What Meals Have You Maxed Out On?

When I moved to New York 20 years ago…

…I worked two jobs, but they didn’t pay much, so I was pinching pennies. To cut costs, I’d buy noodles and the cheapest tomato sauce at the bodega. I ate that for dinner almost every night for two years. Nowadays? I can barely look at a plate of spaghetti. I’ve officially maxed out.

Later, when I was pregnant, I had an evening routine: stretch out on the sofa, queue up a 30 Rock rerun, and eat a handful of Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Almonds. I craved them! But these days, they just remind me of feeling achy and sleepy and having (very) swollen feet.

Our associate editor Jannelle has a love/hate relationship with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. “My mom used to pack them in my lunch alllll the time in elementary school. They were always on super wheat-y bread because she was trying to be healthy, but it was so dry. I remember choking and chugging water. They tasted like sandpaper, and I was like, ‘Mom, why???’” Nowadays, Jannelle has to be very much in the mood to eat one. “I need to make it with soft, white bread,” she says. “And have a big glass of milk.”

On that note, this video made me laugh:

What about you? What meals have you maxed out on?

P.S. 10 quick spring dinners, and how to get kids to talk at dinner.

(Photo by Juan Moyano/Stocksy.)