My dad is super picky, but he loves beets, carrots and squash, all of which can sub rather easily for potatoes and are great roasted. Turnips are good roasted too, they aren't as bitter that way. I also love rutabagas, lightly steamed and then mashed with salt, butter and lots of pepper. You might try rutabaga on your family. They look ugly as sin in the grocery store, but just take a sharp knife, peel away the ugliness to reveal the peachy goodness underneath, steam in a pot with a small amount of boiling water (DON'T OVERCOOK), then drain, mash with small amount of butter and season to taste. If you don't overcook them they have a mild flavor. My dad likes the frozen mashed butternut squash as a side dish, and like I said, he's the world's pickiest eater so if he'll eat it it must be tolerable to most. I find it insipid and like my butternut squash peeled and roasted. But being of northern European descent, there's hardly a root vegetable I'm not enamoured with. I even like parsnips. Here's another recipe you can make and keep the leftovers for reheating and to add to other dishes. Roasted Root Vegetables - from my friend Bev. B. Feel free to leave out veggies you don't like, just sub more of the ones you do like. 2 lb. carrots - peeled and chunked 3 turnips - chunked 2-3 sweet potatoes (recipe calls for white ones but I like both kinds roasted. As far as I know, sweet potatoes are not in the nightshade family, but if I'm wrong, leave out. If you want to use them, peel and chunk) 1 med. rutabaga (or butternut squash, or both), peeled and chunked 4-8 parsnips, peeled and chunked 1 lg. yellow or red onion, cut into large chunks 3 med. beets (optional) Either steam and rinse under cold water to peel, or just peel with a veg. peeler. Cut into chunks. As to the size of the "chunks" about 1" square is the smallest I would go with. Mine are about 2 inches. Depends on your taste for the presentation. I like my chunks bite sized, but you can do this with bigger chunks that then need to be cut up to eat. Because the beets bleed and stain the other veggies, do them in a separate small pan. Sauce: 1 cup lowfat chicken broth (or veggie broth. can use less) 1/4 cup olive oil 2 tsp. ground rosemary 1 tsp. sugar or maple syrup (I think I use more like 1 TBLSP, but that's because I also use some balsamic vinegar in the sauce). Mix together until blended. I also add 1 TBLSP tamari, some sea salt to taste, and ground pepper. Also sometimes 1 TBLSP red wine or a splash of balsamic vinegar. Place veggies in a 9x13 inch roasting pan (or larger). Pour sauce over veggies and stir to mix. Frankly, I don't mix up the sauce separately. I chunk up the veggies, put them in my steel roaster, dump the sauce ingredients over them, and then stir them to mix before putting in the oven. I've made these in pyrex baking dishes and nonstick coated aluminum pans too. My steel roaster is the best but the others are still good. Roast at 375 degrees uncovered for 1 hour. Check after 30 min. stir if veggies are drying out. Check again after 1 hour, may need to go a little longer if veggies are not done. Stir occasionally to redistribute the sauce. Don't stir too much though, or your veggies will turn to mush. Can cover with foil at the end if it is drying out too much, and/or add a little water. This freezes pretty good. Can use these veggies later in salads or casseroles or soups.

Have his doctor take a blood sample at any time during one of those attacks. It is important to take a sample at that time of attack. The doctor will have the uric acid content and I believe the sedimentation rate performed......those test results will then determine with 100% surety whether or not he has gout. In severe gout attacks.....patients may not be able to walk. I've been there before.....had to use crutches. There is a medication (don't recall the name) that will will dissolve those uric acid crystals from bone joints real fast. In a matter of "hours" all pain will be gone. Should those gout attacks continue, one can usually take allopurinol to PREVENT it from occurring again. This has worked well for me for many years. It is important to keep in mind.....if you have frequent gout attacks (uric acid crystals forming in joints), you may well be building up kidney stones too. Yours truly passed three kidney stones which were tested to be composed of uric acid. Gout is bad enough...passing a kidney stone is even worst. My gout suffering dad had a large stone (the size of a white bean) that formed at the entrance to his bladder. It had to be removed by going up his penis with a special retrieving tool. Not too many men are up for that kind of surgery......allopurinol can keep that from happening. Also, allopurinol ONLY PREVENTS gout. It does no good to take allopurinol DURING a gout attack. In fact, if you take allopurinol during an attack, you will make the attack worst. The other medication I mentioned earlier MUST be taken to remove the uric acid crystals. After the crystals (and pain) is gone, then one can go back taking allopurinol to prevent gout. Usually this is enough to teach one not to forget to take a daily allopurinol pill. Dan .......gout free and kidney stone free for 25+ years.

You can put textured vegetable protein (TVP) in chili, and eventually if you find that he likes the taste, put it in other things too. Vegetarian chili is also good, plenty of protein in beans. Morningstar Farms makes fake chicken patties, nuggets and buffalo wings that are really good, even to people who are not into fake meat. You could try cooking a lot of chinese food, with mostly vegetables and the meat just for flavoring rather than a main ingredient. Things like fried rice. Some pasta dishes use meat mainly for flavoring too, like pasta with bacon and broccoli and spaghetti carbonara. Cheese-based dishes and egg-based dishes both have lots of fat and protein, which are probably what he craves. Homemade macaroni and cheese is so good. Meatless lasange. Spinach is the best, with whole milk ricotta, yum! Risotto. Enchiladas are much better with vegetables than they are with meat, in my opinion. Spinach enchiladas especially. Try making meals out of a few heavy dishes that he really likes that are traditionally sides, and just leave out the main course. For instance (I don't know if he likes this stuff but it is just a suggestion), deviled eggs, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, and a vegetable. What about fish? I don't really know what gout is, but maybe he can eat fish, or shellfish - clam chowder. Corn chowder is good too. I sometimes just serve salad and baked potatoes with lots of toppings (butter, sour cream, chives, fake bacon bits, broccoli, grated cheese, salsa). Twice-baked potatoes are also good. Add warm potatoes and/or cauliflower to green salads to make them a bigger part of the meal, and experiment with making your own dressings, which are usually so much better than bottled. Also experiment with adding cheeses to salad. Spinach salad is a nice change if you don't usually have that.

@plllog, that’s the comment! It was showing up when I looked at my Activity, but not when I went to this thread. 🙄 @blfenton, the menu was Chicken Baked in Wine (recipe in my post way upthread), Lemon Steamed Potatoes (photo of recipe a couple of posts under that), and steamed green beans seasoned with a drizzle of toasted sesame oil. For dessert, I served fresh strawberries with a Romanoff sauce (photo of recipe in same post as potato recipe) except I used Amaretto instead of brandy. My friend’s wife brought white cheddar and Nut Thins to have with our pre-dinner drinks. I think my neighbor and his wife were happy to be able to go out to dinner. He doesn’t get to do that very often. We enjoyed sitting around the table and talking far later than I thought we would. I call that a success!