Patients often come to me saying that they need more ideas of what to eat. They want new food options. When this happens, the patient is usually in one of two scenarios: They have been eating the same thing for a while and are not good at thinking out of the box to come up with new food options, or they are fairly picky and dislike many foods for various reasons. Fortunately, both scenarios can be improved!
If you are the person who is open to trying new foods but just can't think of new ideas, read on. You will find ideas of dishes, flavors, food combinations, and cooking methods you have not thought of. If you are the person who needs new food ideas but are reluctant to try a lot of foods because you don't like theme, then read this article about overcoming picky eating.
Three Methods to Come Up With More Ideas of What to Eat
Eating Foods at Nontraditional Times
One reason we get set in our way with what we eat is because we have a schema of what can and should be eaten at a specific meal or occasion. For example, many people see scrambled eggs as breakfast food, turkey as a Thanksgiving food, and hot chocolate as a winter food. What if we can expand what we see as acceptable to be eaten at a certain time?
If you can think of foods based on what food categories you would like rather than the occasion, you will have more options. For example, if it is in the middle of the afternoon and you need some protein for snack, open your mind to all protein foods, not just those typically eaten at snack time. Here are some examples.
tuna fish sandwich for snack
baked sweet potato for snack
chicken for breakfast
oatmeal and yogurt for dinner
crackers, cheese, and fruit for dinner
omelet for lunch
cereal and milk for lunch
fish and roasted vegetables for breakfast
quinoa prepared like oatmeal for breakfast
crackers, hummus, and vegetables for lunch
Eating Foods Not Typically Eaten Together
Sometimes the mental block about what to eat is from a limiting mindset about what foods can be eaten together. For example, if you are eating pizza, it is hard to even conceive eating a vegetable with that, and when eating cereal and milk, most people are not going to have soup on the side. In reality, the limits can be much wider! While there is never a reason to eat two foods together if you will find the combination offensive, often the resistance is just due to the untraditional nature of the combination.
Here are some examples. Some of these may seem fairly normal to you, and others may seem more atypical. Just look at them with the mindset of deciding if you are open to try that combination.
cereal with milk and baby carrot
scrambled eggs and quinoa
lunchmeat sandwich and an apple
potato chips and a string cheese
chicken, oatmeal, and an orange
hard boiled egg, steamed vegetables, and whole grain bread
yogurt and nuts
yogurt and an avocado
cheese and sliced tomato
pizza and salad
vegetable soup and crackers
Eating Foods You Never Had Before
Eating foods you have never tried can open your world up to so many new foods. With this category of foods, you will have to think about foods that are from other cultures that you never considered trying. We usually avoid new foods because they are unusual to us. Foods from a culture that is not your own can be fairly unusual to you. That is a good thing, because once you consider these foods as viable options, your food repertoire has suddenly widened vastly!
Trying foods from other cultures will allow you to experience a lot of newness with your food. Flavors, textures, food combinations, spices, and other new ingredients can add a lot of interest and enjoyment to your meals. Of course, I can't give you a list of foods you have never tried, but below is a list of foods many of my own patient had not tried, and they enjoyed once they did.
jollof rice
kushari
injera
dal makhani
korma
ghormeh sabzi
tahdig
mangu
empanadas
falafel
You Now Have More Ideas of What to Eat
Having more ideas of what to eat comes more from a mindset of being open to new things than from new foods being brought to your attention. If you can approach food and eating with a openness to something new, unusual, or nontraditional, you are bound to have a long list of new foods to eat.