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'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!)

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?

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

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.

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.

Isnt Booths up that way?

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!

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'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...

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.

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

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

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 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.

@Onlyonekenobe she's not vegan.

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?!"

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.

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

Quite.

And not everyone likes the same things anyway. Would the OP be distraught if someone was allergic to something and she had to cook it differently? Or just didn't really like beef wellington?

@Commonsense22 one study with a speculative theory does not make "lots of evidence". Even if what you were saying is true, there's no evidence that the OP and her partner are incapable of eating a vegetarian diet. Furthermore, they don't have to! She can cook her normal food, and then make some small adjustments to include the GF.

It's just not the same. There's something about cultures where everyone is sharing one dish that is just absent when everyone eats their own thing. I totally get the poster who misses not being able to rejoice around a turkey all together.
With the potential for judgement etc.

Prep time is added, you have to cook in a style that isn't yours, you can't relax.
It's just not the same.

But it's necessary in today's world.

Absolute bollocks.

I actually kind of agree with this. But there is, of course, the option to all eat the same thing .. a vegetarian dish.

But like all the other options, the OP doesn't like it

The horror!

@Commonsense22 I couldn't possibly count the number of times ive had Christmas, new year, birthdays with my DPs family and siblings who are not vegetarian, whilst everyone enjoys sharing food. Why would you think that's not possible? Just because I'm not eating one or two elements and having a small alternative?