In a food rut

[redkitty]

How do you all get yourselves out of a food rut?  My family is in a food rut right now.  we are NOT adventurous eaters.  Dh and I are picky. My 2.5 yr old quite frankly is way less picky than we are (and I really want to encourage her to NOT be picky.)  Not being adventurous, how do you suggest we try to break through this rut? 

[rocketgirl]

What do you normally eat over and over?  What ingredients do you use most?  Maybe you can just make other foods with some of the same ingredients.

Like I can make a chicken and rice thing and using only 1/2 package of chicken.  Then I can make a sausage & peppers and onions thing and have leftover peppers and onions.  So then I can marinate the chicken in soy sauce and lime juice and use with peppers & onions and some black beans to make fajitas OR I can use the chicken and peppers and onions with some frozen broccoli and cauliflower in a stir fry. 

I'm really still in the learning phase of cooking.  My current go-to is just throw stuff in a pie shell with eggs and make quiche.

[redkitty]

Well we use a lot of pasta as sides. That is part of the problem. I just realized that my kid has eaten some sort of noodle for the last 5 dinners (and again tonight most likely.) Not the same noodle, but still. I want more variety for her.  Or we use potatoes...but even this is rare (and she doesn't like potatoes.)  Or we make a pizza-type food (pizza, stromboli).  Part of the issue is, DH and I are sort of picky. My DD is, kind of, but in a different way. She is NOT a huge meat eater. We are.  So it is hard for me to come up with meals that we can all eat that has variety.  I am not going to make 2 different dinners most of the time (I make an exception here and there and it is always decided BEFORE dinner...so if she doesn't want what we eat...she doesn't eat.) 

For instance, tonight we are probably having hamburgers and home made french fries (oven baked.)  I will make some other veggie to go with it.  She doesn't like hamburgers...so what, she is going to eat french fries for dinner? 

Or when we have chicken, I will make a chicken Parmesan with spaghetti.  Then I might make a roasted garlic chicken cheese sauce thing...but we serve noodles with it.  So may or may nto eat the meat...thus she ends up eating ONLY noodles for dinner. 

Maybe what i really need is to get out of the side dish food rut...as opposed to the main meal food rut. 

[witchypoo]

will you eat brown rice?  wild rice? 
maybe pilaf (noodles AND rice)?

baby steps.  rice salads are easy and you can add all sorts of different things to them.

[merigayle]

One of DD's favorite meals is soft tacos. We make little corn tortillas (easy to buy and cheap) and I make a big batch or refried beans. I also make either cilantro lime rice and/or mexican rice. Then I set up all the fixings--- shredded lettuce or spinach, salsa assortment, avocado, cheeze, etc. DD loves the meal and the leftovers are usually good for a few meals. It is fast and easy as well.

DD also loves soups and stews. So a soup with a veg side dish is always good.

Stirfries are also fast and easy to get on the table with limited time.

Hummus wraps or hummus and veggies to dip with some side dishes is a good and easy meal for us.

[redkitty]

Well I won't eat rice. I don't like it. but she will. 

I did think about making some soups and making some stuff with lentils.  These are things I will eat (DH is a different story but if one of us is eating it she won't notice.) 

She doesn't like hummus or dips of any sort.  We had cheese quesadillas the other night...well we had chicken, she had cheese.  She took the two smallest bites of food ever. She did eat the beans I gave her, though. We also had tacos on Sunday. Normally she eats those...nope, had to give her a plain tortilla and again beans.  So I guess there are two nights this week we didn't eat pasta. Tonight i broke down and gave her ravioli.  This weekend I will be making some batches of soups and maybe yogurt smoothies...maybe she won't notice she is eating different food than us (I will eat some of the soup but probably not as my main meal.) 

Any suggestions on some good veggie side dishes that are also hearty?  I really don't mind SOME pasta.

[Clementine]

When you do hamburgers, will she eat a veggie burger? I'm thinking pre-packaged ones (but not the kind that are supposed to seem like beef). However, if she likes beans, you could make your own from scratch. You can make a batch and freeze individual patties so it's not a big hassle when you're rushed and trying to get dinner on the table.

[all-smiles]

What are the big things you and DH won't eat?

[gebuh]

First, don't stress about it.  Are you happy with the foods you eat?  Are you ok with a limited diet?  Are you eating healthy enough?  If the answer is yes to these questions, enjoy your boring diet and save that energy for worrying about something important - like dingy laundry or dust bunnies.
Seriously, life's too short.
Otherwise,  try small changes first.  Make your normal and a small thing outside your comfort zone - burgers and fries and ... a kale salad.  Chicken parm w/pasta and bruschetta, etc.  Beef up your spice closet.   Google up some recipes that look not too scary.
Go by ingredients, start with different foods that contain mostly familiar components - those 1 or 2 different things may lead you to even racier meals (hey, that cumin in my burger last week was pretty tasty, this next recipe features cumin AND coriander - cumin is now a gateway spice!).
But only if you're really unhappy with how you eat now.  Maybe you only need a wider variety of noodle dishes (try chicken or turkey tetrazzini - that stuff is hella good).  Or replace pasta with another veggie, dd2 made a meal the other day with zucchini as the pasta (made with a juilienne tool thingie) and a basil pesto cashew sauce that had us licking the plates.  Seriously, I was skeptical - I loves my carbs - but that stuff was awesome.
So you can explore and still stay close to home until you feel more comfortable venturing further.

[redkitty]

What are the big things you and DH won't eat?

Neither of us eat fish.  K will.  DH won't eat any veggie except carrots...seriously. This includes beans, so having beans as a side dish can be hard.  Granted there are times I just make him fend for himself. He won't eat tomatoes (ugh) though K doesn't like them either. cooked or uncooked.  I love italian food. He only thinks it is ok. 

I do not like creamy things. I do not like my meals to be sweet. I like dessert,  but I want my meals to be savory.  A lot of recipes these days seem to want to use fruit or honey in them.  I don't eat cooked fruit and again, that will make my meal sweet. I also hate honey.  We are not huge pork eaters, but will eat it depending on how it is made.  We eat a lot of chicken and beef. Occasionally italian sausage, though I do try to limit fatty meats.  Ham once in a while, but not often.  I do not like rice, except chicken fried rice.  Any "exotic" grain is out bcz DH won't likely eat it (quinoa...though I don't like that), barley (I do like this), farro (never had it but willing to try it), etc. 

So think...meat and potatoes/pasta.  That is pretty much what we eat.  I do not want to make my child picky bcz we have a shitty diet (nutrition wise we are probably ok, just no variety.)  We eat pizza a decent amount..pepperoni...the only topping we will eat.  I do not like veggies on my pizza...I am good with eating veggies on teh side...though K does not like teh way I prepare them and I don't like them the way she likes them (her=boring boiled or steamed...me=garlic, onion or some sort of seasoning.)

as far as seasonings go...we are pretty boring there , too. I like Italian, french, Hungarian, Polish (if you count onion as a seasoning).  I do not like anything very spicy, both K and DH can eat spicier things than me.  I am ok with mild mexican type seasoning (but think tex mex...like Old El Paso taco seasoning.)  No chinese or indian for me.

again, i am ok making DH either try new things or he can fend for himself once in a while, but not all the time.  I am also not a great cook so I need easy things. 

I made a risotto the other day.  I didn't like it. It tasted just like it should have...so in that sense it was good. But to me, it just tasted like rice and cheese. My DH loved that.  Me, not so much.  (K wouldn't even touch it.) 

I guess what I am really worried about is my kid not getting enough variety and therefore not enough NUTRITIONAL variety. 

[merigayle]

I grew up in a meat and potato family and not only did it really limit me until adulthood, but i suffered from severe constipation my whole childhood, not realizing until i was an adult that it was due to lack of fiber in my diet. Not only was it very painful and uncomfortable, but horribly embarrassing. I fended for myself as a young teen when i became vegetarian and my parents refused to cook for me. Prior what we ate was--- hamburgers, meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken, potatoes, chicken nuggets, pizza. Our only veg was canned corn and canned beans.
When I first started cooking for myself, I kept it simple and slowly explored trying new things.

I would suggest maybe the two of you try some cooking classes to explore new foods and to learn new techniques. I make DH fend for himself if he does not like what i made. I do not feel bad.

I took cooking classes and it really opened me up to new things as well as HOW to do it in my own home.

The first time i ate Indian food i thought it was NASTY and disgusting. Then after trying it a few times (i dated a guy who went at least once a week for Indian food) I began to love it, it was just so foreign in taste to me. I really think you can learn to love a variety of tastes, it just takes patience and experience.

[redkitty]

I have taken tons of cooking classes.  Fortunately she eats lots of fruits and veggies and constipation is not an issue for her. 

[merigayle]

I was the only one in my family of the meat and potatoes diet that had bathroom issues, but they did not start until kindergarten. Did the cooking classes expose you to new foods? how did they go? did you use anything you learned at home? Our local county night schools have tons and tons of great looking cooking classes for adults, everything from salads to breads to all kinds of different ethnicities of cuisine.

[redkitty]

We have very limited cooking classes in the area.  They are done at a local grocery store. They are expensive.  I just looked up this season's current schedule.  There are two basic classes (which I have taken in the past, but they have different recipes this time) for chicken and beef.  The rest of the classes are very "theme" oriented...like Spanish food, or Girls Night out, christmas cookies, etc. They don;t do a lot of basics classes. But both of those classes just listed above are $75  apiece for 2.5 hours.  It does include food (as in we get to eat it) and I think wine is served in both classes. neither are hands on.  I could take a hands on class to make pasta...but I am too lazy for that.  I have used some of the things i have learned...like what baking v roasting v braising.  They rarely have individual side dish classes.  I did take a class on root veggies.  They also have only ever had one vegetarian class (I have made the suggestion for a vegetarian class every time I go to class.) I also know how to make pizza bcz of them and hae this great BBQ brisket recipe (and I normally don't like BBQ.)

[radial]

Signing up for a CSA share has been very helpful in pushing me to cook and eat a wider variety of healthy stuff.  For instance, I have never liked kale very much and had never actually cooked it before.  But when you get several bunches every week and have to figure out what to do with it, you get lots of opportunities to experiment.  I have a couple of kale recipes now that are really good.  So, just like that, I added a superfood to the repertoire.  Same story with beets, turnips and eggplant. 

[gebuh]

Signing up for a CSA share has been very helpful in pushing me to cook and eat a wider variety of healthy stuff.  For instance, I have never liked kale very much and had never actually cooked it before.  But when you get several bunches every week and have to figure out what to do with it, you get lots of opportunities to experiment.  I have a couple of kale recipes now that are really good.  So, just like that, I added a superfood to the repertoire.  Same story with beets, turnips and eggplant. 

Good point. We did the same thing this year.  It was definitely interesting.  I am an adventurous cook and some of the stuff we got pushed me out of my comfort  zone.

[merigayle]

Signing up for a CSA share has been very helpful in pushing me to cook and eat a wider variety of healthy stuff.  For instance, I have never liked kale very much and had never actually cooked it before.  But when you get several bunches every week and have to figure out what to do with it, you get lots of opportunities to experiment.  I have a couple of kale recipes now that are really good.  So, just like that, I added a superfood to the repertoire.  Same story with beets, turnips and eggplant.

yes!

Or one year i tried a new veg every week at the fancy market. I pretty much liked everything except a couple.

[redkitty]

Signing up for a CSA share has been very helpful in pushing me to cook and eat a wider variety of healthy stuff.  For instance, I have never liked kale very much and had never actually cooked it before.  But when you get several bunches every week and have to figure out what to do with it, you get lots of opportunities to experiment.  I have a couple of kale recipes now that are really good.  So, just like that, I added a superfood to the repertoire.  Same story with beets, turnips and eggplant. 

we specifically did not sign up for a CSA this year, even though we have done one for 5 years, because no matter how hard we tried, we never found recipes for foods we did not like. Kale that we received..became one of my friend's bunnies' dinner.  The one I did lasat year I was able to request substitutes...so no kale...got green beans (a lot of green beans...thankfully I like those) and NO Beets. 

[radial]

we specifically did not sign up for a CSA this year, even though we have done one for 5 years, because no matter how hard we tried, we never found recipes for foods we did not like. Kale that we received..became one of my friend's bunnies' dinner.  The one I did lasat year I was able to request substitutes...so no kale...got green beans (a lot of green beans...thankfully I like those) and NO Beets.

Oh, I hear that.  There are a lot of bad kale recipes out there.  I think of kale as a vegetable that needs to be prepared very carefully before it's even faintly edible, let alone delicious.  Unlike green beans, for instance, which you can pretty much cook any old which-way.  Which kale recipes did you try? 

My latest success was this one, which technically calls for chard, but I subbed in kale (and sautéed it a little longer because kale has more substance than chard) and it was delicious.  I mean so delicious that I ate way, way too much and pooped green for a while.  Okay, maybe that was TMI, but it was pretty damned good.

Oh, and one other thing about kale.  Some people might like the stemmy parts of the kale leaf, but I think they are bitter and fiberous so I always strip out the stem and use only the leafy parts.  Try that, it only takes a minute.  Oh, and one other thing, just because you have tried a few of recipes that haven't worked out, maybe that just means you haven't yet found the right recipes.  Finding new things that you like is a process of trial and error.  You have to play to win. 

[merigayle]

We love kale chips and i have yet to meet a kid who did not like them, they are so simple and good. We love beets too, it is one of DD's favorite foods. I would have K pick out a vegetable she has never tried each week and try to make something with it, like a fun game that she can participate from start to finish. I am often surprised by what DD likes.