TO COOK OR NOT TO COOK

I don't love to cook.  

I'd rather be outside doing something like working in the yard, riding a mower, watering flowers, or inside creating and being crafty. 

And.....might as well be honest here.....I'm not a great cook either.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not bad, just average.  I can make a pretty mean pot roast and potato's or homemade blackberry pie, but I would just rather do something else.  Like those bumper stickers you see on the back of cars that say things like, 'I'd rather be sky diving', or whatever! 

I have cooked for dad ever since my mom passed away nearly 5 years ago.  I manage his meals as he is diabetic.  As if balancing his diabetes and sugar levels with the food he eats isn't enough, lets just say, it is an understatement that he is difficult to feed!  I am forever at my wits end about what to cook.  


You see, there is not a lot of food that he likes.  Chicken is strictly forbidden.  I don't think he'd eat chicken if it was the last morsel of food in the house.  Something about too much chicken as a kid.  That and working for his aunt on the farm where he had to clean out nasty, stinky chicken houses.  I am also guessing he probably had to wring the necks of the poor chickens he later found himself eating for supper.


He doesn't like Chinese, Mexican or Italian food either, just meat and potato's.  I'm guessing you can imagine some of my angst by now?  


It seems like over the past year, his eating has become even pickier, if that's possible.  Things I have fixed in the past, he is leaving on his plate uneaten.  Ham, cube steak, pork chops, steak, pot roast and so on.  Now what gives?  Is this dislike of meats now a thing related to his age??  (he's 82)  Most of the time, he says it's just too tough.  Could it be his dentures?  Have his taste buds changed??  I don't know.  


It's difficult for me though.  I work hard to put something on the table that he will eat.  Like last night for instance.  I bought a small round steak that had been cubed and tenderized.  Yesterday morning, I placed the meat in a plastic bag, soaked it in marinade and put it back in the refrigerator.  Early in the afternoon, I placed the meat and the marinade in a crock pot and it stewed away.  


By supper time as I was serving it, the meat was so tender it fell off the fork as I was trying to remove it from the pot.  Yum!!  To go along with it, we had a salad, dinner roll, baked potato and cottage cheese.  A country meat and potato meal just like he likes.  


He took two bites of the meat at my cajoling and left the rest to be thrown out in the trash, but eating everything else.  *@#*^&*  I failed again!

I've tried everything I know to do but one thing, aside from getting his dentures replaced.  There is an AC vent above the table that blows cold air down on us as we eat.  (remember we are in hot and sunny Arizona).  Since dad eats everything else first before his meat, I am now guessing the meat that was once tender, cut with a fork juicy, has gone cold and hard.  Turn off the air while we eat!  Could that be the remedy?? 


I don't know.....I am frustrated and we are going out to eat tonight!!  Let somebody else cook!!!!