Need Help!! DH an incredibly picky eater!

[soxthecatrules]

I need some advice and/or resources on food/menu planning. DH is VERY picky regarding his food. I swear the man could live on chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes and gravy!! Not joking! I try fixing us something different and at least half way healthy and he's never overly impressed. He is a meat (beef and chicken mainly, DEFINITELY NO FISH) and potatoes kind of guy.

So, what have you done to combat this? Do you have some good recipes for me to try? Did you just give up and start making two meals every night? This is really important to me b/c I personally could stand to lose a few pounds for health reasons and I'm not keeping DS and DD on track. Something has got to give. DH has wonderful genes. He will probably be thin all of his life with relatively few health problems. That's just the way his family is. So he doesn't understand or grasp the whole concept of trying to eat better to improve your health.

Please help!

[SeekingSerenity]

Subbing here because this sounds a lot like what I go through. Except my H will actually eat fish. He prefers it fried, though, and would rather I don't make it more than once a week. If I could afford to make steak and baked potatoes every night of the week, he would be thrilled. :

Also my guy does not have good genes. I am the extraordinarily thin one, and although he's lost weight, he's still a good 25-30 lbs overweight and if I don't watch how I cook things, it'll start edging back up. At one point he was about 50 lbs over, and managed to slim down on his own when we were separated.

But trying to get my kids to eat veggies when they see him shunning them makes things difficult. That, and I get tired of rotating through the same 5 meals over and over... and over.

[charleysmama23]

Me too!! DH is SOOOOOO picky. His mom doesn't really like to cook so never made a big fuss...I swear the ONLY seasoning in her house is Lawry's Seasoning Salt. Because of that he has very limited taste buds. He even tries to like new things and still he can't stomach any fish for sure, he hates anything with a lot of "flavor" (spicy, cilantro, lemon...). One thing I have found: he likes "stir-fry". I make it so many different ways and I can put lots of different veggies in, I cut them up in big chunks so he can avoid the ones he doesn't like (he only eats peas, corn, beans, carrots...??). I put it over rice, noodles, in soft tacos! I make the sauce a few different ways. Soy sauce, orange juice, honey, crushed garlic and corn starch (with a little chicken broth or water) is a favorite of his (he likes sweet things). Hope other mamas have good ideas!

[soxthecatrules]

charleysmama....are you sure we're not married to the same man?

Is your MIL slightly neurotic and chain smoke and ride a motorcycle even though she's in her mid-80's???

[lil_earthmomma]

Both my dh and I love steak and potatoes!

I'm the picky one, and I've come a long way. When I met my dh I did not eat any meat, or any cooked veggies. Now I love beef (except for ground beef I only like it mixed with spicy italian sausage) chicken, pork! Still working on the cooked veggies, but I now love mushrooms, onion, garlic, and can tolerate asparagus and green beans. I still prefer my veggies raw. I now love to cook. Maybe you can get dh involved in the cooking?

What dh did was make familiar foods and introduce one new thing. So with your chicken fried steak, make a mushroom gravy. Or with the potatoes, make a potato casserole with lots of cheese and whatever, but add roasted califlower.

Also, you can make healthier versions of fried foods by baking them.

What kinds of foods do you like that are not making the cut?

HTH a little.

[soxthecatrules]

I hate to admit that our diet is very heavy in processed foods. What it boils down to is that I need to do more cooking from scratch. Right now I'm just incredibly discouraged and don't know where to turn. I read posts on this board and another natural living site and I'm just overwhelmed and in awe. I do have the time to cook from scratch as I only work part-time.

As of late I've been sneaking certain things into our supper. This maybe my best route. I probably need to look at a "conventional" recipe and figure out ways to trick him. For example, last night we had tacos. Didn't have lettuce but had raw spinach. So I cut it up real small and didn't tell DH what it was until after he ate it! He would have had no idea if I wouldn't have told him.

DH is really good about cooking meals. Its just that none of his meals will ever be healthy.

And, we eat out a lot. I'm just so overwhelmed at this point that most of the time I just throw up my hands in resignation. I personally would have no problem in boycotting all eating out for a month just to see what happens.

[cristeen]

Well, saying someone is "meat and potatoes" isn't a whole lot of information to work with... meat and potatoes can be the basis of a perfectly healthy diet. What exactly is it that he won't eat (other than lettuce)? Cooked veggies, any veggies, salad veggies? Are you only worrying about dinner, or how many meals a day do you feed him? Does he eat fruit? Nuts? Cheese? Yogurt? Pasta? Pizza? (what does he like on his pizza/pasta?) Any starches other than potatoes?

Honestly, faced with having to serve "meat and potatoes" at every meal, I'd start getting creative with side dishes. Grains and veggies both serve themselves up for various flavors nicely.

[SeekingSerenity]

Originally Posted by soxthecatrules

As of late I've been sneaking certain things into our supper. This maybe my best route. I probably need to look at a "conventional" recipe and figure out ways to trick him. For example, last night we had tacos. Didn't have lettuce but had raw spinach. So I cut it up real small and didn't tell DH what it was until after he ate it! He would have had no idea if I wouldn't have told him.

Can't tell you how many times I have done that. I even chop spinach up reeeeally small and stir it into spaghetti sauce. I just tell him I dumped in extra parsley. He never knows.

I also do this with salad. I got him to eat romaine lettuce as opposed to just iceberg all the time, and now I cut spinach into strips and mix it with the romaine. I just make sure to get the dark green tops of the romaine leaves cut small too, so they sorta blend. My H will only eat salad with halved cherry tomatoes in it... sometimes I can put cucumber in it too, but usually just leaves and maters, that's all he wants in it.

One thing I learned to do, I learned for my kids' benefit. Since I had a hard time getting them to eat veggies (thankfully they're better about it now), someone suggested grating veggies really fine and stirring them into my sauces, soups, stews, gravies, etc. Carrots, squash, zucchini, anything that will grate will hide well in a dark or thick liquid. This person also made squash pancakes, breads, etc., which is pretty hard to pass off to an adult but works well with a kid.

[soxthecatrules]

Okay. I'll get more detailed. DH could easily be happy on a diet of:

meats--grilled hamburgers, chix fried steak, steak, roast, chix breast, and processed deli meats. I know... not all that bad. But, one had better not try anything "funky" or different with that mixture.

vegetables--he's not really keen on salads at all, will eat peas, green beans, potatoes (I know...a starch), carrots.

fruits--rarely eats them. Will sometimes grab an apple.

starches--lots of bread, crackers, chips, etc

Casseroles---he actually is pretty open to casseroles. This maybe my best line of defense. One can hide a myriad of ingredients in them.

side dishes---this may be another line of defense. We can share the main course, i.e. grilled chix, and I could make a couple of different sides. He did manage to eat couscous last week and like it. I think will try quinoa this week.

Heaven forbid you put tomatoes, onions, garlic, or cucumbers in anything. If you do you either have to cut the pieces large so he can pick them out or puree them so he doesn't know the difference.

We also have a TON of processed foods in our fridge...like frozen pizzas, toaster streudels, White Castle hamburgers, taquitos, quesadillas, french fries, etc. He loves this stuff.

Hope this helps.