You should not invite a vegetarian for Christmas if you have no intention of catering for them?

[Trueheart1]

You should not invite a vegetarian for Christmas dinner if you have no intention of catering for them?

I am a vegetarian. I went to my MIL's for Christmas dinner and all I could eat was Brussels sprouts, peas, carrots and potatoes. Without gravy!

The stuffing, gravy etc.. all had animal products.

There were 14 of us in total and 3 of us were very disappointed vegetarians.

I usually host and make sure everyone is catered for. I felt quite irritated, as I had offered to bring any part of the meal and if she had told me she was not catering for the vegetarians, I would have done it.

My MIL is very traditional and supports fox hunting. I suspect that she does not agree with being vegetarian and this was her passive aggressive way of showing that.

In every other way she is lovely and a great MIL. She wants us to come again next year. How do I politely make sure this does not happen again?

It’s much harder work than it looks

Oh do give up making excuses for bad hosting. The OP offered take to take stuff and help, others may well have done also. They were all turned down because the host was determined to do everything herself spending time planning and preparing ( so its hardly a last minute oversight).

There is no excuse. Either she was hoping to force the vegetarians into eating meat products or she simply doesn't care that they get a lousy Christmas dinner whilst sitting with 11 others all tucking in.

www.bisto.co.uk/our-range/gravy-granules/chicken-flavour-gravy-granules

Regular chicken bisto is vegetarian. Not the posh versions.

Chicken bisto isn’t veggie
Exactly, but a PP was saying that it was as if it was fact.

Thank you for taking the time all of you who have posted what you found out about gravy.

I'm pretty sure there's no meat in it!
As for this comment with regards chicken Bisto, wow just wow. Just because there aren't pieces of chicken in it, doesn't make it meat-free.

well, the harm done is the inaccurate feedback

i get fed up of people saying oh go on eat some meat it will not hurt you i used to eat meat yes but i got fed up of being sick it just does not agree with me i have problems with certain items due to childhood abuse but to be honest there was no meat i liked the taste of come to that i dont like veg a lot but i seem to find enough to nosh

Loveyouradvice Thankyou, I love your advice

Chicken bisto is suitable f vegetarians. Beef is not.

Branleuse I've got a jar of the "posh" onion gravy in the cupboard, labelled suitable for vegetarians. It does taste quite good.

zzzzz you seem to have a really really low bar for hospitality and doing one's best.

Ah sorry, Chicken Bisto isn’t VEGAN, but I see it is actually veggie (except posh version ‘with real meat juices’ or whatever I’ve seen advertised).

Iwould just assume she did her best

Would you consider you had done your best if you were a competent cook and three of your guests had boiled veg whilst the others had turkey with all the trimmings and pudding?

Crikey, we have totally different views on hosting.

It remains to be seen if the OP's manners in saying it was good make it more difficult to suggest something different.

ragged, so you would be happy eating just sprouts, carrots, peas and roast potatoes would you? I certainly wouldn't particularly not for my Christmas dinner.

Are vegetarians not meant to enjoy food?

If for whatever reason I could not have a veggie option I would cook cauliflower, peas, carrots, sprouts, roast parsnips, mashed parsnips, stuffing, roast potatoes and yorkshire puddings. No roast is complete without with yorkies.

I eat more than 3 veg with my meals every day.

You can buy Christmas pudding made with vegetable suet everywhere or make it yourself so, again, no excuse for it not to be suitable for vegetarians.

There are some incredibly rude posters on here who seem to think people who are vegetarian are just doing so to be awkward and that we should be grateful for any scraps we are fed

www.bisto.co.uk/our-range/Bisto-Best-Ready-to-Use/Bisto-Best-Chicken-Thyme-Rich-Gravy-Sauce

Posh stuff - not veggie.

I feel for your mil - lunch for 14 +!them all staying and dinner the night before is lots of work. Vegetarianism is a choice, not a medical necessity, as a host I want my guests to be happy, but as guests you can't always expect every want to be satisfied (unless it's going to make you ill, of course!). I would expect guests to just politely decline anything they don't want to eat. If your principles are that strong the sacrifice of a low protein Christmas lunch seems rather unimportant, better than adding extra stress to your mil or taking silent offence.

"Chicken bisto isn’t veggie
Exactly, but a PP was saying that it was as if it was fact."

Yes. That was me. It is a fact that the big standard stuff in the yellow cardboard tubs is veggie, so you can keep your wowjustwows to yourself, ta.

*bog standard

People know what a Christmas dinner is. And that's what they get. I don't cater for faddy diets either. YABU.

My DH did not say anything, he is polite to a fault.

Or scared of DM?

Oh I thought she meant me @saucy. Either way “wow just wow”? It’s shitty gravy love, let’s not get too overexcited shall we ?

Sitting the OP (and quite probably others) offered help and it was turned down.

Nor is it more work automatically - veg suet in the pudding is not more work, separating off some veg gravy before adding meat juices is not work, sticking an M&S veg wellington in the oven is not more work compared to doing everything from scratch. I cook for both at these events - it is not more work.

Its not about the amount of protein in the meal its about serving a slap up dinner to 11 guests whilst giving 3 of them BOILED VEG AND A SATSUMA!

Being vegetarian isn't faddy. I hardly think that choosing not to eat the flesh of dead animals is a fad. Some very rude people on this thread.

It is more work! Every shelf of my oven was full as it was, I had about 12 different things on another thing would have been the last straw - gravy especially!

It’s shitty gravy love, let’s not get too overexcited shall we
It wasn't the gravy itself, it was the assumption that just because there are no pieces of meat in it, there is no meat in it.

Yes. That was me. It is a fact that the big standard stuff in the yellow cardboard tubs is veggie, so you can keep your wowjustwows to yourself, ta
Even the Bisto website says to contact them for the latest information on whether their products are vegetarian. The green tube in my cupboard has a Vegetarian Society mark on it but the chicken one doesn't, so maybe it depends on the current ingredients??