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“I Won’t Even Let My Husband See Me Eat It”: 30 People Share The Most Comforting Yet Worst-Looking Foods They Will Never Renounce
Interview
Sometimes we all crave something weird. And while the combination may be very surprising and in some cases hands-down embarrassing, it does the trick and curbs that inner foodie monster.
So when an anonymous Redditor asked people to share their favorite "junky" meals that they crave sometimes — even if they wouldn't ever serve them to guests — Pandora's box of the weirdest recipes was opened and the responses started rolling in.
Below are people’s weirdest comfort foods that they don’t even dare to eat in front of their family.
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I do not get this thread. It is FILLED with people saying normal a*s food like it's a secret shame. Are there really people here who would never eat breakfast cereal with another person? Or a basic chili dog? THAT is your dirty food secret???
I'm over here doing things like eating peanut butter and cheese sandwiches with a glass of sugar milk knowing they're just specifically things that I enjoy and aren't everyone's taste.
Hell Alfredo and pickle pizza is arguably a weirder combo and I serve that s**t to every person that will give it a chance.
Brown sugar toast. Cheap white bread, thick layer of butter, cover in brown sugar and put in the oven until the sugar melts (usually like 10 minutes). I'd never feed this to anyone else, but for me it's a combination comfort food/sugar bomb which I love (though rarely indulge in).
Buttered pasta with parmesan.
Bored Panda reached out to the pediatric dietitian and feeding expert Rachel Rothman, MS, RD, CLEC, who is also the owner of Nutrition in Bloom, to find out what an expert thinks of comfort food. “I absolutely love the idea of comfort food,” Rachel told us. She believes that “food is so much more than nourishment, it's part of our culture, identity, history, AND provides comfort when we might need it most.”
Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni. This got me through my 20s and I still crave it occasionally. Don't tell my cardiologist.
Dry ramen shaken up with the seasoning packet. I won't even let my husband see me eat it lmao.
We lived on this s**t in high school .. I never even cooked ramen noodles until my 30's!!
Kraft max and cheese with cut up hotdogs or spam, and a generous splash of hot sauce.
We asked whether comfort food can be healthy, and Rachel said that comfort food is different for everyone. “Healthy is so much more than the nutrition a food provides. I believe helping people form a healthy relationship with food is so important, and is so much more than nutrition,” the nutritionist explained.
She argues that food that provides comfort can be healthy in so many ways. “Comfort food typically evokes positive emotion, which is absolutely healthy in my book!”
Peanut butter pickle sandwich.
I've loved peanut butter & pickle sandwiches since I was a kid. Thanks dad. Last year, while my sister & her family were staying with me, I convinced my then 7 year old nephew (who hates everything) to try a piece of my sandwich. Next thing I know, he's making himself one. A proud uncle moment.
Spoon burgers, my grandmother made these and I still crave them here and there. 1lb lean ground beef browned and drain plus one can of Campbell's chicken gumbo soup. Cook it down until the soup has almost completely absorbed into the meat to form a sauce and spoon onto a hamburger bun. Sounds nuts, but is so tasty.
Crushed Doritos mixed with shredded lettuce, Catalina dressing, shredded cheese, and taco meat. With some hot sauce.
For Rachel, comfort food is all about something warm and filling. “My favorite comfort foods include tomato soup and grilled cheese, warm fresh-baked bread, and strawberry shortcake,” she said, and added that these are all foods that comfort her, make her smile, and bring her joy.
Peanut butter straight from the jar.
Canned chili on rice with shredded cheese on top. We had this a lot growing up (very cheap for a family with a ton of kids) and I still love it.
I buy s**t frozen chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs and MICROWAVE them, then douse em in ketchup, leave me alone! They're horrible, and I love em.
Pigs in a blanket but like, embiggened. Hogs in a blanket. Two whole-a*s sausages wrapped in dough and baked. Maybe add some cheese in there.
I've never actually made these myself but they used to be a not-uncommon hot snack/drunk food in Rio several years ago and I'm currently back in Rio and they're nowhere to be found and I'm heartbroken.
Some of my starving twenties comfort foods still hit the spot, even though my husband and kids make fun of me if they catch me eating them.
Pizza bread- white bread, spaghetti sauce, American cheese. Pop in the oven until the cheese is melty and the bottom of the bread is toasty.
Bean burritos- canned refried beans, cheddar cheese,tortilla. Microwave until hot as lava, then eat with tomatoes & sour cream on top.
Spaghetti sandwiches- cold leftover spaghetti on buttered white bread.
Hostes "Chocolate" covered donuts... There is no way that coating is anyway near actual chocolate and they are waxy, dry, and frankly kind of gross.... Yet sometimes I just want to eat a whole packet....
The way my mom made chicken and dumplings when we were camping! It was just Campbell’s cream of chicken soup and a tube of refrigerator biscuits laid out on top of the soup. I would never serve it to others, but hoooooo boy I still love me some of my mom’s “white trash chicken and dumplings!”
Taco dogs. My grandma’s classic, honestly embarrassing but I bet it’d sell great in a late night food truck.
You take a hot dog, wrap it in American cheese, wrap it in a tortilla, and deep fry it. Top with hot sauce or whatever else you feel like.
100% set your truck up outside a bar in a college town and you'll make millions
Instant nooooodlleeesssssss.
Mac and cheese, made with elbow noodles, chunks of Velveeta cheese, and a can of Campbell's tomato soup, baked for 30 minutes at 350ºF... Gooey... Cheesy... Tangy... **SO** bad and yet **SO** good!
Salami and olives eaten straight from their respective containers. Just slices of salami and forkfulls of green olives. I feel awful abt myself when I eat it but if I'm already depressed and just want comfort food gosh it's such an enjoyable meal. Also pork & bean sandwiches. Also also, canned tuna with mayonnaise and flamin hot cheetos.
Growing up I was left on my own alot for dinner. Youngest child of two working parents and all that.
I made alot of canned corned beef hash with eggs.
I would get the pan hot, open the can and just scoop it into the pan. I'd always save a few scoops and just eat cold. After a couple minutes I'd crack 3-4 eggs into it, and cook while mixing till they were done. Topped with all the hot sauce.
I pass them in the isle while shopping and think about it alot. I don't know if I actually miss the meal or the nostalgia.
I worked in a hospital and they serve this heart attack combo in the cafeteria every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Sell out every time.
Pizza rolls, but made out of crescent rolls. I mean, it's literally just layering pizza ingredients inside refrigerated crescent roll dough, rolling it up, and baking it.
Mustard cheese sandwiches. You grate cheddar cheese, then you squirt yellow mustard on it, and mix it up until it becomes a thick paste. Then you spread it on toasted white bread. Add hot sauce to taste.
Boxed mac and cheese....because I absolutely *will* serve velveeta-based queso.
Velveeta is legit! It might not be "cheese", but it's legit! I'll die on this hill XD
Does a mix of premade icing, crushed up Oreos, and mini MnMs count?
Probably the signature baked Frito burrito.
It’s basically baked beans from a can, ground beef, sour cream, diced tomatoes and chili cheese Frito’s in a tortilla god I could eat 8 of those f*****g things at once.
One word: Beefaroni.
Gotta say it: what do ribs, Mac, cornbread, beans, and BBQ sauce (aka a decent looking BBQ meal) have to do with beefaroni? And now I want BBQ ribs!
A shredded chicken sandwich. I only realized a couple years ago that it's an Ohio thing. It can be a thoughtful dish when you make it in the Crock-Pot with actual ingredients, but my dad and I do it the other way: canned chicken mixed with cream of chicken soup, nuked in the microwave. Serve it on a bun with a slice of American cheese, and you've got a delicious meal.
It can be iffy with several types at a potluck. That and various types of chili. Turns out the "fancier" a cook tries to get with these, the more they often have to take home
Note: this post originally had 96 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I am underwhelmed by these guilty pleasures. Most are pretty common recipes. Why would anyone not want to admit to these?
Right? Where’s the people getting inventive with jars of old pickle juice? Or adding canned clams and mussels to their cheap chicken flavored ramen? Where’s the sweet grapes dipped in sour cream and onion dip? Or the crazy fückers who just eat lemons whole, biting into the rind and all? Heck, everything I just listed is something that someone in my family actually eats, and they are all more terrifying than anything listed on this page.
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I put something *crazy* on my bread. It's even more out there than anything on this list. You may need to sit down. It's *butter*. Crazy, right? I only eat it in the middle of the night when no one can see me. My son caught me once and I had to take him out into the woods and leave him there. The police think he ran away to join the circus. I haven't even told my therapist about my bread and butter habit. But it tastes good, I swear!
Thank you for such a brave confession about such an odd food. You’ve given me the courage to reveal my secret vice… Drinking water. From the tap, from a bottle, heck I’ll even drink straight out if a public water fountain. It’s some thing I hide from my spouse and family, but here on the Internet I can proudly declare: I drink water!
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Hear me out: Bush's baked beans, diced green bell pepper (lots!), shredded sharp cheddar, sour cream, wrapped into a large warm toasted flour tortilla. Trust me.
Sardines mixed with mayonnaise and chopped onions and hot sauce eat it with crackers.
Brother? Is that you? This is my brother's favorite snack and he's passed it on to two of his three children. The third inherited his obsession with pickles and spicy food.
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People need to stop thinking that "poor food" is something to be ashamed of. Just because it uses processed ingredients doesn't make it bad. Ignore the food snobs.
I have zero desire to eat any of the "when we were poor we ate nothing but" things. I've eaten enough ramen and strange tinned things to last a lifetime.
*standing ovation* I feel those feels. It’s been almost a decade since my hungry days, when four straight years of under- and unemployment meant I was living off the kindness of food banks. A decade is still not long enough to want to get even be *near* canned chicken, anything Chef Boyardee, or canned chili on rice. *shudders*
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I have a deep love for instant mashed potatoes and gravy. I used to make a pot of sidekicks and just eat it at 2 am and watch x files
My mom used to make me honey buns - a stale hotdog bun with honey. As a no-sugar child raised by back-to-land hippies, that s**t was ambrosia.
Potato chip + chocolate sauce. Or popcorn dipped in milk.
I have managed to keep my dipping a stick of butter into the sugar bowl a secret from my mother for 20 years and a secret from my husband for another 15... so good..so shameful. PARENTS- THIS IS WHAT CHILDREN RESORT TO WHEN YOU BAN SWEETS FROM THE HOME
TWINKIES yes i know they're fake af, and they'll survive the end times longer than cockroaches and Cher. but i still enjoy them
Black eyed peas mixed with corn bread. Add ketchup when no one is looking.
Mmm, peanut butter and banana sandwiches are delicious. One of my siblings used to live in the Canary Islands and thry have “banana jam” there and sell it in stores. It’s so good on brioche or fluffy white bread. It’s essentially crushed banana with cinnamon, lemon juice, vanilla bean, and pectin as a stabilizer.
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Cheez-its dipped into cinnamon applesauce. It's something I started doing back in junior high school and I still eat it occasionally (definitely not as much as I use to).
Spaghetti with mayonnaise, ketchup and shredded cheese. My childhood and comfort food
My sister eats raw red onions like an apple, as if they're potato chips. We all laugh about it. My best friends mother eats raw garlic the same way, popping it like grapes. I would eat everything in this thread. People are too soft.
I already posted chip sandwiches but there's also canned tomato on toast, beans on toast and anything you can think of on toast. Cheese, egg. Salmon paste, sardines. Toast, the food of the gods. Don't forget the butter.
Mine is peas with ketchup on them every one says it’s gross but it’s so good.
Heat a hot dog in the microwave for 20 seconds. Sprinkle some shredded extra sharp cheddar (or cheese of your choice) on a tortilla add some dehydrated minced onion and paprika and hot sauce then heat for 20 seconds in the microwave. Add the hot dog to the tortilla, roll-up like a burrito, heat for another 20 seconds in the microwave, grab a cold beer and enjoy! You can thank me later.
This list had fairly normal foods. Let me add a few actual odd combos i like. Salami and cherry jelly bellys for one. Another, though not that odd, canned tuna and cream of mushroom soup served over rice.
Spaghetti sandwiches are delicious but that I am not ashamed of...thanks Dad
I know many people are really upset about this, but in my country we eat horse steak, and also raw ground beef.
When all my kids come home for the holidays, the first place they visit is our local Dutch Toko for Paarde Rookvkees!! (smoked horse meat).
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Spagasaurus (tinned spaghetti in the shape of dinosaurs) was a guilty favourite of mine when I was in my teens/20s. Also fairy bread as an adult feels weird.
Peanut butter and Miracle Whip sandwich. My mom made these for us when I was a kid, and I still love them, even though my family thinks I'm nuts. But the tang of the Miracle Whip mixed with the peanut butter just hits me right sometimes!
Still do this, 40 years after my late husband introduced me to these, saying "it tastes kind of like meat" . Good memories.
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Crisps sandwich - white bread, cream cheese, crisps (cheese and onion works well) broken into small pieces, crunchy peanut butter. Sooooooooo good!!!
I found your forum very informative. Do keep posting such articles! Thank You. Thanks for sharing. I absolutely loved your ideas.
When I was breastfeeding my baby, I was always so hungry, and I craved fatty foods. My guilty before-bed snack was a bacon sandwich with cheese, mayo, and avocado. Very rich!
Triple Decker Heart Attack: the reason I feel guilty about this isn't what's in it, but how much I make. I fill an entire baking tray with a mountain of this stuff. Obviously there's always leftovers but that just means I get to have it two days in a row. - Bottom layer of chips, melt cheese all over it (optional: panko crumbs mixed into the cheese) - Dump a bunch of the main (I'll get to this) on top then back in the oven to melt some more cheese on that - another layer of chips, melted cheese then douse in smoky BBQ The main: whichever one of these I feel like - 1:1 ratio of pulled beef mixed with your choice of pasta - hotdog chunks/mushroom/radish - rough cut deep fried eggs and canned chilly beans Would love to hear any idea's for what else I could use for the main
get shrimp instant ramen get the fake cheese put it on there after that's mixed put 3-4 squirts of tapitio and the put some paprika on there and that sucker is so good😋
Sadly, guilty pleasure I had enjoyed now tastes different and it's not even me. Recipes have changed and things have been "improved" so they just dont taste like they used to.
Some of my “weird” favorites: cottage cheese with warm, sliced hot dogs in it, potato chips dipped in plain cottage cheese, tacos made with seasoned ground beef and baked beans (instead of refried beans), peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.
Oh yeah, bean tacos made with sweet baked beans, in fried corn tortilla. No toppings needed, but sour cream won't hurt.
Load More Replies...
I am underwhelmed by these guilty pleasures. Most are pretty common recipes. Why would anyone not want to admit to these?
Right? Where’s the people getting inventive with jars of old pickle juice? Or adding canned clams and mussels to their cheap chicken flavored ramen? Where’s the sweet grapes dipped in sour cream and onion dip? Or the crazy fückers who just eat lemons whole, biting into the rind and all? Heck, everything I just listed is something that someone in my family actually eats, and they are all more terrifying than anything listed on this page.
Load More Replies... I put something *crazy* on my bread. It's even more out there than anything on this list. You may need to sit down. It's *butter*. Crazy, right? I only eat it in the middle of the night when no one can see me. My son caught me once and I had to take him out into the woods and leave him there. The police think he ran away to join the circus. I haven't even told my therapist about my bread and butter habit. But it tastes good, I swear!
Thank you for such a brave confession about such an odd food. You’ve given me the courage to reveal my secret vice… Drinking water. From the tap, from a bottle, heck I’ll even drink straight out if a public water fountain. It’s some thing I hide from my spouse and family, but here on the Internet I can proudly declare: I drink water!
Load More Replies... Hear me out: Bush's baked beans, diced green bell pepper (lots!), shredded sharp cheddar, sour cream, wrapped into a large warm toasted flour tortilla. Trust me.
Sardines mixed with mayonnaise and chopped onions and hot sauce eat it with crackers.
Brother? Is that you? This is my brother's favorite snack and he's passed it on to two of his three children. The third inherited his obsession with pickles and spicy food.
Load More Replies... People need to stop thinking that "poor food" is something to be ashamed of. Just because it uses processed ingredients doesn't make it bad. Ignore the food snobs.
I have zero desire to eat any of the "when we were poor we ate nothing but" things. I've eaten enough ramen and strange tinned things to last a lifetime.
*standing ovation* I feel those feels. It’s been almost a decade since my hungry days, when four straight years of under- and unemployment meant I was living off the kindness of food banks. A decade is still not long enough to want to get even be *near* canned chicken, anything Chef Boyardee, or canned chili on rice. *shudders*
Load More Replies... I have a deep love for instant mashed potatoes and gravy. I used to make a pot of sidekicks and just eat it at 2 am and watch x files
My mom used to make me honey buns - a stale hotdog bun with honey. As a no-sugar child raised by back-to-land hippies, that s**t was ambrosia.
Potato chip + chocolate sauce. Or popcorn dipped in milk.
I have managed to keep my dipping a stick of butter into the sugar bowl a secret from my mother for 20 years and a secret from my husband for another 15... so good..so shameful. PARENTS- THIS IS WHAT CHILDREN RESORT TO WHEN YOU BAN SWEETS FROM THE HOME
TWINKIES yes i know they're fake af, and they'll survive the end times longer than cockroaches and Cher. but i still enjoy them
Black eyed peas mixed with corn bread. Add ketchup when no one is looking.
Mmm, peanut butter and banana sandwiches are delicious. One of my siblings used to live in the Canary Islands and thry have “banana jam” there and sell it in stores. It’s so good on brioche or fluffy white bread. It’s essentially crushed banana with cinnamon, lemon juice, vanilla bean, and pectin as a stabilizer.
Load More Replies... Cheez-its dipped into cinnamon applesauce. It's something I started doing back in junior high school and I still eat it occasionally (definitely not as much as I use to).
Spaghetti with mayonnaise, ketchup and shredded cheese. My childhood and comfort food
My sister eats raw red onions like an apple, as if they're potato chips. We all laugh about it. My best friends mother eats raw garlic the same way, popping it like grapes. I would eat everything in this thread. People are too soft.
I already posted chip sandwiches but there's also canned tomato on toast, beans on toast and anything you can think of on toast. Cheese, egg. Salmon paste, sardines. Toast, the food of the gods. Don't forget the butter.
Mine is peas with ketchup on them every one says it’s gross but it’s so good.
Heat a hot dog in the microwave for 20 seconds. Sprinkle some shredded extra sharp cheddar (or cheese of your choice) on a tortilla add some dehydrated minced onion and paprika and hot sauce then heat for 20 seconds in the microwave. Add the hot dog to the tortilla, roll-up like a burrito, heat for another 20 seconds in the microwave, grab a cold beer and enjoy! You can thank me later.
This list had fairly normal foods. Let me add a few actual odd combos i like. Salami and cherry jelly bellys for one. Another, though not that odd, canned tuna and cream of mushroom soup served over rice.
Spaghetti sandwiches are delicious but that I am not ashamed of...thanks Dad
I know many people are really upset about this, but in my country we eat horse steak, and also raw ground beef.
When all my kids come home for the holidays, the first place they visit is our local Dutch Toko for Paarde Rookvkees!! (smoked horse meat).
Load More Replies... Spagasaurus (tinned spaghetti in the shape of dinosaurs) was a guilty favourite of mine when I was in my teens/20s. Also fairy bread as an adult feels weird.
Peanut butter and Miracle Whip sandwich. My mom made these for us when I was a kid, and I still love them, even though my family thinks I'm nuts. But the tang of the Miracle Whip mixed with the peanut butter just hits me right sometimes!
Still do this, 40 years after my late husband introduced me to these, saying "it tastes kind of like meat" . Good memories.
Load More Replies... Crisps sandwich - white bread, cream cheese, crisps (cheese and onion works well) broken into small pieces, crunchy peanut butter. Sooooooooo good!!!
I found your forum very informative. Do keep posting such articles! Thank You. Thanks for sharing. I absolutely loved your ideas.
When I was breastfeeding my baby, I was always so hungry, and I craved fatty foods. My guilty before-bed snack was a bacon sandwich with cheese, mayo, and avocado. Very rich!
Triple Decker Heart Attack: the reason I feel guilty about this isn't what's in it, but how much I make. I fill an entire baking tray with a mountain of this stuff. Obviously there's always leftovers but that just means I get to have it two days in a row. - Bottom layer of chips, melt cheese all over it (optional: panko crumbs mixed into the cheese) - Dump a bunch of the main (I'll get to this) on top then back in the oven to melt some more cheese on that - another layer of chips, melted cheese then douse in smoky BBQ The main: whichever one of these I feel like - 1:1 ratio of pulled beef mixed with your choice of pasta - hotdog chunks/mushroom/radish - rough cut deep fried eggs and canned chilly beans Would love to hear any idea's for what else I could use for the main
get shrimp instant ramen get the fake cheese put it on there after that's mixed put 3-4 squirts of tapitio and the put some paprika on there and that sucker is so good😋
Sadly, guilty pleasure I had enjoyed now tastes different and it's not even me. Recipes have changed and things have been "improved" so they just dont taste like they used to.
Some of my “weird” favorites: cottage cheese with warm, sliced hot dogs in it, potato chips dipped in plain cottage cheese, tacos made with seasoned ground beef and baked beans (instead of refried beans), peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.
Oh yeah, bean tacos made with sweet baked beans, in fried corn tortilla. No toppings needed, but sour cream won't hurt.
Load More Replies... 