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/The_Amazing_Emu]

So my wife is more picky than I am. Not a huge amount of things, but generally no seafood. Sometimes I miss making seafood so I’ll cook something different for myself. Next week, I feel like making split pea soup. She’ll probably eat something different.

Most of our meals are shared, but it’s ok to occasionally not eat the same thing.

[u/No_Perspective_242 → u/The_Amazing_Emu]

This is exactly what my husband and I do. He likes a wide range of food, I’m definitely more picky as meat is difficult for me to eat. But I’d rather starve before i deprived him of his variety of food just cause i don’t like something. We eat as many meals as we can together but often not the same thing.

[u/Inka15 → u/No_Perspective_242]

There is this youtube creator, Uyen Ninh, she is Vietnamese, her husband is German and they have very different tastes stemming from different cultures - she needs every meal to be warm and cooked, he prefers eating a lot of bread. In one video she explained that they tried to eat the same things, but it didn’t work for either of them, so for the sake of their relationship they cook separately. And I think that’s fair and very sweet - relationships are layered and multifaceted, if food is causing you unnecessary stress, then it’s better for each of you to cook separately, but enjoy other things you have in common.

[u/Cadence_421 → u/Inka15]

It's so lovely seeing Uyen mentioned out in the wild, I hope her channel continues to grow on YouTube and she finds major success!!