Cooking for picky eaters?
 

I saw a cooking thread and I saw a lot of good recopies, but I have a bit of a dilemma. Both my boyfriend and I are pretty picky eaters. I was wondering if anybody else was too? Maybe you have a family member or a friend too?

I have to say both of us are pretty unhealthy eaters too, and it's sad to say my six year old sister is less picky :P

So I was wondering if anybody had some good meals, or even some advice for people like us?

One common thing we share is we cover our food in salt and ketchup. We don't eat vegetables and very few fruits. :sweat:

send me a long list of foods you like and I can come up with about 3-5 recipes I've been enrolled in culinary arts about a year now

I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a picky eater, but I have a lot of dietary considerations that I have to consider. I'm allergic to soy (which is in a lot of processed foods), mushrooms, spinach, and am lactose intolerant. I just find that I take ingredients that I know I can eat and enjoy, and find new ways to incorporate them into dishes.

I'm an extreme picky eater. But mine is nothing to do with flavors or taste. its all about texture.

The rule in our house is that if you don't like it, you don't eat it. But that means there's nothing for you to eat. You have to cook for yourself if you don't eat what's served. It's a pain in the butt since I don't eat pork and the rest of my family does. I either just eat all veggies or I hunt down some chicken.

That said, food is an adventure. You should give more things a fair try. A lot of people will decide that they don't like things as a kid and will just never try them again. But as a kid, your pallet is far from mature. Bitter things turn kids off. But as an adult, going back you'll probably find that those things you thought you didn't like are great! And just cooking things in different ways can make all the difference for some foods. So I say just try to try new things. If you eat the same old same old stuff, it's booooooooooooring. Every once in a while, pick up something new to try. Especially with fruits and veggies, because they're great for you.

I have a similar conundrum. My boyfriend is an extremely picky eater. I like almost anything with very few exceptions. I'm half vietnamese, and I have experience almost every cuisine imaginable. Until my boyfriend met me, he'd only ever tasted Americanized Asian, Italian, Cuban, Southern and Mexian. Not the spiciest cuisines.

I'm a pretty picky eater, but I love many vegetables. Still, a good way to get vegetables into your food is to puree them! It doesn't affect the taste of your food much, but you still get the nutrients. For example, pureed carrots tomato sauce or meatloaf.

My boyfriend and I are practically goats XD If it's offered to us, we WILL eat it, even if we don't like it.

The only food I ever turn down is spicy food - when food is spicy, that means there's an allergic reaction going on on your tongue. ...let's just say I'm very allergic to spicy foods.

My hubby used to never eat veggies and I used to trick him into eating them. Like if we were going to have spaghetti I would puree veggies and add them to the tomato sauce. He never figured it out and then as time went on I left bigger and bigger chunks... Worked for him!

I have cooked steak for my friend who is very picky. I had to get it like black. It was sick.
Me? Na I just don't like Dark Chocolate (unless it's with orange. Not sure why I like that.) I also don't like a few other foods but I am VERY open minded with food. I'll jump on anything, I don't know why but taste = love to me.

My boyfriend and I are really picky, but in completely different ways. I barely eat meat, because any fat, blood, or bones will make me not eat it, so I eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, and pasta. On the other hand, he will not even think about touching fruits or vegetables, and just stuffs his face with meat, but he is extremely picky about the fat thing just like me.

Me picky? Nah, food is great no matter what in my opinion! I mean, some food I won't eat- like tounges and brains, but anything else I'll give it a try at least once. Food is sacred to me, eheh...

I'm so picky about what I eat... but there are certain things I can't eat due to texture. For example, last week we had a taste test thing in Psychology class, where I gagged on baby food because I was literally unable to swallow it due to texture. We were told initially that they were going to give us vanilla extract, and even though that's also disgusting, at least I can physically deal with eating it.

Anyway... as for your lack of fruits/vegetables, what I propose you do is find some sort of healthy dip to eat them with. Maybe eat more fruits out of a can? You lose some nutrients, yeah, but from the sounds of things it's better than what you're doing now. Or you can possibly take some sort of vitamin supplement so you can get the nutrients you need.

The main reason we both are so picky eaters is because of texture reasons. So I totally relate to you. I like the taste of some fruits, its just the texture makes me wanna puke =X

Me too T_T

I usually have to cook for my self because my family are health nuts and I dont' like any of the food they buy. So I usually end up eating mostly at my boyfriends house. I can't really afford to buy my own food .. so i have deal with some of the stuff my family buys...

I'm totally the same way! I eat a wider range of foods than my boyfriend does, but with the limited amount of food i have in the house its always hard to figure out what to eat because i don't want to eat the same thing twice in a row. And when I do find food I like (mostly anything that isn't healthy) I eat a lot of it. And I eat and eat but never gain weight. And liek you my family are good eaters. My mom blames herself for me being so picky.. Because she thinks she feed me wrong as a baby lol. :P

Luckily I'm not a picky eater at all and also never have been one. In kindergarten where all other children were complaining about the vegetables we got to eat. I always ate everthing and asked them why they wouldn't like it, it's delicious!

I think it's because my father always made big efforts in cooking on weekends or create little plates with bread, and all kinds of fruits and vegetables that looked like faces, animals, and so on, for me for dinner. He was just too cute!

There are only a handful of things I don't like. First there are onions, which aren't good for my stomach at all, if I would eat them raw and in bigger portions. And it's the same with paprika/pepper(?), which I actually do like, but just can't eat in bigger portions. At least I can eat spring onions, which are a great alternative for normal onions.

The only thing I really wouldn't eat at all is chocolate with citrus fruits (orange or lemon flavor). I don't know, I just don't like it at all >.<. And I not really a fan of oysters, but at least that's not an everyday meal.

My fiancee is awful picky. He doesn't like soups, eggs, most kinds of cheese, a lot of vegetables and so on. I just cook the things I like and he doesn't when he isn't at home. It's just sad, that he wouldn't even try it and I have to eat it all by myself;_;. And when we eat together I just make some extra vegetables just for me and eat less of the other things.

I never had any problems with the texture of a food. Okay, if a piece of meat is tough, it's just cooked badly. But you can change the texture of each ingriediens by how you prepare it. You could cook it or fry it or mash it, and so on. The best thing is to try out different things, and maybe also new things you haven't tried before. There's a chance you might like it.

Another possibility is to try out to use spices for your food. Not just salt (and ketchup, too much of those is not really healthy at all) but different spices and herbs. It can change the whole dish.

I really like to try out new things, and if I don't really like how it comes out I will change some ingridients and make it better and better, until I find it's perfect.

I wish I rememmbered what website it was, but there's a website that if you put five ingredients in, it will give you several different recipe's. just try typing in "five ingredient recipe's" in google. or msn. ^_^ I'm not a picky eater because I want to be, but I have to be. I'm allergic to a lot of the additives/ dies that they put in food, I am also allergic to msg, which is almost in everything, so I have to be extra careful there >.<

I will try anything once... If i don't like it at that point i know i probably won't like it later.

I like vegetables... but i am picky. I like lettuce but it has to be cleaned and crunchy... if it is in any way soggy or someone cut it with a metal knife, which tends to wilt the ends, i can't stand it.
I like carrots, peppers, spinach, and cherry tomatos but they can't be cooked.
I like all sorts of squash but they have to be cooked.
I like Broccoli but it has to be frozen and then cooked.
Artichokes are amazing!

I really think you should try out some veggies. i know you ad your BF hate them but i bet you could like these

Alton brown from Food Network used Parsnips to trick his niece into eating veggies i have had the chips and the sauce both amazing

I would say try some veggies here and there. if you don't like something raw chances are you might like something cooked. There are a lot of ways to cook veggies!

I remember seeing something like that in the past. I will look that one up. I bet it will come in handy.


Well there are bound to be more people like us :D