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Original poster

Dinner Ideas for Picky Partner!?

42 replies

CupcakeCafe123 · 07/08/2019 11:06

Hello!!

Apologies if this is an overdone topic. My first question on Mumsnet! I was just wondering if anyone has any dinner ideas for a picky partner. I've tried looking online for ideas but I'm struggling to come up with ideas!

He doesn't like many vegetables other than cucumber, parsnips, carrots and peas.
He doesn't eat any curries
He can't have spicy foods because of his tummy
He doesn't eat salads
He wants meat in every meal - if I make a vegetable version of a dish he prefers it with meat

Our normal dinners usually rotate between these things that I cook:

  • Chicken Pie
  • Salmon and Mash
  • Sausage and Mash
  • Fajitas
  • Pasta Bake
  • Roast Chicken

If I don't cook he normally has chicken nuggets, dinosaurs, chips, pizza, frozen pie, smiley faces, fish fingers... But when I eat I have to substitute wheat based items for Gluten Free (Coeliac Disease :( ) and I am getting quite bored of making the same thing every week!

I'm just looking for inspiration of what sorts of things to have for a picky eater and someone who doesn't want just beige food! (You wouldn't believe he's nearly 30)

Thank you so much! xx

OP posts:
MarthasGinYard · 07/08/2019 11:09

He's 30

If he's so 'picky' Confused

I'd suggest he provides his own food and less yourself the extra stress Op

MarthasGinYard · 07/08/2019 11:10

And maybe buy him an inspiring cookbook too

Seriously

NabooThatsWho · 07/08/2019 11:12

I'm struggling to come up with ideas!

Why can’t he come up with ideas? You shouldn’t have to think for him.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General food
AnneKipanki · 07/08/2019 11:13

LTB Grin

Westfacing · 07/08/2019 11:15

Dinosaurs & smiley faces?? And he's 30?

Please say this is a wind-up! Grin

BarbaraofSeville · 07/08/2019 11:15

Just cook the food you want to eat for yourself and say to him 'I'm making X, do you want some' and if he says no, just make less, freeze the rest, take it for lunch the next day, or eat it for dinner the next night.

You are not his mother, and therefore not responsible for his diet. If he wants to live on beige junk, that's his problem. Yes it could cause him health problems, but he needs to figure that out for himself. You can take a horse to water and all that.

Aquamarine1029 · 07/08/2019 11:16

Are you sure he's not 4? I wouldn't cater to this nonsense. Is being mummy really what you want in a relationship? A 30 year old man can sort his own meals if he's so damn picky.

rainbowstardrops · 07/08/2019 11:16

Tell him to cook his own?
Seriously, he's 30 and he's eating turkey dinos and smiley faces? Confused

MarthasGinYard · 07/08/2019 11:16

Are you on the dinosaur wind up op

Or the turkey twizzler twist Grin

IWouldBeSuperb · 07/08/2019 11:18

Ffs - just no.

Do you honestly want to waste your headspace on this? I guarantee he wouldn't.

Just let him sort himself out.

And consider raising your standards

Iggly · 07/08/2019 11:20

He’s old enough to cook for himself. If he’s going to be a picky mother fucker then I would make him do some of the thinking on this.

EvaHarknessRose · 07/08/2019 11:22

Have three nights a week at least where he has beige but you don't. For ideas

What about
Fish pie
Chicken satay sticks
Kebabs (his can be all chicken)
Cottage/shepherds pie

YesQueen · 07/08/2019 11:22

I'm 35 and like a good beige freezer tea on occasion Grin but I will eat anything so...

Original poster
CupcakeCafe123 · 07/08/2019 11:25

It's no wind up I assure you!! Blush

We Pre-Plan our dinners but it is always the same thing - the chips and chicken nuggets come out when I don't cook!

Although you're all right - I'm just going to cook food that is nutritious and nice and leave the left overs. Just re-read the whole thing and realised how ridiculous it is... Sad

OP posts:
H2OH20Everywhere · 07/08/2019 11:26

DP and I have different tastes to some extent. He loves fish, I love red meat, we both detest the other.

You could do what I sometimes do which is to make something that you can have variations of. So potatoes, peas and carrots for both, you have yours with extra veg and some veggie sausages, he gets chicken nuggests

Do some extra potatoes one night, then he gets that reheated with whatever, and you make yourself a rissotto (which you could then have for two nights). Or pasta and sauce, and throw some extra ingredients into yours at the end.

There'll be more washing up, but he'll do that since you're doing the cooking!

Skittlenommer · 07/08/2019 11:35

Make your own dinners. Sorted.

I wouldn’t pander to a 30 year old picky eater!

Original poster
CupcakeCafe123 · 07/08/2019 12:13

Thanks for some ideas guys!! I don’t pander really, just low on some ideas as I always come back to the same things!

OP posts:
BarbaraofSeville · 07/08/2019 12:19

But if you are giving any brain space at all to deciding what he should eat and cooking it for him so he doesn't have beige and chips then you are pandering to him.

Why isn't he coming up with a list of meals that you both like? Why won't he cook anything except freezer food?

You haven't mentioned any disabilities, him working long hours or you being a SAHM so there doesn't seem to be a reason for him to be opting out of thinking about, shopping for and cooking food for you both.

TheViceOfReason · 07/08/2019 14:44

Pick 3 of "his" meals you like and eat the same thing on those days.

The other 4 days of the week, just cater for yourself. He can either sort himself out, or try to expand his tastes and join you.

P1nkHeartLovesCake · 07/08/2019 14:48

😂😂😂

FFS this is a grown ass adult. If he doesn’t like what you make for dinner then let him eat smiley faces and dinosaurs 🙄

Make him a sticker chat if he eats something new, some veg etc prize can be a blow job but to be fair a pack of crayons (I’m amusing he can’t cope with felt tips just yet?) and a colouring book would probably be more appropriate given what you’ve written here

theunrivalledjoysofparenting · 07/08/2019 14:49

My god. Is he 3?

Get him to come up with his own dinner ideas. This would piss me off immeasurably.

Decide on lovely meals for you and he can sort himself out.

Sexnotgender · 07/08/2019 14:49

I can well believe this is what he eats. I shared a flat with a guy that ate fish fingers, oven chips and spaghetti hoops for practically every meal. Was absolutely revolting.

Iggly · 07/08/2019 14:54

Well it might be better to ask for meal ideas and you’ll get ideas which you (he) can adapt as necessary.

Things like stir fry with rice (you can have milder non spicy versions and he can pick out the veg), pasta dishes with gluten free pasta, shepherds pie etc.

But in all honesty I’d tell him to learn to cook.

AtleastitsnotMonday · 07/08/2019 16:51

Homemade fish cakes
Paprika chicken (use a rub, grill chick breast) with sweet potato wedges
Sausage casserole
Toad in the hole
Would he eat carbonara?
You say pasta bake but you could make quite a few variations
Home made burgers
Tuna pasta bake

Will he eat chorizo? Bacon? Eggs,
When he has fajitas does he eat veg?

longearedbat · 07/08/2019 16:57

Does he buy the kids type food for himself? I do our shopping, but if my h asked for any of those things I would refuse to buy them on principle.