The environment we grow up in plays a significant role in forming our relationship with nutrition. In fact, having frequent and regular family meals is associated with a myriad of benefits for children and adolescents, including decreased risk of obesity, lower chance of substance use, violent behavior, depression, and suicidal thoughts, as well as better communication skills and improved self-esteem.
Naturally, it also shapes our taste preferences, exposing our taste buds to certain flavors and textures. Interested in just how much variation there is, Reddit user Kerker1717 made a post on the platform, asking everyone to share the weird food combination that was standard in their household that later people said was not normal.
Continue scrolling to check out the answers they have received and don't miss the chat we had with foodies Sarah Tuck and Richa Gupta — you'll find it between the entries.
This post may include affiliate links.
Whenever my mom used an egg wash and breadcrumbs there would be leftover from the breading station. So she used to mix them together, add a little water if there was too little of the egg left, and let the breadcrumbs hydrate. Then the mixture went into a skillet with heated olive oil to be fried like a breadcrumb pancake. There was no way she was going to throw out those breadcrumbs.
Every so often I find myself craving a breadcrumb pancake. I make one with a beaten egg to hydrate seasoned breadcrumbs. But I add Locatelli Romano cheese and julienned sun dried tomatoes as well. Fried in olive oil with extra Locatelli cheese on top. So maybe not a weird food combination. But certainly a weird item to cook. Weird- but I love it!
Not weird at all for me. My grandma cooked this and it was called a "Tortilla de pan" (bread omelet).
It's yet another few bites of "foodwaste" that actually tastes great! A little salt and pepper is enough to make it taste amazing.
My little old great-grandmother used to wake me up at 3:00 a.m. every morning and give me an ego, cheese and ham sandwich and a gigantic like 40 oz mug of hot cocoa and tell me that I hadn't eaten anything all day and I had better eat.
She had mild dementia and I had moved in there with her to take care of her.
She was really sweet and my favorite human being on the planet until she died like a year or so later.
RIP Granny, I love you and I miss you
She could also cook better than anybody I've ever met.. everything that came out of her kitchen was delicious.
I'm not sure how she made her lasagna taste like that I cannot replicate The taste she produced.
Also her lentil chicken soup was delicious. And I'm really really hungry now thinking about my great grandma that's weird
Ego, Cheese, and Ham sounds like the title of Roger Corman's memoirs
That taste in her lasagna that you can never replicate? It's love...plain and simple.
I miss my grandma's cooking also! No matter how hard we try we cannot replicate her gravy. Sauce of the gods it was!
While it might be tempting to just say "yuck" when reading about these meals, don't be so quick to write them off. "Trying out new dishes is like travel—broadening our perspective and widening our way of thinking," Sarah Tuck, the woman behind the food and recipe blog Stuck in the Kitchen, told Bored Panda.
"It's an adventure! And that's not to say the familiar isn't also amazing. I like nothing better than perfect softly scrambled eggs on toasted wholegrain bread—it tastes like coming home after a trip away," Tuck, who's also the editor of New Zealand's biggest food magazine Dish.co.nz, added.
My ex made me scrambled eggs, and I had to immediately spit them out. There was CINNAMON in them.
I asked why the hell he had put cinnamon in my eggs, and he said he didn't. Only salt and pepper. Um, no, taste them - there is cinnamon on these eggs. So he takes a scoop and tells me I'm imagining things. They taste fine!
[They did not]
Turns out he was NOT gaslighting me. His mother had given him his salt and pepper shakers. We were at his moms and I put some pepper on my meal and again, f*****g cinnamon.
"Oh yes!" His mother exclaimed, "He's a Taurus, and they have weak throats. Cinnamon is good for the throat, so to make sure he gets enough and stays healthy, I mix it into the pepper!"
He thought that was just what pepper tasted like.
Cinnamon is absolutely horrible where it doesn't belong, I understand. It's a very strong and forward spice that there's no coming back from.
It's not the weirdest thing to put on eggs though.. french toast is basically bread with egg and cinnamon. But if you don't expect it, it's the worst.
Load More Replies...1) So the ex never seasoned his food with pepper anywhere else, like at a restaurant f.e. and noticed the difference in taste? and 2) I've heard/read all kinds of astrology-related nonsensical generalizations, but "Tauruses have weak throats" is a new one. Whatever mum even means by that or if cinnamon actually helps I couldn't say, but that line is taking several cakes.
I'm more interested in the Taurus' have weak throats aspect. I'm a Pisces, what's my weakness? And my eldest daughter is a Taurus and can belt out songs so loud you have to ask her to be quiet cuz you're on the phone. Great singer but not always in the right place at the right time....
Hmm idk. I've had maple syrup touch a bit of egg and it tastes pretty good. So maybe cinnamon scrambled eggs isn't so bad? I need to verify this!
Oddly enough, in chili, cinnamon and a bit of cocoa. I know it sounds weird but there's a chili called Skyline out of Cincinnati, Ohio and cinnamon and cocoa are mixed in and it's amaaaaazing! If it's your first time eating Skyline though, have someone else prepare it cuz the visual is very off-putting. Lol
Our thanksgiving leftover meal was turkey with gravy over waffles. Delicious. But when I got to high school/college people told me it sounded gross and weird.
Not gross and weird, just different. Waffles offer a great blank canvas for savory dishes when they're not doused in fruit, whipped cream and syrup
I remember chef Racheal Ray mixing crandberries into left over stuffing and putting it in the waffle maker, then putting turkey and gravy over the top. I thought it sounded delicious.
I guess down in some of the Southern states chicken and waffles is a thing. So I don't see much difference except substituting turkey for chicken.
It's also perfectly fine if these pictures inspire you to come up with something entirely new because "it's when you push the boundaries that you get the most interesting combinations," Richa Gupta, the cook, writer, and photographer running the blog My Food Story, explained to us.
Just remember to at least consider how things come together. To begin, Gupta suggests playing with complementary and contrasting flavors. The former allows ingredients to work in tandem (think peanut butter and bananas), while the latter pairs distinct taste profiles to create a dynamic sensory experience.
"While you're experimenting, always taste, taste, taste," Gupta added.
Scrambled eggs/omelets with ketchup. I always thought this was normal but as an adult the more I eat with others the more they keep pointing out to me that's weird or gross???
My mom does this. I find it disgusting, but everyone should eat however they want to.
It's perfectly normal, just some of us grow out of it. For instance my husband still loves ketchup on his scrambled eggs, and I don't, but I did as a kid.
My mom used to put cut-up hot dogs in everything.
Cut up hot dogs in scrambled eggs, in box mac and cheese, in stir fries with vegetables to eat on top of rice, in fried potatoes to make some kind of hot dog hash.
Agreed. Food is food and if you have to feed mouths that need more than you can provide without meal fillers, you use meal fillers. The goal is to get everyone filled up and feel comfortable.
Load More Replies...I love mac and cheese with hot dogs! And that's the hill I will die on
Growing up dirt poor, getting a hotdog chopped into my mac 'n' cheese was a good day. "Yay! We had enough money to splurge on a package of pig and cow byproduct!"
Again, there's worse things done in kitchens. Good way to pad out the supplies, feed the multitude.
At 57 years old, I still like hot dog slices in mac & cheese. Throw in a can of chili in the process, and it's basically a chili dog casserole.
However, if you're an absolute novice, you might want to learn your way around the kitchen first. "I think as a beginner cook or baker it is best to follow conventions to start with," Sarah of Stuck in the Kitchen said. "Then, as skill levels increase, I would recommend experimenting."
"When thinking about developing a recipe, it is a little like writing music, thinking about all of the different elements coming together—in this case, I always start with the sweet/salty/bitter/umami balance, but also the texture; do I want an overall soft, smooth texture or would something benefit from a little crunch to contrast?"
My grandmother always put grape jelly on her grilled cheese, so I like to also. Apparently that is not something people normally do.
Fruit and cheese mingle well together, especially when the fruit is as a jam or jelly so I can get with this. Cheese and fruit are commonly paired on charcuterie boards with crostini as a vessel.
Membrilo and manchego, cheshire and apple, pate de mure and goat cheese. You are normal.
This is perfectly normal for me. Not this particular combination of bread, jelly and cheese, but not weird at all.
Pork chops and homemade applesauce. So damn good but everyone I mention it to thinks it's repulsive
But pork chops & apple sauce is a classic combination. Nothing weird about that one.
*** must use Peter Brady voice when saying, 'pork chops & applesauce'....only not-young peeps will get that one. I loved, 'The Brady Bunch' ❤️
these all sound made up. pork and apples go very well together, and its something that has been around for ages.
Some people just don't get the concept of sweet and savory. Pork chops and applesauce is very common and has been for generations.
"I like little contrasts to liven things up, like a fresh zingy lemon/garlic/parsley gremolata on a slow-cooked soft beef cheek ragu, or a sprinkling of crunchy nuts and seeds with dukkah and a little olive oil over burrata broken onto a salad," Sarah Tuck added.
"But the thing is, sweet and savory can also work brilliantly together, like sea salt and dark chocolate, or chili honey with cheese or chicken, so something that might sound weird when you first hear of it might actually make total sense when you take a bite!" the food writer said.
When I was young and my Dad was a single parent, he'd try to have "fancy" dinners for my sister and me. His go-to appetizer for us was a slice of bologna, covered in peanut butter, then rolled up into a log. He'd then cut it into sections and each would have a toothpick in it. Voila! Appetizers.
Whenever I start missing my Dad, who passed away when I was 24, I make those appetizers.
Aww bless him (in the British sense, I don't mean bless his heart!)
What's the difference? I always assumed they mean roughly the same.
Load More Replies...I used to do this with ham and peanut butter! Excellent with a few Cheetos rolled in there too!
My former FIL ate a sandwich every day before leaving for work. Whole wheat bread, Miracle Whip on one side, peanut butter on the other, bacon & pickles.
Strawberry jelly on a sausage biscuit. Learned that working fast food at 15.
Chutney isn't usually available at a fast food restaurant.
Load More Replies...That's how I've always eaten it but I'm not a fan of grape jelly
Load More Replies...It's basically the sandwich in the picture. Although if I had to guess based on common fast food breakfast sandwiches they probably mean a buttermilk biscuit, which jelly/jam/compote pairs wonderfully with.
Load More Replies...Interestingly, in some scenarios, you might be more inclined to broaden your culinary horizons. For example, if you're actively dating!
Turns out, being reluctant to try new foods can be a turn-off, according to research published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. The study provides evidence that the willingness to try new food can influence sexual desirability and is seen by others as a signal of sexual unrestrictedness.
As Richa Gupta said, "If food lovers didn't experiment with ingredients, and techniques, and challenge the boundaries, the culinary world would be at a standstill." And by the sound of it, we owe it to them for spicing up not only our meals but also our love lives!
Having milk to drink with spaghetti, super refreshing. It counters the acidity perfectly but my Italian American friends think I’m nuts.
I grew up drinking milk with nearly everything. Coke and Pepsi were not on the menu.
If you get heartburn easily, milk is a great solution. My wife gets it with most tomato-based items and always has a glass of milk handy.
I find it really weird to drink milk with a meal, as milk is filling and nourishing per se. Surprised no one here has mentioned water! That’s what I always have with food unless socialising (then I might have wine) or just having toast or biscuits (then tea or coffee).
Drinking milk or eating small lumps of butter (with or without a small bite of bread) to neutralize the taste in the mouth is part of a multi-course meal. (Try a Michelin restaurant with a wine menu.) Butter and bread before tasting the next wine is normal as well.
Kraft Mac n Cheese with a can of tuna in it. I was thirty before I realized this was not common. I think its came about because my dad comes from a poor Catholic family and it was a cheap way to feed five kids during Lent. Edit: Guys I get it. Please stop replying "It's tuna casserole." It is not the same thing as what I ate growing up. Tuna casserole is pasta and tuna, yes, but it is not a box of Kraft Mac n Cheese with a can of tuna dumped in at the end. Tuna casserole has some variety of peas, onion, cream of mushroom/chicken soup, and often has bread crumbs or chips on top. I have had tuna casserole, tuna salad, and tuna helper at various times of my youth. They are different.
What do you mean not common? There were two things my mother did with mac and cheese, tuna or hot dogs. She did add onions, and peas to both.
My kids grew up on that. I liked to add frozen peas to it as well. Then you add a little hamburger and tomatoes to boxed mac and cheese. Goulash!
I add the peas too and i add some mushrooms too. Top it with ground pepper and hot sauce.
Load More Replies...My wife makes Kraft Mac n Cheese with tuna and peas in it all the time
Kraft Mac n Cheese, drain tuna into boiling water, make mac n cheese, add tuna, can of peas, can of cream of mushroom soup. (may need to me microwaved afterwards if ingredients are added cold). When I first saw this recipe I thought yuck but tried it anyways it is very good!)
It's cheesy tuna surprise... Kraft mac n cheese, a can of tuna, and a can of peas. The peas are the surprise.
Noodles with butter, sugar, and walnuts. Apparently my dad used to eat it when he was growing up. It's Hungarian. Diós tészta. I grew up in Canada and yeah it was considered weird by my friends.
Sounds like a noodle kugel without the baking. My family's Russo-Hungarian side passed down a dish of cabbage and onion sauteed in butter, mixed with egg noodles. Yum!
A friend of my mom's once made us something called "Irish spaghetti". It included 2 cups of sugar! I still have nightmares about it.
Noodles with cottage cheese and sour cream. Something my Hungarian grandmother used to make me.
Potato chips & cottage cheese.
"What is that enticing bowl of white? Cottage cheese? Is it like cheese from some cottage?" -Charlie Kelly
I don't think I have found anything that doesn't taste better with chips. Not often, buy I sometimes use them to eat ice cream or pudding and even sprinkle them on soup.
Bologna w/a plop of cottage cheese on top and a side of Ruffles potato chips. Little bit of deliciousness!
My grandpa used to make peanut butter toast (crispy bread, like almost burnt, and smooth PB — and he always buttered the bread before putting on the PB) and hot chocolate, and would dip the toast in the hot chocolate. Didn't realize it was weird until I got to college, did it in the dining hall, and got some weird looks.
In Spain you dip churros in deliciously thick hot chocolate and it’s wonderful.
Every Dutch child loves peanut butter and dark chocolate sprinkles on bread or toast.
Dipping toast in hot chocolate may look weird, but the flavour combination is completely unremarkable
Unless it's Spanish hot chocolate. Toast, churros or biscuits. They all go In there
Load More Replies...We used to eat butter-and-peanut-butter sandwiches as kids, but I don't remember where it originated. I DO remember it was pretty delicious.
Grew up super poor. We ate flap jacks which in our house were just flour with salt and water pan cooked into flabby flavorless pancakes and then my mom would try to make syrup by cooking down sugar and water. Another regular was toast with ketchup and yet another was spaghetti noodles with canned beans. I don’t know that I can say I thought it was normal but I did know it was what there was to eat.
Ketchup on toasted sliced bread with American cheese melted under the broiler was our homemade pizza. Canned baked beans with hamburger meat was "cassoulet" (my French husband never forgave me for serving him this while camping). I call it comfort food, he called it "merde". And this from the guy who eats andouillette.
Well, the pasta and beans sounds like a "poor man's" take on Pasta Fagioli, just simplified. (I am not ragging you being poor, that is just a term for very simplified versions of stuff made with the simplest of ingredients, that go almost all the way to something)
Don't worry about offending anyone in these. The comments are stolen from another website and the original author is unlikely to stumble upon this
Load More Replies...You make what you can with the money and groceries you have. I wished it was a less poor upbringing. At the same time she tried her best to feed you as well as she could.
We had those pancakes growing up as well. My mom was a single mom with 4 kids and 2 deadbeat dads. She would make gravy and we put that on the pancakes. We called them flitters.
I always thought coleslaw on pulled pork was normal because every place near me served it like that. Then I find out the heathens in the rest of the country don't like that.
I think that's a pretty normal thing. I've seen it served that way all over.
I LOVE coleslaw on a pulled pork sandwich! I'm not from the South either.
Shepherds pie but instead of mashed potatoes, macaroni cheese on top!!!!!!!!!
Wouldn't taste bad but the pasta wouldn't hit the spot for a Shepherd's pie, texturally. That soft and tender stew meat with the gravy and mashed potatoes are what makes Shepherd's pie what it is. I'll pass on the mac.
There is no stew meat in a Shepherd's Pie, though? It's supposed to be made with mince, isn't it?
Load More Replies...it does sound interesting, but not if it uses that "Mac n Cheeze" from Kraft, in the Blue box
I can't even imagine this being a money saver,like a lot of odd food combinations seem to be.Potatoes are soooo inexpensive, and incredibly versatile.
We were kinda poor, and my mom used to take a package of uncooked hot dogs and grind them up and mix them with sweet relish and mayonnaise. That was our “ham salad”. My friends all loved the stuff!
I'm assuming that by 'uncooked' you simply mean not reheated, and that the sausages were already cooked before packing?
In the USA, hot dogs (with very few exceptions) are always sold pre-cooked in the package. So there would be very little difference in how it would taste if you cooked them before grinding them up.
Load More Replies...That sounds like a good try, that worked out well, especially if your friends loved them
People in Pennsylvania do this a lot. I prefer bologna over the hot dogs.
Of course, because it's a German thing-- in France we call it piémontaise. I love it.
Load More Replies...Believe it or not, it's a beloved salad in both Germany and France!!
Load More Replies...Another one that sounds appalling, and which makes me want to try it.
Sliced pickle and Kraft singles sandwiches. Did not ask for and did not want these but got them in lunches regularly.
Pretty common in Germany (well, sort of, sliced pickle with REAL cheese is)
the only way i would try this combo is if it used actual cheese, not american, stuff like Kraft cheese singles (those things ain't cheese!)
Educate yourself on American cheeses, because Kraft singles are an American cheese product, but not all American cheese is like Kraft singles. And drop your nose down, because in France, the country with 250+ cheeses, tends to sell more of these individually wrapped slices of homogeneous cheese product more than they sell brie, camembert and roquefort combined. And the French make them in cheddar and emmental flavor. Which is weird.
Load More Replies...Love a good cheese and pickle sandwich, the addition of chips sounds great.
You can't serve a grilled cheese sando without pickles. Now, if you're adding pickles to the sando, I'm all ears. I've always found pickles to be the side
Load More Replies...Just had similar sandwich a week ago. But with Kraft Velveeta singles & dill pickles on whole wheat with Kraft mayo & yellow mustard.
I see this picture has potato chips on them also. I need to try this combo.
We make them once every so often as I feel it suits my need for "fast food" and the salty feel of the crisps. Btw we're not British, nor American.
I LOVED these as a kid. No one else in our family ate them, so I don't even know where I got this idea, but it was SO good!
When it was dad's turn to cook...
S. O. S.
Ground beef browned with salt n pepper. Thickened and creamed. (Essentially just hamburger gravy) on toast.
Meh.
Its a military thing here, my vets talk about it all the time lol.
Load More Replies...Yeah, but it's usually made with chipped beef, not ground. (or Armour dried beef, which ends up a similar consistency but a good deal saltier.)
Load More Replies...I could never eat that again after doing time. There was no meat in it. Just flower, lard, salt, pepper, and water.
Ours was made with some pre-packaged meat that was very salty. But it was the only time we could say the word S H I T without getting slapped
My stepmother was out of town and my Dad had the flu. Being the considerate daughter, I asked what I could make for him so he'd feel better. That's exactly what he wanted - hamburger gravy (w/onions) over mashed potatoes and he ate it with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. He was so happy.
The weirdest thing I can think is my grandma taught me to eat Coffee and Crackers. Basically you take a plate and line it with saltines, then pour over coffee until they're softened then spread some sugar to taste and eat with deli ham. It's basically a poor man's country ham biscuits and red eye gravy.
It's not the most filling breakfast in the world but it hits the spot every once in a blue moon.
I know this with Zwieback. I loved it. And in the northern part of my country, we love to "stipp" (dip) cookies in coffee or tea.
Dunking biscuits is very common in the UK (I never liked it though) but the dish described sounds absolutely bizarre, salty crackers, ham and sweetened coffee. Bleurgh.
Load More Replies...My grandma liked to put a lump of cheddar cheese into her black coffee, then when it got melty she'd fish it out and eat it.
Putting a sweeter cheese in coffee is relatively common in some Central and South American countries. I believe this is also done in parts of northern Sweden. It’s actually quite tasty.
Load More Replies...My grandma and I would dip graham crackers in coffee. To this day I still love it!
This definitely sounds like a war time meal where people had to make do with what they had..
My dad does this thing where he breaks up saltines into a glass, pours milk over it and eats it with a spoon.
Digestive biscuits spread with soft cheese like philadelphia and a bit of jam, usually two to make it a sandwich biscuit. I sometimes had this with peanut butter between the biscuits instead.
Mr Auntriarch puts mascarpone and jam on digestives, he calls it instant cheesecake. I prefer lemon curd to jam though
For international reference, digestive biscuits are what we (UK) crush up to make a cheesecake base.
Tomato open-faced sandwiches as a snack in-between meals. Just a few pieces of bread with nice tomato slices on them, salt and pepper.
Homegrown tomatoes with salt and pepper are a meal for me. Yum. Can't wait for spring!
this was always the snack my grandmother would give us if she didn't want us to eat too much before dinner
I make an open faced toasted bagel with cream cheese, some ham (or pastrami), a slice of onion and the ripest tomato I can find. Sh*t, now I'm hungry.
My mom would put American cheese on bread and sliced tomatoes on that before broiling them long enough to get the cheese a little melted and the bread a little toasted. Pepper on them when they came out.
Growing up in the midwest, chili & cinnamon rolls were a common combination. It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned this is pretty much only a midwestern thing.
i am in the midwest and have lived here my whole life and have literally never heard of that. yikes.
At first glance, disturbing. But, then, the curiosity about the juxtaposition of the sweetness and the biting taste begins to work on your mind.
I've been hearing about this the last couple of years and I'm kind of intrigued.
I kinda get it. I usually serve my chilli non-spicy as I can't tolerate spice well. The spiciness in the chilli can be curbed by the sweetness of the cinnamon rolls. Not weird at all.
This was also a fairly common dish in schools in the Grays Harbor area of Western Washington. Our loggers were probably mid west transplants but it was called "loggers breakfast" because it used up leftover chili from the night before with cinnamon rolls. My Nana used to make it for me and I loved them! She grew up near the Pacific ocean in railroad camps.
I grew up with a lot of fruit in my savory dishes, mostly fruit and cheese combinations. Some are normal, but i think most of them aren't. Still love it all so much, it adds just the right amount of sweetness.
Cheese and banana sandwiches are the best
Pineapple parts in lasagna
Apple or mango in dishes like wraps or curry
Raisins in couscous
Pasta of mango and blue cheese
Cheese fondue with pineapple, apple, banana, grapes, pear
Salads contained mostly normal fruits like apple or raisins, but for some reason also often bananas
All pretty normal. Mango and blue cheese is divine. And keema in half a pawpaw I can recommend
As newcomers to Canada in the 90’s, ketchup wasn’t really a thing in my home country. So we became obsessed with it when we got here. As a kid I used to put ketchup on everything, but my favourite was ketchup sandwiches (ketchup + bread) and ketchup sandwich with bologna or sliced ham.
i just used to eat ketchup sandwiches. bread. ketchup. that's it. ._.
Gotta have ketchup on a bologna sandwich. Adds a tiny bit of sweetness to the sandwich which I find enhances the taste.
That's not so weird. I think bologna tastes like hot dogs and hot dogs go with ketchup.
Load More Replies...Hmmm...I just love me a sandwich of oodles of mustard squiggles on whole wheat bread. Hits the spot.
I used to eat ketchup sandwiches. Actually best one was honey BBQ fries and ketchup
Peanut butter on Ritz crackers with a little dollop of ketchup on top.
We had something similar here in Éire. My sister used to get red sauce sandwiches going to school and i used to get brown sauce sandwiches... tasty!.... but it had to be chef sauce. Hate that YR sauce.
White bread, butter and ketchup sandwiches are yum and very quick to make. Had one yesterday when I got in from work.
Unsweetened shredded wheat (it was large size not spoon sized) toasted in the oven with sharp cheese and fried bacon and you'd serve it with a bit of maple syrup on the side. It was...I think a recipe on the cereal box but seriously good. I never see those big shredded wheat squares around any longer so I can't make this.
Shredded Wheat never tasted any good to me whichever way it was served, always dry and like eating cardboard
Like most breakfast cereals when I was growing up it was always eaten with full-cream milk and a couple of spoons of sugar. Families were divided as to whether the sugar went on before the milk or afterwards. I still add sugar to Weetabix, which I often eat before going out ski teaching when it's proper cold.
Load More Replies...Oh my! I had completely forgotten toasting shredded wheat in the oven. Gotta go buy some.
This actually sounds good! cheese and bacon make improvements to lots of things
Eggo waffles with melted sharp cheddar cheese. It was such a regular breakfast in my family, I literally didn’t realize it wasn’t a thing until I had my first apartment and I told my roommate she was welcome to the eggos and cheese and she was like “I’m sorry, what?”
Not even sure what an 'eggo' is, some sort of eggy waffle judging by the picture? . I guess the previous one talking about ego must also be meaning this.
Eggo is a brand of frozen waffles intended for preparation in a toaster.
Load More Replies...
Cubed up baguette tossed in greek yogurt and chopped mint. Sometimes some honey to make it a sweet treat.
This was strictly an after dinner snack for some reason
When I was a child I would often have as a pre bed snack buttered bread with hot milk! So good! Used to help me sleep!
this sounds good, I might try this. Without the mint or honey, not a big fan
My mom didn’t realize that you were supposed to create a broth with the Ramen noodle spice packet. She would drain the noodles and then stir in butter and season it to taste with the flavor packet (usually about 1/4 of the packet). It was delicious!
use a fork to scramble raw egg, add melted butter slowly, and then add it all into the Ramen. soooo creamy
Load More Replies...When I was in grade school (1980's) it was a trend to bring in dry ramen, mix the flavor pack in to it, smash it up, and eat it raw. I refused to even try it, but every other kid in my class claimed it was amazing.
This actually sounds like and improvement. Those spice packets are usually so high in sodium. And butter, Yum
This sounds delicious as I usually don't drink the broth because it's too salty for me.
Minus the butter, this is how you make ramen in jail. Not comfortable sharing how I know that, but it really is the best way to eat those packs of ramen.
Peanut butter and honey is great, but best after it has sat in my lunch box half the day and the honey has penetrated the bread and makes it slightly crunchy. This is for those who posted it and don't think many people do this. I'm pretty sure a lot do. However, I came to post this. I still eat it all the time, my favorite sandwich ever: FLUFFER NUTTER. For those who don't know, this is peanut butter and marshmallow fluff on white bread. 🤩
I could be wrong but calling it a "fluffernutter" means the OP is from New England.
We always had pickles and sliced tomatoes inside of our grilled cheese sandwiches.
Grew up poor as a young child. Rather than have proper desserts of any kind in the house, we had cans of condensed milk we'd just eat with a spoon. Never knew that wasn't what it was for until I was an adult. Now I can't have it in the house or I'll eat a whole damn can like it's pudding.
We used to have condensed milk poured over tinned peaches, my parents were born during WW2 so it was still always seen as a treat for them
For us was always Evaporated Milk, Carnation being the common brand, much more liquid than condensed with is thick and gloopy. These days I just use real cream...
Load More Replies...Wartime food. Condensed milk sandwiches. My great grandfather used to save his Yorkshire pudding and have it with condensed milk afterwards
My MIL used to boil up an unopened can of Sweetened condensed milk, which turned it into caramel. It wasn't until years later that I learned that the can could easily have exploded at any time.
I’ve posted this on Reddit before and got told it was gross so I’ll go again, but this time you get the story: My older brother was and still is to a slightly lesser degree a very picky eater. When he was a toddler he refused food so often he was medically malnourished and my parents were almost charged with child neglect. So my mother was always desperate to find nutritious things he would actually eat. When bro was 2 and I was a baby we all went to visit Mom’s parents and her dad invented it: Hot Dog Soup. Split pea soup with sliced hot dogs and salad macaroni. Bro loved it, and Mom would make that our whole lives. My brother and I still live together and I make it every once in a while.
If I wanted to get my kids to eat something, I would argue that they couldn't have any. It didn't always work, but at least 90% of the time it did.
My husband taught me to scramble leftover French toast batter once the bread is gone. It’s eggs, milk, and vanilla and it’s delicious. Now I sometimes just make that. Best served with maple syrup.
I don’t know if it’s weird, but we ate a lot of peanut butter and honey sandwiches when I was young. Or on toast. I’ve never met anyone else who likes it.
thats very normal. where do these people come from to think something like that is weird.
It's not unheard of but my mom always makes chili and spaghetti. It's good, too, and I'll defend it
Depending on the chili. Cincinnati-style chili is more of a meat sauce. If your chili is mostly bean-based, it would come out different. Side note: Shout out to Skyline Chili!!
Load More Replies...Cheerios were never eaten without bananas sliced up in them. My dad only ate watermelon if it was buried in salt.
I understand salt on watermelon, but only a sprinkle, like on cantaloupe also
Leftover meatloaf sandwiches with ketchup.
Absolutely! I'm not a ketchup fan, but I will make an exception on a cold meatloaf or sausage sandwich (only a slight film of ketchup, though)
Load More Replies...Spaghetti and ketchup
Can't say I'm a fan of this myself, but my husband is from the former GDR (East Germany) and this is how they always had spaghetti, normally with chasseur sausage. A lot of the time they weren’t able to obtain ketchup, though, so my mother-in-law mostly made the ketchup herself.
Eating cream cheese rolled inside slices of genoa salami isn't super unusual, but it definitely is a regional thing that was NOT the norm for where I grew up. My mom was raised in the south, and brought it to NJ with her when she married my dad. I didn't know it was "weird" until I hit middle school. Still eat it, and it's still tasty.
Mid--Atlantic area of the usa, we did cream cheese rolled up with Lebanon Bologne, It was soooo good. Now I've gotta do it again! thanks for the reminder!!!!
My mom put chopped up apples in the tuna fish. I don’t know anyone else that does this, but I still eat it that way!
vanilla in eggs i can _almost_ see, it’s like. almost a custard i guess. wouldn’t do it myself lol though there is a mizrahi dish (fatoot samneh) where you essentially scramble some eggs with torn up toasted pieces of pita and then drizzle with honey that i quite like anyway to answer your question, i loved dipping my fish sticks in applesauce as a kid lol
'this sounds interesting, I just don't like honey, so would find a substitute
Grilled cheese with a side of cinnamon sugar rice.
I used to sprinkle Jello out of the packet over vanilla ice cream...usually strawberry.
Dipping fries in a fried egg. Best sauce ever.
not much different to soft boiled egg with soldiers, or fried egg and chips, both of which are delicious. my odd take on it, is that I like dipping twiglets in a soft boiled egg, or toasted soldiers with marmite. (also lovely dipped in a cream of chicken soup)
how is this weird. you dip toast in the yolk. you pour the yolk over other eggs, ham, and english muffin....
Putting boiled eggs in lasagne. I had no idea it was weird until I made a lasagne for a boyfriend and his roommates. And also didn’t realize that most people don’t eat fresh vegetables. Growing up I didn’t realize how lucky I was that my dad had a full garden and we ate fresh tomatoes, lettuces, beans, herbs, etc.
Well if that's weird, so is my friend from Milan, he also puts boiled eggs in lasagna. Can't say it does anything for me though
we always put hardboiled eggs in our lasagna. my parents immigrated from southern italy and said it was a way to add protein when meat was expensive.
Hamburger and baked beans. You fried up the hamburger, seasoned it, added BBQ sauce, some ketchup, and finally added a can of baked beans. If you were splurging, you used Bush's Baked Beans, but usually they were store brand. Not sure if anyone else ate that for poverty supper, but I've never run into anyone else who ate this combo.
You said the word Baked Beans, being English, I think Baked Beans could go with most things
Yes, they can. Certainly a normal accompaniment to burgers, although I wonder if this one was simply referring to ground beef, which I think is sometimes called 'hamburger [meat]'?
Load More Replies...Add bbq sauce (which is k-up mixed with sugar and vinegar), add more k-up (tomato sauce and sugar), THEN add baked beans (beans in a sugary sauce). So, tomatoey, hyper-sugared beans...with meat. Pass.
Hungry Jack casserole. Mix beef, BBQ sauce and baked beans, top with store bought biscuit dough and cheddar.
I came here to say this it's like half of a hungry jack casserole just missing the biscuits and cheese
Load More Replies...My mom always puréed a can of baked beans, then stirred it into spiced taco meat. It added loads of flavor and kept the ground beef from falling out of the taco shell.
Baked beans DO go with (almost) everything. I started using them as a side-dish when I was a student in the mid-90s & still do to this day. In fact, today it is going to be fried Prinskorv (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinskorv) with baked beans for lunch. Yum!
I used to enjoy eating iceberg lettuce with a tiny bit of salt on it as a snack. It started when I accidentally got salt on my side salad at dinner. Tasted it and really liked it. I'd easily eat a whole head of lettuce just snacking on this as an 8yo. lol
One year at camp for some reason we all decided that plain lettuce with yellow mustard was delicious. After a few weeks I even craved it! Teenagers are weird.
My mom provided ketchup and mayo mixed up as “pink sauce” to add on tacos
My mom had a special "carrot dip" that we ate with carrot sticks. It was mayo and mustard mixed together. :)
We had it as salad dressing. Sometimes we would put pickle relish in it and it would be Thousand Island dressing (in america)
Kraft Mac n cheese with sugar over the top of it. My dad and sister did this. YUCK!
Chilli and mashed potatoes. It ~works but I haven't eaten it in decades.
well, I love a chilli on a jacket potato, or with chips, so why not.
Peanut butter (unsweetened, chunky) with alfalfa or bean sprouts & bananas on whole wheat sourdough. I still eat it. My dad was silent generation & mom just missed being a hippie. They were still pretty “back to the land” movement.
My uncle always made this for a snack for us: sliced a banana lengthwise, spread mayonnaise on it, sprinkled it with wheat germ. Did anyone else eat that in the 70’s?
My mom would only let’s us sugary cereal if we sprinkled wheat germ on top. Otherwise it was buckwheat ‘brand’ cereal.
Eggs scrambled with cottage cheese and Worcestershire sauce, served over toasted bread. Be sure to drain the cottage cheese before scrambling, so it won’t be soggy. works best if bread is a bit stale and dry. When making jello, substitute condensed milk for the cold water. Sometimes Granny would make several flavors of jello the regular way, then cut them in cubes and stir the cubes into a half-set bowl of jello made with milk for a “fancy” dessert.
Ah a classic, jelly made with evaporated milk instead of water. My dad loves it.
We would put cottage cheese on toast and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
Making oatmeal in tomato or cream sauce for a quick risotto
oh god, so many. here’s a few: * Diet Coke + Milk. I wouldn’t drink milk unless it was mixed with diet coke. * Pizza with black olives and pineapples. My sibling and I would each get to choose a topping so we both grew to love this combo. * Grilled cheese with mayo. Not on the outside to make it crispy; no, the mayo is on the inside with the cheese. * Crackers + peanut butter + sprinkles as a snack
I put Miracle Whip in the grilled cheese sandwich once and it was a hit
I put so much Miracle Whip in my grilled cheese!
Load More Replies...horseradish sauce in a cheese toastie is lovely. that's how my mum makes them. I like them best though with wholegrain mustard and ham
When my brother and I were kids, our mom would mix milk and grape juice. We called it a purple cow. Not sure if that's something anyone else did but it's really good.
“Tuna casserole”, which was a box of mac n cheese, cream of chicken, some slices of melty cheese and canned tuna. Doesn’t matter how sick I am, I will always be able to eat one or eight bowls of it. My husband is horrified every time he hears about it, but it’s easily one of my top 10!
My mother was english,(I’m 66), and England was so poor after fighting WWII, that food rationing continued for like 12 years after the war ended. A common breakfast in our American house was buttered toast with mashed sardines and malt vinegar on it.
My mother still eats this occasionally, I'm British and 66, so that sounds about right. Can't stand it myself, but to each his own.
Yupp, was quite normal for us too, and my dad used to eat it quite a lot. Sardines on toast. Not had it for years...
Load More Replies...sardines on toast are great. used to love them growing up. a lot of my favourite dinners were "something" on toast. like mushrooms, beans, scrambled egg, cheese, spaghetti hoops (another thing I've not had in YEARS) and so on.
I am English and 70, I have never been that desperate. If my sardines are not in Tomato sauce, I won't touch them.
My husbands swedish grandmother also ate this. We're quite partial to anchovy butter on our toast with eggs.
Cold oatmeal mixed with ricotta cheese, some sweetener or sugar, and a little vanilla. Tastes like rice pudding!
a common snack in my household was to take either plain potato chips or crunchy cheetos and top them with sour cream and valentina hot sauce. it sounds ridiculous but it’s honestly a pretty top tier snack.
Baked potato's were always used as a substitute meal when I was a kid, money was so tight.
Old Bay Seasoning on almost everything. The normal fish, crabs, shrimp, chicken. But also on corn on the cob, in deviled eggs, in potato salad, in chili. Even desserts. My dad still puts glazed donut holes in a bag and some old bay and shoes it up. He eats vanilla ice cream with caramel, peanuts and old bay on top.
only recently come across this in the UK, and we like to sprinkle it on tinned new potatoes and put them in the air fryer until the skins crisp up. lovely.
I grew up where that stuff was created. Yup, it went on a lot of stuff. Now you can buy stuff in the grocery store, like potato chips with Old Bay seasoning.
Pickled beets and eggs. It’s an Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch dish. My mom always made it with garden fresh beets and it was in the fridge with Amish cucumbers and my husband thought I was a psycho 😂 he’s from Louisiana.
that sounds nice. hard boiled eggs and pickled beetroot are quite common in a more 80s style British salad, and I used to love when the beetroot and eggs were touching and the flavour of the beetroot (and colour) seemed into the eggs.
My mom used to prepare what she called a blintz, but in reality was an omelet filled with cottage cheese and jam. Every roommate I've ever made this around was very weirded out by the combo..
I like cheesy scrambled eggs atop toast with jam, so I'd definitely eat this.
well, a blintz is basically a thin, possibly eggy, crepe wrapped around some sweet soft white cheesi-ness and fruit, so this sounds pretty good, a cheap substitute for the real thing
Peanut butter and Mayo! My dad had it all the time and thought it was weird. It’s a comfort food now and tasty
Pita bread with melted Swiss cheese, mayonnaise, and shredded lettuce. My college drunk/Hangover meal.
My dad used to do “ma po tofu” with breakfast sausage and peas. I remember ordering it in a restaurant for the first time and being so disappointed. Now I like it the real way, of course, but goddamn my dad’s was still so good.
My dad was from the Netherlands but I was born and raised in the US. Couple things my friends thought were super weird were: 1) Hutspot - mashed potatoes with carrots cooked and mashed in. My grandmother would always add nutmeg too for that "what is that flavor?" feeling. 2) White bread lightly toasted, slathered in butter then sprinkled liberally with chocolate sprinkles. This is still a favorite today.
As per other comments, there are many fairly common mixes of mashed root veg, some with lots of butter, some with cheese, some oven baked or grilled, some just served as it comes. We do it with whatever leftover veg we have kicking around, including parsnip, sweet potato, even cauliflower whish works quite well, especially with a little horseradish in the mix.
My father used to mash swede and parsnips together, I was never a fan, but my husband loves it and does this regularly now.
Load More Replies...Growing up poor, breakfasts were often cooked rice mixed with some milk and a bit of sugar. It wasn't terrible, but to my lactose intolerant guts it was not fun. Luckily, my mom didn't believe in lactose intolerance at the time so I was forced to eat it despite the nausea, vomiting, and terrible poos. 😖
Milchreis (milkrice) is very common in Germany. You can get it at any supermarket or grocery store in the yogurt section. Dozens of flavors - plain with sugar, caramel sauce, fruit sauces, cinnamon etc. Not weird at all to me. Sorry for your intolerance though
Load More Replies...I guess I was experimental enough with my food growing up that none of these combinations sound strange, except for cinnamon scrambled eggs LOL
Put some cinnamon on the ground meat next time you make shepards pie, well that a nutmeg. Makes the meat taste meatier
Load More Replies...Ok, so not together but eating a peanut butter sandwich while drinking coffee just hits, its so yummy to me
TBH, most of these combinations sounds interesting and I'd be down to try them (even just once).
Try homemade pizza with pickles under the cheese/pepperoni and top it with hot sauce. May sound weird but it's the best thing ever.
Potato chips with anything sweet (usually chocolate or cookie dough) yum!
My favorite food as a kid in the late 1950s was a mayonaise sandwich. I know, disgusting right.
I will confess to salad cream sandwiches, which is probably worse
Load More Replies...Growing up poor, breakfasts were often cooked rice mixed with some milk and a bit of sugar. It wasn't terrible, but to my lactose intolerant guts it was not fun. Luckily, my mom didn't believe in lactose intolerance at the time so I was forced to eat it despite the nausea, vomiting, and terrible poos. 😖
Milchreis (milkrice) is very common in Germany. You can get it at any supermarket or grocery store in the yogurt section. Dozens of flavors - plain with sugar, caramel sauce, fruit sauces, cinnamon etc. Not weird at all to me. Sorry for your intolerance though
Load More Replies...I guess I was experimental enough with my food growing up that none of these combinations sound strange, except for cinnamon scrambled eggs LOL
Put some cinnamon on the ground meat next time you make shepards pie, well that a nutmeg. Makes the meat taste meatier
Load More Replies...Ok, so not together but eating a peanut butter sandwich while drinking coffee just hits, its so yummy to me
TBH, most of these combinations sounds interesting and I'd be down to try them (even just once).
Try homemade pizza with pickles under the cheese/pepperoni and top it with hot sauce. May sound weird but it's the best thing ever.
Potato chips with anything sweet (usually chocolate or cookie dough) yum!
My favorite food as a kid in the late 1950s was a mayonaise sandwich. I know, disgusting right.
I will confess to salad cream sandwiches, which is probably worse
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