macaroni and cheese and cut up hot dogs.

when i was little, i existed almost entirely on macaroni and cheese and cut up hot dogs.

and by little i mean until i was 19.

my other main sources of nutrition were mini eggo waffles and fruit snacks.
i don't remember eating anything else.
i was convinced any other food was poison.
to the point that i gagged on pizza, wouldn't come to the dinner table when everyone else was having grilled cheese and tomato soup because it grossed me out, and picked fish sticks apart until i found a gray piece which would inevitably send me into tears and panic.  and we won't even talk about anything healthy.

i tried an orange for the first time when i was 21.

in other words, i was painfully picky.

but have no fear, moms of picky eaters, nowadays i eat (and like!) almost everything.
but macaroni and cheese and cut up hot dogs still hold a very dear place in my heart.

although i ate them often, we always had macaroni and cheese and cut up hot dogs on sunday afternoons after church.  it was a tradition. 
my favorite part about it was that my dad cooked the hot dogs. 
it was, and is still, the only thing i have ever seen him even attempt to cook. 
but damn, can he cook a hot dog. 
i'm sure it has something to do with frying them in butter in a cast iron skillet that made them so delicious.  (i think paula deen built an entire career out of those two things alone.)
but probably mostly just because it was my dad that made them. <3

sunday afternoons i still get the macaroni and cheese and cut up hot dogs itch.
we do it a little bit differently around here now... in other words, i feebly attempt to make it more healthy, (but still do that paula deen trick...)
"look over there!" *dumps five tablespoons of butter into a frying pan* "oh i thought i saw a bird."

it is my chicken noodle soup.  my fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  my comfort food.
(it's a little redneck.)
(i left out the part about always having it with kool-aid while dad watched "the race")
but that's okay.
now that i'm a nutritionally educated grown up, i'll fix something green for dinner.
fried pickles anyone?
just kidding :)