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?

???

Vegetarians can eat meat…they choose not to.

And unless all those meat eaters eat absolutely everything, no preferences, never declining eg a dish with mushrooms even if they don’t eat them, this argument is meaningless.

People are allowed food preferences!

Why assume a meat substitute is needed?

It really isn’t that difficult to omit meat or make a quick vegetarian meal. Most omnivores eat vegetarian meals and snacks without even thinking about it and there are plenty of meals you can toss some meat on to satisfy those who require it.

No they can't.

If a vegetarian eats meat, they are not a vegetarian.

What you mean is a person that chooses to be vegetarian has the choice to not be vegetarian. But it's such a meaningless arguement, as you can equally say a person that chooses to eat meat can choose not to eat meat.

Why do people consider the choice of a meat eater to eat meat to be somehow more important than the choice of a vegetarian not to?

I wouldn't. Why would you? I'm not even a big meat eater. Eat chicken 2x and fish once a week and the rest is vegetarian. But there is no way I would be eating a week of veg only holiday just to people please.

I would just leave her to make her own food. When it's their turn would they be cooking meat? Don't complicate it, just make separate meals. We did a holiday like this and I cooked separately. Honestly wanted to have a holiday rather than running a catering service. I made things like a chicken Briyani, chicken curry, grilled salmon bake - all large amounts of work to make a veg option so I just did our family cooking. Fortunately our friends were so easy going that no one made any issue.

Yes, I know the difference between vegetarian and vegan. That wasn't the point. If you look at the post I was replying to, you'll see that the poster asked would anyone say they couldn't go a week without other (i.e. non-meat) foods. I was answering with reference to cheese. Whether cheese is strictly vegetarian, or even vegan (though it that case it wouldn't be cheese, but whatever) or not is irrelevant.

Ridiculous suggestions for op to not eat what she wants on holiday!!

I would just leave meals for each other to sort out.
Op don't make this a thing of trying to accommodate her because that's what you will always have to end up doing anytime you are with her. IL's are vegetarian and it has never occurred to me to not eat meat in front of them or cook it in my own house.

I love loads of vegetarian and vegan foods/meals I’ve tried and I’d welcome trying new recipes. I didn’t say op had to, she asked what would you do so I told her what I’d do. Especially if having a takeaway one night and a meal out one night.

I wouldn't. Why would you? I'm not even a big meat eater. Eat chicken 2x and fish once a week and the rest is vegetarian. But there is no way I would be eating a week of veg only holiday just to people please.

Who would it please though? There’s no indication that the brother’s girlfriend wants this - it was just a suggestion from one or two posters. It’s unfair to imply that the girlfriend is somehow high maintenance and demanding everyone go vegetarian for the week.

My lovely DIL is a veggie (well
strictly speaking pescatarian but DH isn’t keen on fish so that’s no help!) and we holiday with them at least once a year. It’s fine! We each take turns to cook and also eat out for a couple of meals. We tend to all eat veggie when we cook at home and try to do really interesting things, then the meat eaters among us eat meat for the meals out.

DS is a really keen cook and is very used to making veggie food interesting so he’ll often do something Mexican like burritos with a lovely spicy bean mixture for the wraps, with guacamole, salsa, cheese, salad etc to go with it. In the past I’ve done roasted veg tart with roasted new potatoes and salad. V easy - just get a shop bought roll out puff pastry sheet, spread it with pesto or sundried tomato paste and then cover with veg you’ve roasted, sprinkle with cheese and cook for about 20 mins. BBQs are easy if you get veggie burgers and sausages and meat eaters can have their own. DS also roasts peppers and aubergines on a BBQ which everyone loves. Pasta dishes are easy to make veggie and then throw in some ham/chicken/bacon for those who want it.

DH and I really like meat but it’s no hardship not to have it for a few days. We treat it as an opportunity to have something a bit different, and if we really want steak we have it on one of the days we eat out. I wouldn’t expect DIL to cook something separate for herself every meal as I think that might feel a bit miserable when we’re all taking turns to cook and enjoying having a day off from kitchen duties. We love her very much and are happy to accommodate her diet knowing that there are things she’s accommodating in us at the same time!

That is exactly what I suggested

Is OP the actual host?

I thought she had taken it upon herself to do the cooking but they're all renting the holiday cottage, she isnt a host as such

I do eat meat but I don’t even like beef wellington. Also I’ve read “beef wellington” so many times on this thread that it looks kinda weird. 😂

I'm going to start referring to it as Wellington Beef just to mess with your head even more! 😁

Oh, yes, very witty
Revealing too

I think you're getting irrationally annoyed in advance, unless DB'S girlfriend expects every meal you eat to be vegetarian and cooked by you (which would be very unreasonable). She'll no doubt be used to sorting herself out, arranging meat substitutes etc - I've done that for years and it's never been a problem. She'll be used to narky comments about it too.

It sounds like you're used to taking charge on family holidays, so make sure you don't create work for yourself by insisting on cooking or making decisions for everyone else. Have a proper relax!

@soupfiend the Mediterranean diet does not encompass drinking lots of milk.
A lot of pesto isn't vegetarian.
'Beef Wellington' now sounds like the name of a 90s grunge band.
This thread is very amusing though. I've read it from cover to cover and it has got me through the last hour of work.