What’s the most depressing meal you’ve eaten?

1. After my mother died I had to clean out her place. Because it was in another city, I ate there to save some money. There is nothing more depressing than eating the food from a dead person's refrigerator.
   — notthatcbailey


2. I found some Kraft Mac and Cheese in my pantry while I was home alone (I was probably 17 or 18 at the time), and I decided to cook it. The color of the cheese was a little off, but I was hungry and ate it anyway. I checked the box and realized that it had expired about 6 and a half years prior. Whoops.
   — Vector-Zero


3. I bought a discounted cake at the grocery store that had "Happy Anniversary Anna" still visible in the indentation even though most of the frosting had been scraped off. I got drunk and ate it alone.
   — Quinton36






4. Rice with lemon juice (from a bottle), it was sour but at least it filled me up so I could sleep. Thankfully the next day was pay day.
   — MadLintElf


5. When I was in college as a freshman I did not go home for Thanksgiving. This is because my family back home, less than an hour away by car, forgot to tell me what anyone was doing so I presumed no one was doing anything. I went to a private Catholic college, so I was able to convince Res Life to just let me stay on campus even though students were supposed to be gone that week. On Thanksgiving I went to Hardee's and got a cheeseburger because I was a broke college kid and that was in the budget. I wandered over to the campus cemetery (for the monks) and sat at a bench near where all the former Abbots had been buried and ate my cheeseburger. It was kinda sad, just sitting on a bench in a cemetery eating a cheeseburger alone. After I ate it I just chilled there because it was unseasonably nice out. Then I heard feet shuffling and one of the really old monks was walking up to me. He said hello. It was Abbot Oscar (RIP), who had been Abbot of the monastery before I was a student. He sat down and talked to me and it was the first real conversation I had with a monk. He was from Gerogia and had the most amazing old man southern accent. He was very funny and charming and it brightened my day. I later found out that another monk knew I was staying on campus for Thanksgiving and had arranged for me to eat dinner with the local parish which hosts dinners for students staying behind but someone forgot to email me about it! So a depressing meal turned into a good memory and initiated a friendship with the monastery that I still have 10 years later. Abbot Oscar died last year. RIP, old man, you were a good guy!
   — CustosClavium


6. After my girlfriend and I broke up, I ate her leftover pizza from the night before. Never ate pizza that made me sad until that night.
   — LezzyGopher






7. One day in college I had no meal punches left and had no money for food. That night I had sleep for dinner
   — AGMarasco


8. Single slice of cake for my birthday by myself. I don’t bother celebrating at all anymore
   — ThisMayBeADrill


9. Not me, but.. One time I watched my roommate smear one piece of bread with marinara and parmesan and the other with applesauce. She would also make these pie pans just full of frosting, eggless cake batter, marshmallow and candy pieces and she would eat that for 3 meals a day.
   — dolphingloves






10. A cheese and mustard sandwich without bread.
    — ywuiadr


11. I can think of two: We were in college and struggling to make ends meet. We were trying not to rely so much on our credit card to get groceries and doing our best to hold out to payday to get food. So, we split a can of pork n beans for dinner because it was one of the only things we had to eat. Second one was years later. Husband is military and deployed. I lived overseas and out two oldest kids were really little (2 & 5). It was Thanksgiving and I didn't prepare a traditional meal because it was just me and the kids and they weren't going to eat much. I bought myself a smoked salmon for the occasion. I just remember sitting alone at the table (the kids had a nibble of whatever they were eating and had run off to play) and feeling lonely and sad. I had been invited to dinner by two different friends--I don't remember now why I didn't accept either invitation. I just remember in my head trying to think of it being a regular day, not a holiday, so I wouldn't feel so sad.
    — IwantAnIguana


12. C ration peanut butter and crackers in the jungle the evening after most of my platoon got rubbed out in Cambodia.
    — chefranden






13. 4 trays of bagel bites in the span of 15 minutes. Keep in mind they each require 2.5 minutes in the microwave.
    — snackman529


14. A cold, flour tortilla with salsa verde and no cheese
    — belmont_clann