What can i feed the fussiest eater in the world?

puddy

the trouble is, he just simply wouldnt stick to the budget, he thinks all this 'moneysaving' stuff is me being a 'stickler', he says, 'oh you're such a stickler', he would also go and buy a load of offal, corned beef, tinned meats, spam, none of which I eat. He would do the stir fried rice thing, with the rice all mushy. Most of all, he would simply eat kentucky or fish and chips each night. He cant be let loose with the budget.

BitterAndTwisted

Sorry, but I don't know how you stand it: all of the things on his "won't eat" list are many of my favourites. I'd be tempted to serve home-made soup or bacon sandwiches six nights out of seven. What is his reasoning for not eating anything that's been open for more than two days, has he had food poisoning lately?

If he won't eat pasta will he eat rice-noodles?

C_Mababejive

OP can i give you some really good advice? Dont put up with it. SHARE the cooking i.e a couple nights a week,he cooks. If you continue like this, you will suffer in the end. Once he learns how to cook and plays his fair part ,he will adjust.

His mum probably indulged him as you now are doing. You are not his mother,you are his partner and lover.

puddy

i dont know how i stand it either because its getting me down.

trouble is, my favourite meals are pasta, cheese, eggs, tomatoey things, etc etc

i need a list of about 10 recipes that i can repeat on a fortnightly basis which we would both like but which are cheap.

we have one that we both love, which is chicken breasts, cooked in white wine, thyme, cherry tomatoes, with goats cheese under the skin (see the contraryness, he loves this but it has cheese in it)

I can do a couple of stews a fortnight. we both like fish in breadcrumbs and oven chips, so thats about 4 dishes

puddy

C_Mababejive wrote: »

OP can i give you some really good advice? Dont put up with it. SHARE the cooking i.e a couple nights a week,he cooks. If you continue like this, you will suffer in the end. Once he learns how to cook and plays his fair part ,he will adjust.

His mum probably indulged him as you now are doing. You are not his mother,you are his partner and lover.

i love your optimism. however, the reality is that he will not change or adjust. this wont happen. he didnt have a mum, apparently his dad used to cook for the five thousand too. he's had 3 wives but the kids mum died when they were young, so he's been a single dad. therefore any 'practice' of cooking and budgeting he has done already, but obviously just gave the kids what he ate (they make a lot of jokes about horrible stews now!)
he had poor budgeting skills and was in a lot of debt until the kids left home in their 20s (forced by us moving in together), so if he couldnt do it then with 3 kids, he certainly wont do it now!

puddy

forgot to say that the other reason i dont want him cooking is that he doesnt get home till 8.30 and i would be starving if i had to wait for him to get ready and then cook! when he lived in his own house, he would usually eat about 10 or 11 at night, this is just the norm for him, I cant eat that late!!!

Paulie'sGirl

I'd second C_Mababejive, and suggest you give him a list and the money cash in his hand. Let him see for himself its a balancing act and he should work with and not against you.

ifonlyitwaseasier

how about sitting down with him and menu planning, let him know the budget and use mysupermarket.co.uk to help sort out the shopping list.

and on the leftovers, tell him that as you are so busy you are going to prep a few bits in advance so you can both enjoy your time together, and make a whole batch of basic mince up and then freeze in 2 person portions so that you can take it out and tell him it'll be xyz and you can also turn it into abc, benefit of this is also you can hide things in it so he doesn't notice them (ie lentils which my OH hates but he loves my "creamy mince" which has lentils and oats in!!)

only other thing is split the budget, let him know that this is the only money available for food and if he spends it all on junk then he'll be living on porridge for the rest of the week whilst you eat some really lovely stuff in front of him.

and don't throw out leftovers, keep it for yourself and enjoy it!!

misskool

can you cook something like sausage casserole as one of the repeat dishes? And maybe something like bubble and squeak which you can leave out the meat for yourself (and save)

If he won't eat pasta, but does like rice can you try couscous/bulgar wheat/quinoa? Rice noodles?

Fishcakes? Will he have soup and bread as a main meal?

Rotate the meals more, maybe make it once a month meal planning? Hide the leftovers well!

Otherwise serve him chops and chips every night until he learns to like something else.

puddy

left overs are not an option. he will consider things being frozen, but only for a week and only if they are put in the freezer whilst still hot, so that they dont get cold out of the fridge or freezer. as you know, you cant put things in the fridge or freezer whilst still hot, so i dont want to do this.

re the budget, i cant let him do this as he will simply spend on his card, or worse use credit (i have tried to remove his credit cards in the past), or get us overdrawn. he thinks that watching money is over the top anyway. if i gave an ultimatum saying 'you'll only be eating x,y or z if you over spend', will just result in him buying takeaway so it needs to be what he would eat.

case in point is tonight. he turned his nose up at fish curry. he said, that he would cook, using the fish and cook fish cakes. he said, you're not allowed to come out in the kitchen and interfere so i left him to it.

so, we now have on the table a mixture of white fish, mashed potato and a handful of peas, in a baking dish which serves 6 large adult portions. he consitently refuses to use salt in his cooking, so the result is bland, although edible. i have eaten 2 portions in order to try and eat it. the ratio of fish to potatoes is wrong, its mostly potato (although they are cheap), so its not great. we agreed that he would use mild curry powder in the mix, so that it was a sort of curried fish cake ( i didnt know he would be cooking it in a baking dish). no curry powder in it because 'I couldnt find it'. thats because you didnt bluddy look (as usual)