How do you work with a partner who is a picky eater?

I (early 30's) do almost all of the cooking at home, because I absolutely love cooking, and I'm pretty darn good at it. I love all kinds of food. I'm always trying new things, and keeping old favorites in rotation. We are happy with this arrangement because my partner does the cleaning up and simply doesn't enjoy cooking like I do. So far so good.

My partner (late 20's), however, doesn't eat a lot and is also a comparatively picky eater. They have hangups on carbs (no to bread, biscuits, noodles, etc.), textures (no to gravy, certain seafoods, runny eggs, soups, etc.), and flavors (no to curries, peanut sauces, certain seafoods, etc.). Basically, their pallette is that of an average Midwestern lady from the 60's - American and Italian (fried foods, pastas, grilled foods, fruits and vegetables)

As an aside, health wise, my partner's diet is naturally better than mine. Despite being a picky eater, they are much better about making sure each meal has the important food groups, and they eat a lot less than I do. I don't want this to be about how they are a closeminded villian.

Anyway, I'm looking for advice or experiences on how to best build around this. Is this one of those things where I cook things we both like and then eat my foods the times we're not together? This seems like a likely path to me - I have a friend who is in a similar situation, and we just hit up all the "fun" foods when his wife is out of town. It's a bit selfish, but I'm concerned about my long-term satisfaction in only cooking and eating a fraction of the culinary spectrum for the rest of my life.

Thanks!

P.S. I'm going to get ahead of the comments and just say that my partner doing more of the cooking is not going to change. They do the extent of the cooking they are willing to do and it all takes place in the oven (pizzas, munchies snacks, etc.)

tl;dr: I'm an adventurous cook and eater who does all the cooking at home, my partner only likes the same foods as Hank Hill.

Submitted July 20, 2020 at 09:51AM by hench4lyf https://ift.tt/2CyvIBH