Routines Surrounding Food

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I sort of have a couple.

For almost every day for the past year, I've had mackerel sandwiches at some point during the day.

For the year before that, I had the same exact salad every day.

I also have a routine about preparing and eating food. For example, I always have to have potatoes on the left side of the plate, meat on the top right hand side of the plate and then vegetables on the bottom right hand side. I have a similar thing in regards to salad.

Anyone else here have some routines like this?

Bigtime, yes. I eat the exact same thing for breakfast every morning. I occasionally vary it but even that is the same variation too.

I have favorite things I buy over and over again every week. I do have a different main evening meal each day, but all seven meals are the same group of things I had last week and will have next week. It makes life simpler.

I don't have preferences about where a food is placed on a plate, though.

chicken patty sandwich with cheese and ranch with veggiestraws for lunch every day (except friday is SUBWAY with mama)

supper is:
sunday: whole foods sandwich
monday: cheeseburger and fries
tuesday-thursday: pizza!
friday: leftover SUBWAY
saturday: whole foods sandwich

I am not too routine-y when when it comes to food. Sometimes I like something different. I don't like my food to be laid out a certain way on the plate though. It all goes down the same hole and mixes up anyway, so I don't care how it's laid out on the plate, and I don't have a particular order of what food I eat first on the plate. In fact I don't think I have ever paid attention to that. I'm quite normal with food habits.

Yes, and it drives my poor wife crazy. To further compound the issue, I have a physical challenge with smell (scar tissue), and therefore taste. I eat things for texture, and avoid things by name. Sometimes foods just sound bad.

For instance, I don't trust most compound-named items (i.e., I like bananas, I like breads, I do not like "banana bread". I can't swallow pie without gagging, but I love apples, I love sugar, and I like cooked crust. I simply do not like them together!)

I also hate foods touching each other on the plate, even though I know what logically happens to it when I eat it. In restaurants I order the exact same thing at each restaurant. It's exceedingly hard for my wife to get me to try a new place. I also find it a challenge to cook new things, or things that are too thick or too thin.

I also arrange the plate specifically when plating dinner. I had never considered that a quirk, though. It's just... it's just how things should be arranged, I guess. Protein lower left, starch upper-left, vegetables covering the right side of the plate.

I don't like to have to think about things, not this kind of stuff. The decisions or the actions around food are trivial, and I want to spend exactly zero seconds thinking about it. At least, that's how I rationalize it.

My particular quirk comes in how I buy food. At the beginning of the month I select a new theme and buy around that. For instance, this month, all I bought was bagged food from the frozen isle. Next month it'll just be exotic meats from the Asian market. Sometimes, for a whole month, it'll just be frozen pizza or chunky soups. A few months ago I bought close to 130 cans of assorted Chef Boyardee foods. I still have some left. I also still have some beans left over from the 20 pounds I bought a few months ago.

Yes I have that kind of routine based with food. Here's a typical day for me for lunch time I have two sandwiches and whatever with it. I have this rule about if I have sandwiches for lunch I can't have sandwiches for dinner. Sometimes I by pass my own rule and go ahead and have a sandwich for dinner. For the past few weeks when I go out grocery shopping I usual buy the things that I always eat. Lunch time I always have to have a sandwich or two. Dinner can be a little different but I can't have a sandwich to eat. Breakfast when I get up to actually have breakfast its either grits, oatmeal or cereal. My basic food for dinner is either Chinese for one night, Mexican another night, then maybe a pizza.

If I have a plate with more than one food on it, I always eat all of food A, then all of food B, etc.. I don't do it on purpose, really. It just happens that way. Maybe it's too much like multi-tasking to take a bite of peas, then a bite of potatoes, then go back to the peas.

I also pick the chocolate off of chocolate-coated things, like candy bars or ice-cream pops and when I have m & m's I have to put them in order of the spectrum before I eat them--well, not have-to have to, but I'd much rather. It's more fun and it seems like it lasts longer.

Not since I went on the paleo diet. Before that, yes.

I eat dishes in reverse order of how much I like them. I also eat certain foods in a particular way. With sandwiches, for example, I eat the top half first, then eat around the sides, such that the last bite is the center of the sandwich with no crust. I don't think I have any food-related routines, other than those.

The only thing I eat routinely are Swiss chocolate. Even that I have cut down a lot. I love variety in food. My NT DH can eat the same thing all the time, though.

For over a year, I would go to starbucks every morning and have the same coffee and breakfast sandwich EVERY day, and never got tired of it. I would actually get really upset if they were out of the wrap I wanted... I would invariably end up leaving with nothing.

I've since revised my eating habits and don't eat there anymore unless I have an all day event or something, in which case I'll buy a sandwich for lunch. I still get the same coffee..

I also usually save the last 3 bites of what I like best for last.

Morning ritual consists of going to Starbucks every morning and having an iced coffee--no matter what the season--and reading. A weird habit I have is my love of goldfish crackers--I'd eat them as a meal if I could. I can only allow myself to eat lunch at 12:40. When I eat potato pierogies, I cut off and eat the outside edges first, then get to the filling.

Oh yes, but this last year I've been trying really hard to break the habit. But yeah, once I get into a food routine it can become extremely detailed and repetivtive. Generally it's one to two meals of the day(lunch/breakfast/dinner), and I have the exact same meal every day, have to make it in the same pattern, and have to use the exact same quantity of each ingredient.

Eg. I was having tuna salad for lunch for a while, and I would have a 3rd of a carrot chopped in a specific technique into thin strips, a quarter of a green capsicum chopped into thin strips using a different technique, one green chilli diced into thin circles then with each circle cut in half, half fresh cos lettuce and half parsley both scrunched tight in my hand and "diced" from one end as I slowly move my hand towards the other end as a green base, both have to be bought from a specific fruit and veges shop, Thinly sliced red salad onion with each "circle" then cut in half, black pepper ground on top of the ingredients, then a large piece of white goats fetta crumbled on top, one small can of John West lemon and cracked pepper tuna, drained in the sink, then tipped on top, half a lemon squeezed on top of that, and then about a tablespoon and a half of olive oil poured on top of that. Then I would use the fork I used to extract the goats feta from its container to stir everything together inside my bowl until it was fully mixed.

I get upset/stressed out if I can't have the right ingredients (which have to be sourced from the right place and be the same brands that I always buy). Other snacks which I have repetitively are SPC salt reduced baked beans and Mainland Colby cheese melted together (half cheese, half beans) in one of my small china bowls, heated and melted in the microwave, taking it in and out and stirring, until the cheese is just completely melted through, and then eaten with a teaspoon. I always use a teaspoon to eat every "spoon requiring" dish (eg. yoghurt, baked beans, dessert, etc) except for soup, which I use a soup spoon to eat. I can get very rigid with my habits.

For breakfast I currently have fresh vegetable juice made in my juicer, into which I put one stick of celery, one lemon with the skin chopped off (using a specific technique, which I won't go into detail here), 1 piece of broccoli, a small handful of green beans, half a cucumber, half a zucchini, and a piece of ginger about the size of a tablespoon. And with it I have a slice of gluten-free toast and 2 eggs scrambled with rice bran oil, a small amount of salt and lots of pepper.