So I know I'm a good cook. Literally anyone I've served food has told me it was delicious. I'm proud of this, I was raised by a single mother and was a part of a few blended households (for about 6 years I was one of 7 kids). So I like to think I know my way around a kitchen. I can stuff a duck and fondont a cake, to give a range.

My boyfriend however, was raised by his SAHM. She is, well, the most boring cook I've ever met. Plain baked chicken, boiled broccoli, white rice. So my boyfriend has the pallet of a 5 year old with a serious addiction to hot sauce. I don't blame him, if that was my food growing up, I'd probably be addicted to hot sauce too.

So now onto my issue, I obviously don't want to express my discontent with how his mother fed him. She did the best possible job of raising such a man. Aside from giving him a taste for food, she essentially did a perfect job imo. So I do not want to come across annoyed with it, even though I am.

I love using spices, sauces, oils, etc.

However it's starting to drain me emotionally cooking for my boyfriend. He's too picky, it's soul crushing. It makes cooking miserable for me. He wants a grilled cheese, or a burger (but no adding stuff to it!) or tacos with NO spice in the meat.

A lot of it's OK, I can work around the meals in order to simplify them for him. (Ie. serve his taco meat plain before adding spice to the rest).

He's also slowly come around to more ingredients in his food, this I'm happy with but after 6 years the progress is so minimal. For example, his default/fave subway order was Turkey on Italian with mustard. Since being together he now adds lettuce, green pepper, onion, and tries different sauces.

So now we're stuck in this food routine and I can't get him to try more things, I can't keep eating the same 5 meals all the time and I don't want to cook two entirely separate meals. So I want to find a new way of approaching this! He also has a bit of a germ issue thing, he inspects my utensils before cleaning and double checks I've washed my hands. (used to annoy me but now it's an easy routine to follow). But that gives you an idea of how resistant he is with food.

What I'm doing so far:

  • Letting him help with easy prep so he see's the vegetables before they get "all gross looking".

  • Not letting him watch me cook anything that is a little unpleasant to watch (ie. not letting him watch me make burger patties by hand or stuffing/stringing a chicken). While on the other end I let him watch me cook the fun/pretty parts (sauce bubbling and all that jazz).

  • Asking him to try just one bite every meal (he usually does this but lately he's been resistant).

  • Telling him "it's only hot sauce" when it's most definately not only hot suace (but I dont want to do this one anymore, feels deceiptful).

Also if you have any recepies/sites that are maybe good for transitioning kids into a more flavour-filled diet that would be very welcome. I've sourced pinterest for some but I can always benefit from more I'm sure.

Sorry for how long this was, I've become way too focused on this.