What Meals Have You Maxed Out On?

For a while when I was a kid quinoa was such a novelty and my family loved it (cooked like rice, with fish or chicken and some veggies to go with). We didn’t eat it all that much, but probably a solid once a week or so for like 2-3 years, until I was like “I don’t like quinoa anymore”. Nowadays I like it again, but I often prefer it in a salad rather than like rice, and still won’t eat it very often. My family still loves it and eats it pretty often though :) And I think I got over instant soup with croutons (you know, little sachets of powder that you pour boiling water over?) after my first year at uni, though I still eat it occasionally in the winter. It’s a quick and easy way to get something warm in your stomach, but I’ll never go back to eating it on the daily like I did then.

My husband and I thought we were being so efficient and thrifty in our 20s we made what we called ‘slaw’ every Sunday afternoon and ate it every workday lunch for quite a few years to save money. It was basically roast veg, pasta, a tomato based sauce, a mix of things that we had in the cupboard/freezer. I can’t even look at the casserole dish we put it in without thinking about it. As gross as it became, we did save money and I guess in part set ourselves up for the future with one small money saving more like this!

Same sitch on PB&J! SOFT white bread is an absolute must

My little sister loved strawberries as a kid. We would always joke with her about how obsessed she was with eating them. Then when she was around ten or so, she developed an allergy to them and it always made me feel so sad for her.

As an adult, I enjoyed drinking red wine with nice dinners, and suddenly about five years ago, I started breaking out in hives any time I had a glass! So now, I too, have developed an allergy to something I used to love =(

Annie’s mac n cheese. I had a flare up of a spinal disease in 2021 and spent most of it in bed. Annie’s mac was the only thing I could stand up long enough to make.18 months later, I don’t care if it’s on sale for 6 cents, I can’t stomach it!

Growing up in the early 80’s, my three brothers and I ate a lot of meatloaf and pork chops. They were the cheap options so that’s what we had almost every week. To this day, I don’t like meatloaf and ALL of my brothers love it. To this day I LOVE pork chops but ALL my brothers hate them.

Okay so this spaghetti picture tapped into something so primal in my brain, I dreamed about it last night. That hand was my hand, and I was eating the spaghetti *in the middle of a crowded Catholic mass.* I was trying to be discreet about eating during the mass, I had no utensils and no napkins, and the moment was drawing ever closer to the time WHEN EVERYBODY SHAKES HANDS WITH EACH OTHER. My face was a mess, my clothing was a mess, the sauce got on the sleeves of my nice wool winter coat….what does it mean??

Funny, I love routines. I eat a bowl of steel cut oats topped with chia seeds, flax meal, toasted black sesame seeds, cinnamon, dried fruit, hemp seeds and cut up fresh fruit every morning. For snacks, I eat an apple and walnuts. For lunch and dinner, I eat either lentil stew over quinoa or beans & rice. Always add steamed greens to the meal. And condiments. That is the secret. I have an array of hot sauces, fermented stuff, etc that I top my savory meals with. Sometimes I’ll make fresh masa tortillas, too. And this works for me, I never get tired of these meals. I guess because they are tasty, nutritous, satiating and so easy to mix up. You can use different types of beans, lentils, different seasonings, different greens. You can add potatoes. You can roasted any time of root vegetable for as an addition. And my home made olive oil chocolate cookies (vegan and the best thing I have ever eaten) is the perfect treat.

I heard about the famed salad that Jennifer Aniston ate every day on the set of Friends and thought it was crazy and impossible to eat that salad every day. Welp, I have made a big batch of it every week for the last three months and eaten it every day. I’m sure one day I will tire of it, but not yet. However, I never want to look at a pork chop ever again. It was the only thing my dad knew how to make growing up, so dry plain pork chops were all we ever had. No thank you!

BANANAS! I would eat them in the car on the way to cheer practice at 5:30 AM EVERY DAY for 4 years in high school and now cannot stomach them!

Pesto pasta with chicken! When my now husband and I were still dating and he was fending for his own easy dinners, Costco pesto, noodles, and rotisserie was what he ate daily, which meant I was often subject to it too. Nine years later, I still can’t stomach it.

With my second pregnancy, I had super severe nausea and could barely eat, and I was facing a constellation of dietary restrictions. There were only a few meals I could get down that checked all the boxes, and I never, ever want to eat any of them again.

White beans, sadly. I made a million pots of brothy white beans over the last handful of years and now I just cant anymore. : (

Ground turkey; liquid smoke; mayo and hot sauce on a hamburger. All were consumed while pregnant, all were consumed in excess, all remind me of my narcissistic ex, and none of them are good to begin with.

I recently was eating hard boiled eggs with flaky salt and pepper every morning. I had one experience with squishy/spongy eggs and haven’t been able to eat them since!

So sad to admit but..7 minute egg with toast. Too many times, too little texture.

Growing up with goats when I smell or taste goat milk or goat cheese it’s exactly what the goat barns smelled like. I can’t . I wont

Chipotle burritos! Was in my early 20s and working at a non-profit in NYC. Once a week Chipotle kindly donated a batch of burritos for our volunteers. The staff was all so poor that we ate the leftovers for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Every day. I can’t even look at the Chipotle logo without my stomach turning.

I always do this with breakfasts! I’m currently in my overnight oats phase but I go through phases that last months or years where I eat the same breakfast every day. (Specific cereal, oats with the same toppings, egg sandwiches, yogurt with fruit and granola) then o get so sick of them I forget about them for years afterwards.

When I was lucky enough to go the Philippines for work, I tried fresh mango for the first time. It was a revelation! So much so that I ate too many, too quickly and proceeded to somehow anger my stomach (acid? Sugar?) and then spent the next 24 hours vomiting. I can distinctly remember being on a scenic canoe trip – with a recently engaged couple – and holding my stomach and moaning as the cold sweats started, thereby ruining the atmosphere of the glow worm trip (I would later vomit off the side of the canoe, sorry to that couple and the poor guide). Now I can’t eat mangoes any more. But for three days, we were food soulmates. We’ll always have Palawan!

Movie theatre butter popcorn. I love popcorn! I love butter! Hate them together. It made me sick once in my childhood and can’t/won’t go back.

In my hometown, they give out these big pickles at the movies and I prefer for that to accompany my movie popcorn instead of butter. Since I moved, I realized pickles at the theatre wasn’t traditional nationwide.

Both Jolly Ranchers and Starburst….in elementary school, they always used to give us those two candies, nothing else, for rewards. And now I can hardly stand them, and definitely can’t stand the smell of Jolly Ranchers. But I pretty much love every other candy, and thankfully haven’t been burnt out on those (though I guess it’s kind of a bad thing for my health!)
I also can’t handle certain preparations of chicken, after me and three of my family members, as well as about half the guests at my uncle’s wedding, got sick with food poisoning from chicken. But thankfully it wasn’t like a grilled chicken but instead a pretty unique preparation of it. In the same meal I got food poisoning from, I also had fish, and now I can hardly stand the thought of fish, even though we figured out it was the chicken that made us all sick.

My first apartment in Berlin was above a Döner Kebap place. 15 years ago, the went by 2€ or sometimes 2,50€ if I remember correctly. The “vegetarian” Döner was even cheaper, it was basically just red cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cucumber in a toasted flatbreat with Joghurt sauce. I had that way too many times.

For a good year or so I was VERY into pouring boiling water onto a bowl of uncooked oatmeal (the flakey kind that isn’t too tough, but definitely not instant oatmeal) and frozen berries. I’d let it thaw/absorb the hot water for about 5 minutes and subsequently devour it while exclaiming to my skeptical partner (rather self-righteously) that “it really does taste delicious!!! No, really!” I can’t remember when I stopped, but recently, I fondly thought back to this breakfast combo and recreated it…only to realize I’d been eating half-cooked gruel and sour, only thawed berries the whole time. I have no idea how I ever managed to enjoy myself, but I guess I can at least appreciate that brief stint of excellent cholesterol. Now we’re back to butter, eggs, and carbs for breakfast and it’s wonderful.

I used to LOVE peanut butter as a kid but a few years ago I just….got over it? But my love for PB is coming back around. Is there any better breakfast than peanut butter and jelly on toast?! *chef’s kiss*