Some cheap meal ideas for fussy / awkward bloke?

tanith

martinthebandit wrote: »

Is the right answer, mind you if he is ungrateful enough to moan about meals you cook for him, maybe you should send him back to live with his Mum and find a proper grownup to replace him with

I like this answer my problem was my OH was a big grownup man when I found him and his Mum sadly had passed away . Its not easy being married to this man but I persevere and when it all gets too much I send him down the chippy and he's as happy as larry..:rotfl:

squeaky

You might find some help in these links:- fussy threads here on Old Style MoneySaving

Esp. this thread which I'll merge your query with later:- Some cheap meal ideas for fussy / awkward bloke?


And the debate in this thread... OH sabotage of batch cooking!

valk_scot

Suggest he does the cooking when he comes round? He can bring the ingredients too. Would give you a much needed break I expect. Mind you, you'll have to set a good example and eat it without complaining too much, unfortunately. Still it will get the message across that you're not his mum.

abby1234519

tanith wrote: »

Start as you mean to go on, I'm married to a wonderful man BUT!!! he is the fussiest most difficult (although he's say the opposite) person to cater for.. so sort him out now or live to regret it forever.. good luck..

Exactly, he is wonderful in almost every aspect apart from the fact that he is fussy about food! He will eat Chili con carne, aslong as there are no kidney beans, he will eat bolognese aslong as there are no mushrooms. In fact, he ate a slice of pizza once that had a tiny piece of mushroom on (we had half and half and mine was mushroom)...I saw it was on there and waited for him to notice, he didn't so I told him AFTER he had eaten it and he was rather peeved! Even though he couldn't taste it...

adelight wrote: »

Do you have an oven? Genuine question because a lot of people don't at uni! Pasta bakes, sausage stews and cobblers seem to go down well with most fussy blokes. Bulk it up with spuds/pasta and use the cheapest cheese/sausages. It's a bit easier to persuade people on to a slow cooker stew once they get used to those foods.
Does he like curry? Anything hearty and chunky seems to go down best with these fussy fast food types!

Or make pizza or pizza pita pockets. The latter is pita breads toasted so they open, stuffed with mixed up cheese, tomato and pizza toppings then microwaved to melt. Cheap junk food Do the pizza stuff with a HM potato salad (will he eat that?!) or wedges so he gets his pizza but your way.

Yes, I have a house whilst at uni! Its not a fantastic oven, but it works.

He LOVES curry, I could definitely rustle one of those up in a slow cooker and stick veg in. I'm just not au fait with cooking a curry. It would also need to be one we both could eat, I can't cope with spicy food and he hates korma so would have to meet in the middle. I think he would eat stews as well aslong as they were fairly meaty. The pizza pitas is a good idea!

babyshoes wrote: »

If you can list a few of the things he DOES like, we will be more able to help you come up with recipes for similar stuff that he SHOULD like...

Curry
Pizza
Burgers
Fry Ups

you get the gist ^^

But he HATES chicken. I can't understand it personally I adore it.

geri1965 wrote: »

Why should you have to cook for him? If he doesn't like what you are having, tell him to cook something for himself or get himself down to the chip shop.

Because he can't cook (think fish finger sandwiches) and its my house, I'm not going to feed myself and send him off to get a takeaway when he does things for me like drive me around when I need to go shopping. The least I can do is return the favour. Relationships are about doing things for each other and thats what I want to do.

Primrose wrote: »

I'd go along with the suggestion of starting how you mean to go on. After all, you're a new mother now with a baby to care for, and don't have the time, funds or physical or emotional energy to cope with a fussy grown up.

Either let him eat what you are eating, or give him a sandwich. Looking into the future you're not going to have the capacity to cook different meals for him all the time, so either he will have to eat what you provide and learn to expand his diet, or go without.

Frankly, eating pizza all the time is not going to help you with any post-birth excess weight problems which you may want to get rid of, so eating healthily is of particular interest to you. If he's not prepared to go along with that, life is going to be difficult for you. Why not try and persuade him to take an interest in cooking? Then perhaps when he visits you, he can take responsibility for producing the odd meal. Experimenting with different and new menus may give him an incentive to expand his dietary outlook.

But I can't force him to eat things like mushrooms, I agree with you, but my point is I would like to get him eating food like I do but I understand I can't just throw it at him all at once! He would balk at the sight of a vegetarian dish for instance. I fully intend to have him on a healthy diet by the time we live together however it will take time. He thinks he has a healthy diet at the moment, consisting of cheese sandwiches (white bread) and chocolate at lunch, then whatever mammoth meal his mother cooks him (she cooks him a meal for two people) and his idea of fruit is strawberries with sugar on, and then half a bowl of double cream. See what I am up against!

martinthebandit wrote: »

Is the right answer, mind you if he is ungrateful enough to moan about meals you cook for him, maybe you should send him back to live with his Mum and find a proper grownup to replace him with

I think the problem is the fact that he lives with his parents, he is only 22 but I think thats old enough to have moved out, I did at 18.



At the end of the day if he decides my cooking is horrendous, well I live near a few curry houses in Leeds...

But I would like to ease him into healthy eating without him perhaps knowing...its just I can't cook him what I eat as he hates things like tuna, spinach and chicken etc! So I have to compromise

abby1234519

valk_scot wrote: »

Suggest he does the cooking when he comes round? He can bring the ingredients too. Would give you a much needed break I expect. Mind you, you'll have to set a good example and eat it without complaining too much, unfortunately. Still it will get the message across that you're not his mum.

Thats a good idea. Bearing in mind however I would have to teach him the basics first. He once asked me if the sausages were cooked.

Yes dear, they are more than cooked, they are BLACK

leandygandy

My husband was rather like this when we first moved in together, and I am pleased to say that four years on things are much better - not perfect but much better!

E.G. He would only eat apples - now he will eat apples, bananas, melon, grapes. Not an amazing variety but enough to get him a good mix of nutrition.

E.G. Veg was a COMPLETE no-no - literally NOTHING!! - and now he will eat carrots, cauliflower, green beans and a small amount of some types of lettuce.

The biggest thing I have persevered with is 'I am going to nag you until you try it'. Now he will at least try a mouthful of something before he declares he doesn't like it!!!

With regards to cooking, I cook one meal for the both of us of an evening but with some small tweaks.

E.G. When I make a bolognaise I do still put mushrooms in even though I know he hates them, I just cut them big so he can pick them out, and he is perfectly OK with it.

E.G. We now eat homemade pizzas rather than takeaways - not good for you on the grand scheme of things but with home made dough and sauce I know EXACTLY what is in his dinner! We'll have different toppings on each side.

I have also become the master of 'stealth cooking' mwahahahaha - sauces are simmered with grated carrot in until it goes mushy and you'd never know it was there. Same with courgette (also courgette is great for bulking out homemade burgers - just peel the green skin away first and he'll not be able to see it). Home made pasta sauce is easily tweaked to add extra nutrition with onion/tomatoes etc.

I make substitutions as much as possible, so every label is inspected when food shopping to get the product with the best nutritional content.

Hubby used to have a chocolate mousse in his packed lunch every day - now he has a fruit yoghurt. He used to have sausage rolls, now he has ham sandwiches. He never took fruit, now he has two pieces. It's the little things that all add up.

There is also an element of bribery! 'If you want sausage, egg and chips for tea on Tuesday you have to eat something healthy on Monday'

With a baby due in the next 4-6 weeks hubby's eating habits are something we have discussed at great length - I do not want our child to pick up on Daddy's refusal to eat various foods, and he has also agreed that he does not want this either. He wasn't particularly encouraged to try new things as a child and I think this is part of the problem. While he is trying to change, that is good enough for me.

With great patience and pereseverance you can and will change things, but do be wary of trying to 'control' his eating habits - if he thinks you are 'telling him' what to do he may well resist for the sake of it.

Good luck!!!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Swap baked beans for kidney beans. Cheaper if you prefer to use tins - and the sauce makes a nice addition to the flavour (I like kidney beans, but have been faced with the same reaction). I would suggest the cheapest basics.

Grate cheese and freeze in bags. Chuck a tiny bit on the top on serving so he doesn't think you have quartered his usual cheese portion.

Make a lovely veggie curry and then dish him up a thinly sliced bit of lamb neck in 30p basics curry sauce?

Or better, get a small portion of meat, roll in spices and cook in pan with thinly sliced onion, add a basics tin of tomatoes then stir into potatoes boiled with turmeric to bulk out the curry. Chuck a handful of other veg (cooked carrot or leftover broccoli?) in the end and a dollop of chutney and he'll think he's being spoiled. If the brocolli could be a problem in pieces, bash them up a bit so they disintegrate.

I'd also try a tin of tomatoes in a pan with some onion and some curry spices, boiled until it reduces, add some heat with chilli, curry powder or harissa, leave to simmer/thicken and then one of the following options;

a) stir in cooked sausage chunks
b) stir in cooked meat leftovers
c) stir in beaten egg (cover and let set)
d) crack in eggs, cover and let set
e) stir in leftover potatoes, carrots, peas, sweetcorn, etc


(c and d are excellent for breakfast with toast)

*doodle*_2

My ex hated vegetables but he ate them everyday. Just chop them up really fine. When in a casserole or curry or spag bol he will never guess that they are there!

Just start as you mean to go on. You might end up marrying him or living together and you don't want 40+ years of preparing separate meals.

notatvstar

*doodle* wrote: »

My ex hated vegetables but he ate them everyday. Just chop them up really fine. When in a casserole or curry or spag bol he will never guess that they are there!

Just start as you mean to go on. You might end up marrying him or living together and you don't want 40+ years of preparing separate meals.

I used to hide veg in all kinds of meals... spag bol, lasagna, mince and tatties, mousaka, fried rice, stews and curries. He's used to it now and can't eat any of the above without some veg in it now ... bless.

Everyone on this thread seems to be singing from the same hymn sheet. You need to sort these things out at the beginning, as, food, even though it's not considered a 'deal-breaker' can really have major effects on a relationship. It's all about communication and respect.

Even though you're probably getting a bit upset at him, it's important to be calm when you talk about it. You need to let him know your concerns and fears, and how his behaviour can alleviate them*.

Good luck...

(*or you can beat him about the head with a large heavy cooking implement...)

martinthebandit

You do know that if a man moves straight from a mother to a wife he will expect to be mothered all his lfe, don't you