How do I expand my palate?
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Anonymous
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I grew up in a family that only ate fast food(my mom still does) and was never once offered a fruit or vegetable unless we were eating at grandmas. Even for lunch at school I ate pizza and nacho lunchables until high school when I just bought fries or pizza everyday. My house was always stocked with Debbie cakes, chips, junky cereals, and other treats.
Because of all that I am a very picky eater. I no longer eat fast food all the time but I tend to stick to very basic meals (spaghetti, chicken, tacos, hamburgers, basic salad, some fruits) I've tried lots of new foods but they all taste horrible to me and make me gag. I'm assuming it's probably some sensory issue with never being exposed to real food until much later in life. I have two young kids and they are decent eaters but I feel like I don't offer enough variety because I am so picky. I know this is not setting a good example for them. |
Anonymous
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Repeated exposure can win you over. And there's a chance you might like something you haven't tried. For example, I avoided avocados because I assumed I wouldn't like them. Finally tried one as an adult and discovered they were quite lovely!
I understand where you are - I'm a mostly reformed picky eater myself. Do you eat chips with salsa? Salsa is a way to get used to some vegetable flavors. And fruit flavors - they make mango salsa which is tasty. What foods don't make you gag? There may be ways to start where you are and expand from there. Also consider a feeding clinic. I know there are ones for kids, but they may be able to help adults too. I think maybe there's something up at John Hopkins? |
Anonymous
Also consider trying one of those meal services, where they send you the recipes and the food for you to prep and cook. It's a good way to expose your family to foods you wouldn't ordinarily cook yourself. As a somewhat picky eater still, I like Home Chef - I find their choices to be simpler than others. Dh and I discovered we really like brussel sprouts that way  .
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Anonymous
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it's palate.
To start, you could assign one meal a week to trying a new entree, vegetable or fruit. Or take something you know you like, like ground beef, and use it in a new way, like in a stuffed cabbage or pepper. I agree that it will take repeated tries for it to seem normal. You may also need to add more salt to yours at first, as you grew up eating a lot of it. |
Anonymous
| I had a similar childhood and it helped me to try new and different foods in restaurants first. Then if I like the new food, I make it at home. Ex: Order a sweet potato instead of a baked potato. Eventually you'll find your palate has evolved. |
Anonymous
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You can take baby steps by changing or adding one component to your standard foods at a time, and branch out from there. Like stuffed baked potatoes? Try different kinds of cheese on them. Maybe you'll discover that you really like gruyere cheese. So use gruyere cheese now when you make toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, only now try adding different kinds of greens, in small amounts, to the sandwiches. Maybe you'll discover that you like arugula. So now you can add arugula to the things you like in your simple salads. Now try adding other things, like citrus slices or nuts and/or a new dressing to your salads.
The idea is not to overhaul everything at once, but take something you already like and tweak it a bit at a time. |
Anonymous
| One thing I will say is this: when you try new stuff, buy them from the right place. Peaches from the store taste awful. The ones I get at the Farmer's Market are way better. I grew up with an abundance of local fruits and veggies in another country. 80% of fruits and veggies from American grocery stores are so disappointing that I don't buy any. I wait till my farmer's market is back to get quite a few things. It is pricey but why pay for a fruit that tastes like nothing? |
Anonymous
| OP, what was a typical day of meals during your childhood/young adulthood? Maybe we can suggest some small tweaks to help you get started. |
Anonymous
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Agree with a lot of the advice here. I have heard it called food-bridging, where you incorporate a new element into a meal you already love.
What are you top 10 favorite meals? Tell us that and we can give ideas of ways to branch out that still feel familiar. |
Anonymous
I like this idea of food bridging. So using OP's original post .. Likes Spaghetti ... try beef lasagna with a red tomato sauce (I don't want to get shot down but try buying the Stouffer's frozen pan for families and see if you like it. Lasagna can be a lot of work. On the other hand, it might be fun to have your children make it with you and that may really help them love it!) Then try penne with a tomato and meat sauce, then maybe work in pesto. Try a Minestrone soup. Likes Chicken ... presume this means Roasted Whole Chicken ... try barbecued chicken, fried chicken, chicken tenders, chicken pot pie. One of the quickest 'fancy' chicken dishes is Chicken Cordon Bleu. It is a cinch to make (skinless chicken breasts pounded flat, put on a few dots of butter on the skin up side with some salt and pepper then layer a slice of regular packaged Swiss cheese slices and a slice of packaged or deli ham, roll the sucker up on the long side, use a toothpick to secure it if you think you need it, roll in an egg wash and then roll in bread crumbs or Panko, put in the greased (PAM) pan, put in the oven and cook at 350 for 30-35 minutes. As you advance you can move to Gruyere and Prosciutto de Parma if you want but the trick is to bridge using flavors you already like. Almost all kids will eat ham and cheese and chicken.) Likes tacos ... try fajitas with either beef or chicken, or chili mac. Taco salad is yummy with summer coming up. I think there are lots of ways you can expand your palate and that of your children by using this bridging technique. Honestly, for cooking recipes, I would go back to basics with something like the Joy of Cooking and not the fancier stuff because those flavor combinations in today's cookbooks might not match where you are taste-wise right now. As you expand, look at Ina Garten who has a good down-home flavor, is very easy to follow and her recipes are fool-proof so you will end up with a great product every time! |
Anonymous
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Kudos to you OP for wanting to change your habits. Your current palate is used to lots of fat, sugar, and salt so when you eat healthier foods with reasonable amounts of fat, sugar, and salt they may taste bland to you. Baby steps.
For starters, have a fruit bowl on the table. A few apples, pears, clementines, grapes cut into small bunches. Secondly, do you know how to cook? I would recommend getting the "America's Test Kitchen's Healthy Family Cookbook." You can probably find it at the library and start trying to cook a few basic dishes. (If you're a real newbie, pick a few basic techniques to learn like how to cook a chicken breast, steam vegetables, make pasta, rice, and salad vinaigrette.) Third, get your kids involved. There are great kid cookbooks like Mollie Katzan's. Again, you can find them at the library. Keep track on your calendar, e.g., give yourself a gold star for trying a new food, or incorporating vegetables/fruits into your meals. |
j2415
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I can relate to you, I grew up not eating vegetables. I just want fried food. But when I became a mom, I started eating healthy food not only for health reasons but to show good example to my son. I started with adding fresh tomatoes every time I eat fried chicken or fried eggs. I used to love eating junk food but when I became a mom, I stopped buying unhealthy food like chips and chocolates.
You have mentioned that you no longer eat fast food all the time, that’s the start and you’re doing a good job, eventually, you will crave for home cooked meal with healthy stuff on it. Whatever healthy change you want to make, it’s not too late and you can see good results. Praying for you. |
Anonymous
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I would try something like Blue Apron. They make vegetables really tasty and we eat much different things than we normally would.
I do think you should work on expanding your food horizons. |
Anonymous
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Good for you for trying something new! Be gentle with yourself and maybe think of yourself as a toddler when it comes to food, so if it works for little kids it might work for you.
maybe start with canned fruit? a lot of kids prefer that taste and texture. Or fruit in smoothies or popsicles? You can start by blending it with ice cream, yogurt, or milk and then gradually moving to more fruit. Fruit purees can also be good stirred into oatmeal or pancake batter, or you could try something like banana bread, carrot cake, or zucchini bread. Do you like pumpkin pie? Maybe try making it without the crust, and then look for recipes that use less fat and sugar. Once you like pumpkin, there are a lot of recipes where you can add it, and the canned stuff (regular pumpkin, not the pie filling) is pretty healthy and easy to use. What fruits or veggies do you like? Do you tend to like them better if they are raw, roasted, mashed, etc.? That might help us. You can mash some cauliflower with mashed potatoes, and eat that with chicken and gravy. Or finely chop/shred stuff and add it to meatballs, burgers, or taco meat (tomato paste, mushrooms, carrots, frozen chopped spinach, onions). At first, try a ratio of like 1 part veggies to 10 parts meat and grind the veggies really small. Eventually you can increase the amount of veggies and add more texture. Same with tomato sauce--start by blending up some jarred roasted red peppers or a bag of the frozen peppers and onions (thawed) and then gradually over time add more texture and taste. I find that adding some frozen butternut squash puree to homemade mac and cheese doesn't change the taste too much and the color is the same. And frozen chopped spinach is small enough that when you add it to stuff you don't get much of a texture or taste change. Best of luck with this! It won't be easy, and it's ok to have certain veggies you still don't like after a lot of tries. As long as you have some produce in your diet, you'll be doing fine. |
Anonymous
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can you bring the kids to the grocery store with you and have them pick one fruit or veggie you'll all try? could be canned, fresh, or frozen. Buying one banana or mango or can of carrots or whatever isn't too terrible and you might like one form more than others (I only ate cooked tomatoes until I was about 16; now I like them raw too. My wife loves canned carrots but since I hated frozen carrots I thought canned ones would be gross...turns out they aren't!).
try veggies cut up small, sauteed in a little bit of butter or oil, and mixed in with scrambled eggs. You can also chop carrots and celery really small and mix them into tuna, chicken, or egg salad to eat as sandwiches. By mixing veggies into foods you already like, your kids will see you eating veggies, and you'll get all the nutrients from them, even if you aren't sitting down and having a bowl of just spinach or something. |