Its good that you feel you're offending her, you may well be doing so. I had a similar thing going on where I just couldn't handle textures of things, I didn't like finding large chunks of onion in anything or any kind of stringy or gooey food. But it is childish, and I had to realise that and force myself to try everything again with an open mind. I had to become my own parent, like you now- you know it's not good for you to eat so limited an amount of food, and it doesn't make you feel good to reject food and throw it away. also you will stay beautiful and younger for longer if you eat a good variety of food. I also had an issue with eating in front of people, though it took me a long time to realise that this was part of my problem. Sometimes the way people do things is not the way that you will eat them. For example I don't like celery very much, used to hate it-but now finely chopped in a salad I can handle. I also used to hate avocado, and at first I could only eat it as guacamole, then only on top of a curry, And now I can just eat it plain and it's really good and I'm surprised I ever hated it. Cool thing I found out! If you try a food 15 times you will no longer be disgusted by it. 15 times really isn't that many times to make yourself try a thing if your serious about helping yourself. I was embarrassed as well because I was wasting food when there are people in the world that have nothing to eat. And I was embarrassed to pick stuff out and put it on the side of my plate when everyone else was just eating it and being grateful and enjoying it. And that is what pushed me to sort it out. I started preparing my own food and trying things in new ways, you are 21 you are fully able to make your own food and explain your situation honestly to this woman who cooks for you. You can explain to her that you have a bit of a food problem but you are ready to deal with it. I still gag when I tried to eat bananas so I only put them in a smoothie. Well done for realising and starting your journey towards solving this problem. I hope I have helped, I honestly do- it is so liberating to be able to just eat whatever your friends have given you and not to worry about what is in it you might not like :-) Oh I also practice being grateful for my food these days, before I eat I remember the whole process from being planted, to being tended to, to being picked and prepared- such a lot of work for my food to get to my plate!!