My husbands epic list of all the foods he will eat

Lupercalia

I make ONE dinner at my house and we all either eat it or not. If not, you're on your own! I don't have the patience, time, or energy to make multiple dinners each night, as I'm cooking from scratch....not popping a frozen pizza in the oven or something.

The suggestion of having a stash of relatively inexpensive items (frozen burritos was the example used) he can easily heat up himself is a good one. I also liked the idea of having him look through recipes with photos and choose stuff for you to cook.

Maybe a compromise would be something like 3 nights a week you eat something as a family from his limited list, and the other 4 nights it's your call. He can either eat with you and the kids or figure out his own meal.

Yeah, his limited palate is really like that of a child's.

keenesmom

maybe he should cook himself dinner

THIS!

monicalosesweight

Pizza
Lasagna
Spaghetti
Fettuccini

Tacos (all types)
Taquitos
Enchaladas (the kind you make)

Hamburgers
Sloppy Joes

Steak
Shrimp

Chicken (BBQ, fried, any other way you can think of)
Orange Chicken
Chicken Strips
Turkey (BBQ)

Roast (beef, made into sandwiches or taquitos)

Potatoes (preferred mashed, but also baked and fried)
Corn
Salad (with ranch dressing and croutons)


Seriously this took him 3 or 4 days to come up with and the worst part is its true! I have been cooking for him for 8 years and I can't think of anything he left out! : ( I need help .... ugh

Actually, this doesn't sound that bad. I'd probably just fire up the grill and stick to cooking on it. There are tons of ways to roast potatoes on the grill, corn, and even veggies. I coat some mini-potatoes with a little oil, add some salt and pepper and roast them in an aluminum pan or packet for 20 minutes on low heat. You can do the entire menu on the grill. If you both love cooking on the grill, I'd invest in some great cookbooks and would start doing everything on it. Honestly, I live off my grilling and cook large amounts of meats to eat for everything for days. Veggies taste fantastic on the grill too.

As for pizza and the heavier stuff (if he doesn't want healthier versions), tell him to cook his own personal pizza sized or limit it to once per week and make a medium and one small one for family and hubby. He can do the toppings while you cook the families meal. I admit, I don't do Sloppy Joes. I don't like ground beef. If he's insisting on this type of food, leave it for the weekend and make a large batch that you can freeze and defrost for his sandwich (or he can defrost it himself).

I'd rather eat a steak, pork loin, beef tri-tip, or chicken. I think your frustration is more of trying to cook two meals. If he's that demanding, I think it's time for him to get his butt in the kitchen. You can tell him you can't do so much cooking and that he will be required to help if he's requesting special meals - if they are separate from what the family is eating. Basically, get in there, help with prepping AND cleanup.

By the way, continue to roast, steam and cook veggies for the kids and yourself. He doesn't have to eat them but you should eat a large portion yourself so teach the kids good habits. If he's complaining because they are on the table, nip that by a side conversation away from the kids. He shouldn't complain about foods he doesn't eat if you're giving him food he does eat. Alert him that you will cook BUT you will not cook for people who whine about what's on the table. There are people out there who don't like to even see veggies but that doesn't mean they should be able to control the entire content of what's on the table top.
Hopefully, that's not happening and this is just an issue of how to cook and not have so much to prepare.

Marion_

Seriously this took him 3 or 4 days to come up with and the worst part is its true! I have been cooking for him for 8 years and I can't think of anything he left out! : ( I need help .... ugh

Stop cooking for him.

dogetta

I try to put other things in and he wont' eat it.. i use a different type or brand of sauce and he wont eat it.. foods cannot touch so throwing chicken and potatoes into a crock pot is out.

My main issue is that its soooooo expensive to buy the groceries for me and the two kids, then separate groceries for him : (

there is litterally one way that he will eat each meal, it gets super tiring having a weekly list that looks exactly the same....every week... for the rest of my life...

Keep doing what your doing and he's going to keep getting what he's getting! YOU are spoiling him! Let him spoil himself quit buying 2 sets of food!!

JonathanBB

So, a bunch of the stuff can be made in large quantity, so have lasagna one night but make a quadruple batch. Take the extras and wrap or put into containers in Husband size portions and store in the freezer or refrigarator. Cook healthy dinners you like for you and you will have a supply of his pre-made meal for him ready to microwave.

Ely82010

I am going to kiss my husband a lot!! Reading all these posts I realized how lucky I am because he is not a picky eater at all and loves my cooking and whatever I put on the table. The OP husband would be starving at my house!

But I also wonder what happens when all the picky eaters are invited to somebody's house for dinner or lunch? Do they refuse to eat the food or they just refuse the invitation, or they just socialize with other picky eaters?

raegan1215

maybe one night a week you cook something healthy or that isn't on his list (trying to do your best to keep it not TOO far away from his comfort zone at first) and ask him to try it. TRY it. even just a bite or two. and if he would prefer after he's tried the new option, you have a premade meal from his list for him to reheat (a sandwich, leftovers etc.). maybe if you don't force change on him but allow him cautious exploration, he'd be more open. try to find new flavors or foods he likes. experiment. but don't force him.

weird_me2

Very simple meal plan:

1) Salad night. Grill some meat and have a variety of toppings. Your DH can eat his with ranch and you can switch yours up depending on your mood. Salad, even with full fat ranch dressing can be a healthy meal if the toppings are portion controlled. Go for a lot of protein on yours and a smaller amount of dressing.

2) Mexican night. Switch up the fillings and toppings and you could have tacos every week without repeating the same meal in months. We make buffalo chicken tacos with chicken breast chunks sauteed in hot sauce and then topped with lettuce and I like pineapple, salsa and BBQ sauce, DH likes salsa and ranch. We sometimes do shredded beef tacos and do them flatbread style. We ALWAYS have the stuff in the house for plain old tacos. They can be pretty healthy and fit well in to an eating plan. You could even put your toppings over salad to save the calories if need be. Or, do enchiladas.

3) Poultry night. Grill chicken or turkey, add a potato side and whatever other veggies you feel like having. Or, make your orange chicken and sautee some veggies for yourself and DH can have some rice or whatever he wants with it. Roasted broccoli is GREAT tossed with orange or general tso's sauce. It's the only way I'll eat the stuff.

4) Italian (Pizza night or pasta) night. Homemade pizza - you control the toppings. Noodles, lean meat, sauce. Change up the pasta or pizza choices for variety. Add a side salad or veggies to round out the meal.

5) Loaded baked potatoes. Variety here - change up the toppings to suit tastes. DH has his with just low fat sour cream, a little bacon and a little cheese. Last time we did it, I had all that stuff and added grilled chicken and salsa and jalapenos. It was like a big plate of nachos, but more filling and lower calories and the potato is a great source of nutrients.

6) Beef night. Make burgers or sloppy joes or roast, etc. Each week, choose a different "beef" item for variety. Again, add sides and veggies to suit everyone's tastes.

7) Free night for whatever sounds good. Sometimes you could do breakfast for dinner. I don't know many people who don't like breakfast foods and there are tons of cheap, healthy choices out there.

I also always make sure we have 1 pound packages of ground beef that's been cooked up and portioned out in the freezer. It's really fast to throw that in some spaghetti sauce or add some taco seasoning or even sloppy joe sauce and the taste doesn't suffer. I won't do this with chicken, though, just ground beef.

If you follow a simple plan like this, then you can get tons of variety with minimal extra cooking time and everyone can be happy. DH and I menu plan a month at a time now, and we often will first start with what's sounding good to us, then we'll go through and say, okay, we're only having mexican/italian once, what else can we make along those lines?

To be honest, I've read that most people have a limited number of "go to" foods and meals and repeat those in some fashion over and over. Sit down with his list and expand on it. List all the different types of tacos he will eat. List all the ways you can use bbq chicken or turkey. List the different types of enchiladas and different choices you can make (for yourself and him) with different pastas/sauces. You will probably find that you have a good list to start with and you really don't have to eat the same boring things over and over. Even if he is still resistant, keep some grilled chicken always available and/or the ground beef in the freezer and he can make his own choices.

Edited to fix quotes and also ETA: I think some of the posters are being kind of harsh here. WE all make decisions when we enter relationships and roles are decided. We don't know what roles the OP and her spouse settled on, but it's apparent that it's her role to cook. She seems fine with this but just seems a little lost right now. We all get frustrated sometimes and can't see a simple solution when it's in front of us. My DH and I have different roles than that, we both share cooking responsibilities and we also share our money. Guess what? There are foods/snacks that I love that he has no interest in. We buy those. There are things he loves that I have no interest in. We buy those. We compromise when it comes to meal times spent as a family because we are both interested in raising our children to like a variety of healthy foods, but there are still limits. He would be very upset if all I ever cooked were soups and stews because he doesn't care for them. I would be upset if all he ever cooked was seafood. We compromise. Sometimes I make a soup or stew that I think sounds good and he usually eats it; sometimes he eats whatever else is around. Sometimes he makes seafood and I eat it; sometimes I fend for myself. MOST of the time, though, we both make an effort to plan and cook main dishes that are at least mainly enjoyed by everyone. Side dishes are usually easy so we have no problem fixing 2 or 3 sides so that everyone has enough food to satisfy them and everyone is happy.

Marion_

Edited to fix quotes and also ETA: I think some of the posters are being kind of harsh here. WE all make decisions when we enter relationships and roles are decided. We don't know what roles the OP and her spouse settled on, but it's apparent that it's her role to cook. She seems fine with this but just seems a little lost right now. We all get frustrated sometimes and can't see a simple solution when it's in front of us. My DH and I have different roles than that, we both share cooking responsibilities and we also share our money. Guess what? There are foods/snacks that I love that he has no interest in. We buy those. There are things he loves that I have no interest in. We buy those. We compromise when it comes to meal times spent as a family because we are both interested in raising our children to like a variety of healthy foods, but there are still limits. He would be very upset if all I ever cooked were soups and stews because he doesn't care for them. I would be upset if all he ever cooked was seafood. We compromise. Sometimes I make a soup or stew that I think sounds good and he usually eats it; sometimes he eats whatever else is around. Sometimes he makes seafood and I eat it; sometimes I fend for myself. MOST of the time, though, we both make an effort to plan and cook main dishes that are at least mainly enjoyed by everyone. Side dishes are usually easy so we have no problem fixing 2 or 3 sides so that everyone has enough food to satisfy them and everyone is happy.

Right but the thing is here the husband does not seem ready to compromise. When you have somebody cooking all your meals you should be ready to make some effort.

kayemme

He'd be very hungry at my house.

he'd never survive here, either.

JessicaN1979

Oh wow. Sounds like my fiance. Anything that he can put between bread and eat as a sandwich he is good with. Cheeseburgers every day would be good for him even. Pizza, cheesesteaks, steak. No Mexican food or pastas though. If I cook him something I want to eat as well it is just a matter of portion control. Good luck.

VelociMama

Where is the rum?

TheRealParisLove

It sounds like he has an eating disorder. There is a disordered way of eating called selective eating disorder, but it usually only seen in autistic people and small children.

He did include "salad" in his list and that is a pretty broad category of food. I'm assuming he means a tossed green salad since he only wants ranch dressing and croutons with his salad.

Maybe check out the cook book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfield. She has a lot of those recipes in her book with ways to sneak fruit and vegs into foods that traditionally have none.

ingeh

my partner always says "dont mind" when I ask what he wants to eat..So he gets the same things everyday lol. He can never say what he actually wants. Me on the other hand usually has a couc cous dish with meat and veg for lunch, oats for breakfast and a pasta/potato dish for dinner, So im the predictable one.

MagicalLeopleurodon

My hubs:
Potatoes. no skin.
beef
Pork
some chicken
french cut green beans
corn, but not corn bread or cream style. no chowder either.
broccoli
green apples
green grapes
iceburg lettuce
jerky
bananas
gummy worms
chocolate chip cookies
cookies and cream ice cream
soda
pepperoni
string cheese
cottage cheese
black olives.
A1 sauce
swiss rolls
white bread



He wouldnt even try a shepherds pie i made. because i added carrots. its like cooking for a toddler.
My advice? Kick his butt out of the kitchen when you cook. mash cauliflower with potatoes.
use low fat cheese. whitewheat bread. 99% of the time, if greg doesnt SEE me add it-he doesnt know its there.

iceqieen

My husband had a shorter list and an even shorter of what he could cook...

I wouldnt recommend sneaking things in.. not at the start at least.. for me it worked to make it clear that if I am cooking I like cooking certain things and I will try to make what he likes but once in a while he has to try something new. Sometimes I tell him everything about what he is about to eat.. sometimes I dont unless he asks. Some of the stuff I try he doesnt like and then I just wont try that again, but if he likes it it is added to The List Point is he has to try. Started off with what he likes and maybe add one or two ingredients. Now we have allot more on The List.. and he also knows how to cook more stuff :P Not the stuff I want but the stuff he wants and I dont like cooking hehe.

We now even have different types of fish, and vegetables are a big part of our plate.. 10 years ago he would have just not eaten it at all!

douglasmobbs

I bet you he eats something else to get you to cook all that

chooriyah

I'm interested in what he eats for breakfast...

mbishay

lol that is exatly what i was thinking.