Food ideas for picky eaters

[SusanBAnthony]

DS (autistic) has a very limited palette and I have found that it gets more limited over time if we aren't constantly challenging him to eat slightly different food than he prefers. I am sick of eating the same dinners over and over again so hoping maybe you all have some ideas of different but not very different foods.

One recent example is pizza- he loves regular cheese pizza. I got mini cheese pizza bagels and he wanted nothing to do with them. We made him eat one because we KNEW he would like it. He "grudgingly" ate the rest, and then shocker, admitted he liked them.

Here is our current starting point:

Black bean tacos (beans and cheese on tortilla or taco shell, no toppings)

Rice and black beans with cheese, will tolerate diced fresh tomatoes on top

Grilled cheese

Mac and cheese

Plain pasta with butter, cheese, or pesto

Bread of all kinds

Cheese pizza, will tolerate cut up fresh tomatoes on top

Sometimes cheese lasagna, grudgingly

Fried rice or do mein noodles with veggies he tolerates

Tolerates fake chicken nuggets

Tolerates plain baked tofu dipped in ketchup

Rice

He eats all fruit fine. For veggies he tolerates corn, plain peas (not in pod), carrots, green beans, broccoli, and zucchini. Sometimes tomato sauce. Doesn't like spicy stuff at all.

That variety is fine but he used to eat more- cucumbers and cherry tomatoes for example, and now refuses. He used to eat scrambled eggs and now refuses to touch anything with eggs visible.

Any ideas of things that are somewhat close to the above but would be a little different?

[nicolewi]

Is he trying to be vegetarian on purpose? If not, seems like an obvious one would be to try pieces of tiny REAL chicken nugget. And then maybe something like fish sticks. Is peanut butter and related butters a no-go?

Not an expert by any means, but to me it's fantastic that he will eat so many veggies, sometimes tomato sauce, and even pesto! Seems like you have built a decent base and could try combining "ingredients" from his list or adding things here and there.

Random ideas:

Add a little corn to a black bean/rice bowl? Maybe try building on the beans/rice to include additional toppings.

Rice with peas and parmesan cheese

cream cheese?

quesadillas in all forms (probably you do this already based on your list)

What about fried egg white strips cooked well in butter? Whites only.

Try adding broccoli to the pizza, and/or pineapple

tortilla chips & very mild salsa

Yogurt? My non-autistic picky kid will only eat key lime or sometimes vanilla--ones with no lumps

[ewall]

Chickpeas
What are his thoughts on potatoes - baked, mashed, roasted
For reintroducing cucumbers, have you tried the mini seedless ones?
Bell pepper strips
Noodle soup
Black bean burger patty
Nuts? Lettuce? Rice cakes?

Obviously none of the above is a complete meal that you would enjoy, but more plain side options to offer for variety.

We had pizza last night. My DD’s plate was a yogurt, veggie straws, bell pepper strips, apple slices, and a piece of my pizza crust.

[macmars45]

My DS eats zoi greek honey yogurt. No lumps/pieces of anything. He'll eat kodiak pancakes/muffins too. And almonds/peanuts sometimes too. We put dates on top of DS' rice (and sometimes raisins). He'll usually eat that.  Oh, and soy nuggets are a big hit. He eats those often.

[VillainV]

That’s pretty similar to my NT 8-year-old picky eater. C will also eat:

- Baguette slices with butter or Laughing Cow
- Similarly, plain bagel with plain cream cheese
- General “carb with cheese on top” (ex: quesadillas)
- Garlic bread or garlic knots
- Chocolate pudding
- Applesauce
- Ham and cheese sandwich
- occasional shredded beef taco
- Pretzels
- Waffles/pancakes/French toast

[joy]

Your picky eater eats so many more things than my picky eater.

I am now taking notes.

Thank you for this thread!

[dcn]

Could you make burrito bowls with assorted toppings? He could have beans and rice and cheese, you could make chicken or whatever other people like.

For pasta - baked ziti or similar? Chicken Parmesan?

My picky kids eat spaghetti (I buy the barilla protein pasta) with Rao’s sauce. One will eat meatballs with it. The other likes lots of grated parm on it.

Also for pasta, I’ll make rotini with sliced chicken sausage and broccoli and parm - the kids typically skip the veg but it’s a good quick meal.

Chickpeas - easy to roast and yummy. I make with quinoa and veg. My kids don’t eat this however. But since yours likes black beans he may try them.

Couscous or quinoa? To branch out from rice.

Black bean burgers.

Smoothies are my go to for vitamins etc.

[SusanBAnthony]

nicolewi our entire household is vegetarian. The kids are allowed to eat whatever meat they want and we'll buy/cook it for them, but they aren't interested, and neither am I so I don't push it!

He will eat potatoes in the forms of french fries, tator tot, baked potato. No mashed potatoes, no au gratin.

He has refused soup of all kinds but I think noodle soup would be a good one- like plain ramen packets. I bet that would fall in the borderline "will like it once he has tried it" category.

I should try mini seedless cucumbers again....



Fried egg white strips is interesting. I bet he would refuse but it would be worth trying.

He absolutely refuses black bean burgers. If he would eat those it would be ideal because the rest of us love them.

Will not touch bell peppers.

I am trying chickpeas and pinto beans this week.... Hoping if he has a choice between two things other than black beans he will like it better than not having a choice.

Thank you for all the ideas! Sometimes it just helps to have another set of eyes on it. I will be trying a bunch of these.

joy he definitely isn't in "I'm worried about his health and we probably need feeding therapy" territory, luckily I am sorry you are dealing with a restricted list. It is exhausting to constantly have to keep track of "oh crap, it's been a month since we fed him x, we better have it a few times or he will now refuse to eat it". Anything remotely different, he immediately "hates" and we have to go through this whole rigamarole about how it's still pasta, just a different shape, whatever. This week I bought buckwheat noodles and you would have thought the world ended. But then he went and covered them with butter and ya know what it was "not terrible" lololol.

[thoseareradishes]

We eat frozen pierogies about once a month. I boil them then pan fry. I also buy frozen potstickers sometimes and we have them with a protein and edamame. E wanted to try edamame after she saw it on Bluey and she really likes it! We also tried curried sausages after she saw it on Bluey. Does he have a favorite show that ever has a food in it he might go for trying?

[dcn]

Hummus? There’s so many flavors, maybe you could Introduce peppers with red pepper hummus.

[mpm]

Jan 14, 2023 17:56:20 GMT -5 joy said:

Your picky eater eats so many more things than my picky eater.

I am now taking notes.

Thank you for this thread!

Same. My kids both eat a small fraction of this list. OP, you’re doing great!

[yellow23]

Jan 14, 2023 17:56:20 GMT -5 joy said:

Your picky eater eats so many more things than my picky eater.

I am now taking notes.

Thank you for this thread!

Same! I would be thrilled if my kids ate this much!

[tacokick]

What about pierogi, veggie dumplings or ravioli/tortellini?

[jewel]

Does he like breakfasty foods? My boys love breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos or quesadillas. What about pancakes? I make a protein pancake sandwich with a breakfast patty between them.

[maudefindlay]

I maybe missed his age, but can he start helping in the kitchen? I swear when we started our vegetable garden years ago and when they started making some of their own meals and helping us they ate some new things or at least tried them. Maybe it won't help the eating, but he will still learn some skills. We started around 5 or 6 with them getting their own breakfast and by 8 they were packing school lunches.

[maudefindlay]

For ideas:

Baked potato and can add toppings.

Oatmeal, my picky eater loves oatmeal and while he won't mix toppings in the oatmeal he will eat them on the side (blueberries, nuts, dried fruits).

We add fruit to Cheerios, he loves frozen blueberries on his.

Ours is a health concern as he needs to gain weight, so we are adding lots of things to what he will eat like taking his yogurt and making it a granola bowl.

DH and I do not eat what he eats though. We make a meal and if kids don't want it they make their own.

[macmars45]

Jan 15, 2023 8:36:54 GMT -5 maudefindlay said:

Ours is a health concern as he needs to gain weight, so we are adding lots of things to what he will eat like taking his yogurt and making it a granola bowl.

That's why my autistic DS(6) gets full fat ice cream almost every day. And thankfully he likes yogurt right now. He's getting full fat greek yogurt daily as well.

[redheadk]

Cheese tortellini? Maybe start adding garlic salt to the butter. Dd can be particular, we work our way up from cheese tortellini with butter, to with butter and garlic salt, to Alfredo thinned with pasta water, to a tomato pesto cream sauce.

We also try combining what she will eat in new ways. So maybe try nachos (bake in the oven) with the beans, topped with diced tomatoes when they come out of the oven + rice and guacamole on the side.

[SusanBAnthony]

Tonight I put tiny (miniscule!) dabs of mild salsa on his taco and it was a fail. Ha didn't see it but took one bite and said "something is wrong, it tastes rotten" 🤣🤣

Next up is ramen and then tortellini. He's rejected tortellini in the past but I suspect with enough butter he'll be amenable.