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Being Vegetarian when your partner isn't?
Started
by Louise Robyn
on July 8, 2011
I am finding it hard to cope making food for us to eat...my partner loves meat. Obviously I don't...has anyone ever had this situation and over come this? I am not sure what to do next!
Well, I'm not the primary cook in my house, so that is one way I have been able to deal with it. My wife is the primary cook, so she will cook her meat and my veggie stuff.
If you are going to do the cooking, I recommend that perhaps you cook both. Or, you could have him cook his meat, since both of you probably eat everything else.
Dennis your a lucky man havin a wife to cook both dinners! I cook for my family so im cooking two dinners meat & without meat and its hard for me to do that but my fam must eat hopefully they will turn. Jeff
I recommend making vegan side dishes and vegan protein for you. If your partner wants meat, he/she can cook that to go along with the side dishes. For eating out, Thai and Indian restaurants are great choices for both vegan food and omni food alike. The entire vegetarian section of the menu at PF Changs is free of animal products (with the possible exception of bone char sugar) so that's the chain I usually pick to eat at with meat eating friends. PF Changs does go overboard on the sodium though, so it's more of an occasional treat.
Your partner will probably be surprised how delicious vegan food can be. I strongly recommend The 4 Ingredient Vegan if you're looking for some easy, tasty and quick dishes to make. There are some wonderful casseroles in there that I love :)
I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for about 10 years and am just now making the transition to vegan.
My husband is a meat and potatoes guy and I have always cooked for both of us. He really doesn't eat a TON of meat but he drinks milk like water 
We mostly do the vegan sides and protein for me and then vegan sides (sometimes covered with cheese or cream sauce) and meat for my honey. One thing I have done though is making sure he at lest tries the vegan option. He found out that the fried seitan general tso's tastes exactly like the chicken kind and he even likes the vegan chocolate mousse at whole foods better than the kind made with milk.
I also started nicely reminding him about the health benefits of not eating animal products. He doesn't always feel the same way about animals that I do. But it is very hard for him to refute the data in the China Study or Rip Esselstein's Engine 2 book. I also got him to be competitive over our cholesterol scores. He is now down to one meat meal per day (usually lunch) so that means when we eat together it's very veg friendly and I only have to cook once.
Good topic everyone. I follow a vegan diet but I'm quite lucky that my omnivore boyfriend will try almost anything I make. We make a lot of meals and slightly adapt them so he is happier. Like homemade pizzas with cheese on half, or a fajita bar with portabello mushrooms and peppers as the main course and I'll make him a side of shrimp if he wants it. He loves my vegan lasagna and thank goodness he is a fan of beans and rice. So overall we usually make it work. I try to be in tune with his needs and ask him questions so I don't become too selfish with only making vegan meals. Although I WISH he would turn total veg ;)
But he will happily indulge in vegan eats a majority of the time so I guess I am lucky. Although he has improved since we first starting dating. I say, with a little time and patience, men can change a wee little bit!
I guess it depends on your situation. If there are no take out places nearby or he is incapable of cooking, I guess my situation wouldn't work for you...
When I went vegan almost two years ago I started cooking vegan food in the house and my fiance ate it and liked it. If he wanted his own food he had to cook it. I was nice about it and if he didn't know how to cook something right I would occasionally give him tips, even though I felt bad about it. He is a grown up so he can go down the street and get a sandwich or a burrito or a steak if he wants. This was ok for a few months and then he slowly decided to eat less and less animal products and then he read a few pages of 'skinny bastard' at the bookstore while i was browsing int that section and he went totally vegan after that. I tried to get him to read things at the house and he resisted. He had to come to it on his own because he is a smart independant thinker which is why i love him. But i think by cooking meat for someone it further removes them from awareness of their part in the process. Also, you shouldn't have to deal with the raw meat if you don't eat it. Its really unpleasant!
@ Jeff...it didn't come without a LOT of complaint. 
But, it's better now, once I voiced how much I didn't appreciate the lack of support. She's even gone as far as to look for veggie recipes that I would be interested in, which means a lot to me.
The biggest issue now is what our child eats, as I usually refuse to feed her meat and cow-milk. This particularly doesn't go over well when the wife has prepared a meat dish for the child to eat while she is gone. 
I was just coming over here to post this same question. My husband freaks out when I try to feed him vegetarian. He will literally leave and go out an buy a burger. :( If it dosen't have meat then its not a meal to him.
So here I am raw vegan, trying to at least feed my kids Organic and some vegetarian meals and he's not supporting me.
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