Fake Vegetarian MIL. AIBU?

[Mixxy]

MIL is an animal lover (lots of people are). She is self-righteous in lots of ways, what annoys me most recently is
her assertion that she is a vegetarian. She eats meat 6 times a week. Not fish mind you, meat. (I'm not trying to touch the pescetarian issue).

When you find her eating meat at meal times, she says, "oh I've had to eat meat today because of doctors orders". Fine-she's 80. But why call yourself a vegetarian?

Anyway, DH got a fantastic career oppertunity. To celebrate, I'm throwing a dinner party for a few close friends at our place. DH asked if his parents could come as his mother had worked in the same industry as him. I agreed.

Anyway, MIL rang me to let her know the time to arrive this
Saturday. She asked if I knew what I was cooking. I told her it was 4 courses with the main being Cornish Hens. She then asked what thw vegetarian options would be. I told her none. She got very indignant and cried, "but you know I'm a vegetarian'.

Nobody else coming is (8 others) a vegetarian. My BIL isa vegetarian and I accommodate when I cook for him, because he is the type of vegetarian that DOES NOT EAT MEAT OF ANY KIND. I feel annoyed that I now have to make 2 seperate courses to accomodate her fake vegetarianism.

AIBU to want to call her a fake, self-centered, drama queen?

You know what will happen don't you?

You'll spend ages simmering and getting angrier and angrier.

You'll finally get the nerve to call her out on her annoying, contrary behaviour.

Then she'll die. To spite you.

Whole family will be disgusted at your bullying her to death.

Don't give her the chance!!

Thanks jellybean. Adding it to the Netflix list. What else would I be doing on maternity leave!

YANBU.

She's not even a flexitarian if she eats meat 6 times a week! DH is brought up vegetarian and now a flexitarian because I insist cooking only one meal for both of us. So we have to come half way and he eats fish and chicken half the week with me. He'll only eat vegetarian when out. He still refers to himself as a vegetarian because of this. (The taste of meat or bacon repulses him).

But your MIL isn't even this.

Haha KoalaFace! She is hale and hearty (thanks mostly to her meat-heavy diet! )

Seriously though, she is a toxic MIL. This is just a light hearted aspect of my gripes with her.

Flexitarian!

Maybe she's a vegetarian in the sense that some people are Royalists, or feminists. She's a supporter of vegetables, as opposed to a non-eater of meat.

Weird! I mean, not exactly like it's hard to be veggie or even vegan in NY (assuming you are in NYC, not NY State).

If I were you, I'd bitch about it on here, do the quiche and be nice to her face. She's 80. I'm pretty sure if I live to 80 I'll be pissing off everyone around me deliberately.

Randomly, this is reminding me of when we lived in NY and had vegan neighbours. The father brought home a turkey at Christmas once that a client had given him (they were also Jewish, so it was a bit ). Anyhow, you could just hear the mother's voice from several gardens away going,

'Zach! Get that DEAD ANIMAL out of my freezer, Zach! You know I don't have DEAD ANIMALS in my house, Zach!... I don't care if you have to throw it out, it's a DEAD ANIMAL!!'

Ah yes wriggletto, which would explain why she doesn't want to eat them--it's not nice for the poor vegetables!

I might - just might - be tempted to not make the veggie dish particularly tasty. And make everything else stunning. And make all the nibbles meaty and delicious, with a packet of plain crisps for a veggie option. But then I'm pa.

When I was veggie we were invited to friends for the millennium. Friend was not a good cook, so I offered to bring something for me. 'oh no,' says she 'I have it covered.'. She served me two quorn sausages on an empty plate.

Do that.

This is a funny thread. I love the idea of her being a 'supporter' of vegetables

Do you think that your MIL is doing this on purpose to irritate you.

I would get my revenge by making the most delicious aromatic meat dish and a less appetising veggi option.
actually, I would go with the boring quoin fillet , everything else the same option

You don't even have to try very hard for the non appetising option. DH complains lots about the veggie option being everything else but the meat. It seems fairly standard! Give her the salad and the potatoes .

And yes ArgyMargy it's called a flexitarian nowadays . It includes those who eat very little meat, to those who eat poultry and fish, and also pescatarians.

Your MIL is a fussy eater.

Think of it like that.

An adult fussy eater.

One who doesn't want to admit that she is a fussy eater.

But when we cater for adults we don't say "go on, just a spoonful, you might like it", and we don't say "you'll like it the way I make it", we quietly accept that thre are some things that they will not eat and mock them later (mocking optional, depending if you like them and whether they kick up a fuss about their fussiness).

I'd have just bought a veggie quiche, making one sounds too much hassle, or bought a nut loaf or something. Catering for veggies doesn't need to be a hassle. Not sure I'd have invited an 80 year old to a close friends' dinner party but I suppose it's for your husband. My husband would be contributing to the cooking though. Agree that for a fake vaggie I'd be making the meat course tastier.
If she's toxic I really wouldn't have wanted her mixing with my friends though and would probably have told my husband to celebrate with his parents on another occasion.

Cor, reminds me of when my mum decided (with the diagnosis' from a herbalist) that she was allergic to milk (and vegetarian)

So everything I cooked had to be cows/goats milk free -but she was ok with sheeps milk.
So I made a birthday cake with soya margarine (not nice, crumbly, doesn't keep well, but she insiisted)

Then out for a meal she has apple pie (butter pastry) and ice-cream, the full cream sort.
"Oh, I'll just have a sour cooking apple afterwards, that helps".

So you couldn't have had a cooking apple after a slice of cake? (A butter cake that would've been much nicer )

Oooh Flexitarian that's a new one.

DS eats chicken, no fish or red meat (but that's because he's fussy, not moral)
DD eats everything-that-sits-still-long-enough. Except tuna. The smell puts her off.

Ha! revolting We both live on the UWS in Manhattan and MIL is Jewish!

I don't know if anybody here ever reads on the relationships section, but my PIL were the pro-drunk driving people.

This is payback for that episode. I'd rather just make the quiche. She knows I know how to cook for vegetarians as my sisters husband is an honest-to-god
NO MEAT OF ANY KIND eater, and he always likes my food. He is always so bending and apologetic about it, which isn't necessary because he is a non-preaching moral objector.

I remember the drunk driving thread oh in that case give her the full meal minus the chicken...dont put in any extra effort...you had to spend a fortune getting to their house and back didn't you!

YANBU

Make her a vegetarian option... and make her REGRET insisting on it. Make her the worst vegetarian dinner that you can muster. Maybe a risotto made from non risotto rice with a few lentils thrown in. DH got served that once. It was hideous. I would seriously do this but then I am a spiteful witch.

Quorn fillets.

She'll soon want to eat the chicken, instead!

I'm surprised at all the people excusing her on the basis that she's 80. My father is 79. He doesn't dish out nonsense like this, but if he did, I wouldn't be accommodating it on the grounds of his age.

Well yes, I was going to say that Eldritch! The amount of times we get told on MN not to patronise because of old age... double standards. She is 80, which is basically a very old grown-up. She isn't 8. I might just humour this sort of behaviour from a kid but not an adult...

See it as the entertainment for the evening

Make the most tasteless quiche known to humankind - no seasoning at all. But make it look delicious.

Present it to her with a beaming smile and beautiful garnishing. Then tuck into your tasty Cornish Hens, occasionally commenting that it must be nice for her to be off the doctor's orders for the evening and not have to force down things like that awful ham steak you saw her eating the other day. Must be absolutely traumatic for a vegetarian! Had she thought of changing doctors??

She served me two quorn sausages on an empty plate.

Ooooooo, yum!!

My grandmother's best friend was allergic to potato. HUGE fusses were made in restaurants about her food not going near anything that may have touched/been stored with/shared air with a potato. Everyone in the restaurant would be made aware of the potato allergy and how she must not eat any potato.

She'd happily finish someone's chips though. Oh, yes!!