Am I the only one with a picky spouse?

There are so many things he won't eat! No 'shrooms, hardly any vegs except canned peas, corn on the cob, and I foist an occasional salad on him.
He likes canned soup, God forbid it's homemade!
He insists on a fresh roll daily (and it better not contain anything resembling whole wheat or anything remotely 'good' for him! White all the way!), none of that bread from a loaf for him. This is for when he brings his lunch to work, which is a good thing, but when that happens it's either ham, salami, ham & salami, or tunafish (rarely). I've offered to make fresh shrimp and chicken salad-forget it!
NO DESSERTS OF ANY KIND (good for me, cause I'd be scarfing down what's left). This man does not own a sweet tooth!
No fish other than the aforementioned tuna.
He thinks chicken is fowl/foul but will occasionally indulge.
It's a pain being so limited in what I can cook. My favorite meal in my youth was beef stroganoff, but because he doesn't like sour cream in anything at all, I've probably not had it for 23 years.
Alternately, liver and lima beans are about the only items I'm truly not fond of.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
This does not make for fun or creative cooking in mi casa!

DH will eat what I put in front of him, but he really prefers meat and potatoes

but he's willing to try anything once (bless his heart)

he calls "weird" spices. If it's not salt, pepper, or garlic, it's weird. So I don't have much luck trying to make ethnic dishes! Well, he'll eat it anyway, but he'll lecture me about how sometimes "simple is better"...lol

He will not eat mushrooms, any type of fruit, eggs, or cheese. Then there are the things he likes separately, but not together. He likes Cheerios and milk, but not in the same bowl. Likes carrot and cake, does not like carrot cake. :mad:

If I make something he doesn't like, I treat him like the kids, now. The rule in our house is, you have to take one bite for politeness sake. Other than that, if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it, but I don't want to hear about it. If you complain, you get a timeout in your room. ;) Weirdly, it seems to be working. He might actually be branching out a little in his 'acceptable' foods.

raising step-kids occasionally, I remember the "rule": you have to take a bite...
I wish there were a few rug huggers around so I could use one of your methods, especially the timeout part!

Is the person allowed to eat something else, or must he/she go without for the rest of the evening?

If I catch my hubby snarking tortilla chips after he turned his nose up at the delicious steamed mussels with white wine sauce, I get really cranky.

The kids usually get a snack before bed. My older daughter times it so that between an afternoon snack and bedtime snack, she barely needs dinner. But that is ok. I am not worried about her nutrition, she will eat from all food groups (unlike my husband). Just want to teach her good manners and get her used to seeing all different types of food on her plate.

We mostly eat the same stuff at every meal. While she won't eat meat or fowl, she eats fish with no problem. While I'm an omnivore, I don't generally crave all that much meat. And what meat I do eat is pretty limited ..... steak, burgers, sausages, bacon, salamis, that sort of thing. When I want it, we either order in, eat out or we gladly cook the same meal but with different entrees. For more involved meat dishes, I wait for when we're having company.

Beyond this, our tastes are pretty much in synch.

That was awesome! :toast: Thankfully, my guy does like meat/bbq/fajitas/RIBS (ooh, but not lamb). And spuds. Put it this way-he's not starving!

Don't believe him. He won't eat zucchini, garbanzo beans, or coconut. And he doesn't exactly jump up and down when I suggest a vegetarian dish, like beans or tofu (he just jumps up to get some sausage or something instead).

Yet he'll happily consume the uncooked meat, the most disgusting parts of crabs, and beer that looks like old motor oil. Go figure! (Maybe it's "Clown Chow.")

about the only things he really doesn't like are peas and cilantro.

The down side is, I can spend all day cooking and he loves it and says so. Or, I can throw something together in 15 minutes and he's equally pleased. As a result, I've gotten to the point, that unless we have company or I'm cooking for some political fundraiser, I get pretty lazy about cooking.

But then even that has an upside. We work together from home and often I'll wander into his office at 5:30 and say, "What sounds good?" and more often than not, he says there's no sense cooking after our long day, so let's go out.

But alas, the downside on that........he's open for anything, usually often repeats and I always have my eye on something new and more than 5 blocks from home. Unfortunately, by the time we're ready to leave the house, it's usually about 6:30 and I'll settle for close and same old.

Mary

....find a restaurant that serves Beef Stroganoff and gorge yourself!

I'm dealing with a very picky 12-year-old niece. It's so much extra work and so limiting when a family member is so very afraid of most food. Argghh!

Dry cheerios, macaroni & cheese, baked or mashed potatoes, beef, ham, turkey, chicken, bacon, hamburgers, split pea or potato cheese soup, popcorn, spaghetti & meatballs, lasagna plus sweets. Corn is the only produce she'll eat. Wonder bread. Plus sweets. You get the picture.

What we realized about her is that she eats like a child - her taste buds never matured to accept the variety of tastes that most adults enjoy. It's frustrating at times.

His mother is high strung and can be a little controlling. With my kids, she is always running to get me and say, "They didn't eat all their apple!!!" Or "They hardly ate any lunch!!!" In a really panicky voice. Meanwhile, the kids are perfectly healthy and of a normal weight. They just were not hungry or didn't want apple. Whatever.

But I think my husband got into a battle of wills with his mom over food. Refusing was a way he could maintain control. And he never grew out of the bad habits.

I try telling him, "Just try it. Sometimes it take awhile to get used to something new, yadda, yadda, nag, nag." He has made small progress over the eight years we have been together. But still a long way to go.

"Refusing was a way he could maintain control. And he never grew out of the bad habits."

Have you and he ever talked about this as a control issue? Does he own up to it, or does he just think it's about the specific foods he doesn't like?

(If this is to nosey a question, you don't need to answer - I was just curious...)

It's frustrating, I know, to have such a limited menu to work from, and always having to put aside things that you like and enjoy.

I don't really know if he agrees or not, he usually changes the subject pretty quickly. But I have noticed a small change in his willingness to try new things recently, so maybe I am getting through.

Even good marriages have sticky issues, and this is definitely one of ours. I can only nag so much about it. He is a grown man and will make his own decisions about what he eats. But if he complains about what I cook, he still gets timeout ;)

It sounds like you have a good marriage, in spite of the sticky issues.

Good luck to you introducing new things - some of them he will HAVE to like!

Cheers
:beer:

My other half is very non-picky. He'll try anything at least once and I like to try new recipes. We categorize things as "Fuggedabowdit" or "Do Again".

The things he is picky about, I happen to love. Like mushrooms. Mushrooms are my favorite food, but he hates them. :cry:

:-(.

I love to cook and my husband loves to eat. About the only things I can think of that he doesn't like is ginger and coconut. He would be happy if I made spaghetti every day, but I like to make different recipes and try to go a couple of months without making the same meal.

likes sushi, the occasional tuna or salmon steak, shark. No shellfish, no other fish save cornmeal crusted catfish, which I can't stand.

Is'nt fond of most veggies, but will eat them in a spirit of penance. Doesn't like much fruit save watermelon, apples, grapes, bananas, the occasional pear or canned fruit. Hates strawberries and cantaloupe and honeydew.

Will eat pasta, but not often. HATES spaghetti squash, zucchini, crookneck, butternut, etc.

Has grown accustomed to cooked mushrooms, as long as they're not from the can (but I happen to agree, so that's not a hardship.) Likes them raw, though. Hates cooked spinach, though he'll eat that raw.

He will try things once, sometimes twice. I've got him to the point where he likes Indian, but that took some doing. But for the most part, the standard American diet of meat, potatoes and a side of veg would be great.

Of course, he'll eat almost anything if I douse it in enough of his "special" hot sauce (i.e. a big bottle of Louisana Hot Sauce that got about 2/3rds down, to which he started adding all the remnants of his other hot sauces, the seeds from any jalapeno or other hot pepper, and occasional dashes of lemon juice.)

Pcat

He wouldn't eat fruit, cottage cheese or olives. In 20 years, I've made some progress, he loves fruit and cottage cheese, he still won't eat anything if it has olives in it though.

He'll generally eat anything that I serve, he is really picky about meats though, chicken has to be boneless and skinless, beef must be free of any fat or gristle and he has to have sauce on everything.

My hubby hates food. Period. Absolutely nothing sweet. If he had his way he'd go days without eating. I won't let him. The only thing he likes is hamburger helper and hot dogs. I can get him to eat eggs.
When I fry hamburger, I'll make me a steak or pork chop.

or at least very very constipated. ;)

Does he eat any fruit or veggies?

When we were first married my husband would always have some comment about the gravy that I made. It usually went something like "It's good, but not like mom made." I was feeling annoyed about his comments one day and picked up a can of Franco American gravy at the store, just figuring that if he was going to make some snide remark about the gravy, he might as well have a good reason for it. That night when he tasted the gravy, his comment was, "Now that is just like mom made!"

Did you tell him the truth about mom's gravy?

I would never pass up an opportunity like that.