Self catering holiday with a veggie for a week

[Lorey]

Later in the year I have an air BnB booked in the lakes. DB will be bringing his new gf who is a veggie. We will be taking it in turns to make dinner. Whenever db and his gf come to stay with us for the weekend we make veggie food - not hard for a weekend with curries, pastas etc.

i can see how on a couple of nights we could cater for both ie we have burgers and the gf will have a halloumi burger. Or we’ll cook chicken separately and add to creamy pesto pasta for meat eaters in a separate pan

I’m just curious how your family would go about it. I reckon our meals will be mostly veggie including brekkie. Bit annoying. But thinking about it if I were the veggie I would say you guys crack on with non veggie meals and where I can’t easily be catered for I will sort myself out. As opposed to impacting everyone else for an entire week

what do you guys do?

I would just eat vegetarian for the week and look up /ask on Mumsnet for, some amazing and easy recipes to try new stuff.

I'm not sure why you find it 'annoying'. It's hardly wildly unusual, and you're taking it in turns to cook with your DB and his girlfriend. It's not as if she's expecting you to cater for her for a full week. Assuming breakfast and lunch are pretty much de facto self-catering in general, and you're dividing cooking with your brother/his GF, surely it's only a matter of either three or four dinners, even fewer if you plan to eat out one night? Hardly more than a weekend. Are you not a confident cook, OP, or don't you like her? You just sound very narked by a very minor thing, if you're used to cooking vegetarian meals for a weekend.

I would be happy to eat veggie food for a week to be honest, it’s a chance to try something new and have some variety in my diet. If that’s not for you, it’s very easy to do a couple of chicken breasts, sausages, etc. on the side and just add them to your plate.

I've not eaten meat or fish since 1984 so I'd be fine.

Probably simplest to eat vegetarian main courses in the holiday house and get your meat fix during the day eg if you eat lunch in a cafe

Mexican food / tapas is also good, as you can prepare a selection of dishes and people can cherry pick what they want to eat

You could go out or get a takeaway one night to get some meat

At present you have no idea what will actually happen, but it's clear you have been secretly resentful and value the eating of dead bodies more than this person.

Not sure what you're actually worried about TBH, just make your own bacon sandwiches in the morning if you like?

My whole family is vegetarian.

My mum who is old cannot cope without meat and when she comes we make meals that are dual veggie/non veggie.

Eg
Stir fry but hers has prawns
Sausages and mash and green beans but she has meat sausages

We also usually get pizza one night (everyone can choose what they want) and Tesco Indian another (get a mix of meat and veggie plus naans and samosas.

It would be good if she could cope for a day without meat but she genuinely does seem to struggle so this is what we do.

I am veggie and I would be happy for others to crack on and for me to make my own food

people often think vegetarians are picky but actually we’re incredibly used to only having one option on the menu, eating a load of sides, or whatever else we have to do to fit in with other people

Why does it need to impact everyone? There's always alternatives like you've just described. Breakfast veggie sausages and real sausages. Dinner a bolognese is no hardship making a real one and a separate quorn one. Like you say burgers, Wraps, all things like that just a veggie version.

Presumably you will go out for at least one meal, so you only cook 3 main meals and you suggested meat and veggie options in your original post that would work.

I'm not sure why breakfast needs to be veggie, you an easily cook bacon and sausage separately if you want them.

Be thankful she isn't a vegan !

Can you really not manage a week without meat? I ask that as a confirmed carnivore.

This is fine, surely?
Breakfast is usually vegetarian unless you're adding sausage or bacon in which case, add it for those who want it. Veggie options for those who don't.
Lunch could be soup, sandwiches, salads etc. Add meat to sandwich or salad if needed/wanted.
Dinners - one couple cooks four times, one cooks three. I assume the vegetarian will cook veggie food, and you'll happily eat that. So that leaves (at most) four meals for you to cook. You've given some good examples of how to manage it - burgers, pasta with a chicken addition. Pizzas one night with toppings? Fajitas with chicken as a side? That's four meals already even if you want all your meals to have a meat option.
And if you go out to eat, it's even easier (except for the poor vegetarian who will face a fake meat vegan option because now everywhere seems to cater to vegans and have forgotten vegetarians are usually very happy with cheese and egg).

Just eat vegetarian for the week. We tend to mix it up anyway and just because you're not vegetarian doesn't mean you can't eat vegetarian.

I’m vegetarian my husband is a meat eater. We tend to have food which has a common base and then we each have our protein. Tomorrow for instance we’re having Chinese curry, he’ll add chicken or prawns to his and I will add tofu. It would be helpful to chat to this young lady before you go and work out a menu. This doesn’t need to be difficult at all.

it depends on your family set up imo. We usually have porridge with fruits for breakfast so it’s veggie anyway. If you used to have full English with sausages I would expect a choice to be there e.g you are eating fried eggs and chorizo and she is eating fried eggs and halloumi. The same for the evening and other meals.
I would always have a veggie option for her but I wouldn’t go veggie for the whole week. When it’s her turn to cook I wouldn’t expect her to cook meat for you obviously, just a veggie option for all.

I would look at it differently if e.g she was coeliac or had nut allergy, in this cases I would exclude the product completely.

Can she not cook? Surely you just cook things like meat and two veg, then she provides the substitute for the meat? If not then she can just eat the sides. Surely there's a supermarket within a short drive. I wouldn't let it bother you remotely tbh. It's meant to be a holiday. She knows she's the only vegetarian and unless she's a child she's responsible for feeding herself to an extent.
So just relax. Don't let cooking become a burden when you're meant to be enjoying yourself.
Plus the fact I presume you'll be eating out a lot of the time as well.

Make a Thai Green curry one of the nights - divide the sauce element and add chicken to one and extra veg to the other. A veg lasagne can be nicer than one with meat. Pizza and salad another night.

It really isn't hard to cater for both. We are mainly vegetarian and just cook all the usual meals but without meat.

I'm a vegetarian, have been for 15 years now and there is no way at all I would expect others to eat vegetarian for the week just for me, how bizarre for one persons choice to impact the rest of the group! I'd happily sort myself out with vegetarian alternatives. There are Quorn alternatives for the majority of meals that include meat anyway, can't see how it would be a big deal.

I eat meat/fish/dairy but I also eat lots of food vegetarian and vegan people can eat so it wouldn’t really be that the vegetarian was impacting me, it would be easy to do.

This, I never get the 'HOW CAN YOU NOT MANAGE A WEEK'... posts, why shouldn't op or other people get to eat what they enjoy on holiday?

I’m sure we’ll get takeaway one night and eat out another. Tends to be the go to format when dh and gf have stayed with us over the bh for example.

I like the girl. But just got irrationally annoyed that some of my favs which are hard to substitute e.g. beef wellington are a no go just because of one person.

Surely you don’t eat meat every day anyway?

I'm similar to @Icanthinkformyselfthanks . My husband eats meat but I don't. I do most of the cooking and cook things like aubergine parmigana, quiches, pies , bean chilli . All vegetarian. If he wants meat he will cook a chicken breast/sausage or have some charcuterie type meat with it. If we have a roast dinner I have a quorn roast, he has meat and all the vegetables/trimmings are the same. If we have a brunch we'll both have eggs and he'll cook bacon seperately.
I also used to cook for groups of ~ 20 ppl on holidays. We would do the same kind of thing - a vege pasta/risotto etc with meat served seperately. It only became complicated if you also had people with allergies eg dairy or gluten free.