Self catering holiday with a veggie for a week

What? Of course it can still be centred around a shared enjoyment of food.

I think this hits the nail on the head.
The OP has enjoyed family holidays where they all share a love of food, and the food they enjoy contains meat and/or fish. Good times were had preparing said food and sharing a dish around the table.

Suddenly, she has to prep food which she does not particularly enjoy cooking or eating. The joy of sharing a single meal is lost and there's a lot of faff added. Not to mention that if the GF is the judgemental kind of certain posters on this thread, she won't be allowed to enjoy her own food either

Again: there is now a lot of evidence to say that genetics play a bug part in being able to follow a vegetarian diet.

That said the GF has not yet been difficult. It's just that the holidays will no longer be able to center around a shared enjoyment of food. And that can be, for some, quite a disappointment.

Right?! "Oh I must eat dead flesh, how will I cope for a whole week without chowing down on the corpse of some poor animal who died in pain and fear?!"

@Onlyonekenobe she's not vegan.

I suspect the OP would find it a huge inconvenience to not cook the potatoes and veg in duck/goose fat. Even if she doesn't do that any other time.

There are SO many meals that can be half and half veggie. Eg:

Stir fry- make a veggie one and cook chicken separately
Sausage and mash - cook meat and veggie sausages separately
Fajitas- have two pans on the go, one with chicken, one with quorn
Bolognaise- just do a quorn mince version, no one will tell the difference
Beef wellington- make a meat one and buy a frozen veggie version or some kind of quorn fillet
’picky tea” (my favourite!) Get some cold meats, cheeses, nice breads, dips etc
Pizzas- make the dough or buy the bases, everyone adds their own toppings

I think your over complicating this. For breakfast just buy normal sausages and veggie sausages. Everything else can be the same, nothing to stop you having bacon too.

Lasagne - not hard to make 2 difference ones as the only thing your substituting is beef with quorn. So will just need 2 seperate pans and lasagne dishes.

Beef Wellington- just make a mushroom &veg one for her. Everything else is the same apart from the beef.

Curry - one curry with meat, one with sweet potatoes and cauliflower.

Chicken pie - replace the chicken with potato's, mushrooms, leek etc - can even buy quorn chicken

Not really, you can make beef wellington and make her an individual veggie alternative - the veg and potatoes would be the same for everyone

Sorry to be pedantic but vegetarians don't eat fish.

But regarding the OP, there's really no problem here. It's a week not a year.
I'm vegetarian and wouldn't expect everyone else to not eat meat just because I don't.

I've learned from holidays with the vegan family members: food can't be a big part of it. Thanksgiving cannot be about sitting around a feast centering a turkey. Christmas cannot be about sitting down to a nice meal centered around a beef joint, pigs in blankets, pork and apple stuffing, yorkshire puddings, potatoes in duck fat, red cabbage with honey, mashed potatoes with milk and butter and creme fraiche etc. Food has to be just something people need to consume during the day to do other stuff. Which is a crying shame, but the alternative is that what could be an enjoyable activity ends up being a completely unenjoyable chore (cooking two of everything, compromises because you can't find this or that ingredient, turns out the vegan doesn't like such and such vegetable, you feel guilty eating bacon and medium-done beef etc etc). I tell myself that ultimately it's about being together and food isn't the be all and end all even though for me it actually really is at those times of year, if only to get away from too much family time...

Well exactly - I have said the same.

I think the only solution the OP is prepared to consider is the vegetarian eating meat for the week

I'd basically do what you've said - easy meals that can have meat added. Make sure they pull their weight with the cooking though!

Isnt Booths up that way?

I cook for both veggie and meat eaters most nights (Dd 16 and I are veggie - dd’s own choice - DS 10 eats meat and needs to as the protein is good for his ADHD plus he’s fussy so won’t eat all the leafy greens and pulses etc that we have).

I often do parallel curries or pasta sauce etc, so it’s very easy to be making the same thing in two saucepans/ frying pans but one has meat and one has different/ more veggies.

Works for me!

We do eat some things that are veggie and which Ds enjoys.

Lol

I have the cat side eyeing me at the moment, she is desperate for some animal abuse, erm I mean meat in a tin.

You could knock up a puff pastry tart in no time for her to have alongside the beef wellington mains. Like 5 mins - bit of pesto, goats cheese, few tomatoes.

It's really nothing compared to the amount of time you apparently think is absolutely fine to spend on the beef wellington...

But I am sure you'll just tell her to sort herself out and that won't at all make her feel unwelcome

This thread is slightly bewildering - there are various solutions to your problem and you don't seem to like any of them.

Everyone eats veggie - No, you want to eat meat
You make your desired meaty meal and get GF a shop bought alternative - No, feels mean
You make your desired meaty meal and cook and a comparable veggie meal for the GF - No, you don't want the extra faff.

If you want to eat meat and don't want to make something for her then you'll have to give her a bought alternative, surely?

I'd probably just have main meals veggie for the week , not sure why you'd bother adding chicken to pasta tbh.
Then have veggies and meat options for breakfast and lunch.
One of my DDs is veggie and we probably eat veggie meals 4/5 nights a week (she does eat fish which makes it easier!)

Crisps and quality street?

She likes cooking unless it's a vegetarian meal, when it suddenly becomes a huge faff.

If you love cooking so much, you can make her a delicious veggie wellington can't you. I'm sure she'll really appreciate it and there won't be a ready meal in sight. Look at it as a chance to increase your culinary repertoire.

oh FFS, just don't eat meat for a week. healthier and tastier in any case. What do people think will happen if they don't have a burger for a week???

Steak goes well with everything in the Cranks recipe book.

I used to have a couple. This was fancier stuff.. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Entertaining-Cranks-Kay-Canter/dp/0586073035/
perhaps not for a restful holiday though.

Well then, if you insist on the cooking because you have a marvellous kitchen where you are and you like cooking (personally we eat out every night and use not a single pan), then just cook things that you can add meat to

A beef wellington is not mandatory once a week.

I don’t know why every thread online about vegans or vegetarians turns into ‘they’re selfish demanding brats who’ve made a choice and shouldn’t expect to be accommodated’ vs ‘they’re flesh eaters who abuse animals and eat their dead bodies’. I’ve never experienced it in real life. Food is food and everyone’s choices should be accommodated or don’t socialise with those people if you can’t do that. I eat meat, fish and dairy and have no allergies or religion but I accommodate those who have limitations for whatever reason because I love them/enjoy spending time with them more than I enjoy eating meat at every meal (which I never do anyway) if I didn’t I just wouldn’t be socialising with them anyway.