Cooking in a mixed-diet household

[jenfl]

I'm wondering if anyone else here is cooking for a mixed-diet household. DH has been vegetarian for about 8 years now, but DD and I eat meat (I dislike beans and most meat substitutes, DD is just outgrowing a dairy sensitivity, so things get tricky).

I've worked out some basic rules for choosing recipes that I can do both with and without meat (or with a meat substitute), but I do feel burned out on it every so often.

Wondering if anyone else was in this situation and would be willing to trade tips and recipes to help keep things fresh.

[katelove]

My husband is a lacto-ovo vegetarian and I am an omnivore. My famly has always had vegetarian friends and have eaten vegetarian meals so it wasn't totally foreign to me but it was still an adjustment. This is what we do and it has worked really well for us so far...

- we only buy vegetarian condiments and dairy products
- we never cook totally separate meals (at dinner time, breakfast and lunch are usually a fend for yourself affair)
- I have modified many of my favourite meals to make them vegetarian
- Mum cooks me a roast dinner now and then when we go over to their place


DH and I both enjoy good food and cooking so I guess that helps. He is also quite happy to cook meat for me, which I totally did not expect him to do.

I have found that I need to plan a bit more than I used to. It was easy for me to just have a quick steak and veges/salad but now I have to come up with other easy meals for the can't-be-bothered days. DH *loves* salad though (I am not such a fan) so I can always do a big salad for him and pad it out with nuts/grilled haloumi/boiled eggs/mushrooms etc while I have a smaller potion and some type of meat.

We also have a few super quick, moderately healthy options for the really busy/tired days. For us these are

- baked beans on toast
- scrambled eggs on toast
- baked (or microwaved) potatoes with cheese and (bought)coleslaw. Now I am pregnant we have swapped the coleslaw for bought tomato pasta sauce.

Great thread. I'm looking forward to hearing about how other people do things.

ETA - I just reread your post. We don't use any meat substitutes as DH doesn't really like them either.

[wytchywoman]

I'm vegan, my DS 1 is a major carnivore and my ds 2 is a vegetarian most of the time, albeit he is insanely picky about what he's willing to eat.
The only analogue meat that I use in a recipe for all of us is veggie crumbles. It is unbelievably like ground meat in taste and texture and my DS 1 doesn't even know when he's eating it, so that's a good one to use. Otherwise I try to plan meals that are similar to each other. For example, tonight we are having sloppy joes with tater tots ( using veggie crumbles) and tomorrow I am cooking an omelet for ds 1 and tofu scramble for me.

[Funny Face]

Dh eats meat and I just recently started eating vegetarian, though I'd like to go vegan. The kids eat whatever we eat. It's soooo hard for us because of added food allergies and other restrictions.

To be honest I'm kind of starving right now because of limited options/energy/knowledge.

[etsdtm99]

i've recently stopped eating meat again so i'm not very good at this yet. I cook for DH, a 17yrold, 3yr old and 1yr old.. my goals is to cook meat-free for everyone every other day (they are all open to not eating meat and to eating meat substitutes) and then i could eat the left overs from the meat free night along with whatever new side dishes on the meat nights.. the hardest thing for me is adjusting the amount i cook on meat nights because the 4 of them really don't eat much at all.. then we end up with more left overs and it is much easier to convince them to not eat meat than it is to convince them to eat left overs.. and since i can't just eat them for lunch or something.. they go to waste far too often..

[wholewheatchick]

DH eats meat, and I am ovo-lacto vegetarian. The compromise is that he gets to eat whatever he wants for breakfast and lunch. I buy the groceries and cook, but I won't cook meat: buying canned soup and lunchmeat is as close as I come for him. Then, he eats whatever I cook for dinner, whether he likes it or not.

We don't have kids yet, and I know that will complicate things. But, as I am the cook of the house, I don't forsee it being too difficult.

The main struggle we're having right now is that I just eliminated soy protein from our diet, and DH LOVES the meat analogues, so we're working that out!

[madskye]

I cook probably 70% vegetarian meals, but when I do cook meat I make a side that can double as a veg meal. So, a vegetable casserole, a pasta dish, a veggie paella--these can have lots of beans or veg sausages in them, and they are great leftovers to build on the rest of the week.

[nolansmummy]

I don't eat meat, but the rest of the family does. I cook all meals.
Most nights we have fully vegetarian meals, but we also do a lot of stir frys and fajitas, enchilladas, where i use beans for my filling, but cook up meat for the rest of them.I don't cook two different meals because its too much work but i will add meat for them. If i'm having veggie burgers for dinner, the kids have real burgers or hot dogs and eat the same sides.
The only time i cook two meals is when we eat chili because my kids will not eat it But that has nothing to do with being veg*n or not.

[russsk]

I'm vegetarian, DH and DS are not. I cook meat about 3 times/week, but it's almost always something stand-alone, like lambchops or a chicken breast, and the sides are vegetarian and satisfying for me. So, for instance, I might cook a steak and make a lentil stir-fry with potatoes and vegetables. Or lamb chops and couscous with vegetables, chickpeas feta and pine nuts. Or chicken with a brown-rice and vegetable stir-fry topped with tahini. I also cook roasts and whole chickens and add those to whatever vegetarian meal I'm making. Sometimes I'll add meat to a stirfry, but that's easy because I make each serving individually. I also do a lot of vegetarian soups, which are really satisfying over rice or couscous.

[Mommy&Will]

I am eating mostly raw ( and vegan) right now and my dh and 2 boys eat meat
but right now no dairy or wheat. I make a lot of soup and salads. I always double the soup recipe for the freezer. So this week they've had chicken tortilla soup, sausage and split pea soup, and potato soup. In between those meals I'll make chicken and rice, a lentil loaf (double the recipe), tacos (double the recipe). I also make up rice and bean burritos, and egg burritos for the freezer for quick bites to eat.

I dehydrate crackers and bread for myself to add to the salad. I actually feel like I have a lot of variety - pesto, olive spread, hummus, "cheese" dip.... I make them up during the day and they last for a long while. I have found the being high raw has helped keep things less complicated, as I am not cooking two meals. Sometimes I'll have steamed veggies if I'm serving it to the family too.

Breakfast is either a smoothie, oatmeal, or rice cereal.