Any other thwarted cooks out there??

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

I love cooking, and I love food (a bit too much! ) I hate eating the same old things and love experimenting with new recipes. I have a broad range of tastes, and I like to try things.

BUT! I have a very unappreciative family! Don't get me wrong, DH says I am a great cook, but he likes "plain food" (ie meat and 2 veg- or actually no veg, but have forced him round to a few different ones!) DD1 loves meat, meat and more meat, has to be forced to eat veg, but will happily eat fish. Grilled squid is her favourite ever thing (I know, I know!) dd2 eats veg, won't touch fruit and dislikes anything with "a sauce". DS likes potatoes. Mashed. Can be persuaded to eat fish and mince.

Dinner time is a nightmare. I try new ways with recipes which incorporate some of the things they purportedly like, and gently try to add in new tastes, but their glum faces when I present it make my heart sink. I read mags like Good Food, and think how much I would like to try loads of recipes, but know that my family will hate them.

Am I alone in being doomed to eat "plain food" for ever?

How old are your DDs? Could you get them to choose a recipe from a book or magazine, and then help you cook it? Might get them a bit more interested in trying things?

I have tried that, I'm afraid! they are full of enthusiasm for the cooking process, but then pick at the result in a pained manner. DD1 comes home from school with all these ideas about healthy eating, so I try to involve her in healthy cooking and she screws her face up at the end result. ds will happily add chopped peppers/ onions/ tomatoes to the mix, but then point-blank refuses to actually try them.

if you don't eat your dinner you get no desert in our house. worked great when they were smaller, though gets a bit tricky once they get bigger than you.

dreamingofsun- I do do that (well, you get dessert if you at least try it), but it pains me to see them miserably choking it down in order to get a fairy cake

I'd love them to actually enjoy their food, and enjoy trying new things, but I don't know where I have gone wrong. Cooked wide and varied meals for them as babies and they scoffed the lot, then all became picky when they reached about the age of 1. I try to get them enthused about all the different colours/ textures/ tastes, but the only meal that seems to raise a smile is macaroni cheese! Oh- and fish pie, which is a faff to make and which I'm not that keen on, but end up eating fairly regularly just to let them have something nutritious that I know they will eat.

I haven't got time (and refuse on principal!) to make different meals, so I end up eating boring food too!

i read somewhere that children had to try something new about 6 times before they got used to the taste - so don't think you are doing anything wrong. if its any consolation mine are the same - i get bored cooking same things so try new recipes which they gruddingly eat and then get excited if i'm doing a bodge meal such as fish fingers and potato waffles.

think you need to continue to serve up new things and just ignore any choking! that way they will be reasonably adventurous adults maybe. the only chinese my BIL will eat is chicken balls because he was fed bland food growing up ???!!!

Thanks, dreaming- nice to know I'm not alone

Will continue with the new and varied, maybe have a few "safe" meals a week so I know they won't starve! Maybe one day they will thank me! I love all sorts of food so much that the thought of them missing out on all the amazing different things out there makes me sad.