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Do you and your spouse have different eating habits?
I’m pescatarian, and he grew up with a Northern Italian diet of proscuitto, pasta and red meat. I tend to eat much more healthily than him as well to keep my weight in line (tracking calories, macros of protein/fat/carbs as well as fibre and vegetable intake), while left to his own devices he doesn’t eat vegetables other than tomatoes and radicchio. Olive oil is his best friend - we constantly argue that his ‘just a little’ olive oil is 100-200 calories for me! I cook a wide variety of cuisines (Asian in particular), while he is pretty rooted in the Italian tradition. -
If so, do you eat together or separately?
We eat together every night, unless one of us is out doing something which means we can’t eat with the other. If I cook it’s vegetarian, although I give him options if he wants to include some meat in his dish. When he cooks he’s pretty good about doing the same, or buying me a piece of fish to put on the BBQ when he really wants steak. -
Where do you eat?
Generally in front of the TV for now - but we will migrate to the dining table as soon as our daughter is old enough to eat dinner with us (she’s 14 months and eats an early dinner right now). -
Do you eat different things if you eat together or separately?
Left to our own devices, we do eat really differently. And sometimes we really want to eat our own stuff so we agree to cook dinners separately - but eat together.
Thanks for asking! My spouse eats, at every meal: meat. potatoes. gravy. bread. some kind of chips. cookies. Oh, there are variations, we have spaghetti, pizza, soup n’ sandwiches. But basically that’s what he eats. I eat that sometimes, but I like fish, salads, curry, a vast array of things he turns his nose up at. He likes to eat about an hour before he goes to bed, around 9 p.m. So, that’s what I do, I prepare food during the day, warm it up and serve a heapin’ helpin’ of slop. then he turns off the overhead light, lowers his head to the plate, left arm curved protectively around the plate like guys in prison do, and shovels it in. Watching the program guide on the TV, with the easy listening music. Then come the chips, rattling into the bowl, and…munch. crunch. munch. crunch. munch. crunch. Rattle rattle rattle. Munch. crunch. munch. crunch…Blows nose, pushes chair back, says “that was great, Sali, thanks”, and off to brush his teeth. I will have had, or look forward to, my salad or bowl of whatever earlier in the evening or later in the evening. … That’s how it goes, for the most part, in our house. Pathetic, huh? We DO have nice family dinners on occasion, but for the most part, I don’t want to be in the same dark room, conversation discouraged, listening to munch crunch munch.
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Do you and your spouse have different eating habits?
We like to eat the same things, for the most part. -
If so, do you eat together or separately?
I cook dinner every night, and we eat together every night. Occasionally we eat out, or get takeout, but dinners are together. My Dad lives with us, and he’s the main reason for dinner every night, even though I love to cook. Breakfasts on the weekends are eaten together, but lunches are every man for themselves. -
Where do you eat?
Dad eats at the dining table, my husband and I eat in front of the TV. -
Do you eat different things if you eat together or separately?
Nope. Well - for lunch, he eats sandwiches for the most part because he is a truck driver and needs one handed foods. I eat frozen dinners, leftovers, and salads at my desk at work.
- Do you and your spouse have different eating habits?
Not really, there are foods I eat and like more than him and vice versa, but we both like homemade over take out, like spicy, and ethnic. He likes it spicier than me but that doesn’t seem to be an issue.
- If so, do you eat together or separately?
Almost always we eat together. We often rise at different times, so often get our own breakfasts when it suits us, weekends we usually have at least one breakfast together. Lunch we often aren’t in the same place, or we aren’t hungry at the same time so it’s often get what you want, for yourself. Sometimes I’ll make my lunch and his and just leave his in the fridge for whenever he feels to eat it.
- Where do you eat?
Dinner is almost always at the table together. When I’m working late he’ll eat in front of the tv, sometimes on weekends if I make something like nachos we’ll eat in front of the tv, but it’s the exception really.
- Do you eat different things if you eat together or separately?
Now and then, we eat different things, usually because of the nature of the leftovers. Often there is enough roast beef, gravy and mashed for one more meal. Having had this the day before, I’m more in the mood for a salad. So I make him the leftovers and myself a salad. We still eat together though.
And sometimes it’s just ‘get your own meals’ day, usually because I’m making headway on some project I don’t want to step away from. All bets are off, in this case, eat what you want, when you want, where you want.
When we were younger we ate a lot of take out. We worked in service and kept odd hours, but that changed as we got a little older. The cost savings and improvement in quality sold us, plus we just had our fill.
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Do you and your spouse have different eating habits?
I am health conscious and prefer whole wheat pasta, brown rice, lots of vegetables, etc. I do 95% of the cooking and my husband pretty much eats whatever I make. Sometimes, he’ll have corn while I have a green vegetable. -
If so, do you eat together or separately?
We eat together (except for workday breakfast/lunches) -
Where do you eat?
Front of the TV, usually. -
Do you eat different things if you eat together or separately?
N/A
Do you and your spouse have different eating habits?
I’m not big into seafood, eating only canned tuna, shrimp, crabs and some very light tasting fish and I tend to like spicier food, but, on the whole, we eat mostly the same things.
If so, do you eat together or separately?
When we eat breakfast, it’s always together. Lunch is separate since I eat at work and we eat supper together every night.
Where do you eat?
We used to eat every night at the bar in the kitchen (we don’t have a table) but here recently we’ve been eating in front of the computer while watching a movie (no TV either). I’d like to go back to eating at the bar for every meal, though.
Do you eat different things if you eat together or separately?
If it is just a short separation (one evening) it tends towards the same foods, but if it is long term (a few days) I tend to degenerate into easy to make foods that aren’t particularly good for me (I love to cook, just not for one) and Waxwinged tends towards meat and oatmeal.
The OP really sounds like a money conundrum and not a food one. He likes going out to eat, you don’t. In other threads you said he worries about saving money and putting it away for the kids’ college fund and yet…
I don’t particularly think it’s fair that he goes out for lunch all the time and you don’t. Unless it’s with a client, it’s BS. You both need/want to save, he needs to put up his end of the bargain too. $10/lunch for 325 lunches/year is $3250/year. In 17 years (thinking about the baby) that’s a huuuuuge chunk of change.
Anyways,
**1. Do you and your spouse have different eating habits? **We did initially while first dating and we ate out a LOT. Like every lunch/dinner/ Since we moved in he’s changed to meet mine. He used to be a carb-heavy vegetarian who ate white bread/pasta/rice. Pizza, garbage. We eat more meat and more soups, stews, etc. I try to make more fish, since he likes it and eats the most protein from it (and needs it, due to weightlifting). If he gets carb cravings, he reaches for what is close by - and that’s whole wheat/grain.
2. If so, do you eat together or separately? Together for dinners, but he snacks throughout the day because he never eats more than maybe 400 calories/meal. So he eats in the neighborhood of 5-6 times in a day.
3. Where do you eat? Dining table. Snacking is anywhere.
4. Do you eat different things if you eat together or separately? Same things, different quantities. Say we get 2 swordfish steaks from Trader Joe’s. I’ll have the larger one and two bowls of salad. He’ll have the smaller steak and a pile of frozen vegetables and a cup or more of brown rice. We’ll both have an apple or split a grapefruit later.
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We have pretty similar eating habits. There are a handful of foods/flavors one of us likes that the other doesn’t, but there’s far, far more overlap than divergence.
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Breakfast and lunch are usually separate due to work and differing start times, but dinner is typically together. The only time we don’t eat dinner together is when one of us is gone (out of town, at a meeting or event), or we’re having one of those nights where dinner is whatever you scrounge whenever you scrounge it.
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Typically we eat on the couch, but once in a great while we’ll eat at the dining room table.
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We’ll break out the dishes the other one doesn’t like when we’re alone, but that’s really the only difference.
I think the primary issue is mostly impulse control - he loves to eat out because the food tastes good and he views it as faster than making food at home. For him, health rarely comes into the question. For me, I already know I tend toward high cholesterol, so I don’t feel like I can afford to be too impulsive with my food choices. And the only food choices around me are White Castle and Wendy’s, which makes my decision for me.
Were one of us unemployed, though, eating out so frequently could quickly becomes a financial issue - as you noted, it’s an expensive habit.
Thanks for all the responses, everyone! Keep ‘em comin’!
When we first met, I was eating mostly “health” food (a holdover from my previous relationship) and my partner was basically on a diet of fast food (he was young and skinny, and could get away with it). Over the years, our diets have mostly merged into one that is more or less healthy. I’m the one with dietary restrictions because of health issues, and my partner pretty much eats what I eat. In fact I take great pride in the fact that I’ve taught him to appreciate fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Do you and your spouse have different eating habits?
In some ways, they are quite different. My DH loves meat, especially pork, beef, and lamb. His idea of a great meal would be a steak and perhaps a lettuce leaf or two. I eat meat, but I’m not a huge fan, so I only eat small portions. I prefer chicken to red meat (though still in small quantities), and he feels the opposite. He loves fish of any kind. I only really like a few kinds of fish. We both like seafood. We also both like the same ethnic cuisines (e.g., Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Ethiopian, Italian). A couple of years ago I converted him to liking pizza, which I consider a culinary triumph. Even so, we have pizza rarely, maybe once or twice a year.
- If so, do you eat together or separately?
Breakfast and lunch are almost always eaten separately, due to different schedules. Dinner is almost always together.
- Where do you eat?
Usually at the kitchen table, occasionally at the dining room table. No TV, no computer, no phone during dinner.
- Do you eat different things if you eat together or separately?
For dinner, we nearly always eat the same things, though as I mentioned above, portion sizes are quite different, especially WRT meat. We take turns cooking. Very occasionally, he will decide to cook tuna or liver and onions, which I don’t care for, so I’ll make something different for myself. About once a week or once every two weeks we will order dinner from a restaurant.