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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Aug 22 2008 at 7:32pm | IP Logged
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in food, that is! LOL!
What do you do when your tastes in food do not match up with your family's tastes?
I like to be adventurous in my foods, I like flavorful, rich, spicy, ethnic, fresh and and new. I like to experiment with new flavor combinations, try new recipes, and I love to eat food that go ZING!
They like bland, tasteless,processed same-old thing.If they have not seen it 100 times before, they don't like it.This includes my dh, though he is better than the kids to some degree. Except for the veggies.
I am getting so tired of cooking the same old thing, but if I cook something new it just gets picked at and I feel I've wasted not only food, but my time and energy in preparing it.
I want to be inspired in the kitchen, but fixing mashed potatoes and baked chicken for the millionth time is killing the enthusiasm. I feel like I should just slap together some PBJ and call it a night. They'd be just as happy. Ugh.
Anybody feel my pain?
What do I do???
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Theresa
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JodieLyn
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what about making something "fun" as a small side dish.. you get to eat something new and they can just have a taste.. so that way you can expose them to things for a while before you serve it as a main dish and you get to have new things more often.
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Maryan
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 I *AM* your family. If you served PB&J for lunch every day and chicken and mashed potatoes every night, I would be humming a happy tune... especially if you topped it with ice cream and whipped cream too!
So no help here.
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Maryan
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joann10
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Maryan wrote:
| I *AM* your family. |
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Sorry, Theresa, I am with Maryan. We ran out of bread today, and I couldn't have PBJ for lunch and I was bummed all day.
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Matilda
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Theresa,
I know what you mean only I don't necessarily want to try spicy, flavorful, ethnic things, just normal things like casseroles and stews. I have started trying one new thing a week and bribing them with a dessert to give it a serious try. (Desserts usually only happen on special occasions around here.) I don't know what else to say except I sympathize!
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MaryM
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| Posted: Aug 22 2008 at 9:15pm | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
I am getting so tired of cooking the same old thing, but if I cook something new it just gets picked at...
Anybody feel my pain?
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I am tired of cooking the say old things as well. I would love to do more ethnic foods especially and I know dh would be very open to being a bit more adventurous with foods. I have to say they like some things that are a bit different, but only because they have been eating them since they were little and consider it part of the repertoire. I would like more variety but they are very routine oriented, with the exception of my daughter who is starting to cook, loves cooking shows, and so generally has been better about trying new things.
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glinNC
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I try new things all the time, especially if it's a crockpot recipe! This might sound mean, but if the kids aren't game to try it, then they're stuck with a bowl of cereal! (Which 1/2 the time, they don't mind!  )
Don't give up on them! 
glinNC
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stefoodie
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My family sometimes has no taste, but  , I have no sympathy.
I cook whatever I want to cook (different cuisines, spices, herbs, textures, etc.). If they don't like what I serve, they can have toast or cereal later. I think it's paid off though. My 17-yo dd who has had picky phases now eats almost anything, except bitter gourd. She eats almost any cuisine/dish you set in front of her and things like eggplants or onions which her friends pick off of their plates are just ordinary to her. I'm thinking eventually the other kids will turn out the same way. Except my 9-yo, maybe, he's pickier than the rest of them. They did all eat okra today though.
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MaryM
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| Posted: Aug 22 2008 at 10:57pm | IP Logged
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stefoodie wrote:
I cook whatever I want to cook (different cuisines, spices, herbs, textures, etc.). If they don't like what I serve, they can have toast or cereal later. |
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That's what I didn't do early on... I regret it as I think it would have eventually made a difference in what they were used to.
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lapazfarm
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stefoodie wrote:
I cook whatever I want to cook (different cuisines, spices, herbs, textures, etc.). If they don't like what I serve, they can have toast or cereal later. |
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I usually do the same thing. But the waste of good food is starting to get to me. I guess I have just caved in thinking It's better to cook something bland and have it all eaten up than cook a more interesting meal that ends up going to waste.
I think the side-dish idea is a good one. Maybe I will try that and see how it goes.
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Theresa
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stefoodie
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I guess I have no fear because there's virtually no waste with my husband (unless it's something he's allergic to, and even then it's mostly a struggle of he shouldn't eat it but does anyway ). But this guy can eat the same dish for several days and not complain one bit. So successful dishes are gone the day they're made. The less successful ones take 2-3 days to finish between him and me, but we manage to lessen the waste that way. Or if something will freeze okay, I'll go ahead and freeze it and reheat a bit once or twice a week until it's gone.
One thing that helps too is requiring the kids to take at least one bite of EVERYTHING. Even if they have to spit it out. But I want them to try it at least. They say it takes us 12x of trying one new thing that we don't like to actually develop a liking for it.
I also do things that my dad calls "compuesto" (compound?) -- like the disaster raspberry corned beef we had last month... after that meal no one wanted to touch it, but I couldn't let it go to waste. So I wrapped it in spring roll wrappers and deep-fried it (so it looked like this and the boys (I'm still laughing about it) ate every single one with gusto. Only afterwards did we tell them it was the raspberry corned beef, and they did admit it kinda tasted funny, but the "deep-fried and crispy" got them.
Okay, I'll stop talking about food. Gotta get to bed
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folklaur
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I love trying new food (even with my flakey stomach!) I love trying different foods, ethnic foods, etc.
My dh, not so much, my dc - even less.
I hear ya - if I made pizza every.single.night. my ds9 would be a happy boy.
(I do have to say, though, some foods are icky to me no matter what - we grew our own veggies, and my parents LOVED eggplant, and I always had to try a bite (so it was WAY more than 12 times and prepared many ways.) To this day, I will not eat eggplant, I find it replusive. That and okra. ew. I tried okra once - I can see no reason to bother to try to like it as I find it so awful. But those are the only veggies I don't like.)
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Carole N.
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I *so* love to cook! But I also like to make my family happy ... fortunately, they are willing to try new dishes. Well, maybe not every night, but pretty frequently. I think they would get tired of the same old thing, so I try to make the favorites as well as the new dishes.
Tonight, I am going to make Mexican Lasagna. It looks so yummy. And sometime this week I will make a Cottage Pie and a Shepard's Pie (one does not like lamb). It is an adventure and sometimes a challenge. But it keeps me going in the kitchen!
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Ruth
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Maryan wrote:
I *AM* your family. If you served PB&J for lunch every day and chicken and mashed potatoes every night, I would be humming a happy tune... especially if you topped it with ice cream and whipped cream too!
So no help here. |
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Maria, you have just described my family to a T! I wanted to write a post about this. I just posted our menu on my blog. I hope the kids will cooperate this week.
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hylabrook1
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Maybe you could strike a happy medium by having one night a week be "try something new night". You get the fun of trying a new idea and most of the time they can just stick in their comfortable old mud! (Not that you cook mud; what I mean is you kind of accept their being not so adventurous, *stick in the muds* or is it sticks in the mud?)  You can make it sound like fun, maybe tie it to something you're doing with school (food from a certain country or using a certain ingredient) and ask them to at least try it. If they are really put off by the new recipe, they can make their own PB&J (and drink a big glass of milk along with that).
Peace,
Nancy
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Angel
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My kids have become a little more adventurous since we've been gardening. If they've grown it, they're at least *a little* more willing to try it, though not necessarily to *like* it, kwim? They're the same way about stuff we buy at farmer's markets. Maybe if you could get the kids involved in cooking/buying -- maybe for an ethnic night, as Nancy said -- that might help a little?
I try to balance it out a little around here, because there's always sure to be at least ONE person who doesn't like any meal I make... except if it's spaghetti, but then again when I make spaghetti, only my dh, dd, and I actually eat sauce on it; everybody else eats it plain. If I can have meals that come together in kit form (tacos, sandwiches, pasta with sauces), then *I* can eat a bunch of veggies with mine and everybody else can turn up their noses and eat what they like. I eat leftovers for lunch and fox the kids what they want. Sometimes I eat the same thing all week to get rid of the leftovers, but at least it's not macaroni and cheese 3x a week!
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Kristie 4
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I just try to balance the new with the meals that they like ('they' being some of them- with four children it is hard to find something they all like!). They won't starve if it's not what they like that night (although they will tell you they will).
One thing I do on the 'new' or 'different' nights (and I have it easy- most of my kids love diff. ethnic foods- bring on the curry!) is to make a hearty bread like soda bread or a hearty dessert like a big crisp or apple cake. Then if dinner didn't fly they can fill up on the other stuff!
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Willa
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Oh, Theresa, I can relate! We just don't have the money, and I don't have the time, to prepare things that my family won't eat.
My husband does like different things, but the trouble is he likes "different" different things than I do. I crave vegetables, etc, and he doesn't.
I like the idea of trying a small-portion of the fun food and then at least putting a bit on their plate. Aidan is growing into an adventurous eater who likes the same odd things I do, so it is becoming easier to justify spending some $$ and effort making something cool, because he will actually help me eat it.
I read that many fussy eaters have to see/be around/have on their plate a new food at least 15-20 times before they will feel comfortable actually eating it. Some people simply have very strong oral boundaries; probably a survival trait in past historical times. Aidan was tube-fed because of oral aversions and that was what worked for him -- we advanced in slow stages from seeing to having on plate to helping prepare it to touching it to trying it. So exposure is good if you can do it.
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CrunchyMom
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Theresa, you might also try upping your rep of condiments. I just made 3 gallons of green tomato chutney for winter. It is very "Eastern" and has raisins, vinegar, ginger, sugar, garlic and peppers, all cooked down until it is black and kind of a cross between jelly and ketchup and relish.
Anyway, we discovered it last year through friends and fell in love. It goes really well with roast chicken or pork. I've put it on my hotdog, and I even added some to tuna salad this week and it was really yummy and different!
We also love homemade sauerkraut (both red and white cabbage), and it is SO easy to make. It, too, is really nice to add a bit of flavor and color to an otherwise ho hum meal.
Now, granted, we've been giving these more exotic things to our boys from the beginning, and they like chutney and will eat a bowl of sauerkraut as a snack, but they could easily eat plain old bland chicken or whatever while mine was more exotic.
There are a whole host of ethnic condiments (different kinds of salsas, chutneys, sauces, etc...) you could get creative with to enliven your own plate and palate and provide little side tastes of to start adjusting those of your kids--without having an entire meal/dish go to waste.
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LeeAnn
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Theresa, I do feel your pain! Sometimes you just can't afford for the family not to eat what you've cooked--and so you feel like to have to make what you're SURE they'll eat. My personal dilemma is that my husband refuses to eat any legumes or beans (he's hated them since childhood)--makes eating cheap and gluten-free kinda hard. I have one daughter that won't eat tomato sauce! And another that only used to eat dino nuggets and pbhoney--fortunately she grew out of it--but serving her anything else was a waste of food for nearly two years.
I do have a much more adventurous palate than my family--vegetable wise anyhow. My food embarrassments: I won't eat seafood (other than very plain fish filets or fish sticks) or meat on the bone! Not very frugal of me.
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: My family has no taste
