Dealing with a PICKY eater

My boyfriend is like this!! Let's be friends!

He will literally ONLY eat tinned veggies- corn, peas, and green beans. His fruit intake consists of mandarin oranges and strawberry fruit popsicles.

I sneak him veggies in chili and sauces by mincing green peppers and onions so small into marinara sauce he can't identify them. A lot of times I modify our meals to be similar. I'll make him a double bacon cheeseburger, and I'll have a venison patty with laughing cow and turkey bacon on a bed of spinach. Having a large griddle is great because I can use half for "his food" and half for mine without making a lot of dirty pots. I eat a lot of raw vegetables so I don't do extra cooking. We compromise on his veggies by buying the cans without salt. I heat it and then remove my portion before adding all the butter and salt he likes.

Another recent victory is I have gotten him in the habit of drinking a glass of water every day. This man literally only drinks Pepsi or an occasional coffee loaded with cream and sugar.

I know the biggest problem is he's never been exposed to a lot of my foods before. He's a good ol' southern boy raised on Paula Dean, so his main dietary staples are cream, butter, salt, and sugar. For now, I have only been cooking one meal a week that he has to put up and shut up with. Recently I made a tex-mex stew with black and pinto beans. It got a rating of "not awful".

OH! He definitely does the fake allergy thing, too! Like he's allergic to eggs, but only by themselves. They're fine as French toast. And he's allergic to milk, but only glasses of milk. If it's on cereal it's fine. He eat American, Italian, and Mexican, but that's it. His excuse is "What if I'm allergic to something in it?" Very very frustrating.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!

I am at my wits end with my husband's pickiness. He doesn't like any veggies except corn & carrots. He doesn't like any fruit except green apples & bananas. He doesn't like beans, spicy food, olives, sour cream, cottage cheese, ketchup or any other kind of condiments, and there is probably a lot longer list.

This really messes up my diet, and frustrates me because I feel like I can't cook what I like. He gripes and complains if I add something he doesn't approve of. Even if he can just pick it out. He claims things make him sick, but if I cook chicken with black beans and he picks the beans out, he is still eating the juice. So wouldn't that make him sick?

It's gottens so bad that I feel guilty if I cook chicken alfredo with broccoli, or stir fry with bell peppers. I feel guilty when I even buy tomatoes. I am not FORCING him to eat them. I just want to cook the food. If he doesn't want to eat something he can pick it out. But he sees this as me being selfish and not considering his feelings. Then he yells, and we get in a big fight over something so stupid. I just want to get healthy and would like it if he would join me in this journey, and support me. <sigh>

Does anyone else have a spouse or child like this? Do you have any advice on how to work around it, or to get him to TRY new things??

Tell him to suck it up. I would love to have a woman cook for me.. ugh..

Um ever thought about telling him if he doesn't like it cook his own meals, don't feel guilty about eating the good stuff ( I mean veggies) think he might change his mind then try it you never know ????

Tell him if he's going to be that picky (and that obnoxious about being that picky), he'll have to cook his own meals.

It sounds like he's being a bit of a manchild about this so going all or nothing might be your best bet.

He's an adult and and can make his own dinner. If I make dinner for the night in my house, it's "you either eat what I cook or make your own food". It's the same if my husband cooks, if I don't like it I get my own food.

^^ this. Time to share the cooking.

Also, tell him to man up, and stop whining.

My boyfriend can be picky too, but lucky for me in the opposite way! He was vegetarian about six years ago or so, and then swung around and decided to eat paleo. Fortunately, I'm fine with eating this way so I have no problem accommodating his requests, but if I were in your shoes, I would do what many others have already suggested and tell him kindly but firmly that you are his wife, not his personal chef, and ask him to please respect your health enough to understand why you want to eat the way you do, and to respect your time enough to not expect you to cook twice for him.

When I met my husband, he was a super picky eater. But little by little he changed... he started tasting different foods and when he found out that he actually liked them, I think that gave him more confidence.. and that lead to trying even more things! Now he pretty much eats anything and I seem like the picky one. LOL. But I love cooking for him as he always loves it, no matter what I make.

It's exhausting-especially if your husband is pickier than your 4 children.

The rule in my house is.. If you don't like what I made to eat, fix your own damn food or starve!

I am this picky eater! Although, I don't do the fake allergy thing. I don't eat beef, seafood, fish, pork, or poultry on a bone. My husband won't touch cheese ravioli or eat a salad that doesn't consist of iceberg, grape tomatos, carrots, TONS of cheese, olives, and a RIVER of dressing.

We do make two meals most nights to keep ourselves happy. What I like to do is make "his and hers" meals. For example if I make lasagne, I only put the beef, onions, and peppers in his side. On my side I use ground turkey or make it just plain cheese. Then I put somthing obvious on top (like an initial made of olives) so we we know who side is whose. Then I tupperware the leftovers to eat later in the week.

You can do this alfredo too. If he doesn't like it, make a small batch and tupperware the extra servings. Then make him a Paula Dean platter and tupperware his extra servings. If you do this a couple nights a weeks, eventually you will have a stash of individual meals and you can eat what you want without him giving you the stinkeye.

My fiance is the exact same person! I swear he will only eat meat, bread, and cheese. Corn and green beans are the only veggies he will eat, and strawberries and bananas on the fruit side. I have tried everything to convince him to eat healthy or even just try new things. It came down to me cooking for me and making a similar version for him. He eventually wanted to try some of the things I was eating, SOME.So far in two years I have been able to introduce jalapenos, rasberries, blueberries, soy milk, and low fat versions of his favorite foods into his diet. Oh, and I also hide spinach and greek yogurt in his smoothies and throw flax seed and use whole wheat flower in his breakfast muffins. He doesn't know the difference. He is a terrible soda drinker, probably five cans a day, so I make him drink two cups of water for every soda he drinks.

I would say that as hard as it is, he probably won't change unless he feels there is something in it for him. He grew up in a little country town where his mother believes butter and bacon will fix all problems. lol
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An example is, this morning I made him a "strawberry/banana smoothie" that actually had strawberries, bananas, raspberries, blackberries,spinach, kale, greek yogurt instead of milk and a touch of almonds. Never knew the difference. Then I made grilled chicken and jalapeno wraps for breakfast. His was wrapped in a tortilla and mine in romaine lettuce. It is annoying sometimes, and weekends he has to make all his own food. But, I like to cook and he appreciates me trying. Sometimes.

I'd tell my husband to make his own damn meals then.

this for sure

My husband asked me last night: "When are you going to cook NORMAL food?". :explode:

I have to agree with the others who have said to tell him "if you don't like what I am cooking, cook your own blasted meal" :P. But I know that sometimes that doesn't always work (and it sounds like he can be, as others have stated, a bit of a "manchild" about this issue).

My husband is a bit picky (more so than myself and even my kids) and so like some others have suggested I usually will modify things a little bit to make sure he gets enough of what he likes to eat and the kids and I have other things too. BUT- I definitely don't sacrifice my time or health to totally accommodate him. I have gotten him to try some things by hiding them in other things (like someone else suggested) but they have to either look similar to something else (tricked him with asparagus one day by putting it in a stir fry- he thought it was green beans) or be covered in tomato sauce usually (or so small you don't know it's there). No matter what way I do it, though, I can never get him to try broccoli or cauliflower! He has a bit of a sensitive sense of smell, though, so I think that is the turn off of some foods for him (can't even have tuna in the house- but that doesn't bother me too much, never ate it much to begin with).

One thing to think about, also, is how he grew up eating. Like another poster said about her husband, he grew up eating "Paula Deen" style . Sometimes it is hard for people to step out of comfort zones and that might be part of the issue. If he grew up eating a certain way and the way you are wanting to eat is vastly different, it might be hard initially for him to step out of the comfort of familiar foods. My husband grew up eating pretty bad (his family has always been short on money, so a lot of what they ate came from cans or was something like spaghetti or taco casserole) and it took a bit for me to get him to try a different way of cooking things. Also, his mom is not really the greatest of cooks (pretty bland food and veggies from a can) and I think that has played into some of his not wanting to try certain foods again. If the first time you try a food you have a bad experience with it or it tastes horrible, a lot of people might not want to try it again because of the memory of it tasting so bad. I am like that with liver- tried it once and my memory of eating it was like eating a sponge that just exploded in my mouth (not quite the best description but close enough), so I refuse to touch it now . Same with orange juice- got sick after drinking it once and haven't drank it since (although I don't really like anything orange very much, so that is probably part of it too). So, that might be something to think about (not that it should change your actions or eating, though).

Sorry, I kinda wrote a book. Hope some of that helps you, though. Bottom line: you do what you have to do to keep yourself on the track of eating healthier. He's a big boy and can fend for himself if he doesn't want to reach a compromise on eating habits.

There needs to be more sandwich making and less husband bashing, He isn't on your lifestyle change.

If he wants a sandwich, he can make his own d@mn sandwich! She shouldn't have to make different meals for both of them just to accommodate his pickiness! And it doesn't really sound to me like she is either bashing him OR trying to make him completely change (she said she would like for him to join her on this journey but not that she is completely trying to change him)! She is just looking for some ideas on how to keep herself on track AND keep the tension in the house down (because it sounds like food is a point of fighting in their house if things aren't how he likes them).