Picky eater needing meal ideas

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DesireeBoils1
DesireeBoils1 Posts: 4 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I'm a really picky eater. Not a fan of veggies, just a few, and I'm having trouble making meals. I like a few raw veggies, but not cooked. I've been eating salad with grilled chicken, but that gets old. I work at a doctors office and when drug reps bring in food it's hard for me to get a healthy meal and I desperately need some quick meals and some I can cook. Can anyone help?!?

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  • Rebecca0224
    Rebecca0224 Posts: 810 Member
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    DesireeBoils1 wrote: »
    So I'm a really picky eater. Not a fan of veggies, just a few, and I'm having trouble making meals. I like a few raw veggies, but not cooked. I've been eating salad with grilled chicken, but that gets old. I work at a doctors office and when drug reps bring in food it's hard for me to get a healthy meal and I desperately need some quick meals and some I can cook. Can anyone help?!?

    What did you eat before trying to lose weight?
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,181 Member
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    When did you discover you were a picky eater?

  • DesireeBoils1
    DesireeBoils1 Posts: 4 Member
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    Rebecca0224 wrote: »
    DesireeBoils1 wrote: »
    So I'm a really picky eater. Not a fan of veggies, just a few, and I'm having trouble making meals. I like a few raw veggies, but not cooked. I've been eating salad with grilled chicken, but that gets old. I work at a doctors office and when drug reps bring in food it's hard for me to get a healthy meal and I desperately need some quick meals and some I can cook. Can anyone help?!?

    What did you eat before trying to lose weight?

    Pasta, or well carbs in general. Pasta is my favorite though. I know I need to limit my carb intake, but I also have high cholesterol so I can't do Atkins or Keto without it skyrocketing
  • DesireeBoils1
    DesireeBoils1 Posts: 4 Member
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    JeromeBarry1 wrote: »
    When did you discover you were a picky eater?

    Big time since i was a child, but I'm trying to eat new things and recently discovered I like asparagus. I'm really weird about textured foods so I have a problem with 'mushy' food.
  • hmkiesel
    hmkiesel Posts: 27 Member
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    if you like pasta, have you tried an alternative such as spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles? you can use them either on their own or with a smaller portion of pasta mixed in. It's an easy way to bulk up your meals without a lot of calories.
  • an0393na
    an0393na Posts: 840 Member
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    DesireeBoils1 wrote: »
    Rebecca0224 wrote: »
    DesireeBoils1 wrote: »
    So I'm a really picky eater. Not a fan of veggies, just a few, and I'm having trouble making meals. I like a few raw veggies, but not cooked. I've been eating salad with grilled chicken, but that gets old. I work at a doctors office and when drug reps bring in food it's hard for me to get a healthy meal and I desperately need some quick meals and some I can cook. Can anyone help?!?

    What did you eat before trying to lose weight?

    Pasta, or well carbs in general. Pasta is my favorite though. I know I need to limit my carb intake, but I also have high cholesterol so I can't do Atkins or Keto without it skyrocketing

    Me too!
    I have found since I've lost weight that over time my taste has changed slightly... Less often I crave carbs now and now after eating carbs I notice I feel bloated. You might find this soon maybe
  • AnaSoluna
    AnaSoluna Posts: 16 Member
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    I'm very much an eater like you. My strategy recently has been to incorporate vegetables in sneaky ways. Adding mashed sweet potato into oatmeal, shredded zucchini or spaghetti squash into pasta, etc. Curry is also great for hiding objectionable vegetables.
  • shaumom
    shaumom Posts: 1,003 Member
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    I hate veggies, so I try to sneak them in, or hide their flavor with sauces. Like, I make this sweet peanut sauce and make a spring roll that has a very, very thinly chopped veggies (matchstick sized pieces) - little cucumber, a little carrot, a little red bell pepper or cilantro, plus chicken or tofu with the peanut sauce, then I wrap thin rice noodles around it, or rice, and then put the spring roll wrapper on it.

    I like the sauce enough that I can ignore the veggies -they just give a crunch, but little flavor. Dip in the sauce to eat.

    One thing that has helped me is to really think about what I hate about veggies. Like for me, it's the flavor primarily - I don't mind the texture. So sauces or mixing them with something strongly flavored helps me best. For my daughter, she realized she hates crunchy things that STAY crunchy when you chew them up. Like, crackers start crunchy but get soft, but carrots stay crunchy until you swallow, and that grosses her out - she does better with cooked veggies.

    So for you...if cooked veggies are bad, I'm guessing crunchy might be a good thing for you? Or maybe the flavor? Whatever it is, if you can work with that, it helps, you know? Like, raw veggies dipped in hummus is pretty good - my son like baby carrots and baby bell peppers or bell pepper slices like that. I make a falafal and add raw cucumbers and tomatoes, with some lemon juice and dill, plus hummus, over them - but I've used a number of crunchy veggies that worked.

    I add celery root to mashed potatoes. I have blended up mushrooms and onions with water and cooked it with meat like a sauce - quite good, actually. I grate or puree many veggies the same color if I use them in a sauce - like pureed bell pepper and zucchini in tomato sauce (kids hate the texture otherwise). finely grated zucchini or yellow squash in hamburger meat is nearly indetectable, if it's flavored at all. Pureed spinach, herbs, or even celery or zucchini I sometimes add to batters and dough for breads, especially flatbreads like corn tortillas.
  • Je55ica_79
    Je55ica_79 Posts: 277 Member
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    What veggies do you like? What fruits do you like? Try looking at pinterest for healthy recipes with what you like. Do you like tuna, pork, shrimp, scallops? Their high in protein so it will help keep you satisfied if you mix them with a veggie pasta maybe. Yogurt is good too. You could do plain Greek yogurt with PB2 and make a fruit dip high in protein moderate fat and cals. Pare it with grapes, a banana, strawberries I've also done it with baby carrots or carrot sticks.

  • Safari_Gal
    Safari_Gal Posts: 888 Member
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    Grilled fish - fast and easy!
  • CellywithBellie
    CellywithBellie Posts: 13 Member
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    eat what you like. There's no rule that if a recipe that you like has veggies in it that you don't like, you have to put it in them. Omit them and eat the raw veggies you prefer. You'll have to play around with it so life works for you.
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
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    This question would be a lot easier to answer if you stated what you do like to eat. However, as a picky eater myself, a few suggestions:
    • Add the veggies you do like to anything possible. I love zucchini. I will mix shredded and chopped zucchini into just about any pasta, stew, burgers, pancakes, muffins, cookies, etc. This adds volume to the recipe allowing for more servings and fewer calories per serving at the same serving size.
    • Soups and cooked pasta sauces can really muddle flavors of vegetables you don't like with those you do, if trying to eat more vegetables is part of your goal or helps your weightloss.
    • Sauceless pastas can be surprisingly low calorie.
    • There are tons of ways to cook chicken besides just grilled, and lots of different ways to season it.
    • There are a surprising number of different ways to make a sandwich. One I really like is pan fried chicken with sliced apple, spinach, and mayo. Quesadillas can be similarly made a bunch of different ways. My favorite is goat cheese, monterey jack, corn, black beans, pan-cooked bell pepper on a flour tortilla.

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