h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I guess what I am truly wouldn't be considered vegan or vegetarian. sort of a mixture I guess. I do still eat fish, mainly fresh water fish, but I don't eat eggs. Especially not eggs. And I am trying very hard to move away from dairy products. My problem with it is the mistreatment of the animals, which dairy products and eggs are among the worst offenders I think. At any rate I would like to be a member of your society if I could. I've just in the past few months given up meat and it does take quite a lot of adjusting. Especially since my family refuses to do it and I am forced to cook animals quite a lot. I try to come up with stuff they will really like and find satisfying as a meal, that doesn't involve meat, but they are set in their ways I'm afraid. I can use all the ideas and encouragement I can get

Hi Paulie,
Good to hear you are making an effort! What is your situation at home? Are you a parent cooking for kids? It can be hard to cook vegan for kids - especially if they are fussy eaters. I have 4 veggie kids who don't really like vegetables (tricky one!) Getting them to give up dairy stuff would be really hard - also I think they need to have a say in the matter, otherwise they may resent what you try to do. You do need to be a bit inventive to get them to eat properly.
Let me know what you are up against and I'll try to come up with some ideas.
xx

one kid, she is thirteen, and luckily very open to new things and new ideas. She is actually much easier to deal with, since she does like lots of veggies, and is willing to try recipes that don't have meat. My husband is a whole different story. About all he does eat is meat. I don't try to persuade either one of them though, cause it is their choice. I get lots of publications about animal rights and welfare and they both look at them from time to time. I think it's much easier for my husband to block it out of his mind, just like he does other not so nice facts he may be aware of. My daughter and even my grandson are much more impressionable though. My grandson has started calling sausage and ham "pig" now and steak and hamburger "cow" as they are. His mother (my oldest daughter who has lived on her own sometime now) thinks I'm trying to convert him. I'm not really but there can't be any harm in a child knowing where his food really comes from. It's just a step beyond that to realize the terrible things that have to happen for it to reach their table. Really if everybody would just cut back to recommended intake of meat products the problem could be considerably reduced. People probably consume 5 or 6 times more meat than even meat eaters should. Maybe the next few generations will realize that, maybe the meat they do eat can be raised in a more humane method if the demand is not so incredibly high.

Partners can be even trickier to deal with than kids! I was lucky in that my husband was happy to become a vegetarian at the same time I did - 18 years ago. But maybe that was because my decision was for health reasons and he saw what eating meat was doing to me. I haven't had to convert my children as they've been vegetarian from birth. But we have, from time to time, given them the option - at parties, eating sweets with gelatin in etc. We tell them what the food/sweet is made of and they have, so far, opted not to eat it.
I have friends who are vegetarian with meat-eating partners and they just don't cook for them. If they want to eat meat they have to cook it for themselves. Have you tried telling your partner you aren't comfortable cooking meat? Perhaps talking it through would be an idea. Do you think that coming at it from the point of view of your happiness (if that's the right term - can't think of a better word at the moment) rather than trying to convert him to your way of thinking may help?
My decision to become a vegan was based on the thought that it just isn't necessary for any being to suffer for me to be adequately nourished. I feel happier like this anyway. My family seem to have accepted it - although one of my daughters still thinks I'm a bit loopy!

I don't have a problem with cooking meat, although I do have to ask how the hell I cook it properly!

I went vegetarian partly because I disagree with factory farming methods (and I really didn't eat a lot of meat anyway), but I respect meat eaters' wishes in the same way I want my wishes respected.

So - if you had meat-eater guests coming for dinner - you'd cook them some meat?

I generally don't change the way I do things just because someone who does eat meat is joining the meal. Without preaching, I try to give them an opportunity to experience something they may not have realized: a fleshless meal need not seem incomplete.

If we have houseguests for a holiday meal that traditionally includes meat, Mrs. Niten is fond of reminding me that the rules of hospitality trump any misgivings I choose to have about serving flesh. For the sake of domestic harmony and the comfort of my guests I compromise on these occasions.

-N.

Hi Paulie

I've been a vegan since 1981 and have a 15 year-old daughter who has been raised as a vegan from birth. However she is by my first husband who although not a vegan, didn't have any say in how she was raised.

When my daughter was 8 years old she did briefly try an omnivorous diet when I gave her the opportunity to decide for herself whether or not she wished to remain a vegan. Much to my relief within a few weeks she returned to a vegan diet and has remained so since.

My second hubby's been manacled to me for 14 years (the poor chap) and he eats anything that moves, especially if it's been dipped in first. We have a 12 year-old autistic son and like my husband eats meat but due to his autism he will only eat certain foods that are familiar to him. Before we had any children John and I agreed that any children from our relationship would eat as they wished until they were old enough to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to follow a vegan/omnivorous diet. Sadly our son isn't really capable of understanding the arguments surrounding meat/dairy production so I leave him to eat as he wishes. (At one point it was difficult to get him to eat anything so I'm grateful that he now has a good appetite!).

My daughter and I regularly eat frozen textured vegetable protein (tvp/soya mince), which may be added to many of the pasta/curry sauces available in the shops that are suitable for vegans for a low-cost, quick and tasty meal. I also cook a nut roast/burger mix or sosmix (readily available in many large supermarket chains as well as health food shops) and combine these with what ever veggies I'm cooking for my hubby and son.

So you see I too have a 'mixed' family and meal times are frequently a juggling act for room on the oven shelves.

I'm afraid mealtimes are probably something that you're going to have to work out for yourself but if there's anything you'd like to ask me about how I manage, then please feel free to ask away.

I hope this is of some help to you Paulie.

I'll cook vegetarian most always, but if someone's coming round who just won't give in to da veggies I don't have a problem with that. Of course, I *encourage* them to have some lovely non-meat food...!

My sisters are notorious for hating veggie food, just because they won't try anything new. I just don't tell them that the spaghetti bolognese was made with veggie mince!

I do cook meat for guests, but I also make sure they know I consider it a sacrifice. I don't preach at anybody though, everybody has to make their own choices about that. My husband has made a hard fast choice to not give up meat. Most of the time he really prefers to go out to eat, since he thinks that should avoid the conflict. It's hard though to find some place to eat that offers much in the way of a meatless meal. It's a new thing for us and we're still adjusting. He's respectful of my wishes, so I try to be his. But what I think is sad is that he refuses to even educate himself on the true nature of the meat he eats. His cholesterol level is astronomical and he won't admit that could be directly related to the amount of animal flesh he consumes. But he's not my child, he's a grown man, and he has to make his own choices. My daughter is very open to having a meal without meat, and seems to feel proud of herself when she does. So I have hopes she will prove to be more enlightened than my husband.

I haven't tried to pass anything on him yet. Like the veggie crumbles you can put in chili and stuff. I tend to mostly just leave out meat in my own diet, without much substitution as I've never been a big meat eater anyway. The thing about the meat substitutes is you have to use them conservatively so they aren't so obviously fake. My husband is one of those types who wants a big fat steak, or chili that is mostly meat. He's hard headed about that stuff too and will just not eat anything he thinks I'm trying to pass on him. So the meat he gets around here is usually something he can throw on the grill himself, or a sandwhich maybe so all I have to do is take it out of the package.

Alas my better half knows the taste of flesh too well and spots any substitutes a mile off! However after 14 years of marriage I must have worn him down slightly as he occasionally joins me in eating a bolognaise or curry . Mind you, I'd rather he didn't join me in a curry as John doesn't like hot and spicy foods (including garlic!), I have to ensure that it's only a mild one.

I seldom advertise the fact that I'm a vegan and instead try to set an example or wait until people ask me what I eat. Their usual response when they find out that I'm a vegan, which must be due to their guilt is to tell me as quickly as possible that they'd "love to give up meat but"...or that they "hardly eat meat nowadays". I usually smile sweetly and tell them that my choice is a personal one, my husband and son eat meat and it's the method of farming involved in meat and dairy production that I object to most.