Picky Eaters (S/O from Snow Flake thread)

[Lorelei_Evil]

My mother was the picky eater. Dinners were pretty much the same thing every night. A piece of meat, either fried or baked, potatoes, usually mashed, and a vegetable (corn, peas, green beans) out of a can. No seasonings except salt & pepper and some butter. She only made the potatoes for the rest of us - the only potatoes she ever ate we're fried. 

I am mostly not a picky eater though the one thing I can't usually force myself to eat is oily fish. I used to buy a can of sardines about once a year hoping to find a way to eat them because they're so healthy. I would open the can, gag at the smell, and give them to the dog, who absolutely loved them.

Sis, is that you? 

My mother is a very picky eater, always was.  There were a lot of foods I simply wasn't exposed to when I was young since if my mother didn't like it, we didn't eat it. 

Things I have learned to enjoy over the years include any vegetable not cooked completely to death, avocadoes, middle eastern food, Indian food, Greek food.

Mom is MUCH pickier now than she was when we were young.  Food is the only thing about her life under her control anymore and she lives on toast, deli ham, dill pickles, and air with a bowl of soup or a couple of pieces of bacon just to confuse you to death.  She likes plain food.  The only thing I can think of that she really enjoys is shellfish, but she's too cheap to buy it and only orders it out.

I've gone from picky to particular and I'm still working on it.

[Outdoor Girl]

Things I find completely revolting:

Tarragon
Coffee
tonic water
Green tea (it taste like dirty grass...and I can say that with confidence because my 3 year old self did once eat dirty grass)

I'm with you on all of these.  Love, love, LOVE the smell of coffee.  Can't drink it.  I hate the flavour going down and I hate the flavour that remains in my mouth for hours afterwards.  Herbal teas, and green tea, mostly smell fantastic but taste like grass.  I keep trying green tea because the antioxidants are supposed to be so good for you.  Everytime, it tastes like grass.

I actually grew tarragon in my herb garden before I knew what it was.  I like the flavour and smell on its own but I've yet to find a dish I can cook it in and enjoy the flavour.  My neighbours love it, though, so I'll keep growing it.

And tonic water is just bitter.  Ick.

[Venus193]

I was once friends with someone who believed she couldn't tolerate spices of any kind.  Since her mother treated her and her older brother as though they were still children (she was in her late 20s at the time) I have wondered whether her "problem" was imposed on her by her mother.   

The one time I ate at their home the meal was chicken and rice.  Smelled good enough while it was cooking, but was completely plain.  There was only a salt shaker in the house as well; no pepper of any kind and not even a box of Bell's Poultry Seasoning.

[siamesecat2965]

There really was no "children's food" when I was growing up; you ate the same stuff as your parents or went to bed hungry.  There was nothing wrong with that.  Why on earth is that no longer true?

Yup - me too. The only time I ever got a separate meal was if I was sick.  And then it was only something like tea, soup, toast, nothing fancy.

And a funny story about that. When I moved out, I wasn't able to take my cat - Boris, aka His Lordship. So he stayed with my parents, where he quickly became my dad's best buddy. I went over there one day, and there's canned food IN his dish, yet my dad is opening another can. I asked what he was doing, and he said, and I quote, "he didn't like that one, so I'm giving him something else" So as a kid, if I didn't like what was served, I either forced it down, or went to bed hungry, yet the CAT gets something different? What's wrong with this picture?

[Venus193]

Cats are royalty and they know it.

Once upon a time I gave Blanche's cats two units of Sheba cat food for Christmas; they typically were fed something cheaper.  A few days later she told me that she served one of them to them the day before and they scarfed them down.  A few hours later she went into the kitchen to discover the male cat knocking the second one off the kitchen counter.  He then sat there and looked at her as if to say "That was good; now we want this one."

[Hmmmmm]

It's fun reading everyone's stories.  To me a picky eater isn't someone who has strong dislike of a dozen or more foods, even if they are very common.

Picky eaters to me or the ones that ONLY eat a dozen or so foods.  In college I had  a suite mate mate who only ate cereal and it had to be eaten with whole milk, chicken (but it could be in any form) potatoes in any form (but they could only have salt, pepper, butter or milk) apples, seedless grapes, nectarines, canned asparagus and canned corn.  She ate no bread, pasta, or cheese in any form.  She wouldn't eat any type of fruit with a seed.

Or my friends son who for 2 years lived on chicken nuggets, slices of kraft american cheese or slices of cheddar cheese, cereal, apples, saltine crackers, peanut butter,  and summer sausage.

[AfleetAlex]

As a kid, I was a picky eater extraordinaire, although I think a lot of it dealt with issues with texture and an unfortunate bout of something (flu?) that turned me off of many foods I used to eat.

As an adult I'm much better and have gradually tried new things, although some things I simply won't eat. I've tried miso soup twice and loathe it. I just can't do it.

My niece also had a texture issue; her doctor said it was sensory sensitivity. So all her foods had to be separate on her plate when she was little and she couldn't mix the foods on her fork - just one food at a time. She's better now but does have some dietary restrictions. Has anyone else had experience with sensory sensitivity?

[Ambrosia Hino]

I grew up on a rather limited menu, as far as veggies go. The only veggies that ever crossed our plates were potatoes in various forms; salads of iceburg, tomato, and carrot, with cucumber, raw onion, celery, and sometimes radishes on the side; and canned corn and one particular type of canned bean (ranch-style).

When I was in high school, I introduced bean sprouts to the house for cooking stir-fry. My parents make faces or weird noises about a lot of my cooking (mostly noises over the phone when I'm telling them about my experiments) because I'm fixing things like squash, eggplant, and broccoli.

I am picky about a few things. Spinach must either be raw or if its cooked, it has to either be smothered in cheese or be in Greek food. Broccoli and cauliflower must be cooked. Mushrooms must be hidden (I'm at least eating them now, in a very few things, so its progress!). And zuchinni and artificial sweeteners need to never touch my food, they make me sick (which stinks because I love zuchinni).

Luckily, my son is usually happy with whatever he gets fed. Hopefully this lasts even once he realizes how much his daddy turns up his nose at because...

My DH is our picky eater. He wants hamburger helper beef stroganoff, not homemade. He wants mac'n'cheese from a box, with the orange powder. Prefers canned veggies for the few he'll eat (peas and corn are about it). Fruits are just as hard to get into him, so far my only success is with sliced apples and occasionally watermelon. Basically, he wants meat, carbs, and dairy. One of his doctors actually forbade green leafy veggies, due to the Vitamin K content and a blood-clotting issue he has (super prone to them). Oh, my only real "success" with fruits and veggies, are ones hidden in desserts. I had to give up, pumpkin pie/bread totally counts as a veggie when he eats it.

I actually find meals easier when he goes on his "dieting" phase, since he usually does Atkins. Then I just make sure the main dishes are acceptable and round out meals for myself and DS with veggies that he doesn't eat anyway (so healthier for us, while not tempting for him). I'm looking forward to hitting the end of our "pantry challenge" (using up all the boxed junk and non-diet-friendly foods) so that we can move into the "diet" phase again.

ETA: I'm also working on cabbage, slowly, for myself. I love eggrolls, and I have started to find a restaurant or two with coleslaw recipes that I kinda like. DS loves coleslaw so far. Introducing that little guy to foods and trying to make sure he doesn't wind up picky (due to catering, not true dislikes) inspires me to try new stuff. Especially when (like with the coleslaw), I put something I don't like on his plate and he tears into it like its the best stuff ever, I have to at least snitch a taste back.

[Venus193]

I don't like tofu or anything that's textured like it.  I can't really think of anything else at the moment.

[siamesecat2965]

I wouldn't consider myself a picky eater, but I have some weird issues with certain foods, and types of food. There are some foods I won't touch, but for the most part, I eat pretty much anything.

As a child, I apparently had issues with whole milk, so the dr. told my mom to give me skim, which back in the late 60's and early 70's on, was unheard of. There weren't any worries about fat, and calories etc. Whole milk makes me gag now.  I also never ate American cheese; my mom didn't care for it, so she bought cheddar. And inevitably, I'd be at a friend's house for lunch, and they'd have grilled cheese with american, and whole milk. BLECH.

I also can stand any kind of cream sauce. Just thinking about them makes me gag. I think it has something to do with my milk aversion.  Yet I can put cream in my coffee with no issues.

I also have issues with the look and texture of certain foods. I like nut, aside from walnuts, but can't stand them in cake, ice cream, cookies etc. I think its the contrast between soft, creamy, smooth, and crunchy. But in chocolate? no problem.  I won't eat anything except real butter, and it even took me months to get up the nerve to try whipped butter v. stick. It was all about the appearance.

[learningtofly]

DD is very picky.  Very.  As a kid I ate what was put in front of me.  I hated chicken for years and mom worked around it.  Lunch was the same thing every day for years.  But I grew up and tried new things.  Dad wasn't adventurous, still isn't, but likes hearing about the foods we try.

DD doesn't eat what we eat because unlike mom who had dinner on the table at 6 every night I"m walking through the door at 6 and trying to get food into everyone.  I'm working on planning meals and getting new foods into DD.  She used to eat everything.  I"m hoping the pickiness stage wears off soon.

[CakeBeret]

My mom is a picky eater and I grew up with a very limited diet. We usually ate turkey sandwiches, spinach salad, or hamburger helper. I hate deli turkey and can't stand raw spinach, so I didn't fare well with that menu! Mom is not a good cook, doesn't like cooking, and has lots of food aversions. I grew up thinking I disliked many foods, because the only times I tried them they were horribly cooked. Mushy brussels sprouts, plain cold salmon from a can, most veggies from a can, meat cooked into oblivion, little to no seasonings, and so on.

Adulthood has been a delicious, fun adventure trying all the foods I thought I hated. I love green vegetables. I adore a piece of properly-cooked salmon. I get regular cravings for sushi and Thai. One thing I heartily dislike is eggs; if they are cooked just right they're okay, but if they're even slightly runny the texture makes me ill.

My DS would be a picky eater if we let him, I think. He has a handful of foods that he adores, and would eat nothing but that if he could. Cheese, hot dogs, peanut butter, pancakes and oranges, mainly. He eats what we eat at mealtimes, and then he can supplement that with some cheese or fruit if he wants to. He's not yet 3 and will happily eat sushi, fish, pasta, chili, spicy foods, guacamole, and all kinds of delicious things.

[Cami]

I'm not picky, but won't eat tofu because as far as I'm concerned our forebearers crawled out of the primordial swamp on their belly so we don't have to eat pond scum.And I won't eat chitlins. Tried them, not gonna happen again. Sadly, as I've gotten older my body cannot handle certain foods such as bacon or Pizza Hut pizza dough, so I wouldn't say I'm picky, but I do have some dietary restrictions.

My dh is not picky, but he has to be in a "mood" to eat food. I don't get it. He takes forever to order off a menu because he has to first decide what he's "in the mood to eat." I don't get it.

My dd is picky. She was not raised that way, but that is her natural tendency. We never made kid foods for her and expected her to eat what we were eating. Guess what? Did not work. I won't go in to the details, but it took us too long to ignore the advice of those who advised us to "force" her to eat "regular" foods. Food had become a battleground. It was bad. I deeply regret listening to people who told me that all we had to do was stick to our guns and she would "get over" it. She's gotten better as she's gotten older, but she's also realized that it's a texture issu and that realization has enabled her to branch out in her eating because she's not so afraid of trying new things for fear of gagging or vomiting.

[Lorelei_Evil]

Oh, summer squashes!  I can't taste them well at all.  They tasted like stringy water the way my mom cooked them, either boiled to death or swimming in grease so I wouldn't eat them.  Now I still can't taste them well but don't pick them out of stirfries or omelets as long as they still have some texture to them.  Mushrooms, same thing.

Mom's not good at frying.  She doesn't believe in preheating so everything starts in an ice cold pan and gets grease logged as a result. 

My bad thing is pie crust.  I just can't get it right.  I'm going to master it one of these days, I'm not giving up. 

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

My DH is our picky eater. He wants hamburger helper beef stroganoff, not homemade. He wants mac'n'cheese from a box, with the orange powder. Prefers canned veggies for the few he'll eat (peas and corn are about it). Fruits are just as hard to get into him, so far my only success is with sliced apples and occasionally watermelon. Basically, he wants meat, carbs, and dairy. One of his doctors actually forbade green leafy veggies, due to the Vitamin K content and a blood-clotting issue he has (super prone to them). Oh, my only real "success" with fruits and veggies, are ones hidden in desserts. I had to give up, pumpkin pie/bread totally counts as a veggie when he eats it.
(snipped for length)

I’m really not a picky eater—in fact, I’ve been forcing myself to try things I hated as a kid to see if they are edible now (fried mushrooms? yum! green olives? all your green olives belong to me).

However, I grew up on a diet of Hamburger Helper, orange mac and cheese, canned veggies and fruits, lasagna of the midwest noodles + spaghettii sauce + cottage and cheddar cheese type, ramen noodles, cheap chicken noodle soup, and fast food.

Now, I have a much expanded diet now and rarely eat those things, but honestly? I’ll take Hamburger Helper, my mom’s "lasagna", and canned peaches or pears over the homemade or fresh variety any day. I think my taste buds were just conditioned to like those things, and the "real" versions are weird to me.

So, I can see where your DH is coming from in some respect. Not that that doesn’t mean I don’t think he could expand his tastes if he tried as I have, but the "good" food I like is all stuff that I didn’t have until I was a teen or adult, so there’s no boxed or canned equivalent taste memory lurking in my head. I’ll take sushi over Hamburger Helper unless I’m super emotionally grief eating, but if it’s gotta be stroganoff, I’d rather the HH version.

ed. b/c I can spell—usually.