To not understand people who don't love food

[pastabest]

We had left over jersey royals from our tea tonight. And I overcooked (significantly) the marmalade ham I was making but it's created an amazing shredded ham thing when I've gone to try and slice it.

As I shredded the ham into an enamel tin to put in the fridge alongside the Jersey royals I was imagining all the delicious lunches I could make with them if I was WFH tomorrow.

We've got coleslaw, spicy beetroot salad, boiled eggs, lots of nice pickled stuff, a wide variety of salad stuff, houmous, all the cheeses etc and a massive herb garden. My mouth is drooling thinking about the possibilities.

Suggested to to DP who is at home tomorrow that he could have it if he wanted but if not I had plans for it for tea.

He looked at me like I was mad and said 'I'll probably just have a cheese sandwich and a packet of crisps like always'.

He is a food is fuel person and I just don't get it. I'm going to be going to sleep tonight dreaming of pulled ham hock with rosemary and garlic fried potatoes with a peashoot salad, a scattering of spicy beetroot and dollops of whipped feta covered in fresh chives , cherry tomatoes and cucumber with a sprinkling of seasalt and a nice zesty lemon based dressing of some sort.

I look in the fridge and I see endless possibilities, he looks in the fridge and finds the quickest and simplest route to being fed - enjoyment optional.

It’s also an age thing. I was a bit like you in my 30’s with a young family and fridge full of delicious things for all ages.

Your description just has me thinking about food waste, now I cook for myself. Thats just too much food for one person - a tub of hummus and salad is 3 lunches. I’d have to eat the whipped feta everyday or it would go off. But then I’ve got the ham and potatoes to get through as well .. yeah, no.

Freeze the whipped feta and the hummus

This is a bit like that other thread about what people call food noise.
I love food and eat what I like, however I don't go to bed thinking about what I'll eat tomorrow. I don't give it a moment's thought in between meals. I think about lunch at lunchtime when I'm looking what to eat. I think about dinner an hour or so before I want a meal on the table. Only exception is when I expect a visitor. DS1 is coming for dinner on Friday night so I have thought about what to make, mainly because he's a faddy so and so.

We've got coleslaw, spicy beetroot salad, boiled eggs, lots of nice pickled stuff, a wide variety of salad stuff, houmous, all the cheeses etc and a massive herb garden. My mouth is drooling thinking about the possibilities.

I wouldn’t eat any of that. People are just different.

I'm not really into cooking (due to time, money and skill constraints!) I do like baking and need to do it more.
But regardless I LOVE food.Whatever I do if nice food is involved it just enhances it ten fold and I get a little buzz of excitement looking forward to things that involve it... meals out etc 😆 I've always loved food....I can remember getting excited about seconds of school.dinners and always feeling hungry before every meal! I have to get an ice cream everywhere or a cake if we go out....DH doesn't get why food always needs to be involved, but does love a coffee instead!

What a miserable existence. Try enjoying food!

Genius 🙄 .. but sadly my freezer is full already of frozen veg ( fresh veg like cauliflower and broccoli is too big), frozen herb and chilli’s the bread, batch cooking - otherwise I’m eating fresh lasagne or stew everyday for a week and packs of fish and meat.
I know how to use a freezer.

I am exactly like you. I almost always know what my next meal will be. Finish one, plan the next. After my family, I think food is the number one priority in my life.

I absolutely love food. It is honestly one of the most joyful things in life. I love eating out, cooking, thinking about food, I'm totally like you. But with music I'm like your DH, I like some tunes on in the background, but not that fussed what it is. I mostly just stick Radio6music on. Whereas some people are absolutely music obsessed. So I find I can understand food is fuel people from that.

I'm a food is fuel person.
I have certain foods I like but if scientists invented a daily pill that gave me 100% of all the nutrients I need to be completely healthy - I'd prefer to take that and just have an actual meal on special occasions or weekends or something.

Crikey.

What a response.

I thought I was being helpful as not everyone knows you can freeze these things

I adore food. It’s all I think about. 😂

This reminds me of one of my friends who only showers twice a week because she thinks it's a waste of time. Me, I love a shower and often have two a day.

Food, yeah, I like it but I am just not that interested in it. And I don't have a history of mental illness or abuse, it's just not interesting enough to think about constantly.

The downside is that getting a bad meal can make me really cross.

Imagine Tom Hardy reading this slowly....

'pulled ham hock with rosemary and garlic fried potatoes with a peashoot salad, a scattering of spicy beetroot and dollops of whipped feta covered in fresh chives , cherry tomatoes and cucumber with a sprinkling of seasalt and a nice zesty lemon based dressing'

Oh this is totally me. I see it as such a missed opportunity for something nice thats gone wrong.

OP I want your fridge. I now need all the salads, beetroot especially and jersey royals.

Same. Life is too short for bad food in my view.

My DP will insist on using every damn thing in the fridge before he'll consider replacing any of it so we eat really well at the start of the week and by the end we're eating bizarre and not particularly inviting combinations. I know he's being sensible and practical but it makes me rage when I'm eating some weird chips plus broccoli plus half a fishcake concoction to eke it out and not waste it. I'd just rather spend a bit more money.

Can I come round for lunch? 🤔😋😋😋

I'm somewhere in the middle I think.

I really enjoy food but I wouldn't have given it quite that much thought, or gone to bed thinking about it.

Then again, I don't like dry, stringy ham.

DP does eat it if it is put on a plate in front or him.

Its not about fussiness/ food aversions of which I have many of my own. It's about the (lack of) joy that comes from making something tasty and eating it and getting joy from the experience of eating it

DP has been programmed from childhood that food is fuel. Mealtimes were endured rather than enjoyed. I get great joy from creating flavour. What I have in my fridge isn't cooking, its assembly of ingredients.

I’m kinds of like you with dinners and spend an inordinate amount of time planning what to cook then. Lunch when I’m wfh and it’s the quickest food I can prep so I can spend the most amount of time at lunchtime chilling —on MN—.

This is me.

Food was love growing up, and my mother always served my brother first, prepared him food and not me etc etc. I also had no off switch (maybe as a result of the aforementioned) when it came to food.

I then became significantly overweight before dropping to a healthy weight in my late teens…and then a full blown eating disorder lasting years. Food to me is scary - I can’t stop when I start and it’s hugely linked to emotions (positive and negative). As a result, I’m often thinking about food and what I can budget in for that allowance or how I can burn it off. Easier to not get excited by it because the guilt after takes SO much headspace

He needs to put some of the pulled ham in that sandwich. With chives. And toast it.

I’m with you op. Except when pregnant when all appetite is gone and it seems inconceivable and revolting that you’re supposed to put stuff in your mouth and swallow it, and if you actually do try it’s just so wrong that it won’t go down, and you feel much better if you don’t even think about or look at food.