Seriously, why are hearts a food of choice?!
“Curried chicken hearts over rice. I was about 8 years old at the time, my brother was 7. We had the typical appetite for kids food like mac & cheese, corn dogs, PB&J, and cereal. So it hit us as a surprise when we realized what she was serving us. My brother and I sat there for a few minutes inspecting and dissecting our meal with our batman forks. To our horror and confusion we noticed the tiny greasy hearts and their little ventricles and veins wondering why anyone would WANT to eat this. Now, my mother was typically the one to make us finish our plate at every meal, so I knew we weren’t getting out of this alive. But I think this night, God whispered in to her ear and proposed mercy on our souls. After sitting there for about 15 minutes and my mother saying “Just try it!” about 50,000 times, she compromised and said if we can take 3 big bites, she’ll make us some ham sandwiches. And good lord, I’ve never had a better tasting ham sandwich in my life. To this day I still cannot eat curry or even smell it without my stomach turning queasy.”
Tuna Casserole…yummmmm.
“Over 30 years ago…..my mother made a tuna fish casserole (two separate ones as a matter of fact). That was the worst meal I have ever had in my life. But trust me — one simply did not criticize anything about my mother, she would get angry, pout and make life miserable for weeks! So I remember my dad, brother and I just forcing our way through the meal, and politely turning down seconds (because “it was so rich” of course ). So mom stuck the 2nd in freezer, and I lived in mortal fear of the day it would get defrosted. Never happened though……because when my mom and I went out of town for a weekend, my dad and brother took it out of freezer and threw it away. Proclaimkng of course they ate it, haha. Nope, they went out for pizza.”
Just turn everything into a soup.
“I grew up with a relatively poor childhood so a few times I went without eating dinner because there was nothing in the cupboards or fridge. Hamburger was the cheapest meat and we are that alot in our meals. Hamburger soup, hamburger helper, spaghetti with hamburger sauce… but usually we didn’t have anything to add besides boiled potatoes so my parents (probably) invented this one God awful dish that I’m not even sure has a name for. What they did was brown the hamburger and drain the grease, then they added FLOUR and water to make this disgusting grey paste (and added chopped onion if available). The taste of it was bland and I refused to eat it depending on how starving I was that night. I imagine it’s what eating wet newspaper tastes like. Now I’m an adult and I cook my own meals in my own house. I’m not sure if my parents still cook that abomination, I would hope not because they are doing financially better than when I was a child.”