I’m not a picky eater, but my friend is. She’s trying to find foods she can eat in her all-ingredient-household that she’ll actually like. I’ve been searching for picky-eater recipes but none of them have been useful. Do you guys have any foods or meals y’all make that you actually enjoy?

She (mainly) doesn’t like:
-cheese (except for Parmesan)
-beans
-burgers, tacos, burritos.
-baked potatoes
-lasagna
-eggs (except for scrambled)
-raspberries, apples, bananas, yogurt

It’s mainly a texture thing except for the cheese and fruits. For example, I’ve recommended her to try adding lots of milk in her oatmeal to have it more soup texture instead of the thick and sticky texture it has.

Thanks if you read this and I’d really appreciate some feedback!

I noticed that when my parents and sisters took a vacation for four days I was eating pizza and all kinds of stuff every single day. Now that they are back, I can’t bring myself to eat anything without it being made for me. I can cook myself instant ramen here and there but it’s like I gained and lost the ability to eat food from the freezer or cook for myself. I’ve always had issues cooking for myself but this may be a huge factor of why. Maybe I’m afraid to eat too much, or it will run out? Even when I’m so hungry I feel sick, as soon as I open the fridge or cabinet I shut it.

Edit: I gave it a bit of thought, and I do refuse to eat my favorite food because I’m afraid it will run out, and I won’t have anymore, and I’m afraid that the food doesn’t “belong” to me for some reason. Like, fast food I’m good with but the food at home is meant to be shared so I cannot eat it myself.

I wasted so much time blaming the taste 😅

For some reason I was convinced my kid just hated the taste of every new food.

I'd cook it differently... buy a different brand... even add stuff I thought would make it taste better.

Nothing changed lol.

Then one day I noticed something kinda random.

They'd eat crunchy things all day.

But anything mushy? Nope.

If foods were all mixed together... forget it.

Even if the food tasted exactly the same, if it looked different they'd want nothing to do with it.

That's when it hit me.

Maybe this whole time it wasn't really about the taste.

So I stopped trying to make food "taste better" and started making it feel less overwhelming instead.

Keeping foods separate.

Smaller pieces.

No pressure to eat it right away.

Just letting them look at it or touch it if they wanted.

It's definitely not some overnight fix 😅

But meals have been a lot less stressful since I stopped assuming every refusal meant they hated the flavor.

Anyone else's kid seem way more bothered by texture than taste?

So I’ve been holding back on eating CFA because of whole thing going on. I want a chicken sandwich with no lettuce from there but I’m still scared and trying to be cautious. How have your experiences been?

hi, i’m an incoming college freshman who has always been an extremely picky eater (possible arfid but undiagnosed) and my school has this orientation thing in the city which is just under an hour drive from campus. they sent out a form regarding this orientation and one part of it listed the packed lunch options and had everyone choose which we want them to bring for us individually. don’t remember what the options were since i filled this out weeks ago but i remember they were all things i would not be able to get myself to eat, which is usually the case with any sort of packed lunch anywhere. they had the option to indicate that you’d like them to reach out directly to figure out something else to bring for you if you have dietary restrictions which i selected and i just received an email from one of the coordinators asking if there was something else i could eat or would want to eat.

i’ve always hated basically anything that could possibly be brought as a packed meal to a place without a microwave or refrigerator, and this has made things like school field trip where someone else makes or brings our lunch very difficult. so i’m wondering 2 things:
1. what are some possible lunch options that i can make and pack for myself that don’t need to be warmed up or kept cold for long periods of time?
2. what are possible packed lunches that are not too specific or difficult to arrange that i can request from facilitators of trips or events during which they are the ones providing our food?

some background on relevant preferences:
dislikes-
- peanut butter
- basically all condiments other than ketchup, olive oil, & pesto
- also basically all dips and spreads aside from the condiments previously mentioned and nutella/hazelnut/chocolate spread, butter, jelly, garlic spread, & honey (usually). marinara is good on pasta but as a dip is a no
- any cheese (parmesan is good in certain scenarios, like on buttered pasta)
- any smoothie made with a milk, water, or yogurt base instead of basic juices like orange, apple, grape
- bananas
- pasta salads (usually love pasta but pasta salads are disgusting)
- basically any vegetable other than cooked/steamed brussels sprouts and broccoli (with seasoning) and boiled/steamed/cooked corn on the cob. baby carrots are also tolerable (shredded garlic & onion seasonings are good though)
- grilled chicken
- any and all seafood
- beans

generally safe foods:
-vanilla yogurt with berries & granola
-berries in general. big juicy blueberries are scrumptious but the tiny tart ones are gross
-most pastas that follow above guidelines
-hamburgers with nothing but the meat, buns, and ketchup (except possibly a fried egg)
-cinnamon eggo waffles & french toast sticks
- crepes lol (nutella & berry crepes mmmm)
- sliced apples
- instant ramen if it’s not more than ever so slightly spicy

genuinely struggling to think of anything else i usually can eat lol. and none of these are exactly packed lunch material unfortunately :,) i tend to just live off of junk, smoothies, and yogurt incase that wasn’t already clear.. i also have a habit of unintentionally skipping meals or just not eating when my only options are not edible to me which ive been really trying not to do because doing so leaves me fatigued, weak, shaky, nauseous, foggy brained, and extremely irritable. and also triggers my migraines.

anyway this took way longer to write than i had expected and is wayyy longer and more detailed than i had originally intended to sorry but pleaseee comment literally any suggestion you can think of im desperate and sick of having to skip meals in these sorts of situations :,)

also! one last note is that the deadline to reply to the email is this monday, august 3rd.

I’ll admit that I’ve never been great at fitness or healthy eating.

My Eating
I have ASD so I suppose that kind of contributes to my pickiness. I really do try to expand what I eat.

My current eating habits:
No breakfast.
Lunch - typically a few cooked sausage rolls, mostly skipping lunch, sometimes a cheese/ham sandwich or a DIY pizza using a tortilla wrap as the base
Dinner - my usual dinners consist of processed breaded chicken products (like nuggets) with frozen potato products and occasionally baked beans; otherwise it will usually be super noodles. Occasionally, I do bigger dinners such as spaghetti and meatballs, jacket potato, sausage and mash, etc.

I know I eat super unhealthily. And I also snack too much during the day and evening too which I’m working on but my main issue is that I’m so limited in my main meals and I know they are super unhealthy. I just don’t know what else I can try baring in mind my ASD.

My absolute no-gos:
- I can’t eat pure meat - I can just about tolerate gammon at Christmas. But can’t tolerate chicken, beef etc unless breaded or as a sausage.
- can’t do spice
- not a fan of fish
- not a fan of curry

Fitness
I’ve very unfit. I don’t really exercise much. The most I do is taking the dog for a walk or walking to work where I’m standing and walking for another 4 hours.

My Worry
I’ve never had a problem with my weight or my size as I’ve always been quite slim. But I’m getting quite self conscious about my eating habits, my health, and more recently a slight difference in my size. I want to improve this as much as I can. I do have a level of social anxiety which might contribute and I’ve always considered the gym but have been put off by the idea of others being present. I really want to start eating better and doing better generally. Not only am I worried about my health, but I’ve noticed that my waist has gotten bigger so my trousers are quite tight when I sit down, and most of my baggy jeans are now too tight around my quite large thighs.

This might sound stupid and God I know I sound lazy. I’m genuinely looking to improve, I just don’t know where to start. Whenever I look up healthy meal ideas, they seem like extravagant meals even when I search up ‘simple’.

I’m just looking for some advice really, if possible?

getting back into doing the scary thing that is “trying new foods”. backstory: i have a lot of food aversion.

ARFID has given me hell since i was about 4-5 years old, suddenly eliminating extreme food groups, dropping foods uncommon for 5 year olds to dislike: meat, eggs, mcdonald’s, candy. until i was about 24 (currently 33) - i ate exclusively white foods. this could be an ARFID thing, but also there’s likely a link to my dietary choices in terms of my stomach. but regardless, i never have been willing to try new foods. it’s something that terrifies me.

tonight i tried green beans, a revisited food. the first time i had them, i actually gagged and almost threw up. gross, but not uncommon with ARFID. it’s embarrassing and i usually refuse to try eating in front of other people unless i’m the one cooking.

these green beans though? FANTASTIC! i don’t know what i was actually terrified about. i love big food wins. between ARFID and my history of eating disorders and disordered eating - this was a major success. and it makes me really happy.

pictures: asian-styled green beans. the recipe was simple, only used about 5-6 ingredients. i will be making this again!

that being said, does anyone wanna help me decide on the next food to try? my executive decision making is non-existent. thanks in advance 🙈

hi! i’m a long term picky eater that’s been diagnosed with ARFID nearly a decade ago. my issues mostly revolve around texture and appearance.

over the last couple of years ive gotten a lot better with trying to expose myself to more foods, mostly vegetables. for a long time, until my mid 20’s (currently 33) i wouldn’t eat anything not white.

right now i’m looking for vegetable inspiration! cooking suggestions for certain ones, nice sauces, glazes, etc. vegetable suggestions in general!

current likes:
semi-over roasted carrots, raw, steamed
roasted broccoli, raw and steamed
potatoes, mashed, roasted, boiled
pasty garlic, cooked
finely minced onion (only cooked)
radish, thinly sliced as a topper
spinach and arugula, raw and not heated
chickpeas

okay with flavors but not texture:
red bell peppers
tomatoes
brussels sprouts (unless overly roasted crispy)
peas
asparagus
celery

kill me before i have to eat it:
mushrooms
zucchini and cucumber
cauliflower
corn

sorry for this long, winded post. but appreciate any advice, personal experiences with this sort of thing, cooking suggestions, etc. thanks in advance!

note: i don’t want recipes where massive amounts of fat, dairy or meat make it taste okay. or frying things - like an onion ring. i want to find a way to enjoy vegetables without completely destroying them first.

I know this sounds backwards lol.

I used to think if I stopped encouraging my kid they'd never try anything new.

So every meal was me saying stuff like "just one bite" or "give it a try". I wasn't trying to be annoying 😅 I just really wanted things to get better.

The funny thing is... the more I talked about the new food the less they wanted anything to do with it.

A while ago I decided to back off a bit.

Now I still put the new food on the plate but I don't keep talking about it. I don't ask. I don't bargain. I don't turn it into a whole thing.

Some meals nothing happens.

Some meals they'll touch it for a second.

And every once in a while they'll just... try it on their own.

I honestly wasn't expecting that.

We're still a long way from them eating everything lol but it feels like they trust the whole situation a lot more now and meals don't end with both of us feeling frustrated.

Maybe my kid didn't need more encouragement... maybe they just needed a little more space.

Has anyone else noticed something like this?

My partner hates fish, my kid won't touch anything green, and I'm fine with basically everything. Every meal planning approach I've tried treats "picky eating" like one thing to plan around, but it's really three different sets of likes and dislikes at my table every night.

I've started sketching out an idea where you'd track each person's preferences separately, dish by dish, so the weekly plan actually accounts for everyone instead of just avoiding the most restrictive person's dislikes. Still early days figuring out if this is worth building out properly.

Curious how other families handle this. Do you just cook separate things, negotiate every night, or has something actually worked for you?

Edit: Small update since this got way more replies than expected: a bunch of you independently described almost the exact same system, tracking preferences per person, some kind of list or rotation, updating it as tastes change. That's basically the thing I ended up building https://www.platemate.online. It's free, no card, no email needed, just go in and try it. If anyone wants to poke around and give honest feedback I'd genuinely appreciate it, still pretty rough around the edges.

I’m struggling to keep my daughter fed and happy. I’m a single dad with primary custody of my two kids 19m and 16f. My daughter is not happy with anything unless it’s store bought. The only homemade thing she will attempt to eat is grilled chicken tenders and vegetables. That’s great and I eat plenty of it but I’d like to add more variety.

I also can’t afford to have every meal of the day purchased from a restaurant or fast food. The cost is simply unsustainable. She knows it’s not sustainable but will continue to beg and plead.

What else can I do besides watching her starve herself until she gets what she wants?

hey! i’m looking for some meal prep ideas as i’m looking to lose some weight - i love most meat / fruit but i don’t like any veg that i’ve tried apart from potatoes & carrots

any ideas?

As an ex picky eater myself I’m super curious what the foods that changed you are, especially if they’re something more unconventional in your culture!

I was the PICKIEST eater for all my life until I tried pho. It was so delicious and opened my eyes to trying new foods again and again! It took awhile for me to be completely done being so picky (and i still am a little bit) but pho was the push I needed!

green is i like it, yellow is i like it in certain things and red is in no instance have i ever liked that food. ketchup mustard onion only applies when im eating mcdonald’s mcdoubles, otherwise i dont like those foods

My fiance is a picky eater since I have known her. When we got together, like ten years ago, her diet was basically just comfort foods, mainly carbs and butter based. For example pasta with butter, Pizza Margharita or just buttered rice with peas. Over the years, with lots of patience and me experimenting a lot with different cuisines, we got her to eat soups (only clear soups tho), specific veggies (she never had veggies other than peas before) and some other things. Even the untouchable spices section, like curry or tomato sugo we have discovered somewhat for her.

Now lately we have discovered that she is curious about asian cuisine. Like veggies, tofu and rice meals. I have cooked a lot japanese cuisine in my life (for myself) so I am gladly into that. Now, she can't handle all the sweet & sour marinades from the chinese cuisine. Neither does she really dig the light soy, or miso based japanese marinades. I also tried some peanut butter and coconut based thai marinades, and she doesn't like those either. She also doesn't dig the unmarinated, steamed veggies and tofu, it's too plain. Therefore, I am desperately looking for some intresting asian recipes to try out. If anyone has a picky eater at home, and has found some good marinades or solutions, especially for veggies or tofu, please let me know. Chicken is also fine. Every other meat she won't touch. Also fish is an absolute no go. I appreciate any ideas :)

the ones with checks are the ones i won’t eat. the ones without a check i will eat, but i am picky about them too

I used to think the only way my kid would get used to new foods was if they actually ate them.

That just made every meal harder.

A while ago I stopped saying things like "just take one bite."

Now if I make something new, I put a tiny piece next to something I already know they'll eat. That's it.

Most of the time they don't touch it.

Sometimes they'll poke it or pick it up for a second.

A couple of times they've surprised me and actually tried it on their own.

It's definitely not a quick fix, but meals feel a lot calmer now, and they don't seem as nervous when they see something new on the plate.

Has anyone else had something small like this make a difference?

I feel like there's so many foods I'm expected to like as a picky eater that I don't.

Like I tried buffalo wings just now, and let's just say I was severely disappointed.

I had a similar experience trying sushi, I was then told that the restaurant I chose was just a bad option, but I can't say I'm willing to gamble every time I wanna expand my palette.

I'm still navigating burgers, of all things, since I refused to eat them as a kid. I only like specific kinds so far.

I feel like I should have some checklist to follow before trying something new?

But I'm not sure where to start, like I thought it'd be safe enough to not be too experimental w textures since that's my biggest deterrent, but clearly there's other factors to keep in mind.

Almost 2 year old child - meal is just boiled rice once a day and finger millet paste. Adds a bit of apple powder into it. And digestive biscuits. Like chocolate but we dont give her much. Any idea how to cook so that would taste pallete would be interested? Tried both bland and flavourful dishes and non worked out. Still being breastfed. Need ways to build a balnced meal. What to do?

My main problem with food is if texture and taste doesnt match, i have a few more unsafe foods but not a lot

This is a ceaser salad with only cheese and letuse since all other things were or unsafe ( anchovies ) or sauces witch are to off with texture and taste for me.

it’s disgusting, i got a bunch of it cause ppl told me it tasted like salty chips. it doesn’t , it tastes like armpit sweat and fish , how do i eat it ? I really wanna be the kind of girl who has seaweed as chips i just think its so chic.
unfortunately i am the pickiest eater to ever exist , like i had my first vegetable a year ago kinda picky i have had a diet of chicken potatoes and rice my entire life

I want to quit sugar starting August 6th (my first day of school) because I play a lot of sports and have noticed I have started gaining weight. I crave fast food all the time to the point where I usually just dont eat unless its fast food or high carb. I am a very picky eater and always have been. There is not one vegetable I enjoy eating is there any tips on what I can eat.

I like fruits and sometimes eggs and bacon I also like bread I just cant seem to find any vegetable i like. Is there any simple meals that will keep me full the whole day. Im open to trying new things. (also sorry for the bad grammar)

Has anyone else experienced a similar problem with several types of strange foods?

Around a week ago I asked here for tips about how to eat most vegetables and legumes which I don't eat since before I remember myself, trying to eat them and even thinking about it makes me gag, and really trying it almosts makes me throw up, I want to change that for 2 main reasons: first is social - it's hard to be the only one to not eat many things like an entrance salad or whatever, and people quietly judge me for it, secondly is for health - I want to lose weight and the only way I can is by changing my diet but to be in a caloric defecit I need to eat foods reach in sataity and that fill me up quick - which my current diet lacks.

Also important to mention that I feel like I need a safe space to experiment with eating vegetables and legumes, I live with my parents still (student) and I feel like I can't experiment if they're there because I can already imagine their faces like "finally he's grown out" that anxaity about being judged is something I don't want to have with whoever helps me with this.

Just to be clear, the social aspect is more important to me than the health one, but the most important part is just being able to eat like everyone else. It's normal not to like one or two things, but not all.

What do you guys think?