Living with a Carboholic page 2

[MissJecka]

My boyfriend is a very very picky eater with simple tastes. He only eats 6 vegetables, no fruit or nuts (except for peanut M&Ms, ugh!), eggs, and seafood. Although he does enjoy meat and salads, his favorite meals are carb-a-licious: pasta, cereal, bread, pizza, granola bars, etc.

Still, we find a way.

I do eat rice, so it helps a lot with our meals. If he wants something starchy and I can tell he wants pasta, I will make the meal with rice instead. (Example: chicken stir fry instead of chicken with pasta.) I also will cook a primal meal and eat more of the meat, but I will make him a side of french fries or baked potato or a small helping of pasta while I double-up on the veggies. For example: tonight I plan on cooking some chicken breasts and caramelizing some onions for dinner. I know he won't just want that, so I plan on eating about 6oz of chicken with all the onions; but, he will have one chicken breast and a big caeser salad to make up for not eating the onions! (And he'll probably have a granola bar afterwards.)

Breakfast is a lost cause, and you may have to consider what will be non-negotiable. Because my boyfriend doesn't eat eggs, he's basically stuck with cereal or waffles for breakfast, so we always have both in the house. I know that's a battle I'll never win!

In the end, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Pick your battles. Make changes in your life and eventually it will carry over into his, if he is receptive. My boyfriend now measures cereal portions so he doesn't overdo it, and I never asked him to do so. Also, it doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. We always have canned soup on hand (which is super cheap!) so if I make something he doesn't want to eat, he can always have a can of soup or Chef Boyardee or a salami sandwich. (I guess it helps that I do 100% of the cooking.)

[EagleRiverDee]

The compromise I have with my sweetie is we eat primally at dinner and we eat separately for breakfast/lunch. We have always eaten those two meals separately anyway, due to our different work schedules.

[Karock]

After a while you'll see that you'll figure out enough simple recipes that both of you can enjoy. My sugar/grain-loving man tends to like things that are served over a big pile of rice or pasta or wrapped in tortillas. No big deal. Rice, pasta and tortillas are cheap. I'll just pour my stuff into a bowl, over lettuce, over a sweet potato or whatever and he can have all the rice, pasta and tortillas he wants. Sometimes I have the rice myself, too.

<gender reversal> but that is just like our house.
Like tonight. Pasta, meatballs(P), sauce(P), salad(P), garlic bread.
Guess who eats what? We aren't making two meals, but we are both happy with what we are having, no one is missing out. She gets her pasta and bread, only non-p thing I'm having is wine.
Heck, she even gets bacon on her sandwiches a lot more now which makes her happy. Because bacon fixes everything.

And during this transition our grocery budget has maintained its previous pricing after an initial stock change bump.