Do you cook foods you don't like?

[JoyfulMama]

My husband likes my chili. He doesn't love it, as I prefer it to be meatless, and the meat makes the meal for him. :glare: But when I make it I love to add a variety of types of beans, and lots of great spices. Thus why it is called Bean Chili.

He grew up on a very different chili: ground beef and a can of kidney beans. He likes it. I don't.

This morning he asked me why I never make his mom's recipe for chili. "Umm, well, because I like mine better." :001_huh: I told him he can go to his mom's and eat hers. And when she is no longer here, I might consider making it for him once or twice.

 

So do you make recipes that you don't like?

[SonshineLearner]

I make chili with a twist. I can't stand eating hamburger. So, I do it with chunks or meat that I kinda stir fry before I add them. I then do all of the other ingredients. I love lots and lots of beans. Then, I kinda pick around the meat... and give them to my husband's bowl. I top with sour cream, cheese... other such yummies.. We love big chunks of mushrooms... Yum!! I'm gonna eat that on Tues I think.

BTW, I do cook some things that my husband likes that I don't. If chili was his bd meal.. I'd make it. Instead... his is CornSalmon "Hot Dish" ...(casserole) yuck!

:)

[*********]

I've actually been thinking about this quite a bit lately. For example, my dh likes iced tea. Well, I don't like him to drink the kind in bottles from the store with all the hfcs in it, so I offered to keep a pitcher of fresh homemade tea in the fridge all the time. But it took me quite a few tries to learn to make it the way he likes it. Because, you see, I don't like any kind of tea. So I can't taste it and go 'Oh, it needs more lemon' or whatever, because it ALWAYS tastes bad to me. And I like to cook by 'taste' more than by 'recipe'. So for things that I don't like, if someone has a recipe they want me to make, I'll gladly make it for them. But I can't help it if it turns out bad; how would I know! Of COURSE I'll think it tastes bad, I don't like it! :D

[Vicki]

I make lots of thing that I don't like, most of them because my dh likes them. Some of his favorites are meatloaf, deviled eggs, enchiladas and potato salad. I don't like them, and never taste them when I cook them, but even when I take them other places people always love them. It is just one of the things I try to do to show my dh how much I appreciate him and love him.

God bless,

Vicki

[SquirrellyMama]

Yes, I make things I don't like because I know my dh does like them. Can't you make 2 types of chili? It freezes well and then you have it on hand for him. When I make soup I usually try to make 2 different kinds. My dh really like clam chowder. I do not like clam chowder so I'll make a veggie soup to go along with it. The veggie soup freezes well.

 

Kelly

[joannqn]

Not often but rarely.

 

I try to give my husband opportunities to eat things I won't cook. For example, he likes Thai food but I don't. Neither do the kids. Recently the big kids went to a kids night out at my son's taekwondo school. At my suggestion, DH picked up a kids meal for the 3 year old and pho for himself. I heated up some leftovers. Twice a year, I go on a four day retreat. DH usually makes himself some Thai food and treats the kids to some sort of kid-friendly food, like mac & cheese, that I no longer cook due to our current dairy free diet. It makes mom being gone less unhappy; they get a treat!

[Jen in PA]

I strive for compromise between what DH likes and what I like. To be honest, it mostly means cooking more meat and carb things that I serve to him and don't eat myself, but I don't really mind. On the plus side, I always pile some of the veggie things I am preparing for myself onto his plate, which means he at least gets more produce in his diet than he would otherwise.

[Crimson Wife]

I make lots of thing that I don't like, most of them because my dh likes them. Some of his favorites are meatloaf, deviled eggs, enchiladas and potato salad. I don't like them, and never taste them when I cook them, but even when I take them other places people always love them. It is just one of the things I try to do to show my dh how much I appreciate him and love him.

 

:iagree:

I can't stand lobster, calamari, or steamed clams but my DH loves all 3. So I periodically make them as a treat for him. Just like he is a good sport by periodically taking me out to the opera or the ballet :001_smile:

[amy g.]

If I'm cooking something I don't like, you can bet it is someone in the family's birthday. Otherwise, never.

[Amira]

I rarely cook things I don't like. Birthdays and some holidays are an exception. If there's something my oldest son or my husband want that I don't like, they'll usually make it themselves.

 

This has been necessary recently while we've been on a tight food budget. The food I make is a lot cheaper and healthier than the food they make.

[fivetails]

Considering that I'm a vegetarian in a house full of omnivores, yep ~ I cook stuff all the time for dh and the kids that I would never touch. ;)

 

[i also have health issues that affect what 'kinds' of food I can or can't eat, and I can't eat normal sized meals - so I'm very used to feeding them differently than I feed myself]

[Carol in Cal.]

But I don't feel obligated to eat it if I really hate it. For instance, I have always detested potato salad. But my DH loves it, and apparently I have a great, fantastic, best ever recipe (says anyone who has ever had my potato salad). So I make it occasionally, but I dislike it and don't eat it myself.

 

For things that I just don't love, but don't hate, I will make myself eat them if they are reasonably healthy--like grilled halibut. But if they are not healthy and I'm indifferent, I don't eat them--like most cake.

 

My DH, though, thinks that he should be able to eat whatever he feels like on the given day at the given hour. So even if I make something that he likes, if he doesn't feel like eating it, he complains or fixes something else. So over time I have tried arguing about this, not arguing but just cooking it and putting it on the table, not cooking (this was a fairly expensive period for us), asking him what he wants (not effective because he tends not to know what he wants until he's hungry for it, in which case shopping and cooking are kind of lengthy to initiate), and eating separately most of the time (not great for the relationship, but a peaceful, healing period.) So now I have started to cook things that are a little upscale, that I really like, and also started not to be invested in whether or not he likes them or eats them. No pressure. That, surprisingly enough, is working out really well. I make good stuff, and most of the time he eats it. And if he doesn't, there is more for me. Furthermore, I signed us up for a CSA, so we always have plenty of fresh, healthy food in the house, staring at us from the fridge, saying, "If you don't eat me, you will have to throw me away." Those guilt rays can be really helpful!

 

I should add, lest this sound like it's quite disharmonious, that during the periods described above I went through a period of about 4 years where I had to eat an extremely low fat diet for health reasons, and he found out about 8 years ago that he is at very high risk for diabetes and needs to eat defensively. So some of the 'separation' that you see in the above paragraph is due to the necessity for those adjustments, and we then had to figure out how to cook and eat differently and how to compromise our very different restrictions appropriately.

[kewb]

Pretty much never. If I don't like something it just does not cross my radar to make it. Usually if it something he wants he makes it himself.

[AngieW in Texas]

I make things that only my dh likes when he requests it. He loves my beef stew and Hamburger Helper lasagna (YUCK!). He asks me to make these things maybe 1x/month (one or the other, not both). Neither one is a big deal, but the smell of the HH lasagna is kind of nauseating.

[JudoMom]

My husband likes my chili. He doesn't love it, as I prefer it to be meatless, and the meat makes the meal for him. :glare: But when I make it I love to add a variety of types of beans, and lots of great spices. Thus why it is called Bean Chili.

He grew up on a very different chili: ground beef and a can of kidney beans. He likes it. I don't.

This morning he asked me why I never make his mom's recipe for chili. "Umm, well, because I like mine better." :001_huh: I told him he can go to his mom's and eat hers. And when she is no longer here, I might consider making it for him once or twice.

 

So do you make recipes that you don't like?

 

Yes, I do, if dh likes them. I don't see why you couldn't make the recipe he likes sometimes :confused:--it seems like a kind thing to do.

 

The only thing I can't/won't/don't make for him is any type of seafood. But he knew before he married me that I can't/won't/don't eat or touch any type of seafood, and the smell can even make me nauseous.

[Cricket]

I make things I don't like. Daily I make things I can't eat due to food allergies (and other issues I'm still figuring out!). The kids love pizza but dh doesn't. If I make pizza for the kids then I'll make chile rellenos or something else that only dh likes. I'm always make two dinners anyway--one for me and one for the rest of the family so at times I'll throw in food only dh likes.

[tricia]

All the time. Especially when I am watching what I eat!:tongue_smilie:

[Ginevra]

Once in a while. Dh likes almost everything I make, so it doesn't come up often, but he does miss certain things, like the way his mom made pork, or fried chicken. I prefer my own ways of making pork and chicken, but now and then, I'll honor his request. Probably about once every 3 months or so. I like them, anyway, it's just not what I most prefer.

[keptwoman]

Yes, I make things for DH quite often. Making things I don't eat is pretty normal with my gluten issues, I don't insist the rest of the family don't eat gluten either. I do wish sometimes though that DH would grant me the same respect, it would be nice to be able to cook kidneys or salmon and not have him turn his nose up.

[Rosie_0801]

Nope, and I don't make things I like that he doesn't either. There are many things we both like, so we eat them. If dh wants kransky sausages or something gross like that, he buys and cooks them himself. I have whatever else he bought to have with them. Neither of us have enough energy or inclination to be making separate meals. Lucky for me, his mum is a dreadful cook, so he never wants "the way Mum made it" :D

 

Rosie

[rwjx2khsmj]

All the time. I don't make things I hate but I often make things I don't love or wouldn't eat if I were cooking just for myself.

[Julie in CA]

I bake desserts for a restaurant. I don't love desserts, I don't really even like desserts, but I'm very skilled at creating them, and do it professionally. I have to trust other people to tell me if what I've made is good, but that's always part of the process for me--getting other people's opinions for new samples.

 

I also cook things for my dh that I don't really care for. At all.

It's such a small thing, and since I have the ability to do it, and it makes my dh happy, why wouldn't I? I love to do the little things that make him :) .

[Pajama Mama]

I posted awhile ago about how I made liver and onions for dh. Yuck. I had to soak the liver in milk for awhile to help with the bitterness. Then you bread it and then saute it with the onions. I hated the whole process of making it. I did try it for curiosity's sake. I was sorry that I did. Dh thought it was awesome. My dog and cat both loved the milk that I soaked the liver in:001_huh:

 

My kids love boxed mac and cheese. I can't stand it. It is so bland and tastes very little like cheese to me. I usually make it on Fridays during Lent. My kids like fish but don't eat lots of it. I need the mac n cheese to help fill them up.

[Daisy]

Absolutely. I have no problem cooking something that hubby or the children like but I don't care for. None of us is that picky though.

[Aubrey]

I don't like to cook, so technically, I think everything I make qualifies. :D

 

He's gfcf, & I'll fix something for him vs the rest of us, or I'll adapt a meal, but other than that...rarely. He knows he's lucky to eat at all, & he really (says he) likes my food. He likes Chinese, but he knows where the restaurants are.

[EKS]

Absolutely not. If someone wants something else he can cook it himself!

[Tap]

Yep, I will cook him things that I don't like. I cook things that I like and he doesn't, so it all evens out in the end.

 

I will usually do it at a time when I have something else to eat or a place to be. There are somethings like meatloaf I will make and freeze for him to cook when I am away. It is kinda nice to have him a dinner he looks forward to when I am going out with the girls for an evening.

[RoughCollie]

Yes. DH loves salmon croquettes. I fix them for him when we have stir fry because he won't eat cabbage.

 

I'm not a big fan of barbequed pork or beef, but I fix that for DH, too. I found a great recipe for it.

 

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Barbeque-Pork-Two-Ways/Detail.aspx

[sandellie4]

Yep, all the time. Marriage is about compromises, and Lord knows he makes a lot of compromises for me in other areas of our relationship. :D

 

Sandy

[FaithManor]

Dh loves "weird" things! His family had some strange cooking ideals. I.E. everything must have sugar, no matter what! Vinegar is good on everything.

 

So, Dh likes cooked spinach with butter and apple cider vinegar! Try cooking that for very long...whole house smells awful.

 

Swedish meatballs - homemade barbecue sauce with tons of sugar and vinegar! He doesn't know it but I took the family recipe and cut the proportions WAY down on the sugar and vinegar. He loves it an d doesn't know.

 

Spiced beef - that's the one I refuse to make and since great-grandma is gone, he can't get it anymore. This is some sort of beef that is coated in SUGAR and I think cinnamon or something.

 

Their family put together a cookbook one year. The neat thing about it was that it had pictures of great grandma and grandpa plus copies of grandpa's poetry - he was prolific with the smaltzy, romantic stuff. The downside - just about every entry contained, you guessed it, vinegar and sugar!

 

Just about everything contains enough sugar to induce even the healthiest individual into a glucose coma.

 

Sigh, I only make some of these bizarre things for his birthday or if he's had a really bad day at work. There is a second meal waiting in the wings for the kids and me.

 

Faith

[mrsrevmeg]

I do cook things that I am not crazy about for my family. One thing that my husband and middle son love (and the rest of us hate) is hash brown casserole. It smells horrible. I do cook it, though because they love it so much. Also, I like to try out different recipes. My husband has a few recipes that his mom made and that is what he wants. (his mom didn't cook often so it is just a few desserts that I cook her way). I cook fish sticks sometimes for the kids even though they are gross.

[Barb_]

My husband likes my chili. He doesn't love it, as I prefer it to be meatless, and the meat makes the meal for him. :glare: But when I make it I love to add a variety of types of beans, and lots of great spices. Thus why it is called Bean Chili.

He grew up on a very different chili: ground beef and a can of kidney beans. He likes it. I don't.

This morning he asked me why I never make his mom's recipe for chili. "Umm, well, because I like mine better." :001_huh: I told him he can go to his mom's and eat hers. And when she is no longer here, I might consider making it for him once or twice.

 

So do you make recipes that you don't like?

 

No, never. But I'm an excellent cook and serve a large variety of recipes, so there is plenty that I cook that have become my husband's favorites. He's not picky and neither am I, so the very short list of foods that I refuse to cook (brussel sprouts and liver spring to mind) aren't a big loss. He grew up eating South American food that I can't really replicate, but I figure if he really wanted his mom's arroz con pollo that I can't seem to get right in his mind, then he could always call her up and get the recipe and give it a shot himself :tongue_smilie:

 

Barb

[Osaubi]

I have never thought about it until now. My dh is gf so we cook pasta, but only during lunch when he is not home. If he is home I use gf pasta. Other than that our family all like the same things.

 

My dh has asked me to make things his mom makes. I am ok with that though since she is such an awesome cook!

[Barb_]

apparently I have a great, fantastic, best ever recipe (says anyone who has ever had my potato salad). So I make it occasionally, but I dislike it and don't eat it myself.

 

See, this I don't get. I really hate to cook in general, and only the anticipation of eating something wonderful fuels the chore. I cook by taste, and every time I make a recipe it comes out a little different than before. So I don't think I've ever once cooked something I couldn't eat myself. I don't know if I could do it without having an anxiety attack, LOL

 

Barb

[Carol in Cal.]

See, this I don't get. I really hate to cook in general, and only the anticipation of eating something wonderful fuels the chore. I cook by taste, and every time I make a recipe it comes out a little different than before. So I don't think I've ever once cooked something I couldn't eat myself. I don't know if I could do it without having an anxiety attack, LOL

 

Barb

 

It's funny about this potato salad, though. I can't remember how I happened to make it. I have ALWAYS hated potato salad. I think it was that I was having a BIG crowd of company and wanted some make ahead stuff that would hold well, and DH loves potato salad. The recipe has a lot of variations and options, and I vaguely remember offering to make this, and consulting him on which options sounded good, and basically throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. I figured that at least he would like it, and it turned out that this was the potato salad of everyone's dreams, the one they always wished they could have. But I still hate it. I don't mind making it, though, because according to people who actually LIKE potato salad, it's really good, and I enjoy cooking and feeling the satisfaction of having pretty much everyone like it except me.

Edited March 14, 2010 by Carol in Cal.

[Joker]

I cook some things my dh likes and I don't. I also cook things I like and my dh doesn't. I think there is a give and take. If I cook something I don't like, I can eat enough to be satisfied or eat something else. If I cook something my dh doesn't like he can do the same. It's really not a problem.

[kitten18]

Yes, I frequently make things that I don't eat/like.

I don't like potatoes but I make some kind of potatoes for my family a few times a month.

[KidsHappen]

I frequently make things I don't like. I don't eat very much though so if I only made things I really wanted to eat the rest of the family would be starving to death. I noticed someone else mentioned meatloaf though and my hubby loves meat loaf but I have never made it because I don't really care for meat loaf. On the other hand, he nevers makes liver and onions for me so I call it even. If we want those things we can just go out to eat.

[StephanieZ]

Not often. . . Fortunately, my dh can cook. . . and likes to cook. . . and loves it when I cook instead. ;)

 

If he really wanted me to cook certain things, and it was my job to cook. . . I'd be happy to cook the things he liked. . . and would probably make a big batch just for him, and freeze plenty of portions, so that I could cook it my way most of the time, and he could take "his way" to work for lunch, or eat it when I am out of town, etc. Since he does cook regularly, he'll cook up stuff he prefers when he cooks for himself. I am allergic to poultry, so he nearly always roasts a chicken when I'm out of town. :) He has some regular meals he makes on the nights the kids and I are out late for music lessons out of town. . . some gumbo thing with sausage. Ick. I buy him what he wants me to buy at the grocery. . . and he takes care of it himself.

 

But, if I did 95% or more of the cooking and he wanted certain things, I'd be happy to make them. . . and just make some OTHER thing I liked, like a soup or whatever, and just eat the things I liked while he ate his favorites. I wouldn't be happy doing that daily, but would do it once a week at least if that were an issue.

 

There are plenty of chores we each do that we don't love to do . . . and if cooking sth just for him made him happy, I'd be happy to do it.

[Mrs Mungo]

I've nearly perfected cooking mushrooms the German Christmas Market way even though I hate mushrooms. :tongue_smilie:

[MyThreeSons]

So do you make recipes that you don't like?

 

There's not much I don't like, but there are some things I like more than my guys do. I figure since I'm doing most of the cooking, I can fix something for me every once in a while.

[lllll]

Sometimes. I have never cooked like his mother, however. We're both from the South, but he grew up with fried everything. :ack2: Fortunately, my mother ruined everything she tried to fry, so I hate greasy fried foods. God does indeed work in mysterious ways ... :D

 

Anyway, I learned to cook lard and butter pie crusts with many different fillings just because dh loves pie. I hate pie. But I love to cook them. It's fun to make them look beautiful and know that someone enjoys eating them. I make one pie which our neighbor loves. (an older man who lives alone) He once told dh that when he took a bite of this pie, all he could do was laugh out loud, it was so good. It also made dh happy to know that my cooking made neighbor happy. (This neighbor is something of a father figure to dh.)

 

Generally, though, I cook what I like and don't try to please everyone in the house. I also taste it as I go to adjust seasonings and such, so it usually turns out good. If it doesn't, I throw it into the compost bucket and whip up someting quick which I know everyone likes, just so's we don't go hungry. ;)

 

I like spicy foods, and some of our dc don't. I try not to make everything in the meal spicy, so they have choices. But since I've built up a stockpile of favorite recipes and taught dc how to cook, they now add their own spices. I'm eating a lot of bland foods these days ... :tongue_smilie:

 

I was thinking you could cook up a batch of his mother's chili and freeze it in serving-size containers. Then, when you make your own chili (which is probably better fresh, what with the veggies and all), just pull out some of your dh's chilli and zap it in the microwave to serve to your dh. That wouldn't be too terribly hard - if it was just that particular food that he's insisting on. If it got to be a whole slew of things, though, I guess that could turn into a nightmare for you.

[Lori Di]

I rarely cook things I don't like. Birthdays and some holidays are an exception. If there's something my oldest son or my husband want that I don't like, they'll usually make it themselves.

 

This has been necessary recently while we've been on a tight food budget. The food I make is a lot cheaper and healthier than the food they make.

 

 

 

How do you make it cheaper and healthier? I feel that if I go healthy it usually ends up being more expensive.

[Punks in Ontario]

Yeah, I don't eat cookies, but at times the locals get a bit insistent that there be cookies - homemade cookies!

 

For meals, I try to make sure everyone has some meals they love. For dh, that means a lot more meat than I would ever want to eat. And steak sometimes. On the other hand, he has to put up with fajitas which the rest of us love.

 

At the same time, we have to avoid milk for ds6. That makes some stuff we love off limits most of the time!

[Amira]

How do you make it cheaper and healthier? I feel that if I go healthy it usually ends up being more expensive.

 

It depends on what you're comparing to. Here's the kind of food I cook for dinner, and it's a lot healthier than what my husband would make if he were doing all the cooking, and it's cheaper because there's a lot less meat.

 

Personally though, I think inexpensive food can be healthy. I buy in bulk and make almost everything myself. We also eat very little meat and cheese and no snack food or juice.

[Slartibartfast]

I don't cook food I don't like. I think I have to know what something should taste like as I am cooking and if something tastes like crap (liver) then I would have a hard time discerning when it is good (never)

 

 

I do cook some things I can't eat like mac n cheese (sob) for the kids now and then.

[Parrothead]

Every once in a great while, I'll fry dh some okra. To my way of thinking okra is not a vegetable, it it a weed. About once a year I'll make fried chicken. I've never ever made fried corn bread. Is anyone seeing a theme here about dh's favorite foods?

 

I do make beef roasts and beef stew. There are some days I can stomach roast, and some days I eat only the veggies. Same with the stew. About three-quarters of the time I won't eat the meat in it.

[nukeswife]

most often I won't, but Chili is the only area dh and I disagree. I like mine nice and meaty with beans and stewed tomatoes, more like a stew. DH likes his with a little meat, some beans, and tomato sauce only (besides the spices) more like a soup. So when we make Chili we break out 2 crockpots and both cook away. Freeze bunch up and we're good to go.

[BeckyFL]

My husband never seems to request anything I don't like. We both like lots of things. Maybe I'll ask if he can think of anything and make it for him if he can come up with something. LOL

[Barb_]

It's funny about this potato salad, though. I can't remember how I happened to make it. I have ALWAYS hated potato salad. I think it was that I was having a BIG crowd of company and wanted some make ahead stuff that would hold well

 

Well, since this alone would give me an anxiety attack, I retract my earlier comment :tongue_smilie: