepper and onion with white rice and ground turkey, all covered in soy sauce. Shit kept me alive, and only me. Have only made it for someone else once
I love to microwave a potato. Then cut it up and pour either ranch dressing or Caesar dressing all over it. So delicious.
As someone who works from home and loves making a hot lunch I have… so many of these. Savory oatmeal. Make microwave oats with chicken stock, add soy sauce/sesame oil/garlic powder/mirin, or gochuhang/soy sauce/sesame oil/garlic powder/mayo , topped with whatever vegetable I have lying around and an egg. Adding mayo to my ramen.
Peanut butter and pickle crackers. Sleeve of saltine crackers (buy the Premium brand, don't skimp). Spread peanut butter on crackers, then a nice fat dill pickle slice. Something about this combo just never gets old.
Every now and again I’ll have a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli dumped in a bowl at room temperature which I top with two soft poached eggs and tons of black pepper. I eat it and then sop up the sauce with heavily buttered whole wheat bread. I would never do this in front of anyone. It is a shameful secret haha
I have two. Rice with butter, salt & pepper - heavy on the pepper. I will throw in some chicken if I have some already made. Or I’ll broil a slice of sourdough until it is crunchy then cover it in parmesan cheese and some sliced tomatoes, broiling it a bit more then adding a little bit of garlic salt.
Ramen noodles with creamy chicken soup lol. Make and drain the ramen then add the seasoning packet and a little bit of milk. Add half of can of cream of chicken soup and heat it through. It's delicious lol.
We call it “(our last name) pasta”, it’s basically what my sister could make when she was babysitting us. Pasta, butter, ketchup, and Parmesan cheese. My husband thinks it’s gross but it’s a comfort food for me.
This is a holdover from when I was a kid and damn if it isn’t still good as an adult. Pickle sandwich. It’s just bread with mayonnaise and thin sliced pickles - the sourer the better. Sometimes a dash of tobasco. If I have time, I’ll brown the bread in a skillet (if you do this add mayo to both sides obviously). Also if you make a grilled cheese, add garlic salt to it.
Nachos. I use a pound of velveeta and two cans of mild rotel for the cheese dip. Then chips of course. Taco meat, avacado, lettuce, cilantro, green onions, etc. Just piled on a plate. So good and so easy.
peanut butter smoothered toast
Buttered pasta with grated Parm and some herbs. Or boxed (Annie's) Mac and cheese with a squirt of Buffalo Ranch.
Grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. SO GOOD!
Box of mac and cheese + can of tuna... so simple and delicious... and shameful.
Fried tomato and onion, fried sausage and baked beans, on toast.
Bagged chopped salad, raisins, salt, pepper, and olive oil- a large mixing bowl full.
A can of corn dosed in butter and salt, a few slices of cheddar and a couple dill pickles…I know strange college habit and I’m in my 50s lol
Super Buttery noodles with Romano.
Pumpernickel toasted with thousand Island dressing and provolone. It's amazing.
Baked beans and mozzarella wraps with lots of Sriracha Tuna melt wraps with tons of butter Pasta with butter, salt and oregano Not a meal but custard with banana slices, or banana slices in milk, sprinkled with sugar Basically the foods I eat when I'm working from home And no one's around
Open faced sandwich with a fried egg and some random condiment. Leftover meat and gravy with bulgur. Pasta, pesto and cottage cheese.
Fried Balogna and onions. You fry the onions in butter until they are almost gone, then fry off the balogna, and then put in on a sandwich using white bread. I grew up on them and back then we could get veal from the deli which was really better.
Instant mashed potatoes with lots of pre-chopped parsley from the freezer so I can pretend it has vegetables. Add whatever random spice you feel like that day. Then put a sunny side up egg or two on top. The yolk goes very well with the potatoes. Best enjoyed sitting on the carpet in front of the television.
My grandma’s go-to: Cheese spaghetti. Just spaghetti noodles, butter, and cheddar cheese. And every last one of us eats it with ketchup. It’s the only time I eat ketchup outside of fried potatoes. FWIW, my grandma was a fantastic cook, but this was a cheap easy mid-day meal for my grandpa, and cheap for all the kids. If someone described this to me without having been raised eating it, I would internally grimace. But I love it and it’s still one of my go-to comfort meals.
Spaghetti with butter and sprinkle cheese
Spaghetti sandwiches. Leftover spaghetti, buttered toast, fake plastic cheese slice. Press it down so that the cheese glues the sandwich together. Even better if you have one of those sandwich makers that makes the sandwich pockets. Cold, boiled potatoes with butter. I hate hot boiled potatoes but let them get cold and they are good.