Your diets make me really sad.

mrsconn23

Dear Prudence, 

Healthy eating is really important to my husband, and he has a pretty narrow version of what that looks like: a lean protein, two steamed vegetable sides, a grain like brown rice or quinoa.  I’d also prefer not to eat crap, but I’m totally fine with dinner being hummus and pita and veggies, or a spinach omelet and toast, or spaghetti and canned tomato sauce—i.e. things that take a few minutes to prepare rather than half an hour.

I get home about an hour earlier from work than my husband, so I understand that dinner prep more naturally falls to me, but I don’t enjoy cooking and would rather use the time to straighten the house and settle our kids in from school. I have offered to make meals “his way” twice a week, but on “my” nights, he relentlessly complains that we’re eating “crap” if I’m serving whole-wheat pasta rather than broiled chicken. Since I’m the one who has the time, do I need to start cooking more often to his tastes? Our kids, thank heavens, will mostly eat anything.

—Cooking for One, When I’m Not the One

MyNameIsNot

Your husband has an eating disorder and he's an asshole. 

You need to GTFO before you he gives your kids their own EDs. 

banana468

A lot of these are not that hard to do.  These sound so constricted but it's also not hard to salt and pepper some salmon and cook it for 15 minutes and throw some veggies on the stove or in the microwave.  

The things highlighted sound worse but there's more to this impasse. 

mrsconn23

There's 50 gazillion videos on all the platforms that can tell you how to meal prep.  He should try that.  However, that's not the issue at hand here AT ALL. 

He sounds like he has an ED and control issues.  Unless he addresses those, this won't change. 

This is an unhealthy environment for their kids.  That should give LW pause, especially since he's bitching through the dinners LW makes, which means the kids are likely hearing it.  

For the immediate future, LW should tell him he needs to make his own food and he needs to STFU about what is or isn't 'crap', especially if it's whole wheat fucking pasta and some spinach.  

charlotte989875

This isn’t about meal prep, it’s about control. Have you or your kids ever gotten to eat cake or ice cream without a comment from him? You’re setting your kids up for a lifetime of a messed up relationship with food. You need to do something about it now, and I don’t just mean eat hummus for dinner. 

mrsconn23

charlotte989875 said:

This isn’t about meal prep, it’s about control. Have you or your kids ever gotten to eat cake or ice cream without a comment from him? You’re setting your kids up for a lifetime of a messed up relationship with food. You need to do something about it now, and I don’t just mean eat hummus for dinner. 

HUMMUS ISN'T DINNER, IT'S FOR SNACKING.  (I will die on this hill, LOL) 

That's the other part...LW describes a similarly restrictive (vegetarian?) diet.  They say their kids 'eat anything', but are you letting them?! Do you make them dino nuggets while you eat your sad omelets and toast?