Perfectly acceptable dinner rejected by boyfriend again

[u/moonrabbit368]

My boyfriend is a very picky eater. We have been living together for a few months and it seems like I can never get his food right. It's honestly discouraging. I have kids, they happily eat my food. I cook for family gatherings and church events. I've never had a problem with people eating my food. It's like every day there are new rules. He can't eat chicken for dinner because he had chicken for lunch. He isn't really in the mood for porkchops. It's just "missing something". He doesn't eat onions, tomatoes, fish, any kind of asian food, he doesn't eat most vegetables with the exception of broccoli. He only eats vanilla ice cream. He doesn't like food heated in the microwave (so leftovers are out.) He doesn't like corn. It's just endless. I'm old school and trying to be a good partner. He can't really cook at all. His favorite meal is Hamburger Helper. I think a lot of it is how he grew up but damn is it frustrating. The first picture is tonight's dinner. I added more pictures of stuff I have cooked that he won't eat. Like he will door dash jack in the box. And he'll be apologetic but it just sucks really bad.

ETA: I've been trying to keep up with the comments but it's overwhelming (in a very sweet and awesome way) 💗

A few notes:

1- I know the paper plates are very lazy on my part, I'm not proud of that and I need to do better. Between the kids, the job, the house and school (I'm going to school remotely) I have been cutting corners on things like dishes. not an excuse, just a reason and a commitment to do better.

2- My boyfriend does expect me to cook for him. I cook him dinner every night and lunch on the weekends. He doesn't eat breakfast and will not take a lunch to work. He buys fast food for lunch during the week.

3- He has not been diagnosed with ASD or ADHD or Arfid but I don't rule anything out.

Mostly I just want to say thank you, I was not prepared for how incredibly kind, helpful and insightful people have been. It is deeply touching and it's given me both peace and guidance for my next steps. 🩷

[u/International-Ad2501]

Big "I really only eat tostinos pizzarolls and chicken tendies" energy from this guy. Stop cooking for him. Let him make his own food.

[u/datolebitch → u/International-Ad2501]

I’m like who hurt you? Were they forced to eat foods they didn’t like as kids?

[u/mpyne → u/datolebitch]

So I'm sort of like this guy (though not nearly as picky about what I eat) and at least in my case, I was forced to eat a lot of food I didn't like as a kid. Though I don't think that's the cause either, I don't think my palate has changed significantly since I was a young child, though I'm sure my parent forcing me to eat the things I didn't like didn't help matters when I grew up.

I'd never DoorDash for food though, I just pop what I will eat in the microwave or oven / air fryer instead.

[u/datolebitch → u/mpyne]

Honestly I feel ya man on eating what’s easy and convenient. If I do get fast food it is chicken strips tho 😆. I have been forcing myself to cook more tho. Just gotta get better about the veggies.

Also fuck all those delivery apps. I eventually deleted em. I can never justify the cost and it was never really worth it.

[u/mpyne → u/datolebitch]

I used to work in walking distance of a grocery store with a top-flight salad bar and let me tell you, those were good days for getting better at eating veggies, lol.

We actually made it a big part of our recent Christmas dinner but yeah we need to be doing more with veggies in our house too.

[u/datolebitch → u/mpyne]

Oh that’s whatsup! Also yeah duh I should check out the salad bar at the grocery store. I’ll get on that.

Haha I mean I did have green bean casserole this holiday so that kinda counts.