Odd with food, now need to be healthy

[IntriguingFactJumble]

Hi all, have always been weird with food but lately have found out I need heart surgery so I need to eat more healthy stuff. I'm mid 50s and have a very restricted range of food I eat. Please does anyone have any strategies I can use? As an example a friend who has been trying to lose weight told me she has been having cauliflower 'rice'. I can make myself eat a bit of boiled/steamed cauliflower as part of a roast dinner but I can't imagine grating the stuff into a snack. Thanks for reading.

What are your food aversions? And what do you like?

Happy to offer some healthy eating ideas (I'm currently 60lbs down in a year) but need to know if what I'd share would be helpful.

Thanks, and well done on your 60lbs.

Aversions - tomato, cucumber, rice, pasta, baked beans, sauces apart from gravy and the white stuff in chicken pie, fruit apart from grapes, apples, oranges, veg apart from carrot, broccoli, lettuce, onion, mushrooms, peas, green beans, only fish I like is fishfingers/chip shop cod/haddock

Likes - bread, potatoes, chicken, ham, chocolate, biscuits, crisps, stuffing, sausage rolls, pies

That's about it really. I don't like the veg/salad/fruit I mentioned but I have been making myself eat some since I was about 20.

A lot of healthy options seem to be based on rice or pulses with peppers etc.

Thanks again for answering!

OK, looking at the things you do like.

Eat chicken breast with no skin.
Bake potatoes instead of roast/fried etc

Just try having mashed potato with 1/3 cauliflower. I make it 50/50, also uses less flora then to mash it as the cauliflower doesn't absorb it. My children just eat this as matter of course, my MIL made this fancy rich mashed potato and they didn't like it!!

Just try adding more of the vegetables you do tolerate, it's a good range of colours and types, and cutting the carb element of the meal in half by adding more vegetables.

If you like onion, have you tried leeks? Milder and sweet, really nice chopped and cooked down.

You don't mention eggs? Good source of protein with sensible amount of calories.

Try freezing grapes! They are like fizzy sweets. I used to drive my Mum made lining them up in the fridge when I was little.

Thank you, great ideas.

The cauli/mash is a really good one; I'd be able to eat more cauli like that.

And having more of the veg I do eat would be easier than trying new veg.

Yep, I do like leek, and spring onion so can increase those too.

Eggs - I like runny yolk of boiled or fried eggs but not any of the other kind like scrambled, or omelette, or cold hard boiled.

Frozen grapes sound cool, especially in a line - I used to like sorting the big tins of Quality Street as a kid.

Cheers for all that. 💐

Obviously that should say freezer not fridge if you want them to freeze!! 🙄

I'm glad there are some helpful ideas there. It will certainly be easier to focus on changes for your health whilst still limiting the vegetables. You can try new things later perhaps when you are doing better at including them.

I quite like cauliflower, but can’t stand cauliflower rice. A lovely way to cook it is to roast it. Cut into florets. Drizzle with oil (then use a silicon pastry brush if you have one to fully coat them, or just use a spoon) Then sprinkle with spices to match whatever meal you’re having, eg Mexican spice mix to go with chilli, curry powder to go with Indian dishes, Thai etc. Roast for about 20 - 25 mins til going golden brown.

Thanks Dog, that is worth a try.

”the white stuff in chicken pie”

That’s bechamel, white sauce. Chicken cream stew is one of Japan’s best loved family meals and it’s basically white sauce, chicken and whatever vegetables the family can tolerate, for you I’d suggest potato, sweetcorn, carrot and leek (and maybe see if you can introduce, say, some butternut squash/kabocha pumpkin which is kind of between potato and carrot in taste and texture). You can eat it with bread instead of rice.

If the Japanese aspect alienates you, there are lots of recipes for chowder which is pretty much the same thing - since clams aren’t an option just use chicken.

White sauce is a great way to sneak vegetables into your diet that you might not like much.

Japanese curry is too, but I’m going to assume the taste (even the “sweet mouth” unspicy kind) is too assertive and challenging.

Thank you, that sounds doable.