This is quite possibly the greenest lunch I’ve eaten all month. It might even be the greenest lunch I’ve ever eaten. Like, ever ever.
My dad reads the blog and sometimes he calls to comment on cute baby pictures or if I made something that looked appealing to him.
But the other day he called to ask me what the heck I was thinking putting carrots in chili. Carrots and beef are for meat sauce, not chili! He’s not the only one who’s questioned my recent approach to chili – someone else said that chili without beans is not chili, it’s meat sauce.
Again with the meat sauce! What can I say, I’m (sorta) new to this cooking meat stuff, I plead ignorance. I guess I haven’t been making chili, I’ve been making meat sauce. Meat sauce with chili spices. And no pasta. Oh well, it’s good! No beans, extra carrots and all.
When I was having this conversation with my father about my not-chili-meat-sauce, he told me a story about someone who once made him a tuna sandwich and put pickles in it. To my dad, pickles in tuna is equally as absurd as carrots in chili.
Maybe it’s my 16 year old self wanting to do the exact opposite of whatever it is your parents are doing, but ever since that tuna with pickles conversation, I can’t stop thinking about tuna with pickles. Tuna with pickles. Tuna with pickles. TUNA with PICKLES. That.sounds.so.good.
But then again, I love pickles on any kind of sandwich. Grilled cheese, egg salad, veggie burgers. You name it, put extra pickles on it for me, please. Pickles in meat sauce? I’m thinking about it.
And so I put pickles in my tuna and avocado salad sandwich for lunch today and loved every bite. (Sorry Daddy!) I actually had this for lunch yesterday too, today was a re-run of the Fantastic Tuna and Pickle Lunchtime Show, but it was just as good the second time around. Today was extra green because I added lettuce and a side of leftover Brussels sprouts too.
What do you think? Tuna and pickles? Yay or nay? What other foods combos do some people love while others turn and run in the opposite direction? I use to think bananas and peanut butter were absurd. Now I think the fact that I use to think that is absurd.
And I use to love mustard on scrambled eggs. When I was a kid, all my little friends were putting ketchup on their eggs. I hated ketchup, but I did like mustard. To my 5 year old self, mustard was ketchup’s opposite. If I didn’t like ketchup on eggs, bring on the mustard! I still like the way mustard and eggs tastes today, but now I prefer to slather my eggs with cream cheese instead.
OK, it’s your turn! What weird food combos do you love (or hate)? GO!
Ok I got this idea from my friend’s dad but I used to put pickle relish in my tuna haha. So pickles on a tuna sandwich is pretty awesome on my book. Sorry, Alison’s Dad
I use to do relish in egg salad back in the day! Now I just cut up my own pickles for egg salad too, same difference though.
I didn’t know pickles with tuna fish was weird. That’s how I’ve always enjoyed my tuna! I also like crumble blue cheese on my sweet potatoes. Oh, and roasted broccoli with hummus. I don’t think those are weird either, but you never know.
I could get next to both of those!
In college my room mate (who was from the south, while I was from the north) added some pickle relish to her tuna fish, something which I had never seen before and seemed so weird. But boy was it yummy, Now I always wish I had a jar of pickle relish in the fridge when I open a can of tuna.
Oh, and a co worker put potato chips in their tuna sandwich, which also seemed bizarre but is super yummy.
Courtney, my dad said the same thing about potato chips during our tuna fish conversation! Too funny.
So there’s this mayo that I make on a regular basis now (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2012/04/tofu-cashew-mayonnaise.html) and if I get a plate of roasted broccoli I can make a lot of that mayo disappear.
I also put chickpeas (or lentils, whatever I have on hand) into my oatmeal in the morning.
And I’m not really a fan of the whole ketchup-and-eggs combo. A fresh tomato slice, sure, but ketchup not so much.
And last, but not least, when I used to eat fish, I would have a sardine and avocado sandwich with mustard and onions. So so so good.
Beans in oatmeal? That’s a new one! But I can’t say I would think it would taste bad either…
OK I’ve got one. My husband introduced me to this one. Peanut butter & jelly sandwich with a side of chips and salsa. At first I thought he was nuts… Now whenever I smell peanut butter I crave salsa!
This reminds me that the girls have recently started asking for peanut butter with tortilla chips… maybe the draw is the combo of the salt and peanuts!
1. I am from texas. in Texas, you do not serve chili with beans. It would be an abomination to do something like that! you would basically be ostracized from any BBQ or get together from that day forward. haha. (that being said, i do love chili with beans in it as well though. It is just socially incorrect to do something like that down here.) now chili here is not meat sauce because 1. the flavors are completely different and 2. we put BIG CHUNKS of meat in our chili. no ground meat kind of stuff. I’m talking… buy a chuck, cut it into 1 inch cubes, brown and cook in chili.
2. I ALWAYS make my tuna with sweet relish mixed into it. DELICIOUS
I dont really have any wierd food combinations that I can think of other than that that I love though. But maybe those are just strange enough.
Well this is good to know about Texas chili! I should try chili with big chunks of meat, sounds great!
Actually, you were right–traditional chili does not contain any beans. I am all about the beans and sauce, though.
I always put pickles in my tuna salad, and one of the weird food combos I like is peanut butter and mozzarella (after making Holly’s peanut butter and mozzarella pizza. http://designsondinner.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/jokes-on-you/
That peanut butter pizza is crazy, but I’d try it without a doubt. I use to have a friend who ate peanut butter and eggs… it was actually good!