New Veg with meat eating husband....how do we do it?

[edensmama]

Last June I had my gallbladder removed and since then can not tolerate meat.  I want to solely eat veg but dh is a huge meat eater.  How do I go about this without having to make 2 seperate meals every night?   Anyone else living in a house divided??

[GoGoGirl]

Oh, we talk about this a lot!  It seems like a really common situation.

Me and DH tend to make totally separate meals...I make something vegan, he makes hunk o' meat, and then he eats all my leftovers with his meat so I don't have anything for lunch the next day. 

But if you're cooking all the food, the advice I hear the most is to cook meals that can be vegetarian or meaty, cook the meat separately, and then add it to just his portion.  Mexican food and stir fries work really well for this.  Just make tacos, cook him some ground beef in a separate pan, and then he can add it to just his taco.  Or make a stir fry with tofu for you, and stir fry some chicken for him in a different pan. 

[Hopefulmama]

I am newly vegan as well and this is something that held me back from trying before. Today I sat down and meal planned and cooked ahead to help in the coming week. I made a big pot of veggie soup, a veggie salad, as well as a big pan of roasted veggies for quick meals or sides for me. For my family here is the meal plan: 1)Pasta with sauce and veggies. I will put meat in theirs at the end.  2)Stirfry. Theirs beef, mine tofu. 3)Quesadillas-beef/veggie, beans, rice. 4)Veggie Chili-theirs will have beef, mine will be set aside without beef 5)Huge salad. Theirs will have chicken, mine won't. I am looking for other recipes that can be easily modified to go either way. If a recipe calls for chicken broth, I used veggie broth instead.

[pisceanmomma]

I have been veg since we met, and the smells of meat cooking gross me out.  DH has been gracious not to cook meat in our home, only outside on the grill. This has led to him eating a lot less meat as well.  So he's mostly vegan now, it's much easier to have him eat "my" food, and everyone's happy. He is also a great vegan cook, and getting him involved in cooking has made it fun for him to eat vegan as he really enjoys it.  I still hope that someday he will give up meat, but try not to push him, as he is already 90% there.  

[katelove]

We are a mixed marriage too  although here it is DH who is the vegetarian. We eat mostly the same meals and don't find it difficult at all. For us it is both convenient and companionable to eat the same so we do make an effort to do so but, occasionally we will have a different meal.

This is how we do it.

If we're having a salad I will have a smaller serving of salad and have a piece of meat with it. Usually a baked lamb chop or fried steak. DH will have cottage cheese or nuts or chick peas etc in his salad for protein. We do the same for mixed, cooked veges.

Risottos, stir fry, tacos etc we cook vegetarian and then add meat when serving. I find chicken breasts are great for this sort of thing. I wrap them loosely in foil and put them in the oven for 40 mins. They kind of poach in their own juices and then I shred them. If it's something that needs the meat cooked into it then we usually divide into two pots at the point the meat needs to go in. I'm not a huge fan of beans so this works well for bean dishes or when were substituting beans for meat.

Occasionally we'll have sausages and DH will have vege ones. Then we just use two pans or a pan and the griller or something. And we have the same veges or salad. 

I do enjoy eating vegetarian food though so often I will just eat the vegetarian meal without adding meat. 

[FitMOmmyOf2]

We're also a 'mixed' family; I'm veg and DH & kids are omnis. DH eats everything I cook though (vegetarian/vegan 50:50).

When we met 11 yrs. ago, I was also an omni, not a big one, but I would eat meat and cook occasionally. For the past 4 yrs. I've been veg now and originally made the rule that there won't be any meat in the house! Well.. that rule quicky fell flat with my kids requesting hot dogs or bacon (every once in a while) and then DH also started bringing home meat and cooking it himself when he had a big craving for it. BUT, the one rule I'm sticking to is that there won't be any lamb or piglet brought into our house!!!

Just this past summer DH & I actually had quite a big arguement over this as one of our local (Italian) friends here wanted to come over and bring lamb (as in almost complete, not only a chop!)  to roast here! DH argued and something like "You know I love lamb!" and I responded "And you know that I won't have any dead baby animals being cooked here!" Now, it might seem a big hypocrite of me, having bacon in the house or letting DH bring a piece of steak, but somehow that's still slightly different!..

Anyway, I won the arguement at the end , DH told our friend (who's a huge omni and whom I had to remind to please not make constant comments about how good meat tastes when he's in my house!) and that's it. I'd say it is possible to have a good working marriage/relationship between omni & veg as long as both partners are open for compromises on certain points!  DH never complains of not having meat with his dinner and loves my cooked meals, but at the same time I need to accept it when he feels like eating a piece of Steak that he cooks for himself! I know, I'll never turn him to be a veg and need to be happy with him being a 'part time veg'. In the long run, I'm hoping my kids will make the choice to follow my footsteps, but only time will tell.

[edensmama]

I just found out that I am pregnant with baby #3.  My first pregnancy I didn't eat much meat then my second pregnancy all I wanted was meat and now with this one, no meat....maybe it means it's a girl    We seem to be doing quite well right now, my 6 yr old dd decided she doesn't want to eat meat right now and i am ok with that.  I have made meals and made meat on the side so dh and ds can add to there plate if they like.  This seems to work dh and I am glad.  Thank you so much for all your thoughts on this, they have helped a lot!!

[PNCTink]

I'm pretty much in the same position as you. Though I make quite a few vegetarian meals for DH now because he'll eat most anything as long as he doesn't know what's in it, and then he adds cheese. ;)  I also try to make things that have the same base, but can be customized. For instance, last night I made pureed sweet potato soup and added carrots, celery, garlic, and onions. I pureed it before he came home and he had no idea. He tells me not to tell him when I sneak things in. I made bread bowls and he added cheddar cheese to his and I had mushrooms and spinach in mine. Another meal I do is sloppy joes. I make his with ground turkey and mine with lentils. We'll have homemade fries with it.  HTH!

[CourtBChase]

Well, our family is "mixed" (me and my daughter eating vegetarian, husband omni) but we keep a vegetarian kitchen.  My husband would not know how to cook a steak even if it didn't gross me out, and he is content to eat whatever I cook at home, and eat meat when we are out or eating at other people's homes.  He actually often chooses not to eat meat when we are out now, which makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. :-)