What to cook for the hubby

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ckh825
ckh825 Posts: 23 Member
in Food and Nutrition
What kind of healthy meals can I cook without vegetables. My hubby is a meat and potatoes guy. He will eat green beans, corn, peas, carrots, but that is about it. Broccoli, squash, spinach, onions (unless I cut them up really small) tomatoes, lettuce, all the good stuff is a BIG NO from him. He will not eat his vegetables. What can I cook that might be somewhat healthier

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  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    Will you be sharing these meals or will these be prepped for his workday lunch?
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
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    what he eats is healthy enough - if you have meat and some potato and one other veg - the beans or corn or whatever. that's perfectly fine! Be creative in how you cook stuff - you can make big casseroles with meat and all the above-mentioned veg, you can grill meat and veg, steam the veg... whatever. if he doens't like broccoli, don't eat it. won't be necessarily a bad thing.
  • RAinWA
    RAinWA Posts: 1,980 Member
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    Do the vegetables he likes and do the ones you like. It's not really hard to make extra vegetables.

    My husband has a limited number of vegetables he likes, so I don't try to force him to eat ones he doesn't I just make up a batch of what I want in addition. I know it seems like a pain to start with but it becomes routine. My husband can't cook and I have learned it is less stressful for both of us if I just don't make a big deal about it.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    ckh825 wrote: »
    What kind of healthy meals can I cook without vegetables. My hubby is a meat and potatoes guy. He will eat green beans, corn, peas, carrots, but that is about it. Broccoli, squash, spinach, onions (unless I cut them up really small) tomatoes, lettuce, all the good stuff is a BIG NO from him. He will not eat his vegetables. What can I cook that might be somewhat healthier

    If he isn't willing to try other vegetables make the ones he will eat. The stuff he likes has nutrients so they are not bad. You can eat other things while he eats those things if you want more variety.

    If he will try other things maybe try different preparations like roasting or incorporating into soup or sauces.
    The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without by Mollie Katzen had some recipes my vegetable avoiders liked.
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D193MOS/ref=dbs_a_def_awm_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i2
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    Never reject a new vegetable until you have had it roasted. After decades of hating my cauliflower cooked, someone made me roasted cauliflower. Delish!
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    i cook what i cook.

    whether or not he eats it is another issue, and is his issue, not mine.

    my hubby likes veg, just typically different ones than i do. we eat a lot of green beans.... its one of the few 'mutual' veg. we also do a lot of salad with dinner.
  • lalalacroix
    lalalacroix Posts: 834 Member
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    Personally I cook whatever I choose to eat. If the others, including my husband, do not like any of the foods then they can make something else.
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
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    I'm inclined to say he can just cook for himself. To be more helpful to you though, soups can be a good way to "mask" vegetables since all of the flavors blend together. I like shredding or chopping zucchini and adding it to muffins, pancakes, sauces, pastas, cookies, burgers, etc. It has extremely minimal impact to the flavor of most of those things while adding volume and nutrients.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    ckh825 wrote: »
    What kind of healthy meals can I cook without vegetables. My hubby is a meat and potatoes guy. He will eat green beans, corn, peas, carrots, but that is about it. Broccoli, squash, spinach, onions (unless I cut them up really small) tomatoes, lettuce, all the good stuff is a BIG NO from him. He will not eat his vegetables. What can I cook that might be somewhat healthier

    What's wrong with that...that's just fine...those are vegetables. There's nothing unhealthy about meat and potatoes either...so make hims some meat and potatoes and one of those vegetables he likes.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,898 Member
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    concordancia wrote: »
    Never reject a new vegetable until you have had it roasted. After decades of hating my cauliflower cooked, someone made me roasted cauliflower. Delish!

    My OH never liked cauliflower until we had Buffalo cauliflower at a restaurant. That was probably deep fried, but I found this recipe https://www.franksredhot.com/recipes/Buffalo-Cauliflower-Bites and we love it! Sure, it's more calories than a plain veggie, but he's eating it now.

    @ckh825 the above is not what is meant by roasted vegetables, which just have oil and spices, but I thought I would add my comment anyway. But lots of people here have mentioned that roasting vegetables was a game changer for them or their family.
  • funjen1972
    funjen1972 Posts: 949 Member
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    What about tomato based sauces? Puree some veggies and add to the sauce for an extra boost. I did this with all sorts of veggies when my kids were young and it looks like seasoning.

    (My instinct says cook whatever you want and open a can of corn for him if you're feeling generous, though)

  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    edited January 2019
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    You don't really say what this is about. Are you making changes for yourself and trying to make it agreeable for him? Does he have a desire to eat more vegetables, or do you just want that for him (because that might be a lost cause)?

    To answer your specific question, my kids accept their vegetables more readily in one-pot type dishes where they are already mixed in. Soups, stir-fries, skillet meals. I introduced my kids to kale (chopped fine) in a skillet dish of pasta, hamburger, & tomatoes. The other day, my daughter came in the kitchen while I was making sausage, potato, & kale soup (like Olive Garden's) and said, "Oh good... I love kale!" When we're having meat for the main dish, our side will often be a sweet potato (tons of vitamin A) or a smoothie (great for burger night) made from milk, Greek yogurt, spinach, and frozen strawberries.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited January 2019
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    ckh825 wrote: »
    What kind of healthy meals can I cook without vegetables. My hubby is a meat and potatoes guy. He will eat green beans, corn, peas, carrots, but that is about it. Broccoli, squash, spinach, onions (unless I cut them up really small) tomatoes, lettuce, all the good stuff is a BIG NO from him. He will not eat his vegetables. What can I cook that might be somewhat healthier

    What's the concern? That you are sharing the meals? If so, I'd make meat + any of the things you mentioned that he eats + whatever other vegetable you want. Maybe watching you eat them would make him want to try them. If you are trying to lose weight, it's easy enough to eat smaller portions of meat and potatoes (or peas or corn) and fill up the plate with other veg. Ultimately, he is responsible for what he eats.

    If he is trying to lose weight, he can do it eating what he does. A meal of pork chop + roasted potato with green beans and carrots on the side is certainly healthy. It would just get a little boring without more varied veg IMO.

    Or are you making one-pot meals? Again, I'd just do the other veg on the side (although as others have said many people who don't think they like veg will eat them in one-pot meals).

    Great stir fry is shrimp with broccoli and carrots and peas. You could do something like that and let him just pick off the broccoli.

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